Religious Extremism not to be compared with Islam or Pakistan

Religious Extremism not to be compared with Islam or Pakistan

Unfortunately, my previous article, ‘Has Religious Extremism Gotten to the Point of No Return’, was literally taken by some people on social media to be blaming Islam or Muslims in Pakistan, but there was definitely no such reference in that.

What is mentioned above is exactly what I tried to depict a picture of in the previous piece as people, all around the world and not just Pakistan, have grown intolerant of each other’s views. Being a free society does not have anything to do with the fact that religion cannot be promulgated and must be set aside for one to be ‘liberal’.

For many people like me, Islam is a way of life and something that is a part of me throughout the day and not just something that I do on a special day. Whether it be prayer, communicating, working, studying, socialising, or whatever else, my religion has set out a path to achieve a balanced way of life.

Religious extremism did not start in Pakistan and is not only found here either. There are a number of incidents throughout the world that happen on a daily basis that force the ‘liberal Western world’ to point fingers at an entire nation instead of those few people that are actually committing the act.

Islam is one of those few religions that guarantee more rights to women, children, the poor and minorities than any other in the world along with tolerance for each other, while promoting its own views. People in Pakistan have even taken Benazir Bhutto, a woman who was tragically killed in an assassination, to be their leader, something which the Western countries still have not been able to produce yet but still term the Islamic world as targeting women due to their gender.

Pakistan is one of many countries, which at the moment, is facing a lot of issues with terrorism being one of the biggest, but due to a bad picture being painted by not only our own media channels and ones around the world, it seems as if everything that goes wrong is situated in Pakistan.

In fact, the USA is without a doubt the biggest terrorist country in the world as it has invaded countless nations, destroyed millions of lives and continues to deprive its own people of their rights while continuing to violate others.

These are some crucial aspects that we, as a people of this world and not just a specific region must think about, if we hope to allow our future generations to live in a peaceful and ‘free thinking’ manner.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=31884

Posted by Syed Hassan Bokhari on Aug 31 2012. Filed under Editorial, Latest News, Opinion, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.