2+2=5 ?

When the protagonist of the classic Orwell novel 1984 is asked during torture whether 2+2 equals 5, he wonders if the state makes it true and everybody is made to believe it, does that make 2+2=5 true?

Used in a novel published in 1949, Orwell’s allegory for totalitarianism, revisionism and the sheep like behavior of gullible citizens still rings true. 

Pakistan too suffers from this 2+2=5 syndrome. Does our educational system produce a crop of students who are able to think out of the box, challenge existing notions and have the courage to bring change? Is creativity encouraged or discouraged. Sadly the answer to these questions is no. Our educational system does not produce such a crop of students and yes, creativity is discouraged. Barring the institutions that are located in our apparently progressive and elite urban bubbles, curiosity and questioning is discouraged, though putting the blame solely on the educational system would be unfair. 

Take a look at our culture, after all every institution that exists in this country is derived from our culture. Does our culture promote values of free speech, encourage curiosity and applaud change?

Years ago when studying biology in my 9^th class, our teacher skipped the chapter on evolution because it was un-Islamic.  In my 2^nd year, my physics teacher spent two class sessions explaining to us in no less detail about the physical and mathematical proofs of Shab e Mairaj. No questions were asked, nor were we expected to ask. Who would have dared to ask? 

Including religious content in school textbooks and especially scientific textbooks discourages the student’s ability to think and reason with an open mind. Recently, Maulana Sherani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology called for ‘introducing a uniform system of education throughout the country, integrating religious teachings with the contemporary, mainstream education’. In other words, he envisions a madrassafied educational system of Pakistan while remaining completely oblivious to the rising sectarian tensions, religious extremism and economic strife. But Maulana sahib is a product of this system, what else he could have said?

Putting aside educational institutions, would questioning our values be allowed in our culture? The images of Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti and Sabeen Mehmud pop up as a warning. Question and you will share the same fate. Many pens stop. Many cerebral cogs cease to work. The murderer of Sabeen Mehmud was an IBA graduate, but more so he was the product of this culturally constrained educational machinery. When confronted with facts which threaten to bring down everything you have been taught to believe is true, turning to violence is only but natural. What sort of educated aalim was Aamir Liaquat Husain when he spewed vicious comments on the Ahmadi minority on live television? Weren’t those who introduced Blasphemy law and laying foundations of hatred towards no Muslims, products of this system?

Extremism is a product of this system and it exists on both ends of our country’s religious spectrum. Moderation is but a wispy figment of our imagination. 

Look at the scenario unfolding on Pakistani social media. The people either out rightly accept a news or out rightly reject it. Everything is seen in a George Bush-esque black and white perspective. The amount of vitriol that is spewed out, the amount of hate that is generated, the number of unfounded accusations passionately advocated, give us an insight into the mind of an educated and tech savvy Pakistani- the so called future. The exploits of Imran Khan’s social media supporters have been discussed by every respected journalist. Say anything about PTI and you would be harassed by trolls who will insist on you to take your words back. Scratch that, you will find many extremist organizations like ASWJ running their social media accounts with ease and spreading their toxic ideology to the gullible and mostly young social media users. Don’t forget the Rawalpindi sponsored ghairat brigade as well. Criticize the ‘boys’ and you will face an onslaught of jingoist zombies who will make you cringe with their indoctrinated wisdom.

 Moderation has become but a wispy figment of our imagination. The age old machinery continues to churn out more obsolete products.

The practice of revisionism and adding religious hues to textbooks that started in Bhutto’s time, intensified in Zia’s era and given an added momentum in Musharraf’s years has put Pakistan on a path which only leads to religious fascism. 

No matter how much funds are reserved for educational growth, it still won’t matter if the children are taught to believe in the superiority of their own faith, suspect minorities and present faith inspired counter arguments. Our textbooks glorify the battles between Muslims and Hindus. The Hindus are introduced as uncultured folk who are shown the light of culture by the Muslim invaders. And they always end up deceiving Muslims. Imagine being a Hindu child in a Pakistani classroom. In our secondary level social studies textbooks, Muslims of Pakistan are always told to be related to Arabs, Turks and Persians. No link to South Asia is ever mentioned. One religion is taught to be made up of a Master Race and other minority religions are taught to consist of second class citizens. What sort of adults will our children become after being fed with such drivel? Outside of academic institutions, people around these children continue to inculcate them with ideas of segregation, intolerance and being subservient to the existing moth eaten culture which has brought Pakistan to this state where governance without patronage of criminal activities is impossible and where vote is still given on caste, creed and connections not on the manifesto and resume.

For these moth eaten societal structures to change we have to ask ourselves the ultimate questions

If your religion says that 2+2=5, would you accept it?
If your culture says that 2+2=5, would you accept it?

Another Islamophobic Movie: Please Ignore

After numerous deaths, burnings, protests, suicide attacks, website bans and religio-jingoism laced TV Talk Shows later, it seems like we are going back to square one.  Another Anti Islam ‘movie’ called, The Innocent Prophet - Life of Muhammad from the Point of View of an Ex-Muslim, is being released by an ‘Ex-Muslim’ and a Pakistani refugee in Spain, named Imran Firasat. The usual suspects Dr. Terry Jones and Islam Watch .Org are collaborating on the film project, which is supposed to be a documentary questioning whether the Prophet of Islam promoted peace and showing how Islam spreads violence. The tried and tested formula of spewing out amateurish and laughable Anti Islamic bilge in the name of Freedom of Expression is again being used.

Imran Firasat

The documentary was supposed to be released on 14th December 2012, but after a fierce back lash from Muslim groups, and most importantly, after warnings by the government of Spain that he might be deported back to Pakistan if he continues with the attempt, Imran Firasat has decided to temporarily delay the launch of his documentary which he says will be released online after he has shown the authorities that  there is “nothing in this movie which doesn´t fall under the right of freedom of expression” and which, “will not cause any kind of loss to humanity”. You are allowed to roll your eyes.

What is anticipated from this documentary is more Anti Islam rhetoric and what is also expected is the violent Muslim reaction which will certainly lead to a couple of deaths and after a few days, when all the hate from either side has been spilled out, when Muslim conservatives will have strengthened their positions in their respective societies, this incident will be forgotten. The perpetrators of anti Islamic speech will again prepare for a hate campaign, which as the trend shows are becoming more moronic with each attempt.

But, let us not give importance to an another kiddish attempt against Islam, it pains me when I see innocent lives lost over things that will be forgotten after a couple of days, what will not come back are the persons who will lose their lives.

But having said that it is worth noting that the amount of content vilifying Islam and Muslims has increased as of late, and thanks to the clerics from our side, the anti Islam hatemongers  are finding themselves publicized without any advertising overhead to worry about. Let’s face it; The Innocence of the Muslims would not have spread like a wildfire if the Egyptian clerics hadn’t showed the clips on national televisions. And it’s not that the Muslims are violent by nature, it’s just that if you keep playing the hateful images again and again in front of an already infuriated audience, you are bound to incense them further. This is what George W Bush and Co. did with the American public by stamping the images of burning Twin Towers on the minds of ordinary American citizens and created a war hysteria that would see Iraq and Afghanistan devastated and USA slumping into recession.

The solution to these issues lies not in more violence, but providing logical counter arguments to the detractors. In reacting violently against such rubbish attempts to malign the Muslim World , it would be a much better option if we made movies, documentaries and arranged interfaith conferences that reflect the Islam that our Prophet (PBUH) preached and not the Islam that Terry Jones and Imran Firasat want the world to believe.  It astonishes me to see that how easily we fall for the tricks of these hate mongers and forget the lessons of peace and patience that Islam has taught us. It pains me to see that we readily ignore the works of many Islamic organizations in western countries who strive day and night to promote the real Islam while Terry Jones and Co. get prime time space on our TV sets.  Yes, sooner or later, this hate-filled documentary is going to be released and yes, the Islamophobes will continue to indulge in their odium against Islam, but we have to show ourselves to be above such irrational, imprudent and comic attempts. There are better and more peaceful ways to protest. My request to religious leaders is to show responsibility and calm the masses should any attempt is made.

The last words belong to a homeopathy student Sabahat Siddiqui, who in response to this incident told me,

If the world desires any kind of peace, there must be laws to stop such hateful material to be made or published against any religion! All faiths are from the God and should be respected likewise.

Aliens, Earthlings and the Universe

The next time you find yourself walking in the dark (power outage, grid down, headed towards robbing a house, escaping a rapist, running from the police etc) under the night sky, give a moment or two (depending on the time you have) to the sky above you and observe the shimmering points of light we call stars. Look at the moon and feel it’s cool light.  Look up and you might be unaware that you are looking through the window of planet earth’s sky, into the vast and eerily quiet universe, breathtaking in its beauty and menacingly destructive in its power. 

Before you look up, look down, feel the night breeze, hear the distant bark of a dog, meow of a cat, caw of a crow, sound of a truck trundling by, rustling of the leaves, feel the earth in motion around you, this conglomeration of ‘Beliebers’, neo Nazis, Muslims, Christians, Giants Fans, rocks, gases and liquids is a rocky planet, one of the two billion rocky planets which scientists estimate, are similar to ours. In the universe containing up 100 billion galaxies (and counting) the figure of earth like planet goes to trillions.

Now look up and think before resuming your walk that, there are a trillion or so planets out there, wouldn’t it be stupidly naïve to think that we are the only living beings who possess cognitive intelligence?  What if somebody out there, may be your age, might be looking up, at you, in the same way you are looking up at the night sky, in a random direction, may be that extra terrestrial ( alien) lies in that direction, both of you divided by the barriers of time and space. What if one day, one of those beings from another galaxy, got smart enough and devised a smart way to reach your planet. Then what would happen? What would befall your beliefs, which tell you about man being in the centre of the universe? The alien that will visit you might or might not believe in a higher deity at all. Its technology would be far far…I mean...far superior than ours and probably would be something that our minds can’t even come to grips with. Why?  Because it takes a civilization of an unimaginable power, intelligence to cross the vast intergalactic distances. It takes the light 2 million years from the nearest Andromeda galaxy to reach our planet Earth. 2 million years. 2 million years ago, the first species of apes from which us humans were to evolve appeared. So if you look up again turn your head to the north east of the sky and observe a certain compressed W pattern, the faint smudge of light on the right of the upper half of the W is your Andromeda  galaxy ( if you can’t find it , then don’t worry, most cant!).  But, bear this in mind, the light that is entering your eyes from that faint smudge of light is already two million years old, when the first of your ancestors were roaming the plains of Africa, shirtless, pant-less, headphones-less and iPod-less. Distances are vast; time is limitless, always ticking.

Coming back to our alien civilization and its assumed power, we would find this alien civilization doing scientific investigations on us in the same we do experiments on guinea pigs, rats and monkeys. The explanation of their behavior lies in our perception of whether it’s ok to conduct gruesome experiments on other living beings or not. May be the aliens who are visiting us regard us in the same way; we regard the ants or cock roaches. Perspective.

Now look around, you see that old woman, feeble on her legs, slowly crossing the road, see that unshaven 40-year-old man heading back home, bills and children’s fees on his mind, take a look at the coolly dressed teen heading to a friend’s house. Imagine how an alien arrival would affect them. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492 to Americas, the resulting visitation of Europeans nearly wiped off the native American-Indian tribes whose bodies didn’t have any sort of protection against the diseases that the Europeans carried with them, e.g. small pox. What diseases, what plagues would an alien visitation bring on earthlings? Ever wondered about that?

Now look at yourself and place yourself in the grand order of the universe. The ant eats a grain, the chicken eats the ant, you eat the chicken, you die, you become part of the soil, on which the grain grows and the whole process repeats itself until a giant asteroid smashes into earth and  strips it of all things living. Or what if an alien spaceship comes across our earth and destroys it not unlike ourselves destroying ant mounds or bird’s nests for no apparent reason other than fun. And all of this is just a minute event in the trillion of events happening in the universe. Nothing is special in this universe. Only if we are able to control the movements of the atoms, the spin of a galaxy, the explosion of a supernova, the movement of giant clusters of galaxies, then we can say that we might be something special. Might be.

But here we are, engaged in petty battles and schemes when we should be engaging in exploring the universe.  The modern age owes its existence to Columbus and his peer’s dedication to exploration.  And until and unless we find a way to restrain our incessant plotting and scheming against each other and set out to explore the worlds beyond our planet, then we might just usher ourselves into a new age of exploration an age of new scientific understanding, reason and cultural revolution.

Neither Can Live While the Other Survives

Brian Greene in his book, The Fabric of Cosmos, while explaining about the Principle of Equivalence to the layman, writes,

  “Right now you feel gravity’s influence. If you are standing, your feet feel the floor supporting your weight. If you are sitting, you feel the support somewhere else. And unless you are reading in a plane or a car, you probably also think that you are stationary-that you are not accelerating or even moving at all. But according to Einstein, you are actually accelerating. Since you’re sitting still this sounds a little silly, but don’t forget to the usual question: 

 Accelerating according to what benchmark? Accelerating from whose viewpoint? "

According to Einstein, absolute space provides a benchmark. Now you might wonder why I am boring you with some obscure physics principles, here’s the reason why.

The reason I mentioned this obscure and murky scientific principle was to draw a comparison to the human society. How do we judge a society’s moral values? What benchmark do we have to declare that such and such activity in a society is wrong or unjustified? Take the case of wine for example. In one culture (to be precise a religion) drinking wine is forbidden while in another wine is allowed. They both have their own benchmarks to judge their values against and both claim that they are right. But how does a person like me who is neither here nor there choose between the two? That is what I am stuck on. What absolute benchmark should I choose to define belief, my moral values, the way I live life. Or should I be my own boss.

 Religion is something that I believe should be avoided in creating a benchmark to judge anyone or anything? Why? Because there are a gazillion other religions out here and each professes that, it is right and divinely inspired. So many religions. So many followers, all vying for the coveted position of being close to the Lord. One claims that the Messiah hasn’t come yet, another says that the Messiah came , got crucified and caught a flight to Heaven and will come back soon to fight evil doers, while the last one basically says that the Messiah will come at the end of times but he would just be a subordinate of its own Prophet, who was the last in the long and illustrious line of Prophets.

 Every religion is contradicting each other that thus creates a need for an absolute benchmark, which can be used to judge and choose between right and wrong, and one that can be accepted by all. But here’s the catch. The human society does not work this way. There is no singular universally agreed guidebook that we earthlings have, that we can use for guidance and to distinguish between what right and what wrong. And the reason why they are not yet in existence is because of a small little code in our DNA.

Since man is nothing but the pinnacle of biological, evolution that has taken several billion years, it is thus a fact that we are the best version of a genetic program that has undergone an untold number of revisions , one particular code in this program pertains to survival. Humans didn’t build houses or discover fire for scientific or aesthetic purposes, they built and discovered for survival, i.e. survival of their species. It s a code that stretches back to the days when we were primitive bacteria swimming in earth’s primeval oceans.

 But this code actually has transcended mere body protection to the active defense of ideas and beliefs. These ideas and beliefs are the reason for a community’s survival and war is a tool of protection for its survival and continuation of its values. Different beliefs thus co-existing is a feel-good thought but one that is just a mirage. It is like the prophecy about Harry Potter and Voldemort which says “Neither can live while the other survives” why? Because the expansion of one belief system would come at the cost of contraction of another. And that’s where our survival code kicks in.

USA didn’t kick out Soviet communism because it was evil? It fought against it because the expansion of Soviet bloc would undermine the progress of USA and its capitalist allies.

A Nuclear Armageddon

 Even the religions are not immune to the effects of this evolutionary code. The concept of Armageddon, which is so widespread in the Abrahamic religions actually says that peace will only be created when all the earthlings are converted to one faith only . Just One Faith. There is no room in the scripture for diverse faiths. Yes, you can co-exist for a while but when the Messiah comes, you have no choice but to submit to his faith otherwise you are on the highway to hell.

 So try judging that against a benchmark!

There will be no benchmark to judge these actions unless one is actually decided unanimously by the earthlings, which leaves no room for dissent. And to leave no room for dissent means destroying the opposing ideas and belief. It’s a sinister aspect of life, but one with which we have to live with.

Did we misunderstood the Devil ?

A question came into my mind and I need to answer it. Where do all these villains come from? Voldemort, Darth Vader, Shafqat Cheema, Hitler, Stalin, Nixon, how do they become the persons they are? Is it entirely their own fault? Wrong choices as we are often led to believe. Or, does the fault lies with the society in which those people grow up. Or, does the blame lies on both parties.

Evil has been there. Ever since man decided to be inquisitive. Curious of either knowledge, wealth or the opposite sex. They say that curiosity killed the cat but in Adam’s example, curiosity spawned advanced civilizations.

The many quests to explain the advent of evil and villainy represents mankind’s effort to make sense of the universal dichotomy, i.e. yin and yang, good and evil, black and white, left and right. But there is a flaw to this dichotomy. Enter Relativity.

What may be construed as something bad in one culture might be completely acceptable in another culture. For example, kissing a woman in public is considered scandalous and unethical in Asian cultures, while in western civilization its part of their daily life. An interesting observation that I have made in my studies is that the culture of a civilization in which a religion occurs, enormously affects that religion. Case study for this observation would be the concept of male female social interaction and dressing norms in Islam and Christianity. The sacredness of the cow in Hinduism, which actually started out with the fact realized by the ancient Indians that the cow was an extremely useful, and a hardy animal for ploughing fields and thus eating it would a waste of resource, hence it was declared sacred.

So here lies the grand flaw. Who decides what is right and wrong. Dare I say God? But who’s God? Christianity’s God? Jewish Yahweh, Muslim Allah or Hindu Brahma. Greek Zeus or the Norse Odin? In the end of it all we achieve is a debate about who’s Deity is the right one.

But getting back to villainy, I think that villains are not evil but misfits in a society. But what makes them misfits in the society? Societal actions or their own decisions?

We are what our society makes us. Before falling in love with Jane, Tarzan always thought that his mom was a gorilla. Some tribes in Papua New Guinea still engage in cannibalism whereas in the rest of the world cannibalism is seen with utter revulsion. So people living in different cultures always think that their own culture is just and right.

But what about the villains? Growing up in our society where a convict becomes a president, can you blame a teenager for becoming a robber? Who has he to idolize? The Quaid? Who is often grossly misrepresented? Each party and faction molds his image to suit its own interests? Dare I say Bibi Aka Shaheed Rani? Who before her death was just acquitted of all the corruption cases through the infamous NRO? Should they idolize ‘Dactar Amir Liaquat’? Or should they idolize Rehman Malik?

As time passes by we consign the memories of Arfa Karim and Dr. Abdus Salam to our national dustbin of memories, we should ask ourselves aren’t we collectively responsible for helping people like Zardari and Rehman Malik rise to power?

But, should we put all the blame on the society then? Critics would argue that an adult is fully capable of making his own decisions, but how can he make the equation work when all the factors of equations come from only one set of inputs (so-called evil inputs).

May be, according to the villain, what he does is right according to him and that doesn’t sit too well with the society. He’s like an outsider, a misunderstood person. Perhaps villainy is like looking at the same thing from two different angles. The Dalai Lama is a terrorist to communist china while he is a spiritual superstar for others. We can’t really decide what villainy is. I know this is a hard thing to say but I think (only think) that evil itself is relative.

I think one of the many doors in the universal hall of mysteries needs to be unlocked. Whether it would be a good revelation or the end of all things, we call moral. I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Forgive my blabbering...Couldn’t help but share them.

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.

Image Credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8tBBNE7_NLuawO-kY90qQsrCxk3IltpmMsiJCoondPAyrjZlCmi-i10V-tPY8CkJGClgiJ-DHQmuVgXnhaPnjynwVJ-cDM_8w0-NLOnG4qcW6rr03yqZMU4C-LWEfLajGpwFBRhQKuc/

Religion Whammies !

The one sole year of my employment at a NPO was a real revelation for me-in a good sense. It gave me the opportunity to meet the literati and the privileged section of our society and hear their views firsthand. Of course, I am no stranger to meeting that particular lot. My dad especially would always introduce me to these people, as some of them were old and generous clients of my dad's. These were embarrassing moments for me then. Embarrassing, because the ensuing talk would focus on my studies and the reminders of my dad's hard work and how I have to live up to him ( as if muma would ever let me forget that :)) The strangest of that whole lot were the artists who looked bigger than they appeared on TV and somehow seemed to talk a bit stupidly, may be this was because I had grown up seeing them engaged in pre planned intelligent and witty dialogue on TV ( the strangest of them all was the painter Guljee- R.I.P).

yeah the people i am talking about, look like this specimen here.

However, here I want to draw attention to one observation of mine. Among all those people, may it be the literature guys, may it be the posh people of the capital or the CEO s of Karachi, or high ups in the government, the one thing that I found common in them was that these people had a view on religion, human conduct and morality that is way different to a common man's. Some of them are partial believers; some of them do not like to think about it. Some of them when asked about it say that it is their personal matter. And some were out right atheists. Atheists, with Muslim names, in an Islamic country? It didn't add for me at that time. But what did add up for me at that time was that a small group of them which I took care to observe closely, were arrogant, and took special care to openly defy religious code of conduct without any regards to the feelings of other people around them. It does not hurt much ( and doesn’t even matter), if you are educated, but for the underprivileged, these acts equate to blasphemy. This particular group of people which I am talking about mostly lives in the areas of the Capital and has an anti army, ISI and sometimes, anti Pakistan element in it. Once I had a round of heated debate with them but my position as a junior employee and the love for my first ever job dictated that I don't pursue the debate any further (still I was pleased with outcomes, which included cheap acts and finding 10 grammar mistakes in 4 worded sentences. ). They all seem to be foreign educated and little do they know what happens in the life of a man who lives in Machar Colony or Shorkot. These type of people then run NGOs which are usually a get together for the old ladies of the rich households or sometimes, in the case of Karachi, a swinger meeting of uber rich youth. Believe me, I have seen it, their attitude is no different from the attitudes of the feudals and industrialists who are attached to the country like parasites. The feudals enjoy a stranglehold over the economy and all things material. This other class of people is the beneficiary of that stranglehold and is sometimes part of that stranglehold.

But then, it would be a bit harsh to make these guys as the sole “evil” forces in the country. Well, there is always the Mullah. Yes, this Mullah has a stranglehold over religion. I remember the bush doctrine in the post 9/11 situation. It basically said that in this war on terror either you are with us or against us. So simple, yet so effective. The Mullah in this country follows the exact doctrine. Only that this doctrine has been in operation for the last 1000 years. If you are Sunni then the Shia is kaafir for you. If you are a Shia, the Sunni is the Kaafir for you, if you are an Ahmadi then you are declared a kaafir by both Shia and the Sunni, and if you happen to be a Saudi style Wahabi then all the Muslims except your Wahabi fellows are kaafir. So here, lies the ultimate dilemma. Whose Islam do you have to follow? Well the truth is that everyone seems to be in doubt. Nobody seems to be sure that whether they are following the correct version of Islam or not. The educated sector, the one about which I have been talking in the starting lines of the note, seems to have dispensed with any sort of religion. These are the kind of people most prized by the western media as they are made to stand out as enlightened Islamic modernists, all the while those poor blokes keep whispering in their ears that” hey, I am not a practicing Muslim” to which they are shushed. Well of course, they are the ideal propaganda material. Only if Hitler’s favorite guy Dr Goebbels was here. He would have been proud of the way his spiritual children have refined the art of propaganda.

Returning to those enlightened “Muslim” souls about which we were discussing earlier. Why is that these educated souls have such a “lax” attitude towards religion. What is it that they know and I do not know. What nirvana have they achieved which I have yet to achieve. See, not a care in this world about heaven or hell or sins or the judgment day, not being caught in pointless battles between zealots arguing which sect is the closest to Islam or which caliph was the best and all that stuff. I want to be there too. But my problem is that I have a logical and rational belief in God. Not blind faith, not the faith inherited from parents or preachers. Faith acquired by myself. I was an atheist for some time because I did not know which way to go and for you to acquire faith in the divine, you have to let go of every faith you are attached too, every emotion or preferences or assumptions. Just start from scratch. Be skeptic. Question. Look for answers. That’s how my faith began building. And the work is still in progress. Although I admit that, the divine deity put some hints and pointers along the way just to make sure I keep on track (smiles). You see belief in God is a very interesting thing. I think that there should a doctoral thesis on the effects of belief in a creator. Because the presence or absence of that belief fundamentally changes the way, you look at life. If you believe in a creator then the all the holy scriptures become divine and a way of life. The Prophets become reformers and divine men. If you don’t believe in the creator then the scriptures, the holy books become just like the other best sellers, the prophets become politicians and revolutionaries and agitators. Life loses meaning and you try to live life as if you would never be risen again. Interestingly it encourages ambition and motivates you to achieve something in life because you know that you are not getting it again. That’s how serious the belief in a divine being is. But doesn’t belief in a creator motivate you to achieve something in life? Does it hold you back in life, because if you fail in this life then you are sure that there’s still another chance. I don’t necessarily agree with this view. Why? Because I think that religion is just a way to live life.

About morals, about how to treat the people around you. And that’s it. If you are going beyond that then you are not following religion. You are exploiting it. Religion doesn’t stop you from achieving something. It just tells you whether this is morally right or wrong. Moreover, it doesn’t stop you from making profit and neither does it stop you from doing scientific research. Well if you trash religion by saying that it puts restrictions on doing a business and consequently profits, then you should also trash the trade policies and stock market rules and regulations too because they also impose rules and regulations. If you think that religion bars a person from scientific research then you should debunk the preachers of that religion not the religion itself.

And speaking of preachers, don’t we love our modern preachers? Like Amir Liaquat and company eh?

Wearing designer clothing and sporting that cheesy obnoxious grin on their faces. My dear Pakistanis, alas, they are really part of the corporate plan for increasing company profits and nothing else. Religion is used to make money, which again brings me back to point that I mentioned in the beginning, that these upper classes have dispensed with any form of religion and either don’t follow it or just use it for the own good. Even this recent trend in televangelism of the likes of Amir Liaquat is an Islamic version of American Christian preachers like Joel Osteen,

joel osteen, the American televangelist

Billy Graham, Benny Hinn and numerous others. Has religion really lost its meaning and context in the modern world? Why is it that religion is fervently practiced only by the poor and the under privileged and is reserved as just a showpiece for the privileged and the educated.

Here I am talking not about the west, but our own country, which is supposedly the “Fortress of Islam”. May be it is due to the amount of hardship, struggle and the pressure that you have to face if you are a Muslim, living in a predominantly Muslim country. In these situations, you either follow faith blindly or just dispense with it. For the underprivileged, you follow the faith blindly, the faith that is propagated by the Mullah who uses it for its own ends. If you belong to the privileged section of the society then you are so much exposed to the western influences that you dispense with the local values and traditions and norms. This is has been the case throughout the human history. It happened when Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures dominated. Then it happened when the Islamic empires began building up and the westerners were as much influenced by us just as much were are being influenced by them. But the good thing at that time was that the preachers unlike the preachers of today (unlike Ahmed Deedat), engaged in intelligent debates with opponents. Sitting in a comfortable coffee house and talking about the basic tenets of the Abrahamic religions. That was the culture. But sadly, that didn’t last long. It is important to note that that Islam at that time was spread through reason, logic, and demonstration (although the importance of sword cannot be ignored). The Islamic preachers were skeptics even of their religion, they would argue whether a particular philosophy in Islam really could be attributed to the Prophet keeping in mind His life and speeches. Would you even dare to question the tenets of Islam today? You would be declared as an outright heretic. And that attitude leads to the downfall of religion. And thanks to that attitude the Islam of today is the fastest growing religion of the world-only because of the high birth rate among its adherents, unlike the Islam of 1000 years ago when it was spread through reason and logic with a little help from the sword. Militancy and religion are never a good combination and that is why the Jihad against oneself, one’s own conscience and his or her own evils has been declared a greater Jihad then the Jihad of sword ( today, it’s the Jihad of the AK 47) and which is conveniently overlooked by Bin Laden and Company. But explain to me one thing, what does a common man get from all of this. I mean here’s the scenario, USA creates Bin Laden, Bin Laden does USA’s bidding and then USA loses interest and Bin Laden turns against the USA. It’s like two children playing hide and seek and if one loses interest in the game, the other kid turns against him and goes crying back to his parents to complain that the other kid doesn’t want to play game. I mean it’s really like this. These two parties incite the masses against each other and who pays for it in the end. Does it bring Bin Laden any harm? Does it bring Bush or Obama any harm? Despite everything, he did to the Taliban and Al-Qaida, Musharaf is still at large. The only attempts only his life came from the frustrated sections of the army and intelligence rather than Al-Qaida. Although it is very interesting to note that despite her enormous help in bringing the Taliban to power in Kabul, Benazir Bhutto was still gunned down by the Taliban themselves. ??? I thought the Pathans never forget and hurt their benefactors.

The situation today is absurd. The same people who were the freedom fighters, whose belief in an armed Jihad was hailed by the western world, are now being labeled as terrorists? Well of course, they are terrorists now and were surely terrorists back then as well. For Gods sakes, these were the same people who attacked the Kaaba in 1979 and claimed that they were reforming Islam and came up with their own Mehdi (Messiah). Seeing their zeal and their thirst for blood, the ISI and CIA used them for good against the Soviets and now they don’t answer their former masters. Religion is therefore being used by them to make their own ends meet.

The same civilized people who wear pants and ties were declared as barbarians and uncivilized by the Romans, 2000 years ago. Time changes everything.

let there be peace