Slamming religious fundamentalism, Pakistani-origin author Nadeem Aslam has said the 9/11 attacks deeply affected moderate Muslims like him who felt the need to assert their identity.
Slamming religious fundamentalism, Pakistani-origin author Nadeem Aslam has said the 9/11 attacks deeply affected moderate Muslims like him who felt the need to assert their identity and that they would not be dictated by the likes of Osama bin Laden.
"It was an urge to tell the world that people like me who roam about in jeans, have no beards are also Muslims and the urge was also to give a message to the likes of Osama bin Laden that you will not dictate how I, as Muslim, will carry myself," said Nadeem Aslam, author of the critically acclaimed The Wasted Vigil and Maps for Lost Lovers.
He was speaking at the Jaipur Literature festival here where authors from across the border shared space with their Indian counterparts.
The Pakistani authors were clearly vocal in their criticism of fundamentalism in all parts of the world.
Aslam, who moved to UK as a teenager, believes that 9-11 changed the way moderate Muslims looked towards fundamentalism.
"Before 9-11 happened, I had never thought consciously of myself as a Muslim, but after the event I felt like asserting my (moderate) Muslim identity.
"The struggle between the two sides (liberal and fundamental) of Islam is continuing for a long time. The only difference is that the problems that we have witnessed for a long time in the Pakistan's polity or in that of the Islamic world have now become the world's problems," the 42-year-old author said.
Aslam, however, said the debate over fundamentalism is also raging in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world.
"I believe it is a not correct to say there is no debate in the Muslim world. I read Urdu papers in the country, the same issues about religious chauvinism are debated there, the tone might be a little different," Aslam, whose two books were long-listed for Man Booker Prize, said.
Asked if the rise of fundamentalism worried him as an artist, Karachi-based author Mohammad Hanif, who wrote a fictional account of the events that led to general Zia's death in a plane crash, said he was more worried about the impact of the phenomenon on the common people rather than on artistes.
"Artists have produced works both in good times as well as bad times. But fundamentalism in a society means the people's freedoms are curtailed, schools for children are ransacked and the future of a whole generation comes under a cloud," he said.
Hanif also lauded the literary gathering describing it as more vibrant and bright than any other such gathering.
Religious fundamentalism in Pakistan and its impact on the citizens of the world was among the prominent themes that came for discussion at the festival that saw a conglomeration of as many as 160 authors.
"After the Mumbai attacks happened, we had to decide whether to rescind the invitations to the Pakistani authors that were scheduled to come here as we feared there might be voices of dissent from the right wing people," said eminent author and festival director William Dalrymple.
"However, we decided to go ahead with the programme as putting a plug on artists from that country would have been like surrendering to the likes of the Taliban and Raj Thackrey," he said.
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