—Courtesy Facebook.

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean cartoonist has been arrested for alleged sedition over a satirical comic strip on his Facebook page that appeared to accuse the government of racism, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Leslie Chew, 37, was released on bail following his arrest Friday, two days after a complaint was filed about his cartoon strip that lampooned the government for being “racist” toward minority Malays, his lawyer Choo Zheng Xi told AFP.

The strip was posted on Chew’s “Demon-cratic Singapore” Facebook page on March 27.

“He was released on Sg$10,000 ($8,060) bail on Sunday night, and is currently being investigated under the Sedition Act,” said Choo.

The cartoon depicts a politician addressing a crowd and praising the talents of expatriate Indian, Chinese and Caucasian communities.

A character in the audience asks “What, no mention of Malay talents?”, to which another responds “Damn! Racist government”.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General’s Chambers told AFP: “The matter is currently under police investigation.”

Chew regularly posts satirical political cartoons linked to current events in Singapore on his Facebook page, which has over 21,000 followers.

His cartoon characters usually resemble local politicians, although a disclaimer on the page says it is “a totally fictional comic with entirely fictional characters based on wholly fictional events in a fictional country”.

Speaking to AFP on Wednesday, Chew said he was “surprised” that he had been picked up by the police.

“I thought I made it quite clear through the disclaimers on the cartoons that my work on Demon-cratic Singapore is purely fictional,” he said.

He added that he intends to continue to publish cartoons while he is being investigated as police had not imposed any restrictions.

“I want to continue to amuse my audience. The comics are simply for laughs,” said Chew, who is unemployed and makes a living from contributions from his online readers.

Singapore, a multi-racial island nation, clamps down hard on anyone seen to be inciting communal tensions after experiencing bloody racial riots in the 1960s.

Ethnic Chinese make up 74 percent of Singapore’s resident population of 3.8 million, with Malay Muslims accounting for 13.3 percent, followed by ethnic Indians, Eurasians and other racial groups.

If convicted, Chew faces a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to Sg$5,000 ($4,030), or both.

Muslim League leaders with Quaid-i-Azam after arriving at the venue of Pakistan Resolution Session in Lahore. -File Photo

It favoured greater autonomy to the provinces but it turned in favour of a strong and assertive centre in the post-independence period.

The resolution for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India passed in the annual session of the All India Muslim League held in Lahore on 22-24 March 1940 is a landmark document of Pakistan’s history.

The passing of the resolution marked the transformation of the Muslim minority in British India into a nation with its distinguishing socio-cultural and political features, a sense of history and shared aspirations for the future within a territory.

The Lahore Resolution, popularly described as the Pakistan Resolution, employs modern political discourse for putting forward its demand rather than using a religious idiom for creating a religious-Islamic state for protection of Islam from the onslaught of other religions of India.

It made worldly demand keeping in view the peculiar problems of the Muslims of British India, the political experience of the Muslim community and the prevailing debate about the ways to protect Muslim identity, rights and interests against the backdrop of the modern state system established by the British in India.

The Resolution addressed the Muslim question in the political and constitutional context of British India and pointed out to the course of action the Muslim League intended to adopt to secure the Muslim identity, rights and interests.

It emphasized the principles that were relevant to modern state system and the political context of British India. It made five specific demands:

1. The Resolution rejected the federal system of government as envisaged in the Government of India Act, 1935 because it was “totally unsuited to and unworkable in the peculiar conditions of this country and is altogether unacceptable to Muslim India.”

2. The Muslims would not accept any revised constitutional plan unless it was framed with “their consent and approval.”

3. The adjacent territorial units should be demarcated into regions that may involve some territorial adjustments in a manner “that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in north-western and eastern zones of India “become “independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”

4. The resolution offered “adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards for religious minorities” in the Muslim majority units for the “protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.” Similar rights will be given to the Muslims in “other parts of India.”
5. The Muslim League Working Committee was asked to formulate a constitutional scheme on the basis of the principles outlined in the Resolution.

The Resolution thus offered a new course of action for the Muslims of British India as compared to the Muslim League position adopted on constitutional and political issues in the past.

The change was that of strategy but not of the goal.

The Muslim League goal since its inception in December 1906 was to protect and advance Muslim socio-cultural identity, rights and interests in British India’s socio-political and constitutional context.

Initially the Muslim League demanded separate electorate for the Muslims so that they could elect their representatives.

Later, it sought adequate Muslim representation in the cabinets and state services/jobs.

It also demanded constitutional safeguards and guarantees for the Muslims.

It supported federalism with autonomy for provinces, hoping that the Muslims would be able to exercise power effectively in the Muslim majority provinces which would not only boost the Muslim community but also provide greater opportunity for advancement of Muslim rights and interests.

The change of strategy was caused by the political experience of the Muslim elite in their interaction with other communities, especially the Congress Party, and the policies of the British government.

These strategies also manifested the growing desire of the Muslims to assert their separate socio-political identity.

The Muslim League began to think about discarding the federal model in 1938, when the Sindh Provincial Muslim League proposed that the All India Muslim League needed to review its position on constitutional issues in view of the experience of the Muslims under the Congress governments in some provinces (1937-39).

What weakened Muslim League’s confidence in the federal model for the whole of India was the bitter experience of the Muslim educated classes and urban population under the Congress ministries in the provinces.

The cultural and educational policies of these ministries alienated the Muslims.

The Muslim elite in these and non-Congress provinces came to the conclusion that the Congress governments in the provinces were imposing Hindu ethos in the name of Indian identity.

Further the Muslim leaders complained about the discriminatory policy for recruitment of Muslims to government jobs and they maintained that the Muslims suffered in the economic domain in the Congress-ruled provinces.

The experience of the Congress rule in the provinces was the triggering factor that led the Muslim League leaders to explore a political alternative to a single Indian federation.

Though the Lahore Resolution talked of a Muslim homeland, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah did not wholly give up the idea of some political accommodation within the framework of a loose federal model.

The Muslim League acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan (March -April 1946) clearly showed that its leaders were willing to work within a loose federal model that grouped the Muslim majority provinces into two political groups and non-Muslim majority provinces were put together as the third group.

These three groups were joined together under a weak federal order.

The provinces in each group could review their relationship with each other and the federal government after ten years.

The Muslim League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan when it learnt that the Congress was only interested in getting into the constituent assembly without giving any specific commitment that the future constitution would be based on the provisions of the Cabinet Mission Plan.

The Lahore Resolution did not use the name “Pakistan” in the text and it did not link up the demand with Islam.

The Resolution presented the Muslim demand in the context of British Indian politics rather than giving a constitutional framework for a proposed Muslim homeland.

The Muslim League used Islam and made Islam-based appeals for political mobilization for the 1946 provincial elections.

A large number of people and rural-based Islamic clergy, pirs and sajjadanasheens in the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) joined the Muslim League after 1940, especially during 1945-47.

Some of the rural clergy helped the Muslim League in its election campaign. Most of them believed and advocated that Pakistan would have an Islam based political system.

There is a territorial basis of the Lahore Resolution and its demand for a Muslim homeland.

This demand became credible because of territorial contiguity of Muslim majority provinces in Northwest and Eastern zone where Bengal and some of its adjoining areas made it possible to put forward this demand.

Had the Muslim majority provinces been scattered the homeland demand would not have worked.

The Muslim League leadership was invoking the imperatives of modern state that included people, territory, government and sovereignty.

The Lahore Resolution has been a basis of three debates in the pre- and post- independence periods.

The first debate relates to the non-use of the name Pakistan in the demand.

The Hindu press and leaders were quick to describe the resolution as the demand for the creation of Pakistan; some people began to call it the Pakistan Resolution soon after the Lahore session of the Muslim League.

The second debate focuses on the use of certain terms in the Resolution.

These include “independent states” and that the constituent units will be “autonomous and sovereign.”

Was the Lahore Resolution talking of one or more than one state for the Muslims of British India?

These ambiguities can be addressed if a literalist approach is not adopted to understand the Lahore Resolution.

Rather, it has to be viewed in the political context of British India in and around 1940 and the Muslim political experience over time.

In a federal system sovereignty is the prerogative of the federal government and its constituent units cannot be both “autonomous and sovereign” at the same time.

In the case of Pakistan, the British government transferred power and authority to the state of Pakistan through its federal government established in Karachi.

Pakistani provinces got power from the federal state and the first Interim Constitution.

Pakistan’s federal system was not created by the provinces deciding to set up a federation.

Pakistan’s federation was built into the Indian Independence Act, passed in July 1947 by the British Parliament and the First Interim Constitution.

This envisaged a strong centre and weak provinces.

This legacy has haunted Pakistan’s political system from the early years.

The Pakistan movement developed gradually.

It did not stop with the passage of the Lahore Resolution.

Next seven years were important to understand the making of Pakistan.

The Muslim League demands became more specific and assertive in the post-1940 period.

By 1942, the Muslim League focus shifted to a singular phrase of state.

In September 1944 Jinnah was very categorical in asserting that he was taking of one state of Pakistan.

This issue was finally clarified by the convention of Pakistani parliamentarians held in Delhi in April 1946.

The evolutionary process of the movement for the creation of Pakistan began before March 1940 and ended with the attainment of independence in Pakistan in 1947.

The third political debate relates to the post-independence period.

Some regional-nationalist leaders in Sindh and Balochistan invoke the Lahore Resolution for seeking maximum autonomy for provinces.

They demand that Pakistan’s federal model should be based on the Lahore Resolution. Some leaders have talked of turning Pakistan into a confederation.

This is a literalist interpretation of the Lahore Resolution which can be described as flawed.

The Lahore Resolution did not offer a framework for organizing the Pakistani state, especially the distribution of powers between the federal government and provinces.

It addressed the constitutional issues in an all-India framework and offered a framework to settle the Hindu-Muslim question on a permanent basis.

The demand for greater autonomy can be raised by political parties and leaders in Pakistan with reference to the Muslim League’s political disposition on federalism in the pre-independence period.

It favoured greater autonomy to the provinces but it turned in favour of a strong and assertive centre in the post-independence period.

The 18th constitutional amendment marks the beginning of the era of greater administrative and financial autonomy for provinces.

Provinces have more control over their finances and natural resources.

If democracy continues to function and the federal and provincial governments improve their performance the confidence of people in the state system will improve.

This will weaken the role of regionalist-nationalist leaders and they will find it more difficult to invoke the Lahore Resolution for seeking more provincial autonomy.

The writer is Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Punjab University, Lahore, and a recipient of the Presidential Award Sitara-i-Imtiaz.

Secretary general of Thailand’s National Security Council Paradorn Pattanathabutr, second from left, and chief of Malaysian-based National Revolution Front Hassan Taib, right, sign documents as secretary of Malaysia’s National Security Council Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab, center, witnesses during the signing ceremony of the general consensus document to launch a dialogue process for peace in the border provinces of southern Thailand, in Kuala Lumpur on February 28 2013

KUALA LUMPUR: Thailand’s government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever Thursday, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country’s southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people.

The agreement was announced in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front, also known by its Malay-language name, Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Pattani. It is seen as a positive step, but it is unlikely to end the conflict because several other shadowy guerrilla movements are also fighting in southern Thailand and they have yet to agree to talks.

”God-willing, we’ll do our best to solve the problem. We will tell our people to work together,” Hassan Taib, a Malaysian-based senior representative of National Revolution Front, said after a brief signing ceremony with Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary general of Thailand’s National Security Council.

Later Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was expected to discuss the agreement in Kuala Lumpur with his Thai counterpart, Yingluck Shinawatra. No schedule was immediately given for future talks between the two sides, and no other details were available.

Violence has occurred nearly every day in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since the insurgency erupted in 2004. Security forces as well as teachers have been targeted by insurgents because they are seen as representatives of the government of the Buddhist-dominated nation.

Muslims in the border region, which was an independent Islamic sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in the early 20th century, have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Bangkok, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. But the insurgency remains murky, with militants making no public pronouncements on their goals.

Paradorn said earlier this week that fewer than 1,000 insurgents are living on the Malaysian side of the border. Most are ethnic Malays.

The Thai government and military have struggled to identify legitimate participants for the peace process, as the militant leadership is not clear and no groups have stepped out to take responsibility for the daily attacks in recent years.

The insurgency is believed to be highly decentralised, with local units having the freedom to choose targets and campaigns.

The National Revolution Front is one of several separatist movements that have made public calls for a separate state in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south. It is unclear how many groups of insurgents the Thai authorities intend to bring in.

”This is a welcome development,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. ”Not only is this the first time the Thai government recognized the status of a separatist group, but also the process has included Malaysia as the facilitator of the talks, which will likely draw more participants in the peace process.”

Other experts argue that bringing more insurgents to the negotiating table will not be easy. ”There are several groups who would like to talk to the Thai authorities but they won’t come out because the Thai government cannot guarantee their safety. What they want is amnesty, which the Thai government can’t promise,” said Panitan Wattanayagorn of Bangkok-based ChulalongkornUniversity. ”The insurgents, too, will have to talk among themselves before making any decisions,” he said. ”So it is not clear that we will see a decline in the incidents in the near future.”

Other groups fighting in southern Thailand include the Pattani United Liberation Organisation, which has made public calls for a separate state.

In the past decade, Malaysia has also brokered negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. That has so far resulted in a preliminary peace pact signed last October to grant minority Muslims in the southern Philippines broad autonomy in exchange for ending more than 40 years of violence that has killed tens of thousands of people and crippled development.

Malaysia’s government has repeatedly said it wants to see a peaceful resolution to its neighbours’ conflicts and has denied funding, arming or providing any other support to militants.

In this Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 photo, a woman browses an O2M breathable nail polish display at an Inglot shop at the Galeria Mokotow shopping center in Warsaw, Poland. A craze has built up around the nail polish with Muslim women in recent months after an Islamic scholar in the United States tested its permeability and published an article saying that, in his view, it complies with Muslim law. — AP Photo

PRZEMYSL: Poland, for Zaida Saleh, like for many observant Muslim women, manicures have long posed a religious problem.

With prayers five times a day, and the pre-prayer ritual of “wudhu” that requires washing the hands and arms, traditional fingernail polish has been mostly off limits because it prevents water from making contact with the nails. A new ”breathable” nail polish by a Polish company, Inglot, is changing that.

The company and some Muslims say the polish is the first of its kind because it lets air and moisture pass through to the nail. A craze has built up around it with Muslim women in recent months after an Islamic scholar in the United States tested its permeability and published an article saying that, in his view, it complies with Muslim law.

”It’s huge,” said Saleh, a 35-year-old who hadn’t polished her nails in many years but immediately went out and bought the product in five colours, including a bright pink, a burgundy and a mauve. ”I am excited. I feel more feminine – and I just love it.”

The news of Inglot’s breathable polish has in recent months spread quickly from woman to woman and over the Internet. It also has given Inglot a boost in sales of the product, called O2M, for oxygen and moisture.

The nail polish now stands as one of the final life achievements of Wojciech Inglot, a Polish chemist and entrepreneur who developed it to create what he billed as a healthier alternative to traditional nail enamels, which block the passage of moisture and oxygen to the nail. He died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 57 after suffering internal hemorrhaging.

Though the Holy Quran, does not specifically address the issue of nail polish, some Islamic scholars have said that water must touch the surface of the nail for the washing ritual to be done correctly.

Nobody was more surprised by the splash it made with Muslims than Inglot himself.

”I didn’t think there is a single Muslim living here,” Inglot said in an interview with The Associated Press nine days before his death at his factory in Przemysl, near the border with Ukraine. ”We didn’t even think about this.”

Inglot said the enthusiastic Muslim reaction to the product began after an Islamic scholar, Mustafa Umar, published an article on his blog in November declaring it permissible. The result was a ”serious increase in the sale” of O2M.

Inglot said the company was unable to immediately meet all requests for orders, but that the phenomenon was so fresh that he didn’t yet have any figures on sales.   ”But it looks very promising,” Inglot said. ”We were very surprised and very happy with that.”

Umar, director of education and outreach with the Islamic Institute of Orange County in California, said he decided to study the matter because Muslim women had already been discussing the product in online forums. There was uncertainty over whether it would be ritually compliant, and they weren’t getting any answers.

”So I decided to go ahead and write an article on this because I know how important it is for Muslim women around the world,” Umar said.

He said he has gotten an enthusiastic reception to his opinion from women — not only because they are revelling in the chance to accessorize with colourful varnishes.

“Usually when men give a religious ruling or verdict, they tell women that something is not allowed,” Umar, 31, said. “They felt so good that someone was finally telling them ‘you are allowed to do this.’”

There are still some outstanding questions, however, about how breathable the nail polish will be if multiple coats are used — say a clear bottom coat, two layers of color plus a top coat, as is common.

Before his death, Inglot was working to answer this question and gather other data on the product. The company’s other managers are deep in mourning over losing Inglot but plan to continue that effort. Inglot had insisted on having more data before he felt he could responsibly promote the varnish as being compliant with Islamic law.

-Illustration by Faraz Khan/Dawn.com

The professional Muslim Ulema of Pakistan have influenced our thinking so much that we see everything in religious terms. We keep a keen record of “atrocities against Muslims” but we ignore the enemy within who hides behind Islam. Earlier, we used to see two centres of evil: India and Israel but with time they have increased to include America and Europe. Iran is rapidly moving away because of our growing sectarianism and it is hard to name any real friend – Saudi Arabia and China are our ‘friends’ only in the sense that they are not enemies. They have excellent relations with our enemies and do not support us in our disputes with India and America, or in our red-hot anger against Israel.

We strongly believe that in our 65 years of national life, we have been attacked five times by India, once by Russia, that we are “spiritually” fighting America for the last 12 years, that we fought our East Wing and lost it because of Indian aggression which the world supported because of the bias established by Indian propaganda. We believe that we were always on the right side, that we were persecuted.

It was always hard for us to ask: are we really so innocent and so persecuted? Why does the world hate us? All these 65 years we have been teaching our students that one billion Hindus hate us because they are bigoted and jealous of our merit. It has been considered unpatriotic to ask why we failed to befriend them in 700 years.

War is a tragedy but we refuse to see that a society at war with itself is an abomination. We love to talk of “we”, but we are “we” only in hate against “others”; when it comes to sacrifice or service, everyone is an individual.

War is a tragedy because it tries to achieve an objective through use of force and destruction. Even when it ends in one’s victory, it does not end; it sows the seeds of future wars because those who are vanquished and disgraced never forget the wounds of defeat. Their collective memory passes to posterity generation after generation and nourishes the desire to avenge. Our subcontinent remained in a state of war for centuries between the Muslims kings and a resisting India. A narrow class of Muslim victors in India won prosperity and power but the large Indian population suffered the tragedy of defeat and suffering for all these centuries, while Muslim masses had no share of victory except vain pride and widespread ignorance. This history of war has left an aching scar on both sides of our people. It is partially, if not wholly, responsible for the lingering misery of our masses on both sides. Although for several reasons we in Pakistan refuse to see, the fact is that India started its recovery only after 1947, Bangladesh only after 1971 while we have yet to start.

As a result of this war, Muslims remained a medieval-minded crowd for centuries, taking pride in their ability to wield the sword, until the Aligarh University movement of modern learning started some change. But we, in Pakistan, never questioned our Civilizational Narcissism which keeps breeding new tragedies of paranoia and chaos. The legacy of centuries of war never leaves us. Both the nations have spent, since 1947, trillions annually on meaninglessly large armies and arms-building, keeping their masses in misery, stupor and barren hate. The total resources spent by both amount to a sum that could have brought us to modern European levels of life and learning, had we spent them productively.

War is a tragedy but a society at war with itself and everything around, with no objective and no remorse is more than a tragedy; it is a total disaster. Our society with its special mindset is at war with itself and the world, with other religions and its own religious diversity. It is in a state of schizophrenia passing into paranoia. The roots of this mindset lie in our narcissism, in our self image of righteousness. We do not take criticism and never feel sorry for our wrongs. A semi-educated boy can start yelling at you if you point out a mistake.

It is a depressing state of affairs. Many sensitive patriots have lost all hope that health can be restored. Ever since 1947, the nation has been moving down the slope. Each period has left us more frustrated and hopeless. Every time we discover that standards have fallen further. But that is not how human societies should move in this age of immense opportunity.

It is right to reject what was wrong in the past but it is not right to predict that the wrong will continue forever. Admitted that it is our special ability as humans that we conduct mass destruction; this special ability is a tragic aspect of our mind but that same mind is capable of science, wisdom, tolerance and inclusiveness. We can perhaps halt destruction by practicing and preaching critical thinking with humility. Human societies all around us are growing and developing. Why can’t our land of disaster outgrow its roots? And do we have an option other than trying?

Listen to this in Urdu

The author is a renowned Pakistani intellectual. His urdu books Tehzeebi Nargisyat and Mubaalghe, Mughaalte are widely regarded as the revival of critical thinking and free inquiry in Urdu non-fiction.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Every nation’s middle class has some distinct features of identity. So has ours. But our middle class has some unique features of distinction too, ranging from some that may amuse, to many that are tragic.

Pride is a defining color of our middle class. But we do not think any performance is necessary for pride. We live in a land of four seasons; we have mountains in our north and in this blessed land, God even sends rains when dust makes it hard to breathe; is it not something unique to be proud of? The other day a young proud Muslim with a college degree pointed out all these blessings to me, and then explained, “We are so blessed because we are Muslims, you know.”

This innocence is the fruit of a well organised movement which teaches our students that the whole world, not a part of Arabia, was dark and ignorant before Islam. Civilization started in the 6th century after Christ.

A lack of awareness is a precondition for narcissistic pride. Bragging is as natural to a child as humility is to a wise man. An organised movement has been active for centuries to keep us away from wisdom, which grows only when we learn and think. This movement was put in motion in our past to maintain the dominance of Muslim kings and aristocracy who needed some dedicated force to fight for them. Hindu subjects could not be that force. So, Muslims were pumped with pride: the pride of faith, pride of valor, of ability to kill, of sexual prowess.

Our literature is replete with stories of massacre, of ravaging the infidels and their cities, and of sleeping with so many wives, although we claim our ancestors were the kindest, so delicately spiritual, the most pious and just of all mankind. We have been told that reciting the Qur’an was enough to be self-righteous; all skills of life except wielding the sword were low jobs for the subject people. No system of education, therefore, developed during the 800 years of the Muslim rule.

What is learning? What fields need learning? Do we need to know about agriculture, trade, manufacture, health or social matters for a peaceful society? These questions were seldom taken up; countless issues, that need the good ruler’s attention, were left to their fate. Our Muslim kings had little interest in the famous handicrafts of South and East India beyond collecting taxes or using their products. So the ancient India of arts and crafts, of mathematics and music did not grow in any field except some architecture. We make tall claims that our rulers of India established justice and equality, but the tragic truth is that the untouchables were never rescued and Sati was never challenged while our kings collected taxes on Hindu worship.

When the British colonialists ended the rule of our kings, our religious leaders declared it a tragedy for Islam and pitted us against new sciences. The narcissist self-love, which had alienated us from Hindus for centuries, again served as a tool to keep us from “Christian sciences”. Those who pleaded for new sciences were declared infidels and continue to be declared so, to this day. Whatever the motivation of Pakistan’s founding fathers was, our aristocracy and clerics were clear on their mission. The mission was to keep us sick with nostalgia and pride, to hold us from the wisdom of humility. Islam served as the most effective tool to perpetuate their hold.

An ever expanding religious upsurge and an ever deepening self love inevitably complement each other. A similar self love was injected by Hitler and also by the Japanese generals into the veins of Germans and Japanese. Unlike us, these nations were recognised by the world for their creativity and innovation, they did not borrow or steal scientific secrets as we did, and nobody doubted the character and courage of their generals. What fate befell them in spite of all their merits, is history. Who really knows why our religious, holy men and our ruling elite have pushed us into ignorance through the arrogance of faith. Maybe it was done in good faith or in sheer lack of vision. But the process has created the Taliban with their suicide explosions who rip apart the entrails of our own people, pushing us ever deeper into chaos, toward a senseless clash with the world. It’s weird that even after such tragedies our leaders insist on the same way of thinking.

There is not a single nation to support our Islamic politics of clash. On the other hand, we hear rumors of a united action by the Nato forces, Russia and India, while China will probably keep her cool. Let us hope our leaders are not preparing our people and armed forces for some horrendous sacrifice! For whose benefit can they do so? And what benefit can that be?

Listen to this blog in Urdu 

The author is a renowned Pakistani intellectual. His urdu books Tehzeebi Nargisyat and Mubaalghe, Mughaalte are widely regarded as the revival of critical thinking and free inquiry in Urdu non-fiction.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

— File Photo by Reuters

YANGON: More than 22,000 people from mainly Muslim communities have been displaced by fresh unrest in western Myanmar that has killed dozens and seen whole neighbourhoods razed, the UN said Sunday.

The United Nations chief in Yangon, Ashok Nigam, said government estimates provided early Sunday were that 22,587 people had been displaced and 4,665 houses were set ablaze in a new wave of communal unrest that swept Rakhine state this week.

“We have to say that this is a current estimate and we suspect there may be additional numbers,” he told AFP, adding that 21,700 of those made homeless were Muslims.

“Those 22,000 people are still in the locality where they were, they are not moving. The boat people are separate,” he told AFP, referring to thousands of additional displaced people who have surged towards the state capital Sittwe.

Seething resentment between Buddhists and Muslims erupted on October 21 in fresh violence in the state, following fierce clashes in June that left 75,000 mainly Muslim minority Rohingya seeking shelter in temporary camps.

The latest fighting, which has prompted international warnings that the nation’s reforms could be under threat, has killed more than 80 people, according to a government official who asked to remain anonymous, bringing the total toll since June to above 170.

In pre-Islamic times the years were measured from hajj to hajj amongst the Arabs, ever since the times of the prophet Ibrahim – upon whom be peace – who had originally initiated it as a rite at the Behest of God. This was so, because, apart from its tremendous spiritual significance and meaning, it was probably the most spectacular socio-economic event in the annual course of the desert life, or rather, it became that in the course of time. Originally there was none of that; it was a pure ritual of worship without any worldly diversions from its exclusively spiritual nature. Like everything else, however, within the matrix of the time-space continuum of phenomenal existence, its spiritual purity was not to last.

With more and more people of lesser dedication than its founders and their immediate clan, following, the atmosphere and environment, in which the rituals took place, became more mundane and intermingled with materialistic concerns. This however, is the natural course of things, and can perhaps be understood as a divinely designed balancing mechanism to dampen the extreme emanations of divine light, which are being poured out at this occasion, the immensity and intensity of which would be too much to bear for people of a lesser degree of spiritual purity, much like the clouds that screen the torching heat of direct sunlight.

The essential meaning of the hajj is of course to turn away from all mundane concerns of one’s life, and turn to, or rather return to one’s Maker, bare of all possessions and decorations, stripped of all pretenses, in pure humility and realisation of one’s utter insignificance – nothingness – before His Greatness; rehearsal for the ultimate return to Him on the day, when all the sons and daughters of Adam will be brought back into His Presence. This should at least be the intention of anyone, who hopes to be admitted to that ‘Court of Divine Presence’.

I would like here to draw attention to one very special element of the hajj – the slaughtering of a sacrificial animal, or ‘qurbani’, as it is commonly known.

For one thing, the sacrifice is the reminiscence of an event, which occurred before the hajj was instituted as a ritual. The prophet Ibrahim saw in a dream that God demanded of him to sacrifice his son, and when he was about to actually obey God’s command and put the knife to his son’s throat, an angel prevented him from slaughtering his son, and gave him a ram to substitute for the required sacrifice. The unquestioning submission of Ibrahim and his son Ismail to God’s Command pleased Allah so much that He instituted it as a ritual and living memorial.

Secondly, sacrifice in its overall spiritual meaning and objective, is one of the most essential means of drawing near to Him (which is the central idea of the hajj altogether); this reality is literally reflected in the word ‘qurbani ’,  which is  derived from the Arabic root ‘qaf-ra-ba’, meaning to ‘be near’ or ‘to draw near’.

Thirdly, it is the only hajj-ritual, which is not only performed then and there, but emulated at that time beyond the venue of the hajj, all over the Muslim world, so much so that it has become integrated as an almost mandatory tradition in the Eid celebrations.

Unfortunately, the above touched upon tendency of sidetracking original spiritual contents and meaning in exchange for prominence of materialistic externals has widely gained such an overpowering momentum that in the worst cases it has reached the limits of sheer profanation, in that not only inward meanings have been lost beyond recovery, but such behavioral patterns and attitudes are manifesting, which are perverting those cherished values into their total opposites.

Humility and self-negation, have been replaced by boastful pride and showing off. Giving up something that is dear to us ‘for the Countenance of God’, i.e. unconditionally seeking His Pleasure – which is what sacrifice is all about – has been alienated into pampering our self-importance by blowing a lot of cheap, if not ill-gotten money in order to parade an animal that outweighs any other beast in the neighborhood.

That Allah has stated in His Holy Word, that it is not the blood and flesh of the sacrificial animals that reaches Him, but rather the spirit of those, who offer the sacrifice. What has, instead, become important is that the blood and flesh reach the attention of the onlooker.

This shift in priorities has brought yet another desecration in its wake. The sudden increase in demand results in a noticeable ‘butcher-boom’. At the time of ‘Eid ulAdha’ our cities experience a ‘mushrooming’ of part-time butchers, amateur butchers, seasonal butchers, opportunity butchers, in most cases, unskilled people, eager to make a quick buck. The bigger the animal is, the more skill is required on the part of the butcher, and the less skilful the butcher is, the more suffering it entails for the animal, something God disapproves of in the strongest terms. I have seen camels being dragged through the agony of death for hours of torture before they eventually collapsed in weakness, and their throat was finally cut. How can the most Merciful God find any pleasure in this?

Nowadays, qurbani has become an unwritten law for everyone moving in society above poverty level, and some people are doing it, even though they are appalled by it, only to save their faces – out of fear, others might be pointing fingers at them, if there isn’t a puddle of blood in front of their porch. On the other hand, God does not at all make the sacrifice compulsory for people who are not performing the hajj, and even those hajis, of whom it is required, are only conditionally obliged, i.e. if they can afford it. If not, they can substitute for it by keeping a certain number of fasts. This is very significant, because fasting keeps completely in line with the essence of sacrifice – it is self-denial or sacrifice of one’s desires and habits. Slaughtering an animal out of fear for one’s reputation is not only utterly unacceptable in the eyes of God, but it is an outright abomination: the sacrifice of another life out of fear of, or to appease a power other than God.

This alienation has of course attracted commercial exploitation and the cost of the sacrifice intended purely for God must now also cover the profit and expenses of the handlers. The country’s natural livestock resources cannot keep pace with this ravenous blood thirst and as a result we find a sudden surge in livestock imports from Australia and New Zealand, which in turn involves again the subjection of thousands of animals to discomfort and cruelty that has been explicitly forbidden.

The conditions of time are in a perpetual flux of change, which is not caused by man’s behavior, but by a Sacred Law, the Creator has set up for the subsistence of creation. The lack of submission to this reality, by stubbornly holding onto traditions, which were appropriate to their time, but are no longer so, is the main cause, not only that Muslims have earned themselves a label of backwardness, but that they are failing to fulfill their obligations towards their fellow beings – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – and play their intended role. In our age, if we insist on offering the sacrifice, we have, e.g. the facility to have it done on our behalf, without a lot of effort, in places of famine or other crisis zones, where people are suffering and need help.

God’s system works in peculiar ways. One of the principles of the Real is that one often can reach a certain goal only by approaching its apparent opposite. True happiness, fulfillment in life, and true wealth are goals that mostly fall under this category. You can find happiness for yourself only in giving happiness to others, and the more taxing this becomes for you, the more fulfilled will you be in the end. True wealth does not lie in possessions that you amass, but in divesting yourself of needs that you think you have. True sacrifice is a formidable vehicle that runs on this course. Denying, i.e. sacrificing your vanity will fill you with beauty; denying your desires will reward you with satisfaction; denying your self will earn you a station of honor and respect.

Muhammad Harun was born and educated in Germany. He came to Pakistan in 1975, and after embracing Islam he settled here. Among other linguistic pursuits he has been writing and contributing as a freelancer to various magazines since 1999.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Muslim pilgrims head to Mount Arafat ahead of the hajj main ritual in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. -AP Photo

MOUNT ARAFAT: The annual hajj pilgrimage started in earnest Wednesday, with more than two million Muslims thronging roads on foot and by bus for a five-day journey of faith most have spent their entire lives waiting for.

The pilgrims, among them more than 1.75 million people who have travelled from across the world to be in Saudi Arabia for the rituals, left the holy city of Mecca at dawn and headed for the sites of Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat.

In the arid valley of Mina, a pit-stop en route to Mount Arafat, pilgrims will spend Wednesday night in government provided tents and buildings, passing the time in prayer and reflection.

The passage to Mina marks the official launch of the hajj on the eighth day of the Muslim calendar month of Dhul Hijja.

The day is known as Tarwiah (Watering) as pilgrims in the past stopped at Mina to feed their animals and stock up for the following day’s trip to Mount Arafat.

But many pilgrims also headed directly to Arafat by late Wednesday.

Unauthorised domestic pilgrims were seen being dropped by cars and infiltrating tight security checkpoints on the roads leading to the Arafat plain.

Men dressed in the white shrouds symbolising resurrection chanted in unison as they marched to Mina: “I am responding to your call, God.”The women, dressed from head to foot revealing only their faces and hands, echoed the religious chant.

Sweaty and exasperated, 55-year-old Indonesian pilgrim Laila Soharti said she was “trying to get to Mina before the roads start getting too crowded.”

”We are thrilled to be heading towards God’s most sacred spots on earth,” she told AFP.

In Mina, the desolate plain that only comes to life during the five days of hajj, men and women separate for the night, sharing tents with fellow pilgrims of the same sex.

For Akram Hussein, a 42-year-old Iraqi on his first pilgrimage with his family described the hajj as “great days in which we must follow in the footsteps of our Prophet Mohammed.”

‘God has chosen us’

Syrian pilgrim Mohammed Noor meanwhile said he was “extremely glad God has chosen us from among so many people to perform hajj this year and we hope he will also aid us in observing the rites correctly.”

”If he chooses that we die here we will be very happy as well since it means we’ll go to heaven,” he told AFP soon after arriving in Mina.

The pilgrims’ stay in Mecca has so far been incident-free, with some 25,700 members of civil defence deployed throughout the kingdom’s holy cities.

In Mina, 100 civil defence teams are on call, ready to deal with emergencies.

Interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki said about 85 percent of the pilgrims will head to Mina while the rest will head straight to Mount Arafat.

The pilgrims will mostly walk or catch a bus for the journey, though about a quarter of the faithful will travel on the Mashair Railway.

More than 18,500 buses will also be used to carry pilgrims, while vehicles carrying less than 25 people will not be allowed access into the three holy sites.

On Wednesday, pilgrims were seen scrambling for a seat on the buses, with some deciding to risk riding on roofs to ensure they don’t get left behind.

Thursday, Arafat Day, is the climax of the hajj, when pilgrims ascend Mount Arafat, some 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Mina, to spend the day in prayer.

The hilltop and the surrounding plain is where the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) is believed to have delivered his final hajj sermon before his death.

After sunset, the pilgrims head to Muzdalifah, between Mina and Arafat, where they collect stones to throw at the devil, one of the last rituals which takes place Friday and marks the first day of Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice.

The symbolic “stoning of the devil” is followed by the ritual sacrifice of an animal, usually a lamb.

During the remaining three days of the hajj, the pilgrims continue the stoning ritual before performing the circumambulation of the Kaaba shrine in Mecca and heading home.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that every capable Muslim must perform at least once.

Despite being marred by deadly incidents in the past, including floods, stampedes and fires, the hajj has passed nearly incident-free in recent years, thanks to multi-billion-dollar projects being implemented every year.

This year alone, the kingdom spent more than 1.1 billion riyals ($293.3 million) on development projects in Mina, Arafat, and Muzdalifah, all outside Mecca.