Adil Najam
Pakistan is a land of creative cell-phone ringtones. Sometimes, I feel, a little too creative.
You are sitting in a meeting with some very self-important and staid people – officials, businessmen, buzurg grandfather types – and one of their cell-phone rings: and the ring-tone is a computer synthesis of “Sanou Nehr Waaley Pul Tey Bulla Kay” or “Nawa Aaya Aye Soonia.”
Even though the first is one of my favorite Noor Jahan songs and the second my all-time favorite movie, my head spins and I wonders if in a society where everyone is always so proper and so cognizant of “loug kiya sochaiN gay” (what will people think?), cell-phone ringtones are like catharsis. One of the things that lets people show that little bit of their “fun side” that they were otherwise suppressing. Kind of like the otherwise all-too-serious professor in the US coming to class wearing a Mickey Mouse tie (I actually own more than one of those).
Yet, it seems that the vigilantism of the piety police that is the extremist fringe in Pakistan wants to even snatch (literally) this little pleasure from us.
Here is a small news item in the Daily Times (January 18):
Militants snatch computers from ringtone shops
LANDI KOTAL: Local Taliban militants snatched computers from ringtone shops in the main Landi Kotal Bazaar on Thursday, sources said. Earlier, they added, the militants had warned them to stop downloading ringtones onto mobiles, terming it an “un-Islamic†practice. Around 10 armed Taliban came to the bazaar and took away computers from ringtone shops at around 5pm.
Whatever else you do, folks, please do not try to answer the question in the headline. It is rhetorical. Frankly, I have very little interest in what anyone, least of all some militants, have to say about this and I am sure that God has far more important things to deal with right now than how my cell phone rings.
I have chosen to write about this question because I think there are two types of people who do take things like this seriously. So serious are they in their beliefs that they are even willing to condone violence in the name of those beliefs. I am afraid of what the fanaticism of these two extreme groups can lead to, especially in Pakistan.
One type are the puritanical extremists within Islam who think that they and they alone have a monopoly on piety and theirs and only their view is right and who are willing – even eager – to impose, even violently, their view on all others. The Taliban, of whatever ilk, are one such group. The second type are those who obsess about things that are supposedly wrong with Islam and who love to believe such nonsense because it reinforces their existing prejudices. Who are prone to taking such actions by the extremists and then project it as if all Muslims are like this. This set of people are often equally extreme in their beliefs.
Luckily, neither is a majority. Unfortunately, the ranks of both are swelling. Oddly, but not surprisingly, these two extreme types have much – too much – in common; including the monopoly they think they hold over the truth.
Sadly, but also not surprisingly, these two groups are probably the biggest threat to Islam and Muslims today, including and especially in Pakistan. Even though I fear their impact and influence in Pakistan and on Pakistan, I – like most Pakistanis I know – reject the message of both these extreme groups. I prefer, instead, to listen to cell-phone ringtones that go “Sanou Nehr Waaley Pul Tey Bulla Kay” or “Nawa Aaya Aye Soonia.”
This question is way too complicated for such a superfluous discussion. Question is : WHO DECIDES WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG?
Neither the Talibanis nor the so called “Moderate Secularists” can decide this. What is wrong and what is right is decided by an absolute authority, which we have in the form of a book.
So if that book says music is ‘haram’, IT IS HARAM, no matter what your ‘western common sense’ may say. Tomorrow you will say eating pork makes sense if pigs are bred in a clean way. After all westerners are healthy and intelligent after eating pork, so a ‘moderate muslim’ can also eat pork. WRONG. It is clear that you go to hell if you eat pork, there is no ambiguity or scope of argument.
In fact our book leaves no need for arguments. Mr Adil declares Talibanis to be the villains, showing his own prejudices. IF TALIBANIS ARE ACTING IN COGNIZANCE OF THE WRITTEN WORD, NOT ONLY THEY ARE RIGHT, THEY ARE DOING YOU A FAVOR BY ENFORCING THE RIGHEOUSNESS.
Sometimes, I feel the cell-phone ringtone playing the one-liner songs a little too much
so whats ur solution Adil Sahab? Doesnt take much to point at symptoms, and that too quite vaguely. U know, in Saudi Arabia, last month, the Ulema were discussing whether to disallow (as a recommendation, not by force) quranic verses (and not melodies) as ringtone since ppl usually dont hear the full verses before attending their calls and that changes meaning at times. I find a very good intention in that.
As for melodious ringtones, im sure these garam khopris were provoked at their masjids when during prayers, someone’s cell fone was singing ‘dola ray dola ray dola ray’, that happens in Haram too.
so baraye mehrbaani, masaajid main daakhil honay say pehlay apnay mobile atleat silent kardain warna garam khopris ka saamna kudh keejiye….
An important element that is contributing to confusion in the society is the lack of understanding between what truly falls under the teachings of ‘Islam’ and what falls under the norms of ‘culture’.
I wouldn’t be surprised that someone will come up with a Fatwa that commenting on ATP is un-islamic since the language used is that of non-muslims. Remember….its the same people who declared Azaan on the loudspeaker Haram when it first started.
I will take Adil’s headline seriously and this question as he says is not even worth answering.
But as he points out what is important is that these people are bringing their reign of terror and intimidation to our country, they are killing Pakistanis, they are blowing up bombs, they are highjacking the religion, and they themselves say that they have no interest or allegince to the COUNTRY at all.
What makes this scary is that we have a government that has no legitimacy at all and as political chaos spreads the sway of these terrorists and extremisst will rise. I really worry that the situation is very similar to what was in Afghanistan. The Taliban were able to gain control not because ordinary people liked their version of the religion but because people had lost hope on everything else and everyone else because teh chaos was so so bad. When I read of people starting to defend the actions of the extremists, even if only a few people, I am worried that we may be reaching similar situation in Pakistan. I hope not.