Hypocrisy

I reckon hypocrisy must be the worst vice there is. It is so because when you witness too much of it, it makes you lose faith. How are you to feel when people who claim to be straight forward, whiter than whiter, end up telling lies about anything and everything? How should we feel when men (it is mostly men) of spirituality are found to have been involved in illicit sexual liaisons? The one can affect your faith in democracy and the other your faith in religion.

It is, however, hypocrisy closer to our own community- among British Pakistanis and Mirpuris- that I want to dwell on. It is in evidence everywhere. During the course of one weekend, I saw many instances of it.

We never tire of preaching 'sabr', or patience. It has a high status as a virtue. But alas our actions belie it. Every day I see people from our community, adults as well as youngsters, bearded as well clean shaven, who cannot wait patiently in a queue. They either just brazenly walk to the front, or absent-mindedly pretend they cannot work out where the queue begins. They are rarely challenged.

I don't know what proportion of faith patience constitutes, but it is well known that cleanliness is half of our faith. So how do we fare on that count? Our streets are the dirtiest. I see not only youngsters, high on the fire of youth, littering, but even mature people making their rubbish the problem of society. Every morning, when I leave for work, the cleaner is busy cleaning the streets. When I get back in the evening, it is as if he might as well not have bothered.

But surely, given our puritanical outlook, we are more reserved when it comes to anything to do with sex? Yet even here facts belie theory. Walk along any local high street in one of these areas and note how the young guys- and some times not so young- eye up and stare at the ladies with lascivious intent.