Some More Definitions

Beauty = Pleasantly intimidating appearance
Charm = Endearing appearance
Hatred = Inability to think rationally about someone or something
Love = Willingness to concede rights
Perfection = Absence of critics

How to Stop Terrorism

Q: What motivates terrorism?
A: Revenge and desperation.
Q: Who supports terrorism?
A: Grudge groups who have grievances against past injustices.
Q: How does terrorism differ from protest?
A: Protest is done by those who have hope; terrorism by those who have lost hope.
Q: How does terrorism grow?
A: By the production of more revenge seekers as a result of killing suspected terrorists.
Q: How can the growth of terrorists be contained?
A: By restraining those who kill suspected terrorists.
Q: Is it legal to kill suspected terrorists?
A: No. It is a mockery of law and justice even if it is endorsed by the president of a super power.
Q: What goes on in the mind of a terrorist?
A: He thinks that he is doing justice.
Q: What events triggered the current spate of terrorism?
A: Apparently atrocities against the people of Palestine and Kashmir.
Q: What prevented the UN from resolving these issues?
A: The vested interests of superpowers and the inability of the small men who ruled them to rise above parochial considerations and think in terms of universal good.
Q: Is NATO in terrorism ideologically opposed to terrorism?
A: None. It is only trying to establish military bases in all countries of the world like it has in most countries of Western Europe, Far East and Middle East.
Q: Then why is NATO fighting a war on terror?
A: Because they think that outfits like Al-Qaida and Taliban have their own agenda of world domination which challenges theirs.
Q: How can the war of terror be stopped?
A: By a civilian overthrow of the military influence in governments.
Q: What if that is not possible?
A: Preaching universal non-violence at every forum, especially to children. The next generation may benefit from it.
Q: What is wrong with tribal areas of Pakistan?
A: It is a modern reincarnation of the Wild West where the Toyota Pick-up has replaced the horse.
Q: Can these tribal areas be made 21^st century compliant?
A: The Wild West changed with the introduction of gold quest, rail-road, industry, food and grocery chains etc. Something similar might wok here.

From Frying Pan to Fire

Yousuf Raza Gilani will perhaps be remembered in history as the man who brought shame to all prime ministers of the world in all times. Faced with the threat of life from his party boss and the thought of humiliation in the Supreme Court he took leave of his senses and began a most insolent campaign against the superior judiciary. Or, perhaps he was punch drunk with power. All this begins to make sense when one starts looking at the background of the People’s Party which was founded by people with communist connections and leanings, who could not help having contempt for all judicial and moral institutions. Its founder allowed the country to be divided and its army to be subjugated in order to gain premiership for himself.  

It is really sad that his able counsel Ahsan has not informed Gilani that he has been convicted and punished under a clause of the constitution that automatically terminates his tenure in the parliament. If he clings to the office like a leach he would be liable to final termination under Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan. So he should get out of the PM house soon or the gallows will be his fate and the case can come up at any time in his life.

What is more ironic is that he took this tragedy upon himself for a man who is already doomed. The Swiss and other European cases will not go away with the passage of time. And no matter how he bargains with even the Devil himself, his party won’t win the next election.  I have to shut my Seraiki chauffeur off every so often when tries to explain to me the popular perception of who murdered Benazir and why.  The leaders of People’s Party, living in their ivory towers built with people’s money, who have turned into new Pharaohs will never know what got them.

May Allah guide them to the right path.

Reward for Justice

Perhaps the most hilarious (or hillaryus?) joke of the century so far is that the US state department has offered a reward of 10 million dollars for information about a gentleman named Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a man whose whereabouts are well known and who often appears on Pakistani television channels and recently he even held a public rally. Hafiz means someone who has memorized the whole Koran. Hafiz Saeed is the head of a Pakistan based institution named Jamatuddawa which literally means assemblage for invitation. In simple words it is an Islamic missionary organization whose social services during earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters have been greatly appreciated and earned its leader a lot of respect and admiration. But an equality significant part of the organization is that it runs the largest network of religious schools (madrassas) in Pakistan and has a leading role in the conversion of nonmuslims to Islam. Naturally, extremist Hindus and Christians hate him extremely.

Traditionally Pakistani Islamic institutions used to be affiliated with one or the other famous and well established Islamic institutions in India such as those in Bareli, Binnaur, Delhi, Deoband etc. for the simple reason that the institutions were  set up by graduates of those institutions. This gave the Indians an edge in dealing with Pakistan as through the above institutions they could manipulate the religious pulse in Pakistan. Recently, due to the nationalistic rhetoric of Hafiz Saeed many religious institutions or madrassas are breaking loose from the Indian influence and joining the JD network. That is very bad as far as the Indian establishment is concerned.

The icing on the statement of a responsible US official that the posting of head money on the State department was done on the behest of the Indians. That is the only thing that makes some sense. It also confirms a doubt that has been nagging me for the past decade or so – an Indian role in 9/11.

Most American reject the theory of insider job in the 9/11 incident because they cannot believe that an American agency could commit such a ghastly crime in its own country. They are right. But what about the job being outsourced? There is clear evidence that the Saudi intelligence was involved. It must have provided the list of Saudis who were reported to have left home to join jihad in Afghanistan, Chechnia or Kashmir. The list was used for the names of terrorists in the passenger lists of the lost planes. Unfortunately for them most of those men did not have the stomach for jihad and had returned home and were lying low.

CIA’s closest allies in UK and Israel could not be used for the demolition job. They would be the first suspects. The search for the ideal demolisher ended in India. They had no obvious links with the Americans, were nearly anonymous in most of the world, had the necessary expertise and were eagerly willing. They would also not be conspicuous as there were many Indians in USA who were regarded as harmless people.

The thought gains strength when one analyses the post 9/11 relations between US and India. The Americans are bending over backwards to please the Indians. In the case of the nuclear pact the Indians treated them with utter contempt and soon after the pact was signed they bought reactors from their old ally communist Russia. The Americans seem more concerned with the Mumbai hotel attack than the Indians themselves. In the videos most of the fires and smoke seem to be artificial and the attackers were mostly photographed with their guns pointing downward. Although much has been publicized about Ajmal Kassab and his alleged phones links with some Pakistanis, nothing has come to light about the identity and background of the 9 “terrorists” who got killed. How come Ajmal Kassab said so much about everything else but nothing about his comrades?

Free books

My books are available for free download from Smashwords as follows:

Book             Link                                                                           Free Buy Coupon

Islam Today https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145605  GQ93W

Alternatives https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/143460  FV74Y

 

Readers' reviews are wellcome.

Psychic Phenomena

This has reference to the linked article of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake as shared by Kashif Nasim.

The premonition of Carole Davies can be explained in terms of what I call congenital or ancestral memory.  It is memory that is transferred to an embryo from its mother’s brain during gestation. Caroles mother or grandmother or great grandmother may have experienced the trauma of a collapsing building and her brain must have recorded the picture of the scene and the sensations of sound and vibration preceding it as a high priority reference. The memory was transferred from generation to generation and when Carole felt the sounds and vibrations before the museum collapsed, the picture appeared before her and she knew what to do.

As for feeling the presence or arrival of people, animals etc. such phenomena can be explained in terms of thermal radiation. All living and nonliving bodies emit thermal radiation all the time which makes it possible to take infra-red pictures. Thermal imaging can be done from great distances: the big bang experiment did it from billions of miles away. It is possible that some or all living bodies emit a thermal signature that is detected and identified by other specially gifted people.

Infrared signaling is commonly used in remote control devices and a system of protocols in UHF transmission of cell phones gets the voice and even picture across great distances. Why can’t a thermal protocol allow some specially gifted people to communicate over short distances?

For further reading refer to chapter on Islam and psychology in Islam for the Perverted and the concluding paragraph of Alternatives

Alternatives

My second book Alternative which is a compilation of some of my blogs with some additions has been published on Smashwords.com. Reviews and comments are wellcome.

My First Book

Islam for the Perverted by Muhammad Nasim has been published on Amazon Kindle (ASIN: B007G8Q044). US$ 7.85.
Reviews and comments are welcome.

A National Embarrassment

Way back in the 1990s, it was discovered that there were some sixty million dollars deposited in a bank account in Switzerland which were kickbacks paid by a Swiss firm while it worked for the GOP. The then government proceeded to recover that amount and a case was registered for the repatriation of the funds in that account. The Swiss authorities froze that account which happened to be in the names of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari who were not in power in those days. The money was proven to have been laundered and the account holders were convicted who appealed through a better lawyer who forced a retrial on technical grounds. Towards the end of 2007 the retrial was nearing completion and it seemed that the earlier verdict would be repeated. At about the same time General Musharraf the military dictator disguised as president of Pakistan was in serious trouble. An agreement was reached whereby all cases against Pakistani politicians including the Swiss case would be withdrawn and Peoples Party would shore up Musharraf’s presidency. NRO was issued and the cases were withdrawn. Benazir was murdered and PP won enough seats to form government and forced Musharraf to resign by threat of impeachment. Asif Ali Zardari became president.

After the restoration of the real judiciary as a result of a populist movement which shook the PP government the supreme court heard citizen’s petitions and annulled many ordinances and orders of General Musharraf including the NRO resulting in the reopening of all the cases which had been closed.

On another citizen’s petition, the supreme court ordered that a letter be written to the Swiss authorities to reopen the case for the repatriation of the 60 million dollars. The prime minister took the plea that since the main culprit of the case was Asif Ali Zardari who as president had immunity from criminal trial the letter could not be written.

The supreme court took this action of the PM as contempt of court and Mr. Gilani is under trial on this account. In my opinion the supreme court has taken a short sighted view of the matter.  If at all, Mr. Gilani should be tried for obstructing the course of justice and harming the nation by refusing to recover the 60 million dollars which belong to the people of Pakistan.

Bhutto’s Gallows Revisited

President Asif Ali Zardari has made a reference to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to revisit the case in which Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death on the charge of ordering the murder of an innocent man Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri. Interestingly enough the parliament has already prejudiced the case by passing a resolution in its initial session declaring the execution of Mr. Bhutto a ‘judicial murder.’

 In this background, the reference really is a request to determine whether or not the national assembly resolution had any merit or whether it was a contempt of court. The reference also establishes the principle that the judgment of the Supreme Court has greater meaning and weight than a resolution of the national assembly. In order to understand the case it is important to know the background.

Here are some clippings from Nation and Express newspapers and Wikipedia:
Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Kasuri’s father, was killed in 1974. Kasuri himself was the complainant for the murder case registered against Bhutto, who was eventually hanged in 1979. In April this year, 32 years after Bhutto’s death, President Asif Zardari filed a reference under Article 186 of the Constitution to the Supreme Court to reopen the murder trial.
Bhutto was convicted in a murder case and sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 1979 during the dictatorship of the then army chief General Ziaul Haq. He was executed on April 4, 1979 by then military dictatorship.

A five-member bench of the LHC, headed by Maulvi Mushtaq Ahmad, had held the Bhutto trial for five months and awarded death sentence to him on March 18, 1978. The Bhutto family had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. A seven-member bench upheld his death sentence in its February 6, 1979, verdict with a bare 4-to-3 majority. His review petition was also dismissed on March 24, 1979. Bhutto was hanged at the Central Jail, Rawalpindi, on April 4, 1979.

Sheikh Anwarul Haq is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan [September 23, 1977 - March 25, 1981]. He is often considered 'ill-famed' for giving legitimacy to General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq’s martial law and for upholding the decision of the Lahore High Court which sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death for the authorization of the murder of a political opponent. Four Supreme Court judges headed by Chief Justice Anwarul Haq upheld the murder conviction of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. On 25 March 1981, S. Anwarul Haq became the first Justice and only Chief Justice to refuse taking the oath under the military imposed PCO and resigned on conscientious grounds.

Prime Minister Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as his term progressed, the democratic socialists alliance who had previously allied with Bhutto began to diminish as time progresses. Initially targeting leader of the opposition Vali Khan and his opposition National Awami Party (NAP), also a socialist party. Despite the ideological similarity of the two parties, the clash of egos both inside and outside the National Assembly became increasingly fierce, starting with the Federal government’s decision to oust the NAP provincial government in Balochistan Province for alleged secessionist activities and culminating in the banning of the party and arrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto's, Hayat Sherpao, in a bomb blast in the frontier town of Peshawar.

Dissidence also increased within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the murder of a leading dissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. Powerful PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of abusing human rights and killing large numbers of civilians.

On January 8, 1977 a large number of opposition political parties grouped to form the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). Bhutto called fresh elections, and PNA participated fully in those elections. They managed to contest the elections jointly even though there were grave splits on opinions and views within the party. The PNA faced defeat but did not accept the results, alleging that the election was rigged. They proceeded to boycott the provincial elections. Despite this, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial elections were held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA declared the newly-elected Bhutto government as illegitimate.

All the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto's regime. Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest. Bhutto imposed martial law in major cities including Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. However, Mr. Bhutto accepted that there were major irregularities in the election in a number of constituencies and a compromise agreement between Bhutto and opposition to hold fresh election in some constituencies was ultimately reported. This compromise theory was however probably a later day addition as a major PPP armed rally was in the offing.

Zia planned a the Coup d'état carefully as he knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers, including Chief of Air Staff General Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Major-General Tajammul Hussain Malik, GOC of 23rd Mountain Division, Major-General Naseerullah Babar, DG of Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence (DGMO) and Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were loyal to Bhutto.

To remove this intelligence, Zia secretly contracted with the active duty British SAS army officers to maintain a staff course for the Army personnel while Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Shariff quietly removed naval personnel loyal to Bhutto and his government from the Navy's active duty. Zia ordered Bhutto's loyal officers to attend a staff and command course and none of the officers were allowed to leave the course until the midnight. Meanwhile, Zia with his close officers, including Admiral Mohammad Shariff, then-Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, arranged the coup in the evening. On July 5, 1977, before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of Military Police under the order of Zia by the evening.

Bhutto's last personal appearance and utterances in the supreme court were not merely a long defence of his conduct he also made some matters clear. He mentioned the words of "heir" for his son "Mir Murtaza Bhutto". He made some remark which indicated that he has views similar to a Sunni, though he was Shia albeit a non-practicing one. He also effectively cast doubt on the reliability of star witnesses against him i.e. Masood Mahmood who was a UK-trained lawyer and not merely a police officer and FSF chief. He mentioned repeatedly Lahori Ahmedi connection of Masood Mahmood in his testimony. He repeatedly brought the subject of his maltreatment in the death cell. Bhutto made it abundantly clear, even though indirectly that he wanted either freedom or death, not something in between, and appreciated Khar and his lawyer Yahya Bakhtiar.

While witnessing the dramatic fall of Bhutto, one U.S. diplomat in American Embassy in Islamabad wrote that:

During Bhutto's five years in Pakistan's helm, Bhutto had retained an emotional hold on the poor masses who had voted him overwhelmingly in 1970s general elections. At the same time, however, Bhutto had many enemies. The [socialist economics] and nationalization of major private industries during his first two years on office had badly upsets the Business circles... An ill-considered decision to take over the wheat-milling, rice-husking, sugar mills, and cotton-ginning, industries in July of 1976 had angered the small business owners and traders. Both leftists— socialists and communists, intellectuals, students, and trade unionists— felt betrayed by Bhutto's shift to centre-right wing conservative economics policies and by his growing collaboration with powerful feudal lords, Pakistan's traditional power brokers. After 1976, Bhutto's aggressive authoritarian personal style and often high-handed way of dealing with political rivals, dissidents, and opponents had also alienated many....

—U.S. Embassy, Pakistan, U.S. commenting of Bhutto's fate,