THIS is apropos of Irfan Husain’s article ‘Faith in decline’ (Aug 27). Although I like the writer, I was flabbergasted by the lines in his article: “I am impressed by the fact that 2pc of the 2,700 surveyed in Pakistan, or 54 brave persons, declared they had no religious beliefs at all.”

Without casting doubt on the implications of the article, I raise a few questions:

Is it all because of religion that we see extremism all around us in Pakistan and elsewhere? Secondly, is it a good omen for peace of the world that the number of people believing in religion is diminishing?

After all, what prompted former US president Bush while declaring his Armageddon against the world peace was not religion. Not least, the two World Wars fought in the last century were caused by factors other than religion.

Having said all this, I may add here that we cannot ignore the humane aspect of religion teaching moral lessons to its adherents from being compassionate to one’s parents to virtues of charitable donations.

The positive impact of society established by the Prophet (peace be upon him) based on religion can still be felt in the 21st century. The bottom line is: human conduct by far is determined by one’s motives rather than belief in religion. It is the ‘malevolent’ motives which account for wrong interpretation of religion.

I agree with many things the writer said. However, not all religious people are bad. Even among the fire- brand Sunni ulema of Deobandi vein, we have good people like Allama Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, one of the leaders of the Pakistan movement who led funeral prayers of our founders; Shaikhul Hind, prisoner of Malta, and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi.

If history is any evidence to go by, we had no issue like ‘religious extremism’ in Pakistan before the decade of the 1980s during which dictator Zia played havoc with our lives and great religion.

It was because of his militant brand of Islam, supported by allied forces, which engendered the great mess we are in today. We need to jettison extremist and militant brand of Islam, and teach our young ones the liberal, humane aspects of Islam.

Karen Armstrong rightly said in her book: “Muhammad was a man of peace and reconciliation.”

In a nutshell, by reforming our curriculum and regulating our ‘firebrand’ media, we can bring about positive changes in our society.

ATHER NAVEED Peshawar