Immigrants: Na Idhar ke, Na uddhar ke Dear Ms. Ali
We can have the best of both worlds, all you have to do is get all your family and everyone you care about to come to Toronto. Then both your problems are solved. The other choice you have is to make Karachi like Toronto, have a system that works, where you call on people who are shallow and gossip, you can change the system because you have seen it work. As a matter of fact it is your duty and obligation.

Cheers, and have a good time fixing Karachi, I will be there in December to inspect your work.

Ramzaan Mubarak Hello Temporal,

Perhaps the distinction to be made here is between a ritual and a value. The ritual is to go through the motions, like not eating, smoking, or drinking, saying all the prayers.
The values are the ones that you have articulated ``piety``, ``patience``, ``tolerance``, ``empathy``, ``community`` and ``purification``. These are universal values and encouraged by good people in all religions. Why would we muslim sacrifice these values and settle for mere rituals is beyond me. My question is if these values are to be practised in Ramazan so that we also remember them in the other months, why is it that up front and center are questions about the rituals? The emphasis should be on the values, not what time is Iftar or what time we can have sahri.

Human beings are designed to lead a ritualistic life. It comes from the pagan days, and some of us have not really evovoled into monotheism. I think a sign of a good muslim is one who recgonizes that rituals are for ``pagans``. Islam is available at all different levels, some have chosen the ritualistic life. Perhaps that is all that makes sense to them. It is possible to practice Islam at a different level, where you place emphasis on values, and your actions are correlated with those values, the other level is that of an automaton, doing what you have been told without asking why and going through the motions without having a choice about what you are doing. We didn`t have a choice about which family or religion we were born under. I think it is safe to say that we have a choice about how we can and should interpret our religion.

What will I teach my daughter? Re: # 74

Hello All, thank you for the feedback. I appreciate it. The level of your generosity is clearly evident by your posts. I am sure Aziz Mian is rolling in his grave LHAO. He is my favorite Qawal. I wont take seriously any negative comments, I know it is not personal. My muslim brothers and sisters are a little harsh on me. Perhaps it is because I am asking a difficult rhetorical question. I want to know what it is to be a good muslim? My answer is that it has nothing to do with how many times you pray or how much you fast or give zakat. Or how many times you have gone to Haj. Or even if you read or memorize and understand the Quran. These are all selfish rituals that you perform for your own salvation. It has nothing to do with how kind you are towards your fellow human beings. What you contribute to your community, either in thought or deed. All the rituals aside, what is important are your relationships. I think that God will send straight to hell all the muslims who prayed five times a day fasted for thirty days and performed Haj and gave Zakat, if in their relationships with other human beings they were not generous and kind. Furthermore, if you are incapable of understanding this idea, that is serious and very sad.
What I have noticed from your responses thus far and I am generalizing; this idea is easier to accept for Sikhs or Hindus or Christians or any other religion. And Muslims want to stick to ``read the Quran`` do your duty to god, go and pray, and yes stick to the rituals of Namaz and Roza because if you take that away what else will they have left?

Azmat Hussain

What will I teach my daughter? Re: #10
Hello Saminasha,
No disrespect to any women was intended. I hope women ARE succesfull in their attempts at what has traditionally been a male dominated environment. I was hoping that such leadership came as a natural outcome of thier character, dedication and commitment. You are right about one thing, that women who are taking on the establishemnt have not yet EARNED the respect of the community. I appreciate your comment, I can see how my Ad-Hominem does not address the issue.

Azmat Hussain

Teachers and the Impact they have on Students As an educator I try to listen to students from ``nothing``, meaning no pre-concieved notion of their ability. However, having said that, this only lasts for a while, becuase students start to display their talents. As a teacher I want to throw my questions to those who can answer them, so I have to gain knowledge of their level and pitch my questions within their reach. Now in my interaction with students I am always positive and encouraging, but somewhat surprising is the result that some students do not like positive and encouraging. As far as the self-fulfilling prophacy is concerned, it lies more so with the student than with the teacher. Some students do not believe that they are capable and no matter how much I try to persuade them, their attitude remains the same.
Cheers,

East and West Mr. Nasim, how long have you lived in the west??????? I suspect that you have not assimilated in this society. Human beings are the SAME east or west. The reason why you find differences is because you are chosing to discriminate. It takes a person who is open minded to extend a hand of friendship to a Jew or a christian, or oriental or as you say to a westerner in the same manner as you would to a desi. Your article is suggesting that you have been unable to do that. Please do not assume that others share your experience. I have made closer long lasting friendships with westerners than I have with easterners. And I came from Pakistan when I was seventeen. I feel that you are interested in maintaining the differences instead of building bridges. I noticed that some immigrants from the east have a rough time adjusting to the western climate. I also noticed that these are the same people who prepetuate stereotypes of the west. You will find warm hearted people even if you live in Alaska. The response you will get depends upon what kind of attitude you put out. If you feel that westerners are not very friendly, then that bias will become a self-fulfilling prophacy.

Education: An Abysmal Situation I want to respond to your idea of ``yellow schools`` I am married to one of your Pakistani Yellow school graduates. She is working in the States as a highly qualified physician. Her brother also a graduate of a yellow school has an MBA. Now as far as ``luck`` is concerned I don`t buy it. Over and over again I have met very qualified professionals from Pakistan who attended NOT the private schools but the ``yellow schools`` and now live and work in The States. As a matter of fact if I were to conduct an informal survey the spoiled brats of private schools can`t make it in the competitive environment abroad.

When it comes to education, hard work and dedication is way more important then money or luck or the right schools.

Phuppi ki Beti, Mamoon ka Beta Hello Anita, no doubt about it cousin marriages would increase the chances of birth defects. But by how much? and is it significant? Being a mathematics teacher I am interested in how you would quantify the risk. I was amazed to read that the risk as you claim would increase 13 fold in theory. (If there is a defective gene with a frequency of 1/200). But in practice and here I am quoting your statistics that only amounts to 28% of birth defects attributed to consanguinity. I find that perplexing. Let me give an example. Suppose that someone claims that a company’s net revenue is related to the stock price. From one year to another the company’s revenue increases 13 fold, but the stock price only increases 28%. Would you not question that correlation? If anything those statistics would be grounds for rejecting the hypotheses that the stock price is solely related to the revenue. Would you not wonder as to the correlation and if anything draw the conclusion that the 13 fold increase in revenue may be a contributing factor, but there is something else going on. Similarly if the theoretical risks are 13 fold, and the practical data indicates a 28% increase, I would have to question the correlation on the grounds that it is insignificant compared to the 13 fold increase. In the case of a company 13 fold increase in revenue should at least raise the price by 5 times or double the stock price.Therefore I say that there is something else going on, and that either we have to adjust the theory or, explain the 28% birth defects in consanguineous parents by looking at other factors. This is a problem in statistics, where sometimes we attribute a major cause as the sole cause when many different variables are in play. I do not question your data, I am only suggesting that your own data points towards some genetic ADVANTAGES to cousin-marriages that you are unaware of. Because of these advantages the birth defects are 28%, when the risks are increased 13 times.
It is also possible that what you consider a disadvantage may be an advantage in the long run. For example the sickle-cell gene in certain African populations is an advantage because such carriers are resistant to the malaria infection.
A couple of other points that I would hope you can address. The example of cystic fibrosis comes to mind, where 1/1000 individuals are born with the disease. And you would think that the offspring of the two affected parents would for sure be affected. But the majority of children affected with cystic fibrosis come from normal parents (99%).
I would be interested to know what specific defects were found in the 28% of the Pakistani parents. And how many of those defects were due to recessive inheritance.
Cheers, I appreciate any information in this regard.
Azmat

Kati Patang Thank you all for the feedback, I am encouraged. This was my first ever story. I do not want to generalize and say something negative in the last paragraph. I wanted to point out that there is a certain amount of trust given to someone who professes to be virtueous and perhaps that trust is misplaced. Maybe I could have expressed that idea differently. Next time I will spend more time and energy before submitting. I believe in openness and honesty, in that spirit you can continue to expect me to write straight from the heart.

Closet Re: # 24
I beg to differ; if your logic is correct then ``gays`` would vanish from the face of the earth. For two reasons, firstly, there are enough structures in society of reward and punishment that we should be able to train and condition homosexuals into becoming heterosexual. Secondly, we don`t raise our children to be homosexuals, so why is it that despite the opposite nurturing, some still turn gay?
The fact that some do not choose to propagate could be to the advantage of the whole species.
In other words the reason why we see approximately 10% of homosexual behavior cross-culturally and over time proves that there is inherent advantage to the species as a whole in homosexual behavior. Perhaps it is a form of population control. ``genes promoting behavior that prevents propagation of the species would not have any descendants to whom they are passed. `` Genes are passed on because homosexuals do procreate. We do not know exactly how much of a genetic component is required to offset the nurture part. I can see that if someone was born a homosexual and they were put in an environment that such an idea could not be fulfilled in principle, then the genetic component would die out.

What is Islamization of Science? There is this strange notion among muslims that whatever scientific discovery or truth is brought to light somehow it was already available to us by reading the Quran. Now I am not sure how the zeolots are going to justify certain scientific ideas that may go against popular muslim opinions, but one thing is given, the Quran is like many other holy books written in several different levels and therefore open to interpretation. I may be accused of saying this tongue and cheek, but I just think that if Mr. Gil looks hard enough he will find Mr. Newtons ideas clearly imbeded in the Quran. Now we at the present time do not know how to decode those particular passages, where newtons gravitation law is given as a clear mathematical formula, nor are we aware of those passages where Newtons ideas on Opticks are clearly spelled out. But the believers assure me that all such formulas are imbeded in this one work. Think about Liebniz and his monodology. each monad reflects the whole universe. So if we want to learn about the Universe all we have to do is study the individual monad. I would even go as far as to say that Mr. Newton was sent on a mission from God, given access to these formulas, and all he had to do is occasionally check the reference book, the Quran. (of course unlike us he knew exactly where to look for them) and yes he did not footnote as well as Mr. Gill