Combining Wahhabism and Capitalism to Destroy Islamic Heritage

The current controversy of the potential Saudi demolition of Riyad-Al-Jannah and the graves of Islamic Caliphs Abu Bakar and Omar is one in a long line of projects that the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil has undertaken to erase Islamic Heritage sites. The Saudi obsession with everything concrete and steel is a cause of concern for Muslims around the world. The construction of enormous towers and skyscrapers including the ghastly Mecca Clock Tower tell us something about the future plans of the Saudis.

A 2011 report by The Independent  paper titled “Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas” written by Jerome Taylor (who wrote the recent story about the planned Saudi destruction of Riyad-Al-Jannah etc), says that the Saudis are planning to turn Mecca into a playground for the rich, by building sky scrapers and luxury hotels that cater for the rich Muslims coming from all over the world. The same newspaper reported back in April 2006 about the Saudi construction rampage in Islam’s holiest sites.

Systematic destruction of the holy sites and building hotels and resorts is being backed by the blessings of its religious clerics, who endorse the destruction of the holy sites because of their (baseless) fear that idolatry might creep into Muslim ranks.  Wahhabism, which is an extreme and strict form of Islam that denounces the reverence of any holy site, is the official religion in Saudi Arabia. It is worth noting that the same brand of Islam is practiced by the Taliban who have been involved in the destruction of Bamyan Buddhas and the attack on the legendary Sufi Rehman Baba’s shrine  in Peshawar. However, the Wahabbi Kingdom seems to be on something more than destroying shrines, graves and imposing its own brand of Islam.

Even a cursory search reveals that the Saudis are embarking on a real estate and renewable energy projects as they plan for the future post 2030 when it is feared that the supply of oil, which generates 86% of the kingdom’s revenue, might start to dwindle thus forcing the Saudis to import additional oil from other countries. The Economist states that the rapid increase in demand for oil inside Saudi Arabia has increased by 37% and 65% of its electricity is generated by the oil that it produces. For now, increase in oil price has caused the wealth of Saudis to soar, quite literally, and their construction of the Kingdom Tower is a testament to the money flooding in.

But the increase in oil consumption, the increasing American reliance on Shale Gas , the expectation that Canada and Mexico might become the new middle east  and the awareness of  the fact that oil reserves would not last forever has led Saudi Arabia to consider alternate forms of revenue generation which include real estate, Hajj ( obviously),banking sector and other renewable forms of energy. Khalid Al Falih, the President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, reflects the future strategy of the Saudis when he says that Saudi Aramco wants to transform from an oil& gas company to a ‘global energy and chemicals enterprise’. Apart from energy sources, the real estate sector is booming thanks to the swelling population and the increase in tours by the increasingly affluent middle-class of the Muslim world.

So how does the new course of Saudi economy relate to destruction of Islam’s holy sites? In this regard, my hypothesis is that the Saudis under the valid pretext of real state expansion are destroying the holy sites by invoking the tenets of Wahhabism but on the other hand, in order to clear the way for capitalist expansion projects and to keep up with the rest of the world they are back tracking on the Wahabi doctrine which vehemently opposes all forms of modernization.  The real estate development and other modernization projects can be undertaken anywhere in the kingdom but it seems that the Wahabbi clerics are capitalizing on this opportunity to erase the early history of Islam and increase their hold on the religion. Few countries have dared to raise voice against this heinous crime of the destruction of Islamic holy sites, fearing diplomatic repercussions that might arise. Yet we Pakistanis Muslims scream over the depiction of the Prophet (PBHUH) in the western media, burn buildings, kill people and block websites in protests but do not raise a single voice when the house of Hazrat Khadija (R.A) is turned into a public toilet block and when the Saudi Islamic affairs ministry declares that “the green dome (of Masjid Nabwi) shall be demolished and the three graves flattened in the Prophet's Masjid".

The time to raise voice against this crime of titanic proportions is now!

Call for National Psychotherapy

Somewhere in the White House, US President Barack Hussein Obama was sitting with his generals and advisers in a live video conference with leaders of Israel and India. Obama is concerned that his plan to destroy Muslims is not going well and his allies haven’t been of much help.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his gentle and low voice squeaks in the screen, ‘Mr. Obama why do you look so worried?’

Obama who’s head is buried in his hands looks up at the screen and says, ‘Nothing Manu  bro, recently there haven’t been much attacks against Muslims, I think we are losing our steam’.

‘ No, we are not’ Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu in his strong Philadelphian accent chips in, ‘ we are trying to buy some major TV channels in Muslim countries so that we can indoctrinate their populations with our Zionist ideology’.

Obama looks up at Netanyahu and asks him, ‘how much money would I have to keep giving you to buy Muslim media and business assets? In case you haven’t realized, there’s a recession going on in here and my voters are keeping an eye on this one’ He said, anxiety apparent in his eyes.

‘As long as the media remains in our grip everything would be fine’ said Netanyahu.

‘ Don’t worry Sir Obama Sir, we have recruited Veena Malik and she would definitely do her best to defame Pakistani Military and ISI because if we destroy ISI and Pak Army, we can easily take over the Muslim world and my generals can finally enjoy a Jack Daniels at the Lahore Gymkhana’, chirped Manmohan Singh.

‘What if they treat her like Shakeel Afridi’ , Obama asked Manmohan.

‘ Oh  no no sir this is not possible sir, as you see we have quite a lot of liberal politicians and media anchors in our employ and they are doing their best to provide a cover for Veena” said Manmohan, self satisfaction evident in his voice.

‘ Hey OB’ Netanyahu said, ‘ I see that you are still looking worried , thinking that the  damage in the  Muslim world is not enough eh?’ asked the Israeli  PM. ‘ I have a plan’ he said dropping his voice conspiratorially low.

‘What ?’ said Obama now in a hushed voice and leaning towards the screen.

‘ Why don’t we publish another set of cartoons of the Muslim Prophet, that will enrage them for sure like it did last time’, said Netanyahu.

‘ I have got a better idea this time’ , said Obama, now smiling.’ Why don’t we make a  film this time, and then spread it all over, that will enrage the Muslims, and then they would peacefully protest, but we will insert our agents who will incite the peaceful Muslims to violence and we can all cheer as their shops and buildings and hospitals are burnt and razed to the ground’.

‘Hallelujah’ cried the Israeli and Indian Prime minister in unison.

Dear Readers, this conversation did not take place, so says logic common sense and media reports. However, it’s frightening to see how much of this fictional story can actually be viewed as truth by many Pakistanis. This is what we as a nation have become.

Targeting of everything American was the order of the day on Yaum-e- Ishq-e- Rasool . Yes, by the grace of Almighty, we burnt many infidel restaurants but in doing so, we also destroyed the lively hoods of many of our fellow citizens. My friend told me of a protestor who was beating a burning empty police car? I wondered why beat a burning police car, which has no infidel occupants? Children reveled in the carnage that ensued on the streets of Lahore Karachi Peshawar and Islamabad.  Adults looted medicine shops and burnt trucks and buses.

On that day, our nation showed symptoms of psychosis.

Psychosis is an aberration in mental health. The sufferer loses contact with reality. Delusions are a symptom of a psychosis. Delusion is an erroneous belief that does not have any  rational or logical foundation. One of the types of delusions characterized by psychologists is the delusion of persecution in which the person wrongly and irrationally believes that people are conspiring against him and desire nothing but to hurt him.  It is an observation of mine that a vast majority of Pakistanis have slipped into the Delusion of Persecution.  On  a simple matter of peacefully registering a protest, we took to the streets and after all was done we had the gumption to say that the movie and the ensuing violence was an American Zionist conspiracy because Muslims always conduct peaceful protests and that those Zionists and Yanks really want to destroy us.

After all this happening, can we still remain in denial and reject calls for a National Psychotherapy?

The Great Speech

In this blog post, I am not going to say much, but present to you the text from Mr. Jinnah's speech of 11th August 1947, which in my view is one of the greatest speeches ever in the history of Pakistan's existence and probably of the world. Before reading it just keep in mind that by the time Mr. Jinnah stood up to deliver the speech, almost 1 million people had died on both sides of the border. Many Pakistanis died because they believed in an idea, an idea that was Pakistan, a tolerant, safe and just Pakistan. And as Mr. Jinnah delivered his speech, imagine how much it would have meant to him and all those in the assembly that had devoted their lives to a great cause. This is a landmark speech that espoused the principles of democracy, tolerance and long forgotten Islamic values. This speech presented the idea of a Pakistan that Mr. Jinnah and all those who had died in the struggle had imagined. It is therefore very important to us to read and re read this speech and  try to re construct a Pakistan based on the guidelines that Mr. Jinnah presented to us. Here's the speech:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen!

I cordially thank you, with the utmost sincerity, for the honour you have conferred upon me – the greatest honour that is possible to confer – by electing me as your first President. I also thank those leaders who have spoken in appreciation of my services and their personal references to me. I sincerely hope that with your support and your co-operation we shall make this Constituent Assembly an example to the world. The Constituent Assembly has got two main functions to perform. The first is the very onerous and responsible task of framing the future constitution of Pakistan and the second of functioning as a full and complete sovereign body as the Federal Legislature of Pakistan. We have to do the best we can in adopting a provisional constitution for the Federal Legislature of Pakistan. You know really that not only we ourselves are wondering but, I think, the whole world is wondering at this unprecedented cyclonic revolution which has brought about the clan of creating and establishing two independent sovereign Dominions in this sub-continent. As it is, it has been unprecedented; there is no parallel in the history of the world. This mighty sub-continent with all kinds of inhabitants has been brought under a plan which is titanic, unknown, unparalleled. And what is very important with regards to it is that we have achieved it peacefully and by means of an evolution of the greatest possible character.

Dealing with our first function in this Assembly, I cannot make any well-considered pronouncement at this moment, but I shall say a few things as they occur to me. The first and the foremost thing that I would like to emphasize is this: remember that you are now a sovereign legislative body and you have got all the powers. It, therefore, places on you the gravest responsibility as to how you should take your decisions. The first observation that I would like to make is this: You will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State.

The second thing that occurs to me is this: One of the biggest curses from which India is suffering – I do not say that other countries are free from it, but, I think our condition is much worse – is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put that down with an iron hand and I hope that you will take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this Assembly to do so.

Black-marketing is another curse. Well, I know that blackmarketeers are frequently caught and punished. Judicial sentences are passed or sometimes fines only are imposed. Now you have to tackle this monster, which today is a colossal crime against society, in our distressed conditions, when we constantly face shortage of food and other essential commodities of life. A citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the biggest and most grievous of crimes. These blackmarketeers are really knowing, intelligent and ordinarily responsible people, and when they indulge in black-marketing, I think they ought to be very severely punished, because the entire system of control and regulation of foodstuffs and essential commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want and even death.

The next thing that strikes me is this: Here again it is a legacy which has been passed on to us. Along with many other things, good and bad, has arrived this great evil, the evil of nepotism and jobbery. I want to make it quite clear that I shall never tolerate any kind of jobbery, nepotism or any any influence directly of indirectly brought to bear upon me. Whenever I will find that such a practice is in vogue or is continuing anywhere, low or high, I shall certainly not countenance it.

I know there are people who do not quite agree with the division of India and the partition of the Punjab and Bengal. Much has been said against it, but now that it has been accepted, it is the duty of everyone of us to loyally abide by it and honourably act according to the agreement which is now final and binding on all. But you must remember, as I have said, that this mighty revolution that has taken place is unprecedented. One can quite understand the feeling that exists between the two communities wherever one community is in majority and the other is in minority. But the question is, whether it was possible or practicable to act otherwise than what has been done, A division had to take place. On both sides, in Hindustan and Pakistan, there are sections of people who may not agree with it, who may not like it, but in my judgement there was no other solution and I am sure future history will record is verdict in favour of it. And what is more, it will be proved by actual experience as we go on that was the only solution of India’s constitutional problem. Any idea of a united India could never have worked and in my judgement it would have led us to terrific disaster. Maybe that view is correct; maybe it is not; that remains to be seen. All the same, in this division it was impossible to avoid the question of minorities being in one Dominion or the other. Now that was unavoidable. There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be on end to the progress you will make.

I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish. Indeed if you ask me, this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and independence and but for this we would have been free people long long ago. No power can hold another nation, and specially a nation of 400 million souls in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. The people of England in course of time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their country and they went through that fire step by step. Today, you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist; what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and they are all members of the Nation.

Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.

Well, gentlemen, I do not wish to take up any more of your time and thank you again for the honour you have done to me. I shall always be guided by the principles of justice and fairplay without any, as is put in the political language, prejudice or ill-will, in other words, partiality or favouritism. My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and co-operation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world.

I have received a message from the United States of America addressed to me. It reads:I have the honour to communicate to you, in Your Excellency’s capacity as President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, the following message which I have just received from the Secretary of State of the United States:On the occasion of of the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly for Pakistan, I extend to you and to the members of the Assembly, the best wishes of the Government and the people of the United States for the successful conclusion of the great work you are about to undertake.

Because man is much more sexual in nature than women!

In Reply to Bina Shah (Nudity and the Niqab: The Debate Continues) __________________________________________________________________________ First, I would start by partially agreeing with your statement that women should be allowed to wear whatever they choose. Moreover, I wish that (to quote you) "One day, women will be free to make their own choices about their clothing, and men will simply have to get out of the way." Nevertheless, here is a question that arises when I read your blog; should there be a limit to what a woman chooses to wear? Should the women -and for that matter men as well-be allowed to wear literally anything that they want to wear? Can I as a man be allowed to walk into my office wearing nothing but white boxer shorts and a top hat? Will the office management allow me to wear that? If it doesn't, then should I brand my office management as myopic rigid and conservative shmucks?

The reason behind all this controversy on the niqabs, burkas, hijabs and abayas is the misunderstanding of the original message words of Quran. Hijab in the Quran is used to denote a modest dress. A sort of separation between men and women, it was not implied in the Quran as the covering of the whole female body as we see it today. In fact the word Hijab was misunderstood by the Islamic jurisprudents to mean 'satr' which implies covering up yourself, which if used in the context of Hijab, actually bars women from going outside and remain locked up inside their homes which of course is impractical. The basic premise of Quran is to place restrictions on both men and women in regards to their conduct outside their homes. But an important factor to consider here is that the verses were revealed back in the 7th century and were primarily meant to guide the Muslims in those formative years. However, the views that would have been perfectly sane and rational in those times cannot be held as practical in this era, that much we have to give to the Muslim liberals. If revisit the Quranic verses that order the women to remain covered and hidden in their houses, we find the following: “O wives of the Prophet! You are not as other women..." (33:32) "Remain in your houses." (33:33) Here we see that the restrictions that were reserved for the wives of the Prophet (PBUH) were taken by the jurisprudents to mean as general instructions for all the women. These instructions in those days were the ancient equivalent of modern security procedures regarding the family members of high-ranking officials and public figures, which of course can’t simply be applied to the public. What the Quran actually says is, "Say to the believing men to cast down their glance and guard their private parts..." (24:30), thus, it imposes a restriction on Muslim men and women regarding their conduct. And (to the chagrin of the liberals) these restrictions are neither fantastic nor impractical. In all the civilized western countries there laws against nudity as well as sexual offences. Society, thus itself imposes laws on what we wear and how we choose to act, something, which -to its credit-Islam outlined back in the 7th century AD. Yes, the concept of Hijab is there in Quran, but the Hijab that we refer today to as THE Hijab, is more related to the Arab culture, which we like to idealize in the same way as the medieval western nations idealized the Vatican and later the Renaissance gripped Europe idealized the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Thus, I leave it upon you to decide which culture you would like to follow and how much promiscuity would you be willing to allow in the society. I really do agree with your statement that women should be allowed to wear whatever they choose to wear but restrictions should be there, why? Because man is much more sexual in nature than women -Ref: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cultural-animal/201012/the-reality-the-male-sex-drive http://www.webmd.com/sex/features/sex-drive-how-do-men-women-compare It is this sexual nature of man that if suppressed or given a free ticket lead to sexual crimes. I again repeat that the extreme, suppression (in the case of Arab and South Asian cultures) and liberalization (in the case of Western nations) will only bring sexual harm to the women. Thus, restrictions on what women and men wear will I am afraid always be there but it depends whether we gravitate towards extreme conservatism or extreme liberalization or should we choose the middle way-the moderate way, which is neither liberal nor conservative. Miss Bina Shah's said blog can be accessed at http://binashah.blogspot.nl/2012/07/nudity-and-niqab-debate-continues.html

Reflections in a waiting queue

I am sitting on a conservatively designed computer terminal in the university, waiting for my transcript and completion letter. There is one trait that almost all education institutions around the world share, and that is their laziness to issue transcripts, I mean I have faced this issue in matric, then college, then the university ( in Pakistan) and now here all the way in Australia. The only improvement in this whole situation was the presence of a pretty looking damsel on the counter, otherwise in my experience it was either a man with a beard chewing pan, a grumpy looking pregnant woman or some bespectacled unshaven moron who had given up hope on living a life.

So now here I am nothing to do, and to while away the waiting hours I decided to write something. Actually it was the Coldplay song "The Scientist" that triggered some hitherto lost memory and made me reflect on the finite nature of everything. I am not a religious person at all, but that doesn’t mean I do not reflect on life and death and what happens afterwards. I like to believe that there is an afterlife but I don’t know if there is one. Maybe there is one, but our human mind is unable to grasp it. What if science can’t prove it in my lifetime, then what? Would I die as an unbeliever? Condemned to live in Hell? Or maybe I would just die and become the constituent matter of the soil on which barley would grow and a grain would just fall due to the wind and be pecked by a hen which in turn would be collected by its owner who would sell it in the market and where it would be cut, skinned and reduced to cutlets and end up on the table of a local politician who would, when filled up, would proceed to plot the death of some rival and the circle of life would carry on. How would my skeleton rise out of the grave on the day of judgement I don’t know. Looks like a zombie apocalypse to me. All I know is that earliest traces of this concept lie in the Egyptian concept of the Kingdom of the Dead. But some people are dead before they even die, their souls or their amygdala part of the brain is dead, for if it was not, then what induces them to kill other humans- Extinguish a Life. They don’t only extinguish a life but they also kill a story. The story of a person who might have had the opportunity to live right up to a ripe old age and relate the story of his life to his grandchildren, lessons that they would retain in their minds for the rest of their lives but who wouldn’t be able to do that now just because there is a soul-less zombie who killed that person in the name of a deity whose nature has been changing from the Mesopotamian Marduk to Yahweh and then Allah. May be that deity is there. Up there somewhere looking down upon the petty conglomeration of cells and molecules we call humans, who kill in the name of His when they have not even seen, heard or even felt Him. May be He was there, back in the good old days, but maybe He has left, He has left this planet and gone over to experiment on some other civilization residing on a planet millions of light years away. Who knows? That's the statement that I KNOW has and will be forever echoing in the story of human civilization. Anyways, I should go over to check whether the documents have arrived or not. Feels good to write, doesn’t it :)