Here Are the Muslim Feminist Voices, Mr. Rushdie!

re: Sadna # 365

Thank you. But human beings who can`t, or don`t, or are too timid to think for themselves, who are always running to others asking what they should do with their lives, who can`t stop reading tea leaves, are not much of an improvement over cockroaches.

Kind of like the proverbial mrigas -

Yesham na vidya, na tapo na danam,

na gyanam, na sheelam na guno na dharmah,

Te martya loke bhuvi bhar bhutah,

manushya roopen mrigashcharanti.

(An apology for using this board for some
other purpose)

FYI

PLAYING TONIGHT!

Please Pass on this information....


JUNOON SPECIAL ON VH1 TONIGHT

After reporting on just about every entertainment entity to originate from
Pakistan in the past decade for Link readers, it is great to inform you that
one of ours is being featured on mainline American television. Especially
after seeing Salman Ahmad going to bat for our country of origin on CNN and
on ABC television recently (and doing a decent job under the circumstances),
one cannot let go of this opportunity to inform Pakistanis and their friends
in North America that the Sufi-Rock Group JUNOON will be featured in a 30
minute News Special called ``Islamabad: Rock City`` on Thursday, November 29
at 10 PM (Eastern time) and on Saturday, December 1 at 11 PM (Eastern time)
on the VH1 Channel. Please check your local listings for further details or
visit the following website for further details at:
http://www.vh1.com/insidevh1/shows/newsspecials/islamabad/

This is only the second time that we will have the pleasure of seeing
Pakistani entertainers projected as such on American TV. The last one so
honored was the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And now Brian O`Connell,
Salman Ahmad and Ali Azmat are on the same path and make us proud. Let us
see how this band, which is described as ``the U2 of Pakistan`` is received is
received by America.


For further information on Junoon please visit:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/661455.asp?cp1=1#BODY


http://www.popcultmedia.com/bla111601.html


Ras

Bravo, Benazir!!

Despite her albatross of a husband -- this Muslim woman -- the preeminent daughter of modern Pakistan -- has the guts and the initiative -- that should put to shame most Pakistani MEN politicians -- to go into the lion`s den for a friendly chat with the representative of the ``enemy`` Northern Alliance.

It is impossible not to admire this brave WOMAN politician!

Here is what Benazir did in New Delhi:

Benazir, Khalili hold talk on post-Taliban scene

by RAKESH SINHA

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27: IN A move that surprised even the Afghans based in New Delhi, former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto tonight met Masood Khalili — ambassador of the Rabbani government which always slammed Pakistan for backing the Taliban — and discussed the post-Taliban arrangement likely to emerge in Kabul.

Benazir drove in to Khalili’s residence at Shanti Path around 8.30 pm and emerged nearly an hour later to say that she and her party (Pakistan Peoples’ Party) were in favour of a broad-based, multi-ethnic, representative government in Kabul.

‘‘My message to the people of Pakistan is that all Afghans are our friends. The PPP is committed to the stability of Afghanistan and reconciliation between all Afghan groups,’’

Benazir told The Indian Express when she was asked what message she was trying to send home by calling on Khalili.



On his part, Khalili said he was ‘‘pleased and honoured’’ that Benazir had called on him at his residence.



‘‘She seemed concerned about the developments but was optimistic about stability returning to Afghanistan.

She discussed the possible arrangement and ways on how we could bring about democratisation there. I am very grateful for the gesture she has shown,’’ he said.

In the five years that the Taliban ruled much of Afghanistan, Khalili continued to man the mission in New Delhi though Rabbani was far from Kabul.

Khalili was with Ahmed Shah Massoud when bin Laden men, posing as journalists, triggered an explosion two days before the WTC strikes, and was badly injured in the fatal attack.

re hamzad afaqui 282

That Pravda isn`t exactly the beacon of truth, even when it `interprets` NYT or Post, was proved for the 70 years that it served as the mouthpiece of the darned Commies. Quote something credible before you join the Perpetual Anti-Jewish/Hitler Memorial Club.

On Urstruly #239 ``...he is actually doing God`s work by dealing with the people from Hinduland with their own tactics.``

My request to Indian posters on chowk is to please not to fall to the level of this piece of dirt.

``then there are other cut`n`paste freaks like jay``

You are the Pakistani equivalent of jay. If chowk was truly a moderated site, the likes of you would never be able to get your hate-mongering filth on chowk.

``And multi-head, you keep up the good work. ``

This is for AAmir/Fatimah etc. Seriously. I do have a problem with your using multiple nicks since that is unfair to other chowk posters since it causes confusion. I have also been having a bit of fun at your expense on chowk. Having said that, the fact is that you are neither as hate-filled as this individual, and more intelligent, and a lot younger (I am quite sure). You are not in the gutter like urstruly. So dont listen to him. His concept is ``good work`` is to turn chowk into a mudslinging forum. His concept of ``God`s work`` is to sit comfortably in Detroit while generating ``fasaad`` on chowk, unconcerned with the millions of poor people of the subcontinent who need nothing more than peace between the two countries.

I also appeal to the Indian posters not to take the bait of this jerk and ignore him.

PRAVDA--28/11/2001 reports:

THE ISRAELI CONNECTION

What`s interesting, in this regard, is the news that, along with the 1,000 or so Muslim Middle Easterners jailed in the Ashcroft Sweep, 60 Israelis have been picked up and held, not just for routine visa violations, but in connection with the 9/11 investigation. The Washington Post story subhead read: ``Government calls Several Cases `of Special Interest,` Meaning Related to Post-Attacks Investigation.`` According to the Post, INS officials in Cleveland and St. Louis testified in court that these Israelis were ``of special interest to the government`` – putting them in the same category as hundreds of mostly Arab men rounded up by the feds since the attacks.

What, exactly, is the meaning of this? In the days and weeks after the twin towers went down, perfervid rumors of Israeli responsibility for the attack roiled some sectors of the Arab media, with the former Imam of New York City`s biggest mosque refusing to rule it out. The pro-Israel pundits had a field day with this, pointing to such nonsense as proof positive that the Arab mind was fundamentally and perhaps irreversibly deformed by ``Islamo-fascism`` and anti-Semitism. But as long as 60 Israeli citizens are being held – under conditions of great secrecy – in connection with the 9/11 investigation, it is no longer tenable to dismiss the possibility of an Israeli angle in this story.



PS:The `common` man in the bazaars of the muslim world is perhaps not stupid at all.It is the gullible english-`educated` ones who need brain surgery.

Friday November 23 6:45 AM ET

GORE VIDAL Slams U.S. for Waging `Perpetual War`

By Stephanie Holmes

ROME (Reuters) - Outspoken U.S. writer Gore Vidal has denounced Washington for waging what he called ``a perpetual war for perpetual peace`` and said American aggression was only nurturing fresh hatreds.

In a scathing attack on U.S. foreign policy, Vidal told Reuters that the United States would have been better served trying to buy peace with Osama bin Laden rather than send in the bombers to try and kill him.

Vidal, one of contemporary America`s harshest critics, has had trouble finding an audience for his views back home and is publishing his latest collection of essays in his adoptive country, Italy.

``Anyone can describe what happened but you have to think to realize why Osama bin Laden did what he did. This is hard work and it will make you very unpopular,`` he said in an interview late on Thursday.

Accusing bin Laden of masterminding the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, the United States has launched an offensive against Afghanistan where the Saudi-born dissident lives.

``Bin Laden strikes at America at the moment we are entering a world depression...it is the most fragile moment in the West. For someone who does not wish us well that was brilliantly timed,`` Vidal said.

For more than half a century, Vidal, 76, has made it his business to shock the U.S. establishment as a political, cultural and social commentator and in his latest work he criticized the government and media for not trying to explain the reasons behind the September 11 bloodshed.

NO MORE LIBERTY?

The front cover of his new book ``The End of Liberty -- Toward a New Totalitarianism`` shows a picture of the head of the Statue of Liberty with its mouth gagged by a U.S. flag.

One of the essays details a series of U.S. attacks on various countries since the end of World War Two. The piece was originally commissioned by an American magazine following the September 11 attacks but refused to publish it because of its uncompromising criticism.

``I`ve listed in this little book about four hundred strikes that the government has made on other countries. War, undeclared. Generally with the excuse that they were harboring communists. You keep attacking people for such a long time, one of them is going to get you back,`` Vidal said.

The U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan were not the right response, he added.

``What Osama did is not a war. It can`t be a war because Osama is not a nation. He is a gang. It is like being hit by the Mafia. You don`t declare war on Sicily because the Mafia happen to live in Sicily. You don`t bomb Palermo. You get the international police and you track him down.

``And if you are a really great nation you buy him. That`s the way every empire from Julius Caesar on has done it,`` he said, adding that he believed President Bush, had ulterior motives for promising a long war.

``Bush is enjoying 90 percent popularity, his 15 minutes of fame,`` he said, condemning the president`s reaction to the attacks on New York and Washington as ``suicidal.``

``It is not only wrong but it has repercussions that he hasn`t thought about. He likes to stand tall. The taller you stand the more likely you are to get hit by a kamikaze pilot,`` Vidal said.

Hobbity-----#252

Dear Mr.Hobbity,

Thank you.

Your interest in the philosophy of religion is indeed very keen & extensive.I somehow feel that the abstract nature of the subject & language employed could be too abstract & pedantic for this forum.I am pretty sure you must have perused the writings of William Schitick,Rene Guenun,Fritzhoff Schoun & others.I have read a little but I find them too erudite for my dabbler status.Mulla Sidra,I`ve been told,is admittedly the most powerful philosopher of recent years.He is recognised as such by those who are at ease with the eastern & western thought.

But Iqbal,a philosopher that he was---and second to none either---still rated Ishque way higher than aql.A Rumi would always win over a Raazi.

The present day dialectics(jadliaat) & debate which has entered the arena has a very bright future for muslims.Recognition by the other side that this is something to contend with and to be engaged is itself a great success.This also gives us a great opportunity for us to understand & improve ourselves---for when someone enquires & we have to explain we become aware of our own weak link.

As Iqbal has so prophetically said that the renaissance of muslims would take place in the west.Enslaved societies have never led the world,ever!

re: hamidm

...the elephant-nosed god seems to have really piqued your interest...

...i`m not normally this generous with horrible pakis, but i`ll make an exception this one time and let you in on a secret...but you must promise to never, ever let it out...i will arrange an encounter for you to actually meet the elephant-nosed god!...yes, you hamidm!...george-carlin-loving and heeng-cigar-smoking hamidm!...

...grab your chair tight, so you don`t fall off from the excitement...

start with a cheap Corona with that silly lime hanging off the edge...put on some green and grab a glass of Guiness next...then on to some bombay sapphire (this is a hindu god we`re trying to meet here!) and tonic, with a lime (no lemons please!)...then on to a quick shot of jose cuervo gold...getting hotter, we`ve just made contact with the god`s secretary....close your eyes and concentrate, and down that little tumbler of grand marnier...aha!...you are now in the elephant-nosed god`s lap!...

Did this maulvi sell 17 of his wives?

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S Hussian Zaidi

WITH 19 marriages and 27 children, Maulvi Mohammad Hasan Abdul Aziz Shaikh might have been on his way to breaking the record for multiple marriages and siring children. But the police played party-pooper and arrested him on November 10.

Shaikh, a 52-year-old Muslim priest, was arrested just when he was trying to consummate his marriage to his 19th wife, a 13-year-old who is at least five years younger than one of his daughters.

Social activist Noorjahan Kazi heard the screams of a child coming from his residence late at night. She and a police team descended on Shaikh’s house and found him trying to rape 13-year-old Husne Aara. Shaikh maintained that the girl was his “legally wedded wife of six months and police had no business to interfere”.

However, police charged him with abduction and the illegal confinement of a minor. They put him in Arthur Road Jail.

Now, they are investigating where his other 17 wives have gone. Only one wife, Bilquis Shaikh, remains with him.

Police suspect Shaikh has conned many women and sold them after marrying them. The real number of the women he has duped may never be known, they say.

According to Shaikh’s police statement, given to police officer Rahul Gangurde, he divorced seven of his wives, while the others escaped.

But the police are not willing to buy the claim. They suspect that Shaikh catered to wealthy Arabs, and for a monetary consideration sent his wives away with them. The police are yet to get clinching evidence.

According to police records at Antop Hill Police Station, Shaikh’s first marriage took place in 1976. Since then, he has brought a new bride to his pucca house at Sangam Nagar hutments, Antop Hill, each year.

“So far we know he has married 19 times and fathered 27 children,” said Sudam Shinde, senior police inspector, Antop Hill.

Incidentally, Shaikh is known as the general secretary of the Jame Masjid in Sangam Nagar. But Mohammed Yunus, a regular worshipper at Noori Masjid, Antop Hill, said, “Shaikh is no maulvi. We don’t recognise him as our priest. He could just be masquerading as one without any formal recognition by the community.”

Shinde said, “Shaikh has no known sources of income. He survived on contributions collected in the name of the masjid collection fund for Noori Masjid. Besides, he made a living through selling legally wedded wives to affluent customers in the Gulf.”

Shaikh, who hailed from Aurangabad, first married Halima Bibi, with whom he had 10 children. His eldest son is now 21 years old. Tired of his penchant for a new bride every year, Halima divorced him in 1995. She also tired of the neighbours teasing her children “nayi maa mubarak” after every marriage. Halima and the six children she had with him have severed ties with Shaikh.

Undeterred, Shaikh went on to marry Sajida Begum, Mallika Begum, Shabnam Begum, Shama Sultana and Shabiya Begum, all from Aurangabad.

When Shaikh became too notorious in his hometown, and respectable families stopped accepting his proposals for marriage, he looked for prey in new territories. He married Harifa Bano from Shriram Pur and Bilquis Bano from Nashik.

On why the police are certain that Shaikh is guilty, Shinde said, “One cannot marry so many times for lust. And, where will his army of wives disappear? We have a pile of nikahnamas (marriage certificates) seized from his place, which we are still trying to decipher. After we translate them, they could help trace his wives.”

Husne Aara, for whose abduction he was held, came from Kushi Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. In April this year, her parents were shown a picture of a handsome youth as a prospective groom. Her mother agreed to the marriage. However, when they reached the place of marriage, they found that the groom was an older, ugly, dark and bearded man — Shaikh himself.

Despite protests from Husne Aara’s mother, the community’s elders prevailed upon her and her daughter was married to Shaikh. The couple came to Mumbai and, ever since, the girl’s life has been hell.

Noorjahan said, “This girl saw a stream of visitors at her place and I gathered from her that Shaikh is running a racket. Along with some aides, he is always planning and conspiring to marry women and get them into the trade.”

Currently, Husne Aara is at the children’s home in Dongri. Shaikh’s only remaining wife, Bilquis, remains loyal to him and thinks the police have unjustly arrested her husband. “My husband did nothing wrong. He was so much in love with my souten, Husne Aara. Is that a crime? Should he be arrested for this?” Bilquis Shaikh asks.

Bilquis also dismisses allegations that her husband had 19 marriages and sold wives to rich clients.

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Reply Bapu # 225

“Save your energy ,for nothing,by not wasting your energy writing lengthy verbose ,random,meandering ,focus less ,cofused bunch of erratically chosen words only indicative of your ire supported by your vanity & prejudice ,nothing else...adapt your 13 th century law to 21 st cyber capabilities & then drink some Shattapjuice .”

charity begins at home

Reply DRUMZ # 247

“It was the aim of Islam to stop such idle worship”

Mashallah!

This is as good as when you asked if we were on Chowk or Chalk.

Keep em coming, keep em coming, please.

Zafar

Mulla UrsTruly is back from Jihad in Afghanistan beeing first to run away with Talibanis as kafir bombs fell and allah mian was no where in sight to kill other kafir shia Hazaras. Other jihadis like 12 head monster studbaker and farzana the taker jump to welcome the beardo.

Hamidm

``reductio ad absurdum``

In place of argument? or is it the totality of your argument? You must first become acquainted with the material, and if you can then argue that it leads to nowhere, then you would have a point.

Why do I think you don`t really believe your own sstatement?

See, I`m neither a prof or Dr. or any kind of academician or scholar, I am just a business person.

By the way - archeological surveys of the entire neolithic middle east reveals that antelope and especially wild boar bones occur in such vast numbers as to suggest that these may have been the primary source of protein at that time. it is intriguing to think this may be related in some way to religious prohibitions. Memory again!

Please explain to me exactly what about what I have written that you find objectionable, in complpete sentences, please. And I will try and explain myself - surely that is fair.

scout,sadna

Refr: popularity of Indian jewelry

Undoubtedly it is the other way round. Pakistani jewelry is so very exquisite/delicate. I remember there used to be a store called Ruby Jewelers - ufff what pretty bangles&earrings&rings&you get my drift : ) Indian jewelry apart from Bengali is a bit crude in my opinion.

aicha

Scout and Urstruly,

Send my regards to Zahra as well and tell her I miss her rational posts.

Urstruly,

That you even encourage this trannie with serious issues...and as Rsaxena pointed out, why encourage 12 Head to be a bigot with one hand and not a misogynist with the other? Toba toba...no wonder he/she is so confused...will you not get your prejudices consistant?

Hamid

I find a million years wouldn`t be adequate in worrying about your most of your envious, misguided gender...plus I believe my fav. cartoon is on...then I have to do the dishes, write a paper, you get the picture.

Ali

Potato ears, thank you for the compliments...actually I wouldn`t know what to do if someone sued another person for me...not in my nature...but ig me, and I am nobody`s doll.

regards all