Grøde i Tyrkiet og Pakistan

April måned har set en udvikling i vigtige muslimske lande som Pakistan og Tyrkiet, der synes at bekræfte den forsigtige optimisme på den muslimske verdens vegne, som et stadigt mindre antal borgerlige – såsom undertegnede – stadig holder fast i.

I Tyrkiet demonstrerede op mod 300.000 i Ankara i forrige uge mod islamismen – i form af det siddende regeringpartis præsidentkandidat. Den 29. april tog op med en million tyrkere så på gaden mod islamismen i Istanbul.

Mindre kendt – men mindst ligeså væsentligt – er det, at titusinder af mennekser i Karachi ifølge Reuters og NY Times gik på gaden i protest mod

a radical religious school that has begun a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in the capital, Islamabad.

Ifølge den pakistanske avis Daily Times var demonstration i Karachi ikke enestående:

Citizens’ rights activists organised simultaneous protests in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar to denounce the campaign of vigilantism and intimidation unleashed by the clerics in the heart of Islamabad. The rallies were taken out against the criminal action taken by scores of boys and girls from the seminaries of Hafsa (girls) and Fareedia (men) run by the clerics of Lal Masjid in Islamabad. Armed students went into the house of one Shamim Akhtar and bound her and her daughter and daughter-in-law in ropes and dragged them to the seminary where they were kept for three days while the government in Islamabad wrung its hands and didn’t take any action. The statement of the wronged family is still on the BBC website in which the seminarians also denounce the abducted family as “sinful Shias”.

[…]

The Lahore march was organised by the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) in collaboration with other non-governmental organisations to register the first-ever citizens’ protest against religious extremism. They were joined by minority groups, political workers, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists and students, as well as contingents of the PPP and PMLN women’s wing, as they marched to the Lahore High Court and the Punjab Assembly building on the Mall. The slogans raised condemned clerical blackmail and intimidation and were supported significantly by the Hall Road traders with banners reading: “Stop blackmailing and exploiting traders in the name of Islam,” and “We condemn mullahs’ operation against CD shops”.

[…]

Understandably, the government that has shown no backbone in facing the Lal Masjid clerics came in for criticism by the rallies in the big cities: “We, the people of Pakistan, are not oblivious of this mullah-military alliance. There can be no democracy in Pakistan unless GHQ-backed mullahs stop issuing decrees to exploit people in the name of Islam”. [..]


The procession of protesting men and women that walked up to the Parliament House in Islamabad asked: “Where’s the writ of the state?” In its demonstration of defiance of moral tyranny the rally carried placards saying, “No to religious extremism; yes to life and music” and “Free the children’s library”. Karachi too put up its demonstration of outrage at what was happening in Islamabad. Pakistan’s largest city and economic engine has seen the worst clerical outrages in its history since 2000. It has seen its most respectable citizens done to death and its precious innocent lives lost to suicide-bombing.

Det store antal tyrkere og pakistanere, der aktivt og (hidtil) fredeligt tager afstand fra islamiseringen af deres respektive lande er vel det bedste bevis på, at homo islamicus moderatus, som så mange debattører har efterlyst henholdsvis erklæret for ikke eksisterende, rent faktisk findes og er ved at finde fodfæste i en tid, hvor islamismen ellers spredes og radikaliseres i et skræmmende tempo. Det er samtidig en tiltrængt pind til ligkisten for den deterministiske holdning til Islam, som per definition værende ureformerbar og totalitær. De moderate kræfter i Tyrkiet og Pakistan skal støttes, ikke mødes med selvretfærdige holdninger til den religion, som de insisterer på må tilpasse sig udviklingen af en moderne og demokratisk samfundsmodel.

1 thought on “Grøde i Tyrkiet og Pakistan

  1. US

    1. Tillykke med det nye layout, I er på min google reader nu.2. Enig i at det værste vesten kan gøre er at vende reformivrige muslimer ryggen. Men det gør vi altså alligevel, og det er ikke noget som giver grund til optimisme. Hvordan mon man i Mellemøsten tolker Pelosi’s besøg i Syrien?I øvrigt har jeg lidt svært ved at se et potentielt militærkup i Tyrkiet som noget positivt. Hvis Gul kommer til magten, bliver det næppe “folkelige protester” som får ham sparket på porten.3. Demokrati og islamisme er ikke hinandens modsætninger, tværtimod lader de til at være hinandens forudsætninger mange steder. Det er et stort spørgsmål, om demokrati overhovedet er noget at sigte efter i Mellemøsten, på det korte sigt.

    Svar

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.