My Pakistan Diary: Roots! A Spiritual Journey

Though it is too late. By chance I was surfing the net and I saw this article. No dout you love your birthplace. it is beyond the dout.I highly appriciate the efforts of the auther who went to that area where he was born. This is the love for land irrespective of cast, creed and relegion. I enjoyed this article. I belong to the salt range area and wish to see that place, an old historic fort there.

Comment #32

Dear Urstruly,

Your comment “As for me, I would rather stick my finger in the mouth of a rattle-snake than shake hands with a Hindu and call him my brother. I have better chances of survival with a snake rather than a Hindu. This is the legacy of your generation. This is the gift you have given to your new generation. It is little too late to seek atonement thru your roots. Isn`t it?”

My Answer
There is no need for such a adventure to put your hand into the snake’s mouth. If the snake bites u, it is the snake who will die from your poison. Have some mercy/amnesty for the poor reptile. Are there any rattle snakes found in Pakistan. They are most found in America.

Forget hand shake with a Hindu, even the Americans, Chinese & the Europeans are afraid to visit your country. Most of the foreign embassies will warn/refrain u from visiting Pakistan.. This is evident from the tourism figures released in Pakistan. Look, With on one to hand shake with u it is only reptile snake left.

Iqbal Singh - mumbai

#137 by Ralph on June 18, 2004 9:08am PT

Yes! Bengalis have a fairly good understanding of materialism and free thinking. Some of the works on scientific materialism are really scholarly- their critique of dominant interpretations of religions like Christianity, Islam and hinduism is well published as well.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/ayaz.htm
June 25

Paradise Threatened
Ayaz Amir

ahmadzai, i did that to the editors quite a few days back -- apparently they want to publish articles only on (a) the karachi situation or (religion) or (c) walkabouts in pakistan ... JK ... but i did submit it some time back -- the guy who i wrote about got in touch immediately -- names Omar ahmadzai

stuka: ``What facts are wrong? The fact is that there was an attack at the Marriott.`` -- the hotel was not attacked but the US consulate right next to it -- yes, im sure its business must have suffered immensely (and as u say physical damage) but it wasnt the target of the attack -- similarly the ABN AMRO head office next to it was also damaged but we all know that it directly wasnt the target of the attackers -- if your head office people think that then they have obviously been misled -- everyone in pakistan knows that the hashwani people own the marriot -- im pretty sure the jihadis would know that too -- however sitting in DC or wherever if u insist on knowing the `facts` then please hold on to them --

Umar:

You should post on Chowk your article on tourism that got published last week in Dawn`s opinion column.

rahulmal#136
This is what I posted on the shiraz board. Hope, it helps.

``As a non-believer, when I read qur`an, it seemed to me to be the handiwork of a clever man who used God to do his bidding by putting words in His mouth that suited him from time to time. But then, it is no different from other religions where people have created all sort of myths to suit their ends. As a religious faith, I do not see anything in islam against modernity. The five pillars of islam are kalima, namaz, roza, zakat and haj. As long as muslims stick to them, they cause no problem to themselves or, what is more important to me as a non-mulsim, to others. I would indeed speculate that the reason why one does not see the kind of grinding misery in the middle east or even Pakistan that one sees in a country like India is probably due to the empahsis on zakat and philanthropy in islam.

The problem arises when one brings in the political islam into the picture. The five pillars make no mention of dar-ul-harb, blasphemy, umma, jihad, sharia or even the immutability of quran. So, the reform movement in islam, if it is to succeed, has to emphasise the separation of political islam from the faith as represented by the five pillars. Can it be done?``

rahulmal, dost-mittar

If you ask a Sikh, Christian, Hindu, or Muslim what a good Sikh, Christian, Hindu or Muslim is, he will give you the answer he thinks you want to hear.

The only way to find out the truth about his beliefs is to examine what kind of a person this individual actually admires, who he considers as his hero.

Who are heroes of Muslims? That should tell you what a good Muslim is.

kaurasach # 131

Bengalis have traditionally been a progressive people. Yet knowing the nature of Islam, I fear for Bangladesh`s religious future. The good news is that many Bangladeshis are speaking out. Whether Bangladesh will become a unique country in which liberals are able to dominate Islamists within the framework of equal rights for all and without the use of brute military force remains to be seen.

For the same reasons, the fact that there was a major coverage of the event you mentioned in big Pakistani newspapers tells me that such events are not very ordinary. Again, I am under no delusions about Islam. There is a proportion of Islamists who believe that raping and converting Christian, Hindu, Sikh girls is their religioius obligation. Or that these women are theirs for the taking. I would just not color all or majority of Pakistanis like that.

DMji,

Not sure if you`ve given up on this, but I`ll give it another try...

``and all of them believe in the quraan`` Well, that`s what I`m saying. All of them have a certain immutable and central angle to their faith- the Quran and Hadees (Hadith in Arabic). There is a single Quran that all Muslims believe as word of God. So, a good Muslim is one who follows the principles laid down in these religious texts.

And that is why I`m saying, Aurangzeb the zealot was a good Muslim. This person ended the `infidel` practise of darshana or deedar (or whatever is the Persian word for that) of Kings. He never used a single penny from state exchequer, lived an austere lifestyle, took only four wives, and religiously followed all the other things like Namaaz, jakat, Jizyah et all. Pious Muslims fondly remember that Alamgir used to sew skull-caps and copy Qurans to earn his livelihood. The imposition of Jizyah and destruction of Varanasi Shiva temple was part of the same `orthodox` mindset. So, a good Muslim, a terrible human being!!

``They would be best answered by a coreligionist``

Whose co-religionist?

HP

That hindu women get raped in pakistan is true, but more importantly its the old baggage which we carry gives more import. There is a picture of a turki/pathan uncivilized soldier coming into India and cramping our style. The Siddis and Habshis were infamuos slave-traders on the arabian sea coast, and the bad memories persist. While the angrez, firangi and the francisi also cramped our style politically, they dont have a bad image in above discussed extra-marital conquering-type relation. Interestingly, this baggage is shared by hindus and muslims both, as demonstrated by several interactors here who posted that they are adonis and all hindu women are waiting with open arms for them. This in addition to the disproportinate muslim influence in the indian mafia, involved in flesh trade, makes the rape stories significance much higher than what mere statistics would suggest. But then, statistics are not always the whole story.

``dude u work in the marriot hq and u guys have your facts wrong - the marriot in khi happens to be right next to the US consulate -- hence the attacks ``

Omar:

What facts are wrong? The fact is that there was an attack at the Marriott. The fact is that it is a Pakistani owned hotel franchised with us. As to motivations, you r guess is as good as mine. I do know that the hotel itsaelf had sustained damage.

Dost-mitter,

I have told you before also that this so called ``fair`` is a subjective thing.
What is fair-mindedness ?

If the Pakis want 100% of Kashmir and India says you got 35% and no more - what
is fair ?

I found that everytime you were to comment on Paki behavior - you had to bring
in some Indian example (which may even be unrelated ) just to appear fair !

Why do you have this need to be ``fair`` - should you not focus on facts and truth
of an issue ? That will help you to become more objective and capable of critical
thinking. Instead you will become like the Pakis - always finding justification for
any action in the guise of being fair.

mull over it.

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satyamvada:
You are confusing fair-mindedness with equivalence.
On indic philosophies, I agree that there are different from the Abrahamic religions, but I would also add far eastern philosophies like taoism and shintoism to the indic list.