PakFellows Blog » Politics

When Will There be Tolerance towards Islam and Muslims?

Sidrah Zaheer — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:00:04 +0000

A lot of the people hold bleak view about Islam. Recently, I had a discussion with someone having such an outlook. The conversation started with the primary question about what is Islam. I said that Islam is a religion to be understood, that it a way of life. Being a simplistic answer as it is, the person expressed the notion that is generally held by people who are not positive of Islam’s potential for human guidance. The person said that it is a geo-political belief system which has world domination as its ultimate aim.

Now, what does a Muslim say to that, or for that matter, anyone who knows Islam and its teachings, how can one explain a view being associated with it, which is in essence completely contrary to its basic preaching? The briefest answer that I could have given at the time to comprehensively sum up the whole view which is right, and which ought to be linked with any religion, is that no religion in its essence seeks the world. Thinking of this very idea of world domination is against the concept of religion itself.

Still in disagreement, the person came up with another more exaggerated view saying that it has its source in the Koran itself. The person asked me to pick up the Koran and read it and further presented me with a request, not in a polite way, saying that I should go on reading the Koran instead of making “stupid” statements. To such a thing, I could only politely reply that I am a Muslim and have read the Koran many times over. It is a book to be read time and again so that each time a deeper meaning to its highest messages could be understood. I further asked her pointing out the intolerance in her behavior to show some tolerance of discussion on this social forum, which has essentially been created to discuss various things. Such people often miss the hypocrisy of their own act when they call Muslims intolerant and don’t have the nerve to discuss when the truth not to their liking is being told.

After listening to all this, the person went back again to the initial point, which she thought was a strong one and worth reiterating that “Tell me that the aim of Islam is not world domination. Tell me that it does not require the destruction of all infidels, who will not convert to Islam.” If such a distorted view is something that she is willing to adhere to without knowing the facts, then nothing could be done to help elaborate the truth. All one could explain is that Islam is not a religion asking for world domination and neither infidels should be killed for practicing the freedom of belief system that the Lord has granted them with. To realize this approach of Islam, I think one has to read its history, its real concepts and its real philosophy. Islam is not a religion of force, neither was it spread through sword.

The level of knowledge with such allegations she had shown about Islam is a definite telling that she knows nothing about the religion in actuality. I did express to her what I inferred through her comments. To which she did not flinch a bit calling me a liar. Ironic, is not it? She can choose not to believe me, it is of course her right. But if someone really wants to know about Islam, not from the one who has been following it with an understanding of its concepts, then they should read the books that have been written on the subject, watch the documentaries that have been made covering its stories and ideas, study the works of scholars that have presented Islam not with an exaggerated rosy image, but with what its truthful teachings are. The works of authentic scholars go a long way in establishing something for certain, but only if their efforts to understand are understood and the things that they understood as men of higher learning be understood, the purpose of their works will be served well in this way.

Considering the conversation she was making, I told her that one should be knowledgeable before passing statements. In order to support her statements, she shared an article written by some W. Armenious from the USA on July 14, 2002, in which it was mentioned how brutal Muslims are. That they prosecute non-Muslims in their own territories and that the Koran supports their inhumane behavior. Perhaps the point has not been established. I am not so sure when it will. Because the day that it does amongst those people who question Islam’s teachings, the world would really be a better place with an understandable environment and with an air of tolerance and co-existence. For someone choosing to believe that Islam is a religion of violence and that Muslims are violent people, though it is impossible for any nation, let alone Muslims or Islam, to be that uncivilized, it is again their freedom to think. It is useless to convince such people otherwise.

But, for the one who seeks the truth about one of the most important global matters that effect societies, then one must get educated about the people involved and about their issues, about Muslims and their problems. To begin with, “Islam” by Karen Armstrong is not a bad 101 course in getting introduced to one of the largest faiths in this world. And like this one, there are plenty of other authentic sources available to get informed by. Since there is a lot of propaganda involved as well, one has to be very careful in what one is relying on when learning about anything. But for sure, common sense does say that it is utterly wrong to go on believing in something which is false. It is in the end self-deceptive to continue to do so.

After explaining her whatever her thoughts about Islam are, are all based on false notions which have been propagated to incur hatred against the religion and its followers, and after requesting her to be tolerant in discussing the matter with patience and open-mindedness, she still told me to “Get away from me with your nonsense. We can all see what is going on in Egypt with Coptic Christians being slaughtered, and the same thing in Sudan. Your religion of peace is indeed a religion of Satan.”

To again corroborate her outrageous behavior, views, and false statements, she presented another article from the same author which said more or less the same things. The level of her outrage did not end here. To show her own level of low tolerance for understanding Muslims and their religion and her attempts to defame it, she blocked me so that no further correspondence could take place on that social platform and whatever that she has written be there with no replies from me, a Muslim, to defend her religion, her faith, and her fellow Muslims. It goes to show, who is tolerant and who is not, whose teachings and traditions have taught them to give a hand to others in guidance towards the truth and whose not.

News of Bin Laden’s Death and Social Media’s Power of Communication

Sidrah Zaheer — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:01:42 +0000

I was about to sign out of my email account, when there appeared a new email in my inbox. I immediately opened it to check it out. It was from one of the citizen journalism social networking sites I am a member of. All it said without any details to the information was that Bin Laden died. He was killed finally. How was it all done, the email did not elaborate. Just as this email came to my inbox due to subscription to its newsletters, it went to many others too for revealing one the biggest headlines of the year.

I was intending to shut down my computer to carry on with the day’s routine. But when I received the email, I changed my whole plan of following on my usual routine, at least for the next forty minutes or so. All I was curious to know was how did Bin Laden meet his death. Indeed, it was good news, but not a relieving one. Since killing the name behind the terrorist attacks on 9/11 doesn’t finish off the evil intent his other co-networkers still hold.

I went to Google further about Bin Laden’s death to get the details. There was a whole stream of updates scrolling from the micro-blogging website, Twitter. Almost each second, people from all around the world, were tweeting their reactions about the news and their feelings on the matter. Everyone from journalists to news readers, all were there streaming their immediate thoughts. It is amazing how the breaking news of Bin Laden’s death was actually broken by Twitter. The world came to know of one of the greatest headlines in recent history, but not through mainstream news media, but through the social networking website, Twitter.

Although it does show the status Twitter has achieved and the importance of connectivity through social networking in this advanced era of fast communication, it also tells us how any news can be spread instantly without any detailed analysis. The first impact is obtained and a perspective fixed at the outset. This is the power of social media and it is growing ever more.

This year is the 10^th anniversary of the dreadful events in the New York City in 2001. Let us hope that just as the evolution of social media has given us such communicative power, different nations from around the world also evolve in their understanding of each other and learn to respect their differences in cultures and traditions. Though there are many different languages, but keeping in mind the essential purpose of a language, which is communication, let us negotiate and build bridges. Living peacefully together and co-existing in harmony is what I hope can attain such power of connectivity as social media has today.

Download Quaid-e-Azam – Zindagi Ke Dilchasp Aur Sabaq Aamoz Waaqiyat by Zia Shahid

Samah — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:32:12 +0000

قائد اعظم کی یادیں ہمارے لئے قیمتی سرمایہ ہیں۔ انہی یادوں کو ضیا شاہد نے اس کتاب کی شکل دی ہے،جو اس قابل ہیں کی نئی نسل کے سامنے لائیں جائیں کیوں کہ جس شخصیت سے محبت اور عقیدت ہو اس کے بارے میں ایسے واقعات ہمیشہ شوق سے سنے اور بیان کئے جاتے ہیں۔ اس میں کوئی شک نہیں ہے کہ قائد اعظم کی شخصیت کے ہر پہلو سے ہمیں بہت کچھ سیکھنے اور سمجھنے کو ملتا ہے۔

The Middle East “Re-solution”

Jehanzeb — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:09:42 +0000

“Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder” … some wise words by one of the wisest of the 20th century and how I do not wish to disagree Mr. G.B.Shaw for he spoke my heart out decades ago.

One of the great revolutions of the last millennia took place in France and hearing this coming from none other than the French ambassador to Pakistan himself was both surprising and enlightening. When asked about his views on revolution the ambassador replied, ‘A revolution is like a revolution i.e. a circular motion. It eventually comes back to the same point from where it had once started’ and for a brief moment, I wondered ‘how eloquent!’ — Indeed, I have always thought of revolution as a ‘hula hoop’ of power and rule. For what I have seen in the last two weeks slithering through the streets of Tunis in to Cairo, Amman and then probably in to Algiers, Rabat and the east of ‘Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ has left me with an uneasiness for which I tried to answer myself.

In the twilight of his presidency, the secretary of state of the Bush administration Ms. Condoleezza Rice in June 2006 while in Tel Aviv coined the idea/term of the “New Middle East”. It surprised analysts as well as offended many Arab and Muslim around the world. It was believed to be for the redrawing of the middle-east, many new maps were produced and theories were presented to elaborate it but eventually the idea died down … or seemingly so. For now I believe, Ms. Rice was only hinting at handing over a policy of a very significant paradigm shift for the future middle-east plan to the next administration. The incumbent policy-makers carefully took their time and New Year came with the launching of this project. Tunis may be a surprise, but Egypt was long over-due, Hosni Mubarak is not only dying with cancer he also doesn’t have any apparent heir as Anwar Sadaat had in Mubarak three decades ago.

One apparently sees a change taking place in Tunis, Egypt and Jordan which was brewing up for so long under the autocratic rulers of the Arab world, the cheering crowds of millions have a right too but recent history tells us that they always cheered for the wrong people, the Belarusian and Georgian examples are the most recent ones. While amidst all this hullabaloo, it looks like one by one the Arab leaders are swirling on a dominoes effect and yet, I strongly believe that these dominoes are pushed by the same forces that placed them at the first place. On the heels of Wikileaks drama/act/play or hoax all these unfolding events seems like a fast-paced Hollywood thriller but without any protagonist or even an antagonist. In Tunisia the Islamist exiled leader Rachid Ghanouchi has rushed back after two decades of exile just like Nouri Al Maliki was brought in after Saddam’s fall in Iraq. On the other hand, the long time rivals of Mubarak ‘Ikhwan ul Muslimeen’ have suddenly disappeared behind the facade of El-Baradi, the IAEA stooge.

I fear the grand political game on a global chessboard is on and what appears as a solution through a revolution is nothing but a re-packaging of the same solution or a ‘Re-Solution’. And while sitting here in my home in Islamabad it’s very easy to say what I have just said because with all my heart I respect the feelings, the sentiments of Tunisian, Egyptian and Jordanian people and I too want to join them on their streets just as much as I want to stand and shout for freedom on the constitution avenue but then I am reminded of the history of this region. Ottomans were dismembered at the beginning of the 20th century, I can’t say anything with certainty at the moment but it looks something similar to replay at the beginning of this 21st century.

Download Quaid-e-Azam – Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Beesween Sadi Ka Sab Se Bara Insan by Sardar Muhammad Chaudhry

Samah — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:25:07 +0000

یہ کتاب ‘بیسویں صدی کا سب سے بڑا انسان’ سردار محمد چوہدری کے قلم سے لکھی گئی داستان ہے، ایسا قلم جس کی نوک کو قائد اعظم کے زندہ اور روشن افکار نے تراشا ہے۔ کتاب کے ابتداِئی حصے میں قائد اعظم کی با اصول اور تیز نگاہ شخصیت اپنی پوری توانائیوں کے ساتھ نظر آتی ہے۔ یہ کتاب بیسویں صدی کی سب سے بڑے تاریخ ساز انسان کی جغرافیائی تخلیق کی کہانی ہے۔ اس میں کوئی شک نہیں ہے کہ قائد اعظم کی شخصیت کے ہر پہلو سے ہمیں بہت کچھ سیکھنے اور سمجھنے کو ملتا ہے۔

اس میں کوئی شک نہیں ہے کہ قائد اعظم کی شخصیت کے ہر پہلو سے ہمیں بہت کچھ سیکھنے اور سمجھنے کو ملتا ہے۔

An Afterthought

Jehanzeb — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:45:51 +0000

Taking advantage of a rather long weekend my cousin’s family had come to spent their Sunday with us. With them was their beautiful little daughter who barely started speaking a couple of months back. Like most Pakistani families this past Sunday, we spent most of our day huddled around the television watching the developing political situation, listening to the rumor mills running all day long while having our own seemingly endless discussions. In the midst of our clueless talk, we literally forgot little Ayat for a while, she was roaming around the house on her new found legs, trying her best to keep everyone and herself some company. She was busy with herself when her words suddenly caught our attention, the words ‘dharna hoga dharna hoga’ uttered in broken Urdu were coming from a 27 months old who happens to be a 4th generation Pakistani child, not knowing the significance of what she just said. It had an impact! Suddenly, everyone fell silent as her words echoed in the room and perhaps, somewhere in our consciousness too. I looked at her father to see his response, he was staring at his little child rather impassively, then he got up and switched off the TV and I knew that was the end of our discussion. Soon afterwards, when everyone appeared to have forgotten this otherwise minor incident, I asked him what was he thinking and he said, ‘I was wondering what she’s inheriting from us?’ I added, ‘not just her but her whole generation’ and he nodded.

In a way, I had a first hand experience of witnessing the same old legacy that made us to suffer for more than 60 years, being effectively passed on to a child representing a generation that as yet, is oblivious to its past, present or future. The painful part, is the fact that, I’ve no idea about the number of children who would have got poisoned and polluted by this national legacy. Our sensationalized media onslaught and its indifference towards the people have added a reason to add to this pollution. Being a third generation Pakistani myself, I feel that so far my generation [including myself, of course] with our predecessors has failed this country. We as people, have made this a habit of failing and then absolving ourselves by expecting from others to undo our mistakes. I grew up listening to elders brooding about their past and hoping the next generation might turn the tide and would in the process also redeem them. That’s what our first two generations did and I hate to say this but I am afraid, this might well be the case with us.

I don’t know what would be our legacy when we die or may be, that would be irrelevant to history but we need to realize that we’ve to be responsible of ourselves and whatever little space we occupy around it. In all this heat of the excitement of making changes on the political horizon, we must not forget its social repercussions and the effect it leaves on the society as a whole. We have to be sure and mature to act and react responsibly, its not just us, it’s the children too who are affected because we have compromised them, their innocence is at stake here. We need to be very sure that what we consider to be progression is not regression, or even suppression, in disguise. This country cannot afford to lose another generation, we need to redefine not just ourselves but this mindset we have carried enough to know it won’t work anymore. This forged political and social culture has to mend its way before it gets too late.

A time for cautious optimism

Jehanzeb — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:42:40 +0000

Keeping all my personal reservations aside for today, I would like to congratulate the people who genuinely came out on the streets to demand the restoration of their Chief Justice. I wish them all the best and pray that their hopes become a reality and my fears fail me for good. And I wish that this would be a turning point in our people’s history so that wherever and whenever injustice takes place whether from the Baltoro glacier to the coastline of Jeewani they always come out and raise their voice to protest it. I hope that judicial activism would prevail at all levels and especially at the district courts [‘Kuchehri’] level, where widespread corruption is well known to everyone.

I expect people not to build huge towers of hopes so that it would become hard for them to come to terms with reality if, their expectations falter. Having too much and many expectations can be detrimental as well. When this entire hullabaloo would die down, people need to realize that this restoration wouldn’t be a panacea for all our ills. They can ill-afford to pin all their hopes on just one instrument of the state, there cannot be a sole solution. In their enthusiasm they shouldn’t overlook the fact, that there’s a parliament, which is also responsible to introduce legislations. The significance of the parliament and parliamentarians is paramount for the sustainability of the state and state is the most sacred of all, and it should be kept in mind that no institution or individual can be more powerful than the state.

Do celebrate without abondoning yourself to it but at the same time, proactively, exercise some cautious optimism.

May God bless Pakistan.

وعدے، وعدے اور صرف وعدے

Saeed — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:17:09 +0000

تمہیں یاد ہو کہ نہ یاد ہو

ہمیں یاد ہے وہ ذرہ ذرہ

Same old script!

Jehanzeb — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:01:10 +0000

The shenanigans of our political stalwarts are no different than Indian soaps, boring and predictable. I found myself amused by the adulatory tone of their speeches reminding me of a hit number by Def & Leppard ‘When Love and Hate Collide’. Ah! What maturity of thoughts and sorts we are experiencing, a new political dimension and dialect. The eloquence of word selection is both educating and enlightening the likes of which are unheard of.

So effectively, since Feb 25th, 2009 Pakistani democracy finally came home exactly after one year and one week when people mistakenly sent it to the parliament but it decided to go back on the streets instead. Now the same people, after their chosen ones, are beating the drums of waging another struggle to show their love for an elected government, all in the name of justice. They’ll be on their way marching towards the constitution avenue on the 16th of this month to pay their last respects to what’s remaining of the constitution of Pakistan and the institution of Supreme Court.

Well if my memory works better than that of the civil society and the legal fraternity, I still remember the SC was once before mauled in the name of justice and its CJ manhandled too. So should one expect of a re-telecast? Amidst such political camaraderie, the map of reconciliation is effectively re-drawn by both parties citing their own reasons in the interest of the nation and the state [though, I doubt this co-existence].

The role of media has raised quite a many eye-brows. Many wonder is media becoming a political entourage of dancers and backing singers, dancing and singing on politically infested tunes? The promotions they are running on their channels in disguise of ‘A Public Message’ are directly making them a party. Speculation about certain individuals being financed and influenced by certain political corners has been making news for sometime now. Surely our media cannot ensure 100% objectivity, they don’t have to tell us, we can see it already. Recently, Rupert Murdoch’s Twentieth Century FOX admitted to the fact that they were planting political brainwashing within its globally popular TV shows. Our media is certainly not immune to such phenomenon. [I like their song selection by the way]

With such widespread goodwill all around us I was wondering, if the attitude of our politicians is any different than that of a dictator? Chairman Mao Tse-tung had once said that the ‘power comes from the barrel of the gun’. In our case well everyone knows both political parties did come from the barrel of some dictator’s gun, so they should be grateful to dictators, had there been no dictatorships there wouldn’t have been anyone of them. By donning shalwar kameez, waist coat, and a three piece suite cannot make anyone any better, the mindset remains the same.

And all this while, I silently admire the patience, tolerance and the resilience of our people, you won’t find such an obedient crowd anywhere in the world, they move after every few years only to dance and celebrate when some new comes to power and then they go back to their spectator mode. So, they deserve the most of what’s going around, it’s their elected people so let them have a full chance to savor every episode of this political soap. In the meanwhile, let the country suffer.

US Drones attacking Pakistan are housed on Pakistani soil

Saeed — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:28:32 +0000

I was simply shocked to read this report by Teeth Maestro where he points out that the US drones firing missiles in the North Western Pakistani territory have been parked in our backyard all along, from where they are able to fly them and launch an attack within minutes.

In a shocking discovery reports have emerged from simply Google Earth images evidence of three drones parked on an airfield in some remote destination within Baluchistan, the images were captured by orbiting satellites and archived within Google Earth data warehouse to suddenly be discovered recently. Though there is no denying that during the Musharraf regime bases were rented out to the American army costing them a massive deficit to the tune of $10 Billion. But what probably irks the nation is that the Pakistani government have categorically denied that the Pakistani bases are being used to launch drones-

Omar Qureshi who writes for The News broke this discovery locally in Pakistan

The picture of the drones on the Pakistani soil, taken in 2006, has three drones, all Global Hawks. The picture has coordinates and they can be vaguely read as 27 degrees, 51 minutes North; 65 degrees, 10 minutes East. These coordinates place the strip not far from the nearby Jacobabad airbase which is around 28 degrees north, 68 degrees east.

One can easily verify the authenticity of the picture taken in 2006 with the 2009 image found online on Google Maps by merely inserting the above coordinates [or follow this LINK] in satellite mode

The Times Online also carried the report

The CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found. The Pakistani and US governments have repeatedly denied that Washington is running military operations, covert or otherwise, on Pakistani territory — a hugely sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim country.

The Pakistani Government has also repeatedly demanded that the US halt drone atacks on northern tribal areas that it says have caused hundreds of civilians casualties and fuelled anti-American sentiment. But The Times has discovered that the CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan — for at least a year. The strip, which is about 30 miles from the Afghan border, allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield.

But it all started a few days earlier when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee commented on 13th of February that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in Pakistan. The disclosure also marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein’s account was accurate.

While Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said Feinstein’s comments put Pakistan’s government on the spot.

If accurate, what this says is that Pakistani involvement, or at least acquiescence, has been much more extensive than has previously been known,” he said. “It puts the Pakistani government in a far more difficult position [in terms of] its credibility with its own people. Unfortunately it also has the potential to threaten Pakistani-American relations.

Chowrangi very rightly sums up the dilemma facing the people of Pakistan

But now the cat is out of the bag. So that is once more proved that how much regard American and our own government has for the people who reside in Pakistan. Their lives are of no value and our own government is involved in the killings. What a shame and what a sorry state of affairs. Another lie of our president has been caught and nobody knows how many more are on the way

For now the Government of Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do and just mere diversion tactics towards Musharraf might alone not help their case.

PakFellows Blog » Politics

When Will There be Tolerance towards Islam and Muslims?

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وعدے، وعدے اور صرف وعدے

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Same old script!

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