Order and Anarchy

Ramadan Mubarak to all of you out there. May the holy month brings with it all the tidings and blessings that are there for this world to grab.

As with last year, this year too, a dedicated Ramadan blog is being activated (rather continued from last year) that will contain everything related to this holy month in pictures and in words, that will cover the Ramadan theme from around the world and that will share and mix an immense array of the beautiful universal Ramadan activities and rituals as carried out in different cultures.

I welcome you all to visit Ramadan Kareem and immerse yourselves in the amazing journey through the holy month as experienced by bloggers from a multitude of nationalities, cultures and backgrounds but sharing a unique and distinct urge to make out the most of the month’s beauties!!

It was Eid day today in Pakistan except for the North West Frontier Province, which had celebrated Eid earlier. It’s been with usual fervour and warmth that Eid has been celebrated here with people greeting each other and children enjoying the bounties of eidi. Obviously, the centre point of all greetings has been siwayyan.

Eid Mubarak to everyone out there. May this Eid bring with it the most happiness, bliss and peace and the best of what life has to offer. May we all revel in the showers of Allah’s Blessings that come our way this Eid and always.

Damage already being done by the Pope’s words in his speech in Germany, he donned the damage control garb and acted to issue apologies on Sunday and Wednesday, or more precisely, what he thought ot be an apology. Rather, it a further insult for the Muslims. Instead of the apology being in the manner of something like the Pope taking back his words, he insisted that worldwide Muslim anger was the result of an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’. First, the Islamic faith is bad – mouthed and to add salt to the wound, a so – called apology is issued in which the Muslim intellect is doubted. It’s been repeatedly insisted by the Vatican that the portions of the speech that offended Muslims did not reflect the Pope’s personal opinion and thus, should not be used to hypothesize about the Pope’s intentions.

Reality, however, speaks another language. Since Joseph Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, there has been a continuous off and on ‘teaching’ to the world’s Muslims to persuade their young to snub violence. This indicates that he clearly thinks that violence makes a part of Islam. Then, how should Muslims not take offence at such utterances when the Vatican remains highly intolerant of other churches; if this is so, there is no reason why the Vatican shouldn’t be intolerant towards another faith. Any Pope is supposed to be a learned man. It is therfore, highly improbable that the utterances were not deliberate.

Already there are great distances between Islam and Christianity. The Pope’s speech and the subsequent ‘apologies’ have further enhanced these distances. The whole episode has only acted to sharpen divisions along religious lines. This at the time when the world is facing the most humiliating divisions in the shape of the American ‘war on terror’, has created an impression that the Church tacitly approves of the Bush Adventures, that the Church, like it condoned the ‘Nazi Holocaust’ under Pius XII, has its mark of approval on the widespread killing being done in Muslim lands all over the world under the banner of ‘war on terror’.

It’s highly unfortunate that the West in general and the Vatican in particular selects to ignore that  the reason that they see Muslims embroiled in violence is not religious but has largely political undertones. It’s a madieval conjecture that the continue to harbour and emphasize at the most unsuitable of times. This only creates further distrust and does not help the cause of a dialogue between the faits in any way.

powered by performancing firefox

It was on Thursday after the Isha prayers, that the relative calm, at that time, of the night sky was broken by a couple of menacing loudspeakers some three blocks away from where I live. We have now gotten used to it as it happens every week at the time of Friday prayers. However, I’ve observed lately quite a number of mosques where loudspeakers have stopped blaring and any activity is only performed on the public address system installed inside the mosque and the sound seldom comes out of the sacred precincts. But on the other hand, there are still a number of mosques where loudspeakers don’t hesitate to frustrate others. And yesterday, when I was discussing the issue with some friends, I was told by a person that using loudspeakers for relaying speeches to the whole wide world outside the mosque is illegal; I was surprised by this piece of information as I have become used to the practice and have been ignoring it as something ordinary.

But the instance I’m talking about relating to Thursday night shocked my soul inside out. This time, in that holy precinct, a not so holy program was organized and some cleric was invited to deliver a talk to his unquestioning and servile followers regarding the concept of Khatm – e – Nabuwat (finality of Prophethood). This seemingly important and guiding topic was turned into a mere show of accusations, stereotyping and branding a whole lot of other Muslims as being out of the fold of Islam.

That ignorant Mullah, in his bullshit of a speech, tried his best to incite feelings of other muslims by fanning up sectarianism. He started by comparing the beliefs of the Lahori Group with the principles laid out in Islam regarding finality of Prophethood. But I don’t know if it was out of excitement or what (but I’d rather believe that it was deliberate), he started comparing beliefs of other muslims’ with his own, regarding the topic of his not – so – religious sermon. To add fuel to fire, on the basis of his ‘wise’ analysis, he started branding other sects as kafirs (non – believers), abusing the other sects’ learned personalities and accusing them of misleading and trying to make hostage the whole world of Islam. I certainly would not want to name the respective sects, but I believe that persons who are in the deeper know of things would certainly identify all.

When I narrated this whole episode to my friends, as I mentioned earlier, I was told that it calls for a double criminal count. One for using the loudspeaker and the other for employing the loudspeaker for malicious intent. I was asked by that person if I had called the Police and certainly I replied in the negative as I didn’t knew at that time if it really was a crime.

But this brings out one thing – that sectarianism in all its glory is alive and kicking and the dirty mullahs are all free to incite public sentiments.

During his visit to Germany, Pope Benedict XVI addressed about faith and reason and how they were inseparable and necessary for “that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today.” In his wisdom, he treaded upon the subject of Jihad and termed the concept as opposed to religion. He further opposed, quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos, that Islam was a faith that was spread on the back of the sword and in the same breath continued to malign Prophet Mohemmed (PBUH). He showed his belief in his speech regarding the unreasonabaleness of faith being spread by force and added that violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.

Although a sense has come out of the Vatican bifurcating Islam into violent and non – violent versions, the Vatican spokesperson Rev. Federico Lombardi insists that the Pope was not trying to interpret Islam by providing an analysis that Islam was violent.

Whatever the spokesperson may say and how much explanation comes out of the Vatican, the fact is that the Pope tried to venture in a territory which, for him, was not appropriate. I mean who is the Pope to give messages regarding Islam while interpreting the religion according to his perceptions? He thinks Jihad is a repugnant concept. Does the Pope actually knows what really Jihad is? I doubt. He thinks that Islam has spread by force. This argument could never have any logic behind it. If Islam was to spread on the back of the sword, it would have ceased to attract followers and grow a long time back. The western world has a huge muslim population. Even though this population consists of a large number of migrants, but a lot of the local people follow Islam too. In the ‘free’ Western society, who has forced such a large part of the population to embrace Islam? Obviously, the followers’ own hearts and nobody else.

It seems that the Pope is confusing Islam and Islamism. Islam is a faith and Islamism consists of acts done in the name of the religion of Islam; these acts may or may not be  having Islamic ideology as their underlying objectives. However, thses acts majorly have political connotations and Islam is only used to cover them under a guise of sanctity so that they may find popular support. A great number of followers of Christianity and the late Pope John Paul II advocated a dialogue with the Muslim world, but such utterings do no do any good to any such efforts.

This speech has triggered a spate of angry protests amongst muslims. To dampen the impact, the Vatican was quick to respond hat the church seeks to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward other religions and cultures and obviously also toward Islam. Is it some kind of a joke or what? Respect is the first casualty of such thinking as reflected in the Pope’s speech and dialogue is the second.

There are plans of a Papal visit to Turkey in November but, according to International Herald Tribune, Turkey was amongst the countries that came out with some of the strongest protests:

“I do not think any good will come from the visit to the Muslim world of a person who has such ideas about Islam’s prophet,” Ali Bardakoglu, a cleric who is head of the Turkish government’s directorate of religious affairs, said in a television interview. “He should first of all replace the grudge in his heart with moral values and respect for the other.”

The following has been an apt observation:

“I don’t think the church should point a finger at extremist activities in other religions,” Aiman Mazyek, president of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, pointedly recalling the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Vatican’s relations with Nazi Germany.”

Such utterances are a cause of concern for dialogue seeking Muslims and Christians alike as they only increase the distrust and gap that exists between the followers of Islam and Christianity. And certainly, the Pope owes an apology towards Muslims only because he thaught he was good enough to comment on affairs that, it seems, his mind was already confused about.

powered by performancing firefox

Today, I want to write on a subject about which I’ve felt since long. Today, I read an account in which some perverted mind spewed such malicious poison about my relligion out of sheer ignorance, that I was amazed at how people get influenced by rhetoric without ever trying to get to the truth; that how people believe in whatever they are shown and told and never realize that whatever they are seeing is a pathetic attempt at gross deception.

Such feelings have been there but have got reinvogorated by the recent London bombings. I want to say that my religion is a religion of peace and not a religion of hatred and bloodshed. There is a lot of misconception in this world about the word “Jihad”. And to back the misinformation, the Holy Qur’an is quoted with impunity, but always out of context and with an intent to malign.

What does the word “Jihad” mean? Jihad means to strive; to strive for good against bad. It involves change in one’s own thinking, perception and way of living to subjugate it to the Supreme Will of Allah Almighty. It involves a material effort towards the path of virtue. It involves striving for the establishment of justice. The concept of Jihad also involves war aspects; to fight for justice, in self defence, against an aggressor, is Jihad.

A much quoted verse from the Holy Qur’an is:

“...slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush…” Verse 9:5

And soon after this verse (Verse 5 of Chapter 9), the next verse gets skipped and Verse 7 of Chapter 9 is quoted, which says:

“How can there be a treaty with Allah and with His messenger for the idolaters save those with whom ye made a treaty at the Inviolable Place of Worship? So long as they are true to you, be true to them. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty.” Verse 9:7

However, to get the full picture, it is necessary to know the full context in which these verses were revealed.

Chapter 9 of the Holy Qur’an was revealed in the background of the Conquest of Arabia and the Campaign to Tabuk. If we consider this, we can easily make out the issues confronting the Muslims at that time, crushing the mischievous hypocrites being the prime.

Now, if we look at Chapter 9 of the Holy Qur’an and read the 5th verse in conjunction with the 3rd, 4the and 6th verses, we get a clearer picture of what the Holy Qur’an is saying about:

And a proclamation from Allah and His messenger to all men on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage that Allah is free from obligation to the idolaters, and (so is) His messenger. So, if ye repent, it will be better for you; but if ye are averse, then know that ye cannot escape Allah. Give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom to those who disbelieve, Verse 9:3

Excepting those of the idolaters with whom ye (Muslims) have a treaty, and who have since abated nothing of your right nor have supported anyone against you. (As for these), fulfil their treaty to them till their term. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty (unto Him). Verse 9:4

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. Verse 9:5

And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not. Verse 9:6

Thus, it is now becoming clearer that here, Allah is not commanding the muslims to just kill non – muslims for the sake of killing. It was when the non – believers broke the Treaty of Hudaibya, that a new policy for treating these non – believers was revealed to the Holy Prophet (PBUH). In these verses, Allah clearly states that the treaty with the non – believers shall be fulfilled and when the time comes to fight against them, as they violated the terms given by them to the Muslims, the Muslims shall fight in the way of Allah against the non – believers. But, in Verse 6:9, the Holy Qur’an states that those non – believers who seek protection, they should be provided with full protection and be escorted to a safe place.

Now, in today’s world, even the most generous of army generals will not be willing to do such an act as to escort those who seek protection, to a place of safety. The most he would do is that he’ll let them go.

Thus, this is but just one case where it becomes clear that Allah Almighty does not commands killing of non – muslims just for the sake of it, and that Islam infact is not a religion of coercion and undue influence.

An eye – opener for the muslims in general and the arabs in particular that whatever zionist leaders keep on saying about making peace, the common sentiments of their subjects are based on hatred, racism and a sick ideology. They seem to be having aleast one thing in common with the Nazis – their sick ideology.

Settler Graffiti in Hebron

To expect any good from such people is to live in a fool’s paradise.