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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Need for a new paradigm

It has been rightly suggested in a comment on a previous post, 'Conflict of mind and spirit':
ethnocentrism that there is only one nation or one culture better than others makes our views myopic.
The question, however, is how to avoid being myopic. Those who claim that all cultures of the world are equally dear to them are very often found to be considering themselves as better than the rest of their own nation or culture.

Thus it becomes ethnocentrism of another sort whereby you start believing that a few enlightened individuals from every nation who share a common understanding are like one international community, and members of this imagined community begin to perceive themselves as better than the masses of their own respective communities.

In Pakistan, the educated youth are slowly awakening to realize that they have to fend for themselves because apologetic approach isn't going to endear them to the world - it's only going to further isolate them from the majority of their own nation. Thus, what is needed now in Pakistan is a new paradigm which could facilitate seeing things as they are.

Rightly pointed out in another comment, the West probably doesn't quite understand the culture of Islam and its richness. Perhaps, then, a very good way of getting understood is by making good use of this richness in Islam's own countries and thus demonstrating the wonders that can be achieved.

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