This Beloved Arab Colony

Haroon

It is not permanent revolution - It is permanent confusion.

No leader has the guts to say that keep your religion inside you, inside home and inside moaque.

I loved chowk staff`s introducing this article as ``Pakistan belongs in the past``. Pakistan`s belonging to the past reduced half of Pakistan in 1971 and with continued belonging to the past would reduce it to 10 percent of the original, proving my thesis that past should be no more than 10 percent. And then AkoR Khattack would be negotiating safe passage to Banori Town for Turkic, Turkish and Khilafat supporters, like West Bank to Gaza.

As soon as I looked at the author`s name, I knew the most common denominators would be Turkey, Turkic, Turkish and Khilafat as if some infatuation with his last name and his ancestors.

Simply put, inventing the wheel is not necessary when many competing wheels with some with better performance exist. The Arabian wheel has been rotting for a long time without any improvement or modifications. I see no reason to dig up this old wheel and reject well oiled existing wheels just because once it performed okay in the presence of other similar wheels and possibly used to run over our poor helpless ancestors.

The Arabian alphabets can not be used for chinese speaking because of not equivalents for certain phonetics and even not sufficient to properly describe the native languages of Pakistan. Discarding them is one sure mean to establish clearly demarkated boundries between middle east and Pakistan. English alphabets (Roman lexicon) is the way to strengthen Pakistani identity against both east and west. A for alif and B for bay..........

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Is it just me, or, is the author basically saying that things are A OK, and that, if there is some little problem here or there, there is no real alternative?

What a hoot ! Delusion and self-affirmation passing off as analysis. Truly no one can help a person see if they insist on keeping their eyes tightly shut.

Haroon: I totally agree with nazarhayatkhan. Your statement that Islam is the only source of political ideology is symptomatic of a fundamental misunderstanding of religion as well as political ideology. This a fatal error unless a country is completely homogeneous consisting of one sect of Islam.

RELIGION MUST BE SEPARATED FROM POLITICS AND IDEOLOGY.

The main problem with all Muslim countries is their irrational identification of development of staecraft with religion.

Haroon Moghul Sahib,

No one is trying to take Islam out of Pakistan. In fact MMA are trying to introduce their version of Islam in NWFP. Islam may be a defining part of Pakistan, and most Pakistanis but it is not the only one.

Many American articles often hint or blatently lump Pakistan as part of Central Asia, or the Middle East. The fact is with the Mddle East and Central Asia the main thing we have in common is our Faith, but even our interpretations are different from theirs.

Enforcing a Saudi based MMA style Islam on the people of the ancient Indus is not the solution, it simply wont work, maybe for the Pathans whos culture is slightly that way inclined, but for the rest of Pakistan it wont work.

Just as India, in theory at least, is a pluralistic society that allows many religions to co-exist without enforcing one over the other, Pakistan should except and allow the many different versions of Islam to co-exist, not allowing one dominance over the other, and extend that pluralism to other religions.

We must be at peace with ourselves and our Islam, and that of our neighbours and their neighbours, Islam allows people to have different views and interpretations. Islam is meant for humanity, and every human culture will have its own way of interpreting it. We must accept that.

The Prez is actually right in saying Pakistan first. We are Muslims and happy and proud of this fact, but why do we have to prove this to the world at every opportunity? Are we that insecure, even in the promised land? Islam is part of Pakistans identity, but we must forge an identity that is Pakistan centric (as compared to anti India centric), based not solely on Islam, but also our history (all of it), geography and most importantly culture and languages.

Pakistan is the land of the Indus, the river binds its people, why do we never give importance to the Indus Valley Civillisation, why dont we have pride in that, cant we be Muslim at the same time as being proud desendants of the Indus, like the Egyptians and ancient Egypt? why should look elsewhere for identity when it stares us in the face everyday.

for your interest check out this site

http://www.harappa.com/

An excellently written and balanced article Brother Haroon. The problem in Pakistan is that the majority of those who actually have political power and wealth to do anything are on the whole bitterly opposed to Islam other than as a cultural appendage and want Pakistan to be forcefully secularised a la Turkey which means they want Pakistan`s Islamic identity crushed...

On the other side most of the political parties who use Islam as their political manifesto get funded by Saudi and are thus strongly Wahabist/extremist in ideology; the only party which is what you could call Traditionalist is the JUP but they are so unorganised and fractured that they pose no political threat at all on their own to the status quo. The influential and powerful Sufi khanaqahs/pir-khanas do not on the whole involve themselves in politics (except in Sindh with Pir Pagaro) and especially not in Punjab which is central to Pakistan`s politics...

Since the vast majority of Pakistanis are very sufi orientated and have pirs I think that IF a single party was to get the support of the powerful pir-khanas behind it then the masses could be roused to make a difference but i don`t see that happening yet..

I think it will happen when we get a Sufi leader like Hazrat Mujaddid Alf al Thani who was a great wali but also interested in politics...the pirs today who are genuine awliya usually just devote themselves to ibadat and looking after the spiritual needs of their murids..

I can understand their aversion to the filth which is pakistani politics but i think for the sake of the nation they should put their combined and united support behind a single party/leader who has islamic credentials..

In the early 90s there was hope amongst the Sunnis that Dr. Tahir ul Qadri was such a person and I have heard that the late, great, Pir Muhammad Karam Shah al Azhari rahmatullah alayhi (author of Zia ul Quran and Zia al Nabi) advised him to wait for a while before launching his political movement and then all the pirkhanas would support him but he was too eager and egocentric and avoided the advice of the venerable sufi saint...the result was he got mired in politics, compromised his religious stance on many occasions and thereby lost the support and respect of many/most of his erstwhile supporters amongst the traditional sufi-inclined muslims of pakistan...

..Its probably best to wait for the Mahdi alayhisalam to deliver us..

BTW Haroon I don`t think your title was appropriate as it could be construed by some (VS Naipul amongst others) negatively...

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Most pakistanis have a deep love for Arabia and that is only because of Islam...
Once when I was in high school (in the UK) a new student who had recently arrived from pakistan and who became good friends with me once chided me when I said something about Arabs (I was a kid then) with the words, ``You shouldn`t say that about the Arabs..Huzoor Paak sal allahu alayhi wa sallam Arabi thay.`` That has stayed with me all my life. And yet this guy was not religious in the least in any conventional sense...

That is why the Imam of al Hind and al-Sindh wrote so eloquently:

Phir uTha valvala e yaad e mugheelaan e Arab
Phir khincha daaman e dil soo-e-bayaabaan e Arab

Again arose tumultous thoughts of the thorny bushes of Arabia
Again the strings o` my heart were pulled towards the deserts of Arabia!

The rest of the lengthy nazm/naat is amazing too...

***
Indeed the spiritual father of Pakistan himself Allama Iqbal wrote in his Shikwa:

`Ajmi khum hai to kya, mai to Hijazi hai miri
Naghma hindi hai to kya, lai to Hijazi hai miri

If my drunkenness is non-Arab so what--my wine is Hijazi
If my song is Indian so what--my tune is Hijazi!

Hijaz: the region of Arabia in which Makka and Madina are situated. Central Arabia.


Thus Muslims everywhere have a natural and spiritual connection and affinity for Arabs and Arabia which cannot be understood by those not of the Faith.

Naqshbandi #7 & 8

We love the Huzoori Pak (PBUH) and all his family, his family is humanity and all of it not just Arabs. Huzoori Pak`s (PBUH) Message is for all mankind, Love for Him, Allah, and all mankind resides in the heart of the believer and in their actions. No one race should be given preference over the other. Though you are right, many people have an affinity with the Arabs, simply because they come from the land that was blessed with the footsteps of the Prophet (PBUH).

What is wrong with Turkish style `secularism` there is an Islamic party in power there, though they are Muslim, they have been able to successfully continue on Turkey`s secular style of governance, and are continuing to go for EU membership. Being secularist doesn`t mean being non religious.

.... sigh! ...... here we go again - another fundamentalist nut trying to put a positive spin on the lunacy of islamism.......... when will these people learn? ......

............ isn`t the fact that abu bakr and the other three relatives were at each others throat on the way back from the prophet`s funeral proof enough that this dog does not hunt .......... and isn`t the history of nepotism, fratricide, homicide, genocide, and now, suicide enough to convince these people that this thing has never worked except in their god-crazed imaginaiton ............. sure the muslims had their moments of glory, but so did the mongols, the vikings, the zulus, the poles and the horrible hindoos ............ you don`t see any of these people talking about reverting and regressing to their pagan ways in order to revive their glorious pasts .......... heck, most hindoos i know are willing to admit that the elephant nosed god is a mythical figure and vegepie is just a prime minister and not ram incarnated .......... the chinese don`t want to bring back the emperor and install him in the forbidden city so that they can claim their rightful place under the sun .............. nobody in japan is talking about bringing back the shoguns ad handing back the emperor his divinity ............ even the catholics have given up on the divinity of the pope and nobody would consider making him the holy roman emperor ........... i don`t know about the zulus or the eskimos - maybe they are working on bringing back a naked chief or medicine man ................

............ but what is it with the muslims that makes us so dang stupid? ......... why are we still talking about the khilafat and implementing bedouin law that was ``perfected`` a thousand years ago? ............ it looks like it will take a long long time before this lunacy ends ......... untill this idea, like communism before it, is thoroughly discredited and soundly beaten, people like mr mogul will keep on popping up their heads like that game at chucky cheese .......... as soon as knock one silly head in, out pops another one ............

....misery needs company..........after out of hand and wholesale rejection of both western and eastern ideologies and examples, islam is the best companion for the miseries of muslims......misery strengthens islam and islam prolongs misery.......tum bhi chalay chalo yuNhi jab tak chali chalay.......or in panjabi.......rubb milai joRi - ik annha teh ik kohRi....

ally: of course bhai you are right. Islam is not just for Arabs--I was just trying to show why we respect Arabs...cos of the link with Huzoor Paak alayhisalatuwasalaam--that`s all! We love ANYTHING and ANYONE who is a Muslim and linked somehow to the Sultan of Madina Sharif...subhan Allah!

The only thing wrong with Turkish secularism is that it is pseudo-secularism! A place where girls are kicked out of medical school for wearing the headscarf...that is wrong! But from all the Muslim nation states Turkey is one with the most promise (and Pakistan too... if we can get our act together..)--:-)

The author`s prediction that Pakistan will find ideological salvation in the Islamic past, is rather cursory. I say this for the following reasons:

i) Pakistani society has always been a moderate society because of its multiethnic and multicultural makeup. Jat, Arain, Gujjar, Seraiki, Sindhi, Pashtun, Pakhtun, Gujratis, Memons, Urdu-speaking community and a scores of other cultural identities are superimposed on Pakistani society. Everybody interprets religion in different shades.

This is in marked contrast with Saudi Arabia which is a predominantly Arab society. It is easier to have ideological conformity in monoethnic societies than it is in multiethnic societies.

Moreover, Pakistan cannot become a part of Indian culture either. This is because there is no such thing as an Indian culture. North Indians, South Indians, Bengalis and Gujratis have their own religious dieties and cultural norms. Multiethnic nation-states are essentially a potpourri of sub-cultures. It is misleading to consider them monoliths.

ii) IMHO, the people of South Asia are over-obsessed with ideology. From school curriculum to media and entertainment, we find political ideology seeping into every aspect of our lives. This is typical of nation-states with closed economies. As trade barriers fall and these nation-states get integrated into the global economy, free enterprise replaces ideology as the prime-mover for a nation.

Since globalization is perceived as a threat to ideology and nationalism, the xenophobic political forces in every country seek to limit free trade and free media. But then such policies are doomed to implode the country into poverty and recession.

Therefore, in the longer run, irrepressible forces of free trade and globalization will compel all nations to shun ideology and cooperate with each other. You see this happening in Europe. Despite cultural and political differences, European nations are cooperating with each other to develop their economies and raise standards of living.

iii) The common man in Pakistan also reflects the same ``utilitarian`` psyche. Ideological issues have already been settled decades ago. The common man in Pakistan neither wants a theocracy, nor a merger with India. Dogma and ideology are for Mullahs and social scientists to ponder. To the common man, social and economic conditions are paramount.

iv) Religious resurgence in NWFP/Afghanistan is only a temporary phenomenon. Settlement of Kashmir and Palestine issues will compel people to vote with their brains, instead of their hearts. Since America is the largest market for South Asian exports, anti-Americanism cannot last for too long in our part of the world.

Because of these reasons, I don`t forsee a return to the Khilafat-style Islamic past. New political and economic realities dictate a futuristic approach, not a retrogressive one.

faith is a personal conviction.as far as mma is concered,they are behaving according to their vision.
islam never crash women.mohammad (p.u.h)always respect women.some of his closest companion who clearly believe that women should be kept in their places and treated their women harshlybut prophet seems genuinely to have enjoyed women ``company and to have needed affection and intimacy.mulla is trying to emulate his companion.

Masha`Allah, excellent article brother Haroon Mughal. Very informative and objective analysis of present day Pakistan.

In response to sameer: Why are you hindus obsessed with our country Pakistan. Why are you obsessed by trying to bond with us, why do you keep forgetting that our identity starts with our deen ``Islam``, and not by where we are geographically situated. As to your comments of the arabic alphabets not being used for our language Urdu, that`s absolutely outrageous, as our language was derived from Arabic, persian, and sanskirt, hence if certain sanskirt words are not compatible with our arabic script, we would rather discard them (throw them in the dumpster) than change our script. We are extremely proud of our deen, don`t ypu ever forget that.

I say Haroon, what gives you the idea that your version of Pakistan has a copyright on Islam? Much of the rest of the Islamic World is doing fine, thank you and probably going to get along well without this Arabic-Pakistani concoction you are trying to elaborate on. Likewise Muslim people spread across the world.

Trying to draw paralels between a religion and a geographical area is like trying to tell us that the conditions in Rome will dictate what happens to Christians worldwide.

It doesn`t work that way anymore, economies and power structures based on incomes generated from religious locations are not the flavour of the century. As an ex-shippie, let me put it this way:- religious fervour and trade were linked even as recently as say 150 years ago. You went to trade and you also went to propagate your religion, to establish domination. Let us say 95% of all travelers fitted into this sub-set, the rest were probably writers and wanderers and those trying to survive calamities by migrating somehow?

Then about 150 years ago started documented migrations, organised. Travel grew.

Today, when you travel, how many do you see traveling for religion? Other than pilgrimages within political borders, and specific cases like Haj, where is the world travel for religion as a component of world travel?

So, religions become politicaly restricted, right?

And therein lies Pakistan`s dilemna, I think.

Why can`t Pakistan simply be Pakistan, and get along with life? Why try to be Arabic or Turkish (seldom Iranian, I note?) or (heavens!!) Indian? Maybe Chinese?