Author: Ahmed Javed

Ahmed Javed is a Psychiatrist working in the US. He is a “legal alien”, has a valid visa and often wonders if one can reciprocate kindness with the insincerity of not challenging half-truths that hurts all and if one really needs a blue passport to really belong to teachers, friends and colleagues.

From Christopher Columbus to Malala Yousafzai‎

Columbus to MalalaParallax errors of selective historical and contemporary view points

A simple definition of Parallax would be “an apparent change in the position of an object resulting from a change in position of the observer”. By some accounts on October 12 Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas [1]. 521 years later a girl, Malala Yusufzai, from Swat, Pakistan met President Obama. President Obama stated “Across the globe there are girls who will one day lead nations, if only we afford them the chance to choose their own destinies.” Both Pakistan and Bangladesh have had women Prime Ministers. A lady has never been elected to the President’s office in the US.

In 2007 30% of Iraqi elementary school children attended school [2] as opposed to 75% previously. Between the 1990 and 2005 the increase in infant mortality in Iraq of 150% was the highest in the world, a period that saw inhumane sanctions and a war based on greed [3] , an IMR had by contrast declined from 120 per 1000 in 1960 to 45 per 1000 in the late 1980’s. Some charge Muslims with trying to take over the West, forgetting conveniently that Iraq alone has lived the nightmare of foreign takeover multiple times. A 1920 “uprising” was crushed by Churchill through the RAF with Winston itching to use chemical weapons [4] and authorizing a brutal bombardment [5] of the “enemy” who happened to be the native of the land being occupied. The exact death and destruction from Iraq from first gulf war is still an obscurity in the media, so there is no surprise that the mortality and morbidity from the latest fiasco is manufactured in to a question mark. The Lancet study[6]  concluding 650,000 excess deaths and by some counts well over a million are disputed by the same media that John Kerry uses to drum up support for yet another war, this time in Syria shoulder to shoulder with Al-Qaida [7], backed by “numbers” pouring in thick and fast. Fortunately, the sanity of American people prevailed over a proxy war between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, USA against Iran and Russia presented as yet another divine call to protect the weak by the media.

Stringing it together – “Rediscovering” Columbus:

In school curriculum by our colonial masters, we found the names Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. One of the first things to relearn about Columbus is that he was by no means the only one who believed that the earth was not flat. Second and more importantly, he conducted a shameless genocide of the indigenous population. In the schoolbook version in Pakistan and the US[8], he was an intrepid explorer, inspired by his faith as much as curiosity and “discovered” the “New World” because the Ottomans had blocked off the land route to India, the latter an assertion challenged by some as it was a money making venture for the Ottomans. In this day and age of connectivity it is hard to keep old myths alive let alone build new ones. One finds that Columbus was welcomed by an indigenous population only to return with arms and annihilate them. The “New World” was already home to an indigenous population, 90 to 95% of who would be wiped out in a single generation. The cause of this remains controversial and although disease from the “old world” did play a role, genocidal violence had very clear role as well, the people of the old world having the advantage of newer weapons unknown to the indigenous. In American Holocaust, David E. Stannard writes that in 21 years after Columbus came to the Caribbean, it went from a population of 8000,000 to be being desolate. The numbers and causes seem to get more obscure the more inconvenient they are to the myth of a linear unblemished history. The war on the natives was not despite faith but done in its very name as “the Requirement” would be read out to natives, imploring them to recognize the Church and Pope or be ready to face war declaring explicitly that women and children will be taken as slaves. Only a fool would use this as a reference to approach Christianity in general yet a similar bias is used for Islam daily in the media.

The current Palestinian-Israeli conflict becomes just another chapter, overlooking the fact that at the time Columbus sailed from Spain under Isabella Ferdinand, one of the most luminous chapters of coexistence [9] were coming to an end, that is the Spain under Moorish rule which was not perfect, but would still make us question the world that we are shaping since 9/11. In Spain Christians, Jews and Muslims had come together to make advances in art and science that Europe would owe its emergence from the dark ages to. Under Isabella and Ferdinand in Spain came the Spanish Inquisition, Jews and Muslims were expelled, even co-religionists were persecuted on suspicion of being fifth columnists. By contrast Jews and Christians had freedom of religion under the Moors [10] [11] and in fact many Jews were forced to flee to Ottoman lands.

Lessons from the Columbian myth: 

One has to be careful of the lessons learned from Columbus, just like one must not reduce Malala’s wonderful story to a conspiracy theory despite the undoubted exploitation by some. In a time of unprecedented propaganda we can fall to the temptation of our own parallax error – of creating our own “other.” However, we have to advocate that West and Islam question sincerely our biases, from a distorted history of the Crusades to the temptation of a religious transference.  The historical place of women in Islam and their roles are very different from what the exploitation of Malala would suggest. It is overlooking that just like early Christians, early Muslims were persecuted and the first martyr of Islam was Sumayah (May Allah Be Pleased with her) was a lady, killed when a spear was thrust through her private parts. It was the background of such victimization that Quranic verses of retaliating were revealed.

Most importantly, Columbus was a myth built over 500 years but took a few days of research in this day and age of the technology to dismantle. Those trying to reduce the violence of the last dozen years, both by a lunatic and fringe that has killed more Muslims than anyone else as well as by elected governments taking their people to wars based on lies, to the face of a young girl need to learn that the world does not lend itself to such a convenience any more. Muslims also need to learn that increasingly our struggles are intellectual. As a Muslim living in the West one can have many fears about disagreeing with the media narrative, being labelled a Taliban apologist, a closet extremist, a person mired in 1400 years of hateful history that never was, but perhaps the single most insincere thing that one can do to the society that we now live in is not share our perspective.

What Malala is not:

It is interesting how passionate a debate Malala has generated. Perhaps the most laughable was Bilawal and Bahtawar Bhutto (Last name Zardari?) saying they want her as their Prime-minister. This after unprecedented corruption by the Bhuttos as well as the Sharifs followed by Asif Zardari, a man known internationally for his money laundering and corruption, being installed as the President of Pakistan by the powers that be in and out of Pakistan, A fact Condoleezza Rice narrates in her book ironically named “No higher honour.” It is this manipulation of the fates of millions that breeds resentment against the US that leaves others robbed of their dignity and yes, also leaves the US a scape goat for one’s own failures.

One has to wonder about the stunning figures of mortality among children from US policies in just the last 2 decades, not to mention the malnutrition, internal displacement, destruction of families and lost opportunities for education, the thousands of innocents killed in drone attacks and the contrast of parading Malala. She was a face of the children of Pakistan but has been projected as a mask for the atrocities of the West. Even a partial list of children killed in drone strikes speaks of another reality [12].  The media uses her to obscure that Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) is one of the most prolific narrator of prophetic traditions (Ahadith), that the colonialism has exploited women as much as imperialism does now, that bigots like Lord Cromer in the early 1900’s in Egypt criticizing Islam were opposing women’s right at home in England [13]) and that a French General had concluded“If you convert 100, 000 young indigenous girls to our civilization …. these young girls, who would naturally become the privileged wives of the most important men of their class will, forever guarantee the subjugation of the country and be the guarantee of its future assimilation. [14]” Malala is a daughter of Pakistan, a young girl among many who suffer in a country plagued by feudalism, lawlessness, corruption and economic mismanagement, all factors that have helped the US government manipulate Pakistan to its interest while the media keeps people misinformed by creating out of one life what it has denied to millions.

Why Malala is a real princess:

Some months ago my daughter had asked about Princess Diana when she watched a video of Diana visiting the Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hospital in Pakistan, one of the biggest philanthropic ventures in Pakistan that serves all Pakistanis regardless of race, religion or color. I told her she was “real princess.” I will teach her the same about Malala for her courage is truly phenomenal and makes me question what I have done to build a better world. I think the biggest lesson this young girl taught me is that if you believe in something then you should be willing to stand up for it. There have been many satirical blogs and articles about how Pakistanis see a conspiracy behind her including by a minority of Pakistanis whose parallax is the convenience of picking a (often profitable) side in a black and world narrative, conveniently overlooking that in the last 10 years Pakistan has seen unprecedented violence, the influx of Black water mercenaries, the interests of its own people sold by the corrupt elite and the likes of Raymond Davis literally getting away with murder. That Humanity in the midst of the never ending war on terror has decided to handle collective affairs on anything other than on power is bound to draw skepticism.

Pakistan air force now has women pilots and women have served in the police for years and that many teachers in Pakistan are ladies. I celebrate  Malala, like  my grandmother, a physician who went on to participate in the Pakistan movement, My mother a physician who practiced in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, my sisters who went on to successful medical careers and my wife, yet another physician in the family.  Today more than ever it is easier to retrace history. To celebrate Fatima Al-Fihri, a Muslim woman who established the first University in the world and perhaps even dare suggest that Columbus Day be renamed Bartolome De La Casas Day who unlike Columbus had the courage to see the humanity of the “other” and said:

“What we committed in the Indies stands out amongst the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in American Indian alaves] as the most unjust, evil and cruel among them”.

References:
1. Columbus day: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
2-3. The War Machine and Global Health, A Critical Medical Anthropological Examination of the Human Costs of Armed Conflict and the International Violence industry
4.   Winston Churchill’s Secret Poison Gas Memo: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article999.htm  
5. Iraq, 1917: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6337.htm
6. Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties
 7. Does Obama know he is fighting on Al Qaida’s side: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/does-obama-know-hes-fighting-on-alqaidas-side-8786680.html
8, 10. Lies my Teacher told me, James W. Loewen
9. Ornament of the World, Maria Rosa Menocal
11. State, Society, and Law in Islam: Ottoman Law in Comparative Perspective, Haim Gerber
12. A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen http://www.policymic.com/articles/24164/a-list-of-children-killed-by-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-and-yemen
13, 14,The Miseducation of the West, How schools and media distort our understanding of the Islamic world, Joe Kincheloe

Am I Not Your Lord?

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“Apart from what theologians have taught you what do you know of God yourself?” asked a new found friend. I reflected on the question and thought some more, during the early morning showers, the long drives to work, a lunch completed in solitude, the gratitude and the atmosphere of reflection that is born in the silence of a house that moments ago was alive in the laughter of children and the bliss still hanging in the air. The contrast of one’s own abundance becomes the very quest for a prosperity that must be beyond material, inherent differences in ability and free of predisposition. I began to formulate an answer.

In the outstretched hands and sunburnt faces I would see my father disappear till the homemade food to be distributed on a Friday evening would run out. There was never enough for everyone and in the rabid capitalism of our times, there never will be. A sense of relief at seeing him return to the car unhurt would give way to a twinge of guilt at asking for a simple treat, a bottle of Pepsi or an ice-cream, the contrast all too fresh in our minds. I must have found Him there or thereabout, perhaps even in half-eaten sweets my sister had packed away taking literally the teaching of sharing with the less fortunate what you like for yourself. As an adult I am obligated to spend two and a half percent of what I save in charity but I learned long ago that I am a mere custodian of the rest. It was not until years later in an atmosphere of my identity being hijacked that I would actually learn:

“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive,-. (Saying),”We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.” (Quran 76:8-9)

Yet what was being taught in the Friday sermons resonated with an inherent truth. I don’t recall a distinct conversation about who God is or an encounter with a “theologian.” There was perhaps no need, for God was never a mystery. He revealed Himself in the stories told by my parents at the end of a 12 hour work day; Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Jonah, Jesus and Mohammed (Peace Be upon them) – all stories much similar but different in significant ways than the scriptures before the Quran. Again, it was much later that I would learn:

Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam).” Quran (3:84)

Surely, He is not the author of confusion for He fit the simple mental construct of a fifth grader. Promises of being good and praying regularly made with devotion as one went in to collect the annual examination results – convinced of a God that can erase and redo answers to algebra and fill in the ones you left blank. Looking back I could have sworn He did just that.

Of course, come summer vacations, the promises would quickly be forgotten in the fun and games with siblings and cousins. Until, one would find in a second hand bookstore the “Choose your own Adventure” series. In space or undersea one would find dilemmas like choosing to fight aliens or futuristic pirates versus the alternative of making a run for it. The book was written, but could end many different ways depending on the choices that we made. I struggle to find a better analogy for life.  I learned about predestination much before I discovered it as an article of faith. I must have by then heard the story of our parents, Adam and Eve, the free-will which is the singular feature that distinguishes humanity from the rest of creation, a gift that makes us capable of much evil but when submitted totally to the One Creator can make us stand alone against the mockery of our times like Noah, be willing to sacrifice that most beloved to us like Abraham, find patience rewarded with reunion like Jacob, go from wells to thrones like Joseph, thank Him endlessly in suffering like Job, find the courage to stand against a mighty Pharaoh like Moses, find the wisdom of Jesus and the strength to deliver a complete code of life in a little over two decades despite incredible odds like Mohammed (Peace be upon them all). I must have learned by then the story of original forgiveness by a God that gives you the very words to ask for it, even though it would till decades later that I would read:

Then Adam received from his Lord Words. And his Lord pardoned him (accepted his repentance). Verily, He is the One Who forgives (accepts repentance), the Most Merciful. (Quran 2:37)

Salvation must lie in faith in an All Forgiving God, despite Whose Mercy, we could never find it for the Prophet (PBUH) himself taught

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying,

“The good deeds of any person will not make him enter Paradise.” (i.e., None can enter Paradise through his good deeds.) They (the Prophet’s companions) said, ‘Not even you, O Allah’s Apostle?’ He said, “Not even myself, unless Allah bestows His favor and mercy on me.” So be moderate in your religious deeds and do the deeds that are within your ability: and none of you should wish for death, for if he is a good doer, he may increase his good deeds, and if he is an evil doer, he may repent to Allah.”  

(Sahih Bukhari Book #70, Hadith #577)

I can’t recall ever being explained that in our quest to return to our original abode, Heaven, we must pay heed to our deeds as much as rely on The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful. It seemed to be a truth we were born with the knowledge of, a logical conclusion given the one gift that sets us apart – the free will, for which the universe was fashioned to perfection so that we may reflect and know Him through his attributes.

Blessed be He in Whose hands is Dominion; and He over all things hath Power;-

He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving ;- He Who created the seven heavens one above another: No want of proportion wilt thou see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious. So turn thy vision again: seest thou any flaw?(Quran 67: 1-4)

Sadly, what was as clear as the starlit night, a fringe benefit of sleeping on the roof during a power outage, got lost in the illusion that love, wealth, career needed to be “pursued.” The stars disappeared behind the clouds and the very romance of existence got corrupted and still does for surely we are creatures of much error as the Prophet (PBUH) taught us:

“All the children of Adam constantly err, but the best of those who constantly err are those who constantly repent.” [Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ahmad, Hakim]

The events of the last over a decade provide an opportunity to relearn the known. Not only returning to the Quran and Sunnah to reclaim our identity but to learn about our history and most importantly being thankful for the questions asked of us; both by the deviants claiming to speak in our name and those who fail to understand the futility of freedom of speech without a right to be heard. Ultimately,  to learn about my Creator comes naturally, for all of beauty and knowledge has already passed through and all Prophets came to remind us of the straight path that we have known before the beginning of time:

When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”- They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: “Of this we were never mindful (Quran 7:172)

Reclaiming Rainbows

rainbow

Human thought finds a rather romantic metaphor in a rainbow. With reflection one may find more in it than a fleeting comfort. Perhaps find even a way to reconnect with our purpose and reassurance that God ordered the perfection of Angels to bow to the ‘imperfection’ of humanity.

“Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?” He said: “I know what ye know not.” Quran Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow): Ayat 30

The majestic arch across the horizon is a reminder of the futility to reduce the expanse of the earth in to one thought for it was never meant to be such. Our essential task is to outdo each other in good and being in a state of constant ‘dawah’

“If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute” Quran Surah Al-Maeda (The Table Cloth): Ayat 48

Rainbows beg the question, “If all are wronged who is right?” They set a deep contrast to the black smoke billowing from towers reduced to rubble in the west or houses turned to ash in the lands where the Abraham walked, oblivious of whether it marks the loss of material or a child. A proud Afghan standing in a queue for ‘compensation’ becomes as irrelevant to peace as those led to believe in moral wars on ideological evils, for self-righteousness comes in many guises, the absoluteness of dogma, conviction of being free from it or more still, having defeated the eternal conflict between physical temptations and spiritual quests through absolute sincerity to a constitution.

One man’s righteousness can be another’s white-washed tomb and vice versa. This is why ultimately one understanding of faith and its place in society cannot be imposed universally.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” Matthew 23:27

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

The rainbow is not an ascetic argument. Beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder. The Unseen is infinitely beautiful to all of us and should be the very reason to neither oppress nor be oppressed. God, may therefore, be sought individually in some societies and collectively in others but all too often we lose sight of this Rainbow. Ethnocentricity brings with it a religious ‘transference’ and a complex world of hate and greed becomes an a half-sincere call for ‘reformation’ not willing to understand that there is no central authority or hierarchy for a Muslim Martin Luther to abolish material exploitation through ‘indulgences’. For the very same reason there is no ‘ex-communication’ of terrorists – simply because there is nothing to excommunicate them from, their actions are sufficient to identify their deviousness. Yet, hypocritical cries of ‘Muslims not denouncing terrorism’ emanate from our TV screens while by and large simultaneously denying any forums to people who don’t fit in to a ‘this or that’ classification.

The world gets ugly in monochrome. The diversity of a rainbow promises otherwise, where we can differ on everything including happiness being an overstocked refrigerator or a stomach half empty, a house by the lake or a modest abode, the enjoyment of losing ourselves to head banging in a concert or the content of a prayer said in solitude. Whether it is religions inspired by scripture or systems such as socialism or capitalism to manage our collective affairs, our inspiration or intent should not be questioned, nor reduced to a black and white convenience. Helen Keller for instance is remembered for what she taught us rather than her sympathy for communism.

Ultimately, the truth is not something to be imposed, nor can it be denied by a nation to another, a religion to another religion. Reducing a faith to distortions on a select few issues like Jizya, treatment of women or status of minorities is seeking refuge in a black and white for we cannot acknowledge the good in others. It is the self-deception of setting conditions for dialogue after a monologue with our own bias. The general good in us becomes a crowd in a company of extremes. But the good in us is unmistakable despite our ability to be incredibly wrong, for he breathed his spirit in us

“Then He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him the soul (created by Allah for that person); and He gave you hearing (ears), sight (eyes) and hearts. Little is the thanks you give!” Quran Surah As-Sajda (The Prostration) Ayat 9

We deny this goodness to ourselves when we assume reasons for our choices are universal truths that apply most to those who disagree. It for this reason that we point to the inheritance of women but fail to take in to account that the same faith granted inheritance rights to women 1200 years before England and that the very same faith allows the women to keep the inheritance for their own business or pleasure without needing to pledge any part of it to the household. Jizya becomes an evidence of discrimination when we do not acknowledge it as part of a collective social security system and in lieu of the 2.5% of savings Muslims would give to charity, including equal protection under the state.

Religion is a sensitive subject but not in the sense of banning crosses, skull caps and head scarves. For secular extremism of this sort is a return to first century Rome, as decades after Jesus PBUH walked the earth and some years after the destruction of the second temple, Josephus Flavius (Yusuf ben Matityahu), a Jewish man who after the second destruction of the temple of Solomon (PBUH) became a Roman citizen through a peculiar set of circumstances wrote

“Antiochus …. He compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice the swines flesh upon the altar, against which they all opposed themselves and the most approved among them were put to death.”

The hate-mongers of our age are like mercenaries that ambush the values of others but hide behind the general good of the religion they claim to represent, at times mere convenience and at times a very deliberately measured act. The worlds turns black and white as explanations and accusations are exchanged and anger rises, just the way a few among us wish it to be. For instance, when one mentions the massacre in Jerusalem of 1099, the role of the church in the Holocaust, that about 3% of Muslim men are polygamous and that the average sexual partners in the US alone for men is 7, that the ottoman empire under the millet system allowed personal laws to govern affairs of minorities, this seems to split the world further in to an “us” and “them.” We instantly become parties in a conflict that had seemed distant. The clash of civilizations narrative continues at a time when faiths have no distinct borders. To justify wrong’s of our age on the basis of history is to not know our own past. Humans have hard enough time agreeing on the present let alone over 1400 years of history which has seen war, peace and even luminous coexistence such as La Convivencia .

What is just and right is not divine violence, nor a nations interests over others but a signature of monotheism that guides us to treating others justly, perhaps related to the concept of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious that has been expounded by some to represent a collective ‘known’ truth.

“When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”- They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: “Of this we were never mindful” Quran Surah Al-Araf (The Heights) Ayat 172.

In seeking moral superiority or denying others the right to differ, we return to a pitch dark. We become exceptional for some tough questions follow if we have to follow what the scriptures teach us.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

“Nor can goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate!” Quran Surah Fussilat: Ayat 34

The rainbows become a rarity in the polluted skies of our times, not just because of obscure hate filled videos from fringe elements hiding in mountains and killing more of their coreligionists than the “evil” they claim to be battling, but a very systemized narrative of convenience unleashing overt wars or covert subversion in the name of an equal conviction of being the keepers of “the way.” The irrationality of being absolutely right and absolutely wrong has played out all too long. Yet, the gray clouds, the thunder and lightning at times, are the very harbingers we hope for. It is in our children’s eyes that the secrecy of tomorrow will reveal itself. We owe them  rainbows – for they are a rather romantic metaphor.

 

Malala and The Justified War of Terror – II

I got in to the car and in the hour long drive back I reflected on the hopeless failure for dialogue. There has been endless condemnation of 9/11 from the “Muslim world” but the propaganda of the last decade drowns it out. Somewhere along shouting out support for such sacred morals as “freedom of speech” the west drowned out its own conscience as conveniently as it blocked out the “Muslim world” asking it, “what about the right to be heard?” I pause and reflect at the flow of my own thoughts. I realize how I have succumbed to “generalizations” while claiming to raise my voice against this very evil. Perhaps the propaganda of our times is best reflected by the quote noted below, and attributed to Confucius with some variations:

“If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music will not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.”

While the domestic narrative in the US is one of their military being out to do wonderful things, reinforced over and over again by  blacking out the body bags coming back from the war zones but soldiers returning to propose on camera, giving parents a surprise, helping disabled teens cross finish lines are etched in the minds. I wonder if the lady I had met just moments ago could name even one of the Iraqi or Afghani children that died in the 90’s or a million Iraqis that died as a result of war based on lies. She will likely not remember the names of the Iranians who will be killed by the sanctions in the coming years and in all likelihood yet more that will be killed as a war that “breaks out” in the coming years. I wonder if she ever switches off her television and reflects on the disconnection with Iraq’s experience. Churchill was threatening to “gas” them in not so remote history, followed by the deliberate destruction of infrastructure like water purification plants, during the first Gulf war, followed by crippling sanctions, followed by a full scale invasion that has killed at least a million more and displaced millions internally and externally. I wonder if she could name a single civilian killed in Pakistan during the drone strikes or if she knew the names of the victims of Raymond Davis, who shot people in broad daylight.The US government subsequently, in the mother of all ironies, flew him out of the country based on loopholes created by their cronies in Islamabad on the very Sharia they demonize. The only legal consequences he received were due to a brawl he got in to after returning to the US.

I wonder if she knew the 16 year old Tariq Aziz, a boy from the tribal areas of Pakistan who had volunteered to learn photography to begin documenting drone strikes near his home. He had come to Islamabad to protest. A few days later he was murdered – in yet another drone strike. I wonder if she could name a single Pakistani soldier or civilian killed by these terrorists – over 40,000 dead. Above all I wondered if she realized that for Pakistanis and Muslims it is a two way struggle of responding to American imperialism and the lunatic fringe. Of course, in Pakistan we have to do this in the absence of any governance since our saviours in Washington are probably already working on an exit plan for their current servants in Islamabad. I wonder if this lady had even an inkling of understanding of the how much better people outside the US understand America’s own history. It is therefore, no surprise that George Bush could stand in Philippines in 2003 and talk about his plans for the Middle East and no one in America questioned the almost comical historical contrast. No one in America cares about history especially if it doesn’t fit right in to American exceptionalism. Naturally, there is no need to think about USS Maine.

My mind shifts back to Malala. A few days before the attack on Malala, thousands of people from all corners of Pakistan had invested their own money and time and risked their lives in a show of solidarity with their brethren in the Tribal areas. They raised their voices for innocent lives being wiped out by drones in a grotesque video game like new war tool that is even more dehumanizing than the chilling brutality humanity has displayed in the most recently concluded bloodiest century to date. It was fascinating to see how this story would be replaced by the likes of stories such as Justin Bieber’s throwing up on stage on “CNN USA”, the “CNN international” website being slightly more generous in the number of hours this seemed to be on any notable corner of the main page.

Efforts like the peace march to the tribal areas could be turning points in ending this seemingly endless cycle of violence, especially given that many Americans who joined this peace march . In the few days that these wonderful human beings spent in Pakistan, they won the “hearts and minds” of not just Pakistanis but Muslims around the world and created a stark contrast in results produced by arrogant euphemisms about wars to win hearts and minds. It called the bluff of western governments and its media of labelling every casualty in this endless war as a “terrorist” and where the over one million Iraqis, unknown thousands of Afghanis, drone wars killing in Pakistan, Yemen and an ever growing list of “sovereign” countries is not even a consideration in the discourse that is delivered by crisply dressed men and women with a plastic smile.

Among the people who came to Pakistan was the British convert to Islam, Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former British Prime minister. The schizophrenic self-talk emanating from the TV screen in the west chooses to ignore her as much as it chooses to ignore the ever growing number of western converts to Islam unless of course it is about fear-mongering about the Islamic takeover of Europe with impossible numbers projected from birth rates amongst Muslims. The war on terror is simultaneously a war of civilizing the savage as the latest Islamophobic ads In New York subways explicitly state; it is not just about saving a people from their God, Muslim women from Muslim men but it is also about objecting to Muslims having children. A recent study determined that the majority of converts to Islam are British women with an average age of 27 and many have adopted traditional Muslim attire and wear a head scarf. The very symbol of oppression to the west is a choice for many but the media in the west has the luxury to talk right past these contradictions.

It gets dark and I pull in to a gas station and pray Maghrib in my car after trying to align myself the best I can to the Kaaba. I imagine millions more if not well over a billion are engaged in this very same act for the five daily prayers. I miss my daughter who lately has developed a fondness of climbing all over me while I pray. I marvel at the connection of Muslims to the Prophet Mohammed, Peace be upon him, who would prolong his prostration in prayers if his grandchildren climbed on his back. 1400 years later my child playing with me during prayers becomes a Sunnah. The sun has almost disappeared and I am saddened by how much we have failed to represent the teachings of the most magnificent man to walk the earth; a man who was sent as a mercy to the entire universe.

In the stream of propaganda we have become fathers that kill our daughters for honour. I run my hands over my face and feel my beard. The war on terror has come as close as my facial hair. If it had been better times I would have laughed at how ridiculous this thought was. Daughters and men with beards burying them … we learn no different than Pavlov’s dogs but if we use the intellect that we are gifted with we will see the Quran talking about avenging the girl child that was buried alive. The closest association Muslims finds in their heritage of how bearded men feel towards their daughters is the Prophet Mohammed, Peace be upon him, crying to the point that his beard was drenched when a man confessed to having buried his daughter alive before the advent of Islam. I put the car in drive and after a long time I seem to know what my journey is.

Link to Part I

Malala and The Justified War of Terror – I

I glance down at the empty plastic cup, circled in two small hands; a pair of gleaming eyes looked on intently as she pretended to take a sip and teased “It’s only for girls.” I make a rather exaggerated attempt to snatch it. In an instant she has turned and disappeared in to her room. I catch a glimpse of her curly locks as she intercepts the sunlight crashing through the living room window. My smile disappears instantly as I focus on the picture of a girl, some years senior to the child who filled my universe just minutes ago. I am filled with sadness for Malala, for her family, for us as humanity in general and for us as Muslims in particular. A familiar anguish registers forcefully yet again and I watch, like the majority of Muslims globally, as we fail to undo, the curse of a black and white world that George W. Bush initiated but since has been furthered relentlessly by his successor. An endless war rooted in grandiosity, condescendence and greed as much as it is supposedly about an endless stream of terror that masquerades as forces of absolute evil against forces of darkness. The narrative that unfolds and as it is retold endlessly, around the clock, with slight variations in flavour but absolute unanimity in incriminating the religion of the “other”, is shouted from the television screens and Radios across the west. Who is the West? Is it the by and large wonderful people I have had the pleasure to meet in the US, my teachers, colleagues and friends? Or is it the people who sanctioned two wars, one supposedly over but with great dividends of control of energy resources and somewhere along the way re-elected a President who started these war on lies, while simultaneously asking Muslims to chant in unison, their denunciation of the acts of people who they, like the west, sees as obscure figures on television when they come out with reported videos threatening to kill everyone and everything that breathes?

Just prior to the weekend, in a small town of 3000, an elderly lady in rural America approached me and asked about “surviving Pakistan.” I braced for a familiar conversation about how it is a country of a 180 million and not really just about the constant bad news you see on the media. Of course I can never explain in two minutes of sympathy coming my way the role of her own country in the mess in Afghanistan, the devastation of the economy that comes in the aftermath of US policies, the current corrupt lot that Washington has installed through unprecedented black laws such as the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that resulted in a puppet dictator exiting the country to find refuge abroad and ushered in well-known corrupt figures whose corruption of billions of dollars was forgiven by the outgoing dictator. I wanted to tell her that these are not crazy conspiracy theories but the very deception that alienates good people like herself and her fellow citizens from the “Muslim world.” I wanted to tell her diplomacy in the Muslim world to the US is the mockery of democracy. That what I was saying to her was not a secret but documented by numerous western writers including the very officials in the midst of these ugly hijacking of the will of millions such as the former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice writing about her role in this wonderful piece of diplomacy in her book, believe it or not, titled “No higher honour.” Within the borders of the US she is celebrated as the first Afro-American secretary of state, a testament to how America is overcoming its prejudices and simultaneously doing ‘good’ around the world. I wondered what she would think if I told her what this “other” from a distant land of murderers believes.

I wondered if she, her curiosity and genuine kindness would seem less condescending to me if she had the information she needed to judge me. Beyond the caricatures of me and many like me that she saw on TV, this woman knew nothing of my history or faith. I thought of Hazrat Bilal who had been a black Ethiopian slave in Makkah prior to the advent of Islam and who came to adore Mohammed (Peace be upon him) and was one of his closest companions and who was tortured for accepting Islam as he was made to lay naked in the desert sand, burnt and crushed under the weight of stones on his chest as he continued to chant “Ahad … Ahad”, a proclamation of his faith in the Oneness of God. I suspect that she would have at best either stared back blankly or at worst called the authorities for “she saw something, therefore she must say something.”

Perhaps she would have been angered by my response, although staring at her bright blue eyes, repeated compliments on how well I speak English and the gentleness that she exuded it seemed quite unlikely. She may have challenged me stating that Islam does not sanction slavery and I would have invited her to sit down and have a discussion of what my faith represents. I would have loved to tell her the wisdom behind gradual phasing out of slavery that Islam represented. As I contemplated this elaborate conversation all in my mind I found eagerness to share how Islam had shaped for us an classless society based on justice. The very interests of the US leave it in need for feudals and dictators and works against the justice in society that Muslims long for. I would have loved to speak for myself instead of the convenience of her hearing a convenient truth about a complex world through the TV. I would have loved to share the following Hadith Narrated by Al-Ma’rur:

At Ar-Rabadha I met Abu Dhar who was wearing a cloak, and his slave, too, was wearing a similar one. I asked about the reason for it. He replied, “I abused a person by calling his mother with bad names.” The Prophet said to me, ‘O Abu Dhar! Did you abuse him by calling his mother with bad names You still have some characteristics of ignorance. Your slaves are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. So whoever has a brother under his command should feed him of what he eats and dress him of what he wears. Do not ask them (slaves) to do things beyond their capacity (power) and if you do so, then help them.’

I could see that the pleasantness of our interaction as human beings had perhaps surprised her. I wanted to tell her that if she saw any goodness in me it was not despite the Quran that is my guide to life, but solely because of it. That this very book teaches me:

“It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness, and each and every act of obedience to Allah, etc.) that you turn your faces towards east and (or) west (in prayers); but Al-Birr is (the quality of) the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, the Prophets and gives his wealth, in spite of love for it, to the kinsfolk, to the orphans, and to Al-Masakin (the poor), and to the wayfarer, and to those who ask, and to set slaves free, performs As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat ), and gives the Zakat, and who fulfil their covenant when they make it, and who are patient in extreme poverty and ailment (disease) and at the time of fighting (during the battles). Such are the people of the truth and they are Al-Muttaqun (the pious)”

I would have loved to reference for her western authors documenting Islam’s creation of a just and equal society. I would have loved to have a debate on the universality of human understanding of what is right and just, how America under Lincoln struggled with the same dilemma that to me Allah and his Messenger, Mohammed, Peace be upon him, showed us the wisdom to handle. In 1854 Lincoln stated in a speech:
“My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,—to their own native land. But a moment’s reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible”

In 1862 Lincoln established a colony in Haiti where 500 freed slaves were sent. Many of them died of starvation and an outbreak of smallpox. In my mind thoughts raced of how to pick words to share the experience of watching the poorest amongst us lead us in prayers, pray side by side or in the front rows while many more affluent would stand way in the back of the mosque. I wanted to tell her that a 7 year old child praying next to me can ask me to align my feet with the rest right before the prayer commences with “Allahu Akbar” which to us means that our Creator is greater than anything and everything, be it the most comforts I can acquire in this world or the biggest calamity that can befall me. It liberates me from fear and sorrow. It is my understanding of freedom from greed, envy and hatred.

I worried she may have read the recent series on CNN about Slavery in Mauritania that seemingly popped up randomly and in the typical convenience of the western narrative on Islam equated slavery in Mauritania to Islam. It was convenient because a couple of days earlier one (or many?) US soldiers had murdered 16 Afghans. Lest any humanity of the other seep through the mirage created by the media a diversion is created to “contain” opinion. I was surprised at the extensive and random thoughts running through my head and was looking for a polite way to end our interaction when her next comment caught me off guard.

“It’s terrible isn’t it? The Taliban shooting this school girl …..”

In an instant she had assigned a face of convenience to the war on terror; The Muslim girls that the West is out to save. I felt sad for her ignorance and anguished at the state of Muslims worldwide. I wanted to tell her that the same puppets that her country has mounted as rulers, and who move around in security convoys of 100’s of cars while citizens give birth and die on their way to the hospital in resultant traffic jams, had failed to give any security to this girl against a fringe element of criminals. The unprecedented looting and plundering of the country that has left people in abject poverty, without access to healthcare and education is not just seen as “collateral damage” of US policies but the very goals. I wanted to tell her that if China had drones killing people on the east coast with the US government not just failing to protect its citizens but being complicit in the murder of its civilians, surely there will be a segment of society that will take up arms against the government. I wished to have the wisdom to express that for every Malala that America has the delusion of being out to save; there are a million Iraqi children that die due to sanctions that did not target the dictators of yesteryears but the very people of the countries that you are out to save. A loss that Muslims around the world hear justified by Madeleine Albright as “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it. “ I wanted to tell her that if Americans could at least begin to understand the dichotomy of what the US represents within its borders and without, even if is a statement like “Saddam was a bastard but he was our bastard”, that Phil Donahue had the courage to express, the world would be a much less angry place.

I nodded with my eyes lowered and as we began to walk away I heard myself say, “Things are very different from what you see on TV.” She smiled and walked away.

 

..Continue to Part II

Of cycles of hate and feet on the pedals..

A life packed away in a few cardboard boxes. The bare room started back coldly. It looked alien already.

“Mom”

A small voice called. She turned to the silhouette in the doorway and wiped the tears, trying to make the motion as inconspicuous as possible but it was too late. The tender 6 year old frame ran in to her arms.

“It’s going to be alright mom”

Her comment lingered on, magnified as the conviction behind them filled the emptiness of the room. Rebecca responded by tightening her arms around the small frame that didn’t seem as dainty as she did a while ago.

“Yes Honey. It will be. Sure it will be”

She stood up and wiped the tears. This time there was no effort to hide them. A car honked outside and she stooped down to pick up Angela, who clasped her hands behind her neck almost as a reflex. Over the next few hours they loaded the cardboards that their worldly possessions seem to have disappeared in to in an old Hyundai that had obviously seen better days. Its owner wrestled one last box in to the trunk and managed to wrestle it closed.

“There now. I’m not that old after all … am I?”

She said trying to stoop down as much as her octogenarian frame would allow as Angela smiled back. For a moment Rebecca focused on Becky’s radiant smile and wondered about its genuineness. She had lost her only son in Afghanistan 3 months ago. The funeral had been a fortnight later. The IED had exploded right under the armoured vehicle almost ripping it in to two. The military repatriated whatever remains they could find. The entire town seemed to have shown at the funeral. Becky had cried in private but refused to mourn her son in public. He had died bringing freedom, democracy and liberation. She had recorded the speech delivered by President Bush on September 20th 2001 and played it many a times:

“Americans are asking “Why do they hate us? ….

They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.”

She had outgrown the fondness of it over the last few years. She also could not reconcile Bush’s words about Egypt with the Arab spring. The people of Egypt had thrown out their government. The week Hosni Mubarak’s government finally caved in, Beck drove down to the nearest Walmart to finally get a world map. She remembered being struck by how far Egypt and Afghanistan had seemed. She wondered: “How many mad men are running out there to leave the world so vulnerable? Why didn’t the Iraqis do the same with Saddam?

The following week she wrote the last letter to Andy telling him how proud she was of him. He never got to read it. For now the three occupants in the old Hyundai pulled up in front of a small house. The need for repairs was obvious.

“Sorry about the mess. I was hoping Andy would …..”

She stopped midsentence. Rebecca rubbed her hands on her back as she recomposed herself. Over the next hours the three generation of ladies moved pulled, dragged and carried things of immediate need. There used to be an abundance of well natured young men willing to help out in this town of 2000 or so. 90% had signed up for the military in recent years and many were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many had been motivated by patriotism and the willingness to spread the good that they enjoyed within the borders of this great country of theirs. Yet more saw it as a means of a better future. The promise of a college education eclipsed the danger in the odds.

Meanwhile in Karachi,

Zaman woke up with a start. It took him a while to figure out that he was no longer in North Waziristan. The rain pouring fast and heavy on the tin roof of the cramped one bedroom home sounded like the explosion that awful day. He shuffled through the thin sheet in a frenzy to reassure himself. 6 year old Amina was still there, curled up in a ball. The rain had left the floor colder. He lent her his bedsheet and doubled it on her. He was shivering but not all from the cold. His heart was beating so fast, he worried about waking her up. He tried to block it out but couldn’t.

He was shaking uncontrollably now. He slipped outside the room where a clay pot lay in the corner and poured him a glass of water, struggling to keep his hands steady. The drone attack that day had wiped out his son and wife along with 45 other people from the village. Their remains were never found. A few hours later 20 more people perished in an attack on those trying to rescue any survivors, Zaman had spent the next four months recovering in a hospital in Peshawar. He lost his left eye, walked with a limp and had irretrievable shrapnel to blame for constant agonizing pain that he had no money to buy pain medications for. His doctors had told him he was lucky.

Amina on the other hand had not been that lucky. She had lost both her legs in below the knee amputations. A local NGO had found some ill-fitting prosthesis for her.

Zaman remembered as his wife had proudly beckoned him in to the house to show how Amina had started walking at only 8 months of age. It would take her exactly 8 months since the drone attack to take her first strides with crutches. Zaman was grateful to have her. He went back to the door and peaked inside. She seemed more comfortable now. It had stopped raining.

“Alhamdulillah …”

She was his strength. His uncle, Waleed Khan, who had been by his side in Peshawar throughout their recovery, was an old man now. A labourer in Karachi, he was by no means a man with many resources. Mostly, he would spend the day on a footpath near a busy shopping centre in Karachi, praying that one of the many millions of rupee worth cars would stop and ask him to come by for repairs in their house or a contractor would offer a project. He frequented the nearby mosque and prayed for Amina often. He did not quite understand why his once peaceful village had seen so much bloodshed recently or what technology was pitted against those very modest homes of his loved ones. He just knew that his dreams and the lives of his loved ones were bartered away by a handful of people so shameless and greedy that he paused recently when Amina asked him if we can see Satan. He could have sworn he had. Later, that night he watched in disbelief as former President Musharraf between some nervous laughs admitted that he had written in his book that he handed over a 6 month old baby as a terrorist.

He fought back tears and just looked upwards towards the sky. Later that night he made Wudu (Ablution) and began to read:

“And indeed We have created man, and We know what his ownself whispers to him. And We are nearer to him than his jugular vein” Sura #50, Verse 16

Around the same alignment of the stars, moons, planets and everything else in this universe Becky found herself getting sad watching Angela run around the house. It reminded her of the time Andy had been young. He had practically spent all his childhood in the same house. She opened the bible and began to read:

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” – Psalms 34:18

In the background she could vaguely make out someone on TV talking about a clash of civilizations..

 

 

The Clothesline

So many of the Ramadan have passed without benefitting the soul much. This could be a different one. The periodic break from reality is refreshing. Almost musical; mystical. To consistently be able to get up before dawn for Fajr prayers, timing your midday to slip in to the hospital chapel to bow down in prayer for Zohar, to joining a spouse in the post work Asr prayers, to rediscovering the joy of food and drink with sunset and Maghrib prayers and retiring to bed with a rough sketch of the next work day after Isha prayers.

This is not a claim to piety but an expression of amusement of deprivation bringing such content. Breaking away from the “givens” like food and drink is a hint perhaps to the “portable happiness” that human beings are capable of carrying in their very souls. Years ago in school I learnt of the virtues of fasting and could list understanding hunger and experiencing it first hand, understanding that what we take for granted being indeed a great bounty from Al-Ghaffaar (The Great Forgiver) and to bring discipline and subjugate the “free will” to what the Al-Kareem (The Bountiful) has willed for us. Mostly it was to pass the Islamic studies test. The gulf between word and deed registers meaningfully in the proverbial perfection of hindsight. Through the telescopic reach of it I pull out a seemingly random experience.

I watch the clothes being hung on the clothesline by the housemaid. Besides being entrusted with the task of cleaning a house teeming with children, she would also be asked to help with the laundry. I suspect the separate salaries that she would draw from the multiple families in the house served her sanity well. She starts at one extreme of the clothesline, which by evening would serve as a “net” for a badminton match between cousins, often earning the ire of an aunt or uncle for prematurely removing the garments hung out to dry. By the time she would reach the middle, garments of likely equal weight, would make the line sag just by virtue of their distance from the supports on either end. A much less perplexed mind marvelled at this being an analogy of the disparities in life in general. The clothes in the middle, sometimes the same weight, even shade, colour or fabric would be much closer to the ground, at times leaving them much more vulnerable to picking up dust from the floor when a bunch of teenagers would carelessly bundle them in to a corner for the evening sports. Years later, the simplicity of this analogy finds a reminder in the journey through Ramadan. It fits in to an emerging picture of who I am and where I am headed; still hazy but promising to reveal itself in its entirety. A picture that I believed was a complex mix of depictions, themes and subthemes, subtlety camouflaged as the obvious, turned out to be the creation of one master stroke by Al-Musawwir (He who designs all things). Infinitely simple.

The appropriateness of this analogy holds true as I reflect on the clothesline being this worldly life; confined in time, space, means, material, health and the journey lasting just as long as the body holds on to the basics of its physiology. How can some be left kissing the ground while the others sway freely with the slightest hint of a breeze? That too in a world created by Al-Adil (The Just)? I stared hard at the picture for a long time. No answers arrived and none will for many years and I know all too well the perils of claiming wisdom. I acknowledge the limits of my own vision. To sweep that corner of a sleeve off the ground I would need to make the line tauter and with that one simple answer came many others. The ends of this line extend to eternity, weighed against infinity ultimate and universal justice prevails. The Prophet Mohammed Sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said:

Narrated Haritha bin Wahb Al-Khuzai: I heard the Prophet saying. “May I tell you of the people of paradise? Every weak and poor obscure person whom the people look down upon but his oath is fulfilled by Allah when he takes an oath to do something. And may I inform you of the people of the Hell-Fire? They are all those violent, arrogant and stubborn people.”

“I would not like to have gold equal to this mountain of Uhud, unless nothing of it, not even a single Dinar of it remains with me for more than three days, except something which I will keep for repaying debts. I would have spent all of it (distributed it) amongst Allah’s Slaves like this, and like this, and like this.” The Prophet pointed out with his hand towards his right, his left and his back (while illustrating it).

In yet another Hadith it is said that the poor will enter paradise 500 years before the rich as they had not been tested with wealth.

As I finally call it a day I hope to dream of the careless laughter as children play around a clothesline that does not sag.

 

Whispers of the other


A trusted pair of hands sweeps down and in one motion he picks up the giggling 2 year old carefully placing her on his shoulders. The giggles grow louder and the child looks for the reaction on a graceful female face that follows and finds a mix of content and loving approval. Surely, we can feel the warmth of the moment if not through personal experience then by the sheer humanness of the scenario. This family of three could be walking down any mall in America, they could just as easily be walking in the midst of a tribe in Africa on a ritualistic walk to seek water, they could with comparable ease be placed waking down any street in Europe and yes they could just as easily be a snap shot of blissful moment for a family in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia. If the added mental exercise of the fatherly figure sporting a beard or a skull cap, be it a Muslim one or one of typical Jewish fashions, or the mother wearing a veil or head scarf or perhaps even a skirt baring her legs, takes away from the beauty of this moment in your mind then you have for sure added a few bricks to the wall beyond which the “other” is fabled to live.

The world has progressively constricted since 9/11 no matter what side of the wall you find yourself on and whether you own a share in the bricks of this ever growing divide or not it builds regardless. Some of us lay our claim to humanity more than others and the “other” either worships a false God or isn’t loved by ours. When will we realize that this ugliness spares no one? When does the arrogance end and the dialogue begin?

The recent events unfolding in Pakistan inspire these words and I am plagued with the familiar feeling that something obvious is being missed. “We” as human beings constantly wish for ourselves what we are not willing to grant others: dignity, self-respect, justice and the right to be masters of our own destiny and yes the right to choose “our way of life”. The latter brings to mind the arrogance of the Bush era. Most in the US do not realize how damaging the policies of this half-crazy president have been and how it has left the world in an endless spiral of hate and violence. If you are a Pakistani living and working in the US, not a day goes by without a painful realization that evil has no permanent address. The senselessness of the constant media blitz portraying one in every four human beings on the planet as a terrorist at worst or a security risk at the least is only matched by the equally alienating chanting of “down with America” in any street demonstration in the Middle East or Pakistan. The latter is as guilty of lumping a nation of 300 million into a monolith as the former is of generalizing the actions of a handful to 1.5 billion.

Being a Muslim Pakistani in the US gives can serve as a unique and painful vantage point. Each day we see the gulf between humanity widening. The opinion makers on either side of the divide and especially the hypnosis that the media in the west creates with the idiot box as the ultimate determinant of truth with the average American having the choice of subscribing to their own sub- flavour of it based on whether they choose to tune in to CNN or Fox, serve to strengthen generalizations that the “other” is an epitome of absolute evil. The dehumanization of the “other” along with a sense of entitlement for “us” has unleashed endless violence. Forever etched in our minds are the images from that fateful day when the horrible images of the day those planes slammed in the twin towers. I watched with horror in Pakistan as some jumped from the unimaginable heights, choosing between this and the inferno. Around 3000 human lives were lost to senseless hate. I don’t remember rejoicing. If anything I will remember the tears rolling down my mother’s cheeks. The tears would roll down her cheek yet again as the sky over Baghdad lightened up in “shock and disgust”. The same dictator that had been propped up for years by the US is now a danger to humanity. The way the war was being sold over the western media is instrumental in understanding the widening gulf between the west and Islam. Perhaps Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) persecuting a religious minority (surprise it’s the Muslims!) in the US in the name of radicalization should start by considering what is increasingly dividing humanity in to “us” and “them”. His at best naïve argument that “radicalization” in the Muslims of US needs to be gauged as if it is a breathalyser for estimating blood alcohol levels.

Yet there is more to the events that have unfolded in the last decade. The western media has established a rather fluid and make shift moral basis that apply to others variably and mostly never to the international stance the US takes, a case in point being the Raymond Davis Saga in Pakistan. A CIA contractor of the notorious black water brand (the same trigger happy psycho’s who gunned down countless Iraqis and earn to the tune of 200,000 dollars an year), who gunned down two Pakistani men in broad daylight on the streets of Lahore, a city known as the heart of Pakistan. To ice the crime with more blatant arrogance a backup vehicle coming to his rescue enters the incoming traffic and crushes to death a third innocent Pakistani. The widow of one of the victims overdosed and on her death bed tells the many news channels of the country that she wants “justice” and “blood for blood”. Her disillusion with the country’s corrupt and sub-human leadership forces this girl to kill herself as a plea for justice for the man she had a love marriage with. The same western media that would cry itself to bed over a woman being forced to marry a man of her parent’s choice conveniently rips the face off this human tragedy. We will digress, but Islam requires the complete consent of a girl for marriage. The deaths are mere statistics, the story tucked away in some inconspicuous corner of CNN, perhaps not even in the “US edition”. A west constantly brain washed. What you will find instead is an inspiring story of some cancer survivor. There is no doubt that America as a nation is blessed with wonderful people who have achieved great things and have often opened their hearts and homeland to many in need but to think that this rest of humanity is devoid of this kindness is a mere convenience. The more time I spend in the US, the more I realize that the genuine kindness and warmth of its people within its borders is constantly undone by its government by its tyrannical foreign policy leaving the humanity in this part of the world wondering why the same people that they empty out their pockets to help when floods and earthquakes strike are the ones that hate them.

I think to understand each other better the Raymond Davis case offers many opportunities. So this murderer is declared a “diplomat”. His belongings included a cell phone, GPS and firearms as well as photographs of sensitive military installations. The US embassy uses a mix of threats and carrots over the ensuing week. So involved in the countries politics is the US embassy that they are virtually the new East India Company, having hijacked the freedom and dreams of a nation of 170 million. The resentment that an ordinary Pakistani feels against the US has nothing to do with religion but is conveniently labelled such by the western media. Reverse this with the hypothetical situation that a Pakistani spy commits the same crime in the US and then claims immunity for being a diplomat which he is proved beyond doubt not to be. Not only that, the Pakistani government gets Secretary Clinton “fired” for obstructing the release of this “diplomat” and the level of outrage that this Nation would experience is barely imaginable. No rational person would dispute the reason for this indignation as one rooted in religious hatred. Yet, this is exactly how the story is told to an average American. The wide spread shock at how this man was whisked away by dubious tactics and invoking the very Sharia the defenders of civility in the US are using as tool of fear mongering and to widen further the gulf between the west and the Islam, will be labelled as “protests by Islamic hardliners” when in reality the whole nation feels robbed of its dignity.

I will end my tirade here but with the hope that the educated lot amongst the Muslims speak for themselves before we find no means of getting our voices across this wall being built by a handful of hate mongers who use war as a business, who would still support the KKK if that meant being voted in to office and who see humanity as a hierarchy with themselves at the apex, even among their infinitely more well-meaning and kind fellow countrymen. Perhaps for now, I will let the image of this family of three plays out in my mind walking through a church, finding them sitting in a synagogue the next moment, kneeling in a temple and yes praying five times in a mosque. Assalam-e-laikum (Peace be upon you).