THE BATTLE FOR AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

I think the singular most important thing that differentiates Islam from other religions is that it is founded on both spirituality and practicality. Whereas Christianity, Judaism, etc have been restricted to spiritual practices in churches and synagogues, Islam has always been an all encompassing “deen”. Deen means way of life and that means if you are a Muslim, your duties include not only spiritual acts like praying or fasting but practically carrying out every action in accordance with the Islamic philosophy of social structure and pragmatics.

Also, the singular most important thing that differentiates Pakistan from other countries is that it was made for Muslims, and for the protection of Islam. It was made so Muslims can practice their “deen” freely, in dignity. This basically means we were given the privilege of living our lives according to Islam. I can safely say that we did nothing of the sort. If the Muslims of Pakistan really had availed the opportunity that cost them so much blood, we wouldn’t be in this crumbling state. Here we are, morally oblivious and socially disintegrated. Our economy that once looked so promising has been reduced to running on foreign aid that is a euphemism for bribery. Our four provinces, instead of utilising their rich culture and vast resources are fighting over petty issues and are burdened by secessionist movements. Our northern border is now home to US/NATO soldiers who have been given a blank cheque to fire as they please inside a sovereign country. We pushed all our national heroes to the sidelines and even apologised for some of them. We failed to produce any more heroes despite the fact that Pakistan is home to some of the greatest talent in the world.

What a beautiful prospect gone sour. All because we failed to adhere to Islam as a deen or way of life and reduced it to Islam as a religion.

There are many aspects of Islam as a way of life that we have failed to follow, but to go into all of them would require writing a book and not just a single article. So I am going to focus on the one problem that bothers me so much personally and the one that probably has the most far-reaching consequences for the next generations; media. We have forgotten how to think. We live in the age of mass media and information. Perhaps, the most influential media outlet shaping our minds right now is the television and film industry. Hollywood/Bollywood movies, soap operas, television series and even news channels all slowly project norms and ideologies that are starkly contradictory to Islam. Let me clarify that television or any other medium is a neutral article. A TV set cannot be good or bad. The internet itself cannot be good or bad. But every medium can be used and manipulated positively and negatively. Sadly, most of the time, the negativity overrides any positive contribution.

They manipulate our ideas, they dictate to us what is right and what is wrong, they can take any image out of context and use it for whatever purpose they like. They have the most power over the kids of the next generation; more than parents or teachers or peers. TV is the shaper of the foundation of a child’s thinking!

Doesn’t it bother anyone that there are kid channels out there like Disney and Nickelodeon that constantly and easily make their way into our living rooms? Does it bother anyone that most television shows on these channels are about kids just like ours who are obsessed with “dating issues”, crushes, proms and money? Does it bother you that the new generation cries for the Jonas Brothers? Or that their all time dream is to be an actor-cum-(shabby)singer just like their tween Disney heroes? Does it bother anyone that Nickelodeon recently had a whole marathon titled “Junior High Romance” where famous celebrities gave kids advice on how to get dates, how to kiss, how to dress to impress. These kids are mostly pre-teens, it would be vital to mention. Doesn’t it bother anyone at all that all the characters on these shows are instructed to say “Oh my Gosh” instead of “Oh my God” but are allowed to use phrases like “I am a golfing god”? Does anyone else see this slow but sure secularisation of the next Muslim generation? The total stripping of spirituality from our daily life and its replacement with shallow materialism gets nobody’s mind in frenzy?

Or take the world of Hollywood and Western TV. Now there’s one domain whose audience knows no bounds. But did you know that “61 percent of television programs contain some violence, and only 4 percent of television programs with violent content feature an "antiviolence" theme”? Or that “44 percent of the violent interactions on television involve perpetrators who have some attractive qualities worthy of emulation”? Or that “43 percent of violent scenes involve humour either directed at the violence or used by characters involved with violence”? Did you also know that “nearly 75 percent of violent scenes on television feature no immediate punishment for or condemnation of violence”? Or that “40 percent of programs feature "bad" characters who are never or rarely punished for their aggressive actions”? Does it bother you now to know that? That every other Hollywood movie depicts bombing, explosions, fighting, gunshots, killing and murder yet we are known as the big, scary terrorists and that our lands are being invaded on this pretext? That every other movie comes up with newer, better ways to destroy New York or Washington but when somebody goes ahead and actually does it, it’s Islam that goes to trial?

And then there is the Bollywood industry. I think this industry is even more relevant to the Pakistani context than Hollywood and western media. This is the industry that plays to the height of irony. On the one hand, we Pakistanis can not be more proud of our heritage. We are always raving on and on about our culture and our history. When it comes to Pakistan-India cricket matches, it’s a matter of life and death. But on the other hand, our lives are entangled with the Bollywood/Star Plus culture. Aunties all over the nation wait every day for their favourite Star Plus drama. They discuss it with their maids, their friends and even their colleagues. They rant on about the personal, trivial, domestic life issues of totally fictional characters. They cry when one of them has to be killed off. (They always seem to forget that the character will no doubt be brought back to life; this is Indian melodrama we are talking about). They badmouth the villainous mothers-in-law and rebellious daughters-in-law of this strange, fictional world of theirs. A lot of you probably remember the famous death of a woman caused by one of her favourite Star Plus characters being switched for another actress. It’s absurd!

If we really are so proud of our heritage and our culture, then why do our school kids know all about Vishnu and Rama and monkey gods and disappointingly little about Allah and His messengers? Why do they call upon Bhagwan whenever something goes wrong? A little boy we know attended his grandmother’s funeral and asked his mother: “in ki chitta kab jalain gey?” Why do we emulate everything we see on Indian media, to the point that Hindu practices have easily crept into our customs? Mehndis and mayuns and dowries and what not. It’s not us. “Muhabbat” and “ishq”. Cheap flirting, vulgar dancing. Last Eid I went out on Chand Raat only to find “Hare Krishna, hare Raam” blasting form the marketplace speakers. It hadn’t even been 24 hours since we broke our last fast! What was the point of all your nasheeds and hamds and taraweeh and lectures all month long if, in the end, you didn’t really understand what it was all about? I almost lost my sanity that night. And that night depressed me. Because I realised how invasive this Indian Star Plus/Bollywood culture has become. India might call itself a secular state but the reality of the situation is that it is still vastly Hindu. This religious majority will obviously manifest in all areas of the country’s institutions, including entertainment. Why are such “proud Pakistanis” letting this Hindu culture entwine with their own Islamic values? Who cares who wins the cricket match? Well, we all do. But we are losing something much more important. Our Islamic values. Our Islamic societies. That’s what we are losing. And that is a battle we cannot afford to lose. We need to boycott this Indian media and revert back to our Holy revelations.

Even video games are chock-full of bloody, violent and sexual content. I remember the good old days when all we had to play was Tetris or Pacman. Now you have Grand Theft Auto, Tekken, Sims, Resident Evil, God of War and so many more that are placing virtual weapons in the hands of children; teaching them how to kill, indulging them in sadistic pleasure. But which one of us is going to take the responsibility of telling these innocent minds that in real life, when you shoot someone, they die? And that you can’t press start and get another life? And that in real life, children just like them die in war torn areas every day? And that blood is messy? And that violence hurts people and that wounds don’t magically and rapidly repair themselves? Who is going to tell them that? Or do we want them to find out the hard way?

In the mid 1950’s, James Vicary, a market/motivational researcher decided to pursue the effects of subliminal messaging. Subliminal messaging is the presentation of stimuli just below the threshold of awareness so that the stimulus is physically registered but not consciously. However, it is strong enough to subconsciously alter our behaviour. He did this by projecting phrases like “Hungry? Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coca Cola” for a brief fraction of a second onto slides in a movie theatre. He found that popcorn sales rose 57.7 percent and Coca Cola sales rose 18.1 percent. Psychologists all over the world went crazy to try to figure this one out and concluded that yes, subliminal messaging really does work to a significant extent. Advertisers and movie makers took this a step further and applied the findings to their own ventures. Wilson Bryan Key, a psychologist and former advertiser collected numerous ads and exposed subliminal messages of sex and death embedded in the pictures. He knew advertisers would want to use such topics because they are probably the most controversial, the most striking. They capture attention, even subliminally. Abdullah Hashem took Youtube by storm when he exposed the very subliminal but clearly erotic symbolism hidden amid major Disney films. For those who are interested, http://www.classroomtools.com/sublimad.htm is a good place to learn about various other subliminal atrocities we are subjected to on a daily basis. Artists have come out to confess the usage of crude messages to children across the world and even though subliminal messaging has been banned, one must ask; how can we really know? How do we know if the ban on subliminal messaging has been followed or not? We don’t. All we know is that movies and television programs are becoming increasingly more violent and sexually oriented and that there has been a steady rise in sexuality and violence among the new generation. Teen pregnancies, rapes, early forced marriages gone sour, abortions, suicides caused by traumas. Isn’t it disturbing how teenagers have the greatest attempted suicide rates? Can’t we put two and two together?

Our religion teaches us to think and to analyse. Why don’t we pay attention to the fact that “TV families” never reflect real families and their lifestyles? That virtual lifestyles are always one step ahead of reality when it comes to open sexuality and violence. TV starts the trends and we follow them. It’s not the other way around. I repeat it’s not the other way around. Try observing it for yourself sometime. You’ll be surprised you didn’t see it sooner. So what does our religion say about this, and what do we as Pakistani Muslims have to do about it?

First of all, we have to realise why this great country was really created. It was created to be the stronghold of the new Muslim generations. It was supposed to be emblem of the new Muslim Ummah. So why have we let ourselves become so easily indoctrinated by all this propaganda? Easy. Because we don’t know what being Muslim is all about. We don’t even know what’s written inside the Quran or what the hadith have to say about things. We know that we have to wear shalwar kamiz every Friday and a topi when we do pray. But that’s not what being Muslim is about!Islam strikes a healthy balance between individualism and collectivism. Everything we are instructed to do in some way or the other contributes to a stable society. Whether it is the institution of marriage or the concept of Zakat or the law of a Qazi, it all boils down to stable, healthy, religiously aware societies. And that’s what TV lacks. TV lacks the kind of morality that is essential to forming societal stability. As does popular music or entertainment! It’s all about “me, me, me”. It’s all about following impulsive desires and attaining immediate gratification. It’s all about the glamour, the fun, the stuff you want. It’s about shallow, transient, materialistic matters. It’s about how you look. How sexually experienced you are. How much money you have? How many outfits you can put together? It’s about where you shop. What cars you drive. It’s about blowing things up. It’s about quite literally worshipping the stars, about idolising them until they become your role models. How different is that from pagan worshippers of the past? How different is the picture of pagan tribes raising their hands up to a stone god from a picture of crazy girls clawing and fighting in order to touch Orlando Bloom on stage? It’s not different at all. It’s shirk of the 21st century because a god doesn’t have to be a wooden idol. Money, people, celebrities, possessions and even ideas can all be “god” and amount to shirk if you give them enough importance in your life. And all of these notions that we have come to passively accept are definitely contributing to the degradation of society. There is no doubt in my mind that if you impose enough materialism and self-sustenance into the mass minds of a people, you can take them away from God. And if you take them away from God, you take away the spiritual half of life that is essential to being healthy, to being successful.

And Islam is all about this spiritual-pragmatic combination. What do we need to do to change this rapid murder of our values? We need to take it one step at a time and we need to start at the individual level. Charity begins at home. So does everything else. My suggestion would be to create a drastic resolution in your life first and to revert back to the Quran and Sunnah. I always say the biggest problem with the modern Muslim is he hasn’t read the Quran. He doesn’t know what it says. He likes forming opinions about what it says, but he doesn’t really know what’s written in it. We think our duty is complete once we’ve read the whole Quran in Arabic and held a big, fancy ameen to show off to our friends and family this “big accomplishment”. But our duty isn’t complete there. Every Muslim now needs to wake up and realise what their roots are. Go back to the Quran and read it from page one, in whatever language you have mastered. You’re comfortable with Urdu, read the Urdu translation. English, read the English one. French, Spanish, Chinese, they are all available so you really have no excuse. You don’t have to read every day and all at once. Read five sentences a week, it’s not that hard. We have time for every thing else, so can we really afford to make excuses to get out of this one?

Once you start, I guarantee you will be riveted.

Next, pledge to start implementing at least two things Allah has asked of us. Just two, whether it is dressing more modestly or yelling a little less or controlling your buying impulses or studying hard in school or praying more regularly or smiling more often. Maybe you can make these your yearly resolutions. Every year you try to master one or two of them. It doesn’t seem like a hard task, does it? Once you’ve established a good habit, then you can teach it to your kids or your siblings or friends. That’s how you gradually work your way up the ladder; by transforming your life, then your loved ones’ lives until we are in a position to change our country and re-establish it as a true Islamic Republic.

Also pledge to really start thinking about what you are watching on TV and how it affects your thinking and lifestyle. Realise that mind manipulation is the easiest and most dangerous thing to do to a person. We are being manipulated on a daily basis and we must use the Quran and Sunnah to break away from these psychological chains. Start thinking and analysing. You are capable of a lot more than you think. Your body may be bound but if your mind is free, you can never be a slave. I really do pray for an Islamic Republic of Pakistan. And I really want to solve our problems. But you can’t clean a river unless you remove the dead dog.

Our dead dog is our mindless submission to the media. Can it get any clearer what we have to do next?