Irrational Patriotism, Liberalism and Nuclear Arsenal http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE5-2/khayyam.html

Irrational Patriotism, Liberalism and Nuclear Arsenal For example, I can argue that if the Indians and Nehru had been sincere in their commitment to the World and to Kashmiris and resolved Kashmir in 1950s, Pakistanis would have no cause for doing what India has been accusing them of, the radicalization would not have found the oxygen it did, and we would all be living happily ever after.

You need to understand the Monkey Trap.

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? Alberuni and the Gita
http://arunsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/09/al-biruni-and-bhagavad-gita.html
http://arunsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/09/al-biruni-and-bhagavad-gita.html

Perfidy, Qur’anic Apostasy or Hermeneutics? This may be of interest:

The Pentagon Breaks the Islam Taboo

Now for the first time, a key Pentagon intelligence agency involved in homeland security is delving into Islam`s holy texts to answer whether Islam is being radicalized by the terrorists or is already radical.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? The author tells us:

Pfizer pharmaceutical group donated 11 million dollars in cash and another $45million in medicine to the Tsunami victims compared to the $6m committed to the South Asian earth quake. Admittedly more than 200,000 died in the Tsunami compared to the 100,000 expected to have perished in the earthquake. But the dead don’t generally need medicine and the number of displaced and homeless is far more for the South Asian earthquake (3.3m) than what it was for the Tsunami. What could then explain the ten fold more charitable Pfizer for Tsunami? Surely the potential of selling Viagra is far higher in Bangkok than it is in Muzzafarabad.

Far be it from me to defend a multi-national corporation. But let us examine a few facts.

Pfizer says that it has 4000 employees in the countries affected by the tsunami.
(see http://www.pfizer.com/pfizer/are/mn_tsunami_qa.jsp )

Let us examine the behavior of Pfizer Pakistan employees:

Tsunami:

http://www.pfizer.com.pk/Default.aspx?tabid=44

Some Pfizer colleagues pledged to help the affectees of the tsunami by donating a day’s salary, while other colleagues, with the help of a committee that was formed, were able to get donations which were handed over, to the Consulate of Srilanka. These donations included sheets, blankets, towels, toiletries, staples like rice, lentils, sugar, flour, tea, new & used clothes. Thanks were extended by letters of appreciation from the Sri Lankan Consul General, Ms. Manel D`Silva, to everyone for their help and donations. Mr. Iqbal Bengali, CM distributed certificates of appreciation to the colleagues who helped in this venture.

Earthquake:

http://www.pfizer.com.pk/Default.aspx?tabid=161&query=79

Pfizer colleagues opened up their hearts and pockets for the victims of the earthquake that struck the norhtern part of Pakistan in the beginning of October. Not only was medical expertise given to the injured and sick by qualified Pfizer physicians, other colleagues went and helped ``hands on`` in Kashmir & NWFP distributing food, clothes and tents. One to ten day salaries were pledged and a collective amount of over Rs. 500,000 was collected and put immediately to good use. This amount was over and above other local and international donations made by Pfizer Pakistan & Pfizer Inc. All of us at Pfizer pray for the lost souls and for those who have survived.

The point is that the more ties one has, the more one gives. Simple as that.

Make Pakistan a destination for the world, and the world will share in Pakistan`s sorrows. Keep Pakistan as it is now, and wail about the world`s indifference.

Dina Wadia Claims Jinnah House Wolpert, too, repeats the same, in his ``Jinnah of Pakistan`` :

Quote:

Jinnah`s daughter Dina never joined her father in Pakistan while he lived; she came to Karachi only for his funeral. When Dina married Neville Wadia, a Parsi-born Christian, Jinnah tried his best to dissuade her, going almost as far as Sir Dinshaw Petit had with his daughter. As Justice Chagla recalled: ``Jinnah, in his usual imperious manner, told her that there were millions of Muslim boys in India, and she could have anyone she chose. Then the young lady, who was more than a match for her father, replied: `Father, there were millions of Muslim girls in India. Why did you not marry one of them?``` [41]

Jinnah never spoke to his daughter after she married. And though they did correspond, he always addressed her formally as ``Mrs. Wadia`` and never talked of her to his friends, insisting, indeed, that he had ``no daughter`` [42]

[41] Chagla, Roses in December, p. 120.
[42] Lady Rama Rao`s recollection in an interview with the author in Los Angeles, 1979.

Dina and Neville Wadia kept house in Bombay and had two children, soon after which they separated. Neville, who presided over the Wadia commercial and textile empire there, passed control of his business on to his son Nusli, who chairs the board of Wadia Industries, Ltd., and has two sons, Jinnah`s only great grandchildren, who live in Bombay, as citizens of India. Dina and Neville had a daughter as well, who apparently lives in Manhattan as something of a ``recluse`` but was ``too young to remember [Jinnah] and saw little of him``, according to her father. Neville Wadia left India after divorcing Dina, choosing to reside in Switzerland. Dina moved to New York City and lived alone in a splendid apartment on Madison Avenue until at least 1982. Thus, none of Jinnah`s direct descendants ever opted for Pakistan.

End quote

Dina Wadia Claims Jinnah House Myth or reality?

http://www.mjakbar.com/booksdetail.asp?bookid=5

Quote:
Only his sister Fatima accompanied Jinnah to Pakistan. (Years later she would be the candidate of the combined opposition in the elections held by Ayub Khan) Jinnah`s only child, his daughter Dina, refused to go to Pakistan. The Jinnah who had married Ruttie had changed: he was now the commander of the forces of Istam Din wanted to marry a Parsi, and Jinnah became furious when he heard this, there were millions of Muslim boys, he told his daughter, from whom she could choose. Dina replied that there had been millions of Muslim, girls available, and yet Jinnah had chosen to marry a Parsi. The only answer Jinnah had was to disown his daughter: he never called her Dina again, referring to her whenever formally necessary as `Mrs Wadia`. She was more loyal to her father. On 14 and 15 August 1947 she put out both the Pakistani and Indian flags on her balcony.
End quote.

Dina Wadia Claims Jinnah House #71, ferozk

Greetings! I`m not sure why I`m back except that sometimes I enjoy shooting fish in a barrel.

Nehru met Jinnah in Bombay on the evening of August 15, 1946 (the day before Direct Action Day), and as one can infer from ``Speeches, Statements & Messages of the Quaid-e-Azam``, Volume IV, 1946-1948 (Editor Khurshid Ahmad Khan Yusufi), it took place at Jinnah`s residence. Jinnah`s comment to the Associated Press of India about that meeting was a terse ``Nothing has happened beyond the fact that we had a general talk. I have nothing more to say``.

Mahadev Gobind Ranade (1842-1901) Talking about obessions with purity:

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t19587.html

A Good Reason To Cheer Re: # 60

Getting elected/reelected merely means that your particular electorate prefers you over the other candidate(s). It does not confer legal immunity.

A Good Reason To Cheer Xposted from YLH`s thread:

http://www.islaminterfaith.org/dec2004/article1.htm

Limited information, of course, but it is hard to imagine that Maulana Kalbe Sadiq presents any kind of threat to the US.

A Good Reason To Cheer Revathy,

The US that denies Modi a visa also denies others visas - or turns them back at the airport even when they have valid visas: see the following, taken from the Pioneer. The issue of Modi has to be settled in India, not by the US Dept of State or by the International Court of Justice. In any case, only if Indians take on Modi is there any assurance that Gujarat-like events won`t happen again. What is going on is not well-intentioned, as visible below, it is blatant interference by the US in the affairs of India. The rejoicing is premature.

-Arun


Shias up in arms after US does a Modi on Sadiq

Subodh Ghildiyal/Siddharth Kalhans/ New Delhi/Lucknow

Shia community in India is up in arms against the treatment meted out to cleric Kalbe Sadiq by the United States of America. Conspiracy theories are back in the currency against the US and anti-US sentiment has resurfaced after the lull following the attack on Iraq.

A much-respected cleric, Sadiq was turned back from Chicago airport on March 17 and had to return to the United Kingdom. Sadiq was on an invitation from the Shia Assocation for a religious Moharram congregation. Kalbe Sadiq is on his annual three-month trip to Gulf-UK-US where he is welcomed to address the `majlis`.

This is not an isolated incident as the Shias are drawing a pattern after two more scholars were denied entry by the US in March, the month of Moharram. Maulana Safi Haider of Tanzimul Makatib Madrasa (group of 1000 madrasas) was barred entry earlier in March by the US. Another scholar Maulana Qazi Askari of Delhi was reportedly ``humiliated and turned back`` by the US in March.

The community leaders said the American Shia Association had registered its protest with the White House and demanded an apology from President Bush.

With the news trickling down, anti-US sentiments, too, have begun to spread in the city of Lucknow which has a five-lakh strong Shia community. Posters and pamphlets protesting the treatment meted out to the religious leader were distributed in the Shia-dominated localities of Kazmain, Pull Ghulam Hussain and Dargah Hazrat Abbas. It is believed that Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, another respected Shia cleric and Imam-e-Juma, may speak on the issue to the community in the Majlis after the Friday prayers in Imambara tomorrow. The `majlis`, the community leader said, may see good attendance.

Speaking to The Pioneer, Kalbe Sibtain, Sadiq`s son, said his father had a valid visa but was barred entry at the Chicago airport without any reason. ``He told us that he had been quoted Article 235 (b) of some law of the country,`` he said.

Sadiq has been visiting the US for the last three decades as a preacher. ``He has never had any problem. It has all changed after September 11, we think,`` said Sibtain, adding, ``He was shocked but said we should not raise a hue and cry about it.``

However, the issue has already acquired sharp anti-US overtones. Kalbe Jawwad blamed the ill-treatment meted out to Sadiq on US attempts to drive a wedge between Muslims in general (Sadiq is opposed to a separate Shia Board and is vice-president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board) and the Shia community in particular. He blamed the recent formation of a separate Shia Board as against the AIMPLB umbrella on the ``evil`` US designs. ``The new board was formed on US directions and the people responsible are presently enjoying their stay in America,`` said Maulana Jawaad. Incidentally, Maulana Atthar, who heads the newly-formed Shia Board, and other office-bearers are on a tour to the US. ``Those who are touring US for 30 years are denied entry and those who have never done so are given fresh visas. The gameplan is clear,`` said Jawwad.

Jawwad`s line of argument has led to competitive anti-Americanism. Debunking the accusation that his father was an American stooge, Atthar`s son Maulana Yasoob Abbas speculated that the root of the ill-treatment to Sadiq could lay in the anti-US stance he adopted during and after the attack on Iraq. ``There were strong protests in Lucknow and entry of Americans to Shia monuments was barred. Sadiq had also participated in a pro-Saddam rally organised in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in June 2004,`` he said, adding that this was the first Moharram after the protest rally.

---

{PS., Kalbe Sadiq is a follower of Ayatollah Sistani, and thus the rally refered to above could have been anti-American, but could hardly have been pro-Saddam}

Mahadev Gobind Ranade (1842-1901) Reform in Islam - a very nice article on Kalbe Sadiq:
http://www.islaminterfaith.org/dec2004/article1.htm

Mahadev Gobind Ranade (1842-1901) http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-1-2005_pg7_48

Mahadev Gobind Ranade (1842-1901) http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,933559,00.html

``Like other Indian leaders, Jinnah denounced the ``fratricidal war.`` But most observers wondered how Jinnah could fail to know what would happen when he called for ``direct action.`` Shortly before the riots broke out, his own news agency (Orient Press) reported that Jinnah, anticipating violence, was sleeping on the floor these nights—to toughen up for a possible sojourn in jail.``

Mahadev Gobind Ranade (1842-1901) Re: # 312

This is exactly it: ``Gandhi began as a perfectly ordinary intelligent lawyer trying to establish a career. In time he transformed himself into something else. It is that transformation which should interest us.``

Now, let us forget the previous 300 posts and go back to the YLH article without any attempt to deconstruct it or to read between the lines in any way.

The thrust of the article is reform is needed rather than revival, that Hindus have achieved it, while among Muslims, it has been mostly revival; reform has been confined to the gentrified class.

Very well, let us take it as such. How would some hypothetical leader achieve the needed reforms in Pakistan, that is not limited to the gentrified class?

a. Presumably the leader would have to arise from the gentrified class, for this is the only way such a person could get the education, and exposure to ideas, and the leisure to think.

b. Presumably such a leader would have to be democratic in inclination, because he or she would want to reach the great masses of people, not just the gentrified class.

c. Presumably such a leader would have to give up living like the gentrified class, because otherwise, while people in general might consider the leader to be a great person, they would not see anything in the leader`s way of life that they could apply to their own life (e.g. a Jawaharlal Nehru lacks the common touch, and has little influence in people`s lives compared to a Gandhi). (I`d point out that apart from Gandhiji, sannyasis, like Swami Vivekananda also have been crucial to Hindu reform, and they live an ascetic life).

d. Presumably such a leader, as he identifies and pursues reforms, will meet resistance. If not, the task of reform would have already been accomplished.

d1. The resistance will come from the masses of people he is trying to reform. This he will have to overcome by virtue of the fact that the people respect and trust him, and so, however reluctantly, will follow him, and because they have learned to accept him as one of themselves; he looks like them, leads a life with no more trappings than theirs, eats the same diet, walks in the same streets, and comes to them with a message of hope.

d2. The resistance will also come from the entrenched religious and state authorities. Here the leader has a key decision to make - how to overcome the resistance. Now, there have been successful revolutionaries who have taken up arms, but the costs have been extreme. If the leader really cares for Pakistanis, that leader would try to find a way of civil protest - civil disobedience, mass rallies, mass boycotts, etc. - non-violent resistance.

Now, it is possible that a Musharraf (a person with the backing of a major institution) or a Bhutto (a elite with a populist following) may try reforms, and may succeed. I do not rule that trajectory out. On the other hand, I think the above outline, which essentially parallels the trajectory of the Mahatma, is much more likely to succeed. Reform is certainly not going to come from the annals of an English newspaper, in a country where the total English language newspaper circulation is less than a million.

Hehe, but the execration of Gandhiji is likely to preclude any study of his methods, and how he succeeded. Right now, in Pakistan, the only people of leadership who have at least some of the characteristics in my list above are some of the religious sort (though many of this sort assemble their own empires of properties, foundations and private armies). It is no wonder that revival rather than reform is what is happening.

-Arun