The New York Time video report ‘Tuning Out the Taliban’ after its release started a new debate in the Pakistani literary corner. Are we living in denial? Is Taliban not Pakistan’s enemy number # 1? Are the newcons trying to de Islamize Pakistan? Has Ali Azmat gone nuts? These are few of the many questions that we all ask ourselves in the current situation. But one apparent trend that can easily be spotted among these pseudo intellectual debates, is the thirst for change in our masses especially in the thinking young generation. The generation before us gave us the legacy of nothingness. The oldies were married to their traditions; they made no significant change in their time and the mess that we live in today is the gift of their laziness and pseudo-traditional-religious bull crap.

But wait, if the new generation hates all that then why people like Zaid Hamid are attracting these young minds. Why the man in the red cap who is the Wikipedia of “Islamic historic achievements” and the google of conspiracy plans (cooked by the Zionists against the great Muslims) is getting popular among the masses with his rhetoric narrations. One theory states, that for every nation that wants to evolve from the ruins should be reminded of the very foundation the nation stands on. Therefore the young minds should be reminded repeatedly of Islam’s past achievements and traditional enemies. Even for a second if we approve the mentioned theory, even then Zaid Hamid’s rhetoric’s falls flat. Because we can’t hide the fact that Islamic history despite its achievements had a brutal not so pleasant past. One big example is the assassination of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) grandson in the hands of men who claimed to be Muslims, that one incident created a rift that resulted in the number of sects the religion has today. But was this predicament ever address by Zaid Hamid or any religious cleric or critic for that matter?

This negligence resulted in another apologist point of view that allowed an individual (who claimed to be religiously righteous, wore a long beard and pointed every apposing entity haram or biddat) to be supreme even if that person committed great crimes including the killing of innocent lives. One historic example is Mughal King Aurangzeb who put his father behind the bars, and killed all his brothers just to be on throne. Aurangzeb just because of his apparent religious inclination is considered to be righteous and humble. The same apologist theory was preached during Zia regime in Pakistan and the American aided Afghan war was labeled Jehad. The same apologist theory today is endorsed by people who believe that a Muslim cant carry out a suicide attack and in other words these terrorists are not Muslims neither Taliban. It’s a big black (water) American/Zionist conspiracy. If you ask me today how many people in Pakistan support Taliban; my answer would be 1 out of every fourth individual is a Taliban supporter one way or the other. Reason, pointing fingers is easier then solving the mess in your backyard.

We are desperately in need of a practical leader who will be an example and lead us out of this mess. Yes Islam had a glorious past but the inglorious part of Islam which was never addressed in the past has now become the ugly part of our everyday life. We find justifications for Taliban if they blow up girl schools or conduct a suicide attack in Peshawar every day. People like Zaid Hamid or Israr Ahmed never in their own lives did anything practical that changed the lives of others for good.

If we look up the recent history:

I would like to play the role that Zaid Hamid plays in his programs but instead I will look up the history that actually matters today, and not the one that can only make me feel good.

In January 1996, two Stanford University PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed the minds of every internet user with their research project which they named “Google”. On October 23, 2001 Apple Computers publicly announced their portable music digital player the iPod, which for every one surprise changed the life style of millions and expectations of an average user from electronic gadgets. YouTube (an online video sharing and viewing community) was named Time Magazines Invention of the year in 2006, nobody at that time knew that one website will completely revolutionized the preferences of tele viewer in the coming days.

These are the few inventions that made it big among the masses in the past 10 years. Ten years is a long period to decide the future trend and historical influences that led to these inventions. All the mentioned achievements came out of west, by individuals who spend their lives in a modern environment and getting education from the west, where religion played little or no role. In contrast we gave the world Al Qaeda and Taliban. Moon sighting is still an issue in our country. When these religious sheriffs cant solve a simple issue, why should we allow them to decide the fate of our lives?

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