There is always a sense of despondency amongst liberal and progressive minded people in Pakistan. Inevitably, most conversations turn to religious extremism and how it plagues Pakistan. All of this is true, but there is no reason to fear that all is lost irrevocably for us. History shows that nations often go through a period of turmoil, only to completely reinvent themselves after going through a crucible of fire. Many people say that the Muslim world needs to go through a period of reformation akin to what the Christian west experienced in the 16th and 17th centuries. My submission is that the Muslim reformation is already here, and this is precisely what any reformation feels like. It is not like the reformation in Europe happened as a seamless and smooth transition. The Christian reformation was a bloody and an extremely unsavoury process that engulfed Western Europe like a wild fire.
