Al-Andalusia … Decline of a Plural Culture i have one question on al-andulusia..surely the folks of those lands must have memories, folk-lores etc about the great muslim rule. are there any festivals, rituals wtc which celebrate this great pluralistic rule today? what is the memory of it amongst the people of those lands? e.g. hindus clebrate dussera as victory of (good) ram over (evil) ravan.

This Pyre Will Burn…! IMO its very unfair to harp on ethnic assimilation in pakistan while quoting success if that in india. in india a community can naturally exist as is, form its schools and community centers, housing colonies and so on. they never have to "assimilate" and for the most part they dont..i.e. they do NOT intermarry and bussinesses are also started in biradari fashion. i suspect its the same in pakistan..prolly less so since some muslims pretending to be urdu-speaking (e.g. hyderabadi) can intermarry. the conflict bet mojos and sindhis seems to be about entitlements..whenever we have such entitlements in india, conflicts do occur. case in point is that of shivsena...it was formed to ensure ghati employment in reserve bank of india.

This Pyre Will Burn…! #109 salim..
i never claimed that karachi was a triving metro..what i am saying was ball to make karachi a triving port city was kinda already rolling. 40s and 50s and 60s were times of great migrations of educated from small towns and villages to cities. now, mojos had created a nice little heaven for themselves to migrate to, but rest of the greater india .. even small places like bhopal and rourkela also experienced great migrations (without the ethnic clensing) and vigouros new growth. madrasi enclaves grew in bombay and dilli..sindhi colonies in puna and so on.

the mojos (i mean the central province wallas, not memons and bohras who you love to bundle in for convinience..they would have gone to whereever there was opportunity) were not exactly the hottest shyte of india then..after all they were the remnats of the long lost decadent empire..after the cruel setback they got in 1857, they clearly knew that they needed some sheltered place to become vigorous again as a community, and they got it...smart folks...but not exactly taj mahal builders that you claim them as.

This Pyre Will Burn…! while new pakistanis did do major building of karachi as is natural, they ought to acknowlege that foundations were put in by the british in irrigation and karachi port trust. pre-partition karachi was already a boomtown for people from then bombay presidency..kinda like dubai...there were all kinds of professionals drawn to karachi, civil and irrigation engineers, teachers from goa, bombay, puna, baroda etc. there is no reason that karachi would have continued to be built post 1947...maybe not by new pakistanis, but the ball was already rolling.

This Pyre Will Burn…! 3 cheers for this thread.

This Pyre Will Burn…! #25 salim yar...most of the mojos were salariyat..not that keen on doing farming. farming muslims stayed back..go to sahranpur and you will find them. and chasing hindu was part of the national ethos, vaderas were NOT hindus.

hope this esplanes things clearly.

Preview of Looming Democracy - Two Months of PPP in the Limelight there is always this shyte about paki percentages which is comfusing...for a long time there was this thing about 3% religious party vote and now we have lal masjids, dead PM, Swat pulice thanas etc. so lets not get all hung-up about these percentages..if 3% can influence so can 9 or 10

may be a little less than 3 but still..

Benazir Bhutto Killed in an Attack it was prolly an incident of friendly-fire?

Benazir Bhutto Killed in an Attack it was prolly an incident of friendly-fire?

Aqsa Pervez: The Casualty of Patriarchy what does androcitrus mean..is it something about a human neembu?

The Real Issue Facing Pakistan HP sahib, i thought the great game theories in the past had raised your hackles? offcourse the anglo-saxons wanted to have a "friend" or a guard-dog in our part of the world. iran was that but it turned out to be unmanagable..india was not good due to its chaotic unmanagability, afgans were afgans so pakis were always a good choice. the only choice for pakistan really had been to accept indian hagemony..but unfortunately for pakistan india had been such an economic mess that it was never a real choice.

so army or not, pakistan would always have to face manipulations by the west..the only choice is to be friend or the west (not possible due to its islamic character) or a client...or wait for china to truely start flexing its muscle and then other alternatives open up.

The Holiday Season yar this is such stereotypical shyte..it preys on paki sterotype of amrican girls liquoring and getting knocked-up. is it any surprise if poor cabbie dads get into murderous rage over their daughters not wearing the hijab?

Feminism Under Veil the author has had mental-health and adjustment problems like aneroxia etc and is using hijab as a kind of therapeutic tool. its all good. i hope however that it does not alienate herself from the neighbors and she ends up raising alienated children with adjustment problems.

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? the point is creating an atmosphere for nurturing of ideas into lasting useful shyte is a non-trivial thing..many ideas prolly die a quick death without social nurture, capital infusion etc. just some religion wont do, it can at best be a hinderance. its hard to look for that one line about going to china in middle of all the other copious shyte which you need to worry about when eternal damnation is at stake.

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? IMO great ideas are not that easy to form in general, a lot of stars need to align.
...its silly to claim that islami greats stopped happening due to colonialization. we have had at least two fabulously rich islami empires, the mughal and the ottoman (you can add the ispahanis to that and then you get a third) which were without any colonialization. if at all, the islamis were the colonial powers in baghdad and damascus and jerusalem and alaexandria and basra and tunis. we can grant the the mughals were not much good due to the currupt-hindu influence, but the ottomans and ispahanis have no such hinderance. i mean halaku may have borrowed a few books for his campfire, but is that enough? after all these empires were fabulously rich.

6th December 1992 salim besides acting bania, you also seem to have churri up your bagal..i said inspite of our blemishes..that hardly means overlooking them. we will take care of the blemishes with our own karma-based schemes..no excuses.