Sunday, August 8, 2010

Western-style political correctness creeping into Pakistan?

This question came into my mind after observing the political strife between Pakistan's various powerful elites. They consist mainly of pro-Indian, pro-Western types and a few Islamists such as Zaid Hamid and his followers. While Western style political correctness has not been as strong in Pakistan, political correctness itself has been strong in the country in regards to religion.

Criticizing just about every aspect of Islam publicly can be dangerous. Doing anything considered "un-Islamic" can have similar consequences.
But what Pakistan never seemed to have before is Western-style political correctness. This kind of political correctness does not allow criticism of Western views on political history such as questioning the Holocaust. It seldom allows conspiracy theories especially behind incidents that Muslims are accused of being the perpetrators.

Resistance movements around the world are usually seen as "terrorist" in the West- unless they are movements that favor Western interests such as the separatist movement in Tibet.

Questioning racial diversity or immigration laws in the West are also seen as "politically incorrect."
Though Pakistan itself is not a favorite target of immigrants aside from a few million illegal refugees and even until now sending them away is not seen as "politically incorrect," I still find many other aspects of Western political correctness that seem to be creeping into Pakistan.

The most noticeable aspect is in regards to conspiracy theories against Indian and Western ambitions. Though I myself too find these heavily exaggerated and questionable, anyone who even brings these theories into being is called a conspiracy theorist and labeled an extremist.

At the same time Pakistan's hardcore leftists who are generally pro-Indian/Western blame the ISI for just about every terrorist attack in the world.
These same hardcore leftists have been calling these conspiracy theories "hate speech" against Hindus and Americans.

The Western media has also had it's set of double standards where conspiracy theories surrounding the ISI are often published, most likely to gain sales. On the other hand they criticize conspiracy theories in Pakistan that blame America and the CIA.

It seems obvious the hardcore leftists of Pakistan are trying to make conspiracy theories against India or the West- be them true or not -politically incorrect.

With a huge presence of Western forces in the Middle East and Central Asia and India's ongoing propaganda war against Pakistan, it seems these leftists have gained confidence in defaming any critic of Western and Indian imperialism.
As I mentioned in other posts, while the Islamists especially Zaid Hamid and his kind are a terrible influence on Pakistan, it's clear the leftists are attacking them for the wrong reasons.

The hardcore leftists are now trying to silence criticism of Indian and Western policies through political correctness by trying to brand it "hate speech" much like how questioning the Holocaust in the West is silenced by being branded as "hate speech." (Not that I don't believe it happened).

Thankfully, Pakistan's political conditions for the past sixty years have made it impenetrable for Western-style political correctness. Sadly though, Pakistan does suffer from strict Islamic political correctness which needs to change.

Any kind of political correctness is wrong for a country and free expression should be unlimited- provided it is not a freedom to spread lies and propaganda like the pro-Indian leftists and Islamists often do. When something is claimed, it should have evidence behind it, otherwise it should be perceived as plain lies.

I also could be wrong about Western-style political correctness creeping into our country with the help of the pro-Indian/Western elites (I hope I'm wrong) but this is what my observation leads me to believe so far.

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