Jealousy

Torah/Old Testament project 'Jealousy" as a divine virtue. Exodus 20.5 (5th Commandment): 
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

The Holy Qur'an depicts jealousy as an evil to be shunned. Chapter 113 (The Dawn):
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. 
[113.1] Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn,
[113.2] From the evil of what He has created,
[113.3] And from the evil of the utterly dark night when it comes,
[113.4] And from the evil of those who blow on knots,
[113.5] And from the evil of the envious when he envies. 

Paris Bleeds

Indiscriminate killing of people (and even animals) is a heinous crime no matter who does it or where it happens. One can only sympathize with the unsuspecting Parisian who were going about their usual routines and suddenly found themselves in the middle of a mayhem in which many innocent citizens got killed and injured. Even more saddening is the fact that more indignities and curtailment of civil liberties of the French in general and Parisians in particular will follow in the wake of this tragedy.

Yesterday I made it a point to watch BBC and CNN’s coverage of the event as much as possible. BBC had a constant ticker saying that French president Hollande had accused the Islamic State of the attack although the gentleman himself had used the Arabic acronym ‘Daesh’ and the commentators made it a point to put emphasis on the word Islamic in all their comments. At one time there was also a report that the Pope had called the Paris carnage a prelude to World War 3. There are people in the world who might interpret the Pope’s alleged statement as a divine signal to start a new crusade against the Muslims. One wonders how much influence Zionists and Hindu extremists have in BBC; both of whom would love to see a religious war between Christians and Muslims. CNN’s coverage was considerable sane and sober; perhaps they have learnt from 9/11.

The irony of fate is that not only the Paris carnage but also a lot of death and destruction in Syria could easily have been prevented. For months we have been seeing the pictures of long columns of brand new latest model Toyota trucks carrying ISIS troops. Toyota trucks are not made in the deserts of Syria. They must have been imported from Japan. If any of the many intelligence agencies involved had taken the trouble of obtaining the chassis or engine number of any one of these trucks, the supply route and the financial support of ISIS could have been traced within hours. Very strange that nobody thought of it.

Let us use hindsight to analyze this situation. Al-Qaida, its jihadist network and Taliban were financed and trained for the specific purpose of confronting the Communists in Afghanistan and preventing them from advancing towards the ‘free world’. The ill educated Muslim mercenaries who believed that the pre-Islamic Arabian culture (jahlia) was the true Islamic way of life did a great job and not only liberated Afghanistan but in the process also dismantled the Soviet Union.  Quite naturally the Taliban & Co felt that they had a right to rule the conquered land as per their whims and refused to hand over the booty to the financiers. The result is before us.

Syria is the last stronghold of Communism in the Middle East and it seems that Abubakr Baghdadi was chosen as the new Osama bin Laden for Syria who managed to raise an army of ill-educated rustic Muslims similar to the Taliban. But as the gang started achieving military successes, it also declared the formation of ISIS (a mockery of an Islamic state) which angered its sponsors.  The Russians would naturally do everything to protect their only remaining ally.

Since most of the lands conquered or liberated by them are still under the effective control of the US military, I would appeal to them to stop this game of death and destruction and invest in the education and uplift of backward people of all religions and races. With signs of extra-terrestrial life becoming more positive, they would still have a role and importance in a peaceful and harmonious world of tomorrow.

Red Moon

The Sun turns red twice every day at rising and setting times, but few people notice it. It is a routine phenomenon. However, people whose ancestors were convinced that certain remarkable events in their lives were related to the Sun still worship the rising and setting Sun irrespective of its color. To me the Sun and the Moon symbolize thermodynamics and Optics or heat and pure light in simple English.

The Moon does not emit any light, cold or hot. It just reflects some of the light that impinges on its surface. If it reflects direct sunlight, it looks white with patches of grey. When it is illuminated by light reflected from Earth’s surface (oceans) it looks bluish. When it is illuminated by light reflected from the Martian surface, it looks reddish. The changing colors of the moon have nothing to do with terrestrial economics or politics.

Astronomy is a subject of study as ancient as nutrition and herbal medicine. The first astrolabes are said to have been built in Greece and Egypt before the dawn of the Christian era and the Muslim Spaniards and Iranians of about a thousand years ago had developed fairly scientific astrolabes and Celestial globes. It was just a matter of how much time one spent fingering his astrolabe to predict the celestial events of the future. Even a thousand year ago it could be calculated as to when the Earth, Moon and Mars will be in the required positions relative to the Sun to produce the Blood Moon effect by reflection of light from moon which was originally sunlight reflected by Mars.

Religious and nonreligious people alike who benefit from the worry and panic of the common people would exploit any unusual occurrence to their advantage. And if they can pretend to predict it, then they can trap a few weak minded people in their net of superstition.

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Laws of Democracy

1.       No decision shall be taken except by majority vote.

2.       No voting shall take place until everyone has been heard.

3.       No one shall be made to vote against his conscience.

4.       No one shall refuse to hear what another has to say.

Prayer

Prayer is the humble expression of one's desires and aspirations carried out with utter humility. The action is recognized by the universal supervisory system and natural selection takes effect. It has nothing to do with religion.

No Comment

https://www.facebook.com/insider.pk/photos/a.212847215395779.64624.200661876614313/529569380390226/?type=1

Translation:
Innocent Liba affected by drone attack poses a question to the Pakistani public:
My countrymen, am I less lovable than Malala, or is my patriotism suspect?
Then why did nobody speak for me? Is it because America the brave is responsible for my condition?

PEC Elections

PEC elections are due to be held on 14th June, 2015.
In the past when postal balloting was held, I was often approached by engineers affiliated to political parties to hand over the unmarked ballot papers to them so that they might mark all the candidates affiliated with their parties and get credit from their leaders. I never obliged, although many others did.
Since last time, polling booths are being set up for direct balloting and various allegations of rigging have been made.
This year in Karachi with about 40,000 voters in a population of about 20 million 10 polling stations have been set up, of which two are located in the Sindh Assembly Building which is not accessible to general public. Apparently these polling stations are for the few privileged engineers who are also members of the provincial assembly, which seems to be a deplorable abuse of privilege.
There are also murmurs being heard that the polling stations in the Sindh assembly will be used to round up ballot papers from interior Sindh and have them marked and and cast under the direct supervision of ruling party bosses.
It will be interesting to see the detailed balloting results assuming that they will not be rigged.
Why can't the Engineering Council be left out of state politics. Does the Engineering profession have to be brought to the same level of corruption as mainstream politics?

Myanmar Massacre – 2

Nearly two years ago in April, 2013 I wrote a short blog on the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar. Unfortunately, nobody took notice of it. Recent reports indicate that the scale of atrocities has increased and the situation can be rightly termed as genocide and ethnic cleansing. The following are the latest images circulating on the social media:

One would have thought that not only compassionate Muslims but also conscientious Buddhists from  countries with substantial Buddhist populations would have come forward to mitigate the sufferings of the innocent human beings being subjected to abject baseness in Myanmar. Now there are tens of thousands of people meandering in the seas being turned away from every port of refuge.

However, there is another angle to the situation. How do you think the survivors of this genuine holocaust are going to feel towards humanity? With utter hatred and obsession to revenge? Aren’t we breeding a new creed of terrorists? 

The Virtue of ISIS

The world today seems to be seized with the menacing events taking place in the Middle East in the name of ISIS. Unfortunately, this seems another example how misinformed politicians and military men have botched up and made a complete mess of a noble idea.

The movement called ISIS, as the very name Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to have started to unite Iraq and Syria into a single Islamic Republic. Historically they have been parts of a greater Islamic empire and most of the troubles of the people of both countries seem to have started after their separation, specially the religious sectarian persecution.

Let us see what will be religious distribution of a united ISIS Republic. The table below gives a heartening picture:

Country	Total Million	Sunni %	Shia  %	Christian %	Other  %	Sunny Million	Shia  Million	Christian Million	Other Million
Syria	18	74	12	10	4	13.32	2.16	1.8	0.72
Iraq	36	33	62	4	1	11.88	22.32	1.44	0.36
Total	54	47	45	6	2	25.2	24.48	3.24	1.08

Form the above table it is obvious that the union of Iraq and Syria will constitute a viable country with nearly equal populations of Shias and Sunnis, while the 8% minorities will hold the balance of power. It would be a workable democracy with little chance of anyone being persecuted on religious grounds.

It would be a good idea if the demonization of ISIS and the inhuman military activities are stopped and diplomatic efforts are made to bring the leaders of Iraq, Syria and the ISIS to form a Democratic Islamic State. The name and the capital will indeed be issues that can be resolved by decent negotiations.

The United Nations has a good opportunity to do at least once what it was created for.

Random Thoughts 150324

He-man = A man who wins over the woman he likes, but does not yield to the woman who likes him. (In the current Western perspective you can read man or woman instead of woman)

Israel = The last remnant of the Colonial era.

ISIS = Latest ploy of American Shale oil manufacturers to maintain turmoil in the middle east and
keep the price of petroleum up. (The idea of uniting Iraq and Syria into a single democratic state having balanced populations of Shias and Sunnis is not a bad one.)

Terrorism = One sided war; attack by armed persons on unarmed persons.

Yohannabad = Baptism in blood and fire. Has the anti-Christ appeared?

Marriage

Marriage is a socio-legal process by which a man and a woman acquire exclusive rights on one another's body, but the souls remain free.

Some Thoughts

1.     Miracles can be made to happen

2.     ‘We’ is always better than I.

3.     Nobody is better than anybody else.

4.     All colors combine to make white.

5.     Everyone has something to give

6.     A free man is one who governs himself.

Charlie Hebdo and I

“Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara-Kiri magazine, which was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.^[10] In 1981 publication ceased, but the magazine was resurrected in 1992.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo)

The planned act of violence of January 7, 2015 in which 12 people including 9 Charlie Hebdo staff members, one guest and two policemen were gunned down in Paris by two armed assailants was indeed a ghastly crime. It shook the world and some 40 heads of state flew into Paris to condole the incident.  But compared with the carnages that occur frequently in Peshawar and Karachi at the hands of religious fanatics of the same genre. it was a walk in the park. The December, 2014 terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar in which over 130 pupils and teachers were gunned down in cold blood did not seem to cause any stir in the world.

Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE in Makkah and Islam started when he was 40 lunar years old or about 609 CE. In the last 1406 years there has not been a single incident in which a Muslim has abused or ridiculed the Bible or the Torah or Jesus or Moses. Their names are taken with respect by all Muslims. In fact Muslims even treat Budha, Confucious and the Hindu avatars with a degree of deference. However the response of the followers of other religions has been disappointing to say the least. There is a whole history behind it.

The ridicule of Prophet Muhammad was started by the Christians, Jews and pagans of Makkah as soon as his message became known. The European compilers of the Bible didn’t shrink from putting in snide remarks about Ismail son of Abraham who is claimed by the Arabs of Makkah to be their forefather. In recent times such western intellectuals as Voltaire and Dante have exceeded all limits of decency in their criticism of Islam and Prophet Muhammad. The illustrations contained in Dante’s Inferno are simply outrageous from any standards.

It seems that Western civilization and decency have become conditioned to such vulgarities against Islam. How come that in a society where people get jailed for denying the Holocaust, mocking the king or queen or the death of a president are not questioned about their activities that clearly incite hatred on the basis of religion and race?

We accept that there is small number of people in the Muslim world who are intellectually locked in the 7^th Century and want to change the world to resemble the state of affairs of that time and efforts are being made to contain the effects of their errant thinking. The question is: are there similar people in the Western world who are intellectually locked in the “middle ages”?  If so, are they a small minority or an overwhelming majority?

The following picture shared on facebook seems to be a fair representation of the popular following of the leaders who assembled in Paris to demonstrate solidarity with vulgarity.