http://tribune.com.pk/story/180431/a-question-of-faith-repeal-blasphemy-law-or-make-it-flawless/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/422933/hate-crime-legislation/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/407850/visualising-a-tolerant-pakistan/
Today as I write there has been a bomb attack on a bus in Karachi in which one is reported dead and ten injured, on a bus carrying Shia students for a protest rally in favor of AlQuds in Palestine. Who did this horrendous act is unknown as it remains unknown who pulled down the 20 Shia Pakistanis from their bus in Northern Pakistan and killed them in cold blood last evening..Before the Afghan War, Pakistan was a peaceful, tolerant country.Even before that as the Saudi/Salafist influence was relatively less all over the world, Pakistan was a peaceful country. As I read the memoirs of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar in India, I became aware of how pre-partition Indian muslims were invited by the Saudis to build up their infrastructure including canals and also the Indian Muslim religious scholars to address and educate the students and religious universities in Saudi Arabia. Many a religious scholars from India had great influence on these earlier Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia. These scholars were tolerant and open to ideas as they had to interact with a Hindu population in India. How this tolerant behaviour and teaching changed into extremely violent/Jihadist mentality so much so that even other sects of the same religion are not tolerated remains a dilemma!
The influx of Saudi funded schools all over Pakistan has its links to the preparation for Afghan jihad but the same massive influx all over Central Asian states describes a very deliberate plan.How much of this is related to US designs is a question which eludes even the most well read scholars of politics.
Pre- Afghan Jihad, some later Muslim Salafist teachers were sent to Afghanistan like maulvi Azam, to teach in universities and pave way for a force of religious teachers which will inculcate a sense of Jihad amongst the religious seminary students all across Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal and northern areas. This plan was masterminded by the US security establishment and was implemented by the Saudi Royal rulers.What happened in the Afghan Jihad and what happened after the US left this area is there for all to see. My dilemma is that who supported the spectre of Usama Bin Laden and what is the reality of this spectre?
Pakistan is imploding and will continue to do so for quite some time till natural forces of balance of existence take place as happens in history.Now that Usama Bin laden is killed we as a nation that is tearing apart its own innards, needs to really answer and introspect these questions:
How many of us 180 million people want to stay as a federation in Pakistan?
Is Pakistan a reality? or is it a farcical ideology?
Can we separate the artificial establishment/pseuodo religious overarching thrust to our ideology from the modern statehood principles and requirements?
Can Pakistan survive as a confederation?
What can be the clauses of the new social contract?
The taliban culture (which is the artificial culture that resulted from Afghan Jihad) is doomed to fail. It does not nurture a society where women and children are not exploited. Eventually it will be wiped out but a massive damage to the inhabitants will be done before that. all educational institutions and infrastructure like roads , bridges that the army built in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa are destroyed.
The present killings of Shias, the migration of Hindus to India and the religious persecution of Ahmedis and Christians is part of this implosive process. The average common man of Pakistan , whether literate or illiterate is loving, God fearing, kind, hard working and un-prejudiced. If he is saved from the clutches of the vested interests be they of religious actors, establishment, corrupt officialdom,he can perform his duties better. After the response to any natural disaster in Pakistan , my belief in the average Pakistani has become that of confidence and strength.Only a free political process where he is truly made to make his choice ,he will choose education, health services, access to justice,dignified labor
and freedom as his priorities.
Religion and violence is not an issue with the Pakistani citizen. It is being thrust upon him with full force since the Afghan Jihad. The only hope is with the renewal of the new social contract that is Pakistan. The establishment must find its own soft belly. The Pakistani citizen must have the right to make his choice. There is no other way forward for Pakistan.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/422933/hate-crime-legislation/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/407850/visualising-a-tolerant-pakistan/
Today as I write there has been a bomb attack on a bus in Karachi in which one is reported dead and ten injured, on a bus carrying Shia students for a protest rally in favor of AlQuds in Palestine. Who did this horrendous act is unknown as it remains unknown who pulled down the 20 Shia Pakistanis from their bus in Northern Pakistan and killed them in cold blood last evening..Before the Afghan War, Pakistan was a peaceful, tolerant country.Even before that as the Saudi/Salafist influence was relatively less all over the world, Pakistan was a peaceful country. As I read the memoirs of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar in India, I became aware of how pre-partition Indian muslims were invited by the Saudis to build up their infrastructure including canals and also the Indian Muslim religious scholars to address and educate the students and religious universities in Saudi Arabia. Many a religious scholars from India had great influence on these earlier Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia. These scholars were tolerant and open to ideas as they had to interact with a Hindu population in India. How this tolerant behaviour and teaching changed into extremely violent/Jihadist mentality so much so that even other sects of the same religion are not tolerated remains a dilemma!
The influx of Saudi funded schools all over Pakistan has its links to the preparation for Afghan jihad but the same massive influx all over Central Asian states describes a very deliberate plan.How much of this is related to US designs is a question which eludes even the most well read scholars of politics.
Pre- Afghan Jihad, some later Muslim Salafist teachers were sent to Afghanistan like maulvi Azam, to teach in universities and pave way for a force of religious teachers which will inculcate a sense of Jihad amongst the religious seminary students all across Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal and northern areas. This plan was masterminded by the US security establishment and was implemented by the Saudi Royal rulers.What happened in the Afghan Jihad and what happened after the US left this area is there for all to see. My dilemma is that who supported the spectre of Usama Bin Laden and what is the reality of this spectre?
Pakistan is imploding and will continue to do so for quite some time till natural forces of balance of existence take place as happens in history.Now that Usama Bin laden is killed we as a nation that is tearing apart its own innards, needs to really answer and introspect these questions:
How many of us 180 million people want to stay as a federation in Pakistan?
Is Pakistan a reality? or is it a farcical ideology?
Can we separate the artificial establishment/pseuodo religious overarching thrust to our ideology from the modern statehood principles and requirements?
Can Pakistan survive as a confederation?
What can be the clauses of the new social contract?
The taliban culture (which is the artificial culture that resulted from Afghan Jihad) is doomed to fail. It does not nurture a society where women and children are not exploited. Eventually it will be wiped out but a massive damage to the inhabitants will be done before that. all educational institutions and infrastructure like roads , bridges that the army built in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa are destroyed.
The present killings of Shias, the migration of Hindus to India and the religious persecution of Ahmedis and Christians is part of this implosive process. The average common man of Pakistan , whether literate or illiterate is loving, God fearing, kind, hard working and un-prejudiced. If he is saved from the clutches of the vested interests be they of religious actors, establishment, corrupt officialdom,he can perform his duties better. After the response to any natural disaster in Pakistan , my belief in the average Pakistani has become that of confidence and strength.Only a free political process where he is truly made to make his choice ,he will choose education, health services, access to justice,dignified labor
and freedom as his priorities.
Religion and violence is not an issue with the Pakistani citizen. It is being thrust upon him with full force since the Afghan Jihad. The only hope is with the renewal of the new social contract that is Pakistan. The establishment must find its own soft belly. The Pakistani citizen must have the right to make his choice. There is no other way forward for Pakistan.
