Flag Bearers of Self-righteousness
Extremism is the bud that sprouts from the sown seeds of egotism, discontentment, inequality, injustice and finally self righteousness. Dictionaries and encyclopaedias generally define it as deviation from existing moral standards. But the definition is far more complex. Extremism, as a general rule is by far mostly viewed under narrow spectrum of religious fundamentalism. However, the fact is that every devastating social behaviour has got a confounding relationship with extremism as to who is product of who.
| We are standing against each other, with our faces at opposite ends. We need not learn from one-another, for we both are enlightened. The sparking light that illuminates us has blinded our eyes. Our ears covered by thick curtains of established ideologies For strangers now we are; Our hearts have turned to stones On cadaver of humanism, humanity sits and mourns But; who we are? |
Extremism as a product of simplistic thinking, attempts to define issues only in terms of its two extreme positions, without any middle ground. Non-Affirmation for one extreme by an individual or group is regarded as affirmation of the opposite extreme.
Extremism can be roughly divided into two distinct classes, i.e.; Ideological and Mundane Extremism. Whatever is the type, extremism in its all forms ends in violence and social disaster.
Mayhem in the name of religion, ethnicity, race or language, all are more or less modified form of ideological extremism. Victimization of humans on the basis of ideology has a long and continuous history. Throughout history, when an opponent is regarded as "other" based on the idea of religion, race or language; self assumed "superiority" in terms of territory, authority, command and existence is mostly established by manners far from any moral and ethical consideration. The ruthlessness can be smelled well in the words of prominent historical figures driving the concept of racial superiority. Adolf Hitler, German dictator famous for his anti-Semitic approach, has been quoted such from the history;
| "If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the shedding of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin" |
Prominent historical figures acknowledged for their intellectual worth including Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Stalin and Mussolini have been quoted for similar expressions on ethnic and racial differences.
Racist behaviour has therefore been a coercive factor in apartheid and riots across the boundaries. Take US as an example where Afro-Americans struggled hard for decades against racial discrimination, injustice, inequality and slavery in pursuance of a status of "as human as the white race".
Foundations of religious extremism also rest upon same basic principle. As for the racism, where specific race considers itself "superior" to every other race of mankind, religious fanaticism is driven by a deep and inarguable sense of being "the most guided" one. The apocalyptic potential of religious extremism is much greater than racism for the fact that religion is a factor that binds a far greater proportion of the population.
Oppression of the pagan Roman Empire against Christianity, church's inflicted attitude towards the men of enlightenment, knowledge and science, vandalism of a great treasure of knowledge, art and science after fall of Islamic Spain, victimization of Moorish race and finally crusades are few examples of extremist religious behaviour and their consequences. Crusades are still taken as a metaphor for the final confrontation between the two religions in extremist fractions of both communities.
"Zionism" is another extremist ideology meant at conquering and expanding the territory by exploiting all possible means, was previously restricted to Jewish doctrine. But post 9/11 scenario has led to the introduction of similar terms for Christianity and Islam also.
During the past two decades, extremism in Muslim countries, especially in Pakistan has been in continuous up-rift. Like other types of extremism, "Injustice" (in United States foreign policy) has fuelled extremist behaviour in Muslim societies. Injustice and insecurity may provoke the emotions of the common man, its inherent to human nature. However, expression of emotions has to go through certain check points naturally. The responsibility in such cases rests upon those considered as authorities in religion. Unfortunately, these checkpoints failed to respond to the forecast evil. Perversely, mushrooming of hard-line scholars and unchecked proliferation of extremist narrative has altogether changed the overall mindset of Pakistani society. "Jihad" was initiated and called for, without a clear description of rules and regulations of this basic Islamic principle.
Failure of checkpoints, unbridled misinterpretations and the consequent chaos lead lawmakers to seek for insane attempts of reconciliation. Sir Francis Bacon, a 16th century English scholar considers religion as a chief band of human society lest it is itself well contained in true band of unity. In his essay with the title "Of Unity in Religion" he emphasizes on avoiding two extremes. Where, the first relates to fanatics who are more interested in increasing the number of their followers than in peace within the Church. The other extreme is represented by lukewarm temperaments that are only too ready to reconcile differences in essential points in religion, even when such reconciliation is more ingenious than beneficial to the church.
The obvious result of such negligence is well explained by William Pickens as;
| "To cheapen the lives of any group of men, cheapens the lives of all men, even our own. This is a law of human psychology, or human nature. And it will not be repealed by our wishes, nor will it be merciful to our blindness." |
Our extremist behaviours are not only limited to religion, instead a sense of being the "most guided one" dominates our routine conduct. Culture of distrust and denial together with a sense of superiority has so much wrapped up our psyche that we have lost the ability to think beyond it. Listening and respecting each other's perspective is now out of question. Expectation of absolute submission from surroundings is a part of the new culture breed. In the prevailing culture, it is becoming our national behaviour that we are always keen to finding and exaggerating the faults in others while overlooking the ones of our own.
The larger spectrum manifestation of this behaviour can be clearly seen in our political behaviour for last 67 years. It had long been a common phenomenon to call each other "security risk" or "traitor". "Cut-throat politics" well explains the irony of Pakistani politics. Accusations followed by revolts, processions and insurrections have never allowed political stability in the country. Political instability is continuous with economic instability in itself. Further spoilage has resulted when the virus of "Self righteousness" has been transmitted from the leaders to the worker at grass root level in recent politics. Character assassination, disgraceful and abusive word-battle on social media is a shameful documentary evidence of our deteriorating moral standards.
Extremism in all its upshot is catastrophic and devastating in nature. As extremism mounts across the globe, sense of insecurity surmounts the human spirits. Insecurity in turn hurts effective individual share in economic development and when this happens, collective efforts and contributions meet the downfall. Therefore, economic instability as a consequence of extremism has been the basic factor behind the failure of poverty alleviation directives in third world countries. Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria, where extremism has either instigated civil war or terror attacks or even unrest, lag far behind international community.
Extremism in ideological and social behaviour hurts national objectivity. Every nation aims at achieving the exalted status of honour, stability and self reliance among the international community, together with the unchecked economic growth and unchallengeable security. All these objectives are, however, subject to national unity for their momentous achievement. Conversely, extremism in all its forms results in social stratification and deep split in the national unity. It is therefore a serious threat, a fatal poison for survival of a nation.
Extremism always produces polarity, i.e., extremist narrative at one pole always gives birth to reverse extreme narrative. Quite apparent example is the rise of extreme left liberal myths in reaction of religious fanaticism. At this stage, impact on society is anything but moderation. If pull forces of one section are incapable to attract public, push forces of the opposite side fulfil the purpose. The situation has itself pushed Pakistan into a vicious cycle where people are highly agitated by each other's ultra radical beliefs.
The most pathetic aspect of extremism is that it deprives the human heart of its divine virtues. Humanism, kindness, love, empathy and tolerance are a few among noble moral traits. These are the traits which are "essential goodness of human heart". Without these traits, man is no better than a beast. As Sir Francis Bacon puts;
| "Goodness, I call the habit; and goodness of nature, the inclination. This of all the virtues and dignity of mind is the greatest; being the character of the Deity: and without it man is a busy, mischievous and wretched thing; no better than a kind of vermin" |
William Huxley in his essay "Adonis and the Alphabet" regarding prevalence of non humanitarian attitude towards animal species relates a story of twelfth century, where blessed saint Sesilia shows us an ugly picture of the church when one day, St. Dominic was preaching to his disciples of her convent when a sparrow began to fly in the air, hopping over their heads. No sister annoyed, but St. Dominic asked one of them to catch it. St. Dominic relentlessly started plucking sparrow's feathers while saying; you wretch, you rogue!!!" amidst laughter from brothers and sisters and many doleful screams from the dying sparrow. Undoubtedly, miserable that is! But more miserable is the time when assassins are started to be identified as "Sons of the nation". And when the whole world, including us, while holding flags of morality, follow the policy of selective criticism and selective condemnation of brutes across the globe.
The declining sensitivity of heart towards human sufferings and even the devaluation of human blood is alarming for society. Even if I am not the part of any of the two sections, yet there was a time when the murder of a single innocent human being would torture me. And here is another time when the blood of hundreds of innocent men, women and children is not able to incite pain in my heart, for the bloodshed has become a routine phenomenon. The blood of human beings is getting cheaper and cheaper day by day.
| What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. (Wasteland: The Burial of the Dead by T.S. Eliot) |
Ideology in itself is never inclined to extremism unless it is not overtaken by the sense of "Self righteousness" and "stubbornness". The same two components constitute extremism in our social behaviour. Extremism always considers unity in terms of uniformity of beliefs and thinking pattern. Unfortunately, we totally overlook the fact that "diversity" is the principle of creation. Hand is a perfect example. All five fingers differ in their length, yet each and every finger has its own importance in functional capacity of hand. Subsistence of individuality in society as well as in ideology guarantees progress of the nation. A stagnant pool, on the other end, breeds only infections and pathogens.
Variance in beliefs is blessing of God, and not his wrath; because it is the only mean to incite identification and dissatisfaction towards acquired if not inherent deficiencies, in our beliefs. Therefore, Prophet (PBUH) said, "Difference of opinion in my Ummah is a blessing."
The disaster is not over, the time is not gone. Saving the left over and reconstructing from the rubble is the only option left for our survival as a sovereign state. A think tank must be founded to sense and respond the risks to national unity by effective strategic planning. Effective planning to combat extremism requires careful observation and identification of the root cause.
Ignorance is one of the important factors favouring extremism. A man born and brought up in dark cannot conceive light lest he is brought to the light. Only education can serve the purpose of enabling man to understand the clear distinctive line that segregates right from wrong. However, education does not mean to just inject some pile of books in student's brain. The curricula should be so designed that it can address and satisfy the queries immersed deep into minds. It should be clearly identified that on what foundations the curricula is being designed for urban or rural population.
Injustice, inequality and discontentment, as discussed earlier, are among other prominent reasons. Youth of smaller provinces in Pakistan has been compelled by these factors to disengage itself from pen and book and embrace the opposite. Elimination of the cause, in this case, is the only way to reverse the consequences. Every citizen of Pakistan has to be endowed equal human rights. Corruption and lawlessness must be uprooted thoroughly.
Radicalisation of society is a serious threat to national integrity, a tool for foreign conspiracies. As the extremist fraction is working aggressively to spread their superficial yet captivating contemplations of religion, establishment of a counter-narrative is becoming an absolute necessity. A narrative that speaks of mercy, peace, love, kindness and humanism as the nucleus of religion. A narrative directed towards self building instead of self righteousness. A narrative which is able to extricate the spirit of shariah laws for a layman. Inter-sectarian harmony must be brought about by emphasis on respect of each other's faiths and an end to the culture of denial. In addition to, economic reforms have to be brought under consideration to bring out substantial economic development.
All humanistic figures and intellectual community should come together to implement a full program of social and humanitarian reforms to bring about "Renaissance of humanism". Our dying cultural values and spoiled morality should be restored by collaborative efforts as an important counter-strategy to lessen the nefarious impact of extremism.
Whatever the solution may be presented, the reality is that there is a deep sleep in the society and among stakeholders. No one is paying heed to our relentless approach towards the disastrous end. Morality, values and humanity are outdated concepts. Eat, Drink and Merry forms the code of our life. We are living beings with dead conscience. The world has become a wasteland, like the wasteland of Eliot;
| "Those who were living, are now dead Those who were living, are now dying With a little patience" |
However the suffocation is, hope is oxygen for the survival of humanity. We hope for the day when all the nation recognize the importance of Quaid's call for "Unity, Faith and Discipline", when conscience will redeem and revive, when the value of human blood will be restored and when love will surmount all evil spirits in this "Land of Pure". And how Martin Luther King elaborates that;
| I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." |