An Ode Called Amritsar Ammara Dear

I know how you feel being in India myself albeit a totally different part of modern India where religion and the past of the north have nothing much to do with anyone here.

But going to any Gurdwara is like going to a mosque for me personally, they are both constantly open to anyone and prayers are always sounding and soothing...

In Pakistan go to Gurdwara Janamsthan aka Nankana Sahib in of season (i.e. non yatri season) its quiet and soothing hardly anyone is there and one can meditate peacefully and feel the winter sun on your face, its a very peaceful place, the same i can say of the grand Gurdwara in Southall London its the one you see when yor plane lands in heathrow, it too is very peacefull and always open to all people like a mosque always Akhand PaTh is being read and there is an air of peace, calm and tranquility in hearing Guru Nanak's name...

To me true Sikhism is very calming and soothing like that of the Sufis, unlike the reputation it has of a warrior faith... the reality is far from that and the inner sanctum of every Gurdwara like the mosques reflects that...

so lost our people, maybe only now we are beginning to find our way again!!!

Muslim Ghettoisation about time muslims realised that islam is only one part of their identity and the be all and end all!

its easy to use the ghettoisation excuse but for south asian muslims, they can compare againstg other southa sian anmely hindus and sikhs... so i feel that the ghetto isation is something they bought on themselves.... get an educationa d get out!!! striaght up... its apiss take these pakis use 'islam' its an excuse for their lazyness and insecurity...

how come my nieces and nephews in pak are doing so much better than pakis in the uk? why does my sis refuse to bring her kids to the uk... caus ein pak they get a decent education and are not so islam centric as the pakis in the uk have become... ppl in pak are changing pakis in inglaind are way behind... they need to catch up, maybe send their kids to paki cities instead of kashmir!!!

maybe pakis should be pakis and not super sulas... god knows pak has so changed... theres gonna come a time when even pakis in pak will disown the pakis in ingliand... and this is coming from a paki born and raised in uk!!! our ppl are to blame themselves not uk ppl or govt.!

pakis need top stop making excuses and get on with life like everyone else!!! its simple as that!!!

Delayed Justice Harimau Uncle Ji

How are you? Are you in India these days? i might be over in a couple of weeks, but will be there for a while so looks like i might need your help in learning some Tamil!

Reinterpretation of Islam in Turkey Well by now everyone in Turkiye must know about it! Vesey i agree Turkey should remain Secular, but i think Islam has to be updated and bought into the modern times, although Islam should be left to the individual however having a modern option to follow personally as opposed to an 'off with his head' style is always a good thing to have, and i think if anything the state should encourage this kind of Islam, but in Turkey people already live a modern life comfortable with Islam, i think this will just frame current life there.

I really hope it is bought to Pakistan at least for discussion and debate and we have real scholars not some tin pot tv mullah reviewing it...

Well done Turks, for once again showing the Jahil Arabs the true way of enlightenment!

Pervez Musharraf and India Pakistan Rapproachment Dost Mittar Ji

Thanks for the article... i havent read the 000's of replies, zahir haiN lots will be aney taney, tu tu meiN meiN which i am not going to partake in... khair here are my two annas worth

I think Pakis should look at the relationship with India on a business and economical front without any sort of emotion or any of that kind of stuff...

They should sign a 'no war' treaty with India this way Pak army cant justify the humongous budget they take... also now that the M1 is complete a person can go from Lahore to Peshawar on a real and proper motorway like what you get in the west and developed countries... Pak can open this route for over ground trade between India and A'stan, charging money out of the Afghanis and Indians for using the land route...

We should give Indians and NRI's visa on entry access so that they can come and visit their shrines etc and add to Pak economy...

We should remove 3rd party countries like Dubai and Singapore for trade and trade directly...

Pak should market itself aggressively to India and allow Indian businesses to invest in Pak freely...

The usual cultural shor sharaba should also be increased, Pak should ask B'wood people to film in Pak, this way ALL Indians get to see Pak :)

Khair... this is just my thoughts maybe its time we rose above the haters and jhuppi brigade and made sensible trade... after all South Asia region was richest in world at one point, why? because of traditions of trade!

This Pyre Will Burn…! #192

Look again Judge Sain is also mentioned!

This Pyre Will Burn…! an article from the guardian

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jason_burke/2008/01/crisis_what_ crisis.html

How long will it be until Pakistan implodes? Take your pick of the analysts: a week or so as opposition parties take to the streets to complain about the postponement of elections, just announced; two weeks if the elections take place and the country descends into chaos; a few months and the mullahs will have poured down from the North West Frontier Province, seized Islamabad and the nuclear button; a year or so and Pakistan will have become another Afghanistan. Or perhaps it won't implode at all.

The latter seems the most likely to me. On my first trip to Pakistan, in 1993, the country was as unstable as ever. Nawaz Sharif's first government had fallen. Benazir Bhutto was back in power. Everyone was talking about a default on the country's debts, rampant militancy, war, political chaos, inefficiency, corruption, and so on. Living there in the late 90s, I heard the same refrain every day. Clearly the events of the last week have shaken many - and rightfully given the strategically critical nature of the world's second largest Muslim state - but perhaps the thing we should wonder at most is the astonishing fact that Pakistan successfully manages to keep itself together - apart from the inevitable and logical splitting off of eastern Pakistan to form Bangladesh in 1971 - not its manifest and manifold problems over 60 years of history.

In the two weeks in December I spent travelling through the backwaters of the country - in rural Sindh, in the belt between the mountains of the North West Frontier and the Indus river, in the interminable suburbs of Rawalpindi - what struck me again and again was not the chaos and political instability, but the tedious grind of everyday life in a country where half the 170 million population still live in rural areas and where for most people each day is tough, precarious and uncertain. People are far more politicised than they were a decade ago - or at least more informed - due to the spread of satellite television, but few are mobilised. Very few are actively engaged in politics. Fewer still are ideologically committed. A miniscule minority would or could fight. This moderate, often impoverished mass is the first pillar of Pakistan's bizarre capacity to absorb shocks that would destroy most nations.

Talk of civil war seems to me to be nonsensical, at least immediately. For who would battle whom? Again, it may seem counter-intuitive but the country is currently far too divided for an outbreak of organised civil conflict in the near future. The Islamic militants are split into dozens of factions, the Pakistan People's Party is on the point of splitting itself, Sharif and his people are hardly likely to turn to the rocket launchers and kalashnikovs and then there are the myriad ethnic and religious divisions too - to say nothing of tribe. Then there are the very strong interests in the army, the bureaucracy and the commercial sector who have a strong interest in keeping everything together. Perhaps in the long term a 1980s Lebanese-style free-for-all is conceivable but not right now. There is a constant violence - but at a micro, not a macro, level. Even in the anarchic western tribal areas violence plays out between villages and individual tribes - unless the army go blundering about "hunting fugitive militants". This very fragmentation lends a paradoxical stability too.

I'm not about to invest in the Pakistani stock market, nor buy a house in Islamabad (not least because the massive real estate boom of recent years makes it impossible) but I'd just point out that in the 15 years I've been travelling to, reporting on and living in Pakistan, its unlikely existence has always been continually said to be threatened but has always, albeit chaotically, continued.

This Pyre Will Burn…! Ehem.. to all those ppl who think Pak has zero Hindus left here are a few links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Hindu_Panchayat

http://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_Pakistan

After the Partition of India, Hinduism had a much smaller numerical presence in the newly created state of Pakistan, but has nonetheless played a major role in its culture and politics as well as the history of its regions.

The term Hindu is etymologically derived from the Sindhu (Indus River) of Pakistan. The Sindhu is one of the holy rivers of Hinduism. Thus, in many ways, the land which is today's heavily Muslim Pakistan has played an important part in the origin of Hinduism. In terms of population, Pakistan has the fifth largest population of native Hindus.

Some more successful Pak Hindus

Deepak Perwani - Fashin designer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Perwani

http://www.deepakperw ani.com/#

Danish Kaneria - Cricketer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Kaneria

and Judge Sain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_Bhagwandas

And if all you Indians want you can come do Yatra at Nani Mandir in B'stan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/south_asia_hi ndus_in_pakistan/html/1.stm

http://www.travel-culture.com/tours/pakistan_hind u_heritage_tour.shtml

Preview of Looming Democracy - Two Months of PPP in the Limelight hmmm lots to say...

firstly yes we all feel BB loss esp in a humanitarian way... re. the tensions after her loss this is sad, its horrible that punjos and mojos are getting their asses kicked for soemthing they didnt do... didnt the sindhis realise that the supporters at her rallies are also mojos and punjos???

it is true that ppp an bb have wide support throughout pakistan i remember reading a slogan on teh wall 'charo subo ki zancir benazir benazir' in Lahore, she did have support in all provinces... after her demise the way ppl have gone on about punjab needs to do this that and the next thing does nothing other than encite ethnic hatred i just hope and pray to God that we dont find ourselves in the ethnic fighting situation of the 80's and 90's... as much as i dont like the way musharraf has come to power and wants to keep it, at least in his rule (other than b'stan) we havent had this sort of sectarian remarks...

atif2 for once i agree 100% with your post you hit the nail on the head...

aur klifton khala, hasb'e ma'mool aap ke likhe huey se me sau fesad sehmat huN, aap ke durust kehno me danashmandi zahir haiN, khuda sada isse qaim rakhey ameen...

lodhi and akhan usa

what you guys are talking about already exists its called SAARC, and a unified monetary unit has been mentioned called the rupa (like euro) however our ppl will take generations to accept the rupa as common currency from maldives to bhutan...

re Karachi and mqm... mqm may have its base in karachi (not only among mojos now) but it is moving all over pakistan with offices in all provinces altaf bhai has realsied that he can now get votes from other provinces...

karachi in my opinion and experience is no longer a mojo city just like lahore is no longer a punjo only city... my punjo khala moved to karachi after she got married and lived there for 17 years wearing a sari and mainting her (in those days) lovely flat in some leafy karachi suburb (i was too young to remember the name) her kids grew up there and two were born there, they moved to saudia and then back to pak (isloo) they speak urdu like karachiites and speak punjabi only in sarcastic tones to take the piss out of us lot... they still identifiy with karachi just like my punjo cousins born and brought up in london speak english with a cockney accent and identify with london while i with scotland, anyone who has lived there, worked there, and contributed in a positive way to its economy becomes a karachiite regardless of their ethnicity, karachi is a world unto itself and doesnt (cant) belong to anyone ethnicity it is wholly pakistani and represents all the good in pak... unfortunately precisely because of this all of pakistans problems are going to be heightened in karachi too, and it will face the brunt of it in the coming days...

i dont care which ethnicity comes to power in pak, as long as we dont have sectarian violence and the poor ppl of pak actually get some education and health services... i just dont want this horrible punjo/sindhi/mojo/balochi/pathan bs to kick off its the last thing we need on top off all of the bombings etc.

i feel sad looking into the future cause i know either nvash beshareef or ppp will come into power and we will have unpurh pindo rule once again... and unpurh rule is always divisive and this is not what is needed at this moment...

Benazir Bhutto Killed in an Attack the person must have been stalking her and waiting for an opportunity... maybe not this rally then maybe another, do you think this guy was stalking her? he had to have been... my gut instinct tells me its the fundos with ISI backing!!!

Abdul Latif Khalid (1944-2007) Dear Yasser Bhai,

So sorry to hear of your loss, may your Father rest in peace, ameen. Inalilahi vainailahi rajiun... my condolences to you and all of your family and those who cherished your dad...

Khuda Hafiz
A

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? #5 yes yes, now spare us all your anti muslim rhetoric, we know that alot came from India and China it was taken and developed by Arbis and now the Goras have developed taht knoweldge further, and now the rest of the world is taking it further... this article isnt talking about where the knowledge came from etc. its asking Muslim ppl to think about their faith and whats written therein...

re: your claims about Muslims destrying the sources of knoweldge can you please give examples and even if they did, why on earth is that mines or any other muslim person alive todays issue? why should we apologise for it, or be made to feel that we should? do i ask all the hindus to apologise for modi and his actions (i havent even started on barbaric hindus from the past)...

keep you insecurities to yourself and add something relevant to the conversation that this article is about, for all other pangas shri arjun upastit haiN!

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? you will find that in Quran Allah commands the reader to ponder

This is exactly what Qutubshahi sahib is saying... we need to ponder, think more instead of just blindly following mullah char sau bees!!!

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Majumdar

there is no language called 'Muslim'... there are various laguages spoken by people who are Muslim by faith... In Urdu and most other South Asian languages the word for statue is Moorti... Buth Purust is the name given to the followers of Buddha (in Urdu) buth i presume came from budh...

I thick therefore I am i understand what you're saying neembu, but a little bit of thought in the 'art' would be expected instead of khilaring the contents of some old babis rubbish bin!!!

I thick therefore I am Chill out Neembu, i dont think he is saying we shouldn't have art and stuff, but he does have a point, have you ever been to the tate modern in London, i have to admit some of the stuff in their is just plain rubbish, the gand that passes for 'art' is unreal... in fact they actually had someones rubbish bin with its contents as some sort of artistic thing, come on that is taking the utter piss!!!

Ibrahim in Urdu A level we got to study short stories from the favourites like Manto and Prem Chand, but we also had to study that god awful dipty nazir ahmed and his book Taub'ut Nasuh couldn't stand the lesson our teacher was trying to instil in us, if anything it made me more of a kanjar, though reading Umrao Jaan was more fun, i couldn't finish either of the books!!!