Pakistan: A Failed State? I am sure most of my pakistani friends are aware of how the influence of Islamic Fundamentalists is

growing in Pakistan. Even Gen. Musharraf, who is the chief of Army, the backbone of the State of Pakistan, cannot say anything against Osama or any of the Harkat and Lashkar outfits because of the popularity of these groups. Their influence and power is growing, day by day, just like the Ayatollah`s was in Iran. Soon these guys with active support from Taliban(which was in reality a creation of Pakistani Madrassas) could take over Pakistan. More than anything, this should be matter of concern for all the liberal and educated class of Pakistanis, who live abroad and who more than anybody, have a huge say in the way things are going in Pakistan, because of the dependence of the Pak. Govt. on the money sent by the overseas Pakistanis. Being a liberal Indian, I am concerned of the ways things are going in India with BJP. But there are enough forces in India, like the Communists, regional southern parties, parties who serve the needs of lower classes, like BSP, Samajwadi Party, besides the Grand Old Congress Party, which can and will effectively counter any effort made by the Hindu right to make India, a Hindu theocratic state. The Pakistanis overseas should be very concerned with this state of affairs because two of their neighboring countries, Iran and Afghanistan, have hard-core Islamic regimes. More than anything the influence of Afghanis in the local Islamic outfits along with the Taliban Afghan govt. should be a matter of serious concern for all Pakistanis and their neighbors including India. And if the right-wing fundamentalists take over,things could get really bad as shown by examples of other fundamentalist regimes existing in the world.

The following website gives a very graphic account of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban and Pakistan could look like this if the Islamic fundamentalists manage to take over the country.

http://www.rawa.org/

KayCee

Islamic Economic Model: La Riba (Interest-free) Banking ``and Al-Jabr-wal-Muqabla heralded modern

mathematics in which Arabic numerals replaced Latin numbers;``

I think the author of the article should have done more research before making the above statement. It has proven conclusively that the modern numerals, which we use in the modern world, originated from India. That is why it is rightly called Hindu-Arabic Numerals. The suffix Arabic has been put in, to acknowledge the role played by Arabs in spreading the Hindu Numerals. I do not know the truth behind the other statements from history mentioned by the author, but I would definitely take all the historical evidence used to prove the author`s argument with ``a pinch of salt``.

KayCee