Monthly Archives: January 2014

NEW YEAR

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Urdu Poem.
By Mirza Ashraf.
This poem was posted two years ago on TF blog. However, the situation in the world is same. I would like this to be posted again this year also until we see the new light of the good hope we have from the new year.نیا سال
اے مرغِ سحر دہر میں اک شور مچا ہے
یہ صبح نئی دن ہے نیا سال نیا ہے
a’ey murgh-e-sahr dehr mein ek shor macha hai
yeh din hai nayaa, subeh nayaii, saal nayaa hai
اور شام کے ڈھلتے ہی چراغاں کا سماں ہے
جیسے کہ نئے سال میں حسنِ رخِ جاناں ہے
aur sham ke dhaltay he charaghaan ka smaan hai
jaisay keh na’aay saal mein husn-e-rukh-e-janaan hai
انداز تیری بانگِ سحر کا تو وہی ہے

روشن صبح صادق کا ستارہ بھی وہی ہے
andaaz tery bang-e-sahr ka to wohii hai
roshan subeh-e-sadiq ka sitra bhi wohii hai
سورج بھی وہی چاند ستار ے بھی وہی ہیں
یہ دھوپ یہ سائے یہ نظارے بھی وہی ہیں
suraj bhi whoii chand sitaray bhi whoii hain
yeh dhoop yeh saa’ay yeh nzaray bhi wohii hain
گردوں کے شب و روز اشارے بھی وہی ہیں
ظالم بھی وہی ظلم کے مارے بھی وہی ہیں
gardoon ke shab-o-roze ishaaray bhi wohii hain
zaalim bhi wohii zulm ke maarey bhi wohii hain
ہر لمحے سے وابستہ وہی بیم و رجا ہے
حیراں ہوں نئے سال میں کیا ہے جو نیا ہے
her lamhay se waabasta wohii beem-o-raja hai
hairaan hoon na’aay saal mein kaya hai jo naya hai
گردن جو اُٹھا کر دی اذاں مرغِ سحر نے
اظہار کیا لطفِ خودی اس کی نظر نے
gardan ko uthha kar de azaan murgh-e-sahr nay
izhaar kiyaa lutf-e-khudi us ki nazar nay
اک حسن ِسحر دیکھ مری بانگِ سحَر میں
ہر روز ہے اُمید نئی اس کے سحِر میں
ek husn-e-sahr dekh meri  baang-e-sahr mein
her roze hai umeed naii es kay sehr mein
اشرف میں بتاتا ہوں نئے سال میں کیا ہے
اُمید نئی ہے جو نئے سال کا مژدہ ہے
Ashraf mein batata hoon na’aay saal mein kaya hai

Mirza Ashraf

ROBERT GATES COMMENTS ON OBAMA’S LEADERSHIP

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Shared by, Tahir Mahmood

In a new memoir, former defense secretary Robert Gates unleashes harsh judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Leveling one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat, Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan. The president was “skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail,” Gates writes in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

For further reading,click the link bellow.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-gates-former-defense-secretary-offers-harsh-critique-of-obamas-leadership-in-duty/2014/01/07/6a6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html?tid=sm_fb

Thinkers Forum USA January 2014 Lecture Meeting

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Thinkers Forum USA January 2014 Lecture Meeting

Arab Spring and Liberal Democracy

In Continuation of the Article post on TF 4/13/2013

“THE ORIGIN OF DEMOCRACY AND ITS ROLE TODAY”

By Mirza Iqbal Ashraf

On Sunady, January 26, 2014 at 3;00 PM

At

48 New Main Street, Haverstraw, N.Y. 10927

 SYNOPSIS: Since the first waves of revolts launched as ‘Arab Spring’ swept the Arab world, it seems uncertain that western liberal democracy will take hold in that part of the world. So far there are no signs that the future of Democracy in the Arab world is bright. Without any doubt one of the key question is whether Islam is compatible with democracy? Whether the basic concept of divine sovereignty and man as a divine-viceroy adopted by the ruling elite or the military dictators, are willing to give up power in favor of the popular sovereignty? Is it the religion of Islam, or the tribal cultural and traditional ethos, or the astonishingly only poetically based literary and cultural heritage of the pre-Islamic Arabic language and literature, barricading the emergence of liberal democracy? Is the Spanish concept of “Twine Toleration” that may consolidated liberal democracy in Arab world intertwined with the belief of the religious-oriented masses and the political leaders can help indigenize a form of liberal democracy? Is there a possibility that the Arabs should not conclude that politics and religion have a common object, but that in the beginning stages of a nation “one serves as an instrument of the other.” Or the Middle Eastern should follow what the renowned America poet Walt Whitman reflected upon liberal democracy as: “. . . For I say at the core of democracy, finally, is the religious element. All the religions, old and new, are there.” And what President Barack Hussain Obama views, “. . . Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.” And much more to express, know and discuss for all of us.

Mirza Ashraf