Pakistan
Islam in Society
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Islam was brought to the South Asian subcontinent in the eighth century by wandering
Sufi mystics known as pir. As in other areas
where it was introduced by Sufis, Islam to some extent syncretized with preIslamic
influences, resulting in a religion traditionally more flexible than in the Arab
world. Two Sufis whose shrines receive much national attention are Data Ganj Baksh in
Lahore (ca. eleventh century) and Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan, Sindh (ca. twelfth
century).
The Muslim poet-philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal first proposed the idea of a Muslim
state in the subcontinent in his address to the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930.
His proposal referred to the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and the
NorthWest Frontier - essentially what would became the post-1971 boundary of Pakistan.
Iqbal's idea gave concrete form to the "Two Nations Theory" of two distinct
nations in the subcontinent based on religion (Islam and Hinduism) and with different
historical backgrounds, social customs, cultures, and social mores.
Islam was thus the basis for the creation and the unification of a separate state, but
it was not expected to serve as the model of government. Mohammad Ali Jinnah made his
commitment to secularism in Pakistan clear in his inaugural address when he said,
"You will find that in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and
Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the
personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the
State.".
This vision of a Muslim majority state in which religious minorities would share
equally in its development was questioned shortly after independence. The debate
continued into the 1990s amid questions of the rights of Ahmadiyyas (a small but
influential sect considered by orthodox Muslims to be outside the pale of Islam),
issuance of identity cards denoting religious affiliation, and government intervention
in the personal practice of Islam.
Data as of April 1994; Source: Library of Congress Country Studies
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