Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Vice Chancellor is not Like Chairman

In last few years it has been reported that many people have refused to accept the Chairmanship of their Department when their turn came up.

This is strange for an institution where the private conversation, in its essentialist from, goes like this:
Our Protagonist (OP): Sir make me the PVC.
High Officer (HO): I do not need a PVC.
OP: Sir make me DSW.
HO: I am fine with my present DSW.
OP: Sir make me the Proctor.
HO: The Proctor is doing a wonderful job.
OP: Sir make me a Provost.
HO: I'll think about it. I'll let you know.

Now why are people refusing Chairmanship?
Well the reason is the right to information act.
There are some people who have adopted the use of this act in a big way and have brought down many a heavy weight in the field of morale.

Now combine this information with the tough time Alig's are capable of giving to the Vice Chancellor once, those who can and who could, people have made the best of his presence. Any detached viewer would conclude that this job is not a very desirable one. It is more of a punishment. In view of this one would be safe to conclude that any well meaning person would like to keep himself away from this assignment. But surprises are there for everybody. Earlier one used to listen about a few names for this post but this time a Hindi newspaper published two columns in a report-just listing the probable names. Of course many of them will be without the consent of the person concerned. But this can not be true for all and one gets the chilly feeling that there are people who are not perturbed by the current environment around that lofty post and would like to avail it for themselves. Hope whole of this evaluation on part of your poor Alig is just plain wrong.

European Crisis Still Around

Sleep is a great equalizer.
In periods of distress many times it happens that if you go to sleep then in the morning the trauma is considerably reduced.
European crisis defies such powerful remedies.
But some Aligs might object that Muslims of India, the main focus of things Alig, have enough problems of their own and one should not worry too much about the problems of those people whose borders are far away from the location of AMU.
Not entirely true. The on going crisis is taking place in the global village called world.
It does not take much time for crisis to travel-or to make its aftermath apparent.
Having said that let us come to the overview of what is happening in European economic scene.

(1) Entering Critical Period
This is the most unnerving current news. Our brothers in Europe, who have been exploiting whoever they could, have only days to take action before their financial system goes out of control-with unforeseen implications. We in India can not be smug by any imagination because we are not the leaders in financial markets and Europeans (and American and Japanese) are. On top of that we are already reeling under huge price rise that even a septuagenarian financial  wizard, Dr Man Mohan Singh, is not able to exorcise.

To bail out European troubled states they have formed European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The target money is supposed to be $1.3 trillion. (Nice number, isn't it?) They might not meet this target. And they must reach this target because some big economies, like Spain and Italy, are under the threat of going down.
(No, no nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism. It is their own financial quagmire that has lead them to this situation. Unless, of course they manage to blame it on Taliban.)

EU financial ministers meeting doled out the latest installment to Greece. They also suggested some more financial discipline.

(2) Matters Italian
In the second week of November Italy moved to the center stage of European financial crisis. Earlier it was Greece that was taking the lime light. Before that it was Ireland etc. These Europeans do love the spotlight.
Just a few weeks back Italy was considered relatively safe for its major debt was internal. Then in they were were forced to pay much higher interest rates in a bond auction and bingo they stumped others, made Greek performance a side show. You try to ignore one bad news after another regarding European financial health and then they tell you that you must pay attention-we are burning our house. (Alright-by now the things might be reality out of their control.)  It is strange how your adjectives and superlatives get exhausted when you try to watch this show. It is strange how people feel at ease just because they can understand the consequences of the crisis-even if these are bad.

So far the only man standing is, we mean the only woman standing is Angela Merkel of Germany. She asserts that Italy is good because it has strong economy (read large only and not stable) but they must reduce their debt in coming few years. In plain words they should give up living on borrowed money. Great realization. Greece living on borrowed glory. Italy living on borrowed glory. As if other Europeans are doing something else. Whole European and American economy is based on living on debt. It reminds one of old Indian philosophy of Charwak. Yawad jeevam sukham jeeveyt. Rinam kritwa ghritam pibeyt. Till you live, live in luxury. Take a loan and drink elixir. Only Europeans are courageous enough to implement this. (Not strange because Charwak philosophy is, like Europe, atheistic and is not the mainstream Indian way of life-that is theistic.) Merkel also realizes that governments should spend less. (An ages old wisdom that no government feels like implementing.) She also feels that taxes should be raised. This one is a good one. No one in those lands likes this statement. Anyway doesn't it go against the very basic European philosophy of luxury living?

May be this crisis will bring them into senses. In reality the stage seems to be set for rather painful future. For a change this disaster can not be blamed on eastern illiteracy.

Of course the economists would like to have their share of cake. They scream that an average Italian is not as indebted as a French, Canadian or a Briton. Get the point? Yes, bring all and sundry into the net. May be that will solve the crisis. Suddenly you feel that Italians are sort of ascetics. And oh, if they borrow, then it is to pay the principal. Get that also. How nonchalant these guys can be about those people who borrow to pay for the principal?  Till some time ago an economist was a person who knew more about money than the people who had it. No more. Now they might be super rich themselves-who knows?

Then there is another interesting observation. Italy can not increase its production because of its aging population. Err.. what? Oh yes. But is that true about Italy only? We thought whole of Europe was gracefully aging. In this context we have only one request-please stop hating those Muslims who are migrating to Europe to take care of your old. If you so please.

The slow Italian growth, just 0.75 percent for many years might get weighted down by the debt growth. No wonder they had a bad time in bond auction. And this low growth rate is slated to be saddled there because Italy can not be competitive with healthy people like Germany-Italian gave them hefty salaries and ended up in this pit.

Then there is additional worry, Any austerity scares the markets. An economy with austerity as the main philosophy is not growth based-it is as simple as that. Apparently capitalism is not a one way street. There may be a back gear in economy too.

No growth also might lead to unemployment and it is not a consolation. And it is no surprise that Italy is on the center stage.

(3) Problems of Spain 
Spain has its own unsolvable economic conundrum. And as a consequence it  makes the European problem insoluble. European finance ministers want private funding for European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The current target is not enough to handle both Italian and Spanish bailout. Its borrowing rate from financial markets was 6.3 percent-a leader before Italy topped them by achieving 6.3 percent.

And it confounds the pundits and wizards. They do not know where to put the blame for this crisis-even if it is a big economy that looks unbailable.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

No Thanks

Subhasini Ali has written an article about attacks on minority community in four states.
Here it is at the Indian Express.
Your poor Alig will prefer the situation where the targeted minority community was defending itself rather depending on residual socialists for their intellectual (and otherwise) defense.
The reason is that there is always a price for a service.
The price we pay in such matters is that when the very same socialist intellectuals find a weak spot in you they hit very hard on it.
The recent issue of non-availability of Maulana Azad Library resources to girl students is a case in point.
Our socialist friends are friends with a steep price.
It makes sense to be self reliant and self dependent-however painful might be the journey with this decision.

Sorry Doctor

Dear Aligs are celebrating, or doctor Aligs, that is young physician Aligs, are celebrating that one of them has polled more than fifty percent of votes. Of course it his democratic right to get elected but one doubt remains lingering in mind. Isn't the job of a physician to do medical practice? You poor Alig says this because Alig community is not happy with the service provided by our physicians in that corner. This includes, of course, personal experience. One day, may be, physicians will be asked to focus on their work. For example police is not allowed to go on strike.

Make Your Will

Here is the quoatation from the blog Alhamdulillah:
In the Name of Allah; the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated:

Allah's Messenger [peace and blessings be upon him] said: "It is not permissible for any Muslim who has something to will, to stay for two nights without having his last will and testament written and kept ready with him." 
Sahih al Bukhari, Hadeeth 1, Vol. 4.
Make your will while you still can. This sinner has seen examples where this lack of action has resulted in much damage.

On Aimless Disputations

Inquiry about religious matter must be strictly for the purpose of implementation. Many people indulge in useless disputations in religious matters. History of Islam is filled with endless disputations leading to no clarification or enlightenment. Taking  very recent historical the court cases in the last phase of Mughal empire were inundated with hair-splitting questions of fiqh. Was this the acceptable behaviour in dire times? Even in the best of the times the answer can only be negative. Alas we could take heed. But the reality is the opposite of what one would wish. The discussion forums are filled with similar endless disputations where no benefit is imparted to the Ummah. Hazrat Imam Malik (RA) has told us about the following harms of endless disputations:
(1) It leads to self-display (that is equivalent to thorough destruction of sincerity).
(2) It leads to hardening of heart. (A thorough disaster for such a person is not only destined for self destruction but will also give trouble to other as long as he is in this world.)
(3) Light of heart is destroyed. (Means that this person is left to wander in darkness even in day light and even when there is enlightenment all around-a singular unfortunate individual.)
(4) One ends up in aimless wandering. (This means going waste of this and next life.)
Very serious consequences-worth pondering about.
Source : SF

Sunday, November 27, 2011

"Do Not Ignore My Sleeze"

Turkey is taking slow steps to save its society from the dirt that is there on the internet.
And the self-styled value deciders from the west make their presence felt.
"Oh this will be step backward."
Silly indeed.
When and how they will understand that dirt is dirt and filth is filth?
Since it is BBC comment one could point out that please wake up your Empire is long gone. And after that another Empire went by-the Soviet. And yet another is going down right now. So get connected with the current reality. And it is in your own interest to wake up and shun obscenity. It is not only small cults like David Koresh who self destruct themselves. Europe it self is putting itself in danger of extinction by indulging in behaviour that in endangering human reproduction. Way out is to get your orientation correct. Stop sleeze. Stop begging ,"Watch my sleeze".

On Verbal Wounds

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.
His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.
Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all.
He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.
He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same.
When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.
“A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.”

Source : Ahmed at Haq Islam

Racist Europe

This is solid statistics.
It is based on a review of a million cases.
White's are less likely to be convicted for the same crime.
Source: Guardian via IiE

Friday, November 25, 2011

Your Favourite Rabbi

You do not get to listen it everyday.
Not from a Rabbi.
Christianity is gone.
Israel will be gone.
Democracy is very close to atheism.
Islam is a religion designed to withstand storms.
Islam is the future.
Muslim is very close to God Most High.
Israel will be converted to Islam.
Europe will convert to Islam.

See it for your self here.

Via : Dr M

Islam in Romania

Islam in Romania

Yusuf Fernandez, December 27, 2008


Islam in Romania is followed by about 70,000 people, about 2% of the country´s 22 million population, who have become citizens of the European Union since the 1st January of this year. There is an important Muslim community in the Constanta Country. There are also many Muslims living in Bucharest and other big cities. Ethnically, most Muslims are Tatars, although there are also Turks, Albanians and some Muslim Roma, as well as immigrants of some Middle East countries. Muslim Gypsies identify themselves as “Horahane Roma” – Horahane meaning Turkish in the Romani language. Islam first entered Romania in the 13rd century at the hands of Ottoman Turks.
In 1990, the Muslims who studied in Romania founded the Muslim Students Association of Romania with the purpose of protecting the rights of students and to inform Romanians about the Islamic religion. In 1999 the association changed its name into the Cultural Islamic League of Romania. Its headquarters is in Bucharest, but it has offices around the country, in cities such as: Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj Napoca and Constanta.
There are also some Muslim charities in the country, such as the International Tiba Charity in Constanta. This charity organized a charge-free Hayy for Muslim youths who won a series of cultural and religious competitions. “We organized religious and cultural competitions for youths, offering the winners charge-free trips to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj,” Kareem Anjin, the representative of the International Tiba Charity, told Islamonline.net. The number of pilgrims have doubled last year to 350 people compared to 180 in 2005.
The charity co-organized the International Conference on Islam in Europe in October 2005 and brought together representatives of Muslim minorities in up to 40 European countries. The charity has translated dozens of Islamic books into Romanian and issued the first magazine on Islam in Romanian, Islam Today. The magazine comes in 36 coloured pages, Islamonline.net says.
The charity have also launched a campaign to distribute clothes donated by rich Muslims among the poor of the country. In order to promote this campaign, the organization has posted adds in Internet and leaflets inside mosques. “Mosques have been receiving generous donations from remote areas ever since,” said a responsible for the charity to Islamonline.net.
Many Rumanian Muslims have had to fight to overcome some difficulties. One of them is Istan Liliana, who embraced Islam three years ago. Liliana lost her job when she became Muslim and her family and friends abandoned her due to her new religion. She was one of the Romanian pilgrims that visited Mecca last year.
However, Muslim leaders think that there is now religious freedom in the country. “Romania provides an example of religious tolerance and co-existence,” the country´s Islamic mufti, Iusuf Muurat, was quoted as saying by the Ziua daily newspaper on 29th November. Speaking about a controversy on religious symbols at public schools, Muurat said, “Muslims have lived for more than eight centuries in these lands. The existence of other religious symbols in public institutions never bothered us and does not bother us now.”

Via : Dr Abu Tamim

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Forgotten Chapter

Indian Muslim scholars made enormous amount of sacrifices in the struggle that lead to the freedom of the country. After independence the task of writing history was completely taken over by the leftist intelligentsia. The idea there has been to ignore the religion based movements that contributed their efforts to this process of packing the British home. One casualty of this is that the contributions and sacrifices of the huge number of Ulama has been consigned to dust bins and dungeons that are in accessible. It is very rare that a William Dalrymple will stubbornly dig out some details or the Ulama will keep the knowledge alive in their Urdu (earlier Persian too) works. The later might get a mention in an Urdu newspaper once in a while. This has very serious repercussions on the psyche of the minority community. If you are not aware of the contributions of your predecessors in the task of snatching away the freedom then you'll not assert your rights after freedom. In the plethora on sacrifices few token names like Maulana Azad are give token tribute in the course of the year and the duty to a minority that exceeds the population of every continental European country is considered done.

(An Urdu article on relevant topic is by Maulana Nadim-ul-Wajidi, India's Freedom  Struggle and the Sacrifices of Respected Ulama, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, New Delhi, August 15, 2011, p.2)

A Few Months Ago

Urdu Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, Thursday, August 11, 2011, New Delhi, p.7
Unfathomable Puzzle of Afghanistan
Dr Ved Pratap Vedic

It is not that American helicopter has been shot down for the first time in Afghanistan. Before this many helicopters belonging to NATo have been shot down but the helicopter that was shot down on last Friday in Warak province of Afghanistan that has shaken the foundations of NATO forces.
You Got to Pay the Price Your Highness
Qasim Syed
Afghanistan, famous as the graveyard of the high and mighty for centuries, is about to repeat its history. Afghanistan has struck as the proverbial shrew in the throat of American snake drunk on the pride of being the sole superpower of the world. It neither easy to through up nor to gobble up. In this wrestling its economy is on the verge of destruction. It is spending billions of dollars in Afghanistan annually. And in the seamless desert of Afghanistan it is looking for those footsteps that were left by Soviet Union and Britain in their return journey from Afghanistan.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Scary Nature

How scary cold brine (salt water) may be?
Very.
When brine is too cold it sinks slowly to sea floor.
Since its temperature is very low whatever comes in its contact is frozen.
Water or living beings.
It is scary. As a brine icicle sinks down the water around its path turns into ice.
This ice attracts star fishes by its whiteness.
And this is kiss of death to these innocent creatures.
So surreal-you wish it was an April Fool's joke.
Nature, for sure, is full of Signs of Allah(SWT).

Source : BBC

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

France Blame Yourself

Here is the shocking news:
France was reeling Monday after a 17-year-old boy brutally raped and murdered a girl at a chic boarding school while conditionally freed on charges of rape a year ago.
The finger is being pointed at the School administration. If they had done more inquiry about the nature of the problems that  the perpetrator had with judiciary then the tragedy would have been avoided-they say.

It is true but it also misses the real point.
French society in particular and the whole Europe and the west in general should do a very serious re-examination of their moral values. They have diluted their values to dangerous levels. And any talk of a rethink about it is viewed suspiciously.
And the cost of negligence is increasing.

A.L.Basham on India

From The Wonder That Was India, p.3:
By the end of April growth has practically ceased. The temperature of the plains rises as high as 110 degree F (43 degree C) or over, and an intensely hot wind blows. Trees shed their leaves, ...
No they do not.
We insist that they do not.
Trees shed their leaves exactly at the same time as they do in Europe, that autumn. And that is in September onwards. Before April there is Spring season in North India too and that is the time when trees have jut got their fresh green foliage. In April they are at their greenest. The greenery becomes more prominant in the Monsoon months because of the grass growth and washing of tree leaves by the rain.

Alright-it was just a nitpicking only.

Just For Record

Jeelani Khan Alig, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, New Delhi, November 22, p.2


Before Bijnor serious riot had spread out in Muradabad of Uttar Pradesh. In the famous industrial city Meerut too a communal riot has taken place recently. A district with significant Muslim population, Rampur, too had come in the nefarious range of conspiracies of communal riots. District Baghpat of western Uttar Pradesh too could not escape the blot of communal riots. Clashes continued for days in Rudrapur of Uttrakhand. Before that 9 Muslims had lost life in police firing the Gopalganj of Rajasthan.
Perhaps there are few additional reports that has been missed in above paragraph. All these events are rather recent.

Thank You Ashutosh

 Gujrat pogrom was a watershed year in the history of free India.

Soon after those holocaust like events Teachers Association of AMU (called AMUTA) organized a seminar in Kennedy Auditorium in which many prominent journalists and social workers of India participated. It was very most scary period as scary as the events that unfolded during and after the demolition of Babri Masjid. Just a few weeks ago we had another round of unfortunate events. So to say every decade the largest minority of India faces the fundamental instability of democracy.

In that seminar one young speaker could be singled out for his energy, outspokenness and collection of facts. It is a quite singular effect when a journalist comes out with the facts that public ignores owing to their short memory. The journalist in question was Ashutosh. Among other things Ashutosh took Arif Muhammed Khan for task for all of his (confused) past actions. And Mr Khan had no option but to accept each and every fact drawn out by the journalist. It was phenomenal, performance like, presentation. One of the observations was that why did Mr Khan use the honourific Ji after Advani's name?

One can only pray for protection of the enthusiasm and energy of this reporter.

Here are some more things from his pen that appeared on p.7 of Urdu Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, dated November 21, 2011.
I had newly come to journalism. Ayodhya movement was on its peak. There had been riots in Benaras. I been sent to cover them. There was a chit chat with some active journalists there. They were saying that the new Ganga of journalism will now flow from Benaras. I was already in shock after seeing the riot reports, all of them were coloured in the extremist majority community colour, rumours were being cast as news in the name of reporting. After arriving from Delhi I many times tried to confirm the earlier reports, every time the administration told that this is far from the truth. The reports by the noted journalists were prepared with the objective of targeting the minority community to present them as the villain.  After returning I made a small box at which the owner of a newspaper became so angry that he complained to the editor. I only escaped because of the mercy of the editor.
Bravo and than you Ashutosh.

Thank You Icarus

Opera said neutrinos are faster than light.
People jumped at it. Not pouncing but buoyed by it.
It was silly because it came from those people from whom you did not expect it.
To rub salt to the wounds they reasserted it.
And it was becoming difficult to talk to the public about it.
You can not call it a folly of charlatans when the results come out from CERN.
Thank Allah(SWT) that we now have results from another similar experiment Icarus.
They cast doubt on the Opera results.
Thank you Icarus.

Source : BBC

Bigger is not Better

One of the mantras (a taliman) of capitalist economy is that bigger is better. After all a big fish can eat the smaller one. This would have resulted in smaller fishes going extinct. This has not happened. And this is not in the realm of metaphor only. Even in the economic, business and financial world small operators have not all disappeared. In India, for example, the unorganized sector is biggest sector.

These thoughts came to mind because of the news that Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), that hosts the famed Nikkei Index, has been decided to merge with Osaka Stock Exchange to boost Japanese business. The merged bourse will be the biggest equity market in Asia. Japan lost its numero uno position in sales to China and this move their recipe to regain their position. May be it will work one can not ignored that China is a late arrival on the business scene and has not still reached its full potential. It is not going to be a cake walk to leave behind a galloping country. China is US's main worry because of this reason only and Japan has been reduced to one of the worries.

Nothing Wrong In It

Bradford City Council has published a poster aimed at Muslims about maintaining public hygiene. There is a possibility that people might be offended. Please brother do not get offended. Muslims maintain bad public hygiene. Your poor Alig has heard a lot about cleanliness being half of Faith but when it comes to examples our dear orators will always and invariably give you examples from personal hygiene and not a single one from public hygiene. So there is nothing wrong, racial, patronizing or unjust about the poster. Take it on your chin and get down to maintain good public hygiene. See even our senior Alig Dr Mohsin Raza Sahab has been crusading, we mean Jihading-err ... whatever, against bad public hygiene in Muslim society.

Source : Daily Mail via IiE
(Former link not included to save you the trouble of looking at that decadent front page of a British tabloid.)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Islam as the Scapegoat

Immigrant girls are more likely to commit suicide than the local girls in the Netherlands.
Source? Who else but the judge, the jury and and the executioner all combined into one.
Blame it on Islam.
Source : IiE

Expandable Citizens

Gujrat has seen the worst of human behaviour come out into open.
The society in general.
The high police officer.
And the highest politician.
And the target was the same.
The largest minority.

Let us go through a crude logic.
Suppose a powerful politician indulges in partisan activities leading to significant loss of life. What could be the out come? May be a backlash, of physical kind, against him.
But it was not. There was no backlash.
But the police officers were rather one step ahead.
They already created scenarios where they nipped the backlash in the bud.
The backlash that never was there.
So what if its costs a few lives.
The expandable minority is there to pick up the target from.

Source : HT

Professor S.M.A.Hashim Rizvi

While talking to Professor Abul Hashim Sahab of Urdu Department the discussion veered to Professor Syed Muhammed Abul Hashim Rizvi Sahab also. Apart from Miyan, that is, late Dr Syed Muhammed Ahmed, former Assistant Public Relations Officer of AMU, Professor Rizvi is another name that often escapes your poor Alig's mouth. His name should be been introduced earlier into the discussions here but some how Allah (SWT) did not wish it to happen till now. Professor Hashim Rizvi has retired from Physics Department of your beloved Alma Mater. He did his doctoral work in theoretical particle physics, one of the most challenging disciplines, at Brown University at Providence in USA, an Ivy League university. His dissertation on the then recently introduced, and very controversial, concept of charm in particle physics. This concept got later on experimentally verified and found mention in several Nobel Prizes also. Unlike nearly all the visitors to USA who would like to stay there only after there doctorate Professor Rizvi kept his promise of returning to India and AMU and served the university till his retirement. He zealously maintained very high academic standards and introduced avante garde theoretical topics into physics curriculum. Since he is one of the mentors of your poor Alig this post is indeed a pleasure to prepare. He belongs to an illustrious family. His father Professor S.M.A.Kazim Rizvi was professor and head of Mathematics Department of AMU. His mother was Ammi to many a people from out side their family. His younger brother, Dr S.M.A. Asim Rizvi, is a well known physician who, in the words of a colleague of Professor Rizvi, makes it worth living in this town. Dr Asim Rizvi has nearly single handedly created a fine middle level public school  called Aligarh Modern School. Youngest brother to them is a quite well known Algebraist in the US. Their two sisters too are very well placed in the society. Professor Hasim Rizvi has been blessed with a very loving engineer son and equally loving medico daughter.

Placing Iqbal

Allama Sir Dr Muhammed Iqbal is a giant name in Urdu (as well as Persian) literature and more so in the history of Islamic thought. But the gamut of ideas that Iqbal had explored in his life time is so diverse that it is difficult to reconcile one set of things with the other set. Because of this there was a rather excited discussion about the poet philosopher here. Your poor Alig desired that some one would have clarified the status of Iqbal's thoughts vis-a-vis Islam. As it happened it was your poor Alig who was defending Iqbal there. It is in this connection there was a strong desire to have discussion with Professor Abul Hashim Sahab of Urdu Department. As Allah(SWT) wished it the Maghrib Prayers in Wilayat Manzil (Theology Mosque) provided an opportunity to have a preliminary chit chat him. Many coincidences about the meeting point to the background that it was all choreographed by Allah(SWT). It was a very pleasant and relaxing tea with (courtesy him) at University canteen. May Allah(SWT) grant him plenty of rewards.

And all Praise is due to Allah(SWT) only.

The Artless as Art

One irritating feature of post modern creativity is the lack of creativity. Artless projects being being pushed as avante garde art. We have written about it earlier and Allah(SWT) only knows for how long it will continue before people put their collective foot down and declare that they shall not tolerate naked emperors any more. Your poor Alig resisted posting anything about a Chinese artist hyped by western media where his most significant work has merely production and carpeting of 100 million sun flower like seeds made of porcelain  in China. And the artist was talking very profoundly about this work having possibilities-in reality there is none. Here is one another artist where silly things are presented as the innovative. May be some one can start a blog to expose this phony tendency.

American Yoga

American Indians use an American version of meditation to get rid of the toxins in the body. Pour heated water on rocks and breath the air. James Ray was one such Guru administering the divine healing procedure. Some participants complained of breathing problems. This was in 2009. The Guru thought that they just have to slog through it and everything will be alright. On what basis? Nothing really. Except for the faith in his craft. Three people did not survive the ordeal. Court handed out three concurrent jail times of two years.
Source : BBC

Clipping the Wings of CIA

According to an LATimes report:

"Beirut station is out of business," a source said, using the CIA term for its post there. The same source, who declined to be identified while speaking about a classified matter, alleged that up to a dozen CIA informants have been compromised, but U.S. officials disputed that figure.
George Orwell wrote a path breaking book 1984 long before that year. The scenario was that life by that year will be fully controlled by a Big Brother. Everyone will be under scrutiny and privacy will be a fancy. While that kind of scenario has not played out on reality in general but for non-American, non-Jewish and non-British the life was like 1984 even before that year and it is so even now. No one takes US, Israel and UK for task for their chilling spy networks all over the world. May be their financial woes will make them collapse completely and one day the skeletons in their cupboards will tumble out like the Third Reich files-all left behind for reporters and historians to horrify themselves and the public.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Another Day in Libya

It has been reported on the authority of Libya's interim justice minister that Saif-al-Islam, son of Colonel Muammar Qaddhafi has been captured. He'll be kept safe some where till time is ripe to hand him over to the properly formed government. The ICJ(International Court of Justice) at Hague says that he should be rendered to them to stand trial for war crimes during Libyan uprising.

Time changes so fast. So much history has been generated in from of our eyes. You get historical indigestion.

Just a few years ago, no just a few months ago, one could rehearse Libyan stories in one's mind. Stories of a Muslim country with little room for Islam. A young man appearing in Fajr (morning) Prayers for a few days was hinted to go and enjoy life. Same about a guy trying to keep beard in young age. Same for a  technician showing any commitment to his craft. Every one was though as a threat to one wonders whom. But in every case the action was swift and many times chilly. At the height of the Libyan uprising your poor Alig tried to watch a YouTube video speech by Colonel Qaddhafi. Apparently the whole speech was around two hours long, which could not have been endured by any volunteer, but what came out across plainly that it was more of a bark than a speech.

Strange it is for in not a too distant past he was a hero to many people.

Verily Allah (SWT) has power over everything.

The Mecca Rebellion

No we did not know about it.
May be because of the mystery shrouding this event.
In 1979 the Holy Kaaba was captured by a cult.
The Mecca Rebellion is a book about that by Thomas Hegghammer & Stephen Lacroix.
To the eyes of a layman like your poor Alig one is German and another French. And our European brothers, not talking about the present authors, generally give a great impression of objectivity but their perspective is more subjective that any oriental narrative. Reason is that the subjectivity of an oriental author is rather obvious-no so in case of an orientalist.
Dawud Israel review the book here.
He writes impressive prose.
Here is one quote:
It is an invaluable read because it highlights the problematic relationship between Islam and politics, the dynamics of various religious movements, and how these two elements foment frustration when their is fealty to a status quo where Islam is subservient.
He also drops a statement that came as a surprise to your poor Alig. He said that the Ahl-e-Hadith movement is of Indian origin. Did not know that. This only increases the responsibility of Indian Muslims. It seems the Muslims of India have too many problems at their hands!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Cost of Assimilation

‘Muslims need to assimilate into Europe’

 Qasim Moini

KARACHI, Nov 17: European culture and Islamic culture have different ethos and both are bound to collide unless there is assimilation and compromise.

(1) Do the ambassadors live according to their own culture or the culture of the country to which they are deputed?  Why this demand on Muslims to give up Islam? Whom are you trying to appease? How many of people like you the Europe can finance?
(2) In secular matters the immigrants should completely assimilate. On the other hand if there is too much pressure to assimilate in those matters also where Shariah forbids any compromise then they should migrate elsewhere. Europe will love it and that should not bother any Muslim. Remember you are not in Europe as a beggar.  And if you are then ask the idols you worship for your protection. A Muslim must be ready to uphold Islam even in the worst conditions.
 
Anwar Shaheen of the University of Karachi’s Pakistan Study Centre said this here on Thursday on the second day of a two-day international conference on ‘Islam in Europe’ while speaking on the topic of hijab and burqa in Europe. The seminar was organised by KU’s Area Study Centre for Europe in association with the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

Earlier orientalism was practiced by the  Europeans. Now it seems that it is being financed by the orient itself. And Lord Macaulay will be proud of the fruit of his imagination-Ms Anwar Shaheen.

Ms Shaheen, who had conducted a survey of Muslim women living in Europe as well as Pakistani scholars to back up her research,  ...

To back up her opinion. Let us not get lost in woods.

... said European society was justified in its reaction to Muslim women wearing hijab.

Not with you Ms, in this matter. Try some other livelihood. This one is not pious earning from Islamic standards. Know that you are stooping to low levels.

She said proponents of the veil considered it a divine commandment while other women faced patriarchal pressure to observe the veil.

If you read the Holy Qur'an then this crap will not come to your mouth, pen or keyboard.

However, she said many women also wore hijab out of free will.

Every sensible Mulimah will reject this leave and consolation. They should. No one has bestowed any authority to decide things Islamic.

Those who objected to the veil viewed it as a form of discrimination ...

They are wronging only themselves. that is what is the meaning of any attempt to temper with any divine injunction. The fate of those who reject truth is doomed.

... while others felt it did not conform to “contemporary corporate culture”.

If Islam would be decided by modern corporate culture then it will not be divine.
 
She criticised the “self-righteousness” of some women who observed the veil as “suicidal” and felt many of these women thought of themselves as more pious than those Muslim women who did not veil themselves.

This is a serious allegation. But should be ignored nevertheless-reason being the incoherence of the observation. The researcher does not know what she is talking about.

“If Muslims don’t feel comfortable with European laws they should come back” to their countries of origin, she said, while adding that “European governments should not frame discriminatory laws”.

This is a funny balancing act. It ignores two realities. (1) Europe (the population of old people is relatively large) is old and it needs the migrants to take care of the needs of that old population. So stop feeling sissy about your status as a migrant. More to the point stop worshiping white skin. (2) The economic activity has already shifted to non-western society. Think of Chinese production juggernaut, Japanese electronics, Indian economic power house and the resources and dynamism of the Gulf. If it is still difficult to believe then just have a look at the economies of European Union and the US.

Nigerian scholar Najimdeen Bakare spoke on Islam and European democracy. He said there was no clash of cultures but “a clash of interests”.
He added that it was important for Europe to understand Islam and Muslims as they were a sizable minority in the continent and that the Muslim World was no longer confined to the traditional lands of Islam, but now included those countries which hosted Muslim minorities.

Nice words Mr Bakare-only if you could stick to them

Mr Bakare said there was a need for a “cosmopolitan mazhab” for European Muslims as the community could no longer depend on fatwas originating from Muslim countries.

Indeed Fatwas will be required from local scholars but any attempt to devise a new Islam is foolishness in its most uncomfortable form. Do not worry Islamic scholars have reached nearly every corner of the globe and you can depend on them.

He said the elements defining western, European democratic values were secularism,  ...

Because the Christian Church heaped havoc on European society. You can not reject Islam just because of papal misconduct. Does not sound logical.
 
pluralism, ...

Just ask them to accept Muslims with Islam as one of those who make the society plural-please.

political freedom, ...

After the current happening in US, the current godfather of European philosophy, one would not believe you any more. There is freedom as long as it suits their interests. It does not amount to a principle. It smells of opportunism.

liberty, ...

For the time being we shall say haha.

equality, ...

Once again we shall say haha.


rule of law ...

This applies in times of growth. Please think over it. This is the first thing that is crumbling in the face of current economic situation. Think Wall Street again.

and freedom of speech.

We have lot to say about it. You have freedom of speech as long as it does not hurt their interest.

Referring to secularism, he said western society recognises religion but insists it should be confined to the individual level.

To be more precise they keep governing free from Church. No one is objecting to that. To expect other to do the same is bit naive. Christian faith might have failed Christianity in general and Europe in particular but Islam is there for all to see, observe and adopt as a way of life. Only if they could overcome the biases created by their forefathers.

He observed there was a history of secularism is Islam, for in both the Umayyad and Abbasid empires there was a clear balance between the state and the mazhabs, which sprang from society.

If a king failed to implement Islam in his ruling then he should be criticized for that and not praised in any case.

He said the first generation of Muslim immigrants to Europe following World War II was not very literate and was primarily concerned with their economic well-being. The second generation was confused about traditional family values and values of the host society while the third generation of immigrants sought public visibility and wanted to move from the margins to the mainstream. This included wanting to express their religion publicly.

And there is nothing wrong in that.

“If western society fails to acknowledge the reality of Muslims there will be discord,” he said, adding that Muslim-majority nations need to have less influence on Muslim minorities.

What an insinuation. You too are stooping brother.

German scholar Dr Rainer Brunner spoke on ‘Euro-Islam’ and identity formation of European Muslims. He said it was pertinent to ask who spoke for European Muslims. “There is no shortage of pretenders, but it is not clear how much influence they have”.

This is a matter of details.

He said among European Muslim thinkers Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan called for a reform of Islam, returning the faith to its “pristine” roots. This, the scholar said, was reminiscent of conservative Salafi thought. He said Mr Ramadan rejects the concepts of Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb, instead proposing that Europe is Dar as Shahada, which was a concept close to the Muslim Brotherhood’s line of thought. This, said Dr Brunner, was not surprising as Mr Ramadan is the maternal grandson of Hasan al Banna, the Brotherhood’s founder.

Let us summarize. There is a Muslim called Tariq Ramadan. Who looks like a Muslim reformer. Europe likes that-to reform Islam. When Mr Ramadan asserts anything Islamic then Europe gets confused, they say, aren't you suppose to reform Islam-stick to that. We want zero Islam, they assert.

He said Tariq Ramadan tries to stick to religious dogma while also trying to reconcile dogma with a western lifestyle, for example equating Muslim immigrants to Europe with the muhajiroon of the early Islamic era who left Makkah for Madina.

Going back to sources has been vilified already in Europe. It is termed fundamentalism-a term having negative vibes. If anybody is looking for guidance then he or she has to consult some source. That is what the fundamentalists in west did-consult old sources. They have not come up with a guidance for mankind. They disappeared. Islam is there. Read it study it. Understand it. And see if you can find anything better. If yes then do not club it with others.

He said in Europe different countries had different domestic roles for religion: France was completely secular while in the United Kingdom the monarch was the head of the Church, while in Germany religious education in schools was guaranteed in the constitution.

This diversity is an indication that one more ideology is not impossible to accommodate-only if the concerned people could over threw the  crusade era biases.

Mujeeb Afzal of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, spoke on the post-Cold War West and Islam. He said the Muslim reaction to European dominance over the last few decades has been either of resistance or collaboration, ...
These are two extremes Afzal Sahab and thus your observation does not amount to much.

... though the collaborationists have prevailed and have “learned from their masters”. He said during the Cold War both superpowers had a negative view of Islam, while the Muslim world was divided between “radicals”, such as Arab nationalists, and “conservatives”, such as the various monarchies that dot the Muslim world. However, revivalism soon emerged, which was less impressed by the West and considered it “decadent”.

Finally you came to some reality but only at the end.

Drawn to revivalism
Shia revivalism triumphed in the shape of 1979’s Islamic Revolution in Iran, while Sunni revivalists joined hands with the conservatives and the United States to take on the USSR in Afghanistan. The Soviet defeat in Afghanistan was not only the victory of capitalism, ...

If that resounding victory fell in their share then why is capitalism buckling at the present moment?

but the revivalists also felt they had a hand in the superpower’s fall, said Mr Afzal.

What else can you conclude from it sir?

After communism’s demise, “democracy and free-market capitalism were considered the only ‘viable’ systems”.
He said Muslim youths were attracted to revivalism as there was no alternative ideology to capitalism.

Jumping from one facile thing to another. Please, please take a stand. At the most you shall be wrong.

“Revivalists don’t pose a threat to the West, but to the imperialist hegemony of the West”.

With you, this time, sir.

However, he observed that “Islam was now part of the West”.

Agree once again. Our European friends might not agree with many of your observations but you might push one thing at a time.

Within the West there were two schools where Islam was concerned: accommodationists and confrontationists. The accommodationists feel that Muslim revivalists’ anger is fuelled by the West whereas confrontationists denounce Islam as “anti-secular and anti-modernity”.

Again you meandered like river Brahamputra.

Dr Nazir Hussain, also of Quaid-i-Azam University, speaking on perceptions of Muslims post-9/11, said that today, perceptions were shaped by the media, not academics. He said Muslims had played a major role in Europe’s progress over the last 50 years, but now some European leaders were saying that multiculturalism had failed and that immigration had to be controlled.
He said there was duplicity in western policy, observing that Bahrain’s monarchy had been protected against popular protests, while Libya had been invaded. “The western media invented Islam as the enemy. Somebody needed a villain. The media are now policymakers”.

Agree with you but our European friends  absorb the material better if the things are said with pretentions of profundity.

Turkish scholar Dr Ersin Embel spoke on the problems Turks were facing integrating into German life while Dr Amel Boubekeur, addressing the seminar via Skype, discussed the influence of North Africa on European Muslims.

Source : Dawn

Freedom to be Islamophobic

The blogger here has an offer for European Muslims to get interviewed for her blog.
A visitor, Fatima Michaels, wrote the following:
Why only Muslims in Europe? Why not interview Europeans concerned about Muslim immigration, lack of assimilation, violent tendencies and the creeping sharia law.
This is a nice summary of the things that will tumble out of this cupboard. Let us take them up one at a time.

(1) Muslim immigration is a problem.

This is a duplicity believed by too many Europeans. Anybody looking at the statistics will know that even in the most prominent cases of migration the Muslim populations are miniscule in Europe.

(2) Muslims do not assimilate.

In matters secular they should completely assimilate. In matters of Shariah, if there is pressure to assimilate then, they should migrate elsewhere. 

(3) Muslims have violent tendencies.


This is a calumny. There should be an international law in place to make such people accountable for their actions who indulge in open xenophobia.

(4) Shariah Law is a Creepy Crawly.


See above once again.



Islam in New Zealand

Here is a new blog about Islam in New Zealand.
Here is the Wikipedia article about the same topic.

Huge Qur'an

It is really huge.

What does it prove?
Only that our Lord Most High is All-Pure.

Source : Radio Liberty via IiE

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Up in Arms

The most logical thing for Indian people should be to be up in arms. Without naming the degrading programme on television it must be mentioned that their latest gimmick will be a serious strike on Indian social and cultural ethos. And if any of those residual socialists come to you with the charges of being the moral police then deal with them as you would deal with the people intent on harming you.

Islamic Experience in Kazakhstan (or Not)

Dr Abu-Tamim has finally posted this eye opening piece of his blog. This is must read for every Muslim concerned about the state of Ummah. Here it is:
Our Pork is Halal
“Ma as-salam,” she said as she handed me my room key after completing the check in. She was efficient, well-dressed and polite.
“Is the meat halal?” I asked. “Yes,” she said, with a smile, “it is all halal.” I was relieved. This was my first visit to Kazakhstan and having experienced the destruction of even the most basic Islamic norms in Uzbekistan three years ago, I needed to be cautious. In Uzbekistan, I had seen pig farms all the way from Samarqand to Bukhara, both being the mysterious and romantic cities of my childhood, both being associated with personalities noble in my memory: Bukhara with Imam Bukhari and Samarqand with Abu al-Layth Samarqandi, the renowned exegete of the Qur’an.
Despite what the lady at the front desk said, the first time I walked into the hotel restaurant I found out that there was no distinction between beef and pork on the buffet table; everything was next to each other. There was a terrible smell in food; even cheese and vegetables had the same smell. When I asked the cook about how they separate halal from non-halal meat, the young man stared at me; he did not know what I was talking about. I had already asked him if he was a Muslim and he had very proudly said, yes. When I came downstairs without eating anything, there was the same lady at the counter. I asked her again about halal and non-halal, she repeated the same answer which she had given me yesterday; after a few more questions, I realised that what she meant that their hotel had halal pork!
After a few more minutes of conversation, I realised that she has no idea of halal and haram. This was, however, only the beginning of the shock. Within the next four days, I was to find out the true extent of destruction of Islam in this ninth largest country in the world – the world’s largest landlocked country with an area greater than entire Western Europe. This destruction happened during the Russians occupation which began in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, all of Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire.
Most of the terrible crimes against Kazakh people were committed following the 1917 Russian Revolution and the entire religious infrastructure and educational institutes were destroyed between 1917 and 1991. Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, becoming the last Soviet republic to do so. But just like the other Republics of the former USSR, the communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country’s new president and the euphoria of Islamic resurgence in Central Asia died out. Officially, more than half of 16.2 million people are Muslim, but there are only a few remains of Islam in reality.
This destruction is fundamental; that is, it was systematic, organised, and brutal. It plucked out hundreds of years of history of these people from their consciousness by removing the basic building blocks of an Islamic polity. Russians were thorough in their ruthlessness; they destroyed mosques, madrasas, slaughtered religious scholars, and killed everyone who publically professed Islam. Compared to the Russian colonisation of Central Asia, the British seem benign. In India, Egypt, and all other lands of Islam where British occupiers ruled during the 19th and 20th centuries, there remains a strong fundamental presence of Islam in the lives of people.
The difference in the benign nature of the colonisers notwithstanding, behind this fundamental reconfiguration of Muslim lands stands a one-man institution, that of the maulvi, which is ultimately responsible for the survival of the basic knowledge of Islam during the last three centuries which have been the most devastating for Muslims in their entire history. It is the maulvi who has kept the low flame of Islam flickering in the darkness of the colonial era and even now. He was degraded, devalued, kept in contempt, in a state of perpetual poverty, but nothing severed his ties to the religion he was hoping to keep alive in a polity going the other way; his was a lonely calling. Even in lands where one would not expect this destruction, it is the maulvi who has been instrumental in keeping this flame alive
A few years ago, I was in a small hillside town of Morocco, where the sound of adhan was an enchanting experience. But when I went to the mosque, I found that the maulvi and myself constituted the entire congregation. The maulvi had dutifully called out the adhan, but no one came. Then he called out the iqama and no one came; then he led the prayer and before we departed, he said, this is what he experiences every day, but that does not deter him from his calling.
The maulvis of the Indian subcontinent are far more than mere keepers of faith; they have also kept Islamic scholarship in a few places across the subcontinent alive. While it is true that most mosque-maulvi have little knowledge of religion, they are at least able to lead congregational prayers and perform the rites of birth, marriage, and death in a polity where most educated people have no idea what to do in these situations. Imagine the state of a society from where even these fundamental rites of one’s passage through life have disappeared! Can our educated men and women, who even call adhan in the ears of their newly born babies, show some more dignity and self-respect by respecting the maulvi of their masjid?
Source : (International ) The News

PS: The original is by Dr Muzaffar Iqbal. He has said so many things that your poor Alig would like to say. And more. See all the 169 articles here.

Get the Clue

BBC asked:
How did US celebrity Kim Kardashian and her family make $65m (£41m) last year, when they can't act, play an instrument, sing, dance, or throw a ball?
Do they have any clue? Here are some people who are famous for being famous. How does it work? Well the answer is all blah, blah, blah.

That is what happens when you ignore the simplest answer. And the simplest answer is that Allah (SWT) gives you what He has decided to give you and the excuse can be as flimsy as being famous for being famous. It is really as simple as that. Save yourself the trouble of being profound. If profundity was meant to be the common currency then He would have made each human being an intellectual genius. Search for the signs of Allah (SWT) even in the situations most removed from piety.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Good Riddance

Every single one of the obnoxious US soldiers will leave the land of Iraq by the year end.
Good riddance in deed.
The country that managed to kill millions of Iraqi children by sanctions and thousands of adults by military action was very generous to offer a few thousand soldiers to stay beyond the withdrawal schedule.
The offer was understandably rejected by the Iraqi people.
Time to rebuild Iraq.
And to start questioning US about their deeds in the recent past.

Source : BBC

From Israel to America with Love

White House in Washington DC is nor ordinary house.
It houses the the President of the United States of America.
Most powerful man in the most powerful country.
You'll expect this house to be a safe house.
Not any more.
A man, it is suspected, managed to lodge a bullet or two into White House.
And that too by using the most famous weapon in the history of guns AK-47.
The suspect is Oscar Ramiro Ortega with the word Israel tattooed on his neck.
He lives only a few blocks away from the White House.

Source : US Park Police via BBC

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Why Earthquakes?

Because Lord wills it to.
This is the correct answer.

If you are longing for the scientific answer then quench your thirst a little later. We too love the scientific perspective and have enough confidence in their work and abilities.
The focus for the time being is on the cause behind these calamities.
The residents of Oklahoma are pondering over the same question.
That is what triggered this post.
It is correct to say that an earth quake comes when a tectonic plate moves under another one-or above it.
But why did it move at that particular time? This too is a relevant question.
It will all be very well to explore all the factors behind the plate movement to get the scientific answer to the new question. It is worth it but not all questions that are relevant are scientific. Social, cultural, emotional, psychological and spiritual question are neither insignificant nor they can be brushed away.
Lord Most High says that if you are obedient then what will He get by putting you in trouble?
He has promised that He shall test us after we declare our faith in Him.
There is no escape from that.
But there is escape from punishment.
You escape punishment if you are obedient.
The two things are different-a test and a punishment.
A test is from God and a punishment (though from God again but) is due to our own actions.
A decision to return to God-to be obedient to Him is the only surety to escape from punishment.
And this is useful only for those who take heed.

Steep Rise in Anti-Muslim Hate Crime in US

Those who were at the receiving end of American high handedness always knew it for what it is. For quite some time the same is true for Muslim society-inside and outside that country. (Except for, unfortunately sizable, silly people blinded by American opulence.) Here is an AFP report about fifty percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crime in the US. The civilized society mask is slowly slipping off the American face. One is already witness to the treatment meted out to the Wall Street protesters.

Matter-Anti-Matter Asymmetry Problem About to be Solved?

There is matter in the universe.
And that is nearly all that is there.
There can be anti-matter.
Anti-electron, called positron, for electron.
Anti-proton for proton.
Anti-quark for quark.
Anti-matter can be produced in lab.
In the universe it should have been there with the same amount as matter.
But it is not.
What is the reason?
This is the question that is being addressed in report presented on Monday in a meeting by LHCb detector team. This is one of the teams working at CERN.
The results are preliminary.

Source : BBC, Slides

Einstein Still Right

There many Indian blogs by scientists but scientific topics still not the focus even there. Only slowly they are willing to talk about technical matters. There could be two reasons. Firstly, the international community has enough people commenting on these issues to give a really comprehensive perspective. Secondly, Indian society does not demand inside perspective from people of science. These are only guesses and reality is better known to Lord Most High. We have talked about the hype about faster than light neutrinos. Sumathi Rao and Neelima Gupte talk about this issue here and here. They also commented on Higgs.

MS-DOS Redux

Sunil Mukhi links to this wonderful short piece on one of the idiosyncrasies of academic life. Do you feel connected?

What Are You Shocked At?

This tells you about your own social, cultural, emotional and psychological make up. The west is shocked at child abuse. Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky regrets having showers with boys. Please read in between  the lines your self. There is much more that the west should be shocked at but is not. The whole attitude towards man-woman relationship is thoroughly damaged in that society. They can not put their house in order without significant guidance form without.

Astounding America

The global cop, the United States of America, is behaving in totalitarian manner. The very same crime for which it has been arm twisting, threatening, putting sanctions on, invading and devastating countries. Here is BBC report about the pre-dawn operation to clear Zuccoti Park of Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Uselessness of Argument

There is a famous incident of a disciple of a Shaikh. At the time of the death of the disciple Satan the cursed came to him and asked him what was his argument for existence of God. The disciple was of intellectual type. He had spent his life in intellectual pursuit. Satan the cursed is open enemy of man. His intention is always to harm man. And this is no hide and seek game. He means business-and a rather diabolic business at that. He wishes complete destruction of man. There is no hatred like his hatred and he is crafty. He knew that this disciple will love any intellectual challenge. And the disciple did accept the challenge by giving an argument in favour of existence of God. And with this action he was caught in the net of Satan the cursed. Satan rejected disciple's argument by a counter argument. The disciple gave another argument. This too was rejected by Satan the cursed by another argument. He did the same to the next argument. This is how it went on and on. Every argument presented by the disciple was rejected by Satan the cursed. By this time the Shaikh of the disciple had his premonition (kashf). When all of his arguments were rejected the disciple was about to die in a state of faithlessness-the sure route to doom in the hereafter. Shaikh was going perform his ablution with the water pot in his hand. Shaikh threw the water pot on the ground shouting that why don't you say that I accept God without any argument. This is what the disciple did and Allah Most High saved him by these means.
There is admonition for every believer in this incident but the admonition for the intellectually disposed people is rather acute. There is a large number of people who are obsessed with intellectual enterprise and the number, owing to modern western education and ideologies, is only increasing by the day. The situation is only compounded by the new comers to Islam from the west-these brothers and sisters come with their intellectual burden. And this burden is not recognized for what it is. Intellect has its limitations and it is not difficult to see that provided one is willing to listen-a quality that is singularly missing in the present generation. There are certain things that can not be decided by mere intellectual argument. Science had realized this long back. Some truth has to be decided empirically. That is science. Mere scholastic argument is useless here. Then there are certain things that can not be decided even empirically. You need divine guidance for them. Intellect is a wonderful blessing from Allah Most High and we must thank Him for this but it is equally important to realize that it has limitations and in case our intellectual conclusion conflicts with Shariah then we must give up the former with utmost urgency. Alas we could take heed.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Dadri 1979

Dadri 1979 is a significant milestone in the history of Aligarh Movement. Your poor Alig has summarized some of the significant events of that year in a post earlier. Compared to them one might think that Dadri 1979 might be some minor affair. It is not. It is deeply ingrained in the psyche of the people who were affected by that event. This also means that many of the Aligs who are concerned about Aligarh Movement can not discount that fateful incident. Every Alig, worth his salt, knows about this. Many were directly affected. This was during the struggle for minority character for AMU that a large group of students left for Delhi by train. In the morning they were brutally attacked at the Dadri railway station. The attackers had boarded the train from Aligarh itself and had mustered local support also. Students had to resort to desperate measures, like running into field, to save their lives. Since we have not heard of any report or investigation into this episode the only thing that can be offered is above sketch that has emerged after years of hearing tidbits from various people over the years. The brain behind that attack is long gone-having enjoyed the fruits of his labour. The only thing that lingers is the feeling that how a small group of locals can stymie the tide of aspirations of a society that is much bigger than any continental European country.

Joining You

Joining you after a longish Eid-ul-Azha break. Missed you all along. What about you?

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Macaulian Blogs

These are the blogs by Muslims who further the colonial agenda in an era where colonialism is taking its last breath-even in its economic colonialism phase. Lord Macaulay's bill on educational reforms in India envisioned a class of people in India who were equipped with modern education, who were Indian by their skin colour by western in thought. This was to be supposed to be the vanguard of British Empire in its colonies. What a visionary was lord Macaulay! He is long gone but his ideas are still in action. Talk of eastern opinion to the eastern. Talk of Islamic opinion to the Muslim. Let alone the western people. You'll get the look as if you have talked a silly thing, if not an outright blasphemy.

Sounds Like AAA

Here is a quote from the Muslimology blog.
From Albert Hourani’s paper on Islam in European thought. As you can see there isn’t a whole lot of good you can expect from the study of Islam in secular institutions.
Sounds like a statement from An Alig's Armchair? But that blog is much older to the present one. And there is no dearth of Muslim bloggers on the net. The only rub is that far too many of them are Macaulian.

Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan

The full name is even longer JJJKJG. Yes that is it. Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jalpan Grih. Jai is victory, Jawan is a soldier, Kisan is the farmer, Jalpan is refreshment and Grih is house-for those who are Hindi challenged. Ustadji (or Thakurji) indeed was a retired soldier who opened at Purani Chungi this small eatery. Purani is old and a Chungi is an octoroi (tax to be paid on goods being moved from one place to another) post. (It is interesting that in Maharashtra this tax is called Zakat or Jakat). One specialty of Ustadji was that he used to get along very nicely with the AMU fraternity-the whole spectrum. The reason that the whole spectrum was covered is rather simple-his establishment was an old landmark-he ran it himself for a long enough time. It will be duplicity not to acknowledge that some unscrupulous elements were mean enough to indulge in some exploitation of this guileless person who was a shining example of mutual love. Everybody Alig had his Jai Jawan experience. Nothing extra-ordinary but the run of the mill experience that makes life what it is-beautiful. We shall present a few of them here.

Once, in the times of Janab Muhammed Hamid Ansari Sahab to be more precise, the admission process was disturbed by extra legal elements. It was drizzling so the idea was floated by one colleague that let is warm up with a tea at Jai Jawan. On entering Jai Jawan the pair beat what is famous three days after the Republic day. It is called the hasty retreat. Inside the whole contingent that had brought the admission process to a halt was parked!

Then there is that incidence when, after 1998 Pokharan blasts, the then Prime Minister had issued the third addendum to Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan of late Lal Bahadur Shashtri. The third addendum was Jai Vigyan. Your poor Alig suggested this addendum to Ustadji. His response was lack luster. Ustadji was a die hard congressman and anything coming out of BJP, the party to which the then Prime Minister belonged, was not acceptable. Ustadji's sort of challenged whether this new addition was sensible at all. Going for atomic device testing in 1998 was completely against the long standing Congress policy, the party that has non-violence as integral part of its history, and Ustadji was not to be swayed by shallow nationalistic jingo.

Finally there is this anecdote we Ustadji used to tell fondly. When Mufti Muhammed Saeed came to lime light in Kashmir he interviewed on television about his Aligarh experience. Amongst the the things that he mentioned was this land mark of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. "I do not know whether it is still there but we used to frequent a place called Jai Jawan Jai Kisan", concurred Mufti Saeed Sahab. And Ustadji was obliged.

These are among the experiences that  make Aligs what they are.

Friday, November 4, 2011

A Twitter Experience

There is an airlines called Qantas.
Yes, yes the same, the Australian one.
It used to have the most flamboyant exteriors.
For some years it has been in news for many wrong reasons.
Today was enacted one of those wrong reasons.
Flight from Sydney to London via Singapore with Boeing A380 would have been a boring one but one of the four engines (yes, yes A380 has lots of engines) decided to claim its share of Warholian fifteen minutes.
Coincidentally Stephen Fry was traversing the same route-traveling by an A380. (Why is he not a Sir already? Sorry to poke my nose.)
Then Qantas created the news mentioned above. A Boeing A380, after break journey at Singapore, had the above mentioned failure mid-air the fourth engine stopped working because of oil leak type of things.
Rodney Thomson wondered whether it was the same plane that was carrying Sir Stephen (yes, yes we'll later claim to be the first users of the title.)
Sir Stephen said yes it is. The action was shifted to Dubai where the flight was diverted to.
And there have been other tweets-equally amusing. Real life working like you know what.
And everybody is now talking about this because of BBC and others.

Character of Aligarh Movement

Aligarh Movement is basically an Islamic movement.
The proof lies in the fact that Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (RA) sought to produce those graduates that will have the crown of no god but God on their heads.
This statement should settle the question regarding the character of Aligarh Movement once and for all. In reality the situation is not that cozy.
One fair conclusion of the realization that Aligarh Movement is an Islamic movement will be that Alig community develop a synergy with those people who have chosen to focus their energies on preserving the religion of Islam.
Historically there has been lots of progress in this front.
The point in focus is the fact that many religious scholars have been visit the university for nearly all the duration of existence of Aligarh Movement. And many of them had a sort of regular visiting relationship. At one place former Proctor Professor Nafees Ahmed Sahab has written that when there was a serious threat to the minority character of the university, in late seventies, then the Elders of Islam in India visited Aligarh with quick succession.
Then there are many in Alig community who have close connection with the people who have devoted their life completely to preservation of Islam.
In spite of this the situation has not reached its logical conclusion.
Lord willing, some time, later we shall take but the point once again that it is desirable to take the state of affairs to its logical conclusion.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

On Shoulder's of Four Friends

Char Yaron ke Kandhon Pe Jis Din Teri Baraat Niklegi Ghar Se
Pehen Ke Kafan Ka Ek Joda Jab Janaaze Mein Sona Padega

On Shoulder's of Four Friends, the Day Your Procession Will Leave Home
Forced to Wear the Dress of Shroud, You Will Have to Sleep for Funeral


When Obvious is not Obvious

Our western brothers and sisters have chosen that path for them, society as a whole, that has made them blind to the obvious things.
One such obvious thing is that strange man and woman should not have any privacy with each other. (The statement can be made more precise but we'll pass that for the moment.)
One example where this is being violated, for quite some time by now, is the presence of female staff in military.
We have talked about it earlier too.
Here is some more on the ensuing horror-this time from Australia.

(1) Sex harassment rife at Australia military academy 

(2)  Australian soldier rapes to prove manliness

(3) Dirty games in Australian Navy

(4) Fallen Heroes

 Till now people are taking these things as a disgrace, as it should be. Soon they will accept it as just another inconvenient truth-to be acknowledged and immediately forgotten. Now is the time to think about this curse as curse and take step to obviate it. Stop female recruitment to armed forces. Give women their proper place-even if some of them think that their legitimate place is beside the men in uniform. And even if some of the men have fooled some others to the effect that  it is women's liberation to put them in very vulnerable position.

Focus Children

British people complain that children are not cultured.
And we are using sensitized words.
A social organization is claiming that the situation is opposite of that.
That is, grown ups people have the negative view.
One can only have sympathy with an advance society in a state of cluelessness.
Their children are behaving badly.
They do not know what to do about it.
And they are not sure whether the children are really behaving badly.
What else is it if not cluelessness?

What one does to the society percolates to children too. If adults start going in the wrong direction then sooner or later the children too will succumb to the same calamity. The warped western view of freedom has been showing the negative results for quite a long time but our friends are slow to take notice-they are completely oblivious to the causes of the catastrophe that their society is facing. The problem pertains to guidance and guidance is from God alone. And like the proverbial baby thrown out with the bath water our compatriots have thrown God out of their consciousness-because of the history of the Church. And do not talk about Islam. Our friends forget everything about freedom of speech when it comes to Islam. But again it still remains incumbent upon the custodians of the message of Lord Almighty to spread it to those who have not got it-or who have forgotten it. In times of distress, God Almighty tells us, rush back to God.

Source : BBC

Russia Does an India

India has got a long history of the so called communal riots-the pogroms targeting the minority.
Then we moved to a higher level of achievement.
In this stage minority youth were picked and staged encounters were held.
Somehow Amnesty International does not smell such odours. The ostensible reason is that the Indian legal system is in action and India is a working democracy and hence no body has to worry about law and order related matters when it comes to India.
(Not to talk, at the moment, about the various instances of bomb blasts where minority youth were apprehended by default and still languish in custody.)
Now Russia is using the same Indian technology of picking youth from the minority community and staging an encounter. Some how the story slipped the censors.

Source : Time

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Begging at Chinese Feet

This is the eve of western humiliation.
Somehow the world that has been reeling under western colonial onslaught does not realize the import of this historical moment.
The G20 submit will begin and the European Union will ask Chinese Premier to give them a billions of dollars so that impending European financial meltdown can be avoided.
There are doubts that Hu Jintao will have the requisite change in his pocket.
Honour and dishonour is from Allah(SWT).
May Allah(SWT) save those who follow the path of guidance from every loss.

Rushing Up the Things

Israel is to speed up the building up of settlements in occupied territories.
And the funds to Palestinian Authority will be blocked.
The first news implies that Israel expects that some tough times are ahead for it. It might not get its way in near future and hence the rush.
And the second point is yet another exposure, if one was required, how the civil rights of a minority can be trampled and the good American and European Samaritans enjoy the show.
While it lasts.


Source : BBC

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Cupboard to Watch

A lot of skeletons should be tumbling out of this cupboard, sooner or later.
Income Tax department has been filtering the details of HSBC bank accounts provided by French government.
Some MPs from Haryana, Up and Kerala have been issues notices to show the sources of income that ended in their accounts with the bank. So far the money amounts to 800 crores only.

Global Financial Woes

They continue.
Greece has to take tough measures but the people are not ready for that (what else they think is the solution?) and the party members too want to rebel.
Financial markets are in a tizzy after the Greek referendum.
Italians are doing a Greece-they are in spending spree in spite of the looming economic disaster. Whole society playing Nero this time.
And bankrupt broker MF has skeletons in the cupboard.
Let us take the last one for some comments.
This firm did not differentiate between investors money and their own money.
Your poor Alig always wondered who was to implement responsibility if a company, a bank or a financial institution starts a joy ride with its assets? A casual on looker will only assume that this is how the finances are managed.
Indeed we need more understanding of the function of these institutions to make out the head and tail.