Without comment ?????

Greetings to Sikh brothers.

Zulfiqar Butt from USA wrote: Dear all brothers, .... People of Narowal are looking to the day whenGovernment of Pakistan will allow Sikhs to visit Darbar SahibKartarpur and we welcome this step. I hear the Pak Government islikely to allow Sikh brothers to come to the Darbar on September 22. Iam unfortunaly in the USA at the moment and will not be able to watchthis historic occasion but my family in Narowal town will be there towelcome any body who comes there. Even you can stay with my nephew,Musa-deq Butt, Advocate. Musa-deq is grandson of late Ch. GhulamMohammad Butt who was President of the city Municipality in 1947. Ihope all those who migrated from Narowal know him and Musa-deq Butt,adovate, is the son of late Anwer Ali Butt, ex-MPA, Narowal.I am in touch with Mr. Bajwa in Amritsar for I am to publich adetailed book on Narowal and, a full chapter will be included on Baba-je Guru Nanak Sahib.All friends are invited to send me any interesting detail regardingNarowal or Darbar Sahib Kartarpur.

I am moving to Springfield for further medicial examination and seek some kind of job to sustain myself in the coming days.

Pakistan has to raise internal resources: WB ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: The argument in the US that Pakistan needs resources because it is an important ally in war on terror might not continue, said World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz...

I spoke to Touqeer yesterday in London and told him that I will be moving there next month. He has not moved to his own house till now and he told me that the house is ready and that I could stay there till I return to Pakistan for Sarah's marriage. Gori, on the other hand, also spoke to me today but her voice was not clear the first time. So she had to speak to me again. I told her how and where my illness stands. I hope to be cleared by my doctors some times next month. Thank God my liver was cleared yesterday but I still have to wait for my condition regarding my prostrate. As soon as I hear about it I will have a clear picture as to what I am going to do regarding my illnessness here. I have the facility of almost free medical aid here as I was given the Medicare assistance by the Government. So I am not sure as to what I am going to do next month. I will have to wait for my medical reports.

.... What God thinks ? ... Mary Michael ... a nun in London.

New film on Jesus coming-up

"It matters to me what God thinks, not what the film crew think," said Michael, quoted by Britain's domestic Press Association news agency.

"When I face Almighty God, at my final judgment, as we all will, I can say, I did try my best, I did try my best to protest."

The film, which also stars Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno, is due for release in May next year.

Michael said a controversial claim in "The Da Vinci Code" -- that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children by her -- was based on a gnostic heresy, "an old error, derived from the mystery faiths of the east".

BEN ZAB said... All sane people grieve when they hear of aimless and killings of the innocent. Sharon has not backed but is trying to see peace come to the middle east. It would be a welcome step for Sharon has seen that killing of Palestinian did not work. Now he expects, may be, concession may work.I am a Pakistani and a Muslim and this is how I feel about the new Gaza move. I just pray that peace comes to the area. In fact all of us should pray to God for the success of Sharon's efforts. BEN ZAB 5:52 PM

Article: 'I'm So Sorry'

President Bush says,'I'm So Sorry' ......................

In emotional private meetings with the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush offers solace-and seeks some of his own. (for full story see New York Times dated August 14th,05)

A new Muslim convert writes about Alcohol, pork, sex and more

What i realized that day was that Christians don't really devote their lives to God in most cases. Only a few have actually read the Bible (mostly older generations), and even though the Bible forbids alcohol, pork, premarital sex and so much more - they still did it and to boot - eat a big ham on Easter! They talked the talk, but they didn't walk the walk. That is they said they were Christian and believed in what it stood for, they just didn't do anything that Christians were supposed to do. That was me included. When I began asking why, people told me it's because that is old fashioned...the way it used to be. I wondered how God's rules could be considered old fashioned and out of date. Wouldn't he have updated us with a new book or new son? But they were adults and didn't like my questions so i eventually stopped asking. Source: wayfarersjourney.blogspot.com

Pakistan celebrates birthday

Pakistan celebrates its 58 birthday on August 14th,2005. Luckly its Musa-deq Butt's 49th birthday too. Happy Birthday and many return of of the day.

God bless you !!!! For caring the OLD, OLD.

Zulfiqar Butt wrote: To: jwinakur@aol.com

Dear Doctor,

I have read your article about the OLD, OLD in the Washington Post today and would say its half way true here in the USA. Luckly its more than that, on our side, which people like you myself have seen in the Eastern counties , where children of the old people stand beside the bedsides of their aging parents till their last moments. Here most of the old are damped in the Caring Houses.

I visited a Caring House, near me, to see a relative and when I entered the

common room I founded as if I was a son, a brother and a relative to over 50 over looking oldies.

God bless you for looking after your parents.Yours should open the eyes of many.

Yours,

Zulfi'qar Ali Butt

Lamar. MO. USA

People in USA have started questioning war in Iraq.

To the Editor:

The war has come to this: a lonely grieving mother, initially standing alone, joined now by people of all classes and backgrounds, demanding an end to the war. In opposition stands the most powerful man in the world, who never admits mistakes. The tipping point has arrived.

Tom Miller Oakland, Calif., Aug. 12, 2005

• Source New York Times, dated August 13th,2005 ... letters to the Editor

Another view on Local Bodies elections

Its Local Bodies time in Pakistan

A shout in the mountains .....

Time to wake up ROEDAD KHAN I was born in slavery. On August 14, 1947, I was a free man, proud citizen of a free, independent, and sovereign country which I could call my own, a country I could live for and die for. I was young - 24 to be precise - full of joie de vive, idealism, hope and ambition. For me and, like me, for all those who belonged to my generation, Pakistan symbolized all our hopes, wishes and expectations. It was like a dream come true, and carried with it a sense of pride, of excitement and of jubilation. All this turned into dust in October 1958, when Ayub Khan plunged the army into politics and stabbed our fledgling democracy in the back. He set a bad precedent. Others merely followed his example.  47 years after the first military coup, we are back to square one. The country is under military rule for the fourth time and is going down the tubes. The euphoria following the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif’s government soon gave way to the sobriety of the morning after. Unrealistically high expectations were awakened on October 12 and when these expectations were disappointed and remained unfulfilled, frustration set in. The revolution we all expected and which seemed so certain at the time, did not take place.  Today, Pakistan is a ghost of its former self. If it were to look into a mirror, it won’t recognize itself. Today say: “Pakistan” and what comes to mind: sham democracy, fraudulent referendum, rigged elections, a President in uniform, a rubber stamp parliament, a pliant judiciary and a figurehead PM. Democracy in the west means a political system marked not only by free and fair elections, but also by Rule of Law, a strong, independent judiciary and an independent Election Commission. All these institutions are non-existent in Pakistan. Since the days of Herodotus democracy has meant, first and foremost, rule of the people. In Pakistan, the people do not rule. The sovereign power of the State resides elsewhere. Five years ago, ruthless accountability of corrupt holders of public office was on top of General Musharraf’s agenda. What prevented him from making good on his promise to arrange for the expeditious accountability of all those who bartered away the nation’s trust and plundered the country’s wealth? Why are so many known corrupt holders of public office still at large? Why have so many got away? Why were they sworn in as Ministers? And why were judiciary and army exempted from accountability?  The contrast between the current tide of public disillusionment with President Musharraf and the grassroot support for him five years ago is stark. Five years ago, he was being widely heralded as a people’s champion. Today, he risks being dismissed as the latest in a long line of easily forgotten rulers. To paraphrase Churchill, the last five years of his rule were the years that locusts have eaten. His prospects of changing Pakistan are dimming fast although he continues to mouth the rhetoric of reform. The electorate feels betrayed. People are asking; is Musharraf really up to the job? Does he know where he wants to go? Do we want to go there? Does he have a central focus? In short, do we like what we see or suffer from buyer’s remorse?  “Ruin comes”, Plato said in 347 BC, “when the General uses his army to establish a military dictatorship”. Five years after he captured political power, General Musharraf’s authoritarian regime, far from being temporary, is acquiring the mantle of permanence. Unless checked, the country will settle into a form of government with a democratic façade and a hard inner core of authoritarianism – an iron hand with a velvet glove. When that happens, there will be no need for the imposition of martial law. If anybody in this country or abroad thinks that General Musharraf will hold free and fair elections in this country in 2007 and retire; that a genuine transfer of power to a civilian government will follow the election and army will return to the barracks, he must have his head examined. Today power is concentrated at the tip of the Executive pyramid. The lesson of history is that a person who possesses supreme power, seldom gives it away voluntarily.  Today Pakistan is a shadow of what it used to be. What is there to celebrate? The Federation is united only by a ‘Rope of Sand’. The constitution is prostrate. 58 years after independence, Pakistan is torn between its past and present and dangerously at war with itself. A general languor has seized the nation. As we look back at all the squandered decades, it is sad to think that for Pakistan it has been a period of unrelieved decline and the dream has turned sour.  Pakistan is drifting away from the democratic path and sliding into darkness. It is like a nightmare in which you foresee all the horrible things which are going to happen and can’t stretch out your hand to prevent them. Such is the feeling conjured up by army rule in Pakistan. The irony is that Musharraf calls it the Renaissance, the rebirth, the renewal of Pakistan. “Pakistan”, he said recently, “Has woken up”. How I wish it were true. Unfortunately, Musharraf has an unparalled ability to insulate himself from inconvenient facts and reality. A President directing the State from a seat in the crater of a volcano can hardly be expected to think clearly. Time and again history invited Musharraf to play a democratic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. “I must remain in uniform”, General Musharraf said recently, “for the sake of democracy in Pakistan”. Butt the irony is that, today General Musharraf’s uniform is the greatest impediment and the biggest roadblock to democracy in Pakistan. Heavens won’t fall if he were to retire as COAS and take off his uniform. The Pakistan Army is quite capable of producing an equally competent and patriotic army chief. Nobody is indispensable. The graves of the world are filled with the bones of indispensable people.  The Pakistan army is a people’s army, in the sense that it belongs to the people of Pakistan who take a jealous and proprietary interest in it. It is not so much an arm of the Executive branch as it is an arm of the people of Pakistan. It is the only shield we have against foreign aggression. Why politicize it?Why expose it to the rough and tumble of politics? Why use it as an instrument for grabbing and retaining political power?  The military has cast a long shadow over politics in Pakistan even during the period of civilian rule. Repeated army intervention in the politics of Pakistan has been a recipe for disaster. It has thwarted the growth and development of parliamentary democracy and destroyed whatever little faith people had in their political institutions. What is worse, it has eroded people’s faith in themselves as citizens of a sovereign, independent, democratic country. Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of power which they believe to be illegitimate, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.  Will our military rulers ever learn from history? Will they ever learn that military rule sows the seeds of its own downfall? Will they ever learn that today there is no respectable alternative to democracy, that military rule, direct or indirect, veiled or unveiled, is passé and is a recipe for disaster, that Pakistan cannot survive unless the army is taken out of the arena of political conflict and supremacy of civil power is accepted in letter and in spirit? Today the core issue facing the nation is freedom from army rule. Without demilitarization, Pakistan risks revolution.  We have come to a critical fork in the road. The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Pakistan is to be ruled by the constitution or the whim and caprice of an individual. Do we wish to remain citizens of a Republic, or do we prefer some form of autocracy in which a General in uniform assures us that things were never as good as they are today and that authoritarianism is good for Pakistan?  It is time to wakeup. Let Pakistan be Pakistan again. Let it be the dream it used to be – a dream that is almost dead today. All those who see the perils of the future must draw together and take resolute measures to put Pakistan back on the democratic path before Tsunami catches up and hits us all. Needless to say, the walls of autocracy will not crumble with just one good push. The present order will not go quietly. It will be an uphill struggle to redeem our democracy and fashion it once again into a vessel to be proud of. A shout in the mountains has been known to start an avalanche. ‘The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity’. An evil spirit hangs over Pakistan. Is it our destiny that there must always be darkness at high noon, there must always be a line of shadow against the sun? Why is the better sort of the nation so silent today? Why have the intellectuals adopted ‘the genre of silence’? Why is there no outrage? Why is there no loud protest? Because, there is virtually no civil society in Pakistan. The creative intellectuals, barring some blissful exceptions, have been driven to ramshackle ivory towers or bought off. The legal profession has nothing left of its former power but its rhetoric.  From my perspective, this is a dark moment in our history. I know that an unusual agitation is pervading the people, but what it will exactly result in, I am unable to say. “I can detect the near approach of the storm. I can hear the moaning of the hurricane, but I can’t say when or where it will break forth”.

Salman Rushdie calls for Islamic reformation.

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Author Salman Rushdie has suggested that “nothing less than a reform movement” will do “to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air.”

In an article in the Washington Post on Sunday, the author who now lives in New York, argues that the “deeper alienations” that lead to terrorism may have their roots not so much in the objections of young Muslims, such as the London bombers, to events in Iraq or elsewhere, but because the “closed communities” of some traditional Western Muslims are places in which young men’s alienations can easily deepen. What is needed is a move beyond tradition, he adds.

Rushdie is critcal of the Blair government’s strategy of relying on traditional, essentially orthodox Muslims to help eradicate Islamist radicalism. “Traditional Islam,” he writes, “is a broad church that certainly includes millions of tolerant, civilised men and women but also encompasses many whose views on women’s rights are antediluvian, who think of homosexuality as ungodly, who have little time for real freedom of expression, who routinely express anti-Semitic views and who, in the case of the Muslim diaspora, are - it has to be said - in many ways at odds with the Christian, Hindu, non-believing or Jewish cultures among which they live.”

The British-Indian author points out that in Leeds from where the London bombers came, many traditional Muslims lead “inward-turned lives of near-segregation from the wider population.” From such defensive, separated worlds some youngsters have indefensibly stepped across a moral line and taken up their lethal rucksacks.

He is of the opinion that it would be good to see governments and community leaders inside the Muslim world as well as outside it throwing their weight behind this idea of reform, because creating and sustaining such a reform movement will require a new educational impetus whose results may take a generation to be felt. New scholarship will be needed to replace the “literalist diktats and narrow dogmatisms” that plague present-day Muslim thinking.

Writes Rushdie, “It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. It should be a matter of intense interest to all Muslims that Islam is the only religion whose origins were recorded historically and thus are grounded not in legend but in fact.” He stresses that the Quran was revealed at a time of great change in the Arab world, the 7th century shift from a matriarchal nomadic culture to an urban patriarchal system. The Prophet (peace by upon him), as an orphan, personally suffered the difficulties of this transformation, and it is possible to read the Quran as a plea for the old matriarchal values in the new patriarchal world, “a conservative plea that became revolutionary because of its appeal to all those whom the new system disenfranchised, the poor, the powerless and, yes, the orphans.”

Rushdie argues that the Holy Prophet was also a successful merchant and heard, on his travels, the Nestorian Christians’ desert versions of Bible stories that the Quran mirrors closely. “It ought to be fascinating to Muslims everywhere to see how deeply their beloved book is a product of its place and time, and in how many ways it reflects the Prophet’s own experiences.

However, few Muslims have been permitted to study their religious book in this way. The insistence that the Quranic text is the infallible, uncreated word of God renders analytical, scholarly discourse all but impossible. Why would God be influenced by the socio-economics of 7th century Arabia, after all? Why would the Messenger’s personal circumstances have anything to do with the Message?”

According to the author of the controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, that most Muslims to this day consider blasphemous, the traditionalists’ refusal of history plays right into the hands of the literalist Islamo-fascists, allowing them to imprison Islam in their iron certainties and unchanging absolutes.

If, however, the Quran were seen as a historical document, then it would be legitimate to reinterpret it to suit the new conditions of successive new ages. Laws made in the 7th century could finally give way to the needs of the 21st. “The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance of the concept that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities. Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace. This is how to take up the ‘profound challenge’ of the bombers.”

Will he deliver Bin Laden ?

Recent criticism by the great power and its satellites about our General’s on-off and start-stop attitude when it comes to concrete delivery in the terrorism field are fair enough. Being by no means a simple man, he is hardly likely to deliver bin Laden even if he could, for that would for certain reduce his global worth. But there is nothing to stop him from delivering on the madrassah matter, expelling the foreigners who come here to learn the jihadi trade, and from closing down the few militant madrassahs that the world knows exist.

New York Times again goes out to help Dr.Shazia of Pakistan

Since the publication of the two Nicholas Kristof columns in the New York Times on Shazia, there has been an outpouring of sympathy and support for her from around the world. From Pakistan there has been just one message, from India none

When is Gen Pervez Musharraf going to realise that the great disadvantage of authoritarian rule is that the man in authority is held responsible for everything that goes wrong. What goes right is neither noticed nor acknowledged. The shattering case of the young Sindhi doctor Shazia Khalid and the manner in which she was dealt with has brought dishonour to Pakistan and a bad name to “Mr Pakistan”.

First, the facts: Shazia was raped. Who her assailant was has not been determined. The crude attempts by the local administration and the army to sweep the crime under the carpet failed. The stealthy manner in which Shazia was removed to Karachi, kept under confinement for two months and then put on a London-bound plane leaves no room for according the government the benefit of the doubt. Some heads should roll in Pakistan. Let “enlightened moderation” by demonstrated in deed not words. Especially contemptible have been attempts by certain agencies and agents to spread scandalous stories about Shazia. Even today, Mrs Anis Haroon from Karachi, who helped Shazia and remains in touch with her, is followed wherever she goes and harassed otherwise. Who are these people and on whose behalf are they acting, and why?

Shazia and her husband are in London. What a shame that they have had to leave their own country to find shelter in an alien one! She has been helped by the US-based group AANA, which is made up of Pakistani professionals, mostly doctors. The countrywide organisation of Pakistani doctors, APPNA, has yet to do anything to help. Nor has any gesture of sympathy come from any of those hundreds of Pakistani millionaires, whose generosity is mostly aimed at their own person and family. A fabulously rich Pakistani in Canada who is always going on about national honour and Islam sank into silence since I asked him to make a gift of money to Shazia.

Since the publication of the two Nicholas Kristof columns in the New York Times on Shazia, there has been an outpouring of sympathy and support for her from around the world. From Pakistan there has been just one message, from India none. People have written to President Musharraf and the Canadian government has been asked by many to grant Shazia the asylum that she seeks. Two Canadian immigration lawyers have offered to take up her case free of charge. Some money has also been sent by New York Times readers and more will surely follow. One American woman writes, “I am appalled at the way she was forced to leave her country and then left helpless and isolated in the United Kingdom. This crime and the cover-up have struck at the heart of humanity. I demand justice for female victims of violence in Pakistan.” One message says, “I am a poor man, but I will be happy to contribute a small sum. Fight the good fight Dr Shazia.”

One woman writes, “It must be so difficult for you right now, but try to think of how much good you are doing in the face of so much pain. You will heal, and you will fully realise that you have not lost any honour, only gained even more than you had before.” Another woman writes, “You are an inspiration, and a Godsend to other women who have been victims or who may become victims in the future.” An American student in London says, “I can’t offer much, but would be happy to bring over a home-cooked meal and be a friend.” A woman from Honolulu writes, “Aloha, I am glad to hear that you have gone public with this humiliation. No woman should be treated the way you were.” Another young London student says, “Let me know what I can do! Do you or your husband need groceries, medicine or anything? Take care!” A woman from St Louis writes to say that she was also a rape victim and asks Shazia to “stay strong so that you can help other women who suffer. You also bring me strength. May God be with you.”

Several letters have appeared in the New York Times. One rape victim tells Shazia, “Rape will hurt anyone it touches and will corrupt any society that condones it, ignores it or victimises the survivor. Rape is not about sex; it is about power.” One woman from New York writes, “Dr Shazia was forced to quit Pakistan with dire warnings. She did not seem to get any support from the intellectuals, human rights groups and news media in Pakistan for her refusal to cower in the face of blatant injustice.” A woman from California says, “The world must support truth tellers. To fail to support Dr Shazia is to side with her persecutors.” A woman writing from Tel Aviv tells Shazia, “I had tears in my eyes when I read Kristof’s column about the Pakistani rape victim. I, too, am a rape victim.”

I think it is incumbent on Pakistan and its people to reclaim their daughter and bring her home from her exile with honour and love.

People on Dr.Shazia's Rape

August 4, 2005

The Difficult Path of a Pakistani Doctor (4 Letters)

To the Editor:

Re "A Pakistani Rape, and a Pakistani Love Story," by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, Aug. 2):

As a rape survivor for the past 25 years, I honor Dr. Shazia Khalid and her courage. I remember the sense of shame and the feeling of being damaged. In fact, at the time, the police told me not to tell anyone. Even today in the United States, a woman is considered "brave" to publicly discuss her own rape.

Yet here is what I've learned in all these years: Rape will hurt anyone it touches and will corrupt any society that condones it, ignores it or victimizes the survivor.

Rape is not about sex; it is about power and is perpetrated only by "little boys" who have no concept of true power. As Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have taught us, true power comes from inside ourselves. It cannot be taken from us externally.

I stand in support of Dr. Shazia and her family, and of their quest for healing and their own inner power. When a family has been rent as theirs has, it makes the path all that more difficult, and yet I can attest that it is worth every step.

Janet Rudolph Rockville Centre, N.Y., Aug. 2, 2005

•

To the Editor:

The dreadful ordeal that Dr. Shazia Khalid went through in Pakistan as a victim of rape and that she now goes through in exile is disheartening.

I don't see how Nicholas D. Kristof finds any glimpse of hope in the story. Dr. Shazia was forced to quit Pakistan with dire warnings. She did not seem to get any support from the intellectuals, human rights groups and news media in Pakistan for her refusal to cower in the face of blatant injustice.

Moni Nag Scarsdale, N.Y., Aug. 2, 2005 The writer is an adjunct professor of anthropology, Columbia University.

•

To the Editor:

Bravo to Nicholas D. Kristof for his article about Dr. Shazia Khalid, a Pakistani who has escaped political persecution, threats to her life and the lives of her family, and separation from her son because she spoke out against Pakistan's abhorrent treatment of rape victims.

Canada is particularly well positioned to help this courageous woman and her husband rebuild their lives. It should grant them this chance.

The world must support truth tellers. To fail to support Dr. Shazia is to side with her persecutors.

Elaine Smith Sacramento, Aug. 2, 2005

•

To the Editor:

I had tears in my eyes when I read Nicholas D. Kristof's column about the Pakistani rape victim. I, too, am a rape victim.

I recommend that people contact Canada's justice minister, Irwin Cotler, about granting asylum to Dr. Shazia Khalid. I have met Mr. Cotler, and he is a decent man. Maybe he would intercede.

Laura Goldman Tel Aviv, Aug. 2, 2005

Pakistan 'Taleban law' rejected Pakistan's top court says parts of a provincial bill introducing Taleban-style laws are unconstitutional. Pakistan's unruly province Profile: President Musharraf Views on Sharia