Islam itself has
taught its true followers to reverse any such provocation with an exemplary
head-on approach befitting that time. It is actually quite the holy sin to turn
a blind eye and a much larger, more damnable offence to make the whole community
grope the alleyways of darkness with you. And in times such as these,
intelligent, thought provoking and enlightened manoeuvres aimed at academically
amplifying the Muslim intention ought to have taken the front row in this
deliberate farce. Provocation has endured and we, the sullied Muslims catered to
by the mullahs who are forever appeased, have just given the entire world
another reason to scoff at our intolerance for just about anything. -- Reem Wasay
By
Reem Wasay
This
decision has painted the Muslim voice as a stereotypically redundant rant and
has rendered it powerless to actually change what Facebook has
allowed
This
just in: the PTA has blocked all links to the Merriam Webster online dictionary.
Turns out English is also being restricted lest it enables us the godless
ability to actually be able to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.”
Chasing
the chaste has always been a favoured occupation, but with the furore of the
Facebook fiasco in full swing, it looks like the Pakistani Muslim and the Lahore
High Court have saved their face, instead of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH).
Lightning fast blanket bans by the thou-shalt-nots in society are not befitting
the spirit of Islam. However, the usual breast-beating and chest-thumping lot of
sacerdotal in-breeds who have been bequeathed with safeguarding our collective
Muslim need to cling firmly to religion would much rather see us run for the
hills than actually ascend them.
In
an Orwellian move aimed at the orthodox cleansing of society’s eyes and ears
against the much-jingled evils of freedom of expression and caricature, the LHC
has approved a temporary ban on the demigod of social networking, Facebook. This
has been followed by a shutout swoop on YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and
Blackberry mobile services. The whole affair reeks of social retardation as it
points to the desire of our paternalist set-up to bridle the passions of the
people who do not know any better instead of the people controlling the passions
of those in power. Seized by the moral brigade as an affront to religious
sentiments due to a degenerate Facebook competition where cartoonish hoardings
of the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam were to be parodied, it has been seen fit to
completely ban the site till, for now, May 31st. My inner voice of devotional
reason however, feels that our ministers of moral methodology may have gotten it
all wrong.
Is
faith not about making reasonable choices in the face of liberation and
selection between what is regarded as right or wrong by he who is subjected to
it? If we are to be socially conditioned to accept and be disclosed only that
which is morally upright and ‘safe’, what effort are we putting into the whole
shebang anyway? How am I supposed to feel as though I have dug a welcome
six-feet under for myself when I am forbidden to distinguish between good and
bad, ethical and offensive? If the mother-ship on all that is morally uplifting
will dictate what is befitting viewing and approved of reading, I am not really
earning the brownie points I could be piling up in the case of seeing to believe
and then bolstering something constructive about it.
Islam
itself has taught its true followers to reverse any such provocation with an
exemplary head-on approach befitting that time. It is actually quite the holy
sin to turn a blind eye and a much larger, more damnable offence to make the
whole community grope the alleyways of darkness with you. And in times such as
these, intelligent, thought provoking and enlightened manoeuvres aimed at
academically amplifying the Muslim intention ought to have taken the front row
in this deliberate farce. Provocation has endured and we, the sullied Muslims
catered to by the mullahs who are forever appeased, have just given the entire
world another reason to scoff at our intolerance for just about
anything.
Yes,
they were drawing the Prophet (PBUH) and yes, they were provoking the primitive
Muslim psyche, and we have just done them a great service of negative
attestation. Instead of reaching out and using our mouths to deliver highbrowed
campaigns — instead of spewing our usual hate-filled rants — to acutely define
the fine line between offence and expression, debate and profanity, discourse
and dissent, we have clamped down on our dotard selves once again. It has always
been Muslim against Muslim and seems destined to stay that
way.
By
banning Facebook, even temporarily, we have not succeeded in stopping the rest
of the world from participating in the caricature competition, we have not
stopped everyone on earth from viewing the said material and we have not
received kudo notes from up above for ushering in the cerebral antithesis of the
Facebook movement. In effect, our bastions of morality have just lampooned
themselves as denying no one else but themselves access to rectifying an
integral part of the digital age. It really is funny how the mindsets of those
running the show have indulged in the arrested development of the masses at
large.
The
Pakistani Muslim has got to be the laziest and least innovative in the cosmos.
Because ideas of reformation and progress elude him, he has taken up a victim
cry resounding like an African chant whenever something displeases him, and
images of the Prophet (PBUH) have given him a reason to scream once again. Sad
then that this is where the buck stops.
Our
free judiciary, by curbing our freedom has policed us into an embargo on truly
following religious injunctions. This verdict has taken away the Muslim
responsibility of saving the Prophet (PBUH) from humiliation and chagrin. When
the “Draw Muhammad” page is still accessible to the whole world, how has our ban
helped? This decision has painted the Muslim voice as a stereotypically
redundant rant and has rendered it powerless to actually change what Facebook
has allowed. How can the millions of Pakistani Facebook users actually
participate in stopping this insult on a wider spectrum now that an embargo has
been imposed on liberal dissent and more civilised discussions spread out over
the international forum? The same extremists we are battling in boots have
suppressed our ideas and have whip-lashed our ability to change the status quo.
Whilst the many antagonists will hold their competitions and will continue to
make merry, we will pat ourselves on the backs for our monosyllabic and
imaginary defeat of those who malign he who is dearest to
us.
The
writer is an Assistant Editor at Daily Times and participant of the Salzburg
Trilogue and an essayist and lecturer on interfaith discourse and social
analysis. She can be reached at reemk80@gmail.com
9:45 PM
Sultan Shahin
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