MacIntyre, Ricoerue and Iqbal on Pakistan's Identity Crisis

A Muslim Critique

Abstract

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The view is widespread and internalized in Pakistan that the state is suffering from a severe identity crisis. It is almost universally agreed that a lack of consistent interpretation of Islamic doctrine is partly to blame for the distressing loss of identity, which has never been properly defined. For this reason, the term will be traced from
its legitimate source in the psychology of an adolescent crisis and to determine the basis of a Constructivist-Kantian view of the permissive “friendly states” in which lifestyles and varied roles constitute an identity politics that are attractive to a narrow group of Pakistan’s intellectuals envious of Western ways. This leads to a predictable crisis of identity having very little to do with Islam, and still less with Pakistan’s identity. As critique of a very grievous slander against Pakistan and vigorous protest against it, the philosopher-poet Iqbal, and the Western giants MacIntyre and Ricoeur will be cited to present the Universalist view of Islam as the basis of our true culture, and by contrast the despair of Western thinkers who know that identity crisis is ultimately a crisis of faith they would do well to avoid. The factors of terrorism, natural disasters, and political corruption serve to further divide the country and challenge any emerging moral narratives. The so called Islamic doctrine, due to
disagreements or various interpretations, meanwhile, has not provided an answer to these problems that Pakistanis face. The result is a state plunged into an identity crisis with no clear answer. This paper will subject the question of the identity crisis to some great thinkers who assert the claim of higher values as indeed the basis of firm identity formation which requires moral principles as the constituting essence of the “narrative” out of which identity is formulated in Pakistan and everywhere else in the world