The Muslim Protagonist and the Past Three Years I REPEAT "This Laddu chap has surely got a twisted mind. He looks like a "Hindu Taliban" to me. Maybe he is related to Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit? "

The Muslim Protagonist and the Past Three Years This Laddu chap has surely got a twisted mind. He looks like a "Hindu Taliban" to me. Maybe he is related to Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit?

Anti-Americanism in Pakistan and the Taliban Menace I couldn't agree with you more Dr Hoodbhoy. The politicians in Pakistan have to realise the gravity of the situation NOW or we shall perish forever behind long beards and burqas. It is essential that they drop all "useless" confrontation and move forward. But myopic, inept and selfish leaders like Nawaz Sharif do not have the wisdom and foresight to make such decisions...... What can I say, I can only despair. Yasir Abbasi.

The Lucifer Effect Well Janaab-e-Hurricane sahib I seem to agree with you on more points than I thought I would.

In the current situation anyone one would support "justice seeking" western dressed lawyers as compared to illinformed tribal mullahs and as you say hats off to the architecht (there is a hypothesis that the great USA is behind the alwyers as well, how? dont ask me !!!)

And to add to my point about the current lot of politicians I quote an article from chowk itself by Ahmer Muzammil " In a country where now millions of people don’t have enough to eat, Mr. Nawaz Sharif travels in an entourage of cars worth no less than 20 million dollars. Imran Khan lives alone in a mansion that would easily provide sustenance for 10,000 families for a year. And the kicker is that they are supposed to be the good-guys, the anti-establishment force if you will."

But I agree with you also about Musharraf, he is as bad as all the previous lot and not worse so why treat him any differently than NS or BB. Not many people would agree but he did show the world the Pakistan had the ability to revive it's economy between 2002- 2005.

I can't agree on more points with you other wise I shall start feeling ill. Yasir Abbasi

The Lucifer Effect An interesting observation akcheema but I agree and disagree with you. I agree that our tolerance for opposing views is not that great at the moment but this is not a constant. Tolerance is not a genetic condition that we can never acquire it. We 'develop' it through social engineering. When a young lad in the UK will see his father, grandfather and neighbours all stopping at traffic lights, so will he when he grows up. We develop our personalities through nature and nurture and environmental conditioning is of utmost important now than before. We can either continue to live like this and perish or start making a change at the most basic and minute level i.e. us. (Not USA :-)) Yasir Abbasi

The Lucifer Effect An interesting observation akcheema but I agree and disagree with you. I agree that our tolerance for opposing views is not that great at the moment but size is not a constant. Tolerance is not a genetic condition that we can never acquire it. We 'develop' it through social engineering. When a young lad in the UK will see his father, grandfather and neighbours all stopping at traffic lights, so will he when he grows up. We develop our personalities through nature and nurture and environmental conditioning is of utmost important now than before. We can either continue to live like this and perish or start making a change at the most basic and minute level i.e. us. (Not USA :-)) Yasir Abbasi

The Lucifer Effect Naqshbandi sahib I disagree with you. I have lived in Pakistan for a long time and my move to the west is only recent. I have experienced the problems in that country at grass root levels. You have completely defied the main purpose of the article by claiming that people like Tahir-ul-Qadri can bring in a change. The whole concept of conformity and "andhi Taqleed" is what this article is warning about. When the masses stop thinking critically and leave the opinion making to a few individual that is when oppression begins. You see I personally think this lawyer’s movement is a farce and is being used solely for political purposes rather than for an 'Independent Judiciary.' Have you ever seen a Jalsa of the deposed CJ, it looks like a political rally with lawyers and judges doing Bhangra and people putting up stickers all over their body, this is more like Bollywood. The crucial question is who is funding this movement? How can the lawyers stop working for so long and still make ends meet? Who funds the motorcade of the ex –CJ and the arrangements of the big jalsa? How can you expect anything from an inept leader like Nawaz Sharif who wanted to become a dictator (ameer-ul-momineen) himself? Our nation has long term amnesia and we forget the past deeds of these inept leaders. I repeat the only thing that can truly bring about a change in the country is true unhindered justice. This will create a sense of equality among people; the provinces who feel sidelined will become true stake holders in the nation building process.

Hurricane has a very valid point with this statement "What we need is to be able to listen to voices other than our own, and we can only do that by opening the heart and downsizing the ego ;)"

And Alice I don't have an armchair either so we both disagree with Naqshbandi.

Islam as a political weapon in Pakistan @ #11 tvarad

And you seem outrightly prejudiced. If you try to study the independence of these two countries without a bias then you will realise what i stated. It is a historical fact (and not my interpretation) tha Jinnah strongly opposed the Khilafat movement and the fundamentalsit like Maudodi opposed Jinnah and Pakistan. No one can single handedly change history without mass support, India has yet to realise this. No rebelion, revolution or independence movemnt can be sucessful unless they have masses supporting them who have a sense of injustice agaisnt them.

Islam as a political weapon in Pakistan For post #1 FakirIppi- You are quite ignorant about history my friend. It was not Jinnah that used religion but Gandhi and the congress who had a false facade of secularism. Jinnah was a strong opponent of the Khilafat Movement and thought it will procreate fundementalism while Ghandi supported this movement to get sympathy muslim votes. Jinnah never used Isalm as a tool but the geopolitical situations of the muslims in the subcontinent and congress's short sightedness, stuborness and lust for power as a political tool.

Crisis: Danger or Opportunity "therefore elections can only take place after we address these basic issues." There is a typing error in this statement. It should read " therefore true democratic elections can only take place after we address these basic issues." Yasir Abbasi

Inzi Post-Bob: An Interview I don`t think is should be anybodies business if someone wants to be religious or not, it`s entierly their choice. There are numerous sportspersons in every sport who thank there God after a victory. Those who don`t know this need to read more.

Personally I am disappointed with Mr Paracha`s mock interview. We still have a colonial mindset where English is a standard to judge the goodness of a person. Why do we really need to speak English? Most Europeans, Koreans, Japanese, Turkish etc do not KNOW and do not WANT to speak in English, then why is it so important to us? To make fun of some one on his ability to speak a second language is really in bad taste !!!

Was Jesus Christ Married? Well, i see no serious comments on a good researched article.

This issue brought to light by Mr Brown has to be looked at from two perspectives, Historical and Religious.

Historical review of the literature might speculate the Jesus COULD have been married but there is no real credible evidence that his lineage continues to this date.

Religiously the evidence which tries to prove that Jesus was merely an immortal would be dicredited by the Vatican, thus it would never be possible to prove it. ( As is the case with any other religion in the world)
Islam has never been really clear what happened to Jesus but ironically people rely on very unreliable ahadith to believe or prove that he is going to come back. Muslims also look into Quran to prove that he was taken upto Allah and shall return to the earth again. In Sural Al- Imran does the Quran refer to Jesus at the time of him being crucified and uses the word ` Mutawafaina` which literally means `To be taken`- Alive or Dead we cannot say. The conjecture of his return are all written in the ahadith which were collected 200 years after the prophets death, therefore the relibility of that document can be questionnable.

N.B- By the view before anyone gives me a fatwa let me re-assure you that i am not a Qadiani.

A Perfect Nation? Quite a few facts stated by Naseem hold truth about the US of A, which is of course why they have an edge to all the other countries to the world. The fact the he managed to ignore was the American`s `Lust` for knowledge, they don`t care who says it, they don`t care what is said and they don`t care how it is said...... if it makes sense they will make sure that the person excels in expressing his thoughts.

But as mentioned in the end, indeed USA is at a crossroad where it`s current legislators `want` the world to take side. Where the so-called `leader of the free world` says in his most important speech to the world ``You`re Either with US or Against US.`` What if some one doesn`t want to be with the American policies? What should they do?

Maybe the `Terrorists` are listening to Mr Bush after all!!!!!!!!

Abbasi