Orientalism in the Civilisational Narcissism By Farhat Taj

To exclude other cultures and sub-cultures of Pakistan and the rest of the Musli m world from the collective suffering from this condition, civilisational narcis sism, and to restrict it to the Pakhtun tribal society as a whole sounds even ra cist. Tehzeebi Nargasiyyat (civilisational narcissism) is an interesting Urdu book wri tten by a Pakistan writer, Mobarak Haider. The book is psychoanalysis of the Mus lim mind that has turned dangerously narcissist. Muslims, according to the book, think Islam is a complete, definitive and final code of life and there is no ne ed for the Muslims to excel in knowledge through hard work, reason and logic. Th ey believe they have the God-given right to rule the world and can use brute for ce, if necessary, to subjugate non-Muslims. They scream over perceived injustice s to Muslims caused by non-Muslims, but simply deny widespread atrocities commit ted by Muslims against fellow Muslims. They simply lack a positive consideration of others no matter how reasonable and logical it might seem.

The book has been widely discussed in blogs and the media, especially the Urdu m edia. For example, Khaled Ahmed wrote an excellent piece on the book in a local English daily ( A civilisation of narcissists , March 26, 2011). The BBC Urdu website p esented several articles on the book. In all media discussions the book has been appreciated and the writer, Mobarak Haider, presented as a scholar who has righ tly indentified the personality disorder of Muslims, especially those in Pakista n. It is, however, striking to note that none of the media discussants pointed t o a serious flaw in the book that can make it controversial in the sight of thos e who agree with the basic thesis of the writer. Let me say at the outset that my criticism of the book must not be seen in any w ay as an attempt to belittle Mobarak Haider s status as a scholar or the rationality and importance of the basic idea in his book. His key idea that a large section o f the Muslim population, especially in Pakistan, is inflicted by civilisational narcissism that he rightly regards as a disease destructive for Muslim societies and a danger for peace in the world is mainly correct. I disagree with him when h e applies this idea to the entire culture, socio-political system and the whole society in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan as well as the neighbouring Pakhtun tribes in Afghanistan. This is not to say that there are no tribesmen and women suffering from civilisa tional narcissism. Indeed, there are some such Pakhtuns, just like there are peo ple in other ethnicities and cultures of Pakistan and the wider Muslim world. Bu t to say that the Pakhtun tribal culture is collectively suffering from civilisa tional narcissism is plainly wrong. Moreover, to exclude other cultures and subcultures of Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world from the collective suffer ing from this condition, civilisational narcissism, and to restrict it to the Pa khtun tribal society as a whole sounds even racist, although Mr Haider might not have intended to invoke racism against the Pakhtun. I would like to reproduce some of Haider s sweeping judgements and faulty assumption s about the tribal culture, society, socio-political system and current ground r eality since 9/11. In the column next week I will deconstruct these judgements a nd assumptions. The tribal way of life is an early stage of human civilisation and thus the trib als mainly depend on their traditions. Their decisions are not based on reason a nd logic. Every tribal person is subjected to a collective tribal compulsion to adhere to the tribal way of life. This happens even if he or she is not kept und er pressure by the tribal chief (the readers should note the connotation of the

Pakhtun tribal system, which is assumed to be egalitarian and free from the dict atorial rule of tribal chiefs). It was the pre-Islam Arab tribal society of this kind that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had to deal with to spread the message of Isl am among them. The writer seems to imply that the Pakhtun tribal culture of toda y is like the Arab tribal culture of the 7th century. The tribes of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region are in a state of war again st the whole world since 9/11. It is said that they are fighting to preserve the ir tribal traditions and way of life from outside interference. This argument is wrong when judged by the past and current conduct of the tribal people. They ha ve integrated themselves into the modern economic structures of Pakistan, Afghan istan and beyond. They are thus economically at an advanced stage of civilisatio n, but continue to stick to a backward culture that does not sit well with moder n civilisation embraced by people around the world, including tribal people else where. Their cultural backwardness is the fruition of their collective tribal na rcissism. Blinded by their collective narcissism they hate modern civilisation a nd want to impose their backward culture on the wider society in Pakistan, Afgha nistan and even globally. Their continuing cultural backwardness in the face of their advancement on the economic front even renders the economic theory that tr ade and commerce play a key role in the progress of human civilisation questiona ble. The writer notes that over generations the tribal people have been coming down f rom the mountains into the plains of India to peacefully settle there. Hundreds of thousands of tribal people have been living in the big urban centres of Pakis tan and around the world, including in the west, and have never encountered cult ural clashes with the surrounding majority societies. This implies that the only way for the tribal people to integrate or assimilate in a superior civilisation is to first be free from the clutches of the collective tribal dictatorship, wh ere the collective tribal narcissism prevents them from integrating with modern civilisation. This also implies that the tribes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan bord er region can be collectively civilised if there they are conquered by a superio r civilisation on their native land. Over the centuries the tribes have been clashing with civilisations. They have b een joining the barbarian armies from the north invading the Hindu and Muslim ci vilisations in India. They have been the turbulent frontier of the Mughal civili sation. They have been clashing with the British civilisation. They actively par ticipated in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Motivated by their trib al pride they have handed their leadership over to Arab al Qaeda terrorists and together the two are clashing with the US-led global alliance in the war on terr or. They believe their tribal civilisation being attacked by the global alliance is innocent and do not hesitate to take revenge from innocent people in other c ivilisations. Thus they kill countless Pakistanis in terrorist attacks in respon se to some civilian casualties in drone attacks on the tribal area. In their tri bal narcissism they consider innocent Pakistanis far lesser innocent than their own tribal holy warriors or innocent tribal casualties in the drone attacks. (To be continued) The writer is a PhD Research Fellow with the University of Oslo and currently wr iting a book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban Source: The Daily Times, Lahore URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamBooksAndDocuments_1.aspx?ArticleID=50 39

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COMMENTS 7/18/2011 4:10:06 AM Syed Rizvi Also would like to add that just like the Jewish community got lot of mileages w ith "anti Semitism" to the point one could not criticize any of their mis-deeds without being labelled as anti-Semitic. Muslims have come up with their own vers ion of defenses called "Islamophobia with which they are getting lot of mileages. One cannot criticize any of their unreasonable demands without being labelled as Islamophobic. Just wait and see.

7/18/2011 3:49:29 AM Syed Rizvi Ashok says: Efforts should be made to introduce rational thoughts in Islamic soc ieties along with good aspects of Islamic teachings. My comment: It is not going to happen. You want to bet? Syed Rizvi

7/18/2011 12:11:40 AM Ashok Sharma Many religions have had Narcissistic tendencies but later adjusted/adapted to mu lti-culturalism/tolerance. This tendency is not unique to Muslims and there is n o need to be pessimistic. Efforts should be made to introduce rational thoughts in Islamic societies alongwith good aspects of Islamic teachings.

7/16/2011 1:52:41 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin I have to agree that civilizational narcissism as defined by Mobarak Haider is a Muslim disease. Muslims think that Islam is a complete, definitive and final code of life and there is no need for the Muslims to excel in knowledge through hard work, reason and logic. They believe they have the God-given right to rule the world and can use brute force, if necessary, to subjugate non-Muslims. They scream over perceived injustices to Muslims caused by non-Muslims, but simply de ny widespread atrocities committed by Muslims against fellow Muslims. They simpl y lack a positive consideration of others no matter how reasonable and logical i t might seem. Whether Muslim civilizational narcissim is exacerbated in a tribal (e.g.Pakhtun) setting or not is an intriguing question.