Anyone who does not conform to the criteria laid down by the religious extremists is labelled a ‘liberal extremist’.
LAHORE: This is with reference to Asad Munir’s article of January 14 titled “Who are the liberal extremists?”.
Anyone who does not conform to the criteria laid down by the religious extremists is labelled a ‘liberal extremist’. At least this is what our religiously-charged segment of society thinks. Unlike a religious extremist, a liberal always thinks before forming an opinion about any given issue. As long as the thinking process remains anchored in logic and reason, a liberal person cannot be called an extremist, no matter how radical and bold his stance is. And even if, for the sake of argument, there were people who were ‘liberal extremists’, they are not organised and do not have the necessary firepower to take on the religious extremists.
That burden has fallen on the shoulders of the so-called liberals or moderates. I do differ with the writer in his inference that most of those who support Taseer’s murderer are those who have had only basic formal education. This is not true because one also finds extremism among people who have been educated to a high level. Extremism is the result of many factors and hence cannot be countered only by education.
Moazzam Salim
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2011.
