By
Khaled Ahmed
December
26, 2020
The world
is saying goodbye to liberalism. Right-wing politicians win elections by
denouncing “liberals” and preside over self-centred states wearing the badge of
aggression against “liberal fascists”. The US under Donald Trump, India under
Narendra Modi, the UK under Boris Johnson, Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan —
and most East European states who maltreat “refugees” and shun foreigners —
foreshadow the misfortunes of tomorrow. Pakistan is no exception.
Where does extremism spring from? If you take liberal “uncertainty” and
“doubt” as your norm, then one can say extremism springs from certitude.
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In March
2009, addressing a lawyers’ gathering at the Rawalpindi Bar, lmran Khan
belaboured a certain section of society as “liberals” who fly “in the face of
national emotion” and hurt the state of Pakistan. He particularly condemned
their interpretation of the phenomenon of the Taliban and their obedient
following of dictation from the US in this regard. (Five years later in 2014
Taliban gunmen stormed the Army Public School in the northern city of Peshawar.
More than 150 people were killed, 132 of them children.) He had also blamed the
“liberals” for causing the massacre of Lal Masjid in 2007 by pressuring the
Musharraf regime into taking brutal action against its “innocent” seminarians.
He called
those who set great store by human rights “liberal fascists”, a label that
resonated with most Urdu columnists in a predominantly “religious” or
“ideological” Pakistan. Since Pakistan was never dominated by “liberal
fascists” it is quite possible that he was attacking them in order to allow
himself to ignore the violation of human rights by those who operated against
the writ of the state in the Tribal Areas. But oddly, Khan never stopped being
the favourite of the very liberals he berated. He was an icon whose achievement
as a social worker they recognised to strengthen their own argument.
Where does
extremism spring from? If you take liberal “uncertainty” and “doubt” as your
norm, then one can say extremism springs from certitude. In doubt, there is
freedom to make concessions to those who think differently. Doubt here includes
self-doubt to allow for a measure of altruism. It is also from doubt that
moderation emanates: The instinct of standing in the middle when everyone is
taking sides and is getting ready to clash.
The
conservative is surer of his thinking because it is connected to the known
past; the liberal is less sure-footed because he wants to question the
entrenched attitudes of the past. It is certitude that inclines us to punish
those who don’t agree with us. The liberal will appeal to us to consider his argument
but will not threaten us if we reject him. The misapplied term “liberal
fascist” implies power that the liberal does not wish to possess because he
knows that his thinking is too individualistic for the formulation of a group
capable of wielding the power to punish.
The liberal
voice as the gnawing conscience of the nation has bothered others too.
Pakistan’s top Urdu columnist published a plaint against the liberals on
February 3, 2001: “The ‘liberals’ are busy demonising the Taliban and
predicting Talibanisation of Pakistan. On the other hand, Islamic movements
have a way of becoming moderate after reaching a certain level of intensity, as
it happened in Iran and is bound to happen in Afghanistan”.
According
to the above columnist, Pakistani society was altogether of a “different sort”
and would not succumb to Talibanisation “after the Taliban have completed their
conquest of Afghanistan”. In fact, Pakistan was a “cosmopolitan” society and
would remain “cosmopolitan” and would never allow the religious fanatics to
take over even if the latter became stronger than at present.
In his next
column (February 9, 2001), the same columnist rebutted the “liberal
exaggeration” that, after the jihadi outfits are done with Kashmir, they will
turn upon Pakistan. He even quoted a Quranic verse in Sura Al Kafirun and its
message of tolerance as proof of Islam being a “liberal” religion.
Eight years
down the road, the marginal “liberal” was proved right. But judging from the
way the critique of Talibanisation has spread around the country, one has to
concede that liberalism is not a political creed but a bent of personality that
may be found in elements in both right-wing and left-wing parties, and even
among religious leaders.
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Khaled
Ahmed is consulting editor Newsweek Pakistan.
Original
Headline: In Pakistan, the misfortunes of fundamentalism were foreshadowed
Source: The Indian Express