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In Response to
Last Post by My Friend Akber:
Dear Akber:
Alas, 27 years
later, my dear friend has passionately trolled social history but he
is off beam once again almost oblivious to the fact that a young
girl has been killed. She should not have died. Arguments or verses
from scriptures cannot bring that young soul back to life. The idea
of this discussion is to understand how a tragedy like that can be
prevented.
Some people on
FoTH discussion-board and elsewhere are trying very hard to explain
away the tragic murder. I am not sure if there is any good word in
English language to describe their intentions. Nonetheless, Freudian
psychology captures this phenomenon. It reminds us that some of our
friends are using what is called "Defence Mechanisms". These are
psychic mechanisms to ward off emotional strain in the face of
adversity, purely a human experience. Defence mechanisms being
used are 'rationalization' and 'intellectualization'. Unfortunately,
both of these mechanisms are classified as immature and/or neurotic
'defence mechanisms' in psychology.
What to do to
prevent tragedy in the future. The answer is simple: Social
intervention well before a tragedy hits.
However, such a
view will be at odds with religious conception of human existence
and destiny because human is "His" vanguard and shall return to
'Him'. Such a view precludes possibilities of any intervention
because it is a deterministic view and flawed as far my
understanding goes.
Dear Akber:
As I said,
premises of your arguments in the last post are archaic,
deterministic and lacking avant-garde vision. In your
rationalization, it is 'acting upon the rulers wishes' is the
essence of human existence and the spirit of order in the society.
Yes, it was exemplified by 'Burkinjas' (Ninjas in Burkas, witnessed
in Red Mosque, Pakistan) who tried to enforce moral law and maintain
social order in Pakistan.
But seriously,
"Ruler" in your formulation is supreme; God, king, dictator or any
instrument of brut-power but not common-man. This understanding is
at variance with mine. It is, I think, gross underestimation of
human potentials.
In your scheme of
things, paradoxically though, will of God in human action is
conspicuously missing. This absence subtly provides justification
for dissociation of human action from divine-will and religious
conception of history. Aggressive, detrimental and bad deeds of
humans are conveniently tossed into the waste basket of culture and
history.
How many times we
have encountered the argument that mullahs sermon is not Islam, it
is his ignorance. Mullahs' sermon does not represent Islam. Muslims
actions are only a social behavior. Shiite-Sunni and scores of other
sects is only an imaginary divide. A war among Muslims is merely
politics. They are killing each other but it is just an illusion
because they are not real Muslims. Regardless what, neither any
sermon nor any action of Muslims speaks of Islam, according to some
of my friends.
I am at a loss,
then who and what speaks of Islam [and other religions]? Hadith have
always been controversial. They are no good. Some parts of Koran
were meant for old age only and are irrelevant now according to
liberal Muslims. Then, what is it that is Islam [and other religions
too]? Dust covered scriptures? Actually, nothing speaks of Islam
because emotional need for a clean Muslim identity is so intense
that faithful Muslims have to shove murder of that young girl and
other crimes under the rug.
Sorry, not in my
books.
Speaking
philosophically, we need to understand that human race lives in a
dichotomy. Human race has two natures. One is biological that has no
bearing on history except for procreation to sustain history. The
other is historicist nature. I shall phrase it in a question form:
Who makes history? Divine intervention through rulers or is it
humans who make their own history?
Your answer is
"Ruler - the deterministic force". You are clinging to at least a
couple of centuries old ideas when humans lived on the mercy of
nature. Fast forward to modern where social organization around
technology has empowered humans to hold reins of even history. It is
a great promise of the modern age (despite of its due share of
problems) where 'rulers' form Gods to kings have been slowly
dwindling in authority and authenticity too (Nepal's king is the
latest one to fade into fog of history. Its yesterdays news on BBC:
December 24, 2007).
Material
conception of history holds promise for humans where religion will
also fade into oblivion along with rulers and kings when common
humans will take charge of human destiny to establish kingdom of
freedom in their actions and interactions. Nobody claims to be there
yet. But struggle for this cause is a worthy struggle so that
religions, myths and cultural taboos that inspire men to action
don't snatch promise of young lives away by shear brutality.
Dear Akber: Its
doable. Ride the rising tide of human emancipation to take control
of human destiny. It is a movement of history from sacred to
secular. Welcome to the future.
Warm regards and
season greetings.
Tahir
December 25, 2007
tahir.qazi@yahoo.com
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