With the 70th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan, some Pakistanis are looking again at the original ideal of Pakistan as a country that would be tolerant, progressive & welcoming of other faiths, a modern open, secular democracy
Pakistan's early government included a Hindu, a Christian Catholic, & a Jew at top levels
The white stripe on the largely Islamic-green Pakistani flag was meant as a symbol of this openness & inclusiveness
Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), was a secular, religiously tolerant Muslim who, it is said, enjoyed eating pork
Jogindra Nath Mandal (1904-68), a member of the Hindu Dalit community from East Bengal, was appointed by Jinnah as law minister of newly independent Pakistan
Alvin Robert Cornelius (1903-91), a practicing Christian Roman Catholic, was Pakistan's first prime minister & later, fourth chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court
Leopold Weiss - Muhammad Asad (1900-92), was an Austrian Jew who had converted to Islam in the 1920s, and was for a time Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations ... Muslim Jew Asad, liberal-minded & against female veiling, later wrote what many today consider to be the best English translation of the Qur'an
But Pakistan's founder Jinnah was quickly dead, not longer after Pakistan was founded ... and by the mid-1950s, Pakistan - apparently egged on by Western powers seeking to create South Asian conflict, and a strong 'Muslim' rival to non-aligned, Soviet-Union-friendly India, Pakistan became much more 'Muslim orthodox' in line with the Saudis, Pakistan eventually even declaring some of its own Muslim groups to be heretical
With the 70th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan, some Pakistanis are looking again at the original ideal of Pakistan as a country that would be tolerant, progressive & welcoming of other faiths, a modern open, secular democracy
ReplyDeletePakistan's early government included a Hindu, a Christian Catholic, & a Jew at top levels
The white stripe on the largely Islamic-green Pakistani flag was meant as a symbol of this openness & inclusiveness
Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), was a secular, religiously tolerant Muslim who, it is said, enjoyed eating pork
Jogindra Nath Mandal (1904-68), a member of the Hindu Dalit community from East Bengal, was appointed by Jinnah as law minister of newly independent Pakistan
Alvin Robert Cornelius (1903-91), a practicing Christian Roman Catholic, was Pakistan's first prime minister & later, fourth chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court
Leopold Weiss - Muhammad Asad (1900-92), was an Austrian Jew who had converted to Islam in the 1920s, and was for a time Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations ... Muslim Jew Asad, liberal-minded & against female veiling, later wrote what many today consider to be the best English translation of the Qur'an
But Pakistan's founder Jinnah was quickly dead, not longer after Pakistan was founded ... and by the mid-1950s, Pakistan - apparently egged on by Western powers seeking to create South Asian conflict, and a strong 'Muslim' rival to non-aligned, Soviet-Union-friendly India, Pakistan became much more 'Muslim orthodox' in line with the Saudis, Pakistan eventually even declaring some of its own Muslim groups to be heretical