The War of Drones

Pakistani nation seems to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome on the issue of suicide bombing. Extract from Pervez Hoodbhoy's article in today's Dawn:


Even with evidence staring them in the face, most Pakistanis seem locked into a state of denial. They refuse to accept the obvious fact that more and more mullahs have created cults around themselves and exercise control over the lives of worshippers. An enabling environment of poverty, deprivation, lack of justice, and extreme differences of wealth is perfect for demagogues.

As the mullah’s indoctrination gains strength, the power to reason weakens. The world of the follower becomes increasingly divided into absolute good and absolute evil. Doubt is replaced by certainty, moral sensibilities are blunted. Reduced to a mere instrument for murder, the human drone is left with no room for useless things such as judgment, doubt, or conscience. As other human beings become mere objects rather than people deserving of love and compassion, the metamorphosis from human to drone becomes complete.

Divine Revelations: Mystery Unfolded

Kudos to Benny Shanon for resolving this mystery. Now I realize why Gods-men forbid drugs. They are wary of losing monopoly over "Divine Revelations". :)



Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

The Compleate Women

More power to this endangered species!

Verdict of the People

All this seems too good to be true. I'm personally very excited to see lota-league and mullah-league bite the dust. May be it is just another evidence of his sheer incompetence to produce desired results, or finally His Enlightened Moderation have had an epiphany overnight and he decided to play fair this time. Anyway, the pessimist inside me says expect no miracles, at least in impending future. Let's not forget that turn-out was quite low in the polls and I would be greatly pleased to know that the landslide of PML(N) and PPP does not owe (at least partly) to some behind-the-scene "deal". Both Zardari and Sharif did not contest the polls. After seeing election results, they may order some MNAs of their parties to drop their seats and pave the way for their entry into parliament. Who knows?

Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

And we were under the impression that witch-hunting was the relic of past.

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

What makes a miracle

Challenging the conventional wisdom about economic boom of India and China!

Anti-Amnesiastic

They could not reduce the burden of body for him but they will hopefully relieve the burden of brains for so many. Here comes a godsend for postgrad students and researchers. :)

Professor Lozano said: "This is the first time that anyone has had electrodes implanted in the brain which have been shown to improve memory. We are driving the activity of the brain by increasing its sensitivity – turning up the volume of the memory circuits. Any event that involves the memory circuits is more likely to be stored and retained."

The discovery had caught him and his team "completely by surprise", Professor Lozano said. They had been operating on the man, who weighed 190kg (30st), to treat his obesity by locating the point in his brain that controls appetite. All other attempts to curb his eating had failed and brain surgery was the last resort.

The treatment for obesity was unsuccessful. But, while the researchers were identifying potential appetite suppressant points in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain associated with hunger, the man suddenly began to say that memory was flooding back.

More About Iranian experience

More leaves out of Iran's books for Pakistani liberals. Another article about Iranian lessons for Pakistani liberals! Nature abhors vacuum and we must be on watch against the twin danger. "Exit strategy" for "Shah of Pakistan" should not have any room for takeover by any "Ayatollah of Pakistan".

The lesson to learn here is that revolutions don’t always behave. They are slave to no one and masters of all. When revolution comes, the people who succeed are normally not the people who believe in all the wonderful things such as human rights and the rule of law. In times of revolution, power flows from the barrel of a gun

Engineers have Terrorist Mindset

Not a news for me, as I have observed this phenomenon for long. Probably this is a sociologist conspiracy to deflect some funds of engineering school to their school. :)

On a serious note, I had this discussion on another list about over-representation of engineers in Islamist or other terrorist movements. To my mind, one plausible explanation is that that applied sciences make people adept at using tools but do little to shake inherited beliefs and prejudices. Natural sciences and liberal arts tend to broaden one's outlook on life and world
and hence, people with these majors are less susceptible to be deluded by extremist causes.

The authors call it a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.

A past survey in the United States has already shown that the proportion of engineers who declare themselves to be on the right of the political spectrum is greater than any other disciplinary groups--such as economists, doctors, scientists, and those in the humanities and social sciences.

The authors note that the mindset is universal.

Whether American, Canadian or Islamic, they pointed out that a disproportionate share of engineers seem to have a mindset that makes them open to the quintessential right-wing features of "monoism" (why argue where there is one best solution) and by "simplism" (if only people were rational, remedies would be simple).

Freaking War

War is indeed hell, sometimes not just for the loser.

So what if the war was sold on completely fabricated lies, was supposed to be a cakewalk but has now lasted longer than World War II, has divided the country and made the world hate us, has squandered our (borrowed) resources and broken our military, has brought instability to a volatile and crucial region and allowed a real national antagonist to double its power, has diverted our resources from the still-uncaptured guy who supposedly attacked us on 9/11, has become a factory for producing anti-American terrorists, has wiped out over a million innocent people and turned more than four million into refugees?

Threats and Conspiracies

It's all so obvious and it's all so painful.

While manifestations are diverse, the fundamental issue that plagues Pakistan is the lack of legitimate constitutional rule. This is discernable across the three fault-lines holding the future of the country hostage: the civil-military divide; the centre-province divide; and the extremist-moderate divide. Conversely, it can also be argued that it is actually the entrenched civil-military imbalance that accounts for lack of rule of law within the country, which in turn explains the tussle between the centre and the provinces within the federation and between the moderates and the extremists within the society.

Iranian Lesson for Pakistan

A lesson which Pakistani liberals can ignore only to their detriment!

In 1978, Iran’s liberals were bent on removing the Shah by any means. Instead of creating an atmosphere conducive to an Iranian Gandhi, they unwittingly helped usher into power Ayatollah Khomeini and a theocratic regime less tolerant than the one they helped unseat. Three decades later, millions of chastened Iranians wish they could relive those heady days differently; their Pakistani counterparts would be wise to heed their hindsight.

Charlie Wilson's War

Watched this movie today. It is based on the book with the same name, although some humor has been added for public consumption. Interesting to see a God-fearing party animal (Joanne Herring played by Julia Roberts) motivates a philandering senator (Charlie played by Tom Hanks) to collect funds and weapons (from USA and Israel) for Islamic fundamentalists fighting against godless Communists in Afghanistan. Politics indeed makes strange bellows. Om Puri, an Indian actor, plays the role of Pakistan's ex-president Zia ul Haque. The movie ends with a Charlie's quote:

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world.... and they fucked up the end game".

Repressing Democracy

Simon Jenkin's article about Pakistan:

Backing Musharraf has always seemed "a good idea at the time". The next person to be cursed with Washington's favour appears to be Musharraf's successor as army chief, General Ashfaq Kiyani. However, by opting for the realpolitik of dictatorship the west has not just repressed democracy but aided insurgency and terror. It has yielded no security benefit to anyone. If Pakistan becomes a "failed state", the failure will, in large part, be one of democratic imagination in Washington and London. We simply refuse to practise what we preach.

National Harakiri

A nation on the way to collective harakiri.

The bountiful American largesse to the Pakistani army, the businesses the army runs that sustain the luxurious lifestyles of the elite, can't conceal the fact that most Pakistanis are desperately deprived: not just of shared, public resources, but of a clear answer to a simple question - what is Pakistan for? They may be able to replace the burned buses, the torn bridges, the uprooted railway lines; but a combination of military power, dynastic politics, fervent religious dogma and extreme social inequality are the ingredients only of disintegration. It is sad to see a nation dying; it's an unspeakable tragedy when it is killing itself.

Suicide bombing in Lahore

Today it was Lahore's turn. 23 people dead and more than 70 injured. This cancer of suicide bombing and jihadist violence is not gonna die soon. Combine it with the sheer incompetence and authoritarianism of President-for-life, and there is a disaster ready to explode! Muharram is about to start and more turbulence in the offing!!

Searching for propagandists

Ever wonder why academic research is in tatters in Pakistan? An insight into Pakistan's sponsored academic chairs in some international universities:

The main purpose of these chairs was to encourage the academic circles in these countries to study different aspects of Pakistan and not become a diplomatic outpost.

Now, things have become even worse. At this juncture, all major positions are vacant. This is because the government in Islamabad is no longer able to find safe scholars. Recently, the names of three academics from Quaid-e-Azam University were rejected by the government. On the other hand, the names recommended by Islamabad are not acceptable to the universities because the academics that Pakistan wants to send have no academic expertise and are not relevant. Apparently, one of the names was rejected by Islamabad because the scholar concerned was not approved by the intelligence agencies. Interestingly, the final approval is given by the IB and the ISI. One wonders if the intelligence agencies understand the worth of academic work or even know the definition of intellectualism.

Pakistan - After the Assassination

Pervez Hoodbhoy's interview to an Italian newspaper in the wake of Benazir's assassination. It is indeed disheartening to see that while Pakistani "man on the street" is up in arms against military authoritarianism, he feels shy of condemning theocratic authoritarianism with the same vigor. One can only hope that demise of Musharraf in any near-future does not lead to Iranian-style "revolution" in Pakistan.

Almost everyone holds the government responsible for the assassination. Tragically, suicide bombings are not condemned with any particular vigor. There is no strong reaction against the mullahs, madrassas, and jihadis. Perhaps people are afraid to criticize them because this might be seen as a criticism of Islam. Interestingly, in all the street demonstrations I have gone to after the Bhutto assassinations, there was no call for cracking down on extremists. Yesterday I met the lone taxidriver who thought the Islamists did it. I tipped him well.

No end to dynasty worship

There seems to be no end to dynasty worship in Pakistan - even the most liberal and popular political party is not immune from it. Quite disappointing to see this news:

Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal has been chosen to take over her Pakistan People's Party, after her assassination on Thursday.

It is thought he will take the role in a ceremonial capacity while he finishes his studies at Oxford University.

Bilawal told journalists at the Bhutto family home: "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge."

Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is expected to run the party, said it would contest January elections.

Rejectionists

Just came across this article. It is insightful to know that extremists despise neardby moderates much more than they do faraway rivals.

In 1947, when the sharp East-West polarisation that came to be known as the Cold War was just beginning to take shape, Stalin came forward with an apparently strange theory. He identified the Soviet Union's main enemy not as the United States, but as the British Labour Party and its leader, Britain's then prime minister, Clement Attlee. The underlying logic of Stalin's theory was the same as the one that had led Lenin, just before the Bolshevic Revolution, to focus the main thrust of his attacks not against the Tsar but against the Cadet Party, the party of the Russian Liberal bourgeoisie. The logic in both cases was that these apparently less offensive parties, the Cadets in 1917 and the British Labour Party, a typical representative Social-Democracy, in 1947, were better equipped than any other anti- communist forces to attract the masses. As such, they represented the main obstacle in the way of a communist victory, and only by removing that obstacle would the communists succeed in isolating the capitalist enemy and paving the way for its downfall.

From Dynasty to Democracy - At the end of the tunnel

Let's hope this chaos may turn out to be a precursor of constructive change. I agree with Tariq Ali that it is a high time for its rank and file to transform Pakistan Peoples Party from a dynastic to a democratic party. Someone suggested on another forum that Aizaz Ahsan be asked to lead PP now and I fully concur with this proposal. Perhaps there exists some light at the end of the tunnel ! Or may be I am just being over-optimistic!


Benazir's horrific death should give her colleagues pause for reflection. To be dependent on a person or a family may be necessary at certain times, but it is a structural weakness, not a strength for a political organisation. The People's party needs to be refounded as a modern and democratic organisation, open to honest debate and discussion, defending social and human rights, uniting the many disparate groups and individuals in Pakistan desperate for any halfway decent alternative, and coming forward with concrete proposals to stabilise occupied and war-torn Afghanistan. This can and should be done. The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices.

Assassination of BB

Benazir Bhutto is killed in a suicide blast in Rawalpindi today, along with 20 other people. Another unfortunate event in the land of crisis. Bhutto was far from impeccable politician but removing her from scene will do no good to already messy situation in Pakistan. More chaos ahead!

Pevez Hoodbhoy's 10 Commandments

Pevez Hoodbhoy, world renowned MIT-trained physicist and arguably among the best minds ever produced by Pakistan, reveals an upodated version of 10 commandents, 5 of them for USA and 5 for Muslims. I have nothing to disagree with him on this matter.

1. Muslims must STOP blaming the West (or the “infidels”) for everything that is wrong with them. Out of the 48 Muslim countries of the world, not one can be called a democracy in the pure sense of the word. Sadly, there has been NO significant scientific achievement in the last 700 years or so, whereas between the 9th and the 13th centuries, during the golden period of Islam, it was only the Muslims who kept the light of knowledge burning. The causes of Muslim decline have all been internal, and NOT the result of conspiracies. If Islam is to become a positive, constructive force in the 21st century, it must change from within, and worldwide opinion will follow.

2. Whenever and wherever there is an act of terrorism, condemn it LOUDLY and fully. The West has taken the majority of the Muslim communities’ lack of anger at 9/11 as tacit approval of militant Islam. Unfortunately Islam has become synonymous with violence and terror, and many moderate, peaceful Muslims have now become victims as well. The moderate Muslim community must fight against the hijacking of Islam.

3. Stop dreaming of theocracies and the reinstating of the Shariah law. Such ideas belong to the past, and are not compatible with the continuously evolving society and environment to which we belong. Insistence on such ideas can only drag the Muslims further into a medieval abyss.

4. Accept the fact that others do not see morality the way you do. Muslims have been brought up to believe that the only morality worth upholding is sexual morality. Other religions and cultures may not place so much emphasis on sexual morality, but that does not necessarily make them inferior human beings.

5. The last Commandment is for Muslims who have chosen to live in countries other than their homeland. Integrate. Do NOT try and stand out. Do NOT try and be different. And yes, it is possible to do all this AND maintain one’s individual identity, and without compromising principles and values we have grown up with. We must take more of an interest in our surroundings, in politics, and not just national politics but starting at the grassroots level.

Myths of Neocons About Pakistan

A beautiful dissection of "realism" of neocon pundits about Pakistani politics!

Back to Stone Ages


Shamshad Ahmed's article in The Nation:

A country without constitution or the rule of law and where there is no independent judiciary and no fundamental freedoms and rights is no better than the 'stone age' cultures, and has no place in the contemporary comity of civilised nations. Government and politics, as the world knows them, are alien to Pakistan. Our scene pathetically bears resemblance to Thomas Hobbes's concept of primitive anarchy marked by a 'war of one against all' and to Rousseau's idealisation of the 'noble savage'. Perhaps, Hegel spoke for us when he said that man can never learn anything from history.

Akbar's eclecticism

Khalid Ahmed reviews Stietencron's book on Mughal Emperor Akbar's syncretic approach to religion.

Akbar’s rule was a patch of effulgence in a general darkness on earth. Poets and artists gravitated to it; faiths rejected in other lands escaped to India to find tolerance. Today, Akbar is irrelevant to what is happening in the Islamic world

Aitzaz Ahsan - a break from past

Arguabley one of the finest political minds in Pakistan.. I have always admired Aitzaz's intelligence, in spite of his often defences of his corrupt leader. He has made a tough choice and I wish his very well.

Intellectual Bankruptcy in Pakistan

Bit old but still spot on! The article has a leftist slant but still, it is an interesting commentary on the sorry state of intellectual bankruptcy in "Mamlikat-e-Khudadad".



There are, I discovered, less than half a dozen good bookshops in the whole of Lahore, once considered to be the intellectual capital of India, that stock books in English. The vast majority of these books are, curiously enough, published in India, a few in the West and the rest, a very small proportion, are local Pakistani publications. Books on Pakistani society, based on empirical realities, are almost impossible to find, although the number of titles on the so-called 'two-nation theory' and the history of the Muslim League, as well as on elite politics in Pakistan, run into the hundreds. So do books on Jinnah and Iqbal, the two major ideological heroes of Pakistan, after whom a vast number of public institutions throughout the country are named. As a Lahori friend of mine quipped, 'The intellectual scene in Pakistan is so bad that our rulers think we have almost no one else to name our institutions after'.

Even on Islam and Kashmir, two issues that are central to the way in which the Pakistani state has sought to construct the notion of Pakistani national identity, I discovered hardly any decent literature in English in the numerous bookshops that I visited. Many of the few English books on Islam I came across were actually published in India. A few others were by Western writers, while the rest, not more than three dozen titles, many of these being were poorly-researched and ideologically-driven propaganda tracts of the Pakistani Jamaat i Islami and its associated publishing houses. Likewise, on Kashmir. In Lahore's biggest bookshop that also stocks English books I came across an entire shelf of books on Kashmir, but almost all of them were written by Indian scholars, published in India and probably represented the Indian position on the disputed territory.

Pay it Forward

I came across this website while going through Christian Science Monitor. Fun, learning and charity - all in one. Do give it a shot!

Daughter of the West

To date, Pakistan People's Party remains the only mass-based political party whose support runs across all ethnic and sectarian divides in Pakistan and has a cadre of dedicated and sincere workers. However, the integrity of its leadership leaves much to be desired. Tariq Ali's take on Pakistan's lady kleptocrat Benazir Bhutto.

Restless Few, Silent Many

Six soldiers are killed in a militant ambush in North Waziristan. A suicide bomber strikes a school bus near Kamra air force complex. Four CD and video shops bombed down in Peshawar. Meanwhile, "Great Leader" is busy establishing "writ of state" on judges, lawyers, and media and civil society. And "the people of Pakistan", while being rightly outraged against the dictator-in-chief keep mum about the increasing influence of wanna-be dictators.


In addition to sympathising with the Islamists’ anti-US stance and justifying their anger against western clout that has spawned economic inequality and despotic regimes, there is a tendency to endorse the ‘moral order’ that the militants want to impose on society. Thus, all kinds of atrocities are tolerated. Not a murmur is heard when women, accused of indulging in wayward acts, are beheaded, or when public executions (bypassing state justice) are conducted in the name of purging society of undesirable elements. Little concern is enunciated by the educational authorities when girls’ schools are bombed. If at all there is any protest at the way young boys are brainwashed in seminaries and then dispatched on suicide and other missions, it is muted.

The liberals lack the courage, possibly even the numbers, to come forward and forcefully explain why moral policing and extreme religiosity have no place in a society which would be better off concentrating on how to improve the lives of its people. Taking advantage of their silence, dogmatic elements propound views that fuddle clear thinking. This is the phenomenon that is described as Talibanisation. The latter does not merely pertain to actual deeds of violence in the name of religion. It is also a state of mind.

Balochistan’s prisoners of conscience

Balochistan is no doubt the most wronged province of Pakistan. Qazi Faez Isa gives an insight into the grievances of Balochistan's civil society against "the essence of democracy" introduced by Mush.

Time magazine’s (Dec 10, 2007) evaluation is, “Pakistan’s leader leaves the army, but his war on the Constitution continues. But regardless of what outfit he wears, Musharraf has left Pakistan with a tattered constitution patched with amendments and filled now with so many loopholes justifying his rule that it resembles a crocheted doily, ready to be thrown over whatever ugliness the next ruler creates in pursuit of power.”

The article concludes with the swipe: “When Musharraf took power in his 1999 coup, he quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying sometimes you need to amputate a limb to save a life. On the day he imposed emergency rule, he repeated the reference to justify his actions. The only problem is, amputated limbs don’t grow back.”

What is Free Society all about?

Timothy Gorton Ash makes valid points about the essence of free society and how it needs to accomodate religious believers (and vice versa).

Among the essentials is freedom of expression, which has been eroded to an alarming degree, both by death threats from extremists and by misconceived pre-emptive appeasement on the part of the state and private bodies. Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to offend; not the duty, but the right. We must, in particular, be free to say what we like about historical figures, be they Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Churchill, Hitler or Gandhi (and then let our claims be tested against the evidence). We may not agree with what controversialists say about these figures but we must defend to the death their right to say it. There should, for obvious reasons, be limits to what we are free to say about living people, but these limits must be very tightly drawn.

Among the liberal essentials is equality before the law, including equal rights for men and women. Among the essentials is also freedom of religion. Since a core liberal notion is that we must be free not just to pursue our own version of the good life but also to question and revise it, it follows that we must be free to propagate, question, change or abandon our religion. In a free society, proselytisation, heresy and apostasy are not crimes. This - and apostasy in particular - is not accepted in many versions of Islam, but it is a liberal essential on which there can be no compromise.

Ed Husain's piece in The Observer slashes the clauses of medieval Sharia that are at odds with free society and advoctes a "liberal" version of Islam. It's interesting to see how he mentions Shatibi and Locke in the same sentence.

What remain valid are the eternal truths that Shatibi, Locke and others enunciated. Our humanity must transcend adherence to scriptural literalism, especially if it leads to mayhem and loss of innocent lives. The whole purpose of religion is to bring order and harmony to our existence.

Entertainment Offense

Music, dance and entertainment have always been an anathema for this bunch of spoilsports and killjoys - known as Islamists. Nothing offends them more than the sight of anyone being happy and jubilant. A report from Islamist heavens of our "Wild Wild North-West".

The girls who turned to music concerts and stage shows, often held in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, were thrown out of business when the cultural shows were banned.

Some of them benefited temporarily when the aficionados and businessmen on NWFP's dance and music scene diversified into the video CD business, producing and distributing long plays and dance sessions on VCDs and DVDs.

But a violent campaign by militant Taleban has caused this business to decline across large parts of NWFP. Hundreds of video outlets have been blown up. Others have voluntarily closed down or switched to other businesses.

Collective Self-destructiveness

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown laments the self-destructive behavior of "saviors" of Ummah! With "friends" like these, who needs enemies!

Today, creative, imaginative, dissenting and innovative Muslims have to wear virtual body armor, hunker down, just in case someone decides to get offended (and someone always does), inciting an uproar on the web, on the media, on the streets bringing out the mobs in Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, South Africa, Somalia and on and on. Inevitably some die for a cause they never really understood and the restless army of discontents shuffles off until the next noisy and bloody march.

I know of talented painters and poets in Pakistan who have just given up or fled. Arab artists, activists and thinkers unafraid of the truth are in actual prisons or enclosed behind limitations built by their fearful societies.

Explosive episodes are always gathering round the corner. We witnessed the organized outrage over the Channel 4 programs exposing some of the vile imams still controlling some mosques. The film of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, about a young boy in Afghanistan, is causing much anger. One of the pivotal scenes involves a homosexual rape of a Shiite boy. They won't have that, it is a slur, an insult. Muslims don't do such things. The same protests met Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane, in which a young Bangladeshi wife in Tower Hamlets has an affair. Muslims don't do such things etc, etc. Of course there is no rape and adultery in our countries, those are bad "Western" behaviors. The controversy will be reheated when the film of Brick Lane is released in a few weeks.

Transcultural dialogues

A lampoon on current political mess in Pakistan.

Someone "Insulted Islam" Again!

Gosh! Is there an end to this craziness? A British teacher faces six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine if convicted of blasphemy. Her crime? Naming a teddy bear Muhammad. Yes, there is good reason to feel "insulted" and "offended". Not at teddy bear being named Muhammad but at the so-called "leaders" of Ummah who have yet to learn stop behaving like children!

She's got the looks......

So we males are still fascinated by looks and wary of brains. Marilyn Monroe still proves to be a better turn-on than Marie Curie. So says Maureen Dowd:

November 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Should Hillary Pretend to Be a Flight Attendant?
MAUREEN DOWD

In 2005, a year after Ellie Grossman, a doctor, met Ray Fisman, a professor, on a blind date, she was talking to her grandmother about her guy.

“Never let a man think you’re smarter,” her grandmother advised. “Men don’t like that.”

Ray and Ellie “had a good laugh, thinking times had changed,” he recalled. The pair went on to marry — after she proposed.

But now, he says, “it seems like the students at Columbia University should pay heed to Grandma Lil’s advice.”

Mr. Fisman is a 36-year-old Columbia economics professor who conducted a two-year study, published last year, on dating. With two psychologists and another economist, he ran a speed-dating experiment at a local bar near the Columbia campus.

The results surprised him and made him a little sad because he found that even in the 21st century, many men are still straitjacketed in stereotypes.

“I guess I had hoped that they had evolved beyond this,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s like that ‘Sex and the City’ episode where Miranda went speed-dating. When she says she’s a lawyer, guys lose interest. Then she tells them she’s a flight attendant and that plays into their deepest fantasies.”

As he recapped the experiment in Slate last week:

“We found that men did put significantly more weight on their assessment of a partner’s beauty, when choosing, than women did. We also found that women got more dates when they won high marks for looks.”

He continued: “By contrast, intelligence ratings were more than twice as important in predicting women’s choices as men’s. It isn’t exactly that smarts were a complete turnoff for men: They preferred women whom they rated as smarter — but only up to a point ... It turns out that men avoided women whom they perceived to be smarter than themselves. The same held true for measures of career ambition — a woman could be ambitious, just not more ambitious than the man considering her for a date.

“When women were the ones choosing, the more intelligence and ambition the men had, the better. So, yes, the stereotypes appear to be true: We males are a gender of fragile egos in search of a pretty face and are threatened by brains or success that exceeds our own.”

Hillary Clinton, who is trying to crash through the Oval glass ceiling, may hope that we’re evolving into a kingdom of queen bees and their male slaves. But stories have been popping up that suggest that evolution is moving forward in a circuitous route, with lots of speed bumps.

Perhaps smart women can take hope — as long as they’re built like Marilyn Monroe. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Pittsburgh have released a zany study on the zaftig, positing that men are drawn to hourglass figures not only because they look alluring, but because hips plumped up by omega-3 fatty acids could mean smarter women bearing smarter kids.

Yet Alex Williams recently reported in The Times that the new income superiority of many young women in big cities is causing them to encounter “forms of hostility they weren’t prepared to meet,” leaving them “trying to figure out how to balance pride in their accomplishments against their perceived need to bolster the egos of the men they date.”

Professional women in their 20s are growing deft at subterfuges to protect the egos of dates who make less money, the story said, such as not leaving their shopping bags around and not mentioning their business achievements. Or they simply date older men who might not be as threatened.

Even though men and women in surveys often say that a salary gender gap doesn’t matter, in the real world it can play out differently — either because the man has subterranean resentment he can’t shed, or the woman equates it with a lack of male drive.

Evolution is lurching ahead unevenly at the office, as well. The Times’s Lisa Belkin wrote this month about the confusing array of signals for executive women that can leave them hamstrung.

Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace, found that women who behave in ways that cleave to gender stereotypes — focusing on collegiality and relationships — are seen as less competent. But if they act too macho, they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine.”

Ms. Belkin said that another study shows that men — and female secretaries — are not considered less competent if they dress sexy at work, but female executives are.

Women still tend to be timid about negotiating salaries and raises. Men ask for more money at eight times the rate of women.

Victoria Brescoll, a Yale researcher, found that men who get angry at the office gain stature and clout, even as women who get angry lose stature because they are seen as out of control.

That may be why Obama is trying to get “fired up,” in the words of his fall slogan, while Hillary calmly observes that she can take the heat and stereotypically adds that she likes the kitchen.

Ignoring and Repeating History

As Santayana remarked, "Those who forget their history are destined to repeat it". The "orphan" nation provides a living testimony to this statement.

A clue to the answer may lie in Professor Aziz’s remarks, particularly his brilliant social analogy. What distinguishes orphans in a community? The comparison implies not just a lack of means and privilege, which though an obvious handicap is seldom a permanent disability, but also insecurity and lack of breeding. Communities may pity orphans for the former but they have also learnt to be wary of them on account of the latter. History, myths and literature (particularly children’s literature) show that gods and emperors have always treated orphans and outcasts (orphans by choice?) with suspicion. Their total ignorance of rules makes these ‘aliens’ impervious to the reluctance and inhibitions that are often the reformer’s undoing but sometimes prove his saving grace. Their insecurity, leading in extreme cases to paranoia, makes them ruthless.

Having realised that behind almost every horrible crime against humanity (from genocide to apartheid), there lies an incurable sense of insecurity (the-entire-world-is-against-us syndrome), the world has seen the wisdom of Saadi’s advice — fear the man who is (unreasonably and irreconcilably) afraid of you — and learnt to shun the orphan more than the bully.

This, even though respectable senators dismiss it, is the unfortunate connection. When we turn our back on our national history, our neighbours in the global village are perplexed. When we refuse to acknowledge the facts and logic of world history, they panic. They wonder, and one cannot blame them, whether we are plain silly or suicidal maniacs. They fear an apocalypse.

The case of Musharraf and the drunk uncle

A scrutiny of Great Commando's eloquence:

And when he said, "Extremists have gone very extreme," it suddenly occurred to me why his speech pattern seemed so familiar. He was that uncle that you get stranded with at a family gathering when everybody else has gone to sleep but there is still some whisky left in the bottle. And uncle thinks he is about to say something very profound -- if you would only pour him one last one.

Consider this; in the middle of his speech when everyone was silently urging him to get to the point, losing the thread of his diatribe about how judicial activism was responsible for the rise of jihadis in Pakistan, he abruptly said, "I have imposed emergency," then looked into the camera, waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and said, "You must have seen it on TV."

He forgot to mention that he had pulled the plug on all television channels except the State-run television. It might sound like old-school dictator talk, but just imagine if somebody took away your television and then told you, 'Oh, did you see that thing on TV?'

The Siege of Mecca

Ziauddin Sardar reviews Yaroslav Trofimiv's book "The Siege of Mecca" that provides an investigative account into the siege of Kaaba in 1979. I was not aware how incompetent Saudi intelligence and security forces turned out to be in this whole episode.

The Saudi authorities were slow to realise what had happened. It was only when the first batch of police and security officials were gunned down that the state grudgingly moved into action. The insurgents had occupied prime sites on the nine minarets of the mosque and were able to pick off anyone who approached the site. A number of assaults, involving police, the National Guard and the army, which Trofimov describes in some detail, ended in bloodbaths.

The authorities faced a number of problems. They were totally incompetent. The three security forces had different commands, did not trust each other, and were unable to communicate with each other as they had different radio systems. And, most astonishingly, they had no architectural plans of the mosque.

Indeed, there were only two institutions in the whole of the kingdom that had detailed plans of the Sacred Mosque - the Bin Laden Construction Company, which had built various extensions to the mosque but which was unwilling or unable to pass the maps on to the authorities, and my own research centre. For the previous five years, we had measured, calibrated and photographed almost every inch of the mosque. At considerable risk to himself, our director, the dissident architect Sami Angawi, delivered the plans to the front-line troops.

One of the mosque's gates was identified as the entry point for a new offensive. It was blown up with a huge charge. Paratroopers backed by armoured personnel carriers (APCs) stormed in, only to walk into an ambush. Another bloodbath ensued. It seemed that the insurgents had an answer to whatever the army threw at them. Even blowing up the minarets of the mosque did not help much. Eventually, using heavy artillery and scores of APCs, the army and the National Guard fought their way, step by bloody step, to the centre of the compound, where the Kaaba is located. Qahtani, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, who fought with exceptional daring, was killed.

Yet this was only a partial victory. The rebels retreated from the mosque's surface to its underground section. Known as the Qaboo, this is a labyrinth of rooms and alleyways, a mini-city where the insurgents had stashed the bulk of their weapons. Once again, the army's attempt to enter the Qaboo proved futile and deadly.

After a week of horrendously savage combat, it was clear that the Saudis needed help. They turned to their foremost allies: the United States and the CIA. A horde of CIA operatives was quickly converted to Islam so that they could enter the Holy City to assess the battlefield for themselves. They recommended chemical warfare. Potent tear gas was pumped into the Qaboo through its various entrances, but the exercise turned into a fiasco.

Hardened rebel fighters were able to shield themselves with mattresses, cardboard and cloth and prevented the gas from spreading into narrow underground corridors. Their water-soaked headdresses protected their breathing. The gas had a natural tendency to rise, so it came up to the compound of the mosque - where the Saudi soldiers were ill-prepared to use gas masks. Their generous facial hair prevented the masks from sealing on the skin: the gas seeped through their beards and knocked out a large contingent. Then it made its way to the surrounding area, and most of Mecca had to be evacuated.

My own account of what happened next differs from Trofimov's. The grapevine in Jeddah, I remember, suggested that the Qaboo had been flooded on the recommendation of the CIA. The rebels who escaped drowning were forced to the surface and captured. But Trofimov provides us with another story. The Saudis, he suggests, called in the French Foreign Legion. Paris despatched Lieutenant Paul Barril, a mercenary commando with expertise in such situations, on a "provost mission" to the kingdom.

Barril recommended another dose of gas - indeed, a whole tonne of CS gas, enough to poison a small city. However, the entire French stock of CS gas came to only 300kg so the operation was limited to this amount. This time, the gas was to be used with a particular cunning. Countless holes were bored from the surface of the compound down into the Qaboo, and the gas was pumped in through these holes. At the same time, battalions of the army entered the Qaboo from two points, in a pincer movement. They succeeded in overpowering the insurgents and capturing Juhayman.

Emeregency +

Ejaz Haider continues with his satire of "Great Leap Forward" (aka "emergency plus") by His Enlightened Moderation.

A Tale of Two "Moderates"

Here are two "moderate" presidents bent on begetting anything but moderation in their countries. Compariosn between Messers Musharaff and Mubarak (and their other counterparts in Muslim world) couldn't be sharper . Mona Eltahway puts it brilliantly

You have brilliantly used the Islamist boogeyman. That is a trick your fellow Muslim dictators also have perfected, presenting themselves as the only sane choice in countries beset by Islamist lunatics. Mubarak might point to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas can point to Hamas, but who can beat having Osama bin Laden allegedly hiding somewhere in his country? Or those Taliban and Al Qaeda foot soldiers crisscrossing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border?

You claim that your emergency law is aimed at fighting these suicidal maniacs and their Pakistani supporters. But Pakistanis know the real target of your clampdown is the country's Supreme Court and its brave judges who have steadfastly opposed you.

That's another thing you share with your fellow Muslim dictators: an allergy to an independent judiciary, which in many Muslim countries constitutes the most potent secular opposition. Mubarak recognized last year the danger of judges who dared demand independence. He had them beaten and arrested and had their supporters jailed, answering any questions about how "serious" he was about reform and democracy.

Pakistan’s General Anarchy

Muhammad Hanif's article in today's New York Times:

For those who have never had to live under his regime, the general/president can come across as a rakish, daredevil figure. His résumé is impressive: here’s a man who can manage the frontline of the Western world’s war on terrorism, get rid of prime ministers at will, force his political opponents into exile and still find the time to write an autobiography. But ask the lawyers, judges, arts teachers and students behind bars about him, and one will find out he is your garden-variety dictator who, after having spent eight years in power, is asking why can’t he continue for another eight.

General Musharraf’s bond with his troops is not just ideological. Under his command Pakistan’s armed forces have become a hugely profitable empire. It’s the nation’s pre-eminent real estate dealer, it dominates the breakfast-cereal market, it runs banks and bakeries. Only last month Pakistan’s Navy, in an audacious move, set up a barbecue business on the banks of the Indus River about 400 miles away from the Arabian Sea it’s supposed to protect.

It’s a happy marriage between God and greed.

Big Brother has taken his gloves off ...

Laughable or lamentable, you decide, - but definitely readable it is. If the "emergency plus" was aimed at fighting terrorists (as Great Leader proclaimed), it has missed the bull's eye way apart. Big Brother has taken his gloves off but to whom he wanna shows "who is the boss".. As Asma Jehangir said in her message:

... the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.

Our "Defining Moment"

It's not the first (and probably not the last) "defining moment" since its birth this crisis-ridden nation is currently passing though. Three days after the imposition of emergency, all private news channels remain off air - and hundreds of lawyers, political workers are under arrest or "in-house detention". All for one reason that C-in-C (Creep-in-Chief) is unwilling to go on leave.

Pen is Funnier than Sword

Some hilarious cartoons by Khalid Bendib!

Pathetic state of apathy

Pervez Hoodbhoy and Rasul Bakhsh Rais has pointed towards the sickening apathy of Pakistani civil society against the rising tide of religious extremism and terrorism. Ayesha Siddiqa provides her diagnosis of this sorry state of the nation:

As long as our honour is secure and we are not being insulted, why get up and fight. Unfortunately, today this is the mindset of most people. Everybody wants to secure his or her own space without bothering to stand up for the other.

I am reminded of the story of a king who ordered all his subjects to bring a pail of milk and empty it into the pond in front of the castle before dawn. Next morning when the king woke up, he found the pond filled with water and no milk. Everyone thought that others would bring milk so a bucket of water would suffice. This is pure realpolitik and pragmatism. People are encouraged not to fight for norms, values and principles but to save their interests. Power is the name of the game and people are meant to respect that.

How, then, can we expect a society, which could not snub two extremely arrogant agents of the state for insulting an educationist, to stand up against terrorists that kill innocent security personnel? This is not to justify the society’s complacency but an effort to understand the sickening apathy. Both the individual and the society he lives in do not have the strength to stand up to often violent humiliation at the hands of all sorts of rogue elements.

Flawed and failed

Razi Azmi has re-appeared on the pages of Daily Times after a long time, though not on a pleasnat moment and and not for a pleasant reason:


The famous French writer Victor Hugo once said that history repeats itself, first time as tragedy, then as farce. One is tempted to see all the Pakistani governments from Ayub to Musharraf, indeed from Nazimuddin to Musharraf, in this light. Only it is hard to tell which phase constitutes tragedy and which farce.


Meanwhile, Daily Times is still harping on it's "transitionist" (aka pro-Mush) tone, blaming anyone but Great Leader for imposition of "emergency".

Desperate Measures: Emergency rule declared in Pakistan

Finally an end to rumors circling around for past few days! Commando resorts to desperate measures to stick to hold on to power and declares emergency rule today. PTV's newscaster referred to him as "Chief of Army Staff"rather than "Sadr-e-mamlikat" while breaking the news of emergency. All private news channels including BBC and CNN have gone off air (Thank God, they did not terminate internet connection - as yet at least). A drowning man catching at a straw! Or a stooge flaunting to his pay masters "who is the boss" in the "most dangerous country of the world" (State Department unambiguously opposed the idea of emergency or martial law in Pakistan).

Meanwhile, I am faced with another personal emergency. Travel agent told me that I won't be able to leave for Dublin tomorrow. Instead, I have a chance to get ticket on 9th and he will give further details on Monday. Sigh!

Rape Conundrum

It was kinda shocking to know that in UK, less than 5% of reported rapes lead to conviction, not to mention that majority of sexual assaults remain unreported. Joanna Burke suggests a re-examination of masculinity as one of the possible remedies to this problem:

A politics of masculinity that focuses upon a man's body as a site of pleasure (for him and others), as opposed to an instrument of oppression and pain, demands a renewed focus on male comportment, imaginary, and agency. People discover sex: they learn its performance. Indeed, phallic masculinity represents a turning away from a complex model of pleasure, draining it (in the words of feminist Catherine Waldby) of "erotic potential in favour of its localisation in the penis, taken to be the phallus' little representative". Adopting a "good sex" model will enable men to love and be loved in more fulfilling ways.

The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy

Here is a a review of John Mueller's article "Is There Still a Terrorist Threat? The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy".

Sayonara Swat and Rawalpindi

A suicide bomb blast near Pakistan Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi killed seven people and injured 11 others . I agree with Anjum Niaz's view in today's The News that while His Enlightened Moderation should get his due share of criticism, we should allow other actors in this fatal game to beat the rap under the guise of "anti-Mush"or "anti-imperlialist/US" - as these are the actors who are (unfortunately) likely to outlive Mush and bound to stay with us long after Mush is gone.


it is time we moved beyond the spectre of a lame-duck general and apportion equally the blame on others who with their unfettered greed have eviscerated the law and ruled over us as if Pakistan was their personal fiefdom.

Why have we fallen in a Musharraf rut? We rarely question the malfeasance of the mullah, the military and bureaucracy that have kept the majority of 170 million Pakistanis poor, illiterate, unskilled, and chained to medieval religious beliefs that over time have ripened into rabid faith often exhibiting itself in the worst of inhuman practices like suicide bombing, beheading, lashing, honour killing, slaughtering and stoning to death of helpless victims.

Where is the nazim? Where is the police head? Where is the military commander? Probably cooling their heels in some temperature-controlled, crony-infested, delicacies-laden 'office' while Stone-Age brutalities get daily enacted in their own backyard. And what are the politicians doing? Plotting who the next caretaker prime minister will be and who will be his/her cabinet of chamchas.

Pity the nation

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion;

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave;

That eats a bread it does not harvest;

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero;

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dreams, yet submits in its awakening;

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral; That boasts not except among its ruins;

Pity the nation that will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block;

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking;

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpeting again;

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
- Khalil Gibran

Mullahs - alive and kicking

Yesterday, Sheikh Rashid said in a press conference to the effect of, "Do not underestimate Fazalur Rehman. He has a big role to play".

Rashid's comments side apart, Fazl is indeed making smart moves and playing his cards very wisely, much to the chagrin of "moderates". From today's editorial of Daily Times:



Second Editorial: MMA returns from the brink?

After an explosion of mutual criticism, the two clashing Pushtun leaders of the clerical alliance Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, have met and, if reports are to be credited, made up. The Maulana went and asked after Qazi Sahib at his home where the latter was recovering from an illness. Apparently all is mutually forgiven, the Maulana’s dilly-dallying over dissolution of the Peshawar Assembly and Qazi Sahib’s “stab in the back” through vacation of the same assembly and destruction of JUIF’s majority there.

One has to first note the sophistication of conduct among the clerical leaders as opposed to the rough and tumble of the non-clerical leaders of the political parties. Most TV discussions are unwatchable because of the way the politicians shout at each other, exchanging defamations that would put to shame any “bhaand” (the village wit known for his foul tongue) of the lower order. One also has to appreciate the clerical realisation after 2002 that they can make their political presence felt only by sinking their “unbridgeable” confessional differences. The roles have reversed: there was a time when mainstream politicians used to make fun of the clerics for not “praying together”; now we have a complete lack of consensus among the politicians.

Taliban in Pakistan's Wild Wild West

Jason Burke writes in The Observer about recent developments in Pakistan's "Wild Wild West".

Across an area that stretches through Pakistani cities such as Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi, through Kabul and Kandahar, to remote villages and Nato bases in southern Afghanistan, it is possible to unpick the intricate detail of the battle for the strategic centre of the War on Terror. What emerges is a picture not of a single movement or insurgency called 'the Taliban', but of a new state without formal borders or even a name, a state that is currently nothing more than a chaotic confederation of warlords' fiefdoms spanning one of the most critical parts of the world and with the potential to escalate into a very real presence - with devastating consequences for global security.

That's the region where all players suffer from lack of certainty about their borders, enemies, and strategies. The only faction that seems to have a clear vision of all that is - Taliban.

According to Brigadier Shah, the Pakistani army is 'currently fighting blindfold', and western intelligence agencies admit a 'lack of visibility' in the tribal areas.

Reminds me of Bertrand Russell, "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt".

Zardari has a point

An interesting, though not necessarily a convincing take on Oct. 18 bomb blast:

While Baitullah Mehsud may still try to kill Benazir and may even decide to do it with a bomb, he is likely to come forth and own the deed. So who has been going about exploding anonymous bombs in Pakistan in the name of terrorists, and in the latest instance, who is behind the Karachi attempt?

Let’s venture a guess. It is quite clear that Benazir’s return makes none of the power players in Pakistani politics happy except the United States and perhaps also General Musharraf, who, though unhappily, might have had the sense to think that his own survival now depends on this unholy alliance with Benazir. He would have had this sense because he would know, one hopes, that there is quite clearly a part of the establishment — a powerful part — which has consistently tried to destabilise him for some time now.

The Chief Justice episode and its subsequent handling was not the result of incompetence on the part of the government, because no government, not even this one, can be so horribly incompetent. The police attacks on lawyers in Lahore two days in a row, the attack on TV channels, the manhandling of the Chief Justice, the bomb blast in Islamabad before the Chief Justice’s address to the bar and the May 12 incidents in Karachi were not just instances of ‘mishandling’.

Someone was surely up to something and this someone is obviously part of a setup, if not the setup itself, that has the wherewithal to make all this happen. Earlier on, while the “deal” between Musharraf and Benazir was being discussed and had not yet been finalised, these people would have had to eliminate only Musharraf from the scene. Now, however, there is another party: Benazir.

These people, with end goals that are perhaps not very different from those of the ‘fundamentalist terrorists’, are obviously hard at work. But while they may or may not be able to succeed, for all their campaign in the press about security threats from ‘terrorists’, it seems that Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto and this writer will remain unconvinced.

It is our war

And sadly we seem to be on retreat! Hoodbhoy is spot on that most Pakistanis are not die-hard Islamists but by keeping their mouths shut in the wake of creeping Talibanization, they end up playing into the hands of these dreadful Islamists.


An overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s citizens do not want harsh strictures imposed on their personal liberties. They do not want enslavement of their women, their forced confinement in the burqa, or for them to be denied the right to education. Instead, they want a decent life for themselves and their children. They disapprove of Islam being used as a cover for tribal primitivism. But there is little protest.

We must understand this. Why is there no mass movement to confront the extremist Taliban of Miramhah and Waziristan, or the violence-preaching extremist mullah in Mingora, Lahore or Islamabad? This is because ordinary people lack the means and institutions to understand, organise, and express their values and aspirations. We do not yet have the democratic institutions that can give politics meaning for ordinary people. Depoliticising the country over the decades has led to paying this heavy price.


As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Bloodshed in Karachi

Everyday some bad news awaiting for the mere mortals of "land of the pure". No need to go to Islamic Emirate of South Waziristan to see the "writ of state" in tatters. "Daughter of the East" arrived at Karachi today after cutting a "deal" with His Enlightened Moderation and tow bomb blasts on her procession killed 139 and injured 550 others. Conspiracy theories and blame games are in the air (not unexpected in a polarized polity like Pakistan), though the involvement of suicide bomber points finger to the jihadist connection. As is the case in Pakistan, we may never know. Meanwhile, sorrow and grief for many !!

Whose "un-professionalism"?

Commando-in-Chief has blamed the captured soldiers for acting "unprofessionally". Arguably they did, following the footsteps of their C-in-C.

Meanwhile, a brief insight into the sectarian paranoi of de-facto runners of de-facto Islamic Emirate of South Waziristan.

He and Mahmood are convinced that if opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan in a power-sharing deal with President Musharraf, this pro-Americanism will get stronger.

"She is actually a Shia, so what else can we expect," he says.

This anti-Shia resentment is palpable.

In early August, Baitullah Mehsud's militants slaughtered a captured Shia soldier by cutting off his head.

And the way they like to execute the captives:

One militant, Faisal, said "cutting off the head is the best and most humane way to kill".

"When the head is removed from the body the soul is immediately released. Whereas when you hang a person, the soul has to struggle to escape from the mouth.

"If we want to punish someone, we cut his head from the back of the neck, instead of the throat," says Faisal.

"That is very painful and its takes a long time to die."

One of the group, we are told, has decapitated 53 men.

Fatah's 'morality police'

Using piety as an alternative to good and transparent govenance has been a time-tested formula in the lands of Islam. Fatah is simply following the fad. However, as in rest of the Muslim world, the idea of beating the Islamists on their home ground is more likely to boomerang on "non-Islamist moralists".


The new Palestinian Authority (PA) outfit's mission has been to bust anyone caught violating the fast during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month ending this week. That means potential arrests and jail time for simply chewing gum.

Although the enforcement of Ramadan customs is common in the Arab world, this is the first time the PA has instructed police to look for offenders. It's a move seen here as an effort by Fatah to compete with Hamas – seen by many Palestinians as the more pious and less corrupt Palestinian faction – for the hearts and minds of West Bankers.

Cleric stops opposing polio vaccination

Personal grief leads to restoration of sanity. A living case of that:

PESHAWAR: Maulana Merajuddin, an Afghan cleric living in Pakistan, stopped opposing the use of polio drops after his own child fell prey to the crippling disease – the first ever polio case detected in Khyber Agency, in January 2007.

Mirajuddin, who lives in the Mastak area of Bara tehsil, told Daily Times that his two-year-old son Gul Khan was paralysed in January 2007, and doctors at the Jamrud Civil Hospital told him that his son had fallen victim to polio. “I made a mistake by opposing the visit of a polio-vaccination team to my village. I was impressed by the maulvis’ propaganda,” he recalled, and said polio had paralysed his son and made him a burden on his family forever.

“My child is suffering from paralysis. We spent a lot of money and time but could not find signs of recovery,” he said.

A majority of clerics in the NWFP and FATA oppose the polio immunisation campaign. Maulana Fazlullah of Swat and Haji Namdar, head of hardline organisation Amer Bilmaroof Wa Nahi Anilmunkar in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, have often asked locals to boycott polio immunisation campaigns through their illegal radio stations. They say polio vaccines make children infertile and that the vaccination is a Western attempt to curtail the growing population of the Muslim world. Following directions from religious leaders, a number of people refused polio drops for their children and banned the entry of polio campaigners to their areas in FATA and NWFP. “Now I am sure that there are no infertility elements in the polio vaccine as a Muslim doctor has made it clear to me,” Mirajuddin said.

Eid Gifts

Charity begins at home. Ministry of Population tries to test this lesson. :)

ISLAMABAD: Senators and MNAs received a unique gift of 100 condoms each on the eve of Eidul Fitar from the Ministry of Population in a bid to encourage population control at the top level.

“Yes, the condom packs have been distributed among the male parliamentarians. Each MP has been gifted a pack of condoms containing 100 condoms,” said an official of the ministry. The distribution of condoms has enraged some opposition MNAs, who have taken it as an insult, and they have decided to take up the matter with National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

“I will take up the issue with the speaker and move a privilege motion if need be. We are all educated people and know the benefits of contraceptives, but this move is meant to humiliate the MPs,” said a PPP MNA, who requested not to be named. He said that perhaps such “stupid acts” were the government’s way of showing the world its “moderate face”.

Mush can stand with his Uniform On.....

With 2/3 majority, Supreme Court of Pakistan has decreed that Musharaf's uniform does not bar him from running for president. Even lame-duck parliament could not bestow such "heavy manadate" on "His Enlightened Moderation"! Let's see if opposition lives up to its promise of "mass resignations" or Mush to his promise of post-election civilian presidency - or may be we are asking for moon in both cases. Whatever be the case, stay tune for more chaos ahead !!

Humor - Pakistani style

Laughable or lamentable - humor remains our most popular escapism!

Bomb Blast in Rawalpindi

This time they struck right under the nose of Gallant Armed Forces of "Land of the Pure".

Chickens are coming home to roost - and are roosting with great heat. Alas, they are not likely to calm down anytime soon - even if "Go Mushareff Go" movement carries the day. No pleasant moments ahead !!

In the Name of God (Khuda Kay Liyay)

Finally watched the movie today. It's s just awesome. One of the masterpieces produced by Lollywood to date. Definitely worth watching.

Science and Religion Blog

Found an interesting blog on science and religion here. Espeically the posts (1, 2) about moribund state of science in Muslims countries are worth reading.

Look alike games

Blasphemy And "People are on streets"

Here is an ex-liberal member of treasury presenting resolution against Rudhie.

Pakistan's parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution, said the knighthood would "encourage people to commit blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad".


Government is in dire straits because of Chief Justice crisis and seems to play "holier than thou" to diffuse anger directed to itself, but it not likely to work.

Modernity, Generals and Ayatollahs

Finally a silver lining about political culture of Pakistan! Not sure how long it will last though. Sigh.

Pakistan’s saving grace lies in the democratic strain of its political culture which has made it possible for a work like Siddiqa’s to be published, marketed and debated at a scale never before seen in Pakistan before. This is a far cry from Iran, where it is inconceivable that a book exposing the economic empire of the ayatollahs could be published and circulated like Siddiqa’s book in Pakistan.

New controls on media in Pakistan

Finally the emperor sheds his mask and roles back on his own boastings.


President Pervez Musharraf has signed into immediate effect measures to increase control over the media. Current regulations related to television have been extended to the internet and mobile phones. Some regulations on who is allowed to be licensed to broadcast in Pakistan have been extended to cover "any foreign non-governmental organisation".

Let's not Politicize the Lethal Issues

Commando Sahib seems unwilling to "politicize" these lethal issues:


The current phase of Muslim thought is nihilistic, of tearing down without building, of creating disorder to oppose the order we don’t like because we think it is West-ordained. The tribal areas and increasingly parts of the NWFP are in the grip of this anarchy of our minds. The tragedy is that the state doesn’t know how to deal with this situation.

Pakistan: 'Bastion of freedom'

Laughable or lamentable: a perceptive account of the "laissez faire" in "Brave New World" of Pakistan.

Understanding the jihadi mindset

Dr Tariq Rahman reviews Sohail Abbas's book ‘Probing the Jihadi Mindset’ (2007). As many authors has pointed out, these are educated urban youths rather than illiterate rural masses who are more susceptible to the appeals of jihadism. Feeling detached from their physical surroundings, they seek refuge in meta-physical connections. It is pretty obvious from the dominance of Pathans, Punjabis and Mohajirs - and virtual absence of Seraikis, Baloch and Sindhis in the rank and file of jihadis. Some interesting excerpts from the article:


The jihadis were not completely uneducated. Whereas the illiterate population of Pakistan is 45.19 per cent, among the jihadis 44.3 per cent were illiterate. In the Haripur sample, however, only 23.2 per cent were illiterate.

Even more interesting is the fact that, contrary to common perception, most jihadis had not been educated in madressahs. While 35.5 per cent did attend madressahs they stayed there mostly less than six months (indeed merely 14 per cent stayed beyond that period). In the Haripur sample, 54.5 per cent had received no religious education while 45.5 per cent had — but again, even those who did receive religious education received very little of it. In short, as Dr Sohail Abbas concludes: ‘They were recruited largely from the mainstream of the Pakistan population. Their literacy level is above the average of the general population’.

This, indeed, is what reports on 9/11 tell us. Those who join radical Islamic groups are predominantly educated in technology and science. They do not necessarily belong to madressahs though, considering that the proportion of these religious seminaries to state educational institutions is so small, there is a proportionately large number of madressah students in radical Islamic circles in Pakistan.

According to the survey, 48.5 per cent of jihadis said that their families were more religious than those around them. However, they were not motivated for jihad by the family. In most cases (59.6 per cent in Haripur and 39.7 in Peshawar), they were motivated by religious leaders.

The peer group also had a strong influence and, of course, there was self-motivation. Indeed, not surprisingly, the jihadis saw themselves as the most religious member of the family. Some tried to change the family’s religious orientation stopping others from going to the tombs of saints because they believed it was forbidden.

Another interesting aspect of the jihadis’ attitude towards their families is that they did not bother about hurting or worrying their families. Nor, in the case of married men, did they think as to who would look after them. In short, ideology was so strong in their minds so as to break family bonds which are otherwise powerful in Pakistan.

These people also appeared to be less sociable than other Pakistanis. About 49 per cent reported limited social contacts. Maybe, in the absence of places for socialisation, the mosque filled in that gap in their lives. In any case, according to the survey, they were more emotionally unstable (29 per cent) than ordinary men (only nine per cent). Villagers, it appears, are more stable than the inhabitants of urban slums possibly because the villages are still rooted in a strong kinship network and tradition. In the city one is living in a void and feels rootless.

Women in Black

Here is one of the best articles I have come across in the wake of viglantism of Hafsa femme fetalls in the capital of "land of pure" - right under the nose of "His Enlightenend Moderation". The current vigiliantism on part of Beard & Burka brigade is just one of the symptoms of contradictions that run deep into the very foundation of Pakistan.


... while the Islamists have got their martyrs and are always ready to commit more cadres to die in the cause, the liberals work on Russell’s formula: “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong”.

Neither would I. But this formula works in civilised environments. In a place where some are prepared to die for an absolutism, however misplaced their concreteness might be, some others also need to stand up and commit to defending the right of many to not die for beliefs because they might be wrong. This is a contest between the absolutism of the absolutist and the absolutism of the relativist.

The relativist has to fight to retain the absolute right to his relativism.

Colonial confluence

Jasanoff's book seems worth a read! An approach different from both "White Man's Burden" and "Orientalism".

Pakistanis need to consider this fluidity of colonial exchanges if we are to effectively reconcile with our past and move forward constructively. As Jasanoff aptly states: “Empires are a fact of world history. The important question for this book is not whether they are good or bad but what they do, whom they affect, and how.”