Putting a Paki on the Moon

The soil that we tread on is a great witness to the evolution of humanity, from caves to the high-rise buildings of cold metal and hard brick. These sand particles and the pebbles have borne the footsteps of Prophets, Messiahs, Writers, Inventors, Conquerors and Philosophers. They have seen what we have not seen, for we the humans mostly tend to forget what we did in the past and what are we capable of doing.

As I tread on a small pebble strewn path near my university under the night sky, I look up at the crescent above me. It is comforting to feel earth’s closest space neighbor’s cool bluish light on me. As I look up, I can’t help but focus my eyes on a patch of moon where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed. That first step on 20^th July 1969 was the epitome of USA’s advancement in science and technology. No other country has done it since the Apollo missions and it is unlikely to repeat that feat for another two or three decades.

Then a very crazy thought entered my head, but the thought was ridiculous, verging on blasphemous. I ignored it and continued my nighttime walk.

I came back and tried to forget what I had just thought but the thought somehow stuck. Then another thought came in. This one more ridiculous than the other. I laughed at it, this second thought was to write down and share the first thought that had come in my head. I told myself that if I ever write it down I would be branded as a “Lunatic” ( ah the irony of words).

But then my mind is like PM Gillani and my thoughts like Zardari. The former always succumbs to the pressure exerted by the latter. So here I am, penning out what I had thought that night.

Pakistan needs a Man on the Moon.

Now go on laugh, of course I can’t blame you, can I ? How can a nation suffering from electricity and gas shortages, strikes, war, death and destruction, who doesn’t (apparently) has money to build even a dam can ever EVER dare to hope to put a man in space let alone the moon. It seems like disrespect, mocking if you like, to the sufferings of a nation consisting of 180 million souls, 63% of whom fall under the age of 25 and where the literacy rate hovers somewhere around 50% and whose population still believes that Neil Armstrong really did hear Azan on the moon despite the fact that sound needs air to travel-And there’s no air on the moon!

But, just bear a few moments with me and imagine, what would it be like to have the Pakistani flag on the lunar surface. Wouldn’t it be exhilarating? Wouldn’t it be just a pleasure to show your passport on the airport and not have eyes brows raised but be greeted with a smile because you belong to a nation that had just conquered the moon from the Americans, to have the world label you as bold space entrepreneurs rather than as a nation of conservatives and blowhards. To think that the world would be a better place with the achievement of a crippled nation sending a man to the moon and ushering the world into a new space age seems like stuff from a Hollywood movie. But allow me to make an argument here. If a nation with a literacy rate of 50 % can make cruise missiles, a nation where a sewing needle is imported from China can make a nuclear device, a nation where half the population can’t even afford a computer, can boast world’s youngest Microsoft certified professionals, cannot build a rocket and lunar vehicle to take a man to the moon, I would say you are kidding me.

When we spend more than 43 billion dollars in fighting “our own people” for some nation thousands of miles away from us, when we spend more than 60 million dollars to help those affected by the war on terrorism, when our military budget increases with each passing year, where the security expenses of the PM and the President per annum alone surpass the 500,000 dollar figure and then you tell me we can’t afford to put a man on the moon. I say you sir are kidding me.

It is at times like these where nations can either rise or sink. Just like that tight ropewalker about to jump to safety after walking the whole length can either slip and fall or safely step on the ledge and take a bow, imagine Pakistan to be that tight ropewalker. Albeit, small, emaciated, starved, crippled and limping. I say costs don’t matter. What matters is the will of the people to leave a mark on history. That’s a common feeling that’s shared by people who believe in team effort, who believe that no matter what, obstacles can be overcome. Nations like these are powered by the almighty trinity of Youth, Intellectuals and Military. And believe you me. Pakistan has that. Just think, how much Pakistan can gain in technology when its every engineer would be involved in the lunar mission, imagine the number of technologies that would be introduced, the billions of foreign investment, new management practices, newly emerging centers of Pakistani economy, explosion of educational institutes, the flood of engineers and entrepreneurs, Pakistan would be changed forever and with it the South Asian region, or may be the whole world itself. Pakistan’s name would become a by word for heroism, adventurism , inspiration and motivation. When schoolchildren will read poems about the Pakistani mission to the moon rather than King Bruce and the Spider.

Imagine a day when every Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtun, Punjabi, Sunni, Shia, Barelvi, Ahmadi, Wahhabi, would be looking at that shiny sphere in the sky, as one single entity all thinking the same thing:

“Has it landed yet?”

Islamic Reformation in Pakistan?

We are after all, children of the sun. Adam himself would not have existed if the sun did not shine its rays on Earth, thus triggering life creating processes, processes that created bacteria, which evolved into quadrupeds, then bipeds, the evolution culminating with the ‘creation of man’ ( Ashraful Makhluqat).

Now, I have just written a few lines and I am already guilty of heresy by accepting evolution. Now I must await the proclamation of my excommunication by the religious zealots of Pakistan. It is funny, that the fatwa in Pakistan is subject to how much you have to feed the Mullah to keep him quiet.

Less Money More Fatwa.

That is where we stand. We might call for revolution in politics but the real revolution in our character is still asleep, somewhere, in the middle of nowhere. People who choose to follow the tradition of Averroes (Ibn-e-Rushd) and Avicenna (Ibn-e- Sina) rather than the tradition of Taimur or Ghaznvi are a rarity in this country of ours. In fact, the rise of militant conservative Islam corresponds directly with the reformation of Europe and the rise of the Colonial Powers.

From the days of its inception, Islam more or less has had militant minded adherents. Not that it’s a bad thing (militancy is crucial to a religion or state’s ascendancy to power-Materialism 101) but our militancy has always led to our decline. Take the crusades for example. Though a military victory, it was a strategic disaster for the Muslims because all the knowledge flowed from the east to the dark and dingy universities of Europe where it was used to reform the religious beliefs and the society, thereby ushering medieval Europe in to the Golden Age, while the Muslims gloried themselves in swords and cannons. Militancy is not a problem of religion but a problem originating with its adherents.

It has been proven repeatedly that religion alone cannot bind people together, because every time it does, things like democracy, freedom of speech and human rights start to creep in, which subsequently leads to death and destruction.

I am not against religion, what I am against is, is the use of religion to exploit the masses. Whether sacrificing humans (war prisoners) in an Aztec Temple, bringing down the walls of Jericho by the ancient Jews, murder of hundreds of thousands of women on suspicion of being witches by the Christian ecclesia, or using suicide bombers to target people on the streets in the name of Allah, the most beneficent and the most merciful, religion has always been exploited.

The common people have always been exploited and led to ‘believe’ that their faith alone is the right one. Who to believe and who not to believe, that’s a question that ultimately rests in the hands of an individual but sadly for a Pakistani, this decision is taken away from his hands and placed in the hands of a chosen few who dictate our beliefs.

These elites in order to fool people, sometimes attempt to combine science and religion, therefore those scientific ideas that are compatible with the dominant religion are acceptable while those that question the religious tenets are deemed heretical. Thus using Quranic texts in our grade 9 and 10 science books to compensate for verifiable scientific facts is nothing short of funny. Averroes and Ibn-e- Sina would be laughing. It seems that the Quran today is used to explain everything except existing and declining social morals, which it was solely revealed for. Somehow, we turn a blind eye towards ayahs about honesty, dealings with neighbors and how to change ourselves.

It seems to me that the “Ummah” is one confused lot. And this confusion is visible in mass conversions from the Muslim faith in the Middle East and some other countries. Also, the oft-repeated statement that Islam is the fastest growing religion is true, not because of missionary success but our exploits on the bed. Thus in my opinion an Islamic reformation is overdue. Especially in Pakistan, this reformation is super overdue because no nation is as caught up in an identity crisis than ours. On one hand, we have a thoroughly secular Supreme Court of Pakistan and on the other hand is the Federal Sharia Court, which is thoroughly steeped in Islamic orthodoxy. The existence of two judicial systems in one country is indeed laughable if not downright nonsensical.

So why don’t we abandon this confusion and just follow the Quaid’s vision, which was to create a free secular society where everybody is free to go to his temple , mosque or whatever his or her place of worship is.

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