Gay rights, American Muslims and religious laws

American Muslims! do you want American Laws to be based on religion? if not then why all the arguments against gay marriage are coming from religion?

If you have been to Muslim gathering, especially for Jummah namaz, you would have met many concerned muslims and heard ceremons from the pulpits. I did…..

Recent declaration by Obama to end descrimination against Gays marrige rights have stirred quite a bit of uneasynes among religious leadership (if there is something like that in Muslim community of America)

In masajids you might be Imam mentioning gay rights and getting angry on that. You will hear things like they are going to indocternate the children, if we alow gays getting married then next they will going to allow sex with animals, and even you might hear the argument it is slippery slop if we tolerate gays getting married next it might be having sex with kids (yup, for a second i could not believe when I heard such arguments), one Imam pointed out that your child might come home and say dad today my teacher Ms. Jeniffer’s husband came to visit her and her name was Andrea, what you are going to say to them.

I will not go in details about “question of consent” which an animal can’t give. Or Muslim children grow in America where most of the kids are having sex (straight or not) or atleast know that kids around them have boy friends or girl friends. So how traumatic their teacher having gay husband would be?

I will not even go and discuss that in this society people of any inclination are having sex with who ever they want and are open about it, so is big fuss is just giving them legal rights (which as a human they must have) not the physical act itself?

Keep all these aside, and acknowledging that all Ibrahimic religions (Jeudaism, Christianity and Islam) view being gay a sinful act. Question is which one of these wants to have American laws defined according to the religion? Do jews and muslims want America to have Christian laws? If not then why the reasoning they are presenting is coming from the religion?

Why I only hear God has forbiden this act, Allah destroyed a nation for that, ……. where are other detailed reasonings. Because if we start having religious argument here, where it will stop. Why not next have discussion about who could actually be called Christian or Jew or Muslim? Why not go ahead and ban any criticism of any religion? But then who will define religion? Why should Christians accept Islam to be religion? if they do then why not some Spagheti God? Should punishments be also derived from Bible, old and new Testaments?

American Muslims should know better, religious arguments about laws will lead to religions laws and those laws might not be ones that let minorities flourish.

 

Maya Khan Fired; Pakistani social media’s firstblood ?

When Maya Khan took out the camera and start filming people in the parks, she did not knew what will happen afterwards, she had not expected that Social Media will go crazy on that. Youtube clips of Maya-Khan Squad rounding the couples and humiliating them made everyone cringe,……. Facebook hummed her name, blog after blog start appearing criticizing her, then some portion of main-media actually took notice, (tribune was posting blogs already) BBC’s urdu section without naming her wrote a wonderful piece. (Aap Toa Naeb-e-Khuda Hean), she tried to give half hear-ted apology which was more of explanation with an ounce of showing that she understands why people are angry.

Today, Maya Khan has been fired,

I was not expecting that, did not knew Pakistani social media could be a little powerful,  did not fathomed that criticism by the public can force cooperate’s hand to correct the mistake, we are the nation where 100 people die due to medicine-reaction and no one cares, but here it happened, sound was too loud to be muted.

Is this Pakistani social media’s first blood, I don’t know but it is one quite visible one. It’s power, let’s use it properly and effectively? Next topic? Medicine companies? well if not big shots atleast we will be able to mute out the people who announce Kafir Fatwas on Tv.

 

RIP Wikyleaks

No, Wikileaks is not gone, it’s still there; but from now it will loose the support it enjoyed from the media outlets and proper journalism community. It feels like it never really appreciated that. By releasing unredacted cables, it has made extremely difficult (if not impossible) for people to defend their actions.

With many newspapers behind him, Assange was able to ward off the major criticism from even many of his supporters; documents were being read by the many News Organizations, things that were too dangerous to be released were being withheld; a reasonable precaution everyone agreed. Such precautions kept many names secret, made sure that peoples lives were not endangered, it protected Wikileaks from claims of hampering National Security and all that most importantly provided wikileaks some credibility, more support.

Wikileaks did what will change the world forever or viewing of history forever. Although no govt. fell because of it no radical change came. In Pakistan, release of such documents just validated what people already knew about the leaders, but no one expected resignations, no one seriously demanded them and no one gave any; not even explanations. American govt. accused it to be playing in the hands of enemies and many in Arab countries cried these documents to be planted by America it self (e.g. Iran on the quotes about it by heads of Gulf countries)

It did changed of what we viewed as “Confidential” and raised the question what governments should declare confidential and what they should not. It strengthened that people who are not directly working in the Journalist organisations can work with them to present ground-breaking news. Wikileaks was blogging getting bigger and reaching a milestone, a natural evolution of what everyone thought WWW will be; a place people can tell what darker things have hidden. And once it was there, there was no hiding, it will reach hundreds and thousands of people, becoming part of history.

Question is do we need everything “Open”; many will agree no, no one wants to all the memos written by every boss at every time circling web, no we don’t want names of sexually abused people on the internet, we want to disclose information about the informants; not because we favor one party or other, because that information can be used to hurt those people; track them and their family down, prosecute them, it can start a witch hunt.

Bigger problem is recent action by Wikileaks destroys the bond it shared with other organizations, they were his shield, they were his backers (even if they did not explicitly stated that), he has lost the partners now.  With loss of his partners he will loose his voice and impact factor. Just data cannot make news, you need people of credible repute to connect dotes, make story from fragments of information, make big picture, verify and clarify. Those people will be more hard to be found.

 

Great Wall of Sindh

Today during a dinner a friend told me about that there is a wall in Sindh similar in look to Great Wall of China and is of considerable length. This

prompted me to search for it. Fortunately there are multiple links about it. There is a small report from GEO Tv. where a quite young guy is trying to tell about Sindh Wall in loud dramatized excited  voice. However he ends up telling very less about it, but still it is a good starting point.

There is a Wiki link about it (image on the side has been taken from the wikipedia entry).And an un-sensationalized documentary is also available on youtube.

I have gathered that wall is about 26 Km in length and surrounds an area which could be taken as defense for the army rather than defense of any city or other population.  There is much information about it as there has only few research works done on this building.

Wall of Sindh is not an old name of wall, infact it did not had a name. One of the video anchor tells us “few” people researching on wall started calling it Sindh Wall, but does not trust us enough to share their names or views. So  I will say I don’t know when or why it was started to be known as Sindh Wall. However the name has nice touch to it.

I can add more information but basically it will be re-hashing from the above sources, so I will leave you with the original. Let’s spread information about such places.

 

Salman Taseer’s Murder: Belt up to fight the intolerance

You must have heard the Parent example for rationalizing violence, The Parent example goes like this, with little variations; “If a shopkeeper curses your father and uses —- words for your mother, will you beat the heck out of him or not?”  This is most used example to justify violence especially in the cases related to Blasphemy. Well I can beat the heck out of that guy but then I will spend years in the jail.  Most importantly from when the Emotional Responses become basis for actions, judge might reduce my punishment but punishment I will get.  Question should not be what I will do, question should be what Law says.

Why I am telling you about this?

When I heard about Salman Taseer’s murder I was thinking it will result in huge change in Pakistan

After just few hours I know what direction we are going. In all the media not one religious scholar has clearly condemned the killing. Fazl-ur-Rehman have included the phrases, that hint that they hold Salman Taseer to be responsible for his murder.  Some other religious and non-religious leaders were clearly saying that he should have been more careful in presenting his views.

Fan page has been setup on the Facebook for that murderer,  he is being called Ghazi by some religious group openly, a guy on twitter is sending salutes to the killer, Adil Najam of Pakistaniat.com is getting threatening comments on his blog, the people on the news channels are rationalizing actions of Malik Mumtaz, some religious leaders are advising against offering funeral prayers, and list continuous.

It’s time to belt up and stand up against the intolerance; it’s time to start telling “No it is not Ok for some one to be whacked up for what he/she has said”

No, no one should be declared Non-Muslim for their views, it’s only their right to declare their faiths.

It’s time to start asking our leadership for condemning such actions.

If we will stand up, if we don’t speak up; we might see people been killed for even things smaller that this. I was horrified to see a guy saying those who question Blasphemy Law are hurting feelings of people of Pakistan and then in not so open phrases defending the killer. This all appeared like threat to other people who criticize Blasphemy Law made by Zia-ul-Haq.

Let’s raise the voice so that Mumtaz Qadri does not become hero, we should be strong to disallow creation of other Mumtaz Qadri’s, we should make enough noise so that people should think twice before supporting a murderer.

 

P.S.

I hate terrorists, not only because they kill people. But also because they make Martyr out of those who should not be respected; first Zia should have been hanged he became Shaeed, Benazir should have been tried for all the corruption and mismanagement she was made Shaheeda and now Suleman Taseer who should have been removed from governorship (for bullying the elected govt. of Punjab not on his stance against Blasphemy laws) and spend rest of days thinking about days in governorship has become Shaheed.

But all things aside, his death will play an important role here in which direction Pakistan has to go. He is high profile enough to not let the matter die for weeks. It will be interesting to know what khutbaas are given during Friday prayers; and how people react when Malik Mumtaz is tried in the courts.

 

 

Governor Salman Taseer assassinated by intolerance

Governor of Punjab Pakistan Salman Taseer has been murdered by his own guard citing that Governor called Blasphemy laws black laws. How much intolerance we can live with? Where is freedom of expression? Can we not criticize a law made by humans?

Killer Mumtaz Qadri is not sole responsible, we all are. Our media anchors, our columnist, our religious scholars and our intellectuals, we all are.

One of the the worst part is there was rumor (according to the TV. Channels) that Salman Taseer was about to removed from Governor’s post. The guy who should have been thrown out of the govt. has now become Pakistan’s hero.

I never liked this guy not because he was vocal against the Blasphemy laws, I respect him for that, but his overall behavior was more of the bully than a respected governor.  Now it’s really hard time for me to say anything against him; he is dead and has been killed for one thing I hold dear, Freedom of Expression.

Let’s not let this person’s spilled blood go waste, let’s start pushing for more open attitude, making people realize that no one will be safe if we let this intolerance attitude prevail.

 

No, nothing Burned in Gainesville; only Candles of Unity were lit

I received an email from Pakistan asking whether Quran was burned or not? Email highlighted suspicion that Tery Jones of Dove Church went ahead with his plans and somehow Govt. of Pakistan is

blocking this news. This view was also part of column published by Express Pakistan, although author did not did anything to stop such suspicions.

So let me state, nothing was burned in Gainesville. That evening Gainesville saw one of the most amazing gathering, where citizens of Gainesville regardless of faith, beliefs, social statuses and views came together to celebrate diversity of Gainesville.  A vigil was held to represent Unity and Peace in community.  The news was covered by Sun Gainesville. When candles were lit and silence was held, the downtown plaza was looking heavenly, beautiful,…….

I don’t know about other cities, but following video is another example of  how people protested to stop Quran Burning.  If you go till end, a Muslim guy tells us about people who placed their hands on the grill.

The person who emailed me has emailed back telling they have confirmation somewhere Quran was burned and they are going to protest. I want to tell everyone, protesting is your right but when you protest do remember these people. When you shout anti—— slogans, do shout slogans in the praise of these people. Let’s spread peace and harmony, let’s balance our stories of Dove Church with the stories of Trinity Church of Gainesville, Jewish Rabbi in Gainesville,  Veteran for peace and hundreds of faceless people, who stood not because they love Islam, but because they love humans regardless of their faith and views.

Peace

 

Burn Quran Day and My City Gainesville

As many of you know I live in Gainesville. Among whom who don’t know many will hear this city’s name in few days, unfortunately, for a wrong reason. Recently a church named Dove Church, reportedly having less than a hundred members, announced that they want to burn the Quran (Koran).  I know what you will be thinking, or at least among many of you, there will be disbelief and anger. I want you to control your anger and listen.

Three and a half years in Gainesville and today for the first time I am little afraid. I live in fear of how my country men will react. Will they morph into the lynching crowd of Sialkot? Will they burn fast food restaurants as they did when protesting against caricatures killing two of their own country men or will they set cars and buses on fire? Will they become the monsters the Dove Church envisages Muslims to be?

Muslims of Gainesville need you to remain calm, remember that this does not represent America, this does not represent Florida and this does not represent Gainesville. It is one of the most diverse and welcoming city you can find.  Three and a half years in this city and I have not met one person who has discriminated against me for being Pakistani or being Muslim. My face does not hide from where I am and my name is quite indicative of what my beliefs are.

I want you to remember that this action is being done by a fringe group. Remember that this is not a global conspiracy against Islam; these are just few hate mongers trying to get attention.

Just let me give you a little history: previously this pastor tried to pull of a stunt by asking school-going children of his congregation to wear shirts with “Islam is of the Devil” written over them. Before this no one knew of them. Even before the Muslim community became aware, that school’s administration asked those students to either change their shirts or cover them. This event pushed the Gainesville community to re-introduce school uniforms. Rest of the community in Gainesville, both Muslim and non-Muslim, reacted against it peacefully.

There is one more reason – I have not seen before Muslims of Gainesville as united, as energetic and as active. And Gainesville community supports us; they are against this hateful act. From the day this pastor has announced this program, we are getting support from all-around. Muslim Community of Gainesville has decided that they will not protest. We will respond by servicing the community. On that day we will be having multiple events to help the people of Gainesville who need us. There will be a food drive for the homeless, blood drive and book collection drive.  On other days we are having doing community outreach, having Koran 101 day and opening our Masajids to anyone who wants to come and ask any question.

Why are not we protesting? Because it does not deliver anything, it’s useless and it can result in confrontation. Confrontation is one thing we don’t want. And we don’t want Muslims living away from America to become violent. Your violence, smoke coming out of burning tires and effigies will only harm image of Muslims. We, Muslims of Gainesville, are setting example of how to react intelligently and peacefully; please help us.

I know you are hurt, but will anger go away by doing what we do? Don’t burn things; don’t come out shouting in the streets, drying your throats. There are many things you can do; Pakistan is going from worst crisis now, why not have Largest Donation Day? Or Biggest Blood Collection Drive? Many schools have been destroyed; why not get money for one School?

If you want to show your anger, do it by sending letters. Write letters to the American Embassy, to White House and if you want to Dove Church, telling them to read Book not Burn it.  Educate people about Islam.

Many people will ask why they are allowed to do it. They will say it because they are being allowed this means American Govt. is involved. Remember this is the country, where you can burn the flag of this country, where you can say you favor Hitler and not get arrested.

Most of you know these things and understand the Freedom of Expression comes with the extra responsibility of bearing ignorance, but most of our fellow citizens don’t understand it. Please educate them. Don’t let this become opportunity for radicals and extremists.

 

4 bomb blasts in Pakistan in last 2 days

Following are the headlines of Tribune right now

• Suicide attack in Quetta, kills 55
• two killed in Mardan blast
• Explosion in Peshawar, 1 killed

 

Bomb Blast in Pakistan; from Tribune

 

Add one line of the people who died two days back in Lahore, wait, further add floods of the century (not this century which has just started, literally flood not seen in this land for more than 100 years) and you have….. I don’t know what you have, scariest picture or bravest nation or country that should not be even caring about what’s going around any where else.

But no, we are eagerly waiting for  investigation outcome that charges our players, the investigation in the scandal some people are called biggest in last decade. Why because frankly that’s we have got, that’s our booze, that’s our weed, that’s what keeps us to fight about something much smaller than what we face everyday.

Back to attacks, even with track record of Pakistan, these bomb-blasts are not simply an-other attack they have very open tones of Sectarian hate, and can cause widespread sectarian violence.  It’s time to show leadership and come out, try to pacify the crowd. Try to deal with the situation. Let not this become fight between sunni and Shia, because it is not. It’s fight between us and terrorists.

 

I stand with my Shia (&Sunni) brothers, but is it enough?

Triple bomb blasts have hit Lahore and on the Shia procession, near Gamea Sha. Newspapers are telling the names of different routes taken by the suicide bomber; I read names of those places and fell anguish and sadness. These are places where I have rode my bike so many times; sometimes worry free, sometimes in hurry, … but these are places that belong to me not to these terrorists. I see video footage of the scenes after the bomb blast and you see people in trauma, in one video one woman was just running here and there, unable to be controlled by many men. This is true representation of victims of these blasts.

I want to say I Stand with my Shia brothers, but is it enough? Is it enough to say I stand by the victims?

These people were targeted due to their faith? one can say, but most importantly they were targeted because they are part of the Pakistan.  Success of each such event where a group having different point of view is involved, strengthens publics view of it’s own society. Each such event makes a person believe that he is part of this country, this society.

We should remember that previously two places regarded with very deep respect by Sunni’s have been targeted, Data-Darbar and Mosque in Garhishow, in which a famous sunni scholar was killed because he was against Taliban.  It will huge disservice to the people who have died to label this bomb blast as against Shia and extension of negative Shia perception in Sunni majority society. Yes there exist prejudices and negative ideas about each other, but this does not mean people want to kill each other. My grandfather used to take me to the Shia procession, holding his hand we used to watch men chanting in one voice, rhythm by the beat on their chests and then there comes outs the chains; it used to be such enthralling scene.  Many sunni’s still go to these processions, it’s part of our culture. I don’t know if any of the dead is Sunni or not, but it should not matter.

What should matter is our resolve against terrorists? Should we allow them to tell us what is right and what is wrong? Should we allow them to dictate the terms because they have guns and our governments plus establishments have been weak in dealing with them?

We should question why and how? Why and how these people were able to attack? Saying one cannot stop Suicide bomber could be correct, once it is in the public it’s very difficult, but they need the equipment, they need plan, they need logistics, that’s where our mistake comes.

It’s time that we put more money in our security agencies, namely police and FIA; it’s the war where we need them. Give them technology, give them training, give them more man power and most importantly give them respect.

Sobering aspect is our media again, all top media agencies are reporting different casualties, Aaj-tv is saying atleast 37 dead, Tribune Express 18, geo 35 and dawn 27.  Such huge difference?

Either our reporters are bad or the situation in our hospitals so bad that we can’t even count dead people?