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The Internet exposed me to "professors of theology"--Jews, Muslims, Christian, Hindus et al--all in a Religion & Beliefs chat-room. Most of the "IDs" were extremely provocative--prefixed or sufficed with words: sword; steel; brace; rough; kill; kali; wolf; devour. If an ID would write, "we are the chosen people," another would wonder, "how is it that the Creator is not the father of all men, but of one family alone?" The chat-room would see some "historical facts", and details of ancient quarrel between "faithful and jealous angles in the highest heavens", too, would find a place in it.
In the beginning, one ID would accuse another for some of the evils in the world. It would be followed by the discovery of a few more evils. Still more would be founded. The accusations would multiply, so would the accusers. In a while, the room would be transformed into a place where accusers and their accusations would become one and the same--all supported by historically structured and religiously motivated notions of superiority of one over the rest. No one ID would tolerate the "other." The purpose of entering the room would now be anything other than chat!
"Hi room," I would say and try to join in and chat. A minute later, an outwardly proactive ID would send a private message to me. For about half an hour, we would wander "from fertile land of Chaldaea to neighbourhood of Sodom; from there to Jerusalem, which was not yet born." At one point of our drifting from place to place and from age to age, the ID would say, "may I have the privilege to know your country?" I would write back "Pakistan". Our chat would halt. It could have ended right away, but I would argue with it to give a second thought to its "deportment"--the ID would agree reluctantly though to continue later. Right now, ID "had to go". It left. Twice or thrice as I logged in to chat again, the ID was cold and standoffish.
A journalist--once associated with the twilight days of the Pakistan Times--turned teacher, would come to see me. Amongst others, he would narrate his experience of meeting "fundamentalism" in his ninth class of an English medium school, where he teaches the subject of English (if ever there is a place to meet a "culturally uprooted" class at the grassroots level, it is then in these schools.)
"My students," he said, "were in no mood to study curriculum. Every student would sing a song, the class recommended and I obliged. A boy started. The one with a nascent beard sitting in the first row started to whisper
something into the ear of another. The first song ended, but his whispers continued. I asked the boy that if he had something interesting to tell, he might share it with his fellow students. He stood up and said, "I won't sing a song! It is haraam (forbidden), Sir!" This he said as he trilled with rage. I reminded him, "I never asked you to sing, and not all of you are required to sing; please sit down."
He left and I thought he hadn't handled the case well. The boy could have been "convinced".
"No, you cannot convince them," said a professor who teaches in a Pakistan Embassy School in Saudi Arabia. How he met his part of "fundamentalism" is interesting to know: "When I entered the classroom, some of my students kept
seated while others rose up--out of respect for their teacher. It was unusual. I sensed the wrong. I unfolded the lecture, 'the Prophet (PBUH) gave due respect to elders...' The boys in trouble intercepted, 'No Sir! The Prophet (PBUH) has forbidden us (the Muslims) to stand up in respect of mortals.' To which I had to submit, 'OK, those who think one should rise for one's teacher may rise and those who don't think may not'; currently, half of my class stands the other half doesn't," he said quizzically. "Now how can you convince them--was it not that the world at large tried to convince the Taliban to spare the statues? Did they?"
A man sitting next to him would join the heat to add: "It is said Mahmud the Ghaznavid when finally had made it to the temple of Somnath, would aim a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins offered ten million starlings for its (idol's) ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counselors too that the destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos; and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. 'Your reasons,' replied the sultan 'are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear
as a merchant of idols.' Compare the act of Mahmud the Ghaznavid with Mullah the Omer--one had the power; the other had the notion of power."
Likewise, Indians had tried to correct the wrong done in the Tenth Century. Secular Nehru followed President Rajendra Parsad to Somnath into the state of Gujarat where the temple of Somnath was to be revived and rebuilt. Then again, the BJP demolished the Babri Mosque in 1992.
"Fundamentalism" is not confined to states alike to Islamic Republic of Afghanistan--a ban on football, music and destruction of statues apart, another superior act of the Taliban government consummated inside a Kandahar
stadium in a public display of justice where they had gibbeted two perverted she souls--the burqa-sheathed debauched sinners--while the great Afghans watched the two prostitutes being hanged till death. It is rampant across
the globe--in parts of India, Kashmir, Europe, and America and today's NWFP.
It is all out beyond the same--in state of Israel where its heightened forms have been "consolidated into statehood". In fact, "all religio-political formation today has a demonised, and therefore, a threatened 'other'". Thank God, in chat-rooms, there is no immediate physical threat; but in real life meeting "fundamentalism" can, indeed, change the way you look towards life.
By EFTIQAR HAIDER
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