I am glad someone has said, quite eloquently, what I wanted to say. I am an oversea Pakistani Pathan and am ashamed of (at most times) being classified as either one. It is because I was taught to believe that we had three level of humanity. That is, first “insanyat” required us to “do to others as you’d like others to do on you…”, then as being Muslim we had additional requirements of being “more nice”, and then to top it off being pathan meant that you had to demonstrate alot more of “gherat” self respect. Can someone, please, tell me any of this being displayed by our IDPs? I have heard of stories of people showing this by sharing what ever little they had (a pindi resident sharing their two room house with 20+ people), but so for all I have seen and heard is “mujay kutch naih mila”?

That being said, I am still bound and should help as others. But I would like these people to demonstrate your character. We can all be “nice” in good times, but your true character comes out when you are put to test, like would you steal a piece of bread from old lady if your kids been hungry for few days? Are we (IDPs) passing this test?????

In Hindi in lighter vein, we say “Pehle pet puja, fir kaam duja” (First eat and then anything else).

Hungry IDPs facing uncertainity will not remember religion at that time. They are dictated more by “Survival of the fittest” than any religious teaching.

I will not be surprised that the son-in-laws you described exists on this planet and in Islam. I will be surprised (pleasantly) if such people do not exist. As someone said earlier, viwing through the prism of religion may not be always a right thing. It is 2 million IDPs (?)–not a small thing, rules change, tents are their home, the fear of disease is there. All you see is what you see in a short visit, they are there for a longtime and will stay for a long time with homes destroyed. The human psyche is complex and their actions are the result of so mush they have and will go through. Religion is a simplistic brush to point them. Accomodate their actions outside the the periphery of religion.

I really liked your column. So many people has said the same thing over and over. Where is the real Islam and where are the true Muslims? It is just like salt in the bread. Pakistan was created on the basis of Religion, so that the Muslims could practice the religion in the true sense and follow the Quran and Sunnah. We tell lies, back bite, don’t show respect for elders, women and rule of the country. On the road, we think we own it, we break traffic laws without thinking that these are made for our own benefit, we don’t want to pay taxes in any form, be it income or sales/excise. The business people have two accounting books, one for the government, one for self, we do not ask for receipt from hotels for our daily dine-out or parties, because then we have to pay sales tax. Bribe is so common, that we are nearly at the top of the list of countries where it is the custom and required for most of the transactions involving government employees.
Then if somebody says something or shows our Prophet as we are, we get angry and start killing our own brothers, destroying properties and issuing fatwas for killing those people.
We label anybody kafir who does to act according to the interpretation of a particular “sufi” or ulema. We have so many sects and nobody accepts the other as Muslim.
What we have become? Simple hypocrite and that what the Quran is against. No wonder others are afraid of Muslims and they do not trust a Muslim and do not want them near their homes.
We have to reform ourselves to get back the respect from the world?

I have been following and observing the evolution of the wahabi mindset in Pakistan for more than 32 years. They have throughout been encouraged by the fascists amongst shias and hanafis. Shafis and hambalis i have no experience with.
The Mussolini fascists in Italy supported Madam Montessori, T. S. Eliot & Ezra Pound.

I would like to thank Farzana for writing this article. More specifically, in the second-last paragraph: “Isn’t it more important to discover, study and observe true Islamic character than to impose a particular brand of sharia without an overall national consensus on the issue?”
If nationalism was designed to check fascism it has most certainly proven itself to be a failure not only within Islam but elsewhere too. Many people outside the realm of Islam have already gone very well on their way to deciding that they ought to be replacing nationalism with anarchism which originated in Ancient Greece in order to counteract democracy. As a last resort, the nationalists there are desperately trying to outsource nationalism & they have somehow found ‘Muslims’ to be their ideal victims.

Excellent Article.

Cannot agree enough of myself, with the author.

Thanks a lot for such a wise enlightenment.

Only we are the people on the face of this earth who make a mockery of our true religion and our religoius leaders. we never heard this sort of thing raised with such missionary zeal against cardinals pope bishops or rabbis even knowing that they are wrong and what they have done in the past have been horrible and surpassed all kind of terrorrism.
sharia is Islamic Law ordained in the Holy Quran and elaborated and enforced by the Holy Prophet.
Islamic code of conduct is deduced from the life of the Holy Prophet and is a source of inspiration and following for all Muslims.
we need both. As the Holy Prophet Himself enforced Islamic Laws in letter and spirit which included Qisas and Hudood laws. why we cannot do that today when Allah has said in the Quran that there is life for you in Qisas.
The reason behind this war that have been waged against enforcement of sharia is based on a serious misunderstanding that all rights will be taken away from women and they will be deprived their freedom which is absolutely wrong and misinterpreted.

I am not Pakistani, so I do not know the pain the people are going through, yet through the internet I have friends and FAMILY in Pakistan and it pains me to the very core of my being to see the newsreels, the pictures and hear the stories of what is happening there. It matters not what religion any follows, yes it will take more than words or prayers to care for the IDP’s, yet even in these times people need to care for each other and not lie to them or cheat them. It is a very sad situation.

Every refugee crisis or any crisis for that matter has a complex to understand anatomy constituted by dire circumstances,fear,hunger, grief,anger and in result a very abnormal social behaviors by majority in migrants.Most comments are also inline with this thought which writer seems failed to understand here.
But still all this is just one side of social behavior as true charter of any human being is tested under extreme conditions. By Principle, following the life of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) it is obligation of every Muslims under every kind of circumstances to strive for Best Charter as it was demonstrated by Muhammad (S.A.W) throughout his entire life. Real dilemma is there is no practical example to follow in these troubled times not in masses neither in higher echelons of leadership. Without a live practical example to follow, the chatter about achieving higher moral and contented character is next to impossible.

There are times when morality is severely tested. But then is it ethical to stand back and let your own family starve while another family takes what you require just as badly?

Thank you Farzana for trying to explain that behavoir of most of the Muslims is not in accordance with Islam and Quran and teaching of Prophet.

I feel most of the readers here who have commented had missed the point which the author is trying to convey.

I think she is not judging the IDPs. I feel the author is trying to convey that Islam emphasizes more on human rights and taking care of fellow beings

Farzana i think you should have elaborated your point a little more so that readers should not have misunderstood.

Prophet himself would have felt disappointed by the type of Islam being practiced by people these days.

Oh, thank you Farzana, for bringing forth such an unknown phenomenon to the light of the pakistani public at the behest of the IDPs.

low morality is evident in the entire pakistani society and i don’t think it is a good idea to use the behavior of swat refugees as an example to expose it.

People in the IDP camps are facing extreme circumstances and have basically been through war. I would never judge them.

Also that phone conversation that you had with the lady’s son in law doesn’t mean anything. I wouldn’t judge that either. It should have been kept private.

I agree with the basic message that you are trying to get across though.

Am I surprised — no.

In my opinion, with regard to women an average conservative Muslim mind deprived of female company from adolescence onward is full of deviated sexual desires full of pathological suspicions, sordid imaginations — that results in — from shyness in looking at and talking to women — to outright physical violence against women culminating in rape as well as honor killing .

Muslim men like Talibans who cannot reason with their own carnal desires when they look at women — want to cover not their own eyes with a blinder — but a woman’s face and body with a sack — or humiliate them by public beatings for showing their painted nails!

For us Muslims Daagh Dehlvi wrote an off color couplet that with a minor modification may describe the Talibani turmoil against women:

“achchee soorat bhi keya booree shai hai
jiss nay daalee booree nazar daalee”

For the Talibans — Daagh would have modified the couplet as follows:

“aik auraut bhee keya booree shai hai
jiss nay daalee booree nazar daalee”

No home, no shelter, no food and no sign of hope. There is no religion that one can follow in these conditions. Religion and Sharia will teach you common courtesy, but try that on an empty stomach. Don’t look down on your fellow country people, try to imagine their pain.

Its a very good article, this is the reality for all the religon in the world. Everyone prays and goes to mosque, Church and temple, but how many peoples are honest. Even if we don’t take are of our own parents, what a human beings we are?

The globe is going in a wrong direction..everyone is selfish in the world.

No Pakistani talks anything without mentioning the words like Muslims, Islam, Prophet Muhammad, Allah, Shariah, Quran, Hadith, Martyrdom etc. The over-use of these names is a disease Pakistani people suffering from. The IDPs will die if they are fed with only words and are not provided with shelter, sanitation and proper food.

People are in dire straits. They have witnessed atrocities and endured tremendous hardships to get to these relief camps. The conditions in these camps remain very poor. I think the people have run out of patience and respect. IDPs are desperate and want their lives back which seem impossible in the current scenario. Eventhough the minority but sadly people in Pakistan think that Sharia will solve all their problems. Little do they know that well talked about Sharia in Pakistan will be about banning female education, music & entertainment and strict purdah. There is no true spirit of Islam to be enforced. and there is no way to enforce that. The true spirit of Islam comes from within! We are all accountable for our own actions in front of God. Rituals are soothing but not necessarily needed to reform a nation. That power to reform ones self comes from within. Only if we understand the true meaning and spirit of our religion Islam.

I am shocked to learn about this lady’s story. I can’t believe someone like this exist among us. We are habitual to the rituals we do just like other chores in our day to day life. It has lost its meaning. We have lost our moral values and character in performing our rituals. This is what “mullah” do to you when you don’t have the understanding and it becomes habit. I am sure most of us don’t even remember God, when we pray our namaz or perform any other prayer. Its just pathetic to hear these stories.

There are many reasons for the above you have stated but the main reason is illiteracy in the civil society of Pakistan.The other reason is that too much religion has been mixed up with the daily lives of one and all here in Pakistan. Of course the other reason is there and that is who is in control of the country and whosoever it may be is he acceptable by the masses in the civil society due to their dishonesty towards their work.

Your disappointment is understandable. But what you report is hardly surprising.

These poor people are faced with hard reality, survival. You can’t expect them to live up to some mystic “moral” values.
Some of them may even want “sharia”, but that’s probably because it is the best option they can think of in their condition.

Irrational behaviour, like the one you report, is the hallmark of a people oppressed, that live with huge contradictions of the morality vs survival sort.

Don’t judge them!

you are absolutely correct. We want Shariah law but dont want to understand and implement teachings of Quran and Hadith. The problem with our society is that we have confined ourselves to rituals only, without going deep into the philosophy. Islam is the religion of peace, harmony and submittance to Allah. Is this what we are exhibiting in our daily lives? Are we trust worthy? Are we behaving like good human beings as required by the teachings of Quran? The answer, unfortunately, is NO. and that is the root of all the problems.

There is no other solution but to follow the teachings of Quran in true spirit, without getting ourselves occupied with trivial issues.

I don’t know what is Islam,Muslim nowadays. Return to the basic….We should read the Quran and understand what its written.
And Islam has to change with the time…

I’m grieved to read about the deplorable condition at the camps, although it didnt take me by surprise. Similar incidents of selfishness and fraud have been previously witnessed at the earthquake zone a few years back. If our people were poperly following Sharia the whole nation specially the IDPs would not have been passing through this turmoil today. We have lost our respect, trust, dignity and honor in the eyes of the whole world, by not following shariah or following those versions of sharia that suit us. And I can say this with conviction that if we all follow the Islamic guidelines(from Quran and Hadith) and deal with our day to day matters accordingly, there is no way that we are unable to gain the status of one of the most peacuful nations of the world.

Rituals have become more important than deeds and this is one reason why we have become such human beings.

very true farzana!!

u have rightly said that we are trying to impose our own ideas of sharia and are ignoring the essentials of Islam.

U agree or not, all most all of us think that no one knows more than us about Islam and we want others to praise this. We show Off that we are religious doing all good deeds that Islam has asked us to do. where as in reality its just the good we speak obout and do not show it through our deeds. We are more ritual focused and try what is visible to others like offering prayers, having burqas etc but we totally ignore the True Essence of Islam. We have forgoten the humna rights, we are dishonest towards our religion, Humanity, our parents, friends and towards our ownself….

We will kill people in the mane of Islam or Jihad but we would not think that Islam dislikes cruelity. Killing one person makes the whole family suffer socially, financially and psychologically. We do not realise this but to us what metters is we have got alot of SAWAB for killing a non muslim or a muslim who wasnt folloing Islam according to our interpretation of Islam….

Good on you Farzana, you are absolutely right.
People should work to respect others rights and learn the islamic code of conduct and as you said by doing this, shariah law will come automatically in to society.

Vienna,09-06-2009

It is pathetic. But let me tell you, the-son-in
law type are common even in India. There is a
proverb that compares human situation to that
of lotus that flowers at sun rise.The same
lotus uprooted gets dried up under the sun.
Faqirs sing such homilies and go about
educating public. Unfortunately, under distress,people should learn to contain
such Talebans within society.In advanced
society it is common to help even a stranger,
human, bird, animals, or even flower plants.
_Kulamarva BalakrishnaK

Desperate times bring both good and bad in human beings. This is nothing to do with religion. If you look hard enough I am sure you will find people helping people and making great sacrifices.
It is counterproductive to view everything in the prism of religion.

It is easy to criticise teh hungry and the suffering. What are the rest of the Muslims doing for them except closing their provincial doors on them? What has our biggest and richest province done for them? What has the Ummah done for far?

The issue you have brought reminds me when the Denmark newspaper made the mockery of our beloved prophet and we all got so upset and burnt our own brothers property and governemnt buidings. I was thinking wow! we love the prophet so much!! I wanted to ask this question to every muslim including myself. Do we really love him??
I think we disrespect him more than the non msulims and that Danish newspaper. Do we not disrespect him every day every night by not following what he has told us to do? Very simple things like don’t call a disable person with his disability, give preference everywhere to the senior citizens, women and children, be honest to your parents, work, society and to your country, like for your brohters and sisters what you like for yourself, do not discreminate against each other based on arab and ajam. We do just opposite to all the sayings and advise (Hadith) of the prophet, though we claim to love our prophet sooo much!!
We hate that Danish editor and newspaper but we don’t look inside ourselve and listen to the conscience. Each person analyze himslef/herself and follow what has been prescibed for us, we may start seeing the difference.
This is not the way to implement sharia by beating women on the stree and blowing their schools and trying to deprive them from education.Women raises the children what would they teach to their children if they are not educated? Its time for us to think, really hard and act upon to follow the right path.

Farzanaji, I agree with every thing you said – based on “insaaniyat.”

But when you suggest (over and over, ad nauseum) that Islam is the reason something should be done differently, you sound no different than those that you criticize.

It sounds like you feel that your readers will only accept points of view that are backed by religion.

Farzana, very well observed it is so true that we have total disregard for honesty and others rights while we chant shariah more as a political slogan than anything else.

Good points. Also where in Sharia does it say that Shias are kafir? Also where does it say that kafirs should be killed? (the supposed reason that these terrorists go around killing Shias/Christians/Jews/Hindus?
IF all people give the Zakaat that is prescribed in Sharia, do you think Pakistan will have to beg foreigners for aid to resettle the Swatis?

If people look to Islam, and follow the duties it underlines instead of simply focusing on enforcing punishment to others according to their own understanding of the rules, life for Pakistanis and their neighbours would be very different.