A beloved leader for many years, Musharraf ushered in a new period of economic growth, strategic alliances with the United States, and encouragement of more socially liberal values in a conservative Muslim nation.
Pervez Musharraf Religion: What is the religion of Pervez Musharraf?
Pervez Musharraf, a former president of Pakistan, coined the phrase “enlightened moderation,” which refers to adopting a moderate Islam as opposed to fundamentalist Islam’s interpretations.
According to the notion, thinking clearly and rationally, choosing optimism over pessimism, and choosing to look on the bright side of life all constitute being against extreme.
Musharraf presented the enlightened moderation approach during the 2002 OIC Summit Conference in Malaysia.
In a column that appeared in several newspapers in 2004, Musharraf defended his viewpoint. His strategy for wise moderation has two facets.
It dials “for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and adopt the path of socioeconomic uplift” and “for the West, and the United States in particular, to seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world”.
Musharraf noted that since the time of Muhammad, the Islamic world has been characterized by moderation and knowledge.
Musharraf wrote:
I say to my brother Muslims: The time for renaissance has come. The way forward is through enlightenment. We must concentrate on human resource development through the alleviation of poverty and through education, health care and social justice. If this is our direction, it cannot be achieved through confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and a conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that Islam is a religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy and secularism. All this must be done with a realization that, in the world we live in, fairness does not always rule.