Socialist Yuppies 3: The Jihadi Janab Adam Khan sahib,

You certainly are a gifted writer withh a dollop of good humor.
Include me among your fans alongwith Echoboom.

He has requested me to convey his salaams to you & is quite prturbed, like myself, to see you removed from the frontpage after a few minutes of showcause.

Mr. echoboom , as you must be aware, refuses to take an oath from the purveyors of Unflinching IDOLISM..hence he is incarcetrated by the Castrated ones.

Twin Blasts in Rawalpindi leaves 27 dead, 70 injured At the Edge of Revolution: Does Pakistan Have a Khomeini?

LAHORE, Pakistan -- "The only time I wore a burka was at a fancy-dress ball," says Unver, a Pakistani painter hailing from an upper class Pakistani family. Speaking to a group of friends, he recounts sending his driver to the market to buy him the cheap, all-enveloping veil sealed with a face grill that many of Pakistan's most conservative women wear on sorties outside the house.

"After forty minutes of wearing that thing, I was drenched in sweat. Next time I saw my driver, I asked him how his wife can wear that thing all the time. He just looked at me with an expression that said, 'You don't understand.'"


Unver's post-party exchange with his driver hints at the massive cultural gap between the elites inhabiting the villas vacated by the British colonial masters and the vast majority of Pakistan's 190 million poverty-stricken masses. In Iran, a resource-rich country twice the size of Pakistan and with a third its population, this social disparity helped galvanize the 1979 Revolution that led to the foundation of the first Islamic Republic in the Middle East. Could this be the path that Pakistan will follow?

Unver is the only one of his siblings to have returned to Pakistan from the West. One of Pakistan's foremost painters, he sells his striking figurative and abstract works for several times what the average Pakistani makes in a year. His world is peopled by a British-accented Pakistani elite inhabiting exclusive districts of Lahore or Karachi and punctuated with shooting and fishing getaways conducted against a background of private guards, cooks and drivers. In Iran, almost thirty years ago, people such as Unver were shocked when the classes to which their servants belonged rose up to overthrow them and confiscate their properties. Could it be Pakistan's turn next?

"A civil war in slow motion has started already," said a Lahore-based Pakistani journalist who refused to be named for fear of jeopardizing his position. "Musharraf has a double standard: he's killing Baloch nationalists in the name of security and patronizing mullahs inside the capital."

Pakistan's military President came to power in a 1999 coup and assumed the position of Washington's main partner in its post-9/11 War on Terror. To safeguard American aid, Musharraf conjured the specter of Islamic radicalism as the only alternative to himself in a bid to convince the Americans that he is an indispensable partner. At the same time, he gave religious radicals more leeway to conduct their activities than at any other time since the Islamist Pakistani President Zia Ul Haqq.

In a notorious, ongoing case, hundreds of madrasseh students have taken over Islamabad's Red Mosque, a radical seminary, and are running an independent religious court that bypasses Pakistani law to implement Islamic law directly. The mosque's male and female students have also launched anti-vice patrols that target music and video shops. Meanwhile, in the northern Pakistani city Charsadda, two-dozen music shops have been blown up in the past month. In Iran, all Western music and films were banned after the Revolution and morality militias called Bassijis manned checkpoints and raided homes in which unrelated men and women were suspected of mingling.

In Balochistan, a restive and underdeveloped province adjoining Iran, Pakistan has constructed the fourth deepest port in the world with Chinese help. When ready, it will give Beijing a valuable strategic foot-hold close to the energy-rich Persian Gulf, long an American zone of influence. Washington is less than delighted about the budding Sino-Pakistani friendship, which has led to Musharraf stepping up his repression of armed Baloch factions who are demanding greater profit-sharing with the state and increased autonomy. Across the border with Iran, a series of explosions and kidnappings by a mysterious group called Jundullah (Soldier of God) has targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, giving rise to Iranian accusations that the United States is involved in funneling arms, money and terrorist know-how to the anti-Tehran group as part of its strategy to pressure the Islamic Republic.



Elsewhere in Pakistan, social inequality is on the rise. Rather than addressing the simmering resentment and widespread poverty of the people, the incestuously intertwined political and business establishment is giving its blessing to the construction of Dubai-style exclusive gated compounds with names such as Canyon Views and Crescent Bay where the rich can isolate themselves from the anger of the poor. The remains of such compounds still exist in today's North Tehran, although they are now inhabited by the new "revolutionary" aristocracy. During the Shah's time, they were the exclusive domain of foreign, often American, advisers subcontracted out to the Shah's modernization drive. Like Pakistan, Iran had also signed an intrusive Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) with Washington that exempted U.S. personnel from prosecution under local courts in the event they committed a crime while in the host country.



Pakistan's elites inhabit exclusive, British-designed ghettos with 24-hour access to water and electricity and names such as Cantonment, Defence and GOR (Government Officials Residences). Their villas are set back from wide, tree-lined boulevards embedded with speed-bumps to minimize rowdy driving and terrorist attacks. Lush, plentifully-watered gardens poke over high walls, within which small detachments of servants bustle about preparing Sahib's car or Madame's social excursion. Educated in British-style public schools and American universities, Pakistan's upper classes speak mostly English among themselves, switching to Urdu to address the servants. Avoiding the slum-infested popular parts of town, they feed themselves at Western fast-food franchises and turn a blind eye to the assorted scrums of beggars clamoring to clean their windscreens or sell them jasmine-bracelets at traffic lights. In the summers, they migrate from Lahore or Karachi to London, taking a break from a busy social calendar that peaks in December with glittering weddings and parties catered by small armies and splashed across the glossy pages of socialite magazines.



Having been based in Iran for the past three years and having studied the social conditions that led to that revolution, I was assaulted by an ominous sense of déjà vu as I witnessed Pakistan's moneyed professionals discuss the emboldened religious conservatives in horrified tones at nightly salons. The way in which they mystifiedly asked each other who the niqab-clad women occupying the Lal Masjed (the takeover of the Red Mosque by radical Talibs is the latest manifestation of Islamist fervor in the Pakistani capital) reminded me of the befuddlement with which Iran's upper classes confronted the great unwashed after they took over Tehran's streets, ousted the Shah, voted overwhelmingly for an Islamic Republic and moved into the lavishly-appointed ministries of a defunct Imperial Iran.



Today, those formerly scruffy revolutionaries have aged gracefully in power, educated their children at foreign universities and chanelled their profits into international companies with interests in Dubai, London and New York. In the summer of 2005, it was their turn to look appalled as another wave of the great unwashed, led by current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stepped up to the seat of power.
So when can we expect the Revolution? Well, possibly not anytime soon.

"Pakistan's very social fabric has been broken, ever since Zia ul Haqq," said Javed Muazzam, the chairman of the Pakistan People's Party - Shahid Bhutto and Pakistan's longest-serving political prisoner during the reign of former Islamist premier Zia ul Haqq. "We've become a country of crises but even now people are not ready to come to the streets. They've been divided in religion, language and faith basis and lost their faith in the political parties that betrayed him."

Pakistan may be an overwhelmingly Muslim state, but it is split between a Sunni majority and Shiite minority and lacks a Khomeini-style religious leader behind which its fragmented religious groups can unite. None of the country's clerics possess the charisma of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while the corrupt antics of the leaders of Pakistan's mainstream political parties have robbed them of their popular legitimacy. Musharraf has taken advantage of this by building a strategic domestic alliance with the MQM, a thuggish political party that was largely responsible for violence two weeks ago that killed around 40 people in Karachi.

"He has parceled up the country and sold it off to people whose support his needs," said Benazir Bhutto, a two-time former prime minister with corruption charges pending against her. "He has given Karachi to the MQM like he has given the (North Western) Frontier to the religious extremists."



But not one of the religious parties is led by a personality of inspirational and unblemished religious credentials. The head cleric of the Red Mosque, Maulana Abdel Aziz, has been widely quoted in the headlines recently for threatening an anti-government jihad.



"We will not retreat. We will sacrifice our lives," said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a spokesman at the Lal Masjid mosque.

However, neither he nor Abdel Aziz can match Khomeini in stature or the magnetic hold exercised over ordinary people. Ironically, perhaps Pakistan's most popular Muslim preacher is an Indian: Zahir Naik. Unknown to the West, he employs his fluent, sarcastic English to fashion biting retorts to perceived Western encroachments upon Islam that endear him to the millions of the subcontinent's middle class Muslims who feel directionless in these troubled times.



Ultimately, Pakistan is perhaps too young and insecure a nation to sustain a genuinely popular anti-establishment movement rising from the streets.

"Iranian society is intact and deep-rooted but we're not," said Munib. "Iranians have 3,000 years of nationhood and an accompanying arrogance. We don't."

Perhaps the reason for the almost servile respect that is directed towards foreigners lies in Pakistan's short nationhood -- just sixty years have elapsed since the state was created in 1947. It is an attitude diametrically opposed to the Iranian mistrust -- official and popular -- of Westerners and the single largest factor contributing to the two countries' foreign policy: Iran is an international pariah and member of the so-called Axis of Evil, while Pakistan is the most trusted Muslim partner in the War on Terror.

Perhaps the Pakistani Khomeini is even now preaching in a mosque in the conservative city of Multan or studying in a madrasseh in the North Western Frontier Province. But his ability to reach out to the masses will be hampered by Pakistan's Sunni-Shiite divide and the country's fragmented Muslim identity.








"In our subconscious we're shaped by Hindu mythology," said Rumman Ihsan, a journalist for Pakistan's Dawn television. "We worship idols, not democratic principles, and live in a fool's paradise, feeling that we're still the Muslim Moghul princes who ruled the Continent."


Iason Athanasiadis is an analyst and writer who recently left Iran after three years living in Tehran

Mother Teresa’s Moment of Truth Mr. ahmadmadani,

In a world totally confounded & condemned by neem-scientists & neem-mullahs how have you managed to retain such a refreshed & uncluttered mind?

You remind me of those people of yester-years when the western education had not made us the jaahils we are now.

Twin Blasts in Rawalpindi leaves 27 dead, 70 injured Deserves an encore!
#145 Posted by AlephNull on September 4, 2007 3:41:58 pm
"
From Romair’s post:…

I do know the PAF is on alert. I think the US C-141s are going to start rolling in soon. I have a feeling the Pakistani pilots and army will assist and guide the US into Afghanistan, if it decides to carry out an invasion (even though the Pakistani govt. won`t admit it openly). There is no way the US soldiers can carry it out on their own. They don`t have the intelligence, they don`t know the terrain, can`t speak the language. Infact, they can barely pronouce the names of the cities.

I`ve trained with the Pakistanis, with Middle Easterners and with Americans. I will take the Pakistani soldier over any other soldier anyday (any soldier except for an Afghan soldier, that is).

Man, this is getting interesting. Information Technology suc/ */s as a profession. No glory. I wanna go back and put on the uniform.
There’s more in the same vein."
____________________________________________________________
t o quote the classic line by echoboom again.
"
As I have written earlier.
Romair writes the most humorous stuff on CHOWK. Hamid2 has rancour & bitterness in him...a no no for a GOOD humourist."

From Mushy if done! article

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East aangaara:
There was no point for me to reply to Zeemax after what he said. tahmed on the other hand offered some sign of redemption--alas alas.

and do you think you qualified for a response? I do not think you are worth it.

No more cinderella!

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East masadi:
Just noticed my name on your interact.

I gave tahmed an opportunity to show ``character`` but he disappointed me. I wish that the discussion will not make any headway if each side is 100% this or 100% that. Conceding even a little bit leaves the door open.

At least he has admitted that he is not from the Q-sect; but then some of them have splits within them as well. Maybe he is from the other group. His hatred for muslims is Palpable & only those guys are capable of that.

your write-ups are too long for me to read, but I know where you stand--so I do not need to be convinced either. Thanks, anyhow.

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East tahmed:
Please don`t run. What would hindus think about a muslim giving up and running away?

How can you be so impolite as to slam the door on my face? All I want to hear from you is even some token cricism of the US so that your hatred for muslims seem logical. It seems your hatred is reserved only for hindus & muslims.

Do you not know any jews, christains, atheists etc. within U.S and much more `successful` than perhaps yourself, who are born there and yet hate the U.S with a vengeance?

Of all the people only those from the Q-sect talk like this...and that is understandable. Please say this is not so or are you ashamed to be a Q as well?

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East tahmed

In order to appear fair it is important that you hate the U.S with the same intensity as you hate muslims. I notice that you do get upset with Indians when they correctly & genuinely criticise Pakistan but you are eerily silent & ``polite`` when it comes to Muslims, Islam, and our piyaaray Nabi.

No wonder your arguments lose power & others , though less polite & mushy, win.

As a muslim do you think your behaviour is rational? Please clarify if you are truly not from the Q-sect. and you might earn my respect again.

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East 467:
That`s kind of disappointing, to say the least.

In order to show your character, as you put it, could you please enlist what in your opinion is wrong with the US? or is your hatred reserved only for the mullas & majority muslims?

Just listing some of the heinous crimes of the US around the world would make your hatred for mullas & muslims justified. If that is not the case then I am afraid that you are no different than those you love to hate. It is just that you do not see yourself that way. You disappointed me again.

I being a woman would still see my sons fighting the oppression in the world being waged on muslims & non-muslims alike. The partners of the U.S in such crimes are such ``muslims`` Saudis, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morroco, Libya, Tunis etc.

It is no achievement to be with the Jagirdaar , the establishment & the powerful, any lowlife is capable of that & live on that rubbed off lustre. I do not think that except for just working in US, you can lay any claim to have achieved anything worthwile in sciences or art..like Abdul Salaam for e.g. He took everything good from the west, and still was not a sell-out. His Nobel prize address in Urdu, his dress, and his two wives was the grand statement he made to the west as to where he stood in the ``pride`` department. Or would you call him ``characterless`` to exhibit such pride. Even though he was an ahmedi, he was simply a ``mozlum`` to the west.

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East tahmed
You are disappointing me. Now Indian Leaders do not become a puppy of US yet they are respected, in fact feared. No wonder Indians love U.S. Respect is mutual. You think if India & China were treated like dogs & words like ``mother Selling`` were uttered without a regret, an apology, or removal from position to show an iota of ``respect`` to the one who not only works for them as a donkey, grovels like a dog, and yet is treated as a leper be it clinton bush or anyone.

Do you feel proud as a Pakistani, even if you do not want to be mistaken as a muslim, that it is you they are talking about. In ``their`` eyes you are the Pakistani, you are the mulla, Islamist, muslim or whatever . Don`t you think you are mistaken by them Desi, a Paki, and a `mozlum`. Or how have you fooled them, tell me please that you are not one of us...your friends & relatives.

Thank you in advance for being honest. Is that a wrong expectation?

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East tahmed have you gone?

It is so nice to see the discussion back on track. Thank you Zeemax bulleya and SR.
I see tahmed missing here though. I am quite interested to know if he considers US an aid or a hinderance to world peace. Please help me understand why the US is so much hated all over the world by the highest educated segment of society & loved only by the greedy corporations, oppressing dictators & sheikhs, or by those `` who don`t mind selling their mothers for less than one would expect``. (This was said by some American General about Pakistanis).

I hope tahmed would be kind enough to remove the confusion created by the two sides of the argument. His balanced polite and calm views are most welcome anytime.

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East Zeemax:
sad very sad.
you say ``got it? ``

I wonder if it is you who ``got it``. When was the last time you ``checked`` or got ``checked``?

Escalation of Hostilities in Middle East It is so sad to see hamidm2 & Zeemax bringing in their families into this otherwise good discussion. Would they want their womefolk discussing them & their children in such an offensive manner? and here we muslims harp on no end about protecting ``honor``. As a woman I believe it is we women who are protecting their honor whenever a situation demands.

Would the chowk staff please see to it that such interacts are at least filtered?

whatever tahmed32`s views are he is at least polite. I will be thankful if he lets me know whose translation of the meaning of the holy Qura`an he finds most appealing. He seems to know a lot and relies only on the holy Qur`an for guidance. Would you help tahmed32, sir?

Phoenix, Unqua, and Huma. #15 by ShoreSahib

That ``showed`` line definitely needs a rewrite.

Every opinion is ``constructive`` as well as instructive .
This was a fun exercise and you helped.

Thanks.

Phoenix, Unqua, and Huma. #13 by ShoreSahib

thanks for taking the time.

You are right about the `pings`. just escaped through.

The rest of your explanation is prettry confusing. Maybe, its the lines . Are they under-lines?

Your Ibne-Arabi`s quote has opened new doors for me. Thanks a lot.

You seem to have read a lot--at such a young age ( at least from your picture)

Phoenix, Unqua, and Huma. #11 by ShoreSahib
No . It was originally written in english.

Please help by giving example of disjointedness and poor articulation. Thanks.

No it is not exactly the Do-Do bird, but just as in english it is said `` went the way of Do-Do`` meaning no longer exists. Similarly in Urdu `` Unqua ho gaee hae``. That was the context.

Thanks for your feed-back.