Author Archives: fay707

Paris Video; It has not been shown in USA !

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The Paris Video below was forwarded by Dr. Shoeb Amin. Below is the link to video;

http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnplayer.swf?aid=17933

Comments on Paris Video

By Fayyaz Sheikh

Although Muslims should adjust and be sensitive to local culture, but the reporter’s commentary on video is exaggerated for anti-Muslim propaganda purpose. In France, anti-Muslim fever is at its height and everything is exaggerated and labeled as taking over of France by Islam and Sharia Law. However, I think Muslims should not be holding prayers in street. They should follow the local zoning laws and have two prayers inside the Mosque and not blocking the streets.

One could see some Muslims even praying on Airports and other public places and displaying “in your face” kind of attitude than coming across as humble and respectful of local sensitivities. This is totally un-necessary especially considering, during the travel, Islam allows saying “Kaza” prayer at home or when you reach your destination.

Unfortunately this is the failure of Muslim Religious Leadership who clings to old ideas and does not have a clue how to deal with today’s realities; and then wonders why our 95 % of Muslim youths are not connected to mosque, and why 29% hide their religious identity? , as per Gallup survey.

 

The End Game! By Abid A. Kazi

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How do we evaluate as to who becomes a hero
Many times our judgment is wrong and it ends up zero

We all like to look up to people who are examples in their fields
In order to make a change among us we must yield

Machines may look mightier than the men in looks
Remember these were manufactured by men with strong hooks

When peace is incarcerated by the forces of evil around
Wisdom and non violence must stay firm on the ground

History often reveals sad part of success as it came
Atrocities and hardship has to take the blame

The solution is always closer than we expect
Do we have the courage and guts to accept?

All the beginnings have come to stage for bargaining and bend
How graciously we embrace the end it all depends

ABID A KAZI
03/29/2012

Past Present: History they wrote– by Mubarak Ali

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The following article was written by Dr. Mubarak Ali, our guest at Thinkers’ Forum USA meeting on March 25,2012. It is about writing the history of Pakistan. It was published in Dawn. It is a worth reading.

Twenty-three years past the independence of Pakistan, history writing has been rather disappointing. Official historians and textbook writers focus exclusively on and reiterate the Pakistan movement and there is no research on ancient India, the medieval period or the colonial era.

In the absence of any alternative school of history, grandiose national narratives come across as dull and boring. According to official history, partition not only divided the subcontinent into two separate countries but it also partitioned history. Consequently, ancient India is not a part of our historiography.

History writing in Pakistan is controlled by the bureaucrats and politicians who direct historians on how to write history which suits their interests and justifies their policies. It is in the interest of the state to use it to historicise the ideology of Pakistan. This task was faithfully accomplished by I.H. Qureshi in his two books Muslim Community in the Indian subcontinent and Ulema and Politics, in which he skillfully distorts events and adjusts them within the framework of the ideology of Pakistan. The next historian to follow him was S.M. Ikram, who traced the roots of two nations in medieval India.

Hence officially, the history of Pakistan begins from the Arab conquest of Sindh. According to this point of view Sindh became Bab-ul-Islam or the gateway to Islam. It linked our history with the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, alienating it from ancient Indian history. This interpretation creates a Muslim consciousness that seeks its identity outside India. However, the truth of history is quite different. Sindh became separate and independent as soon as the Abbasid caliphate declined and local dynasties replaced Arab rule. Arabs who settled in Sindh assimilated in the local culture and identified themselves as Sindhis.

Pakistan has rich cultural heritage and a glorious ancient past. The discovery of the Indus valley civilisation astonished and amazed the world of its achievements. Its important towns, Harappa and Mohenjodaro, located in Pakistan, boasted of the advanced and developed culture of this area unlike the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations. Although there were no palaces here, the temples and tombs indicate that the common man was not exploited like in other civilisations across the world.

When the Aryans arrived in India, they initially settled in Punjab and the first veda was composed there. When they moved to the valleys of Ganges and Yamuna, Persians had already occupied the region. Alexander’s invasion and the Greek settlement produced the Gandhara culture. Scholars like Panini, the author of first Sanskrit grammar compilation and Kautillya, the author of Arthshastra emerged from Taxila’s university.

This was a part of the Mauryan Empire and witnessed the peaceful and non-violent policy of Ashoka who had converted to Buddhism but there was tolerance for other religions. Here’s a lesson that we could perhaps learn from our past.

From time to time, a number of invaders such as Kushans, Huns, Persian and Greeks came to India. Once they settled here they became Indians. Therefore, the Arab invasion of Sindh was also like other invasions and the Arabs eventually assimilated in the local culture. Therefore, the Arab conquest should be studied as a continuous historical process and not as an isolated incident.

In northern India, Turks, Afghans and the Mughals ruled for centuries and eventually integrated into the Indian culture. In the 1920s, when communalist feelings emerged, Hindu communalists called them foreigners. But on the other hand, nationalists regarded them as Indians and were proud of their heritage. Pakistani historians seem confused on how to treat this period with Akbar being a major issue for them, as I.H. Qureshi and other historians hold him solely responsible for the fall of the Mughal Empire.

We must understand that history is a continuous process and if continuity is broken, historical consciousness is damaged.

When writing history of Pakistan, it is important to note that history should not be influenced by religious beliefs since history has no religion. It is neutral in character. Secondly, the events happening in this part of the subcontinent should neither be ignored nor neglected but be accepted for their cultural and historical significance. We must also realise that our past is related to the Indian subcontinent and to the outside world.

Pakistan came into being in 1947 but our history existed before this which cannot be deleted. A shared history and culture not only broadens our minds but eliminates a narrow outlook of history. Just like we cannot delete the rule of the Sultans of Delhi and the Mughals, we should include ancient Indian past in our heritage.

Some intellectuals argue that Pakistan should link with Central Asia and break its historical affinity with India. These intellectuals fail to understand that sharing the same religious belief is not enough to be accepted by other cultures. There are tremendous differences between Pakistanis and Central Asians. We have to trace our roots in our own land and not outside of it. To rewrite the history of Pakistan, we must begin our history from the ancient period and link it to the present. This continuity would create a mature historical consciousness.

European countries are independent and sovereign but culturally they are unified. A contribution by a German philosopher, a British economist or a Dutch painter is regarded as European. South Asians can follow this model and culturally own one another. This would lead us to peace and prosperity.

Are We Failing Our Young Muslim Generation?

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Dr. Bhana forwarded an e-mail detailing statistics on Muslim youths in USA.

Less than 5% young Muslims in the US
attend Juma Khutba or any Islamic education.

* About 47 PERCENT of Muslim youth on college campuses drink alcohol.

* More than 26 PERCENT of Muslim youth report feeling anger;   Only 18 percent of the general youth population report he same.

* Only 40 PERCENT are considered “thriving,” which is significantly less than other youth groups.

* 75% said they or someone they know have been discriminated
against. (Zogby Poll)

Although these statistics are alarming, as Dr. Bhana rightly described it, but not surprising.

The young Muslim generation is having  hard time in adjusting because they are living in two different cultures, parents ‘culture and American culture. They are trying hard to please both sides and for many of them it is creating a conflict, confusion, anger, and sometimes even hopelessness. This is not because of less religious education, which most likely many Muslim organizations will conclude, but due to feeling isolated, feeling of being “different “than other youths and  subject of discrimination. Many do not share these feelings and experiences at home because either they do not want to burden their parents or they believe that their parents would not understand them. They keep it bottled up, and for some it becomes unbearable, and they rebel against their own culture and religion.

Our generations have built Islamic Centers in almost every county of USA. It has provided religious, emotional and social support for our generation and a main source of Islamic learning for the young generation. These Islamic Centers provided our generation, to a large extent, similar atmosphere and surroundings as we had back home and we did not feel the need for integration into the American Society. While doing this, we did not foresee the needs of American born young generation.This Islamic Centers focused life, that is tailor-made for the old generation, is neither attractive nor satisfying for the American born and raised young generation. Despite the fact that majority does well in academic studies, but when they compare themselves to other American youths, they come up feeling short because they mostly shy away from other activities and feel isolated.

Our generation failed to integrate into American Society and we are holding back the new generation also. Integration into American Society does not mean one has to sacrifice its culture or religion, but getting involved into many local activities as suggested by Ann Rosenberg in her e-mails (http://www.thinkersforumusablog.org/archives/378 ), and encouraging the young generation to get involved in extracurricular activities with their American friends, is a big step forward. I think having separate Islamic Recreational Activities, as many Islamic Centers are organizing, is further isolating us from the American Society. We should be planning these activities in association with local sports leagues and joining the schools and colleges in such activities.

If above statistics are correct, in spite of the hard work, the methodology as well as religious substance chosen for teaching by the Islamic Centers and Muslim organizations is not working in any aspect. Most of the Islamic Centers and Muslim organizations are spending lot of their energies on arguments and fights over Islamic Rituals (veil, halal meat, separation of men and women etc) and not focusing on real issues facing the Muslims in general and the young Muslim generation in particular. These rituals have become a litmus test for being a “Good Muslim “ and is driving away many people especially young generation. Despite the fact that many American Islamic Scholars and Imams are available in USA, still speakers and Imams in many Islamic centers are brought from back home. This may satisfy nostalgia of old generation, but these Imams and speakers do not connect with American born and raised younger generation. We have neither encouraged the young generation to get involved in leadership role of the Islamic Institutions nor have we created an atmosphere in these centers that will attract them. There is no new blood with fresh ideas in the leadership of Islamic Centers and Islamic organizations. The old guards neither have prepared the new leadership with new ideas, nor are they willing to hand over the power.

Few years back, Prof. Abou El Fadle, Professor of Law at UCLA and Islamic Scholar, wrote in one of his letter to CAIR regarding Muslim leadership:

“My experience is that most Muslim organizations do not have the ability to benefit from and adequately utilize their human resources; they are unable or unwilling to incorporate a dynamic process of intellectual regeneration. For example, the same individuals who have existed at the helm of leadership when I came to the USA in 1982, are the same fellows who continue to dominate the Muslim reality today. What is interesting is that these individuals do not seem to have developed intellectually, or even linguistically, in more than twenty years. I find them still relying on the same ideas, and using the same language, that they utilized over twenty years ago without development or regeneration. Even worse, I find that their grip on power is such that they muffle and suffocate the emergence of any fresh intellects, original ideas, or the incorporation of diverse experiences. Whether we are from the Arab or Indo-Pakistani world, it seems to me that despite the façade of democratic processes that we have learned to master in our home cultures, despotic processes and paradigms has become well-ingrained in the very psychology and intellectual fabric of our leadership. Our main organizations, despite the façade of democracy, are still trapped within the mainly despotic paradigms that they imported from back home.”

The above rings true even today. Our generation has done a great job of building the Islamic Centers and Muslim organizations from a scratch. It is long overdue that we bring the young generation in leadership role. They will be able to navigate these difficult times better with fresh and new ideas. Brain storming by the old leadership to resolve these issues will bring back the same recycled ideas with same outcome and above statistics will get even worse.

Fayyaz Sheikh