The religious beliefs (related to Islam) mentioned below are not necessarily writers personal religious beliefs.
Junaid Jamshed, former member of the music group Vital Signs.
Junaid Jamshed after joining an Islamic group.
Why Zaid Hamid is popular among the youth of Pakistan and what is actually deriving his success? Is he giving a different message that is unprecedented in nature or is he using a different strategy to communicate the same old conspiracy theories?
The analysis below will help us figure out the reasons why his theories are successful amongst the Pakistani population and whether if there is any difference between his propositions and those of the religious traditionalists i.e. the Maulvis. An illustration given below will demonstrate this:
Let’s take a look at the hypothetical scenarios and analyse these examples:
Imran is an elite middle class boy who, having completed his A levels from a posh private English medium school in Pakistan, now studies in a top notch university in Lahore. He regularly parties with his mates and goes to watch Indian and Hollywood movies with fervour, driving fancy cars (he has a collection, including a new Honda Civic). His parents are religiously and culturally inclined and encourage him to pay more attention towards religion and traditions. They are inwardly extremely proud of their child and fulfil all his whims and fancies. Imran, an obedient child, is forced to reconsider his lifestyle and finds he faces two choices…
In another scenario, Mariam, a girl from the same background loves to partake in night time entertainment with her friends, including eating out and watching movies, and her favourite past time is getting clothes tailored in the latest fashion, and applying an assortment of makeup. Her parents are worried about Mariam finding a suitable suitor and wish her to become more eastern in her manners and more religious. As the age for marriage approaches, Mariam is forced to reconsider her way of life. She finds she faces two choices s well…
The first choice for both these youngsters is to join a Zaid Hamid group, which is ostensibly silent on various religious aspects (such as ban on music, or wearing a headscarf) or to join the old school traditionalists such as Farhat Hashmi (in Mariam’s case), or Maulana Tariq Jameel, Israr Ahmed, or other such religious preachers. The Traditionalist path requires strict adherence to the principles of Islam such as complete and strict pardah (Hijab) for women, Music is absolutely haram (forbidden), gender segregated gatherings, prayers 5 times a day and excessive love of jihad.
Mariam considers these options carefully… she thinks about it… if she were to follow the traditional path, she would have to first of all change her dressing style. That would mean shrouding herself in a burqa and forgetting about the juicy designer wear she so loves. Secondly, she thinks, if she were to cover her face as required by these preachers, it would be useless to apply any makeup as everything would be hidden behind her headscarf and veil! What about all the compliments she always received on being the best dressed of all, and having the nicest hairdo and following the latest makeup trends? In addition she is also required to strictly pray 5 times a day and have no interactions with men- be they cousins or any other friends.
She next considers joining Zaid Hamid… hmmm…what would she have to give up? She muses over her checklist: clothes- no compromise (she doesn’t need to hide behind some veil), parties- no compromise, music- also no compromise, makeup- definitely no compromise. What is she required to do then?
She discovers much to a pleasant surprise that she just has to excessively love Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal -which most of the Pakistanis already do anyway since this has been taught to us from the day we started going to school- and to carry some beliefs in her heart – to hate India, Israel and America and hold only them responsible for the disastrous state of our country and to firmly believe that our army is sacred and that the Prophet (PBUH) has prophesised for it to eventually conquer and rule India (Ghazwa-e-hind).
Similarly for Imran, the thought of giving up fun parties at his friend’s places, supporting a beard, praying five times daily, and excluding women from his social life (even social events are segregated), and to give up listening to his favourite singer, Bryan Adams, was too much of a sacrifice…
So he too ponders over the alternative- the easier option: though this Zaid Hamid group also glorifies Jihad and propagates immense hatred against Jews, Indians and Americans, it does not ostensibly share the orthodox views of the traditionalists (such as hijab, Music ban, sex segregation).
In other words, by joining Zaid’s group both Imran and Mariam do not have to compromise on their sophisticated pleasures
Let’s take a look at some of these images which reveal to us the appeal for youth today that each of these groups carry, which will in turn reveal to us why Zaid Hamid’s group would have precedence in the mind of a youngster:
This picture of Junaid Jamshed gives a glimpse of the changes that he adapted to, having followed the footsteps of traditionalist Tariq JameeL (head of TJ).
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(Submitted by reader)