Yet Another Immigrant Story ...interesting article.....

md and va is a very nice area......i grew up there as a kid...and have very fond memories...

...domestic usa is the best face of usa....specially in the education sector....one can really grow and prosper in the usa, if one is willing to work hard, and if one has some professional qualifications.....

...there are, however, quite a few comprimises one has to make, in the usa.....most pakistanis want the domestic prosperity of the usa, but tend to oppose its foreign policy....this becomes a dilemma for them....they are neither able to be loyal to their adopted country, nor loyal to certain principles they believe in......us foreign policy being exactly the opposite of us domestic policy...i.e. extremely voilent.....one ends up being extremely critical of the place one has been benefitting from.......

...i have seen very few, if any, pakistani who has been able to handle this.....they tend to be in a state of limbo, when it comes to their loyalty to the usa......with some becoming holier than the pope, in their loyalty, ala hamidm, and others becoming totally hypocritical ala urstruly.....

Muslims in America eklavya #: "Why don't Muslims just get rid of this clergy? This class is NOT sanctioned in Islam.....I would really appreciate a serious answer..."

...if you study islam as a philosophy, setting it aside as a religion, i.e. you don't worry about whether it was created by man or God, you will notice two aspects of it, which are very appealing to anyone who is on the lower rung of the social ladder......

1. it carries egalitarianism as its basis, i.e. all mulsims line up in the same row, even today, in a mosque, regardless of cast, creed, wealth, status, ethnicities etc.

2. it gets rid of the clergy and declares every muslim to be equal in the eyes of God, with a direct line to God.....anyone who converts to islam can lead the prayers in ka'aba immediately.....

...it was on the basis of these two concepts that muhammad carried out a massive social revolution in his time.....both these ideas are bound to appeal to the downtrodden masses...

islam is, thus, a religion which goes bottom up....it empowers the lower strata of society and weakens the top (religious and social) strata....it did not separate church and state......it actually got rid of the church all together......

for the past 10 years, i have been to the mosque, perhaps once....i do not follow any religious scholar or imam etc. within islam.....i sit and study it in my own time, and have interpreted it, the best i can, based on my knowledge......according to islam, i am as good a muslim as the next guy.......

there is no history of any clerical figure holding any prominent position in the first days of islam......muhammad was a salesman, his wife a businesswomen......the first four caliphs were businesmen, statesmen, soldiers etc....

.....with the quran as its only source, islam became such a simple religion that anyone could understand it....with the quran being so abstract, anyone could fit it into his/her life......

this made it impossible for anyone in islam to establish himself/herself in any position of power using religion....

....however, this did not last long....around 200+ years after the death of muhammad, the first books of hadith started coming in......the content of these books far outnumbers the content of the quran...

this added another layer to the religion, which complicated its simplicity......now a person had to study all these books if he wanted to understand religion.....

then, certain people made it a profession to further elaborate their views on these hadith (and quran)......this created such a huge volume of information that religion changed from what it was supposed to be, i.e. a simple book which anyone could understand to volumes and volumes of information, which required degrees to absorb......

.....this resulted in the re-birth of the clergy......the clergy, like most clergies, then secured itself by not allowing open debate on islam......in addition, it passed further rulings, even on specific subjects, which totally diluted the simplicity of the quran......this complicated the religion further.....

the quran itself states that religion is completed with the quran - a statement by muhammad on his last pilgrimage....it never sanctions any clergy and encourages its readers to read and discover......the first verse of the quran was, "Read in the name of thy Lord.".......

it doesn't say read just the quran......it says read.....read anything.......

however, with the emergence of hadith and then the tons of volumes of literature, which used it as its base, islam, now, at least in my opinion, is totally different from what it was meant to be.......

for example, the quran doesn't even describe a way to say one's prayers......the quran is mostly stories (joseph, noah etc.) and abstract direction......be good, don't lie, give charity etc.....this information is so abstract that you can interpret it into many differnt ways......

now the clergy is well entrenched because as no common person can figure out the extremely complex religion they have turned islam into.....

.....getting rid of a clergy is not so easy.....islam did it theoretically, however it could not do so practically.....

if computers become simple, us computer scientists would not have job....if religion becomes simple, clergy will not have a job......hence the clergy has huge interests in keeping the relgion complicated.....

Muslims in America ...i think the ideal model american citizens of pakistani origin are hamidm and urstruly....

they have made america their home and despite having many opportunities available to them in pakistan, remain totally loyal to the usa....

the usa needs more immigrants like hamidm and urstruly.....

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? dost-mittar #: "To whom has the sheikh of dubai yielded his sovereignty?.."

...dubai is part of a country known as uae, which is a federation of seven sheikhdoms - abu dhabhi, dubai, sharjah, fujeira, umm-ul-q, ajman and rak.....

out of these, there are really only two that make good money - abu dhabi and dubai.....the rest just live off these two....

.....abu dhabi owns over 86% of the land of uae and has aroun 90-95% of the oil.....in fact, uae is really abu dhabi.......the average worth of each citizen of abu dhabi is a whopping $17 million......yes, $17 million.......and if you include the oil that is still in the ground, it would be much much higher......

however, dubai has made the most progress and now is the most well known, with a well established real estate, tourism and services industry.....it only gets 5% of its revenue from oil......due to a large influx of expats, it has a larger population than abu dhabi, even though it only has 5% of the area of uae.......

uae is an extremely loosely federated combination of sheikhdoms, which exist as one country......but only in terms of currency and foreign policy.......domestic policy, culture, laws etc. are all different.......

if abu dhabi (and dubai) wanted to, they could take over the uae.....for all practical purposes, the rest of the sheikhdoms would be paupers if not backed by abu dhabi's oil and dubai's services market......

basically abu dhabi has given up control over uae (and has exceeded territory) to other shiekhs to ensure a peaceful country.....

this is the best way for pakistan (and south asia) to exist.....the cultural differences in pakistan (and south asia) are hugely more than those in uae......so this becomes even more imperative.....

pakistan should exist as a looser federation of provinces.....each running its own area, with a common currency, foreign policy and military......other than that every province decides what it wants - shariah, secularism, violence, peace etc......

in fact south asia should be the same......a very loosely integrated union of provinces, with one common currency, a weak central govt. and an alliance on foreign policy......much like what eu is moving towards...

..this has been the natural medium for what is south asia (including what is today pakistan)....the only time this medium has been violated is when conquerors (ashoka, mughals, british etc.) forcefully united it....

anyways, if india does not want to do that, it doesn't mean pakistan should not do it......as i always say, people spend 95% or more of their time in their own city......as long as the city is running well, who cares how large the country happens to be........

the strange self-centered desire of individuals to control lands and populations, which they may never even visit, is something beyond my comprehension........

if i live in islamabad, i want it to run well......i could care less if quetta runs well......as long as i can do business and visit quetta, easily, i am happy......

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? dost-mittar #: "But as I said earlier, your solution would mean Pakistan giving up sovereignty of its territory."

yes, and there is nothing wrong with that......the most comfortable places i have lived in are the ones which are not afraid of giving up sovereignity......

people spend most of their lives in one city......as long as the city runs well, they are comfortable......dubai being one example....

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? majumdar #: "But many Pakistani strategists including Ijaz sahib and Amin sahib have opined that India's mobilisation forced Pakistan to counter-mobilise drawing troops away from the Western frontier. This allowed the militants to regroup and move into the vacuum."

i am not sure if ijaz and amin are strategists......one is a retired major and the other enjoys reading up on and participating in military affairs......

i have yet to meet a military strategist in pakistan....i mean one who really analyses things in depth.....

...the worst move by pakistan was to put troops on its eastern borders......hence anything that forced pakistan to withdraw troops from the eastern border would be helpful to pakistan and not harmful.......

....what we are seeing right now in tribal areas has been going on for ages (albeit in much lower intensity)......it only ended up on tv now.....its the wild wild west.....and no one from pakistan (specifically the army), wisely, ever interfered....you can, now, see why....

.....the worst impact on pakistan, in the good old tribal days, was that, every now and then, someone's car would get stolen and end up in tribal areas, from where it could not be recovered...that was it.......

......then 9/11 happened and musharraf gave usa everything they wanted.......even that could have been handled.......however, when the usa asked pakistan to send troops into the tribal area and start bombing and kiling, that is when the disaster started.....

people like imran khan were yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs on what a disaster it would be, but no one listened.....the army was totally against it also....however, musharraf needed the us lifeline and he went ahead......now pakistan's soldiers are being killed by both sides.....

there is absolutely no way to defeat a populist civilian insurgency......the good thing here is that the taliban insurgency is not populist, unlike kashmir and bangladesh or iraq etc......

hence it can still be contained.......however, this requires the ppp govt. to first establish its credibility with the people of pakistan, so that it is trusted.......then it needs to debate it in the assembly.....then get backing from the assembly to take some military action........

and then, very wisely, mix minimal military action with maximum negotiation.......while simultaneously, disengaging from the usa gwot so that it is clear that pakistan is taking action only for itself......

the deeper pakistan gets into gwot, the more trouble there will be.......it needs to disengage, as quickly as possible and concentrate on its own affairs.....nato countries (like holland) have a few hundred troops to a few thousand troops in afghnistan.....why in the world should pakistan have 70,000?.......

p.s. if you remember pakistan almost sent soldiers into iraq......as hamidm etc. cheered on....imagine what would have happend.......the afghani al-qaeda is already after pakistan.......even the iraqi one would have been, as well....

rule no. 1.....never ever join us-led wars......stay neutral......

The Lame Duck Government majumdar/cheema #: "n the version I have heard, after hearing Porus' retort, Sir Alex gives him back his throne and Porus becomes his vassal..."

a movie on Porus is definitely a must.......specially since he was a stone's throw away, down the river from my neighborhood......

however, it would be quite ridiculous to refer to porus as a pakistani......as ridiculous as it is to refer to tipu sultan as an indian......

porus would be part of the current punjab civilization.....or jehlum if one wants to be exact......and had tipu defeated the british at srirangaptna, he would more than likely been at war with the rest of india......in fact, out of the 50,000 soldiers whom he fought against, only 4000 were brits...the rest were from hyderabad and marathas.......

tipu sultan could be called a karnatakan, at best......

...i had a discussion with someone who had read up on him quite a bit.....it turns out that new information is being discovered that indicates that alexander did not defeat porus.......

alexander always conquered and left his own subordinates behind to rule......he didn't do that in jehlum.....porus could very well have been the reason that alexander turned south and headed towards multan, rather than moving further into asia......

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? dost-mittar #: "or anyone else?....Do you not foresee a serious problem in Pakistan soldiers taking on the jihadis?.."

yes, this is, obviously, a major problem.....no one likes fighting their own citizens.....and if they feel it is at the behest of a foreign power, like, usa, it become extremely difficult.....perhaps under the orders of a civilian govt., it will get easier.......

...pakistan is slowly moving towards a situation, which will be a lose-lose....perhaps in a major way....

many of us had highlighted again and again that pakistan should not use force in its tribal areas......and that it should not join america's gwot...if america, itself, cannot win it, with $80 billion/yr, how in the world is pakistan going to win it......

usa, however, has one advantage......it can quietly retreat back across the atlantic, after losing in iraq and, now, in afghanistan......

pakistan doesn't have this luxury.....

i am amazed at the bravado of the pakistani expatriates.....they seem to be pushing military action as if it has been a success everywhere......this same crowd, on chowk, pushed military action in iraq......no logic, no knowledge of history, just bravado......

i suppose one can be brave if one is sitting in dearborne, michigan....

tribal areas are a like a hornets' nest.......i doubt too many people on chowk have ever visited the place......individuals on chowk are simply excercising their political views through this violence.......the pro-american on one side and anti-american on the other......

this is extremely dangerous.......one of the worst things that can happen to a country is, for it to become the ground on which int'l ideological battles are fought.....

thus, both the usa and the taliban are bad for pakistan.....

pakistan should not have sent a single soldier in there......it should have told the tribals that they are no to engage in violence with the american forces in afghanistan, without the consent of the pakistan govt.......and if they do so, they are on their own........

now pakistanis are in four minds.......they don't know whether to oppose the americans or the taliban....they don't know whether to use military force or to negotiate.......as time passes, all four options become more and more useless.......

the solution now is abrupt de-centralization of power.....pakistan needs to be federated....which in the long run will be of great benefit.....let the tribal areas push their own policies.....let nwfp push its own.....and punjab and sind and baluchistan push their own........

once the tribal area inhabitants have control of their own territory, they can do as they please......fight the americans or join up with them.......

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? hamidm mian#: "i don't know if you have noticed, but things are much better in iraq and in a couple of years (if the democrats don't screw it up) iraq will be just fine.."

pls pls tell me you are not serious.....pls.....

it was bad enough when you declared arjunm your mentor.....but this takes the cake...if you are really as delirious as your comments indicate.....pakistan has a bad enough reputation as it is, but comments like this will truly make us look like idiots.....

i, remember, once, someone, on this site, stating that historic pirs used to fly in the air (like superman).....but hamidm you have even outdone those comments......

say it isn't so......pls.....

(no wonder an unknown black guy from chicago, is about to kick republican ass.......)

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? dost-mittar #: there is an easy solution.....decentralize

pakistan is an artiifical country (like belgium) - half of it consisting of northern india and half of it consisiting of afghanistan....

prior to that, it was an even more artificial country, with a huge part of country consisting of bengal....

......as i have always argued, south asia only has brief moments of large unions, which are followed be very very long periods of south asia, returning to its normal state of europe-like states.....

....this can happen, either violently, or peacefully....in pakistan's case it has happened violently......

it is the job of prime ministers and other decision makers etc. to have a deep knowledge of the people they are governing, a study of the history of their surroudings.....

that is how people develop vision......

pakistan needs to jump ahead of the events and plan for what is going to happen, based on history.....

when the iraq war started, and every tom, dick and hamid in the usa was saying what a huge success it was going to be, i knew it would be a failure.....a simple study of military use against insurgencies was all that was needed....i said the same thing about afghanistan and about military action in the tribal areas....

so what should pakistan do:

1. it needs to have a totally non-aligned policy with the usa at the govt. to govt. level......as i have always said, amrika di dosti vee paerhhree tay dushmani vee paerhhree...it should go for strong business to business interaction (like china has done)

2. it needs to de-centralize fully....like uae....let the pathans run nwfp........let the tribal area folk run their own land.....how many people on this site have ever visited waziristan (or even swat for that matter).......

as long as lahore is looked after well, lahoris are happy.....same for karachi and islamabad.....

3. open up business to business trade with india......that doesn't mean pakistan should bend over on any principled stance.....but business needs to be separated from politics....

4. start teaching chinese to pakistanis.....and align all policies with china and not with usa......

Forgotten President & Shape of Things to Come? ..pakistan is, now, getting into a situation like iraq....peace deals may not work and violence hasn't work...

..prior to the first afghan war, pakistan had no drugs, no klashnikovs......prior to this second afghan war, pakistan had no taliban, no suicide bombings.....

lesson learnt.....don't try to become a frontline state in us wars......

pakistan needs to be non-aligned with the us, at the govt. level.....and develop contacts only at the business to business level....

Nawaz Sharif’s Moment of Truth hamidm mian: "a few weeks of insanity when i fell under romair's spell.."

...if i had a dirham for every time a lady said this to me, i could retire and hire hamidm mian as my sprinkler guy....

now even guys are falling under my spell......

is it my striking personality or my charming looks......or is it my charming personality or my striking looks....

Aitzaz’s Monumental Blunder Dekho dekho kaun aaya, sher aaya sher aaya.
--------------------------------------------

...for those who watch pakistani politics beyond the expatriate expertise, which is visible on this site, the by-elections should be providing an eye-opening result:

...i must say even a cynic like me, who thought that pakistan is too feudal and pir-based to independently vote in elections has changed his mind....perhaps the media has a lot to do with it....

....ppp must be shocked at the by-election results.....granted it was for a small number of seats, but it has lost seats, which historically the incumbent always wins.....and pml-n has won all the seats it was supposed to win, plus a few more......

consider the following:

-ppp and pml-n decided, early on not to compete against each other.....so multan (an area in punjab, where ppp has a hold) can be considered a good benchmark for ppp's popularity (or growing unpopularity).....

....the current pm - gilani - is from multan.....the no. 2 guy in his personal ppp group - shah mehmood - is from multan and is the foreign minister.....both are from big pir families...

.....shah mahmood's brother contested from multan from mahmood's traditional seat......the pm went to his constituency and made a huge donation and made a speech....pml-n did not contest against mahmood's brother....

however, the results are coming in, and mahmood's brother is losing to an independent candidate.....imagine......the pm's backed candidate, who is the brother of the foreign minister is losing from a traditional family ppp seat.....even though pml-n did not compete against him......to an independent candidate......

ppp is losing in other areas also........if pml-n had gone head to head against ppp, in these by-elections, ppp would have lost everything.....

i think ppp has already lost punjab to pml-n......i think even the pm - gilani - and mahmood - prime minister - would lose to pml-n in multan today, if elections were held......

Aitzaz’s Monumental Blunder ....i think the name of pakistan should be changed to butto-abad......why mess around with just roads and airports...

....kind of like changing the name of lyallpur to faisalabad....

....i just read that bakhtawar (the younger sister of bilawal) has been made the head of the women's wing of ppp....

......and an even younger sister (asifa?) has been made the head of the youth wing......

......so, now, pakistan's largest political party is being run by a 19 year old, a 16 year old and someone even younger.....

....i also read that according to a survey by a us organizaiton, pml-n, now, is hands down the most popular party in pakistan.....they have jumped around 20 points since the elections......they are 42% and ppp is still at 32%.......

....93% of pakistanis still want the cj restored.....and nawaz sharif is, now, orders of magnitude more popular than zardari (according to the survey)......

.....ppp has all the qualities of being a very good political party; other than one.....it welcomes all kinds of people - men and women, maulvis and minorities, pimps and prostitutes, intellectuals and labor.......

however, its achilles heel is that its leadership is, at its core feudal and pir.....it is dynastic......this will be its downfall.....

.....by the time zardari is through with it, i think ppp will have lost all its shine and popularity.....and even bilawal, bakhtawar and asifa will not be able to save it....

nawaz sharif - an otherwise massively corrupt man - now has a group of loyal followers, who are saying what the public wants.....

if elections were held today, pml-n would defeat ppp hands down.....

if ppp wants to save itself, it has to take the leadership from zardari and give it to its aitezazs, and badrs, and rabbanis, and gillanis etc.......all these guys considered zardari a liablity and had forced benazir to keep him out of ppp affairs........now with one event, he is the most powerful man in the party and in the country.....

people used to say benazir had all her father's faults, without having any of his virtues...i think one can safely say zardari has all of benazir's faults with none of her virtues

how times change......

p.s. before people get too excited about nawaz sharif, they should know that he is the pml-n's pm candidate, his brother is the chief miniser of punjab, his nephew has an mna seat, and even his son-in-law is an mna candidate.......

Attack in Mohmand ...give someone an inch, and they try to take a mile....

first bush starts threatening pakistan.....then hamidm starts.......and now even karzai has started....

.....bush ran away from vietnam.....hamidm ran away from pakistan military academy........i am not sure whether karzia also ran away from battle......but he did run a restaurant in quetta.....which is even worse.....

...i think it is about time pakistan turned the tables....it should invade afghanistan and teach all these afghanis a lesson......it should march to karzai's palace and give him a good spanking......

(not sure if it can do anything to bush, though, even after he is retired......)......however it can tell the americans that if they want to stop taliban coming into pakistan, then it should use its own soldiers to stop them on afghanistan's side.......

after which it should go after hamidm.......and bring him back to pma and ensure he completes all his training......

Attack in Mohmand ..i was listening to an interview of imran khan.......

he said he went to visit a madrassah which was bombed by the americans, in which 83 people were killed by the americans.....he said, the families of 60 of the dead, showed him id cards, which showed that those 60 were under the age of 18........

.......in another american attack, a man in his 60s lost 10 members of his family......that man went and committed suicide......

........he said that man could very well have gone and killed others as a suicide bomber.......

......i think this time the americans have gone thoroughly overboard......pakistan has lost far more soldiers than any other nato country......americans have now shot and killed pakistani soldiers.......the same soldiers who are fighting on their side......

this was not a random act.......it was done knowing fully well that pakistanis and pakistani soldiers could get killed.......

......i think it is time for pakistan to withdraw support and withdraw its troops......ever since pakistan has started negotiations with the tribal regions, the number of suicide bombings in lahore, islamabad etc. have come down almost to zero, from a high of one or more a week......

the usa is totally through in afghanistan, if pakistan withdraws its support......pakistan is the only country that has had any success in this region......