Islamabad contradicts its very name

[Naveed Yaseen]

Saadia Khalid
There is not a single trait that makes Islamabad a truly Islamic city rather it possesses everything that is against Islamic teachings and values hence contradicting its very name.

Fulbright Fellow Chad Haines stated this during his lecture on ‘Similarities in urban development of Cairo, Dubai and Islamabad’ organised by Islamabad Social Sciences Forum (ISSF) here on Friday.

ISSF is an organisation comprising the academicians, scholars and senior citizens working for the last 17 years and regularly conducts meetings on the last Friday of every month.

While delivering his lecture Haines quoted various examples of urban development in Cairo, Dubai and Islamabad and highlighted the similarities that exist between the ideas, landscape, investment and lifestyle of these countries.

He said that Islamabad and Dubai were the class segregated and racist cities despite the fact that they both claimed to be Muslim. “In Islamabad the class discrimination had been clearly marked by the demarcation of the sectors,” he said.

He said that the idea of Islamic-ness not at all came in to reality as far as the city of Islamabad was concerned. “Nothing in the city including its structure, lifestyle or trade depicts the essence of Islam,” he said.

Haines said that although the city had been planned beautifully while borrowing the structure of ancient Athens and Constantine yet there was not a single mosque in the original plan of the city. “If the city meant to be Islamic then there must have been a mosque in the original plan of every sector of the city,” he said. He further stated that there was nothing Islamic in the design of the city. “The buildings, roads and other infrastructure had been built on extremely modern patterns,” he said while adding that the lifestyle of people in Islamabad was no less than the lifestyle of some other modern un-Islamic countries.

Haines said that the major difference between Dubai and Islamabad was that Dubai was a financial city while Islamabad was not. “The financial activities in Dubai are witnessing hype while in Islamabad it is not that much as it supposed to be,” he said. He pointed out that the lifestyle of people living in Cairo was representing Islamic culture in many ways.

“Almost every man in Cairo has a mark on their forehead, their women use to wear veils and construction truly depicts the Islamic architecture,” he said.

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