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2 COMMENT Rocking to the sound of guns
(and roses) By Mark LeVine
became clear in several days of
lectures and meetings at Islamabad's International
Islamic University. I arrived expecting to find a
bastion of Sunni conservatism, but instead found
it filled with intellectually curious students and
faculty intent on synthesizing the best of the
Islamic and Western intellectual traditions.
In one meeting, a group of PhD students of
comparative religion
described their mandatory
courses in Hebrew and offered detailed comparisons
between American Christian and Pakistani Muslim
fundamentalisms. As I've found with younger
members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the
students were anxious to move beyond the closed
and violent vision of the Taliban and toward a
more tolerant and open Islam. The dean of the
faculty of Islamic law described plans to expand
the offerings of "secular" courses, while my host,
the chair of history, expanded on his eclectic
pedagogical philosophy.
But the professors
were also uneasy; as one complained, I might risk
losing my job for speaking my mind, but he risked
disappearing at the hands of the US-allied
intelligence services if he spoke out too strongly
against the corrupt elite.
Students and
faculty agreed that it was going to take a lot of
time to bring about the kind of large changes that
many believe are necessary to avoid political and
social disintegration. The question on many
people's minds, however, is whether Pakistan has
enough time to achieve a transformation that goes
against the interests of so many forces in society
before disaster strikes. One thing is for sure,
hardly anyone expects the United States to play a
positive role here. One student argued, "The US
preaches democracy and secularism, but you have a
fundamentalist government that supports the
undemocratic Musharraf regime. What are we
supposed to think?"
While Musharraf's
recent attacks on lawyers and opposition figures
point to the autocratic nature of his regime, not
all the news is bad. Pakistan's news media are
generally freer than their counterparts in Egypt
or Jordan. An information-technology-driven middle
class is emerging that is drawing into Pakistan
the kind of tech services and call-center jobs
that have helped drive economic growth in India.
And Pakistan's artists have experienced
unprecedented freedom and even government support
under Musharraf, a far cry from the more or less
open contempt in which previous regimes held them.
Almost a dozen music-video channels beam a
constant supply of the country's powerful and
eclectic pop music, far superior to the formulaic
Bollywood music of Pakistan's much larger neighbor
India, into the country's homes. While largely
unknown outside the subcontinent, it's far more
popular than the country's conservative religious
establishment (Islamist parties polled around 20%
in the 2002 legislative elections). The head of
newly established MTV Pakistan, Wiqar Khan, was
raised in England by a father who is the imam of
one of London's most important mosques. Like most
of the musicians I've met, he sees no problem
blending together the best of South Asian Islam
and English heavy metal, as long as the intentions
are pure on both sides.
Running the gamut
from hedonistic rock bands such as Karavan and
Akash to more spiritually grounded artists such as
Mekaal Hasan, Faraz Anwar, Ali Roooh and the
supergroup Junoon, Pakistani rock 'n' roll
symbolizes the potential of Pakistan to return to
its historic roots as a bastion of tolerance and
artistic and intellectual creativity.
But
at this crucial moment in the country's history,
most artists are hesitant to step into the fray.
One of the country's biggest stars told me, "If we
were to protest and hold rallies for a return to
democracy, the last thing we would want is to go
back to the bad old days of [former prime
ministers] Nawaz Sherif and Benazir Bhutto. And
the other alternative is the mullahs." With few
good option, he prefers to "sit on the sidelines
and see how things develop".
The West,
however, doesn't have this option. And in reality
neither do most Pakistanis. The disastrous
repercussions of a disintegrating Pakistan are
almost too frightening to contemplate. Iraq pales
in comparison. Yet the policies of Bush, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and their European
allies are pushing the country toward precisely
such an outcome.
Someone had better sound
the alarm before it's too late.
Mark
LeVine is professor of modern Middle Eastern
history, culture and Islamic studies, University
of California-Irvine, and author of Why They
Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of
Evil (Oneworld, 2005).
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