A Muslim Pope?

A well timed article, Ras.

We can sit and debate the legacy of Jinnah till the cows home and chase away the roosters and still, we will not be any where near the heart of the matter.

I have been to Jinnah`s tomb many times and I agree, with your statement. It is the ordinary people, who are most visible there and who, it seems, carry the torch of his message. My impressions of the elites of Pakistan, in whose company I include myself, has been very disappointing. I am not going to revive an old debate here, but the cause of the problem resides on the shoulders of those, who are fortunate and well off in Pakistan. This country was not meant to be the fief of a few, but sadly that is how it has turned out to be since 1947. The common people believed and still believe in the message of this nation, but to the elites of this nation, this land was to be a salve for the political power they could not gain in India. To the elites of Pakistan, this nation symbolizes the continuance of their status quo, which they were in fear of losing under a majority government in the politics of post-British India.

The fear of the majority and the wish to avoid that fate, forced upon the nation ill advised choice of Urdu as a national language, amongst many others, and would fester on to deny the people of East Pakistan their rightful majority. The end result of this niggeredly behavior celebrated its 34th anniversary on December 17, 2005. The fear still lingers and denies the rightful sharing of power, as the rump state of Pakistan identified by its largest province, strives to practice the same old discredited policies of the past, which have brought nothing but rue to this nation.

We, as a nation, have to drifted too far from the politics of common sense and in our attempts to foist a minority rule over a majority, we have askewed the natural balance of representantive democracy in this nation. This habitual disdain for the notions of majority rule, has seen this nation delve into the depths of military oppression and each time this oppression has been visted upon us, it has only retarded the natural evolution of politics in this land. In many ways, the dismaying legacy which seems to be self bequeating itself to us is the systematic pursuit and practice of an enforced minority rule at the expense of the majority. This in other words is the hallmark of tryanny and we have become, through our own acts, enslaved to our slavish desires of perpetuating minority rule against the odds.

This nation, will indeed have its hour of redemptation, and its sense of liberation will come from the ordinary, mute people who have persisted to believe in this nation in the face of the most overwhelming disdain shown by the elites of Pakistan towards their common aspirations and demands. Such a state of uneven power distribution cannot last for long, because it cannot be sustained forever and thus, therefore such a system of injust oppression will eventually end. It will end and though we may not be alive to see its end, we do know that, like, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, there will be a new dawn and the final hours and minutes of the dark night maybe prolonged and delayed, but the envitability of a nascent dawn; of a new day break cannot and can never be doubted.

In the words of that poem of Faiz, which might well be the battle cry for the oppressed and the hopeful for the next thousand years, the day will will come when all the crowns are tossed and all the thrones fall. There is only a wait for that day, when the many become one and the one becomes many and then, the power of the one will sweep and cast aside all the hobbles of injustice, which prevail in this nation. There will be, whether in this world or the next; there will be justice and those denied justice, will have their fair share of the reward. Such a day may not be in our life times and such a day may seem improbabable and utopian, but there is nothing utopian about the human spirit once it has decided to cross the Rubicon of its choice in search for its right and those, who underestimate it, do so at their own peril.

Depite my nagging sense of negativity, I have full confidence in this nation, because in the final analysis, my faith rests in the people of Pakistan and not in its lack of institutions or its ruling elites. I may have lapses of faith, but the conviction endures and with each passing day, I am more hopeful than sad at the future of this nation. It may not be the begining of the end and it certainly is not the end of the begining, but it is a begining of the begining towards our eventual end of a common journey.

Ciao

YLH
[... that Jinnah never wanted partition....]

Ha Ha - too late suck@rs.... you asked for it and you got it - ``homeland`` for muslims...... ah well, homeland has turned into jihad-land....pakis got a perfect piece of real estate and instead of creating something good out of it, turned into a veritable wasteland of fanaticism and terror.......... Like they say in hindi - G@and mein nain guda - Lanka mein kyun kuda!!.....

Re: # 17
[....forced upon the nation ill advised choice of Urdu ....]

I thought Jinnah himself started that, in some college in Dhaka ....and a few bongs died in the resulting riot......imagine that - asking bangalis to give up their language :)

Pakistan with a bad reputation, one that many others helped create but today refuse to acknowledge.


Gee..I wonder who else ``helped`` create this jihadi breeding ground image for the land of the pure? Of course, the land of the pure and the army of the land of the pure were eager participants in the afghan and Kashmiri jihadi projects...but we need to blame someone so the denizens of the land of the pure can feel like they`re the victims...


What the minority Indian Muslims were asking for prior to 1947 was guarantees of civil rights and liberties.


No...It`s the whole thing about muslims refusing to accept a non-muslim system...The evidence of that is all over..phillipines, thailand..and increasingly in brit/european muslims who have shown their ``tolerance`` for the system of the countries where they live..


A lack of progress in resolving Kashmir is one major part of that failure, a failure that is now close to reaching its sixth decade.


Yup..the failure of the land of the pure to grab Indian Kashmir, despite failed wars and failed insurgencies, is hard to swallow for the pure..


Jinnah never wanted or envisioned


Umm...sure..I`ll bet he never envisioned a lot of other things too...genocide of the bangladeshis, the bombing of the baloch tribals, the little matter of declaring the ahmedis non-muslims, the 4 male muslim witnesses to prove rape thingy...

{``These myths have converted a secular liberal who hardly ever emphasized religion in his personal life into a Muslim Pope. Nothing could have been further from the truth. ``}

Siddiqui Sahib,
I am relieved to learn that you don`t consider Jinnah to be a Muslim Pople. As much as I wish that he hadn`t succeeded in the partition of India, I respect the man too much to ever consider him a pope - Muslim or otherwise.

Our image of congenial and peaceful popes is quite recent. The recently-departed Polish Pope had a lot to do with revamping that insidious and devilish reputation that popes were notorious for. Imagine the good old Medicis, Borgias taking turns at becoming Pope, and fathering the next generation of Popes - Alexander VI and others come to mind, not to mention the dual poples at Avignon and Rome and Catherine of Siena and others doing their tricks. Then talk about Urban II, who launched the most enduring warfare of history, the Crusades, by combining lies with bribes to get into heaven.

Yes, Jinnah was not a very good leader, but a Pope he certainly was not. Thank God.

#17 Ferozk you write <<< In the words of that poem of Faiz, which might well be the battle cry for the oppressed and the hopeful for the next thousand years, the day will will come when all the crowns are tossed and all the thrones fall. There is only a wait for that day, when the many become one and the one becomes many and then, the power of the one will sweep and cast aside all the hobbles of injustice, which prevail in this nation. >>>

I agree with your sentiments, but I disagree with the ``wait`` part, we don`t ``wait`` we struggle, we challenge, and we oppose this tyranny, if we do not then we become part of the drift and hense complicit in this injustice perpetuated by the American elite and thier clients upon the vast majority of humankind. When you present such sentiments, the idiots on here are going to label you ``commie`` and not even look at the merits of your arguments. Such is their disease and such are the power of labels to mask the truth. Struggle on my friend for truth will win eventually.

#16 you want alternatives, unfortunately I cannot give them to you in ONE paragraph or one post, I would advise you to visit this link to read some articles that I did, start with the one that says ``Declarations of Independence``- http://articles.asadi.org

All divisions among humanity/sectarianism based on the notion that one is ``better or superior`` to the other, whether they be nation state, religious, race, ethnicity or whatever are nonsense. I will never support any such divisions, I reject them all, was not Shaitan banished becaused he claimed to be ``superior``?

While Pakistanis may continue to debate whether Jinnah was secular or Jihadi and extremist fundoo Indoos on this site and in the real world may continue to castigate Jinnah, the fact is that Pakistan is a reality for Muslims. No other Muslim country or the citizens thereof have contributed to the affairs of the world in positive terms more than Pakistanis.

Pakistanis have produced designer of Sears Tower, world cup winners in 3 different sports, a nobel prize winner, musicians of international acclaim, nuclear bomb; missile; tanks and fighter-bomber manufacturing capabilities, etc.

No other Muslim country has been able to do all of that or even come close to it. The proud Iranians and Egyptians have fallen way short of our achievements.

I know that Indians on this site, after reading this post, will quickly bring in few more `achievements` of Pakistan to light. I will be waiting for that opportunity to post more achievements :-)

#23, I think the lower poverty rate in some Muslim countries and the advances made by Bangladesh in educating its youth (35% in 1980, almost 50% today)more than compensates for winning the world cup or designing the Sears Tower. We need to look at the condition of the masses while defining a country`s achievements not a few individuals. You are lowering the bar for Muslims compared to the rest of humanity, don`t forget that the group that gave the world modern scientific thought and the rennaissance deserves much more than having musicians of international acclaim.

Manto and masadi:

My humble suggestion would be to be tolerant of all faiths rather than be divisive. If any faith calls itself Muslim, let us accept it. Jinnah showed exactly that tendency through his character. The Imam Hazar of Ismailis His Excellency Karim Agha Khan (may he have long healthy life) also shows the same character when he asks his followers to invest in Pakistan, a tendency that was shown by his Grand Father at the time of founding the Muslim League in 1906 (?). Surely, he had not found Muslim League only for Agha Khani Muslims.

masadi:

While I agree with you in general, I was referring to making contributions at international level. Pakistan provided an environment for people to show talent that has made international headlines.

Even on general level of poverty and attendant lack of education, Pakistan`s performance would be great had we controled our population. It is busting at seams population growth rate that has negated all our developmental efforts.

#25, Mr. Manto is being divisive not me for the purpose of pushing his sectarian brand of ``Islam``. Mr. Jinnah was being divisive as well when he used the concept of the ``Muslim identity``, something that he was at best confused about himself.

However, just because something is described as Islam does not make it so, we have to go to its source the Quran. It is the process of breaking Islam into sects, either through doctrine or Imams or personalities that is totally condemned by the Quran, which recommends that we return to the source, i.e. the Quran itself. Mr. Manto is pushing sectarianism by presenting his distorted version of ``Islam`` as the only way. His Imams by claiming hereditary exclusivity are going againt the spirit of the Quran as well.

You mean to tell me that if Bin Laden and his gang of thugs describe some things as ``Islam``, I should accept that without challenging them, just because they describe themselves as ``Muslim``? No so, you have to show it to me in its source the Quran.

Now, just because people have different religions and labels does not mean there is divisiveness going on- divisiness only erupts when one cannot live with the others as equals- this is happening today in Pakistan directly as a result of the ``muslim identity`` part exploited by Jinnah~ he tried to fix it after the event but things don`t work like that in the real world. Once the damage is done it is done.

#26, you say <<< Even on general level of poverty and attendant lack of education, Pakistan`s performance would be great had we controled our population. It is busting at seams population growth rate that has negated all our developmental efforts. >>>

I think you have this backwards. If our performance on the poverty and education front had been great, population would have falled automatically~ the boom would have been much smaller as predicted by the Demographic Transition Theory.

Pakistan`s performance was poor in those areas not because of the people of Pakistan but because of its alliance into the neo-colonial setup of the US~ which also by the way is a direct legacy of Jinnah, who never fully rejected the British system being impressed with Ataturk he wanted to ``modernize`` the Muslims~ where modernization meant following the ways of the West.

Instead of breaking away from the British system, we kept the same institutional structure, instead of protectionism we allied ourselves with the US elite and they totally messed us up as we fought their wars as the ``front line state``. Bhutto tried to fix it but the US occupational force in Pakistan, the Pakistan Army stepped in to prevent any such reforms. Every time the US has some plans for fighting its global wars, a convenient coup takes place in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan suffer immensely as a result. We will only attain our independence the day we reject this alliance with the US global economic system of tyranny and tell them to go to hell.

In #28, the 2nd paragraph should read , `` population would have fallen automatically.

re: #23 by ahmadzai
I am sure Pakistan has many more achievements to its credit than the ones you have listed.
Just one little correction. Chief architect of Sears Towers was Bruce Graham while Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill was its Structural Engineer. Still, no mean feat. Latter was born into what was then East Pakistan but by the time sears was completed, he became technically a Bangladeshi. Not that it matters. The guy probably spent all his life in US.
Here is all about Fazlur Khan.
Sridhar

Rsridhar at # 30:

1. Both John Hancock and Sears Towers are designed on the principle of Bundle Tube Method invented by Khan. Bundle Tube method is taught as a separate advanced chapters of Civil Engineering in American Universities e.g. in Structural Analysis and Design by Winter and Nelson.

2. Khan`s success would always be attributable to the environment provided to him by Pakistan. He grew up in a period where he was a Pakistani, but died as an American.

Maulana Sattar Edhi, deserves ‘Nobel’ prize not ‘Noble’ prize. It is named after Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Though, I wonder which Nobel Prize, the one for Peace? Peace Nobel is highly politicized therefore has completely lost its aura. Look at some of the winners....
Yasser Arafat( all his pictures have a revolver stuck to his belt), Simon Peres, Ronald Reagan..., I wonder why Idi Amin wasn’t chosen