Is Pakistan headed towards Zia's era of Islamization by making Rehmatul-lil-Alamin Authority(NRA)?

[Major]

On 11th of October 2021, Imran Khan had announced to form a National Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority (NRA).

Now What is NRA and its purpose?

The purpose of authority is to teach the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to the children and adults and to bring it in their lives.

The authority will monitor the curriculum being taught at schools and organise research in universities regarding the true message of Islam in the light of the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The need to undertake research on Muslim heroes.

Cartoon series will be made to introduce Islamic culture to our children. He said Islam has its own cultural values that need to be taught to our children to protect them from evils like sex crimes.

Authority will also remain vigilant of any blasphemous content being shared on the media and to portray the real picture of Islam.

There will be an advisory board on it all over the world, for which we have also made contacts in the world. Under it there will be a Rahmat-lil-Alameen Board and the authority will explain Islam and Seeratun Nabi to the whole world.

The prime minister emphasized that it would be the job of a scholar to review the curriculum in schools and at the same time other religions will also be taught and would like him to be fully aware and there would also be research in the university.

Now What is the issue?

The issue is the profile of the members of this authority and its head.

Dr. Ejaz Akram has been appointed as the chairman. For those of you who are not aware of Dr. Ejaz Akram, he has posted articles where he dislikes democratic vales. He hates the idea of republic, nationalism, capitalism, feminisms, absolute freedom of speech.

He also believes that the military's is the only one that could clean Pakistan up. There needs to be high number of military's tentacles in our everyday lives with intelligence agencies providing info.

He also believes Pakistan should pursue and claim Junagadh and West Bengal from India, he also believes that Pakistan is a victim of international conspiracy that is hatched by global Zionism.

Our NRA head Ejaz saab is also a conspiracy theorist who believes 9/11 was fake. Coronavirus is a conspiracy since its kills less people than ordinary flu.

He also has issues with the direction of Kabah that Pakistan prays in.



So where do you think Pakistan is headed now?

 

[Major]

Here is an opinion article by Zahid Hussain published in dawn today

Resetting the system?

THE move speaks volumes about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s politics of religiosity. The man he has chosen to head the newly established National Rehmatul-lil-Aalameen Authority (NRA), as part of his effort to build a ‘Riyasat-i-Madina’, does not appear to believe in democracy, and instead, wants to prop up the “elite of the elite” to run the affairs of the state. His views about regional and global politics too are extremely bizarre.

Last month, the president through an ordinance established the NRA with the prime minister as its patron-in-chief. This body is mandated to work towards making the “dream of a just and welfare state a reality”. Besides sponsoring research on the Prophet’s (PBUH) teachings, the NRA is also to monitor the country’s education system and the media to see whether they are conforming to Islamic values. One of its tasks is to work for “the character-building” of youth.

Such a sweeping mandate for the authority raises several questions about its objectives. The very fact that it is established through an ordinance and not an act of parliament makes the body questionable. A brainchild of the prime minister, it seems to be an extension of Gen Zia’s legacy of using religiosity to achieve political objectives. The appointment of Dr Ejaz Akram with his highly controversial views supporting authoritarianism reinforces worries on this count.

Read more: What should Imran Khan do?


Among the members of the authority are also some highly respected scholars like Seyyed Hossein Nasr. He is an Iranian philosopher and professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. Given his scholarship, it’s highly doubtful that he would share the retrogressive ideas espoused by the chairman of the authority.

One wonders where are we heading with the kind of worldview espoused by Dr Ejaz Akram.

Dr Akram’s obvious contempt for democratic values and enlightenment is evident in his writings and speeches. In his article published in Global Village Space he said, “…the idea of a republic, nationalism, capitalism, feminism, absolute freedom of speech, are all false consciousness that must be abandoned for things that work for us”.

Calling Pakistan’s political leadership “coward, stupid, and sold out for many decades”, he says that the “only hope this country has now is if the whole principle and structure of governance is completely dismantled”. He wants the creation of a new system of governance led by an elite “that have an upright character and espouse a much deeper understanding of ideologies, religions, civilisations, and principles of statecraft”.

According to him “a few hundred good people should replace the rule of a few hundred bad people”. Surely this view is not very different from those espoused by fascists.

His liking for military rule is evident in his writings. He believes that only the military can clean up the “mess”. “A deeply infested and infiltrated country mired by mafia rule cannot be cleaned up without the help of intelligence agencies, the best of whom are under military control,” he says in his article titled ‘The Global Reset: What Should Pakistan Do?’ “The institutions of the military should help the state to expand its arteries and tentacles deep inside the society by a greater level of civil society-military cooperation”.

He, however, laments that the “military continues to believe in the supremacy of civilian rule (Bajwa Doctrine), therefore one cannot help but think that our military knowingly or unknowingly supports the rule of corrupt people and is guilty of propping up the kakistos while keeping down the aristos”.

Earlier, he had called upon Pakistan to pursue an ‘expansionist policy’ and claim some parts of India including Junagadh and West Bengal that he believes should have been given to Pakistan. He is of the view that Pakistan has been the victim of international conspiracies being hatched by India and the ‘forces of global Zionism’. He has also accused some rights groups and regional nationalist parties of being funded by foreign powers.

He seems to support conspiracy theories defining global politics — for instance, 9/11 was a false flag operation by the US. In his article in Global Village Space, he is of the opinion that “the global politics of coronavirus is fraudulent. Since its kill rate is less than the ordinary flu, closing down the world economy cannot be justified”.

Dr Akram often stresses on correcting the ‘direction of Qibla’. It reminds us of Gen Zia’s rhetoric when he imposed retrogressive laws in the name of faith. The country has never been the same with the rise of faith-based extremism. Now we are hearing the same narrative from a person who would be heading a body that is mandated to work for Imran Khan’s vision of turning Pakistan into a ‘Riyasat-i-Madina’. “To use our local logic, the state should shift their qibla towards Sirat al Mustaqim, a straight path that doesn’t suffer from the convolutions of the current path of disaster that we are comfortably treading,” he said in his article. One wonders where are we heading with this kind of worldview.

It’s not very surprising that Imran Khan has appointed a person like Dr Akram to head the NRA that is supposed to determine the ideological direction of this country. On various occasions, the prime minister has aired the same views. What is most worrisome is the monitoring of education and the media.

Given the chairman’s controversial and retrogressive narrative about state and society, one must raise serious concerns about the possibility of further restrictions on the freedom of expression under the cover of Islam. The PTI government has already done huge damage to education by introducing the Single National Curriculum. The so-called uniform system appears to have reinforced a closed mindset and has nothing to do with the requirements of a modern education system. Additional measures to ‘Islamise’ the system could lead to a further decline in educational standards.

Most worrisome is the move to undermine the democratic process in the country and encourage authoritarianism under cover of resetting the system. It is extremely dangerous for the country. More troubling is that it is all being done in the name of faith. Imran Khan’s vision of ‘Riyasat-i-Madina’ is in fact an effort to further Gen Zia’s obscurantist legacy. It is a great leap backward.

The writer is the author of No-Win War — The Paradox of US-Pakistan Relations in Afghanistan’s Shadow.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

Twitter: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2021

 

[JaDed]

Aren’t Pakistanis already religious? Confused about what’s the point of this?

 

[Major]

Aren’t Pakistanis already religious? Confused about what’s the point of this?

ever since the PM himself became religious, he believes society needs religion to stop corruption and be morally fit.

 

[transparent opacity]

I don' think there's anything wrong with establishing a body that will undertake above mentioned tasks, however, the point you raised about the head of the body is a serious cause for concern.

 

[ElRaja]

pakistani politics is obsessed with the idea of overnight revolutions and magic cure alls. this sounds like the same in a slightly different packaging.

from a real politik pov however the committee may serve to legetimise justification for greater creep on civil liberties in the name of religion, after all who in their right mind will challenge a committee given that name.

the charter of madina was the written agreement of various tribes submission to a unitary leader in civil and military matters, it has nothing to do with democracy, so in that much at least IK is being consistent.

 

[PakLFC]

We never left Zia's era in the first place. That crazy Mullah and blasphemy obsessed culture he introduced is still alive and kicking.

 

[Local.Dada]

Is this a new phenomenon? I remember watching a clip of Pakistan match on YouTube and in the presentation ceremony the man of the match player (might have been Majid Khan) was looking very cool and spoke really well.

Today it looks like everyone almost starts off and ends their speech from the verses of the holy book.

It’s weird though, you see guys in trendy hairstyles and clothes speak the same way as guys wearing kurtas and growing a foot long beard.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

The true basics Islamic philosophy that I would like them to teach the kids is,

1 -The lessons learned from the life of our prophet (saw) is to practice patience, control anger, be forgiving, be generous, and have good manners of speech and maintain excellent etiquettes.

2 - Living the life of honesty in our day to day work is a bigger sunnah than having a long beard, a green/white/black pagri on the head with raised shalwar above the ankles and a miswaak sticking out of your pockets. You don't have to worry about all that if you are honest in your daily life, your work/job responsibility, and in dealing with others, and you are earning halal rizq.

3 - An entity that claims to be an Ashiq-e-rasool (saw) MUST be free of any defect. And that entity is only Allah.
A human is not qualified to verbally boast about being an Ashiq-e-rasool (saw). We can't even regularly pray five times a daily salah on time for a month.
ALL of us have done sins, do sins and will continue to do sins (whether intentionally or unintentionally), how can we claim to be an Ashiq-e-rasool (saw)?
Our tongues are not qualified to speak his (saw) name, how can we thump our chests for being Ashiqs?

Allah loves the prophet (saw), and created this entire universe for him (saw).
What have YOU done in the love of prophet (saw)??

We must be meek and docile in this matter. And if anyone wants to prove that he is an Ashiq-e-rasool (saw), then he must practice what's mentioned above in item 1, pray five times a day, give full zakat and pay full taxes and become a law abiding citizen - all in the name of Ishq-e-rasool (saw).

5 - And if someone really wants to burn cars and damage public property, he should start by burning his own car/motorcycle, and damage his own home in the name of Ishq-e-rasool(saw). No need to burn someone else's car or damage someone else's property. Burn your own, and we will see what kinda love do you have for the prophet (saw).

6 - And any Mullah who encourages violence in the name of namoos-e-risawlat (saw) should be brought under the weight of law.

In Quran9 4:4, Allah said, WARA FANA LAKA ZIKRAK "and We raised high your name".

This is IT!


Allah has taken the responsibility of namoos. If anyone draws cartoons or whatever, Allah will take care of him. You as the Ashiq of the prophet (saw), need to follow the sunnah of practicing patience as we can see from the example of Taif.

You can pray two Naffal and pray dua and send darood, but it's ABSOLUTELY AGAINST the teaching of Islam to get violent in this matter. This is a test of your patience, if you can't pass it, you ain't no Ashiq.

-----------------------------
If we can teach the above to our new generation and they start acting on it, we will have hope.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Aren’t Pakistanis already religious? Confused about what’s the point of this?

We have an entire army of unleashed Mullahs who have gotten a big chunk of our public, astray from the true Islamic guidance as to how to live our lives.

We must teach, remind and retrain our public as to what the true Islamic guidance of living your day to day life is?

These political Mullahs who instigate violence must be brought under the weight of law.

Even in Saudi, the Islamic sermons and lectures are fully mandated, and hence they don't have crazy and fanatic public as we have gotten ours in Pakistan.

There is absolutely no control in Pakistan on any Mullah from preaching whatever he wants to preach and brain wash the public with twisted Islamic doctrine. And this MUST be stopped.

 

[Local.Dada]

We must teach, remind and retrain our public as to what the true Islamic guidance of living your day to day life is?

.

Keeping Islam aside for a second, isn’t that what is expected from parents of any religion teaching their kids?

Teaching Good cultural values, religious values (regardless of religion), morals, virtues etc is not a new innovation or exclusive to Islam

You would have had a point if every Pakistani is radicalized and is picking arms. Most common folk seem to be regular folk just like any other country.

This has nothing to do with the culture or education, the problem lies with the confused stance of your government.

Pakistan stance is confusing. It wants to be modern and have industries, technology, entertainment industries but have them regulated with religious tenets. It’s a weird concoction.

The only way forward for Pakistan is to keep church and state different. However Pakistanis from what I hear and read feel that would undermine Islam for some strange reason. You can practice Islam and still follow the rules of the land without conflict.

 

[Napa]

On 11th of October 2021, Imran Khan had announced to form a National Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority (NRA).

Now What is NRA and its purpose?




Now What is the issue?

The issue is the profile of the members of this authority and its head.

Dr. Ejaz Akram has been appointed as the chairman. For those of you who are not aware of Dr. Ejaz Akram, he has posted articles where he dislikes democratic vales. He hates the idea of republic, nationalism, capitalism, feminisms, absolute freedom of speech.

He also believes that the military's is the only one that could clean Pakistan up. There needs to be high number of military's tentacles in our everyday lives with intelligence agencies providing info.

He also believes Pakistan should pursue and claim Junagadh and West Bengal from India, he also believes that Pakistan is a victim of international conspiracy that is hatched by global Zionism.

Our NRA head Ejaz saab is also a conspiracy theorist who believes 9/11 was fake. Coronavirus is a conspiracy since its kills less people than ordinary flu.

He also has issues with the direction of Kabah that Pakistan prays in.

So where do you think Pakistan is headed now?

This is only to be expected from IK. What is the problem that Pakistan needs to urgently solve? It is this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Total foreign debt of over 115 billion USD. Constant estimated current account deficit of say at the USD 5 to 8 billion. When we will be able to pay that debt ? It is better to recognise the reality then living in illusion. We need to have a reality check.</p>— SyedShabbarZaidi (@SShabbarZaidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SShabbarZaidi/status/1471390196998586368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

IK has not been able to develop modern export industries or reduce the current account deficit. The result is a constantly depreciating currency which in turn causes domestic inflation and hardship for the middle and lower classes.

Not being able to make progress on the economic front, IK realizes his re-election depends upon an appeal to religion and support from the Army. This move is directed towards both.

 

[LaLoco]

This is only to be expected from IK. What is the problem that Pakistan needs to urgently solve? It is this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Total foreign debt of over 115 billion USD. Constant estimated current account deficit of say at the USD 5 to 8 billion. When we will be able to pay that debt ? It is better to recognise the reality then living in illusion. We need to have a reality check.</p>— SyedShabbarZaidi (@SShabbarZaidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SShabbarZaidi/status/1471390196998586368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

IK has not been able to develop modern export industries or reduce the current account deficit. The result is a constantly depreciating currency which in turn causes domestic inflation and hardship for the middle and lower classes.

Not being able to make progress on the economic front, IK realizes his re-election depends upon an appeal to religion and support from the Army. This move is directed towards both.

There you go with same comment on every thread when it isn't even needed, as if it was already copied and you just pasted it, it is almost as if you are upset because IK did not beg to hold Modi's hand just as NS did when Modi made a stop over in Pakistan.

Pakistan has two issues, economy and religious radicalization at the hand of Mullahs, mostly by those Mullahs who are in for political and monetary gains. Both needs to be addressed, addressing one does not mean the other become less important, just as you attempted to portray in your every comment whenever you see IK's name, lol.

Between, most in Pakistan do not believe in neither NS nor Zardari government will take them out of the current crisis, the difference is, most hoped IK government will get them out of the crisis over night and they are just upset because IK did not have a magic wand that most hoped he had it.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Keeping Islam aside for a second, isn’t that what is expected from parents of any religion teaching their kids?


Teaching Good cultural values, religious values (regardless of religion), morals, virtues etc is not a new innovation or exclusive to Islam

The answer to this is somewhat deeper in philosophy.
In your support, yes, there is a huge common ground of morality among most religions; however, there is a fundamental difference in the Islamic doctrine vs all other faiths.

All the major religions are based on "beliefs" and not necessarily the "works" EXCEPT for Islam.

For example, there is no hell for Jews in the Jewish faith REGARDLESS of how a Jew has lived his life. As long as you are a Jew, you are guaranteed a spot in heaven.

Same goes with Christianity. You are guaranteed a spot in heaven as long as you believe that Jesus is your savior. No stress or focus on the works. You are saved from hell as a Christian as long as you believe in Jesus.

Hinduism, I can't say much since there are gazillions of gods and millions of theologies within the Hindu religion but perhaps a basic gist is, there is no hellfire for Hindus either. As a Hindu, if you have spent a morally bad and criminalized life, you will probably be sent back to earth in the form of a lower animal, and the process is repeated a few times before you get it all fixed and become part of some god by merging into him. Something like, but correct me if I am wrong.

So for example, if Modi did allow, and he is responsible for the killing of thousands of Muslims in Gujrat riots, he won't face any hellfire punishment from Bhagwan or whoever he believes in. That's what his Hinudism faith makes him believe.
Worse come to worse, he will be sent back to earth as a giraffe or monkey or a donkey or something.

Budhism doesn't have a hell or heaven concept either.

Then it comes to Islam.
And it's a totally different ball game.

Islam DEMANDS not only to have the belief but it REQUIRES the followers to support their belief by good works and avoid bad works - AND EVEN THEN, it does not give any guarantee of an awaiting cosmic welcome, and a guaranteed spot reserved for you in heaven. Nope!

Islam DEMANDS from all Muslims to continuously strive to live a peaceful and morally cautious life, and have good hopes but it does not provide any guarantees of heaven.

So in essence, for a Muslim, it's a mandatory requirement by faith to live a morally good life, otherwise, Islam indicates that there will sinful Muslims in hell.

See the difference?
No Christians in the Christian hell.
No Jews in the Jewish hell.
No Hindus in the Hindu hell
BUT, there are potentially Muslims in the Muslim hell.

The Islamic theology is based on both believe and works. DO good, have good hopes. Do bad, get ready for the consequences regardless of your faith.
No other religious doctrine is this fair and just.

You would have had a point if every Pakistani is radicalized and is picking arms. Most common folk seem to be regular folk just like any other country.

Again, how do you look at it, makes the difference.

To your point,
Yes, we may have a very large Muslims population that is not radicalized in a sense that they are not blood thirsty fanatics carrying the arms - YET; they are still totally astray from the true Islamic guidance. You ask me, how?

Does it give you a hint that Pakistan (where a big majority of non-radicalized Muslims live) stands world number 122 on the scale of honesty?

The rampant corruption and dishonesty with one's work responsibilities in Pakistan by the so called "non-radicalized Muslims" is JUST AS BAD as the radicalized fanatics carry arms.
Islamic doctrine severely warns about the consequences of both classifications.


So what do we observe?

First group of Mullahs get the people astray by preaching that the shortcut to Jannah is to grow a long beard, and carry a miswaak and put a pagri and pray extra naffal, and go to Hajj and Umra, and convert rest of the world to Islam etc. This is what Islam their Islam is all about. No focus on good works and honesty in your day to day life. And hence we stand at 122 of the scale of honesty.

Second group of Mullahs preaching to call every other group as non-Muslims, and encouraging the masses to indulge into hate, vengeance and violence against other groups who are against your group. Shia, Sunni, Qadiyani, Gustaakh, Barailvi, Deobandi etc, all have facets that follow this preaching. These Mullahs take the political and personal advance by making these groups pitted against each other. And hence have a minority of astray and blood thirsty religious fanatics.

Both these kinds of Mullahs and their preaching are equally wrong.

There are only an extremely few good Islamic scholars left in Pakistan.

So no, it's not the confusion in the stance of the govt. Its our army of corrupt and jahiI mullahs who have preached the wrong message of Islam to the masses.

This has nothing to do with the culture or education, the problem lies with the confused stance of your government.

Read above.
Nothing to do with govt's stance.
It's the priorates in the Islamic guidance that we have gotten all wrong.

All due to these two groups of JahiI Mullahs.

Pakistan stance is confusing. It wants to be modern and have industries, technology, entertainment industries but have them regulated with religious tenets. It’s a weird concoction.

All of this is quite possible as long as your definition of "entertainment industries" falls within the boundaries.

The only way forward for Pakistan is to keep church and state different. However Pakistanis from what I hear and read feel that would undermine Islam for some strange reason. You can practice Islam and still follow the rules of the land without conflict.

No.
The best way for Pakistan to move forward is these three steps.

1 - Strict and very, very strict control on Population growth. The explosive growth of population is THE root cause of all problems.
2 - Fight and reduce corruption.
3 - Make the Mullahs preach the true essence of Islam.

 

[Napa]

There you go with same comment on every thread when it isn't even needed, as if it was already copied and you just pasted it, it is almost as if you are upset because IK did not beg to hold Modi's hand just as NS did when Modi made a stop over in Pakistan.

I must be Syed Shabbar Zaidi

Something doesn't become false if it is said a few times.

NS didn't beg Modi for anything, he just wanted an rational adult relationship with India where both benefitted from trade and did not harm each other by supporting terrorism.

Pakistan has two issues, economy and religious radicalization at the hand of Mullahs, mostly by those Mullahs who are in for political and monetary gains. Both needs to be addressed, addressing one does not mean the other become less important, just as you attempted to portray in your every comment whenever you see IK's name, lol.

It is illogical to think the NRA is going to curb the mullahs. Given the guy who is heading it, it will rather support their goals. As he said "…the idea of a republic, nationalism, capitalism, feminism, absolute freedom of speech, are all false consciousness that must be abandoned for things that work for us”.

Between, most in Pakistan do not believe in neither NS nor Zardari government will take them out of the current crisis, the difference is, most hoped IK government will get them out of the crisis over night and they are just upset because IK did not have a magic wand that most hoped he had it.

That's the consistent excuse. "IK doesn't have a magic wand, he needs time". After about 4 years some progress should have been apparent. Instead there is even further decline. Western multinationals are reducing whatever little ties they had with Pakistan, and their FDI is almost non-existent. While modern industries take time to develop, no progress is being made, rather things are going backwards.

Pakistan needs a strong and pragmatic leader like Hasina who is responsible for Bangladesh now leaving Pakistan behind economically. Hasina curbed the armed forces and established friendly ties with her largest neighbor India. NS was Pakistan's best hope for a Hasina kind of leader. IK is the opposite, needlessly abuses Modi and let's the armed forces continue their dominance. The economic result of IK's policies is no progress towards the development of modern industries.

 

[Napa]

The answer to this is somewhat deeper in philosophy.
In your support, yes, there is a huge common ground of morality among most religions; however, there is a fundamental difference in the Islamic doctrine vs all other faiths.

All the major religions are based on "beliefs" and not necessarily the "works" EXCEPT for Islam.

When you restrict your knowledge about other religions to biased sources, you should just stick to discussing your own religion and not the religion of others.

For example, there is no hell for Jews in the Jewish faith REGARDLESS of how a Jew has lived his life. As long as you are a Jew, you are guaranteed a spot in heaven.

Wrong. There is hell in Judaism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Hinnom_(Gehenna)#Rabbinical_Judaism

Same goes with Christianity. You are guaranteed a spot in heaven as long as you believe that Jesus is your savior. No stress or focus on the works. You are saved from hell as a Christian as long as you believe in Jesus.

Wrong. There has to be genuine repentance for sins for God's forgiveness. Believing in Jesus implies a certain way to conduct lives.

Hinduism, I can't say much since there are gazillions of gods and millions of theologies within the Hindu religion but perhaps a basic gist is, there is no hellfire for Hindus either. As a Hindu, if you have spent a morally bad and criminalized life, you will probably be sent back to earth in the form of a lower animal, and the process is repeated a few times before you get it all fixed and become part of some god by merging into him. Something like, but correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, you are wrong. No Hindu I know (and I know thousands) believes they will be reincarnated as an animal.

You can make whatever point you are trying to make without bringing in other religions.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

When you restrict your knowledge about other religions to biased sources, you should just stick to discussing your own religion and not the religion of others.



Wrong. There is hell in Judaism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Hinnom_(Gehenna)#Rabbinical_Judaism



Wrong. There has to be genuine repentance for sins for God's forgiveness. Believing in Jesus implies a certain way to conduct lives.



Yes, you are wrong. No Hindu I know (and I know thousands) believes they will be reincarnated as an animal.

You can make whatever point you are trying to make without bringing in other religions.

You know there is a variety of beliefs within all religions and we can discuss it in lengths however, it will probably derail the thread.

If you want to open a new thread to discuss this and explain it better to me, I am more than happy to be convinced. Otherwise, I can bring a few references from a few well known Jewish Rabbis and Christian priests who preach that there is no hell for their faiths as long as you have the belief (and not necessarily the works).

For Hinduism. yes my knowledge is extremely limited and you can explain it lengths but then again, how can you explain Hinduism or Christianity or Judaism to me, when you aren't one yourself?

So lets' leave it at that, and move on.

 

[street cricketer]

The answer to this is somewhat deeper in philosophy.
In your support, yes, there is a huge common ground of morality among most religions; however, there is a fundamental difference in the Islamic doctrine vs all other faiths.

All the major religions are based on "beliefs" and not necessarily the "works" EXCEPT for Islam.

For example, there is no hell for Jews in the Jewish faith REGARDLESS of how a Jew has lived his life. As long as you are a Jew, you are guaranteed a spot in heaven.

Same goes with Christianity. You are guaranteed a spot in heaven as long as you believe that Jesus is your savior. No stress or focus on the works. You are saved from hell as a Christian as long as you believe in Jesus.

Hinduism, I can't say much since there are gazillions of gods and millions of theologies within the Hindu religion but perhaps a basic gist is, there is no hellfire for Hindus either. As a Hindu, if you have spent a morally bad and criminalized life, you will probably be sent back to earth in the form of a lower animal, and the process is repeated a few times before you get it all fixed and become part of some god by merging into him. Something like, but correct me if I am wrong.

So for example, if Modi did allow, and he is responsible for the killing of thousands of Muslims in Gujrat riots, he won't face any hellfire punishment from Bhagwan or whoever he believes in. That's what his Hinudism faith makes him believe.
Worse come to worse, he will be sent back to earth as a giraffe or monkey or a donkey or something.

Budhism doesn't have a hell or heaven concept either.

Then it comes to Islam.
And it's a totally different ball game.

Islam DEMANDS not only to have the belief but it REQUIRES the followers to support their belief by good works and avoid bad works - AND EVEN THEN, it does not give any guarantee of an awaiting cosmic welcome, and a guaranteed spot reserved for you in heaven. Nope!

Islam DEMANDS from all Muslims to continuously strive to live a peaceful and morally cautious life, and have good hopes but it does not provide any guarantees of heaven.

So in essence, for a Muslim, it's a mandatory requirement by faith to live a morally good life, otherwise, Islam indicates that there will sinful Muslims in hell.

See the difference?
No Christians in the Christian hell.
No Jews in the Jewish hell.
No Hindus in the Hindu hell
BUT, there are potentially Muslims in the Muslim hell.

The Islamic theology is based on both believe and works. DO good, have good hopes. Do bad, get ready for the consequences regardless of your faith.
No other religious doctrine is this fair and just.

The issue is, it's not just the crime doers who head off to hell. Also those who reject the faith and those who don't follow it head to hell as well if I'm not wrong. It's the same concept in most religions.

You can murder a baby, and it would still not be a bigger sin than if you left Islam or did idol worship or believed in polytheism, etc. You can see the obvious human element in every religion if you study it long and hard enough - ultimately it's aimed at getting as many followers as it can and stopping from leaving as much as they can.

If I were to start a new faith tomorrow, the first thing I'd do is to try and lure followers from other folds into my fold as there are a lot of competing faiths to my own construct. The first thing I'd say to people is that people who don't believe in my faith head straight off to hell and those who believe in my faith have a pathway to heaven, provided certain conditions of course. The second thing I'd say is that the people who are in my fold but decide to leave it win a straight ticket to hell.

 

[JaDed]

We have an entire army of unleashed Mullahs who have gotten a big chunk of our public, astray from the true Islamic guidance as to how to live our lives.

We must teach, remind and retrain our public as to what the true Islamic guidance of living your day to day life is?

These political Mullahs who instigate violence must be brought under the weight of law.

Even in Saudi, the Islamic sermons and lectures are fully mandated, and hence they don't have crazy and fanatic public as we have gotten ours in Pakistan.

There is absolutely no control in Pakistan on any Mullah from preaching whatever he wants to preach and brain wash the public with twisted Islamic doctrine. And this MUST be stopped.

Thanks, makes sense.