The problem with the critics who call Pakistani progressive thinkers desi liberals is that they ignore many dimensions of a single problem. They see things in black and white. When a progressive person speaks about the horrors of Arabisation, they suddenly come up with the pictures of Pakistani youth wearing jeans and using mobile phones and remind them of western imperialism.
Let us bust this myth today. First of all, let's define Imperialism. Edward Said, a famous anthropologist and academic defines imperialism as any system of domination and subordination organized with an imperial center and a periphery. There are two major types of Imperialism. Regressive and Progressive Imperialism. Then there is colonialism but let's not confuse it with imperialism because it is just for territorial control and/or commercial aims coupled or not with imperialism. Now there have been many kinds of imperialisms in the history. Ottoman/Turkish, German, British and Tsarist Russian and now this Arab. Arabia is a vast land comprised of multiple cultures from Morrocco to UAE including completely versatile cultures like Jordan and Oman. However, when we talk about Arabisation, we are talking about imperialism, centred in Saudi Arabia. A recent article written by Abdul Majeed Abid [1], one finds the summary of the events stating how Abdul Wahab convinced Al-Saud to declare Salafiism as a state religion. What followed next is more proof. Now this was the result of a pact signed between Al-Saud and Wahab where the king promised to expand that religion across Arabia and all over the Muslim world by whatever means necessary in 1744 [2]. Abdul Wahab was a Hanbali mufti and so was his father and he was largely influenced by the teachings of Ibn Taimiya, the same Imam who completely shut down the chapter of Ijtihad and declared that everything should be Islamised according to existing knowledge and no new knowledge will be incorporated in Islam. Does one see why we still fight over Tooth Brush and Miswak? I know many have a positivist view and they will dismiss this example and my argument on the grounds that there are many scholars who have no problem with toothbrush but this is not actually the case. They still are convinced otherwise and would tell you to prefer Miswak. Those who actually believe in the same like Dr. Farooq Khan and Javed Ghamidi are either murdered or in exile due to their “unorthodox” views. A friend of mine who is an MPhil in Biochemistry from a top university of Pakistan and a forensic scientist in ministry of defence keeps Miswak in his pocket and claims that it has more benefits than tooth paste.
Now let’s come to how that influence is/was being spread out to Pakistan in particular. If one carefully observes the relationship developed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in 70’s and relate it to later Islamisation of Zia keeping in view the influence of Modoodi on Zia and his links to Saudi preachers, he/she can see a clear link between all the events. One may also read about Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad), his background, links with Ikhwan and Salafi school of thought, how he was hired by government of Pakistan and his influence on setting the religious element in constitution and Pakistani Law.
Then there are these global events during 80’s, after Iranian revolution, how radical sectarian outfits were
I have remained associated with a Deoband madressa for five years for the duration 1996-2001 when I did Hifz and some other basic studies of Fiqh, Quran and Hadees and I saw all this happening in front of myself. Saleem Shehzad's book [3] or any book on growing influence of Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan during 90s can be studied to have a glimpse of the actual situation at that time.
Now what happened with all that? It is very easy to dismiss these facts by saying that it is just few people radicalising peaceful Islam. But this phenomenon seeped down to every Masjid, every Friday sermon, every aalim, every household in the guise of shedding biddats(innovations in religion,) hatred against Shia sect, against methods of economy, growth of madressas, jihad and fighters later translated into moral/financial sympathies and eventually with the help of preachers like Zakir Naik and organisations like SSP/TJ/LeJ/JuD/HI/HT, the Arab culture didn't take much time to turn into an exotic glamorous thing alongwith already completed ideological transition. Mureedkay, Raiwind, Akora Khattak and Panjpir Sawabi became big religious enterprises. I remember, despite of belonging to a Deobandi family, in my childhood, how my aunt would arrange a Khatam of Bibi Zainab's Mojzat and my grandmother would take me to Mizars. But I saw it changing. The Sabeels set by Sunnis disappeared, such sort of Khatams became history, my father would strictly stop my grandma to visit Mizars, all of our brothers and cousins including myself were put into Madressas, Shia hatred literature was rampant, SSP presence in every deobandi mosque, their conferences which later turned into bomb blasts, heavy security on majalis and juloos where we were previously free to go, myths against cultural/religious traditions, Ya Rasoolullah and Naara i Haideri becoming infidel's slogan, molvis starting wearing long Arabic dresses and then after these new TV channels emerged, they also adopted the same mainstream deobandi+salafi mix of religion. Cultural Islam completely disappeared from KPK, Balochistan and half of Punjab (Karachi and Hazara Shias still struggling against this radicalism.) Now Arabisation is not just wearing jubbas or black burqas (which are also common throughout) but also disappearance of your own culture calling it biddat (innovation in religion) [4]*. This is regressive imperialism.
Now let’s come to western/European/American imperialism. I am not saying that it is a progressive imperialism and I will vouch for our own culture (5000 years old Indus civilization.) However, the matter of fact is that we were a colony of British for over a 100 years. They gave us many laws on which we still rely. Had this been up to us, it would never have been possible up to this extent in the presence of controversial religious pandits and multiple ideologies and not to forget Objectives Resolution. There was no US until then and there was no US imperialism by then. After British left, we were left with English language and working British system including Bureaucracy. Our founders were all "desi liberals" and had their education from either London (including Allama Iqbal mind it) or a second generation who studied from these people (Ali Garh k londay according to Jaun Elia.) The vision of democracy is also kind of western. The later technological and economic development of the west also made us tilted towards that "imperialism" for our own development and progress. Military cooperation with US increased the effect. Then information technology as a resource to keep up with modern world created further dependance. These things were NOT imposed by US/West on us but were our own need according to the contemporary times. However, it comes at a cost. We watch Hollywood because we know English, not because we are forced to watch Hollywood. They cannot make Maria Carey or Madonna sing songs in Punjabi and Pashto or Sindhi for us. So it is more of a choice because of our own proclivities towards technology and information coupled with glamour and entertainment. The same effect of US is everywhere on other cultures like Phillipines, India, Bangladesh and even Middle East. In imperialistic context, same applies to Indian Cinema and TV. Nobody is interested in Pakistani channels in India, so if they have banned them, it doesn't matter for them. But we do watch Indian dramas and movies. Hence, they are shown on our TV channels. If one asks someone in media about the TPR of these dramas and how much they are liked in urban areas of Pakistan, one can be cognizant of the demand and supply thing. Hence, it is more of a commercial/informational activity than dominance or subordination of west aka imperialism. If the remnants of British imperialism are the reason, that is then progressive imperialism in comparison to Arabisation. Arabs (Saudi Arabia and its Middle eastern allies like Qatar, Kuwait and UAE) gave us only radicalisation with their culture and sometimes 1.5 billion dollars for sending troops to kill other muslims. I will not get into international politics though, if this is coming to one’s mind because on that platform we are equally dominated by Arabs and US (excluding all other west.)
I would like to add one more thing at the end that intellectual progress, enlightenment and technology are all shared heritage of human history and Arabs, Persians and Indians have a major and significant contribution in today's progress (scientific and intellectual.) Henceforth, one cannot simply dismiss this intellectual impact as well on the grounds that it is western.
A person posted a picture with Palm trees in the middle of 7th avenue and satirically ascribed that to “Saudi influence feared by progressives.” But he was absolutely unclear about the facts. Pakistan is the third largest exporter of dates in the world with annual production of 535,000 tonnes [5]. And Saudi Arab is among five largest importers of dates. The Hajj dates we eat with religious zeal and passion while standing and facing Kaaba with Aabe Zamzam in our left hands are mostly the dates picked up from Makran coast.
Faqat,
Apka apna desi liberal!
References:
3.http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-246112-Only-15-seminaries-receive-foreign-funds-Senate-told
* The mentioned DAWN article on Arabisation is written by a “desi liberal”, Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar of National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, who wears only white cotton and peshawari chappal despite of being a 20 grade university professor and feels no shame in having tea with students at a dhaba.
An additional insight was added to the article by a dear friend Riaz Papin sb.
"Let me give you another perspective particularly relevant to the Malakand region. Due to lack of livelihood opportunities youth of the area have traditionally been travelling outside to earn their livelihood and sustain their families back home. A significant migration of unskilled people from our lands occurred in the 1960s and 70s, when the oil boom in the Gulf region spurred movement of large waves of un–skilled, un-educated labour from Pakistan and specially Pukhtunkhwa to the Gulf. With a relative expansion of access to education to the semi-urban areas, the phenomenon was also transferred to the educated youth. This phenomenon also had wide scale effects on the cultural and economic outlook of the area. On the economic side it resulted in the flow of significant amounts of money into our villages and towns. While it did contribute to the raising of life standards of many families and some exposure to the outside world, it also brought some negative influences. Firstly in the absence of any government policy for economic activity, infrastructure development, education facilities, investment and industrialization, the cash flows found uses in negative spheres like weapons/arms, drugs, property boom etc. For example the cost of property spiraled because of this. Today the cost of normal agricultural land in places like Dir and Swat is exorbitant, pushing the locals further into poverty. But the most devastating social effect of this was the increase of Arab influence. Having been exposed to the distorted political and social structure of the Arab sheikhdoms, these uneducated people returning from the Gulf brought along extremist religious tendencies in addition to social and cultural values which they hardly understood but fondly copied in the spirit of religiosity. This was further confounded by the increased influence of the Gulf Sheikhdoms in our areas on the official level during the Afghan war in the 80s and 90s and the obvious state patronage in an effort to use religion for political purposes. The visible result was the mushroom growth of ‘madaris’ and the ever increasing influence of ‘Tableghy Jummat’ in Pakhtun society. This contributed in disturbing the traditional social and political balance, giving unprecedented political and social influence to the fringe clergy and undermining the make-up of the society."
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