Best religion without a consolidated following

A very sorry excuse given by Muslims for the atrocities they commit, in defense of their religion which allows them to commit such crimes in the first place, is what a fellow said after being unable to respond to an argument any further, “Coz u link acts of followers and human beings as what the religion dictates.”

He of course meant to say that what certain individuals belonging to a certain sect do, is not the true portrayal of Islam. It is an interesting u-turn taken by the followers of any philosophy, be it Christians, Muslims or whoever. It is a sort of feigned or at times real detachment from a certain segment of people, who are actually using a part of religion that should probably be left out to adapt with current times or a situation or vice versa.

Take for example Jihad - which these days entails suicide bombings. Now committing suicide is a crime, but getting killed in a holy war is glorious, and a person is titled a Shaheed. A Shaheed enters Heaven and gets to play with 72 virgins. Since times have changed and so has warfare changed, weapons are different, 1,400 years ago it was about swords and shields and now it is about guns and bombs. So, getting killed in a holy war remains glorious, only the weaponry is different.

People would argue, (of course the ones who are in favour of religions) that Islam does not sanction suicide, but they do not mention the Shaheed side of the things. If one is killed in a holy war, no matter how perceived it is, the fact of the matter remains, one is not committing a suicide, but giving ones life for a righteous cause. If Islam had not been so devious and conniving, and of course did not use bribes (like the 72 virgins), people would not have been willing to blow themselves up every day.

So saying that it is only the followers who choose to act this way and the religion had nothing to do with it, does not make sense. It is like someone said we are all the time picking and choosing between the right kinds of Islam followers. Who exactly is the right kind anyway? Who are the ones who actually represent Islam? The Shia, Sunni, Ahle Hadith, Barailvi? If there are none, it means the claims made by Muslims regarding Islam being best and forever were false, after all how is it possible that the best religion to be there ever, does not have even a single consolidated following?

'Baba' helps us build bad

Once again the ‘Baba’ saved Karachi. Every time the sea threatens to invade the city, there are thousands who stick to their belief that Abdullah Shah Ghazi would not allow Poseidon to enter his domain. Every time he wins, firming the belief further that he is the guardian of the coastline. However, what nobody bothers asking is why he does not guard the poor people of Thatta and Badin? The residents of the poverty stricken fishing settlements along the coast, who cannot bear the day to day expenses, and sometimes are not even capable of affording one square meal a day, are ignored continuously. But the ‘Baba’ chooses to save the Karachiites from the wrath of the sea, and not the poor of other cities.

Hence and therefore, the Karachiites continue to construct poorly, with a bare minimum regard for bylaws, hardly any consideration for the end user if it is an apartment building and forgetting about all the disasters that may befall this city, any time or any day. Encroachments continue with the excuse that the government does now provide enough housing and katchi abadies crop up every now and then in the most bizarre areas possible. Think of a cantilevered room on the Lyari River, housing a family of four, the window allowing a filthy breeze laden with mosquitoes and flies to circulate in the room graced with one large window, and two naked children playing around.

We as a nation, have a penchant for temporary solutions. Therefore, we will wait until the next flooding of the nullah, and meanwhile add another cantilevered room, since another brother is ready to settle down, who would soon have a brood of his own to take care of.

Ahmedis are better off as kafirs

Extremist Muslims attack the Ahmedis wherever they can and whenever they can, whether it is online, in the streets, at their mosque or any other place. The recent attacks on Ahmedi Mosques were a testament to that tendency, in which around a 100 Ahmedis were killed, triggering debates from the legitimacy of the attack to the legitimacy of calling their worship place a mosque. Even so-called moderates did not flinch from terming them as kafirs or infidels, since there is a general abhorrence towards associating with the progressive and enlightened amongst the Muslims.

Moreover, killing seems to be a hobby for the fanatic Muslims. And executing minorities is one of the favourites of those. Out of all the marginalised minorities, the worst treated are the Ahmedis, who, interestingly, up till ZA Bhutto’s time were the ones to save Muslim-ass when it came to debating with the Non-Muslims, because they were well read, well informed, educated and had a knack to win arguments, it did not take much to alienate them from the general illiterate populace though, thanks to the Moudoodi propaganda, that had already had a round during 1953. What is more ironic, is the law declaring the Ahmedis as Kafirs was passed during a Socialist's time.

Anyway, moving on, if everything had remained the same, perhaps Muslims would have been in better shape right now instead of being the barbaric breed they have become. But what with the negative and rigid indoctrination that had been carried out by the evil Moudoodi, and the malignant campaign against Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, the whole scenario turned sour pretty soon. Therefore, the treatment meted out to Dr Abdus Salam, the only Nobel Laureate Pakistan ever produced should not shock anybody (Pakistani Atheist).

A society that calls a thief like Abdul Qadeer a hero, a terrorist and killer like Osama Bin Ladin a messiah and an evil monger like Moudoodi a scholar, would of course cold shoulder a scientist into nothingness. They are barbarians and the Ahmedis should actually thank their lucky stars they are not associated with this group of fanatics, who have nothing in common with them. At least it saves them random checks at airports!!!

The unsightly, filthy and unhealthy corners

I have often wondered why in Pakistan, the corners of transitional spaces, especially, landings, entrances and gates of not just government offices, but even residential apartments are almost obscene. I cannot fathom, what prompts people to choose particularly the corner for all their venting, whether it is emotional spitting or merely spitting. What is the affinity with the corner? Why do they feel compelled to spit, or throw garbage, or carve their name along with their lover while entering or exiting a building, or while going up or down the stairs.

From graffiti, to red-spits (a gift of gutka and betel leaf) and scraps of garbage, these corners are atrociously hideous. This phenomenon is most prominent in government buildings like Civic Centre, City Courts, High Court, KMC building and most glaringly even at the Sindh Health ministry offices. No wonder the health sector is all in shambles among all this, as people have not left corners in even hospitals alone, and it not just counts for the public sector hospitals, the same attitude goes for the private ones.

The walls of these corners are mostly red along with the floor, and they stink, and buzz with flies and mosquitoes, most prominently on staircase landings. One would be ascending or descending the staircase with this pugnacious sight right in front, as if reminding one of the conditions in Pakistan.

Perhaps it is a symbolic representation of our dilapidated system, which tries to bog down every person who wants to transition to a better place. The filth of the corners metaphorically describes the pathways littered with red-tapism and anarchism present in each decrepit institute.

Preserving traditional techniques

The onslaught of globalization along with several other factors is responsible for a loss of many traditional construction techniques that had been passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth. People, who had been living in rural areas for generations, had their own way of constructing and designing their houses with indigenous materials. But gradually that art is dying as more and more people are resorting to cement and concrete block construction. In view of the changing trends, perhaps it would not be wrong to admit the need for archiving those traditions in books, as well as museums.

Moreover, insufficient livelihood opportunities are a cause of huge migration to the urban centers that also results in many traditions, tangible and intangible both, getting lost in the dusts of time. Thus, this dependency of the rural populace on urban resources results in a loss of cultural heritage within the rural premise.

Zahir, a taxi driver in Karachi, explained the stone and timber construction at his village in Shangla, Swat that is at the end finished off with mud plaster. Just like it is done in Kashmir, women are responsible for carrying out the finishing, from the wall plaster, to the floor, as well as the partitioning cupboards. The roof in that area is made out of wooden slats, covered with mud, than a plastic sheet for waterproofing and another layer of mud on top that is at the end covered with almost sand-like salt, to seal the remaining holes for leak proofing, as well as insulation. This method of construction is pretty similar to Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, however, instead of using salt, the Kashmiri’s use tar coal (Luk as they call it) for the same purpose.

Interestingly, Kashmiri people use a mud plaster mixed with straw to increase the resilience of the structure, and when Zahir was asked if they do the same, he informed, “There’s only one old man in the village who knows this technique, but we don’t use it any more.”

This is the exact case referred before, a local technique that would ultimately get lost in time, as artisans who know how to mix that particular plaster, would no longer be alive. Moreover, just like in the rest of the rural areas of the country, prosperity means having a concrete block house, with cement plaster and all the modern paraphernalia. Therefore who cares about the old uncle, who only knows some dumb trick of mixing straw with mud to plaster a wall?

The ban is more of a necessity…. Perhaps?

The general populace, namely the ‘Ziafied’ fundoos are always ready to go out and resort to hooliganism, whether it is a protest regarding some incident in Palestine, or a horrific incident or crises within Pakistan or the most touching and emotional for them, blasphemy. Although there are those as well, who in order to escape the shenanigans, simply refuse to get out of their houses in the name of any protest or demonstration.

Nonetheless, it should be common knowledge by now that any untoward incident, especially related to blasphemy is going to result in massive loss because of the ones who find it their duty to go about the country wielding a stick and bringing any ‘infidel’ on the true path. (Even if that infidel is thousands of miles away…)

Here… Let us not forget the Danish cartoon incident.

Also let us remember that we are mostly uneducated, and have no control over our religious sentiments. The ‘we’ here is not personal, but encompasses the masses. After keeping the majority of the masses, uneducated and deprived of basic necessities we must not expect them to behave rationally. (And no I do not find it only the States duty to do everything… we do take an oath when we sign our Matric and Inter forms, that we will make sure to educate at least one person… and yes I find there is a difference between educated and literate….)

So, coming back to the blasphemy issue, the enlightened must rationalize the issue in light of the conditions within our country. The matter has to be looked at contextually, rather then myopically and as per the standards of a first world country. The differences between the developed and the developing countries are thousands of miles apart, therefore the problem of ‘banning facebook’ if looked within the Pakistani paradigm, and the precedent blasphemy cases would make far more sense, then it does while analyzing it according to the western context.

However, having said this, it is also necessary that such steps are imposed after taking the general public into confidence. It would have been far saner to inform the public that the reason such steps are being taken was to keep everybody out of mischief, and also to save the national exchequer as well as the people themselves from losing thousands of rupees, in case their cars got burnt or their houses broken into or their businesses attacked.

Facebook fiasco...

The recent hullabaloo between the extreme right and the centre as well as left of centre regarding the blockade of the most favourite social networking site, along with others like Flickr (Althought Webshots is still working, so it does not make much sense…) has turned a petty matter, compared to the human rights violations that are often committed in the country into a full-fledged online assault between the religious and non-religious.

It leaves ones mind boggled at the instigator of this charade, who was smart enough to put two main factions of the country at loggerheads. And why I say two is, if one looks at the ideological differences, broadly speaking the country mainly has only two factions; the zealots and the seculars; or the religious and the not so or moderately religious.

Anyway, getting back to the facebook sham, piquing the religious and making them resort to their guerrilla tactics regarding any mundanity is actually a piece of cake, one at times may only need to yell the word US and they would all get on their high-horses. However, this new move has even annoyed the other lot. The one that stays happy within their cocoon of virtual bliss. Angry tirades have been frothing on blogspot and wordpress regarding freedom of speech. Nevertheless, it leaves me quite at my wits end when I realise that in a third world country, the only problem to make the educated (I understand it may be debatable…) unite against the decision taken by their ‘free judiciary’ could be the ban on some websites.

A mere stone that shattered the serene virtual pool to cause this unfolding drama, made to the top of the priority list for all the people, who like to hear and get heard on facebook, to demand freedom of speech or to demand a ban on the said speech..... Interesting... lets see where it all ends.