By Mariam Baig of Second Year

HITTING SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN!

No matter how you define each, fundamentalism and liberalism somehow belong to each other. Getting nurtured in the lap of extremism, with a “not-too-considerate” motto no matter what, highly criticizing each other while continuously revolving around their own orbits and having no idea what the other side has got to say.

There is no line of demarcation or a single justified definition for either of them. Everybody seems to have their own criteria for putting you on either side of their self created “no-man’s-area”, exposing you to an outburst of criticism regardless of the real purposes of your action. Switch on to a television show housing both sides, all you get is fingers somewhat menacingly pointed at each other,an outburst of disregard for what the other has got to say while all the time neither the so called “fundo/mullah” or the “broad minded liberal” has the least idea what its all about; ending up in an argument just for the sake of it.

If the (so called) fundamentalists are such a heart-and-soul devoted beings to religion then why do they tend to forget that Islam preaches MODERATION with far more stress than any other religion in the world, rather than expecting the believers to move up to the heights of “ONE SIDE”…that there is NO FORCE in religion, you just can’t force your ideology upon others without least consideration of what they have got to say because it only ends up in people getting repulsed rather than influenced by you... that shaving your beard off doesn’t make you less of a Muslim as when you are violating the simple rights of those around you, as when you go bluffing, lying, fabricating things out of nowhere and a whole lot of other suff...

And as for those “enlightened” Liberals, seeking refuge under the slogan in which fundamentalists are tageed as extremists, they are just an evolved form of the “fundos” ,wrapped up in a glistening sheet of modernization just to hide their own “modified form” of extremism 'cause they are just as NON-CONSIDERATE as the fundamentalists(linking any slightest thing related to Islam as an act of “fundo-ism”, all the while knowing in their hearts just too well that it’s the “FAITH” needed to keep everything going …).

I have always been at sea to find any particular reason as to which all this outburst can be ascribed. Both sides seem to have taken upon themselves to blow up the foundations of whatever ideaology binds the other side, humiliating them, even employing the “personal-attack-tactics” if they come to any use at all…….

There is a simple solution to all this….all that mess getting created for nothing…WHY CANT WE BE JUST CONSIDERATE??....just learn to respect each other for a while even when we know the other one is wrong….you cannot judge what its like to be on the other side unless you put yourself in their place,just step into their shoes and learn how it feels like to walk around in them…,just try and understand what they have got to say(once for a change)….If only we can learn and reach to A POINT,…..A POINT OF CONSIDERATION,A POINT OF UNDERSTANDING,A POINT OF MODERATION…..then it will definitely put an end to a huge lot of our troubles…..