Adil Najam
Urdu columnist Hasan Nisar is known for his outspoken view. He can sometimes be a loose canon, but whether you agree with him or not (and I do not as often as I do) he makes you think. He certainly does that in this outburst on a TV talk show (this is an old recording, but I do not know from exactly when).
35 comments posted
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No doubt,the West was uncivilized but they were able to reform their religion resulting in a tolerant and open society.We on the other hand are not able to do so and are suffering the consequences.
One thing we need to understand,Muslim scientific revolution in medieval times did not occur because of Islam instead it happened inspite of Islam.
Haris,
You are exactly right! While civilization doesn’t mean we don’t have problems anymore, it means we get to deal with the problems we face, in a dignified, collaborative, amicable manner.
My point was, that I didn’t think the US ever was, or is, an ideal example of what we should turn into. And I guess I reacted to nice, rounded, good-sounding platitudes and rhyming punjabi poetry phrases, using which the columnist appeared to highlight how wonderful the west was, and how we were responsible for every wrong that existed. And I felt that was an exaggeration of the facts.
The US, as a foreign occupation force, tortures indigenous Iraqis in secret prisons like Abu Ghraib, while we are chronically abusive to our own people, not just in thaanas, but at courts, govt offices and such. I don’t know what is worse, and that contest probably isn’t relevant either. Both are wrong, and need to change. We need to focus on our own problems rather than point fingers at the US and what, where, and how they messed up. Because wherever they messed up, is their problem because it’d effect them, not us. However, when they try to mess our stuff up, for example, by selecting widely unpopular leaders and by their approval targetting parts of our sovereign nation with missile strikes, we need to muster up the courage to tell them this is wrong.
Pointing out the wrongs they do to us and asking them to stop, doesn’t equate to pointing fingers at their personal problems, atleast to me. We definitely need to start dealing with our problems in a civilized, dignified manner, and a part of that consists of standing up when we’re wronged.
I can’t disaree to the views of Hassan Nisar … Infact, makes me think seriously… The issue is glaringly obvious.. and the solution is rather simple – but would seem complex due to our current state of affairs individually and collectively. Nisar has given ample hints to that as well.
Thanks to Adil for putting up this thought provoking clip and thanks to Shiraz as well for helping me with the remaining clips of the program.
Qasim,
Just mere mentioning of the history of the west and how uncivilized they were wouldn’t change a damn thing. Our own history is pretty colorful when it comes to human rights or war crimes. I can give you several examples of that.
As far as Abu-Gharaib prison incident is concerned, what is it that happened at Abu-Gharaib that does not go on in our rural “thanas” every single day? I have heard stories about the treatment of people in Pakistani police stations that will make Abu-Gharaib look like a country club. Let’s not even mention the private prisons here.
Civilization does not eliminate crime, it only provides for a free and fair justice system that holds the culprit accountable. We are still missing that basic ingredient.
Well said, Sir.
I just sent a link to this to a bunch of friends. This is what we should all be thinking about.
Bravo.
We need more Cassandras who dare to speak out the truth. People like him and like Adil Najam and others make us proud and are the conscience of the nation.
Seems like an interesting person, he raises some good points. He also raises neat sounding platitudes and anecdotes, all of which aren’t true though.
To say that the west is “civilized”, while we historically always been a bunch of idiots injecting our goats with water and killing each other isn’t true. It would be a half-truth to highlight the instances where bad stuff happened, because it would skew the overall picture being painted of earlier eras. Factually, there’s a flip side not mentioned in the video, in which there was a time when 1/3rd the population of Europe was wiped out from plague because of deplorable hygene(kitchens and bathrooms weren’t seperated in cramped European cities that era, very healthy and ‘civilized’ indeed), then they were declaring random people to be witches and burning them by the thousands, and then burning Muslims and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. And Muslim cities were centres of civilized learning back then. These facts paint a different picture of that era, skewed the other way. When you add both sides, you get to see the whole picture.
He says that we shouldn’t blame the west for what it’s doing because when ‘we’ were in our better days, we used to do the same stuff. But we didn’t have Abu Ghraibs and Guantanamo bay secret prisons, or continue to use stuff like napalm that burns people’s skin right down to their bones, like the US did in Falluja, or how Israel did in Gaza, with the US supplying the stuff and turning a blind eye. Neither did we support and fun dictators all over the world.
I’d take his meaning to be that rather than blaming the west, we should try to do something to improve our stuff. And that’s true. And one of the things we need to do, is to decrease the influence the west holds on us, and think for ourselves. Our corrupt leaders that he blames us for appointing, weren’t appointed by us. They’re only there because the US appointed them, they’re widely unpopular locally, and such leaders have in our history, lasted only until the US didn’t need them anymore. Blaming others for what happens to us removes any responsibility we might feel for improving our situation. On the other hand, feeling guilty and blaming ourselves for everything all the time can make us treat all the symptoms without fixing the core problems.
My point is that if my neighbor keeps lobbing bricks breaking the windows of my house, the solution wouldn’t be to blame myself for the broken windows, because I’m not efficient enough to constantly get them fixed. The solution would be to ask your neighbor why they did that, and tell them to stop. By supporting unpopular leaders who mess everything up, the US is breaking our stuff. It’s not that we’re the only society from which people like Zardari arise. There’s plenty of crackpots in every society. Our crackpots just get entrusted with responsibility they can’t handle, because that serves the US. And we should do something about that.
In Greek mythology, Cassandra is someone who tells the bitter truth or bad news but no one believes her. Along with a few others like Pervez Hoodbhoy, Hasan Nisar fulfills the role of a Cassandra in Pakistan. If we accept everything he says, we’d all be very depressed. But we do need to pay attention to him, and others like him.