by PERVEZ HOODBHOY
Prime Minister Imran Khan says he wants a welfare state like that of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the seventh century. Many Pakistanis want to believe him and in a Riyasat-i-Madina. At a preparatory meeting ahead of the Prophet’s birthday, Khan announced the creation of the Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority (RAA) and appointed himself its patron-in-chief. This organisation, he said, would bring the goal closer.
How RAA will achieve its mission is unclear. What actions can ensure that the Prophet’s message of equality lives in every Muslim’s heart? End Islamophobia in the West? Everyone understands why gas and electricity authorities, or the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), exist. But what can an ‘authority’ named after the Prophet do?
Khan’s answer: once he appoints a religious scholar as head (the search has already begun) the RAA will monitor school curricula, check social media content, ferret out blasphemers, and organise research in universities for spreading the true message of Islam. President Alvi has now signed the required ordinance.
What a damp squib! No school textbook in Pakistan — even science ones — is exempt from rigorous religious censorship. For the news media, multiple monitoring organisations already exist. As for researching the Prophet’s life: let’s have more. But didn’t we learn about Musawaat-i-Muhammadi in our school days and of the Prophet’s sense of justice? RAA’s purpose is plainly political, not religious.
Making a mishmash of religion and politics won’t turn Pakistan into a welfare state. Here’s what can.
Khan’s RAA speech suggested exactly this. At first he spoke passionately like all religious preachers do (his laudations of Winston Churchill and British courts were hard to fathom) but quickly switched to politics. After pillorying his predecessor and decrying electoral fraud, he made a pitch for electronic voting machines. Smuggled in between was a reference to Caliph Hazrat Umar as having (twice) sacked his valiant general, Khalid bin Waleed, although the general never lost a war.
The ongoing Khan-Bajwa tiff on the ISI DG’s successor suggests some implicit messaging here: I’m the boss and generals better obey me. Even if Khan is right here, using a religious occasion for a political purpose is wrong. Two worlds that rightfully should be kept apart are conflated here. Countless power-hungry politicians in history have exploited religion, promising people the moon but delivering exactly nothing.