The Madness of Crowds

Zeemax: Your comments are typical of someone who lacks the skills and initiative to make something of his life. When this sort of person lives in a third world country he justifies his pointless existence by hating people who immigrated to a better place and succeeded there. If he is fortunate enough to land a green card (or overstays his visit visa) he finds that in America his lack of skills and initiative relegate him to the lowest social and economic tier. I feel sorry for you dude.

#1 by zeemax on May 31, 2007 7:31am PT
Just because this nonsense hasn`t had a single response, I`ll grace you with one.......LOL

zeemax ji
You are too funny.....

Ejaz -

[Would the world be better off without religion? But no that’s not the issue, I believe in our Constitution which gives people the right to practice any religion they please or none at all. The world would be better off though if people could keep their religion to themselves, keep it off the public airwaves, keep it out of schools, and not be allowed tax exemptions for religious organizations.]

Good points!

[If the religious right had been kept in check in America we may not have had a debacle in Iraq or a one-sided policy on issues relating to the Middle East. If the mullahs in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and other Middle-Eastern countries had been kept at bay there would not have been all this sectarian strife, pointless insurgency or abuse of minorities. The world really would have been a better place.]

I am not sure if the above scenarios are true in all cases.

[Unlike Pakistan, religious people in America by and large are a very decent bunch.]

I can definitey vouch for that. Ditto to your sentiments. The other great aspect that needs to be appreciated is that Christian Charities do not go around saving and supporting Christians only. Muslims, in general, are brought up with the thought process that they need to live and die for the fellow muslims only ignoring the rest of mankind. Even religiously we believe in giving zakat to only muslims whereas sadqa and khairaat can be given to non-muslims. I have followed this thought process on giving zakat to muslims only for many years, but have come out of it now (in the past few years). I do not want to give zakat to any religion based organization/institution. I`d rather support good causes that are above race, religion, culture and enthnicity. I am more comfortable with this step.

The concept of supporting non-profit organizations is quite common in the US among those who like to make a change and give back to the communities they live in. In many large universities, ``non-profit`` is an area of expertise in the MBA Program. One of my old friends, Safia Rizvi - a Pakistani American Woman had started a grassroot initiative in Philly known as ``eLIT - Empowerment Through Literacy in Information Technology``. She was also on ABC a few years ago and was selected as the Working Mother of the Year. The concept became so popular that eLIT ended up opening several centers in Karachi, NWFP and Afghanistan. I have not kept in touch with their latest development, but I do remember that in the past 5-7 years they received a lot of hardware equipment grants from major corporations. GSKs was the key sponsor of their good work.

Last but not least, I think it all boils down to what is important to you. For my friend, it was real important to educate women and girl children through IT. With time, my own leanings have changed. And I have become very selective with the investment of my time and money. I am sure you and others must have your own experiences, likes and dislikes. In the end, I do believe that constructive activities and leveraging your skill-set in making a difference have immense value in the grand scheme of things.

Just because this nonsense hasn`t had a single response, I`ll grace you with one.

Below was written for a woman of your type, but applies equally to you:

How the Westoxicated Pakis were enslaved..

....`` I can`r read & write Urdu, I can`t cook Biryaani..Nihaari, I enjoy behaving westernish , kanjarR like, Im professional, I like goraa Ishtyle but hate Islamic laws...Is that not proof sufficient proof that I am maadrate, can cook Raushan-khayali-PuulaaOs, and maaadren, & like a snake molted my Desi Skin culture & religion?

But why O why they still mistake me for a Desi & a muslim?

Maybe I`ll act more KanjarR..only then they`ll know I am a graduate of MIT``