Don’t Get Burnt

“Holding on to anger with the intent of hurting someone else, is like picking up a hot coal with the intention of throwing it.

You are the one who gets burned”

Said by: Buddha

Fecilitations

Muslims all over the world are reciting after every Salat (Prayer) and will recite going from their residences to mosques and on way back when they go for Salat Eid-ul-Adh-ha

اللہُ اکبر اللہُ اکبر لَا اِلَہَ اِلْاللہ وَحْدَہُ لَا شَرِیْکَ لَہُ
لَہُ الّمُلْکُ وَ لَہُ الْحَمْدُ وَ ھُوَ عَلٰی کُلِّ شَیٍ قَدِیر
اللہُ اکبر اللہُ اکبر لا اِلہَ اِلاللہ و اللہُ اکبر اللہُ اکبر و للہِ الحمد
اللہُ اکبر اللہُ اکبر لا اِلہَ اِلاللہ و اللہُ اکبر اللہُ اکبر و للہِ الحمد
اللہُ اکبر کبِیرہ والحمدُللہِ کثیِرہ و سُبحَان اللہِ بکرۃً و أصِیلا

Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, La ilaha il-Allah, wahdahu la shareeka lahu,
lahul mulko wa lahul hamdo wa howa ala kul-li shayyin Qadeer
Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, La ilaha il-Allah, wa Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, wa lil’lahil hamd
Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, La ilaha il-Allah, wa Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, wa lil’lahil hamd
Allaho Akbar kabeera, wal-hamdulillahi kathira, wa sub-han Allahi bukratan wa aseela

May Allah accept Hajj of those who had the privilege of performing Hajj this year

I wish a Happy Eid ul Adh-ha to all the Muslims on the globe.
May all of you pursue your lives in good health and with success in your pious goals and prosperity. Aameen

Hate By Government

It is not enough to dismiss Sept 21 as an expression of hate. The event underlined a dangerous level of government incompetence

Many analysts in Pakistan are mistaking the violence we saw on Sept 21 as hate. It would be more accurate to see it as an indictment of an incompetent government and a failed political culture.

The worse violence occurred in areas heavily dominated by political parties. At the same time, many protests organised by religious and other parties were peaceful. Seeing the violence in purely a religious context would be wrong, an oversight that many analysts are making.

The elected government of President Asif Zardari bears direct responsibility for the violence we saw on the government-sponsored ‘Ishq-e-Rasool Day’.

In a country facing security challenges and where political violence goes unchecked, who in his right mind would play with fire by designating a special day for protest? No other Arab or Muslim country did it. The Zardari government should be sued for millions of dollars lost by Pakistani citizens because of government incompetence.

More worrisome is political opportunism. There is a strong suspicion that the Zardari government exploited religion to offset the impact of its lost cases at the Supreme Court. For example, the blanket ban on YouTube – and not just the objectionable links – was an overblown step that came a day before an expected dismissal of Prime Minster Pervaiz Ashraf by the Supreme Court.

The national holiday asking people to come out on the streets was apparently part of a government strategy to create sympathy on the eve of a Supreme Court decision to disqualify key presidential aides, including interior minister Rehman Malik. It is telling that both the prime minister and interior minister pushed the idea of a day-off for protests against cabinet opposition.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Sept 21 debacle was more than just a government idea gone bad. Shouldn’t such a government be made accountable for the mess it created? Shouldn’t the interior minister be questioned for his lack of judgment on the consequences of designating a day off for protest on an inflammatory issue in a country already suffering from political violence?

The violence on Sept 21 is not dissimilar to violence committed by political parties on different occasions. The organised raids on banks in Karachi had little to do with anti-film rallies and more to do with a culture of violence fostered by political parties over a period of time.

This culture has led to the creation of secret militant wings in most parties, and to raising a cadre of ‘party workers’ trained for agitation and street violence. Sadly, even a relatively clean party like the PTI succumbed to street violence thanks to the recent recruitment of ‘party workers’ with prior professional experience.

It is not enough to dismiss Sept 21 as an expression of hate. The event underlined a dangerous level of government incompetence. It also highlighted a culture of street violence common to all political parties, religious and nonreligious.

Instead of turning this into a question of extremism, the Zardari government should be made answerable to serious questions about governance. It is also a good opportunity to put the violent Pakistani political culture on trial.

By :- Ahmed Quraishi

i – Family

Why They Hate You ?

The violent protests against the sacrilegious film have highlighted three aspects: people do not tolerate irreverence to their religion; the United States’ relations with Muslim states are tenuous; and the existence of grave social disparity in society. Were the objectionable film the only issue, the protests wouldn’t have been so violent. Simultaneous protests in so many Muslim countries clearly manifested public anger against the US policy of regime-change and occupation.

On September 11, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a charged crowd attacked the US consulate in Benghazi. The attack resulted in the death of US ambassador Christopher Stevens, and three other diplomats. Was the blasphemous film the only issue, or did the angry Libyans vent their fury against the occupation of their country and possession of its oil?

A picture doing the rounds on the Internet, titled “Act of God,” shows Stevens looking at Muammar Qaddafi’s mutilated body in October 2011. He could never have foreseen people would be looking at his own lifeless figure eleven months later. According to French journalist, Thierry Meyssan, the Arabic-speaking US ambassador functioned as governor and de facto head of state. Hillary Clinton’s reaction was, “how could this happen in the country we helped liberate” and “in a city we helped save from destruction.” The ferocity and quickness of the protests show the depth of Muslim peoples’ outrage against the US and the West for the violation of their countries’ sovereignties.

While the West refers Muslims’ anger against it Islamic fanaticism, the truth lies elsewhere: it is Muslim anger against Western occupation of Islamic countries for the exploitation of their resources. This should answer the question Americans ask about Muslims, “Why do they hate us?” Americans should bear in mind what their renowned political scientist Samuel Huntington said: “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organised violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.” Libyans, Iraqis and Afghans will never forget it. Recent polls suggest that two-thirds of the populations in the Middle East and three-fourths in Pakistan are opposed to the US presence in their countries.

However, no anti-US protests have occurred in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf sheikdoms. Perhaps because the despotic monarchies and sheikdoms crush the dissent so ruthlessly that nobody dares raise his voice.

Paul Craig Roberts, who worked as Ronald Reagan’s assistant secretary of the treasury, writes insightful columns and refers to the US mainstream media as “Presstitute.” In a recent piece on Libya, “Death to America,” he wrote: “Unlike the Washington-supported Saudi royal family that absorbs most of their nation’s oil income, Qaddafi allocated the oil money to Libyans. …”

“Under his 1999 Decision No. 111, all Libyans received free healthcare, education, electricity, water, training, rehabilitation, housing assistance, disability and old-age benefits, interest-free state loans, as well as generous subsidies for people to study abroad, buy a new car, help when they marry, practically free gasoline, and more. Why did such a relatively wealthy and egalitarian country need to be ‘liberated’ by Washington and its Nato war criminal puppet states?”

Nevertheless, no one condones the damage the protestors did to government and private property.

There was another angle to it: the social injustice and disparity between the rich and poor segments of societies reaching the tipping point. The rich don’t know where to spend their wealth; the poor don’t know where their next meal will come from.

Hence the angry poor resort to violence. Here, too, the superpower should take the blame for foisting its proxies over the large Muslim populations and not allowing genuine leaderships to emerge.

By: Iftekhar A. Khan