One of Pakistan's leading scientists gives a frank account of the political and intellectual backwardness of the Islamic world.
If the world is to be spared what future historians might call the "century of terror," we will have to chart a course between US imperial arrogance and Islamic religious fanaticism. Through these waters, we must steer by a distant star toward a democratic, humanistic and secular future. Otherwise, shipwreck is certain.
For nearly four months now, leaders of the Muslim community in the US, and even President Bush, have routinely asserted that Islam is a religion of peace that was hijacked by fanatics on 11th September.
These two assertions are simply untrue. First, Islam-like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other religion-is not about peace. Nor is it about war. Every religion is about absolute belief in its own superiority and the divine right to impose its version of truth upon others. In medieval times, the crusades and the jihads were soaked in blood. Today, there are Christian fundamentalists who attack abortion clinics in the US and kill doctors; Muslim fundamentalists who wage their sectarian wars against each other; Jewish settlers who, holding the Old Testament in one hand and Uzis in the other, burn olive orchards and drive Palestinians off their ancestral land; and Hindus in India, who demolish mosques and burn down churches.
The second assertion is even further off the mark. Even if Islam had, in some metaphorical sense, been hijacked, that event did not occur three months ago. It was well over seven centuries ago that Islam suffered a serious trauma, the effects of which refuse to go away.
Where do Muslims stand today? Note that I do not ask about Islam; Islam is an abstraction. Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi, Pakistan's pre-eminent social worker, and the Taleban's Mohammad Omar are both followers of Islam, but the former is overdue for a Nobel Peace Prize, while the latter is an ignorant, psychotic fiend. The Palestinian writer, Edward Said, among others, has insistently pointed out that Islam holds very different meanings for different people. Within my own family, hugely different kinds of Islam are practised. The religion is as heterogeneous as those who believe and follow it. There is no "true Islam."
Today, Muslims number one billion. Of the 48 countries with a full or near Muslim majority, none has yet evolved a stable, democratic political system. In fact, all Muslim countries are dominated by self-serving corrupt elites who cynically advance their personal interests and steal resources from their people. None of these countries has a viable educational system or a university of international stature.
Reason, too, has been waylaid. You will seldom see a Muslim name as you flip through scientific journals and, if you do, the chances are that this person lives in the west. There are a few exceptions: Pakistani Abdus Salam, together with Americans Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. I got to know Salam reasonably well; we even wrote a book preface together. He was a remarkable man, terribly in love with his country and his religion. Yet he died deeply unhappy, scorned by Pakistan and declared a non-Muslim by an act of the Pakistani parliament in 1974. Today the Ahmadi sect, to which Salam belonged, is considered heretical and harshly persecuted. (My next-door neighbour, an Ahmadi physicist, was shot in the neck and heart and died in my car as I drove him to hospital seven years ago. His only fault was to have been born into the wrong sect.)
Although genuine scientific achievement is rare in the contemporary Muslim world, pseudo-science is in generous supply. A former chairman of my physics department in Islamabad has calculated the speed of heaven. He maintains it is receding from Earth at one centimetre per second less than the speed of light. His ingenious method relies upon a verse in the Islamic holy book, which says that worship on the night on which the book was revealed is worth a thousand nights of ordinary worship. He states that this amounts to a time-dilation factor of 1,000, which he puts into a formula of Einstein's theory of special relativity.
A more public example: One of the two Pakistani nuclear engineers who was recently arrested on suspicion of passing nuclear secrets to the Taleban had earlier proposed to solve Pakistan's energy problems by harnessing the power of genies. He relied on the Islamic belief that God created man from clay, and angels and genies from fire; so this high-placed engineer proposed to capture the genies and extract their energy.
Today's sorry situation contrasts starkly with the Islam of yesterday. Between the 9th and 13th centuries- the golden age of Islam-the only people doing decent work in science, philosophy or medicine were Muslims. Muslims not only preserved ancient learning, they also made substantial innovations. The loss of this tradition has proved tragic for Muslim peoples.
Science flourished in the golden age of Islam because of a strong rationalist and liberal tradition, sustained by a group of Muslim thinkers known as the Mutazilites. But in the 12th century, Muslim orthodoxy reawakened, spearheaded by the Arab cleric, Imam Al-Ghazali. Al-Ghazali championed revelation over reason, predestination over free will. He damned mathematics as being against Islam, an intoxicant of the mind that weakened faith.
Caught in the grip of orthodoxy, Islam choked. No longer would Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars gather and work together in the royal courts. It was the end of tolerance, intellect and science in the Muslim world. The last great Muslim thinker, Abd-al Rahman Ibn Khaldun, belonged to the 14th century.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world moved on. The Renaissance brought an explosion of scientific inquiry in the west. This owed much to translations of Greek works carried out by Arabs and other Muslim contributions, but they were to matter little. Mercantile capitalism and technological progress drove western countries-in ways that were often brutal and at times genocidal-rapidly to colonise the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco. It soon became clear, at least to some of the Muslim elites, that they were paying a heavy price for not possessing the analytical tools of modern science and the social and political values of modern culture-the real source of power of their colonisers.
Despite widespread resistance from the orthodox, the logic of modernity found 19th-century Muslim adherents. Some seized on the modern idea of the nation state. But remember that not a single Muslim nationalist leader of the 20th century was a fundamentalist.
Muslim and Arab nationalism, part of a larger anti-colonial nationalist current across the third world, included the desire to control and use national resources for domestic benefit. The conflict with western greed was inevitable. The imperial interests of Britain, and later the US, came into conflict with independent nationalism. Anyone willing to collaborate was preferred, even the ultra-conservative Islamic regime of Saudi Arabia. In 1953, Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran was overthrown in a CIA coup, replaced by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Britain targeted Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. Indonesia's Sukarno was replaced by Suharto, after a bloody coup that left hundreds of thousands dead.
Pressed from outside, corrupt and incompetent from within, secular Muslim governments proved unable to defend national interests or deliver social justice. They began to frustrate democracy to preserve their positions of power and privilege. These failures left a vacuum that Islamic religious movements grew to fill-in Iran, Pakistan and Sudan, to name a few.
This tide in the Muslim world combined with a ruthless pursuit of advantage by the US in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. With Pakistan's Moh-ammed Zia ul-Haq as America's foremost ally, the CIA openly recruited holy warriors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria. Radical Islam went into overdrive as its superpower ally and mentor funnelled support to the mujahedin. Ronald Reagan f�ted them on the White House lawn.
The rest is familiar: after the Soviet Union collapsed, the US walked away from Afghanistan. The Taleban emerged; Osama bin Laden and his al Qaida made Afghanistan their base.
What should thoughtful people infer from this whole narrative? For Muslims, it is time to stop wallowing in self-pity: Muslims are not helpless victims of conspiracies hatched by an all-powerful, malicious west. The fact is that the decline of Islamic greatness took place long before the age of mercantile imperialism. The causes were essentially internal. Therefore Muslims must be introspective and ask what went wrong.
Muslims must recognise that their societies are far larger, more diverse and complex than the small homogeneous tribal society in Arabia, 1400 years ago, from which their religion springs. It is therefore time to renounce the idea that Islam can survive and prosper only in an Islamic state run according to sharia, or Islamic law. Muslims need a secular and democratic state that respects religious freedom and human dignity and is founded on the principle that power belongs to the people. This means confronting and rejecting the claim by orthodox Islamic scholars that, in an Islamic state, sovereignty belongs to the vice-regents of Allah, or Islamic jurists, not to the people.
People like bin Laden have no answer and can offer no alternative. To glorify their terrorism is a hideous mistake. The unremitting slaughter of Shiites, Christians and Ahmadis in their places of worship in Pakistan, and of other minorities in other Muslim countries, shows that terrorism is not about the revolt of the dispossessed, as it is often claimed.
The US, too, must confront some bitter truths. The messages of George Bush and Tony Blair fall flat, while those of bin Laden, whether he lives or dies, resonate strongly across the Muslim world. Bin Laden's religious extremism turns off many Muslims, but they find his political message easy to relate to: the US must stop helping Israel in dispossessing the Palestinians and stop propping up corrupt and despotic regimes across the world just because they serve US interests.
Americans will also have to recognise the fact that their triumphalism and disdain for international law has created enemies everywhere, not just among Muslims. They must become less arrogant and more like the other peoples of the world.
Our collective survival lies in recognising that religion is not the solution; neither is nationalism. We have but one choice: the path of secular humanism, based upon the principles of logic and reason. This alone offers the hope of providing everybody on this globe with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 18:53 ||
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Pakistani Abdus Salam, together with Americans Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979
But Abdus Salam was born and educated in British India. Had he been born in Pakistan....
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 18:57 Comments ||
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IMO, that failure is what fuels Jihad. Muslims have to keep conquering because they cannot maintain the conquered wealth.
PESHAWAR: A young scientist, who claimed creating a new theory regarding the universe, has demanded of the President of Pakistan and Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) to forward his research to International Institutes of Astronomy and Astrology for evaluation.
Saifullah Khan, who teaches cosmo-physics and cosmology, while addressing a news conference here Thursday claimed that he had created a new theory about the universe after a ten-year long research and efforts, a copy of which he had submitted to Pakistan Science Foundation and HEC for further evaluation but was awaiting their response.
The theory of Kainaat and Lail-O-Nahaar as the title given by the young scientist, describes a brief history of dark matter-to-matter, illuminating and darkening of universe. The theory also mentions the exploring challenging mysteries of universe like twisters, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tides, tsunami and orbits. It also tells about gravitational forces and how the masses, stars, galaxies, cluster and dark matter swim in the universe.
He claims that it is wrong concept that dark matter is only detectable by its gravity but there is another force Repulsion (opposite to gravity), which would help detect the dark matter. There is a fifth force which exists everywhere in universe and still not detected like gravitons.
However, its nature is completely different from gravity and state of different matter such as solid, liquid, gas. This force is extending, emitting, radiating from its origin in space in each direction and its nature is repulsion.
The origin may be in solid, liquid or gas, however, the solid has extreme possibility, also liquid somewhere, as well as combine both solid and liquid state, during that stage of its conversion into matter.
The theory of Kainaat and Lail-o-Nahaar has added a new force into the theory of everything, which is known as Ratqan means Repulsion, he said, adding that the four forces of universe i.e. gauge boson is the general term for these four types of particles that transmit each force are gluons, graviton, photons and weakens.
He said that the scientists and physicists agreed upon the existence and nature of these forces, which exchange between the particles that makes up matter.
Saifullah has supported his theory with some graphs, images and formulas, depicting the existence of the fifth force named Ratqan in the universe.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 17:48 ||
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but there is another force Repulsion
Theory of Pakistan in a nutshell.
Posted by: Stephen Hawking ||
01/28/2007 18:08 Comments ||
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Saifullah has supported his theory with some graphs, images and formulas
Well that settles it then. What more proof do you need?
#3
demanded of the President of Pakistan and Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) to forward his research to International Institutes of Astronomy and Astrology for evaluation.
Dope plagarizes dark energy and demands evaluation by Astrologers. A sure sign of pseudoscience: the theory explains everything (from 'twisters' to twistors).
The origin may be in solid, liquid or gas, however, the solid has extreme possibility, also liquid somewhere, as well as combine both solid and liquid state, during that stage of its conversion into matter.
Pakistan has almost a hundred universities now. Not one of them is world class. Truth be told, not even one of them is a real university.
...
The teaching at QAU is no better. Rote learning is common, students are not encouraged to ask questions in class, and courses are rarely completed by the end of the semester. This university has three mosques but no bookstore. It is becoming more like a madressah in other ways too.
...
The HEC's "generosity" extends even into largely illiterate tribal areas. There are so-called universities now in Malakand, Bannu, Kohat, Khuzdar, Gujrat, Haripur, and in many other places where it is difficult to detect the slightest potential for successfully establishing modern universities.
...
Another poorly thought-out, and dangerous, HEC scheme involves giving massive cash awards to university teachers for publishing research papers - Rs 60,000 per paper published in a foreign journal.
...
Established practices of plagiarizing papers, multiple publications of slightly different versions of the same paper in different research journals, fabricating scientific data, and seeking out third-rate foreign journals with only token referees are now even more common. The HEC has broadcast the message: corruption pays!
...
The casual disregard for quality is most obvious in the HEC's massive PhD production programme. This involves enrolling 1,000 students in Pakistani universities every year for PhD degrees.
Thereby Pakistan's "PhD deficit" (it produces less than 50 PhDs per annum at present) will supposedly be solved and it will soon be at par with India. In consequence, an army of largely incapable and ignorant students, armed with hefty HEC fellowships, has sallied forth to write PhD theses.
...
Although the HEC claims that it has checked the students through a "GRE type test" (the American graduate school admission test), a glance at the question papers reveals it to be only a shoddy literacy and numeric test.
...
In my department, advertised as the best physics department in the country, the average PhD student now has trouble with high-school level physics and even with reading English.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 18:26 Comments ||
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man,John, you're making me more cynical about the Pak system!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2007 18:40 Comments ||
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"The theory also mentions the exploring challenging mysteries of universe like twisters, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tides, tsunami and orbits. It also tells about gravitational forces and how the masses, stars, galaxies, cluster and dark matter swim in the universe."
I got a better idea: how about you ignorant 7th-century throwbacks work on perfecting the wooden cartwheel first, before you start dabbling in cosmology?
"Challenging mysteries of the universe", my aching, hairy white ass...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/28/2007 18:44 Comments ||
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More from Hoodbhoy on Islamic Science in Pakistan during the rule of General Zia Ul Haq...
Scientists began to write and discuss scientific papers on such topics as the angle of God, the temperature of Hell, or the latent energy of jinns. One university professor of physics wrote a paper on the speed at which Heaven was departing from Earth. A nuclear reactor scientist argued that jinns were made up of methane gas and proposed that jinn energy may be tapped to meet Pakistan's energy requirements.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 18:45 Comments ||
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surprised the Ford Foundation or the John D & Catherine T MacArthur foundation hasn't heard of them. They need AlGore as their front man
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2007 19:17 Comments ||
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#7: "Scientists began to write and discuss scientific papers on such topics as the angle of God, the temperature of Hell, or the latent energy of jinns. One university professor of physics wrote a paper on the speed at which Heaven was departing from Earth. A nuclear reactor scientist argued that jinns were made up of methane gas and proposed that jinn energy may be tapped to meet Pakistan's energy requirements."
Holy sh*t.
The mind reels. Boggle.
I wondered who did the "scientific" research for the "Weekly World News"....
Add "islamic science" to the growing list of oxymorons - with the emphasis on MORON.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/28/2007 19:32 Comments ||
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It's not even original nuttery. One of my college profs had his own personal theory of what matter's made of that "predicted" particles with negative mass. Not anti-matter; something completely different.
Regular mass would be repelled from negative mass; negative mass would be attracted to regular mass. Very odd idea.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/28/2007 19:36 Comments ||
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The only comment I have on his claim is:
"Right...."
Back to work...
#12
A young scientist, who claimed creating a new theory regarding the universe, has demanded of the President of Pakistan and Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) to forward his research to International Institutes of Astronomy and Astrology for evaluation.
Whatever happened to writting a paper & sending it to a professional journal?
#13
A nuclear reactor scientist argued that jinns were made up of methane gas and proposed that jinn energy may be tapped to meet Pakistan's energy requirements.
This is the guy who went to Afghanistan and advised Osama about building dirty nuclear devices. AFAIK, he is still wanted by the US.
Pak is hiding him in Burma.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 20:01 Comments ||
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At least the 'demand' part is a constant islamic conclusion. The evaluation of which will naturally create humiliation which then creates seething and of course the fifth force, Ratqan, will then start eye rolling and riots. It's all clear now. It's another Khan job.
GUJRANWALA: A special judicial magistrate on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for 10 Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leaders, including party chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, for delivering anti-government speeches at a public gathering here on GT Road some time ago. Judicial Magistrate Abdul Ghafoor issued warrants on a complaint by police official Ghulam Ali, who said that Qazi, Bilal Qudrat, Azhar Iqbal, Saeed Khokar, Furqan Aziz, Hameeduddin, Idrees Ayub and three others were wanted in a case. He asked the court to declare them proclaimed offenders. As a result, the court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for them.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:47 ||
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ch-ch-ch-chia!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2007 14:11 Comments ||
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A judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded Khalid Khawaja, a former official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), into custody for three days for distributing hate material and carrying banned literature.
The magistrate also directed the investigation officer to produce Khawaja in the court on January 30. Sub-Inspector Ghulam Mustafa, who is investigating the case, failed to produce the hate material seized from Khawaja in the court during the hearing. Later, he sought time and then produced the material in the court. Aabpara Police Station House Officer Safeer Bhatti said that police had seized a book titled Fatw-e-Rasheedia and other hate material from Khawaja. The police had arrested Khawaja on Friday and shifted him to an undisclosed location before registering a case against him under Section 295A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Khawaja was reportedly helping the district administration and Jamia Hafsa management settle the issue of a madrassa building on an encroached land. He was also reportedly in contact with the families of missing people and helping them arrange press conferences and protests in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. In a related development, Amna Masood Khwaja, the chief coordinator at the Islamic Centre for Research and Defence of Human Rights, told a press conference that secret agencies had put peoples lives at risk. Khalid Khawajas wife also accompanied her. She termed Khawajas arrest illegal and demanded his release.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:41 ||
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He had a copy of Spencer's "The Real Mohammed".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/28/2007 14:31 Comments ||
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A spokesman for militant leader Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan denied the groups involvement in recent attacks on law-enforcement agencies in Tank district. The denial from the militant group came a day after an attack on a police vehicle killed one policeman in Tank, a district adjoining South Waziristan.
The spokesman, Zulfiqar Mehsud, called reporters over the telephone from an unknown location, and told them that the Baitullah Mehsud-led group had no link with any sort of violence in Tank. We condemn the recent violence in Tank district, he said. Only anti-state elements can be suspected of doing such things. The group previously vowed to avenge a January 16 airstrike on a suspected Al Qaeda hideout.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:38 ||
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The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has contradicted reports that Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari had split, terming them baseless propaganda against the PPP and its leaders. Benazir Bhuttos spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that it was a baseless, false and bogus story. He said that Benazir and Zardari were living together and had no differences, as reported by a magazine.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:32 ||
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The Bhutto-Zardari marriage is over, according to an article in the Indian magazine Outlook by Mariana Babar, a Pakistani female journalist friendly with Benazir Bhutto.
According to Ms Babar, a little over two years from that heady, emotional November, as we settle into 2007, a chill seems to have seeped into the romantic saga that the Benazir-Zardari matrimony has always been for this country. The fizz has gone out of the love story, Benazir and Zardari dont live together, their marriage is an empty shell, a partnership of pretences, a form they must maintain because Pakistan, like much of South Asia, cant accept a woman politician divorced from her husband. You could say its a separation thats still dressed as marriage.
For months now, the souring of the Benazir-Zardari saga has been the staple of whispers in PPP circles. The buzz attained credibility in November last year when an English daily led its front page with the bruising header: Benazir desperately trying to save her marriage. The PPP didnt issue any denials. Last year too, in a money-laundering case filed by the earlier Nawaz Sharif government, Benazir told a Swiss court that she wasnt associated with offshore companies being investigated for their links to Zardari. The statement was perceived as an attempt on her part to distance herself from her husband.
A prominent Pakistani close to both Zardari and Benazir, who too now lives abroad, says: The marriage is over. Both have decided to get on with life and live in countries of their own choosing. There has even been a distribution of assets; thats why her statement last year to the Swiss court. But this doesnt mean Benazir will legally formalise the splitand it isnt only because of the political factor. As a lady friend of Benazirs told Outlook, Benazir is too conservative to go in for a divorce. Once, till late in the night, she kept advising me against seeking divorce.
There are, however, incontrovertible signs of their marriage being on the rocks if not totally kaput. For one, Benazir lives in Dubai, Zardari in a New York apartment with his dogs. His friends there invite sneers from the extremely class-conscious Pakistanis. As a former foreign secretary told this correspondent, We were having dinner at this posh restaurant and in walked Asif with a group of men who would never be seen in polite company. Influential expat Pakistanis say Benazir did not stay with her husband when she visited the Big Apple last September, choosing instead to reside with a friend there. The PPP explained it saying she needed a larger space for party work, writes Babar.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:31 ||
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Benazir and Zardari dont live together, their marriage is an empty shell, a partnership of pretences, a form they must maintain because Pakistan, like much of South Asia, cant accept a woman politician divorced from her husband. You could say its a separation thats still dressed as marriage.
Sounds like a certain Presidential candidate and her ex-presidential husband
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2007 14:26 Comments ||
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The control of Quetta city has been handed over to the Frontier Constabulary (FC) to ensure law and order during Muharram. Heavy contingents of FC and armed personnel carriers have been deployed on all entries to the city, sensitive locations and imambargahs. Army has been put on high alert and suspected vehicles and people are being searched. The stern measures follow a suicide bomb explosion in Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2007 12:29 ||
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"Muharram is so called because it was unlawful to fight during this month; the word is derived from the word haram meaning forbidden. It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan".
Yep, deploy for a month of no fighting, I have never heard such BS. Kill them all.
Karachi, Pakistan: Six students were injured in a row between two student organisations, the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba (IJT) and Pakhtoon Students Federation (PSF), at the Dawood Engineering College of Science and Technology Saturday on a second day of campus violence.
Clashes between some of the IJT and PSF activists have been going on for the past one week in various colleges of Karachi. On Saturday morning, the students fought over a poster urging students not to fight on campus. According to reports, the fight was over who would put up the poster first. And what started as an exchange of hot words snowballed into a full-fledged fistfight following which, the students hurled classroom furniture at each other.
Four of the injured students Atif, Khurrum, Ali and Imran, belonged to the IJT while, the other two, Zafar Iqbal and Aftab Khan, are members of the PSF. According to sources, Rangers personnel who had been deployed at the university immediately threw out one group of students and in an attempt to separate the warring factions, kept the other one inside.
However, once out on the road, the group became even more violent and blocked the new MA Jinnah Road by burning tyres that they stole from a nearby petrol pump.
Traffic on the road was suspended for around three hours, till the police arrived. Personnel from all of police stations in the area reached the troubled spot, and used tear gas, baton charge and open fire to disperse the students. According to the Jamshed Quarters police station, no FIR has been filed yet and neither have any arrests been made so far.
Daily Times made repeated attempts to contact Deputy Superintendent of the Rangers (DSR) Capt Waseem, who is in charge of the Rangers contingent deployed at the university, but he declined to comment.
IJT Secretary Information, Ahmer Khan, alleged that the PSF was trying to induce students taking their BCom examinations in various colleges, to cheat. In order to maintain the discipline of the college, we tried to stop them and also took the principal into confidence, but the staff is cooperating with them, he told Daily Times. He claimed that one of the IJTs posters was taken down by PSF activists upon which they notified the Rangers who reportedly took no action. Therefore, we had no option but to protest, he concluded.
From Monday to Wednesday, IJT members were harassing PSF recruits at the Federal Urdu University of Science and Technology (FUUAST), Islamia College, Dawood Engineering College and National College, Pakhtoon Student Federation (PSF) Sindh President, Tariq Tareen, claimed while talking to Daily Times. When PSF members came to college in the morning, IJT members would accost them and pester them to join the IJT. We have complained to everyone from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal TPO to the Karachi CCPO.
Finally, when we realized that no authority was going to help us, we decided to hold a demonstration outside the Idara Noor-e-Haq (Jamat-e-Islami headquarters) on Thursday, Tareen maintained. The IJT is part of the JI, and we figured that it would be able to stop them. But instead of listening to us, they attacked us and fired shots at us. In return we hurled stones at them, and were able to get out of there after a lot of difficulty. Saturdays incident at Dawood College is part of the same series of events.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 11:42 ||
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ROFLMAO! Thanks, john - I needed that after some of the other posts.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
01/28/2007 11:09 Comments ||
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IIRC, this has been noted here before, with articles about malay or somali writers deploring the gradual loss of national identity under petrodollar-fueled and mecca-driven cultural imperialism, but the "re-islamization" of the muslim world is also an "arabization", and this is not new (back in the early 90's, I remember reading articles about how bosnians complained about how the reconstruction money from the persian gulf was linked to the destruction of traditional, richly decorated and flourished mosques, often quite ancient, to be replaced with arab-style white buildings).
And this is not really limited to the muslim world, in a large part, the western (most notably Europe) world is contaminated too, with a gradual loss of what made its character and success in inter-personal relationships, social dealings, relationship with society,... if only because the "alien" features (tribalism, clanism, sexism, zer- sum /looter mentality,...) are presented as superior (ethnomasochism) by the entertainment industry, through popular movies, rap music,...
LAHORE - Defence Minister and Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (Patriots) Rao Sikander Iqbal has predicted that the Kashmir issue will be resolved by February or March next year, if not by the end of this year as being pronounced by certain quarters. He was speaking at The Nation Forum here on Saturday. On this occasion, Tehsil Nazim Rao Jameel was also present. Later, Rao Sikander also called on the Editor-in-Chief Daily The Nation Majid Nizami.
Rao Sikander said whatsoever All-Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders, that is, the Kashmiri leaders were doing was with the involvement of the Pakistani government. We should not be hopeless about the situation as the present run of activities will bear positive results, and Kashmir will be liberated by February or March 2008, if not by December this year, he added.
He maintained that the credit must be given to Pervez Musharraf for his efforts in maintaining peace in the region. One-mans efforts could not do the required as India is not responding positively. If the situation has to be changed, then India must come up with some positives, he said.
While replying to a question about the much-talked deal between the government and the PPP (Parliamentarians), Rao wished if this could have been really true. I have a mission to bring Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf closer. Both are ideology closest to each other as they are both for enlightened moderation and have tilt towards the United States, he observed, while hoping that positive outcome could be expected prior to the next general elections. However, certain elements dont want this to happen, as when both the General and BB would join hands, it will be ideal time for Pakistan, he added.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 07:01 ||
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Mr Iqbal, as Defense Minister, would do better by trying to cleanse the Pak army of its jihadi traits, dismantling the Taliban etc rather than dreaming of defeating India and taking Kashmir.
Unfortunately, while acknowledging Indian conventional and nuclear superiority, he boasts of "pluses" namely the jihadis.
As long as the Pak elite believes the jihadis are a tool they can use to achieve military goals, the terrorism radiating from Pakistan will continue
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 7:40 Comments ||
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apparently Kashmir will be liberated and Pakistan will be a smokey glowing hole...or he could be full of shit. Either is good for me
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2007 8:21 Comments ||
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#3
So, the Mahdi™ is gonna liberate the kashmir too? Is there a single thing this superman cannot do, I ask you?
The first kilometre of the 11-km Banihal rail tunnel that will link Kashmir to rest of India has just been completed, promising to conquer the magnificent Pir Panjal Range, which has caused the Valley to miss a railway link for 154 years.
The tunnel from Laole (Banihal) to Qazigund on the Udhampur-Srinagar line is going be Indian Railways largest, and the second largest in Asia after the recently completed, 20-km Wushaoling tunnel in Gansu, northwest China. The longest operational rail tunnel in India is the 6.5-km Karbude on the Konkan railways.
For nearly three years now, a team of about 500 has been working under the mountains round the clock and aims to finish the tunnel by December 2009. Early 2010 should see 40 trains ply on the tracks to and from the Valley.
At the work site near Qazigund, a 56-metre shaft leads to a 36-metre passage opening into the 1 km of the tunnel already complete from the Srinagar end. Work is being simultaneously undertaken from the the South Portal-Jammu end, where another kilometre will be completed soon.
Down the shaft cut through the mighty rocks, dazzling lights and roaring machines give the first glimpse of the effort that has gone into making the 9.5-meter horse-shoe hole. Designed by an Austrian team, which supervises the work every week, the tunnel is being dug according to the New Austrian tunnelling technique, first used in India for the Delhi Metro.
The engineering effort is phenomenal even in this age as the rocks offer maximum resistance to even the worlds most high-tech machines. The earth at the site is made of limestone, clay and quartizite. Quartizite is the most difficult to cut through, said P Purkayastha, DGM, civil, for Ircon, the firm also constructing the Qazigund-Baramulla track in the Valley.
Though the Rs 4.5 crore excavator and breaker imported from South Korea has been breaking rocks for three years now, the work is moving at 2.5-to-3 meters a day. But for the people working there, it is a battle won every day. We have bought a new machine worth Rs 18 crore which will require no explosives, said Harpal Singh, project manager, Hindustan Construction Co, contractors for Ircon.
The engineers make holes to drain the water seeping in after excavation, but for the workers, it is like working in a shower for hours. Amid all this, an average of 2.5 tonnes of rocks and earth muck, in local jargon come out of the hole daily. The rocks piled up will be as high as the pyramids in Egypt, said Purkayastha.
Though the beautiful terrain outside the construction site is captivating for the workers too, for most of them the tunnel is the hardest task they have ever undertaken. A R More, a construction engineer and veteran of many railway tunnels, including Delhi Metros, agrees: This tunnel will be the hardest job ever in the history of Railways, and the most challenging as well.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 06:48 ||
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#1
New Austrian tunnelling technique
Makes sense, being diggers and all.
#6
Wondered that, Ship when I saw your first post. Of course, who am i to pick at other's nits?
Posted by: BA ||
01/28/2007 11:39 Comments ||
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#7
What's the line on how soon one of the portals is shut by an explosive once it opens? And is there anybody willing to bet there won't be simultaneous attacks on both ends, sealing in any number of trains / people?
The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to ensure that illegal Bangladeshi migrants are not included in the electoral roll of the national Capital and steps for identifying them to be expedited.
The court also issued notice to Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) to file its response by March 26 on a pending petition alleging that over five lakh illegal migrants, particularly Bangladeshis, have been included in the voters list of various constituencies in the Capital.
The Election Commission informed the court about the steps taken by it on the issue and said that more than 43,000 such names have already been deleted from the voters list.
Further, it referred to its earlier affidavit in which it had said that around 32,000 names were deleted from the voters list till January 2006.
The court was hearing on January 23 a PIL filed by a state BJP leader Ved Vyas Mahajan seeking direction to the Election Commission to carry out revision of the electoral roll of all the constituencies in the capital in order to remove the names of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the voters list.
The court has been seized of another PIL on the issue of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in which it was alleged that they have become burden on the civic amenities of the Capital and citizens of the country were deprived of their fundamental rights at the cost of illegal migrants.
The court has been monitoring several contentious issues connected with the menace of the illegal Bangladeshis and the Delhi Police has been periodically apprising it about the steps taken to deport them.
The authorities were also directed to take all possible precautionary steps before issuing ration cards and voter identity cards.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 06:35 ||
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[16 views]
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#1
Aerostat balloons, CCTV, fences, razor wire, armed UAV's, roving patrols, dogs? They'd better get with the program. Suspect they could learn a thing or two from us, whahahaha.
#2
The problem is that Indian middle class loves their cheap domestic help and that means hiring Bangladeshi illegals.
And by padding the voting rolls with the illegals, the Congress party is assured of winning certain constituencies. During the last general election, the congress leader Sonia Gandhi attacked the BJP for its 'Shining India' campaign and had a photo-op in a Delhi slum, populated mainly by illegal immigrants, saying that that was the 'real India'.
Posted by: john ||
01/28/2007 7:12 Comments ||
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#3
#2 - Damn, the DemocRats really have spread their poison around the world!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/28/2007 14:39 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD - Two senior police officers were killed and six people were wounded when a bomb exploded late Saturday near a Shia mosque in a marketplace in Pakistans northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.
As Frank G noted about a similar bombing yesterday, this can't be the work of Hek's boys -- whoever did this was competent.
The blast occurred in Qisakhawani bazaar in Peshawar, capital of the Northwest Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan. It was the second attack in Pakistan in two days, after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a top hotel in Islamabad on Friday, killing himself and a security guard who prevented him from entering the hotel.
Pakistani security forces are currently on high but not high enough alert across the country amid religious rites of Shia Muslims commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of the prophet Mohammads grandson.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
GUJRANWALA: A special judicial magistrate on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for 10 Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leaders, including party chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, for delivering anti-government speeches at a public gathering here on GT Road some time ago. Judicial Magistrate Abdul Ghafoor issued warrants on a complaint by police official Ghulam Ali, who said that Qazi, Bilal Qudrat, Azhar Iqbal, Saeed Khokar, Furqan Aziz, Hameeduddin, Idrees Ayub and three others were wanted in a case. He asked the court to declare them proclaimed offenders. As a result, the court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for them.
The Bhutto-Zardari marriage is over, according to an article in the Indian magazine Outlook by Mariana Babar, a Pakistani female journalist friendly with Benazir Bhutto. 
ISLAMABAD - Two senior police officers were killed and six people were wounded when a bomb exploded late Saturday near a Shia mosque in a marketplace in Pakistans northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.
