Speeches delivered in mosques, not only Friday sermons but all addresses which deal with religious and moral issues, provide the best ground for properly educating and teaching people. The men delivering these speeches — whom people usually respect and trust — can have a great impact on their listeners.
We charge the state media, whether radio or television, with heavy responsibilities and duties that may go beyond their ability, and we expect them to meet all our demands. The print media, too, is sometimes asked to do what is beyond its powers and also to please everyone.
While most readers may be content with newspaper performance, extremists from both sides are not. Those on the far left advocate a brand of liberality and free thinking that ignores local conditions, while those on the far right manipulate religion to combat any sign of modernity and progress while failing to integrate it into mainstream Muslim society.
We wouldn’t be telling the truth if we said that the killing of people and destruction of property is carried out by young people who have been misled and brainwashed. We would be denying the truth. We keep asking the questions: Where have these people come from? Are they all the result of experiences in Afghanistan?
The answer should be no. We have to admit that it is a tightly knit social environment that bred this kind of extremism among our youth. We remained silent and did nothing to address the matter and continued to live with the illusion that such behavior did not represent a threat. It is such passivity that led to the mushrooming of this kind of thought. Unless it is confronted with a wise religious response, it could spread further, resulting in a kind of social separation that will be obvious to all and which we will be unable to deny.
In the past, our television station had many entertaining programs, all of which were decent and did not transgress any religious limits. In the past our newspapers used to publish pictures of modestly-dressed women. What happened then? What has brought us to an era where extremism is evident everywhere and where all things that relate to modernity are being rejected?
Our social environment should not be hostile to everything that comes with the label of modernity or progress.
