Archive for category Global Islam

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis : A Response to “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins

Posted by Fawad Mir in Global Islam, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace on June 15th, 2013

Please Visit Hamza’s Site for Islamic Scientific Logic on the Marvels of the Creator & Creation:

http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/

When I picked up “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, I was expecting to encounter new reasons put forward to form a positive case for the Atheist worldview, but I have to say that I was disappointed. What I read were rehashed, incoherent and outdated arguments that made me realize that Richard Dawkins is not very well read in philosophy. In light of this I thought it would be useful to provide a compilation of arguments from existing material and respond to his main arguments in the following way:

1. Respond to what Dawkins considers his central argument;
2. Respond to what Philosophers consider his best argument.

Responding to what Dawkins considers his central argument

On pages 157-158 of “The God Delusion,” Dawkins summarises what he maintains as “the central argument of my book”:

1. One of the greatest challenges to the human intellect has been to explain how the complex, improbable appearance of design in the universe arises.
2. The natural temptation is to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself.
3. The temptation is a false one because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer.
4. The most ingenious and powerful explanation is Darwinism evolution by natural selection and we don’t have an equivalent explanation for physics.
5. We should not give up the hope of a better explanation arising in physics, something as powerful as Darwinism is for biology.

God almost certainly does not exist.

Preliminary Note

Before I go into Dawkins’ main points, I would like to address his conclusion “God almost certainly does not exist.” My main issue is – how does he conclude that God doesn’t exist from the above statements? It seems to me that his conclusion just jumps out of thin air, to infer that God does not exist just shows how invalid his argument is. It seems to me that the only delusion is Dawkins’ conviction that his arguments undermine the existence of God.

If we could conclude anything from Dawkins’ argument it would be that we should not conclude that God exists based on the design of the universe. However, even if that is true, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist; we can believe in God’s existence from many other arguments, which include:

• The argument from morality;
• The miracle of the Qur’an;
• The cosmological argument;
• The argument from personal experience;
• The argument from consciousness.

If we were to accept all of Dawkins’ statements, it would not be enough to reject the idea that God exists, and it certainly does not provide a positive case for Atheism. However, many of his statements are false. Let us take his statements and respond accordingly.

Statement #1: One of the greatest challenges to the human intellect has been to explain how the complex, improbable appearance of design in the universe arises.

I believe that it is only a challenge if you wish to take God out of the picture. It is indeed a challenge if you presume atheism to be true. However for someone who is reflective and thinks deeply about things, I think the simplest and the best explanation – with the greatest explanatory power – is that there is a supernatural designer. The next point will address why God makes sense of the design in the universe.

Statement #2: The natural temptation is to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself.

This is not only a natural temptation but a rational conclusion brought to light based upon the fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe. Let me start off by presenting the premises of this argument:

1. The fine-tuning of the universe to permit life is due to physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.

Explaining Premise One

The existence of a universe that permits human life is due to conditions that must have been fined-tuned to a degree that is beyond comprehension. Take the following examples into consideration:

• The Strength of Gravity & the Atomic Weak Force: Physicist P. C. W. Davies concludes that a small change in the strength of gravity or of the atomic weak force would have prevented a universe that permits our existence. P. C. W. Davies argues that this small change is as small as one part in 10¹⁰⁰ .

• Volume of the phase space of possible universes: Roger Penrose of Oxford University explains that the creator would have to aim for a very tiny volume of the “phase space of possible universes” to create a universe that resembles our own. This is quite technical science, but we should ask the question: how tiny is this volume? According to Penrose the volume would be 1/10 to the power of X which is 10¹²³. The precision required to produce a universe that resembles our own is much greater than the precision that would be required to hit one proton if the universe were a dartboard!

In light of the above, there are only three possible explanations for the presence of the above fine tuning of the universe:

1. Physical necessity;
2. Chance;
3. Design.

Why it cannot be Physical Necessity

This option is irrational. There is just no physical reason why these constants and quantities should have the values they do. As P. C. W. Davies explains:

“Even if the laws of physics were unique, it doesn’t follow that the physical universe itself is unique…the laws of physics must be augmented by cosmic initial conditions…there is nothing in present ideas about ‘laws of initial conditions’ remotely to suggest that their consistency with the laws of physics would imply uniqueness. Far from it…it seems, then, that the physical universe does not have to be the way it is: it could have been otherwise.”

Additionally if anyone was to take the view that the fine-tuning of the universe to permit human life is due to physical necessity, it would imply that it would be impossible to have a universe not fit for life! However physicists maintain that the universe in which we live didn’t have to be the way that it is, and there could have been many other universes that did not permit human life.

Why it cannot be Chance

Some people who do not understand the impossibility of the universe coming into being by chance exclaim, “It could have happened by chance!” However would they say chance explains how an elephant was sleeping in their garage overnight? Or how a 747 ended up parked in their garden? Even after their irrational perspective is highlighted, they still hold on to the theory that the universe can exist due to chance. In response to this I would argue that it is not just about chance but something the theorists such as William Dembski call “specified probability.”

Specified probability is a probability that also conforms to an independent pattern. To illustrate this, imagine you have a monkey in a room for twenty-four hours, typing a way on your laptop. In the morning you enter the room and you see, “To be or not to be!” The monkey has miraculously written out a part of a Shakespearian play! What you may have expected is random words such as “house,” “car,” and “apple.” However, in this case not only have you seen the improbability of typing English words – but they also conform to the independent pattern of English grammar! To accept this is just the result of blind chance would be irrational and counter discourse, as anyone can claim anything from this perspective. To put this in to context, British mathematicians have calculated that if a monkey did type on a laptop at every possible moment, it would take 28 Billion years (!!!) to produce “To be or not to be”. In conclusion, accepting the chance hypothesis is tantamount to rejecting the existence of our own universe!

Since premises one and two are true, it follows that supernatural design is the most reasonable explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe to permit human life.

Statement #3: The temptation is a false one because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer.

The above statement, which is a contention to the design argument is flawed for two main reasons. Firstly, anyone with a basic understanding of the philosophy of science will conclude that in the inference to the best explanation, the best explanation does not require an explanation! The following example illustrates this point. Imagine 500 years from now, a group of archaeologists start digging in London’s Hyde Park only to find parts of a car and a bus. They would be completely justified in inferring that these finds were not the result of any biological process but the products of an unknown civilization. However if some skeptics were to argue that we cannot make such inferences because we do not know anything about this civilization, how they lived and who created them, would that make the archaeologists conclusions untrue? Of course not!

Secondly, if we take this contention seriously it could undermine the very foundations of science and philosophy themselves. If we require an explanation for the basic assumptions of science, for example that the external world exists, where do you think our level of scientific progress would be? Additionally if we were to apply this type of question to every attempt at explaining the explanation, we would end up with an infinite regression of explanations. And an infinite regression of explanations would defeat the whole purpose of science in the first place – which is to provide an explanation!

A Note on Rejecting the Supernatural

Dawkins’ also rejects a supernatural designer because he thinks, as an explanation, it lack explanatory power; in other words, no progress is made with an explanation to the apparent fine-tuning. He raises this objection because he feels that a supernatural designer is just as complex as design. However Dawkins’ objection is problematic as he assumes that a supernatural designer is as complex as the universe. But a supernatural designer, in other words God, is one of the simplest concepts understood by all. This opinion is expressed by many Philosophers including the famous atheist turned theist Professor Anthony Flew.

Dawkins’ other assumption is that God is made of many parts; however, God is immaterial, transcendent and one. Just because God can do complex things does not make him complex, it seems to me that Dawkins confuses ability with nature. In other words, just because God can do complex things (such as creating the universe) it does not make His nature complex.So it stands to reason that God is the simplest, and therefore the best, explanation.

Statement #4: The most ingenious and powerful explanation is Darwinism evolution by natural selection and and we don’t have an equivalent explanation for physics.This statement is irrelevant due to the following reasons:

1. Evolution does not have its foot in the door;
2. Evolution is based upon incalculable probabilities;
3. Evolution is impossible because we have not spent enough time on Earth yet.

Let me expand upon these points.

1. Evolution does not have its foot in the door

With regards to the existence of God, evolution does not even have its foot in the door; it’s billions years away. The fine-tuning argument mentioned above refers to the initial conditions of the universe and various constants that pre-date any evolutionary process. Simply put, evolution has no say.

2. Evolution is based upon incalculable probabilities

The odds against assembling the human genome spontaneously are incalculable. The probability of assembling the genome is between 4^-180 to 4^-110,000 and 4^-360 to 4^-110,000. These numbers give some feel for the unlikelihood of the species Homo sapiens. And if anyone were to accept evolution by chance, they would have to believe in a miracle as these numbers are so high! Therefore evolution itself would prove the existence of God!

3. Evolution is impossible because we have not had enough time on Earth yet

According to John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, the odds of assembling a single gene are between and 4^-180 to 4^-360. The implications of this are that there simply has not been enough time since the formation of the earth to try a number of nucleotide base combinations that can even remotely compare to these numbers!

Statement #5: We should not give up the hope of a better explanation arising in physics, something as powerful as Darwinism is for biology.

Dawkins basically says that since there is a naturalistic explanation for the apparent design in species and we do not have a similar explanation for physics, we should just wait. Does this not sound like blind faith to you? The statement presumes scientism to be the only way of establishing facts or sound conclusions. Why else would he want to wait for a naturalistic explanation? Dawkins’ presumption that scientism is the only way to establish facts is not true because:

scientism, which is the view that we should believe only what can be proven scientifically, is self-defeating. Scientism claims that a proposition is not true if it cannot be scientifically proven. However, the above claim itself cannot be scientifically proven. Therefore, according to this claim, the claim itself is not true, hence scientism defeats itself.

scientism cannot prove necessary truths like mathematics and logic. For example, “if p implies q, and p, then q” and “3 + 3 = 6″ are necessary truths and not merely empirical generalisations. In fact, scientism requires these necessary truths, but it cannot prove them, and any attempt to do so would be tantamount to arguing in a circle.

scientism is limited in its scope as it cannot address political or moral realities. Concerning morality, scientism can only provide “well-being” as a yardstick for moral truths. However, rapists, liars, and thieves could all have “well-being” due to their actions, therefore the moral landscape, as defined by science, is occupied by good and bad people, and from this perspective morality has no meaning.

It can be seen from the above that Dawkins’ central argument fails and is an embarrassment to the scientific community, as atheist Philosopher Michael Ruse explains,

“unlike the new atheists, I take scholarship seriously. I have written that The God Delusion made me ashamed to be an atheist and I meant it. Trying to understand how God could need no cause, Christians claim that God exists necessarily. I have taken the effort to try to understand what that means. Dawkins and company are ignorant of such claims and positively contemptuous of those who even try to understand them, let alone believe them. Thus, like a first-year undergraduate, he can happily go around asking loudly, “What caused God?” as though he had made some momentous philosophical discovery.”

Responding to what Philosophers consider his best argument

According to Philosopher and lecturer at Yale University, Gregory E. Granssle, Dawkins’ strongest argument can be found on page 55:

“A universe with a creative superintendent would be a very different kind of universe from one without.”

Dawkins’ argument can be summarised in the following way:

1. A universe created by God would be different than the one created by nature;
2. The universe we live in fits better to a universe created by nature;
3. Therefore the universe we live in is most likely to have been created by nature.

I would argue that Dawkins’ argument couldn’t be any further away from the truth; this is because the universe that we live in actually makes more sense being created by God for the following reasons.

1. The universe is ordered and open to rational anaylsis

If God did not exist, the universe would not display the order it does, and it would not be finely-tuned to permit human life. Professor Roger Penrose states, “There is a certain sense in which I would say the universe has a purpose. It’s not there just somehow by chance…I don’t think that’s a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.”

Additionally, the very fact that we can observe and perform rational analysis on the patterns we perceive in the universe makes more sense if God did exist, because in a naturalistic universe things would be expected to be more chaotic. This does not mean a universe without a God could not be ordered; however it is more likely that God would create an ordered universe, and since the universe we live in is ordered it makes sense that God’s existence fits well with our universe

2. The universe contains conscious and aware beings

A universe that contains consciousness and awareness makes sense with the existence of God. A universe without a God would be very different to the one we are living in.Explanation

Human beings experience things all the time. This article you are reading is an experience; even talking about your experience is an experience. However the ultimate reality that we know from any experience is the one who experiences it – in other words ourselves. When we realise that there is a first-person, an “I”, “me” or “mine,” we come to face a profound mystery. The Philosopher Roy Abraham Varghese puts it nicely when he wrote, “To reverse Descartes, ‘I am, therefore I think…’ Who is this ‘I’? ‘Where’ is it? How did it come to be? Your self is not just something physical.”

The self is not a physical thing; it is not contained in any cell or biological structure. The most unchallenged and intuitive reality is that we are all aware, but we cannot describe or explain what this awareness is. One thing that we can be sure of is that the self cannot be explained biologically or chemically. The main reason for this is that science does not discover the self; it is actually the other way round. For science to try and explain the truth of the self would be tantamount to arguing in a circle! Even scientists recognise this; the physicist Gerald Schroeder points out that there is no real difference between a heap of sand and the brain of an Einstein. The advocates of a physical explanation for the self end up in a muddle as they require answers to even bigger questions, such as “How can certain bits of matter suddenly create a new reality that has no resemblance to matter?”So if the self cannot be explained physically then the next question must be asked: “How did it come to be?” The history of the universe indicates that consciousness spontaneously arose, and language emerged without any evolutionary forerunner. So where did it come from? Even the neo-atheists have failed to come to terms with the nature of the self and its source, because no physical explanation is coherent enough to be convincing. Even Richard Dawkins almost admits defeat concerning the self and consciousness; he states, “We don’t know. We don’t understand it.”

The best explanation for the nature and source of the self is that it came from a source that is thinking, aware and conscious. How else can the self, which is an entity with a capacity to reflect and experience, manifest itself? It cannot have come from unconscious matter incapable to experience and ponder. Simply put, matter cannot produce concepts and perceptions, therefore we can conclude that the self cannot have a material basis but must have come from a living source that transcends the material world; and this is best explained by God. No other answer provides an adequate explanation for this phenomenon.

3. The universe contains objective morality

We all believe that killing 6 million Jews during World War II was morally wrong, however not only do we believe it was morally wrong we believe it was objectively morally wrong. What I mean by objective is that if the Nazis had successfully taken over Europe and brainwashed us to believe that it was ok to commit genocide, it would still be objectively morally wrong regardless of human experience. However since our universe contains objective morality then it can only make sense with God’s existence, because God is required as rational basis for objective morality. Without God morality is subjective, because God is the only conceptual anchor that transcends human subjectivity. So the universe with objective morality makes no sense without God. In this light the Muslim or theist may argue:

1. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist;
2. The universe with objective moral values does exist;
3. Therefore, God exists.Explaining the key premise

The question about objective good or bad, in other words objective morality, has been discussed by various moral philosophers. Many have concluded that there is no objective morality without God, for instance the late J. L. Mackie in his book “Ethics” states that there are no objective moral values. Humanist philosopher Paul Kurtz aptly puts it as,

“The central question about moral and ethical principles concerns this ontological foundation. If they are neither derived from God nor anchored in some transcendent ground, are they purely ephemeral?”

Paul Kurtz is right; God is the only conceptual anchor that transcends human subjectivity, so without God there is no rational basis for objective morality. To explain this further let us discuss alternative conceptual foundations for morality.In God’s absence, there are only two alternative foundations:

1. Social pressure
2. Evolution

Both social pressures and evolution provide no objective basis for morality as they both claim that our morality is contingent on changes: biological and social. Therefore morality cannot be binding and true regardless of who believes in them. Therefore without God, there is no objective basis for morality. God as a concept is not subjective, therefore having God as the basis for morality makes them binding and objective, because God transcends human subjectivity. The following statement by Richard Taylor, an eminent ethicist, correctly concludes,

“Contemporary writers in ethics, who blithely discourse upon moral right and wrong and moral obligation without any reference to religion, are really just weaving intellectual webs from thin air; which amounts to saying that they discourse without meaning.”

Since the universe contains objective morality, and Gods existence is necessary as a conceptual foundation for objective morals, then the universe we live in makes sense with the existence of God.

A Quick Note on Religious “Evils”

Before I conclude I would like to highlight that a response to Dawkins’ other contentions with the concept of God and religious life. Dawkins seems to attribute all the negative and evil things to religion. However there is a strong argument that these things are not unique to religion itself, but the common conceptual dominator is humanity. This is summarised well by Keith Ward, the former Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford, he writes,

“It is very difficult to think of any organised human activity that could not be corrupted…The lesson is that anti-religious corruptions and religious corruptions are both possible. There is no magic system or belief, not even belief in liberal democracy, which can be guaranteed to prevent it.”

To illustrate this let me use the outdated cliché of “religions are the cause war and conflict” and show how war and conflict are not unique to religions. In the relatively short history of secularism the following massacres have committed in the name of non-religious ideologies such a communism, nationalism and social-Darwinism:

• 70,000,000 under chairman Mao
• 20,000,000 under Stalin
• 2,000,000 no longer exist because of Pol Pot
• 700,000 innocent Iraqi’s in the current occupation
• 500,000 Iraqi children in the 10 year sanctions

So it can be clearly seen above that war and conflict are not religious monopolies, rather they are human phenomena and not unique to religion. As Professor Stephen L. Carter argues in “Civility”:

“[T]he statement that wars have been fought in the name of God is a non sequitur. As the theologian Walter Wink once pointed out, more people have died in the twentieth century’s secular wars than in the preceding fifty centuries of fighting combined…. No religious war in history, not all the religious wars of history added together, did as much damage as this century’s wars of nationalism and ideology.”

Conclusion

This article attempted to respond to Richard Dawkins’ best-seller “The God Delusion” by responding to his central argument and the argument that Philosophers consider to be his best. However, intellectual gymnastics – no matter how truthful – seldom convinces others, so I thought it would best to allow the expression of God – the Qur’an – to have the final say. In the wonderful eloquence and sublime style God says,

“In the creation of the heavens and Earth, and the alternation of the night and day, and the ships which sail the seas to people’s benefit, and the water which God sends down from the sky – by which He brings the Earth to life when it was dead and scatters about in it creatures of every kind – and the varying direction of the winds, and the clouds subservient between heaven and Earth, there are signs for people who use their intellect.” Qur’an, 2:164

Bibliography

The majority of this article has been compiled from:

Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists and Other Objectors. Edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig.

There is a God: How The World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. By Professor Anthony Flew.

The anthropic cosmological principle. By John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler.

The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. By William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland.

God?: A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist. By William Lane Craig and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.

No Comments

One country, two religions and three very telling pictures: The empty pews at churches just yards from an overcrowded mosque

Posted by ali rehan munir in Global Islam, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace, ISLAMOPHOBIA, Muslim Haters on May 31st, 2013

Two photos show Sunday morning services in churches in East London
The third shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside a nearby mosque
The difference in numbers could hardly be more dramatic

By GUY WALTERS

29 May 2013

Set aside the fact that our Queen is the Defender of the Christian Faith. Ignore the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords. Pay no attention to the 2011 Census that told us 33.2 million people in England and Wales describe themselves as Christians. For if you want a more telling insight into religion in the United Kingdom today, just look at these photographs. The story they tell is more revealing than any survey.

The photo on the left shows St Mary’s Church in Cable Street while the photo on the right shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside a nearby mosque in Spitalfields, both in East London

What they show are three acts of worship performed in the East End of London within a few hundred yards of each other at the end of last month. Two of the photos show Sunday morning services in the churches of St George-in-the-East on Cannon Street Road, and St Mary’s on Cable Street. The third shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside the nearby mosque on the Brune Street Estate in Spitalfields. The difference in numbers could hardly be more dramatic. At St George’s, some 12 people have congregated to celebrate Holy Communion.

Empty pews: 18th-century parishioners crowded into St George-in-the-East hear John Wesley. Only 12 people attended the service

When the church was built in the early 18th century, it was designed to seat 1,230. Numbers are similar at St Mary’s, opened in October 1849. Then, it could boast a congregation of 1,000. Today, as shown in the picture, the worshippers total just 20. While the two churches are nearly empty, the Brune Street Estate mosque has a different problem — overcrowding.

The mosque itself is little more than a small room rented in a community centre, and it can hold only 100. However, on Fridays, those numbers swell to three to four times the room’s capacity, so the worshippers spill out onto the street, where they take up around the same amount of space as the size of the near-empty St Mary’s down the road.

Dwindling flock: St Mary’s Cable Street in East London was built to hold 1,000 people. Today, the congregation numbers around 20

What these pictures suggest is that, on current trends, Christianity in this country is becoming a religion of the past, and Islam is one of the future. In the past ten years, there has been a decrease in people in England and Wales identifying as Christian, from 71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent of the population. In the same period the number of Muslims in England and Wales has risen from 3 per cent of the population to 4.8 per cent — 2.7 million people. And Islam has age on its side. Whereas a half of British Muslims are under 25, almost a quarter of Christians are approaching their eighth decade.

It is estimated that in just 20 years, there will be more active Muslims in this country than churchgoers — an idea which even half a century ago would have been utterly unthinkable. Many will conclude with a heavy heart that Christianity faces a permanent decline in Britain, its increasingly empty churches a monument to those centuries when the teachings of Christ governed the thoughts and deeds of the masses.

A study in devotion: The tiny mosque on the Brune Street Estate, Spitalfields, holds only 100 people, so the local Bangladeshi community throng the street for Friday midday prayers

On Sunday October 1, 1738, St George’s was packed twice during the day to hear the great evangelist John Wesley, who then preached at the church for the following week explaining, as he put it, ‘the way of salvation to many who misunderstood what had been preached concerning it’. Today, there are no John Wesleys to fill up the pews. The church does its best, offering, for example, a monthly ‘Hot Potato Sunday’, during which the few congregants can discuss the readings of the day over a baked potato.

Canon Michael Ainsworth of St George’s puts on a brave face when he says: ‘What we are saying now is it is not just a matter of numbers. It is about keeping faith with the city and hanging in there — being part of the community.’ At St Mary’s, meanwhile, Rev Peter McGeary cannot explain why the numbers are so low: ‘It’s impossible to say, there are so many variables.’ When he is asked if he tries to boost his congregations, he simply replies: ‘We are not a company, we are a church.’

In contrast, there seems a remarkable energy attached to the mosque on Brune Street, which has been described as the ‘Mecca of the City’.

Here, come rain or shine, members of the Bangladeshi community perform the Friday prayer of Jumma under the open sky. It is a communal act which will surely only grow in popularity. Sadly, that’s not something that can be said of the two nearby churches, and unless they can reinvigorate their congregations they may finally end up being deconsecrated.

When that happens, such large buildings will be attractive spaces for those who can fill them. One day, in a few decades, St George’s may well again be packed with worshippers — but they will not be Christians.

Reference

Christian Faith, Friday Masjid Prayers, Islam, Sunday Christian Services

No Comments

ONLY IN AMERICA : Guantanamo Bay prison guard converts to Islam because of the living faith of Muslim detainees

Posted by ali rehan munir in Global Islam, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace, ISLAMOPHOBIA on May 29th, 2013

Guantanamo Bay prison guard converts to Islam because of the living faith of Muslim

detainees

Terry Holdbrooks Jr. converted to Islam while serving as a U.S. Army military policeman guarding detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It was the faith he saw lived by the detainees that drew him to study the religion he had been told was violent and destructive — and he found there a discipline and peace he’d sought all his life.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Terry Holdbrooks Jr., 29, wears the beard of a bald Amish guy, the tattoos of a punk kid, and the twitchy alertness of a military policeman. Take him to a restaurant, and he’ll choose the chair with its back against the wall. Take his photo, and he’ll prefer to look away from the camera.

Part of that wariness Holdbrooks learned while guarding detainees from 2003 to 2004 at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. holding tank for military prisoners on the southeastern point of Cuba.

And part of that wariness he developed after he converted to Islam while stationed at Guantanamo. That was after months of midnightconversations with the Muslim detainees, and his conversion prompted several of his fellow soldiers to try several times to talk some “sense” into him so he wouldn’t “go over to the enemy,” as they put it.

Holdbrooks told the story of his conversion and of his observations of the controversial detention center to an audience of about 80 people at the Huntsville Islamic Center in Huntsville Saturdaynight, May 25, 2013. The camp, he said, tramples on every human right the U.S. has said it supports. The current hunger strike by 102 of the 166 prisoners has crossed 100 days. Many of those men were cleared to go home five or six years ago, Holdbrooks said. Their home countries tell their lawyers the U.S. won’t release them, and the U.S. tells them their home countries won’t receive them.

“They’ve lost hope. They’ve decided it’s better to die,” Holdbrooks said. “One of them is down to 70 pounds.”

Holdbrooks is traveling with Khalil Meek, a co-founder and executive director of the Texas-based Muslim Legal Fund of America. They are raising money for that non-profit civil rights organization, which helps pay for legal help for Muslims who are American citizens and who have been accused of vague crimes or placed on no-fly lists and other restrictions under the increasingly broad “anti-terrorism” provisions.

“Traitor?” by Terry Holdbrooks Jr.

Even more than raising money for legal defense, Holdbrooks said, he wants to stir Americans to action. Holdbrooks’ self-published account of his experience at Guantanamo, “Traitor?,” was published this month — a 164-page single-space account whittled by an editor he worked with from his 500-page manuscript.

It’s available for sale online at www.GtmoBook.com.

“I tell this story and I wrote the book so idiot-simple that anyone could read and understand that the existence of Guantanamo is something to be ashamed of,” Holdbrooks said. “I just want to share information with people in depth and then let them make up their mind.”

“I may have become a Muslim, but I am not a traitor.”

12-year-old ‘terrorist’

At Guantanamo, Holdbrooks mulled over the information Army instructors has taught about Islam as he’d watched the so-called terrorists day after day. What he’d been told wasn’t lining up with what he observed. The detainees read their Qurans. They kept the daily schedule of prayers. They remained undiscouraged under horrendous pressure.

One of his duties was to escort prisoners to interrogations and then return them to their cells. He knew the kind of stresses and tortures they were undergoing in repeated questionings. He had dodged their thrown poop when anger ripped down the row of mesh wire cages. When detainees were punished with the “frequent flier program,” he’d moved men from one cell to another every two hours, round the clock.

“How can you wake up in Guantanamo and smile?” Holdbrooks asked them. “How can you believe there’s a God who cares about you?”

“I am happy to have spent time in Guantanamo,” said one detainee, the man who became his mentor, after his release. “Allah was testing my ‘deen’ (faith). When else would have I have five years away from all responsibilities, when the only thing I had was my Quran, and I could read it and learn Arabic and mental discipline?”

“Fortunately for us,” Holdbrooks said. “Most of them are bigger men than some of us would be.”

As Holdbrooks got to know the detainees, as he learned their stories during his long night shifts, he came to see the detainees as individuals. Many were men who enjoyed talking about the same things he does: Ethics, philosophy, history, religion. Many let him know what they thought of the 9/11 attacks: That they violate the teachings of Islam.

“Here, I had all the freedom in the world, and I’m miserable,”Holdbrooks said. “They have nothing, and they’re happy – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something’s going on.”

Terry Holdbrooks Jr. grew up a troubled kid with junkie parents who dumped him at 7 on his ex-hippy grandparents to be raised. By 18, he’d finished both high school – a year early – and trade school. He loved drugs, sex, rock-and-roll and tattoos – his ink would eventually cover his arms from shoulder to wrist. His earlobes have been stretched to so that they can hold a plug that a thumb could pass through.

So when Holdbrooks walked into an Army recruiter’s office in Arizona a year after 9/11 saying he wanted to “join the Army, go kill people and get paid for it,” the recruiter looked up briefly and turned back to his computer. “No, thank you,” the recruiter said.

“This was still right after 9/11,” Holdbrooks said. “The Army was flush with recruits, and they could take the cream of the crop.”

It wasn’t until his fourth visit to the office — when he took the ASVAB, the military’s aptitude test — that the recruiter realized Holdbrooks was worth pursuing.

Holdbrooks signed up for military police because it offered a bonus. When his unit was transferred to Guantanamo, the sergeant detoured through New York to take them to Ground Zero.

“Remember what Muslims did to us,” the sergeant told the soldiers. “Remember who you’re protecting.”

So Holdbrooks arrived at the hot, seared base expecting hulking killers in every cell. What he found were doctors, taxi drivers, professors. One scary “terrorist” was 12. Another was in his 70s and dying of tuberculosis. Holdbrooks identifies himself as antagonistic, questioning, independent person. He is naturally suspicious – and found his suspicions turning in a surprising direction.

“You start thinking, ‘Was I lied to?'” Holdbrooks said.

In the time he had off from his escort and cleaning duties at the prison, Holdbrooks began reading more about Islam online. The prisoner he talked the most to, a former chef from England, gave him his own copy of the Quran.

“You’ve got to realize the significance of that,” Holdbrooks said, his tough bravado breaking for a moment. “He’s in this cage for 23 and a-half hours every day. If you lose your Quran, you’re out of luck. That’s it. You’ve lost everything.”

It took Holdbrooks three nights to read it. As a restless seeker in his teens, he had studied Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, and never saw much sense in them. Monotheism, he decided, was responsible for a lot of misery, and he renounced religion.

But in the Quran, for the first time, he found a religious text that meets his criteria of logic.

“It made sense from beginning to end,” Holdbrooks said. “It doesn’t contradict itself. There’s no magic. It’s just a simple instruction manual for living.”

After three months of intense study and conversation, one night Holdbrooks told the detainee that he wanted to become Muslim.

“No,” the man said.

“Whoa,” Holdbrooks said, stirring laughter during his talk in Huntsville. “The guard wants to embrace Islam, and the bad guy says ‘no’? I must really suck.”

The detainee explained what he meant. Converting to Islam meant Holdbrooks would have to change his life. Change his diet. Quit drugs. Quit drinking. Stop profanity. Quit getting tattoos. And be prepared for his relationships to everything – wife, Army, government – to change.

Little by little, Holdbrooks made the changes. Holdbrooks found a measure of health, discipline and peace of mind he’d never had before. And he found a family.

“Every little step I took toward Islam, Islam was taking more steps toward me,” Holdbrooks said.

One night in December 2003, he was ready to stumble through the declaration of faith in Arabic. He read from a card on which the detainee had transliterated into English syllables the Arabic words for, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”

“I knew I’d finally said it right when their faces lit up,” Holdbrooks said.

But after Gitmo, when he rotated back to the States, he lost his grip on both peace and discipline.

He was honorably discharged early — for “generalized personality disorder,” the Army told him, although Holdbrooks wonders if his new faith influenced the decision.

He and his wife divorced. He began trying to drink away his memories of Guantanamo.

“But you can’t drink away things like that,” Holdbrooks said.

By the end of 2008, he found himself wondering, “When was I happy?” The answer, he realized, surprised him: When he was in Guantanamo – because there he was being a good Muslim.

Holdbrook has been clean since 2009 – a victory he credits to following Muslim dietary codes, including daytime fasting several days a week all year, not just during Ramadan. Last fall, he married a nurse he met at his mosque. They had spent a year of careful getting acquainted in accordance with Muslim guidelines – which meant a lot of chaperoned visits, he said. He’s finished a bachelor’s degree in sociology. He spends most weekends traveling with the Muslim Legal Fund of America to tell his story and to encourage Muslims to become involved in pushing for policy changes.

Holdbrooks is part of a small, but growing, number of former Gitmo guards who are speaking out about conditions at the center. But in addition for adding to the chorus calling for the camp’s closure, he has a message for fellow Muslims.

If the Prophet Muhammad were to come back to Earth today, Holdbrooks said, he would find the best examples of Islam in the United States. American Muslims have a responsibility to live their faith so others can see a true example, not the perversions of the terrorists or the tyranny of corrupt governments in some majority-Muslim nations.

“You can’t be afraid to be a Muslim in public,”

Holdbrooks said. “Tell your neighbors you’re Muslim. Invite them into your home. Invite them to visit the masjid to see our secret bomb factories.”

“If it’s time to pray – pray. The whole world is an acceptable place to pray.”

Islam=A Roadmap to Life, Islam=Peace, Islamic Concept

No Comments

VIDEO : History of Islam in Urdu

Posted by ukarriem in Global Islam, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace on May 5th, 2013

LEARN ABOUT ISLAM

What is Islam?:

The name of the religion is Islam, which comes from an Arabic root word meaning “peace” and “submission.” Islam teaches that one can only find peace in one’s life by submitting to Almighty God (Allah) in heart, soul and deed. The same Arabic root word gives us “Salaam alaykum,” (“Peace be with you”), the universal Muslim greeting.

Who is a Muslim?:

A person who believes in and consciously follows Islam is called a Muslim, also from the same root word. So, the religion is called “Islam,” and a person who believes in and follows it is a “Muslim.”

What is the difference between Muslim, Moslem and Islamic?

How Many and Where?:

Islam is a major world religion, with over 1 billion followers worldwide (1/5 of the world population). It is considered one of the Abrahamic, monotheistic faiths, along with Judaism and Christianity. Although usually associated with the Arabs of the Middle East, less than 10% of Muslims are in fact Arab. Muslims are found all over the world, of every nation, color and race.

Muslim population of the world

Who is Allah?:

Allah is the proper name for Almighty God, and is often translated merely as “God.” Allah has other names that are used to describe His characteristics: the Creator, the Sustainer, the Merciful, the Compassionate, etc.

Muslims believe that since Allah alone is the Creator, it is He alone that deserves our devout love and worship. Islam holds to a strict monotheism. Any worship and prayers directed at saints, prophets, other human beings or nature is considered idolatry.

What do Muslims believe about God, prophets, the afterlife, etc.?:

The basic beliefs of Muslims fall into six main categories, which are known as the “Articles of Faith”:

Faith in the unity of God
Faith in angels
Faith in prophets
Faith in books of revelation
Faith in an afterlife
Faith in destiny/divine decree

The “five pillars” of Islam:

In Islam, faith and good works go hand-in-hand. A mere verbal declaration of faith is not enough, for belief in Allah makes obedience to Him a duty.

The Muslim concept of worship is very broad. Muslims consider everything they do in life to be an act of worship, if it is done according to Allah’s guidance. There are also five formal acts of worship which help strengthen a Muslim’s faith and obedience. They are often called the “Five Pillars of Islam.”

Daily life as a Muslim:

While often seen as a radical or extreme religion, Muslims consider Islam to be the middle road. Muslims do not live life with complete disregard for God or religious matters, but nor do they neglect the world to devote themselves solely to worship and prayer. Muslims strike a balance by fulfilling the obligations of and enjoying this life, while always mindful of their duties to Allah and to others.

Morals and manners
Business ethics
Modesty in dress and behavior
Dietary rules
Marriage
Care of children and elderly
Racism and prejudice
Relations with non-Muslims

Raymond Chickrie : MUSLIMS IN GUYANA

Posted by admin in Global Islam on March 17th, 2013

MUSLIMS IN GUYANA

By Raymond Chickrie

Muslim Political Participation and the Subcontinent Connection

Muslim missionaries from Pakistan and India have regularly visited the Islamic communities in Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad, where they were often received with euphoria. Consistently they have tried to unite the different Islamic organizations, and have tried to mediate in order to bridge differences among the Muslims in these countries. They have also helped in providing Islamic literature, teachers and scholarships to the Caribbean Muslims. In 1937 Maulana Shamsuddeen visited Guyana. This was followed by Maulana Fazlur Rahman Ansari, Maulana M. Aleem Siddique in 1959 and Maulana Ahmad Shah Noorani Siddique in 1968.

Pakistani missionaries helped to revive Islamic communities in the Caribbean and were particularly successful in Suriname and Trinidad. Trinidad’s most popular mosque, the Jinnah Memorial, is testimony of this strong relationship between the Muslims of Trinidad and Pakistan’s Islamic community. When Maulana Noorani visited Suriname he was successful in bringing the Surinamese Muslims together. He was there when the foundations were laid to build the Caribbean’s largest mosque, the Djama Masjid, a grand piece of Islamic architecture with four towering minarets. The Djama Masjid school is named after Maulana Noorani. The Trinidad Muslim League was founded on Pakistan Day and when Pakistan’s first Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Isfahani, visited Trinidad he received a warm welcome.

However, the tensions and rivalries between the various Guyanese Islamic organizations greatly damaged the general welfare of the Muslims and affected their relationship with the Muslim communities in the subcontinent. In 1934, the Jamiati Ulama was formed as an independent organization but this lasted only briefly.

The name was changed in 1941 to Khadaam-ud-din. However, after reaching a consensus among the Imams, the name was changed to Jamiatul Ulama-E-Deen of Guyana. By the 1950s the Jamiat along with the British Guyana Muslim Youth Organization and the Anjuman Hifazatul Islam became aligned with the United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman. Another Islamic organization, the Islamic Association of British Guyana (IABG), was established in 1936 in order to serve the needs of the Guyanese Muslims. In the same year, the IABG published the first Islamic journal, Nur-E-Islam.

At Queenstown Masjid on 20 June 1937 during the visit of Maulana Shamsuddeen to Guyana, the Sad’r-E-Anjuman was formed. The Maulana tried to unite the IABG and the Sad’r-E-Anjuman. These two organizations were rivals. They both claimed to represent the Muslims. This antagonistic relationship culminated in the Sad’r-E-Anjuman’s withdrawal of its members from the Queenstown Masjid in 1941. Sad’r-E-Anjuman moved to Kitty where it built its own mosque, the Sad’r Masjid, on Sandy Babb Street.

The United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman was established in 1949 after four years of discussions. The IABG and the Sad’r merged to form the United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman (USIA). Their two journals, Nur-E-Islam and Islam, were combined. The USIA was the representative of Muslims from 1950 to 1960. Its strong leadership greatly influenced society at all levels–governmental and non-governmental. Sadly, soon after independence the Anjuman succumbed to political intrigues and rivalries.

As Guyana was approaching independence, Muslims were taking positions based on ideologies and aligning themselves with political parties. Muslims were found in both the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC), which were Guyana’s two main political parties. In 1964, Abdool Majeed, President of the Sad’r, accepted the chairmanship of the United Forces Party. His vacancy was filled by Yacoob Ally who was a PPP Parliamentarian. Naturally this led to division among the Muslim community. This division was obvious on several occasions. On one such occasion in 1967, when Maulana Noorani was coming to Guyana from Suriname the USIA, Hifaz and Ulama-E-Deen sent him a joint cable which read: `Your visit is most unwelcome. Should you come to Guyana there would be violent eruption’. The Sad’r later aligned itself closely with the ruling PNC government.

The next year when Maulana Fazlur Rahman Ansari from Pakistan visited Guyana, he failed to get any support from the USIA, Hifaz and Ulama-E-Deen when he stated publicly at the Town Hall the Islamic position with regard to socialism and communism. The division of the Muslim organizations along political lines eroded the strong relationship that Pakistan had always enjoyed with the Guyanese Muslims. On the other hand, Suriname and Trinidad were able to unite and take advantage of the generosity from Pakistani and Indian Muslims. After 1969 there has been no other high level Muslim visits from either Pakistan or India to Guyana.

Nevertheless, the Caribbean East Indian connection to the subcontinent is deep-rooted. Brinsley Samaroo observes: `There has been a marked closeness between the Muslims in this part of the world and India up to 1947, and with Pakistan since that time’.(n36) In Guyana up to the 1960s, the Muslim leadership came exclusively from Muslims of South Asian descent who had studied in either Pakistan or India. In Suriname the South Asian Muslims referred to themselves as Pakistanis. While referring to Trinidad, Samaroo writes that `indeed the Trinidad Muslim League (TML) was found precisely on Pakistan Day, that is 15th of August 1947, to underline this connection with the Subcontinent’.(n37) According to Samaroo, `From this time not only religious visits continue, but there was great rejoicing when civil or political personalities form Pakistan visited the Caribbean’.(n38)

Pakistan attended Guyana’s independence celebration in 1966 and presented an oriental rug to the new nation. A few years later the two countries established diplomatic ties and in the 1980s they exchanged honorary consuls in Georgetown and in Karachi.

The Pakistani High Commissioner to Canada, who is accredited to Guyana, frequently visits the Muslim Communities in Guyana. In January of 1994, Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to Guyana, Mr Arif Kamal, visited the Secretariat of the CIOG. `Special attention was paid to the areas in which Muslims in Guyana can benefit from social, cultural and educational programmes of Pakistan’.(n39)

During his visit CIOG sent a letter to former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, requesting places at Pakistani universities for Guyanese Muslims to pursue higher education. In February of 1997 Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr Farook Rana, met with the CIOG. According to CIOG’s official newsletter, Al-Bayan, Dr Rana promised to provide scholarships for secular studies, Pakistani teachers to work in Guyana, Islamic books, newspapers, etc. In 2001, General Musharraf appointed Mr. Tariq Altaf High commissioner to Guyana; Altaf travelled to Guyana and presented his credentials to the Guyana government. He also held a meeting with CIOG’s officials.

The Dawah Academy International University in Islamabad, Pakistan, now offers scholarships to Muslim Guyanese. The Director of the Dawah Academy in Islamabad, Dr Anis Ahmad, visited Guyana in 1995 and promised scholarships to the CIOG and the Guyana Islamic Trust (GIT). He indicated specifically the areas in which the Academy could be of assistance which included imams courses, seminars, teachers, training in Pakistan and the affiliation of the proposed Islamic Academy of CIOG with the Da’wah Academy of Pakistan.(n40) To this day Pakistan offers secular and religious scholarships to Guyana in numerous fields of study. However, today among the young people there is greater interest in studying in the Arabic-speaking world.

Maulana Noorani in Guyana

HISTORY OF MY PEOPLE
The Afghan Muslims of Guyana

by Raymond Chickrie
© Copyright February 2001
[email protected]

Updated September 8th. 2001

Little is known about the Afghan Muslims of Guyana, in fact, some maybe amazed to learn that Afghans made their way to Guyana among the Indian Muslims. Many people of Afghan origin (Pathan) also migrated to Suriname. When Indian indentured labourers began arriving in Guyana in 1838, India was already conquered and assimilated by Persians, Central Asian Turks, Arabs, Afghans, Greeks, Hazaris, Baluchis, among other Muslim clans who settled in India’s large cities. The dominant minority, the Muslims settled in large cities such as Ahmadabad, Allahabad, Delhi, Karachi, Lahore, Bihar, Ghazipur, Lucknow, and Hyderabad. These exotic people found great economic opportunities in India and they were encouraged to migrate to the Metropolis by the Mughal Emperors.

Naturally, the strong and fierce Afghans mostly from the Pathan clan settled in the northern plains of India. The modern districts of Bareilly, Muradabad and Badaun had strong Afghan Township where over 9,000 Afghans settled. Some Pathans migrated from Rohilkhand. Bareilly as a ruined city crowded with unemployed, restless Rohilla Pathans.

Many urban cities in Uttar Pradesh were experiencing economic stagnation and poverty. Naturally, this led to heavy migration overseas. Immigration records indicate that the majority of Muslims who migrated to Guyana and Suriname came from the urban centres of Uttar Pradesh: Agra, Ahllahbad, Bahraich Basti, Fyzabad, Gonda, Gorakpur, Ghazipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Muradabad, Rae-Bareilly, Rampur, and Sultanpur. Small batches also came from Karachi in Sind, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi in the Punjab, Hyderabad, in the Deccan, Srinagar in Kashmir, and Peshawar and Mardan in the Northwest Frontier (Afghan areas). Immigration certificates reveals major details of Muslim migrants.

Their origins such as District and villages, colour, height, and caste are all indicated. Under caste Muslims are identified as Musulman, Mosulman, Musulman, Musalman, Sheik Musulman, Mahomedaan, Sheik, Jolaba, Pattian, (Pathan), and Musulman (Pathan). Religion and caste identified many Muslims. From looking at their district of origin one can tell of their ethnicity, whether they were Sindis, Biharis, Punjabi, Pathans or Kashmiri. The physical profile on the Immigration Certificate also helps in recognizing their ethnicity. There are enormous spelling mistakes on the Immigration Certificates. Musulman, the Urdu world for Muslim is spelled many different ways and sometimes Muslims were referred to as Mahomedaan. Peshawar is spelled Peshaur and Nowsherra is Nachera, among many others.

Afghan Pathan clan also was among the indentured immigrants. Immigration Certificates clearly indicate under the category of “caste” Pathans, “Musulman Pathan” Pattan or Pattian. The fact that there were Pathans settlements in northern India explains this migration. Immigration Certificates further substantiate this. Pathans migrated from the Peshawar, Nowsherra, and Mardan from the Northwest Frontier as well as Kashmir. Some Pathans also came from Dholpur, Rajasthan. From Uttar Pradesh they migrated from Agra, Rae-Bareilly, Lucknow, Rohtak, Janhora, Jounpore, Gonda, Shahjahanpur, Barabanki, Delhi, among other cities in this provience. Pathans also migrated from Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore in the Punjab. Again the spelling of districts, towns and villages varies. With considerable knowledge, the writer was able to recognize these places. A few places still remain an enigma. (See Immigration Certificates: Bottom)

HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE AFGHANS

Pathans were always respected by the Mughals and were heavily patronized by Mughal Emperors in order to pacify them. The Afghans also acted as the buffer zone in the Northwest frontier; they kept invaders out of Mughal India. And in the nineteen and twentieth century they kept the Russians at bay. Without the support of the Pathans the Mughal Empire would not have lasted for as long as it did.

The Pathan, or Puktun, are a race of warriors who live primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They consist of about sixty tribes, each with its own territory. Although their origin is unclear, their legends say that they are the descendants of Afghana, grandson of King Saul. However, most scholars believe that they probably arose from ancient Aryans intermingling with subsequent invaders.

The people of Afghanistan form a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. Pashto (Pashto) and Dari, a dialect of Persian (Farsi), are Indo-European languages; they are the official languages of the country. More than half of the population speaks Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, while about half of the population speaks Dari, the language of the Tajiks, Hazaras, Chahar Aimaks, and Kizilbash peoples and other Indo-European languages, spoken by smaller groups, include Western Dardic (Nuristani or Kafiri), Baluchi, and a number of Indic and Pamiri languages spoken principally in isolated valleys in the northeast. Turkic languages, a subfamily of the Altaic languages, are spoken by the Uzbek and Turkmen peoples, the most recent settlers, who are related to peoples from the steppes of Central Asia. The Turkic languages are closely related; within Afghanistan they include Uzbek, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz, the last spoken by a small group in the extreme northeast.

The Afghans who came to Guyana were mostly Pathans and a few Hazaris. The Pathan comes from the wild west of Pakistan: the Northwest Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan. In his text, Warrior Race. Imran Khan writes, “physically the Pathan has more in common with the people of Central Asia than with those of the subcontinent. The fine, aquiline features, high check-bones and light skin reflect the Pathan’s origins in Afghanistan and Turkey.” (10).

Pathans from various areas such as South Waziristan, the Mahsuds and North Waziristan the Waziri differ in skin, hair and eye colour. Some are taller and fairer while some have green and blue eyes. “Many of the tribal elders dye their grey beards red with henna” (11). A practice that some elder Afghans kept in Guyana. Pathans are very competitive and determine, they show no fear. They are honest, dignified, and uncompromising in their promises. Money does not impress a Pathan. “It is the Pathan’s sense of honour that makes him conduct himself with such dignity, and a fiercely independent spirit that makes even the poorest tribesman walk like a king” (12).

To understand the Afghans, one has to look carefully at their culture in context of their geographical landscape. Why are they so rebellious and difficult to conquer? Originating from Afghanistan, the Pathans are one of the greatest warrior races on earth, they have never been conquered. For centuries the Pathans have “existed by raiding, robbing and kidnapping” (15). But one has to understand the physical terrain of the Pathans. “In the mountainous terrain, hardly anything grows, and whatever is produced is insufficient to sustain the population of the area” (15). Sometimes it is difficult to sustain the family without raiding and kidnapping from the affluent lowlands to feed the family. “It is not the nature of such a proud race of people to resort to begging (15).” Consequently robbing and kidnapping became a means of survival.

The Pathans are the majority in Afghanistan. The British in 1893 created the Durand Line separating Afghanistan from India and “slicing right through the Pathan’s territory” (16). The southern part of Afghanistan is predominantly Pathans. Due to tribal rivalries many Pathan tribes settled along the banks of the Indus, the Waziristan, and the Vale of Swat, Peshawar and between the Sutlej and Beas rivers. “There were Pathan settlements in Northern India in Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, near Lucknow, Rohailkand and many other areas” (17). This explains the presence of Afghans among the Indians who went to Guyana. Some Pathan tribes are the Yusufzai, Afridi, Niazis, Lodhis, Ghoris, Burkis, Waziri, Mahsud, Marwats and Khattaks.

A COMMON ANCESTRY

Pathans believe that they are all descended from a common ancestor, Qais. He is said to have met the Prophet Muhammad. The prophet gave Qais the name “Pthun, and Qais was to take Islam back to his home. One of Qais’s sons was name Afghana, who had four sons. Every Pathan traces its descent from one of these four sons.

The first of these four Pathan branches is the Sarbani; this includes the largest Pathan tribe, the Yusufzai, which settled in Swat, as well as the Tarkalani, Mohmands and Muhammadzai. The second grouping is the Bitani. The Niazis, Ghilzais, Lodhis, Suris, Marwats, Lohanis, and Nuhranis belong to his group. The third branch is the Karlani, which includes some of the wildest tribes, such as the Mahsud, Waziri, Afridi, Orakzai, Dawar and Bangash.

CODE OF HONOUR

Pathan is a corrupted version for Pukhtun. This word means “backbone, hospitality, bravery and honour.” The culture of the Pathan is based on the latter principles. “Which is enshrined in a code of honour known as Puktunwali, or the way of the Pathans”(33). According to Imran Khan, a Pathan is recognized by other Pathans not so much by racial characteristics as by his adherence to “Pukhtunwali.” If he does not follow the code, he is not a Pathan. The wilder tribes adhere to the code more strictly.

Pushtunwali is followed religiously, and it includes the following practices: melmastia (hospitality and protection to every guest); nanawati (the right of a fugitive to seek refuge, and acceptance of his bona fide offer of peace); badal (the right of blood feuds or revenge); tureh (bravery); sabat (steadfastness); imamdari (righteousness); ‘isteqamat (persistence); ghayrat (defense of property and honour); and mamus (defense of one’s women).

Unlike Sindis, Punjabi or Gujratis, Pukhtunwali is closely linked to the spirit of Islamic justice and rejection of unfairness. It is not a coincidence that Pathans rose up against British injustice on the Sugar Plantations of Guyana. Khan writes, “The criterion by which a man is judged is not the amount of money he has but how honourable he and his family are.” (33) A Pathan will go at length to maintain his honour. “Any slight to his honour has to be avenged-there is no question of turning the other check” (33). Revenge is taken only on male members of a family.

RELIGIOUS ZEAL

The majority of Pathans are Sunni Muslim. Islam came to them as a great liberating and unifying force. For this reason, their underlying faith and steadfast devotion to Islam is very strong. Pathans are staunch Muslim and will go at length to defend Islam. They practice Islam according to the Quran without deviation. No wonder why we see the Afghan in a prominent role in the history of Guyana. The building of the Queenstown Masjid was the brainchild of the Afghans.

AFGHANS AND THE QUEENSTOWN MASJID

An Afghan with a typical Afghan name, Gool (Gul) Mohammad Khan who was an indententured servant took, “the initiative” to build the Queenstown Jama Masjid. “The first Imaam of the Masjid was reported to have been Gool Mohammad Khan.” Gool Mohammad Khan after serving his indenturedship returned to India. It is also reported that another Muslim bearing the name Jilani was the first Imaam. “The Jamaat compromised Muslims from India and Afghanistan; the latter apparently arrived in this country via India” (Centennial: 9).

Gool Mohammad Khan “persuaded” another Afghan, Goolam-uddin to “purchase the plot of land” for the building of a Masjid. Mr. Goolam-uddin lived on the property of the Masjid and was the caretaker of the property. This Afghan had a “dominant personality and kept a full beard coloured reddish brown with henna” (Centennial: 9). Like most Afghans, Goolam-uddin had a stern and “forceful nature”, thus disputes rose among the Afghan and Indian Muslims. “Eventually around 1923-1924 the Indian members decided to leave the Masjid” (centennial: 9). However, the Afghan control of the Masjid lasted for only a few years because of their small number and remigration to India.

AFGHAN RESISTANCE

Mazar Khan’s Story

Mazar Khan arrived in British Guiana in 1883 to work as an indentured labourer. He was sent to plantation Caledonian on the Essequibo Coast. His family was nostalgic for the past and in 1998 journeyed to Northern India to retrace this past. This expedition took them to a village of Somdutt in Meerut. This information was of course taken from his Immigration Certificate. After consultation at a mosque in Somdutt, they were taken to meet the oldest person in the village. With translation and the help of a few members of the mosque the “old man” was reached. With the greatest amazement, this old man, Hurma Khan who in 1998 was 110 years old is the son of Chand Khan who was the brother of Sujati Hassan Khan father of Mazar Khan.

In other words, Hurma Khan is the first-cousin of Mazar Khan.

It was then learnt that Mazahar Khan was a “freedom fighter” during the 1880’s revolution against the British. Meerut holds a special place in Indian history as the place where the revolution started. In an attempt to retaliate, the British rounded up the “trouble makers” and sent them “kalla-paanie”. The Khans have been known in history for their tenacity to resist tyranny and to fight for izzat, jaan or maal (honour, life and property) and wherever they went they uphold these values not only for themselves but also for all. While in the Guyanas, they advocated for Indians, Hindus, Pathans or Muslims.

The Rose Hall Uprising

The Rose Hall Sugar worker strike of 1913 saw Muslims resistant to indenturship. This is nothing new, the Pathans have resisted the British in India and some were sent to the Guyana and Suriname. Some Muslims who challenged the British bore the last name Khan, a typical Pathan (Afghan) name. Moula Bux, Jahangir Khan and Dildar Khan fit the profile of Pathan heritage. Three other Muslims were also involved Chotey (Young) Khan, Aladi, and Amirbaksh. According to Mangru in his text, Indenture and Abolition, “Moula Bux was nicknamed ‘munshiji’ (scribe or writer) was formerly an office worker in a jute factory in India” (86). Dildar Khan according to Mangru was recruited in Kanpur, India.

It would seem from the tenacity of these Khans who were involved in the Rose hall uprising that they fit the profile of the firebrand Pathans. Pathans never let tyranny to go unpunished. It is part of their “code of honour” to roots out injustice and defends the weak from exploitation. And this is exactly what the Pathans did in Guyana.

NOT ALL KHANS ARE PATHANS

The Pathans have played an important role in the history of their region. From their community came Muslim rulers, administrators, and soldiers. While many of them have moved out of the highlands in search of an easier life in the plains, their mountainous homeland continues to be their citadel of strength and freedom. Thus great number of Pathans migrated to India, but with the division of the subcontinent in 1947 most Pathans are now in areas control by Pakistan.

A well known Indian Muslim community is Pathan. The Pathans are Muslims who arrived from Afghanistan. They normally have their surname as Khan. Regardless of how far the Pathans travel “Puktunwali” is kept. The Pathans in India still have an image of being brave, honest and righteous. Many Indians who adopted Islam adopted the surname Khan and they claim that they are Pathans, which is not always true. , but a considerable amount of them live in northern India. Guyanese are very familiar with some Indian of Pathan heritage: Feroz Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Amjad Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan, among many others. Pathans claim many interesting stories of their origin.

Like some of the Khans of India, not all the Khans of Guyana are Pathans; many later converts to Islam adopted this noble title as their surname. The true Khans of the Pathan race are obvious because of their unique character and phenotype. In trying to research this subject, a few Guyanese Muslims have discussed with me their Pathan heritage. Their recollections are vague but not farfetched. However, there are Pathans not bearing the last name Khan who made it to the shores of Guyana and Suriname. One family traced their great grandfather to the Pakistan/Afghan border. In fact, this family had artifacts of this family member, by using his Pathan shalwar Kameez; thus they were able to trace the village from where he migrated. Many others with Pathan features spoke of their Pathan heritage but had limited facts to enrich their history. This has frustrated many of them who yearn to hold on to this heritage.

Naturally South Asian Muslims, the ancestors of the majority of Guyanese Muslims, are ethnically diverse. The coming of the Persians, Turks, Afghans, Arabs, Greeks, and Mongols to India added to the rich and exotic bloodline of South Asian Muslims, especially those of the north bordering Iran, Afghanistan and Kashmir. This interbreeding with the locals is evident in phenotype of the local Muslim population. Thus, Guyanese Muslims, decedent of Indo-Pakistanis Muslims come from a diverse racial background, which is evident in their phenotype

In physical appearance the Pathan has more in common with the people of Central Asia and the Caucasus region than with those of the subcontinent. They have fine aquiline features, high check-bones and light skin. This contrast greatly with Guyanese Muslims of Dravidian stock. The majority of Guyanese are of North Indian stock, while a small numbers are of Dravidian, southern stock. Much interbreeding is a common practice in Guyana. But a small number of Guyanese Muslims with percentage of Pathan blood is evident in their phenotype because of their length, light skin, alequine noise, amber to green eyes.

Many races came to Hindustan and settled; the invaders quickly became Indians and assimilated. Most Guyanese do not know that most Indian communities have a mixed ancestry. Indian roots derive from a mixed ancestry that includes the Proto-australoid, Paleo-mediterranean, Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid. The racial components that have gone into making the Indian peoples are the Aryan, Afghan, Greek, Hun, Arab, Turk, African, Mongol, and European. These have got so intertwined that none of them can be found in their pure form in India today.

HOW CAN YOU TRACE THIS HERITAGE FOOD/CLOTHING/LANGUAGE

Getting access to immigration records in the archives of Guyana is difficult if not impossible. Explanation is that the records are very fragile, yet no one is willing to invest the money to microfilm these important documents and have them available on line. With the help of the Dutch this was achieved in Suriname. Thus, the writer was able to access the Immigrations Certificates of indentured migrants to Suriname. Since the immigration patterns from British India to Guyana and Suriname was the same, I was able to substantiate my thesis of Pathans migration to the region. Hopefully, I will have access to the records in Guyana soon. But all of us can be rest assured that Afghans Muslims came to the shores of Guyana and Suriname and contributed greatly.

If one has access to his/her ancestor’s immigration records it won’t be difficult to ascertain if they were Pathans. The last name Khan is a major clue, but not always so, for many have also adopted this title. Besides vital statistics, the Immigration Certificate indicates district of origin as well as the Police station and the place where the immigrant was dropped off before heading to the port of Calcutta. For example:

Sex: M
Age: 26
Colour: Brown
Height: 1.7? (A number is missing)
Marks:
Nationality: British Indian
District: Pichaur (this is Peshawar, NWFP, now in Pakistan)
Police Post Mardain (Mardan, NWFP)
Drop off at: Balagli
Caste: Mosalman (Muslim)
Children : N (none)

Phenotype can also help in distinguishing, but not always the case. The fact that Muslims under the category of caste are identified as “Mosalman”, “Musalman” or Mohammedan, etch also makes it harder. However many of them under the category of caste identified themselves as Pathans. This naturally leaves no doubt of their ethnicity. Another important clue that will help in identifying them as Pathans is the district in which they are from, but this in my opinion will work on if they are from, Peshawar, Mardan or Nowsherra which are districts in the North West Frontier Province (also know as the Afghan areas).

Pathans are meat lovers. Many were meat handlers in Guyana and some owned businesses in Georgetown. There was always, a mince mill in the home of the Pathans to grind meat for kofta kebab. They substituted the tandoor over for the local fireside in Guyana to cook their kebabs. The famous Firni pudding for desert was served on all auspicious occasions. Some Muslims call it Sirni and cooked it differently from the Pathans. The diet of the Pathan Afghan Guyanese was quite different from the Indian Muslims but eventually the authentic cuisine of the Afghans died as the sprinkle of Afghans interbred with non Afghan Muslims. Never could I forget my Grand Father’s sister Haniffa (Khala) who always grounded meat to cook. Her looks, habits and diet in her home made her stand out amongst her Muslim brethren. During her lifetime she hardly set foot on the grounds of the plantation that her husband Ishaq Hussein managed for Amin and Ahmad Sankar.

The clothing of the Afghan Guyanese Muslims was quite different than that of the Muslim Indian. While the Muslim Indian men wore the Indian Shirt and Pajama, the Afghan wore the baggy Shalwar (pants) and Kameez (shirt). The Afghan prefers lose baggy wear; both males and females wore baggy modest clothing. Indian Muslims wore brighter colour clothing; while Afghan Muslims wore subtle colours.

The fact that scholars have not explored the history of Guyanese Muslims, not much is known about this subject much less the Afghans Muslims. However, my work on the subject I hope will stir interest, which I have already seen. While we know that Afghan Pathans speak Pashto, there is no evidence of Pashto or Persian written literature in neither Guyana nor Suriname. But there can be no doubt that Pastho was spoken by some of these Pathans especially those who migrated directly from the NWFP. And who knows, such literature may still exist today among families.

A SAMPLE OF SOME PATHANS WHO MADE THE JOURNEY

Nasiban, Mohamed Nasir
Relaties:* van ; van ; van

04-GESLACHT V
05-LEEFTIJD 20
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Barabanki
22-POLITIEPOST Bahraich
23-DORP Bashirganj
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pattian
39-KINDGEGEVENS J
25-SCHIPNAAM Engels SS. Indus III
07-MONSTERNUMMER 693
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 10/27/1908
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 12/5/1908
36-PLANTER P.M.Nahar Beheerder van
37-PLANTAGE Plantage Katwijk
01-CODENR Kk/1533
28-BEGIN_CON 12/5/1908
29-EIND_CON 12/5/1913
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET MEMO-INFORMATIE

Abdul Rahman, Malahay Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van

04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 21
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE 1.58
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN moedervlekken rechterschouder
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Barabanki
22-POLITIEPOST Bhilsar
23-DORP Khetasewai
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Musulman (Pathan)
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels SS. Indus IV
07-MONSTERNUMMER 668
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 4/25/1914
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/4/1914

36-PLANTER L.M. Pos, beheerder van plantage Nieuw Meerzorg
37-PLANTAGE Plantage Nieuw Meerzorg
01-CODENR Qq/925
28-BEGIN_CON 6/4/1914
29-EIND_CON 6/4/1919
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Abdulla, Intiazkh
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-

04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 18
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE 1.53
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Gonda
22-POLITIEPOST Utraula
23-DORP Bareya
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pathan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels schip “Sutlej”
07-MONSTERNUMMER 142
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 1/15/1909
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 2/22/1909

36-PLANTER A.J.E. van der Feen, beheerder
37-PLANTAGE pl.Meerzorg
01-CODENR Ll/4
28-BEGIN_CON 2/22/1909
29-EIND_CON 2/22/1914
30-HERBEGIN 2/28/1916
31-HEREIND 2/28/1921
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE

———————————————————-
Mahomed Raja Khan, Wozir Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 20
16-HUIDSKLEUR bruin
15-LENGTE 1.644
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Shasahanpur
22-POLITIEPOST Mirzapore
23-DORP Ban 19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pathan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels schip “Erne II” & Peshwa
07-MONSTERNUMMER 131
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 1/25/1894
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 4/14/1894

36-PLANTER Agenten der Nederl. Handel Maatschappij
37-PLANTAGE Pl.Marienburg en Zoelen(Ben. Commewijne)
01-CODENR W/251
28-BEGIN_CON 4/14/1894
29-EIND_CON 4/14/1899
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Jamin Shaw, Modut Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 25
16-HUIDSKLEUR lichtbruin
15-LENGTE 1.756
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN geen
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Peshawar
22-POLITIEPOST Moteekundan
23-DORP Shawajgunah
19-BEROEP veld of fabriekarbeid
18-KASTE Mahomedaan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels schip “Clive”
07-MONSTERNUMMER 44
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 7/4/1877
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 8/29/1877

36-PLANTER W.G.H.Barnet Lyon prive 299
37-PLANTAGE Pl.Jagtlust(Ben Sur)
01-CODENR F/156
28-BEGIN_CON 8/30/1877
29-EIND_CON 8/30/1882
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS vertr
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE Vertrokken naar Calcutta per Ss Kilda op
30 oct 1879. Vw.c.
zie c.dd 1877 te Calcutta gesl.

at contractnumber X/157.
———————————————————-
Lalkhan, Hasankhan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 22
16-HUIDSKLEUR licht pokdalig
15-LENGTE 1.6
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Gonda
22-POLITIEPOST Srinagar
23-DORP Dammankhan Kapurwa
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pathan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Ganges
07-MONSTERNUMMER 115
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 6/5/1908
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 7/18/1908

36-PLANTER Pieter Alexander May, gemachtigde van F.R.Folmer, beheerder
37-PLANTAGE Plantage Jagtlust
01-CODENR Kk/971
28-BEGIN_CON 7/18/1908
29-EIND_CON 7/18/1913
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38- VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Mahammud, Maola Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 20
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE 1.68
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN 2 moedervlekjes op rechterschouder
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Jounpore
22-POLITIEPOST Machlisahar
23-DORP Mirpur
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pathan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels SS. Indus IV
07-MONSTERNUMMER 180
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 4/25/1914
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/4/1914

36-PLANTER J.Lawtan, beheerder van plantage de Vrede.
37-PLANTAGE Pl. De Vrede
01-CODENR Qq/1502
28-BEGIN_CON 6/4/1914
29-EIND_CON 6/4/1919
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

Bij vonnis v/h H.v.J. dd. 11.9.1929 No.41 veroordeeld tot 9 maanden gev.straf met openb.tewerkstelling wegens heling.

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Gulamjan, Saith Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
————————————————————————
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 19
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE 1.63
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN pokdalig; moedervl. R borst
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Peshaur
22-POLITIEPOST Nachera
23-DORP Nachera
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Mosulman
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels schip Sutlej III
07-MONSTERNUMMER 62
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 11/27/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 1/7/1914

36-PLANTER T.Folmer Beheerder
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Jagtlust
01-CODENR Qq/98
28-BEGIN_CON 1/7/1914
29-EIND_CON 1/7/1919
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE

C.V.O. afgegeven 23-1-1919 no 43. Premie ontvangen uit Immigr.fonds, zie akte D.C. van Ben.Com. d.d. 5/4/1919. Bij besch. van 17-1-1921 no 71 in huur afgestaan perceel no…
———————————————————-
Jandaz, Mirali
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 22
16-HUIDSKLEUR
15-LENGTE 1.67
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN litt.rechter scheenbeen,grijze ogen
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Peshaur
22-POLITIEPOST Peshaur
23-DORP Peshaur
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Musulman
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Engels schip Sutlej III
07-MONSTERNUMMER 614
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 11/27/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 1/7/1914

36-PLANTER T.Folmer Beheerder
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Jagtlust/ Rust en Werk
01-CODENR Qq/102
28-BEGIN_CON 1/7/1914 29-EIND_CON 1/7/1919
30-HERBEGIN 2/10/1919
31-HEREIND 2/10/1924
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Iftekarali Khan, Ismail Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 22
16-HUIDSKLEUR bruin
15-LENGTE 1.63
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Janhora
22-POLITIEPOST Kotwali
23-DORP Kotwali
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pattan
39-KINDGEGEVENS J

25-SCHIPNAAM SS. Mutlah
07-MONSTERNUMMER 272
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 5/12/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/23/1913

36-PLANTER H.M.D.Robertson(gemachtigde v/d erven R.Kirke, beheerder van
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Hazard
01-CODENR Pp/110
28-BEGIN_CON 6/23/1913
29-EIND_CON 6/23/1918
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE
———————————————————-
Din Mohamed, Nagiros Khan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 17
16-HUIDSKLEUR bijna zwart
15-LENGTE 1.65
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Lucknow
22-POLITIEPOST Mirjaganj
23-DORP Kewalhan
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pattan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM SS. Mutlah
07-MONSTERNUMMER 44
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 5/12/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/23/1913

36-PLANTER A. Schields Beheerder
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Alliance
01-CODENR Pp/257
28-BEGIN_CON 6/23/1913
29-EIND_CON 6/23/1918
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE Bij vonnis voor het Hof van Justitie dd. 27 Nov. 1915 ter zake van diefstal veroordeeld tot gevangenisstraf van 3 jaren. Afgekeurd bij besch. A.G. dd. 24 December 1915 No. 1164/V. C.v.O. dd. 29-11-18 No. 631. Vertrokken naar Calcutta op 5 maart 1920 per Ss Madioen.
———————————————————-
Kalo Bibi, Chandkhan
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT V
05-LEEFTIJD 30
16-HUIDSKLEUR bruin
15-LENGTE 1.44
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Dholpur
22-POLITIEPOST Dholpur
23-DORP Dholpur
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pattan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM SS. Mutlah
07-MONSTERNUMMER 216
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 5/12/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/23/1913

36-PLANTER M.Welle (Agent Sur.Cult.Mij. Dordrecht & Peperpot)
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Peperpot
01-CODENR Pp/513
28-BEGIN_CON 6/23/1913
29-EIND_CON 6/23/1918
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE C.v.O. 10-10-’16. Afgekeurd wegens lich. ongeschiktheid. Zie brief D.C. Ben. Comm. dd. 11/10/16 No. 1853. Gehuwd met Abdool 536/W op 29 jan. 1919 te Paramaribo (Ag. 19 No. 236/O). Premie ontvangen uit Imfds. Zie akte A.G. van 6-1-20. Besch. d.d 31-12-1920. Heeft toestemming van Abdool om naar Calcutta te vertrekken.
———————————————————-
Zizan, Mazid
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
————————————————-
04-GESLACHT V
05-LEEFTIJD 24
16-HUIDSKLEUR bruin
15-LENGTE 1.45
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Barelli
22-POLITIEPOST Bar
23-DORP Bar
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Pattan
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM SS. Mutlah
07-MONSTERNUMMER 409
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 5/12/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/23/1913

36-PLANTER H.M.D.Robertson(gemachtigde v/d erven R.Kirke, beheerder van
37-PLANTAGE Pl. Hazard
01-CODENR Pp/130
28-BEGIN_CON 6/23/1913
29-EIND_CON 6/23/1918
30-HERBEGIN
31-HEREIND
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS
38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE Kind: Jhuman, j, geb. 23 oct. 1914 op pl. Hazard (Ag. 1914 No. 2149/O). Jhuman overleden 5 nov. 1914 op pl. Hazard (Ag. 1914 No. 2328/O). Vertrokken naar Calcutta op 5 maart 1920 per Ss Madioen.
———————————————————-
Abdul Malik, Gulam Rasul
Relaties:* van ; van ; van
———————————————————-
04-GESLACHT M
05-LEEFTIJD 26
16-HUIDSKLEUR bruin
15-LENGTE 1.7
17-HERKENNINGSTEKEN litt.hoofd
20-NATIONALITEIT Brits Indie
21-DISTRICT Pichaur
22-POLITIEPOST Mardain
23-DORP Balagli
19-BEROEP
18-KASTE Mosalman
39-KINDGEGEVENS N

25-SCHIPNAAM Mutlah
07-MONSTERNUMMER 359
34-WERVINGSINSTANTIE het koloniaal gouvernement
24-AFREISPLAATS Calcutta
26-AFREISDATUM 5/12/1913
35-AANKOMSTPLAATS Paramaribo
27-AANKOMSTDATUM 6/23/1913

36-PLANTER M.Welle, Ged. der Sur.Cult. MJ Dorderecht en Perperpot
37-PLANTAGE PL. Peperpot
01-CODENR Pp/585
28-BEGIN_CON 6/23/1913
29-EIND_CON 6/23/1918
30-HERBEGIN 7/5/1918
31-HEREIND 1/5/1921
32-REBEGIN
33-REEIND
08-KLSTATUS 38-VERZET

MEMO-INFORMATIE Gerecontr. voor 21„2 jaar. Overleden 31 Dec. 1918 op Peperpot

(Ag’19 No

——————————————————-

CAN YOU ANSWER THIS QUESTION:

Why did many Muslim/Pathans left British India in 1916?

EXPLANATION OF DATA

01 Contractnumber The contract numbers are the official identification numbers of the immigrants

02 Name

03 Given name

04 Gender

05 Age

06 Immigration register This shows the number part referring to the year concerned and the numbers of the immigrants in the number concerned, for example: Aa/243 occurs in the Register referred to as Aa 1 – 616. This Register contains the records of the first 616 immigrants whose contract number is preceded by the letters Aa.

07 Sign-up number This was the number allocated to the immigrant in the muster-roll of the ship. This number consisted of an identification number allocated by the emigration officer in Calcutta. The sign-up number differed from the contract number, since the sequence of registration on arrival in Surinam/Guyana differed from the sequence of registration at the time of departure from India. The sign-up number is important for those who wish to search for data in the Indian archives. For this purpose one needs the sign-up number and the name of the ship (plus the year of sailing).

08 Did / did not stay, deceased These data were copied from the folders, which mentioned for each immigrant whether they had died or left. If there is no mention next to the name of the immigrant, this means that the immigrant was still alive at the time the folder was filled out.

09 -14 Family connection In the event that a contract worker was related to another contract worker, the nature of the relationship was recorded, as well as the contract number of the relative. The family connections that were recorded were: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin (m/f), and uncle.

15 Physical height The physical height was often indicated in millimetres.

16 Skin colour

17 Distinguishing features Scars or any other physical identification marks.

18 Religion or caste Initially, the section for Religion was filled out stating Hindu or Mohammedan/Muhammadan/Mussulman/Muslim/Moslem. Later on, one started to mention the caste in case of Hindus, instead of religion. In some cases the term shaik was filled in for Muslims, which is incorrect.

19 Profession Until 1882, the section for Profession was filled out stating either field or factory worker. Since then this section was left blank, probably because of the fact that all immigrants from British India were recruited for work in the fields or factories.

20 Country of birth Apart from immigrants born in British India, there were also immigrants who were born in Jamaica, Natal or Fiji.

21-23 District, Police Station, Village Last place of residence of the immigrant. For each immigrant there are three indications: the district (zilla), police station (thana), and village (gaun). In contracts dated before April 1, 1886, the term pergunnah (= pargana, part of a district) was recorded instead of thana (please refer to De Klerk, 1953, p. 86).

24 Place of departure This was Calcutta

Note to Readers:

This is the start of this sketchy research but with the massive media via the Internet it is my hope that Guyanese with Afghan links will share their history with me so that we can begin recording this fascinating history of our ancestors and share it with the future generations. Finding concrete proof of the Afghan connection to Guyana and Suriname was a major break through in my research. The great work of the Surinamese people and the Dutch Government has enabled me to make this breakthrough. Mr. S. Hussein a young man of Guyanese background, who himself have Pathan roots has helped me enormously in this endeavour.

You can contact me at:

[email protected]

Ref

Guyana, Muslims Guyana, Pakistan Connection, Suriname, Trinidad

No Comments

Not Found

Archive for category Global Islam

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis : A Response to “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins

Please Visit Hamza’s Site for Islamic Scientific Logic on the Marvels of the Creator & Creation:

One country, two religions and three very telling pictures: The empty pews at churches just yards from an overcrowded mosque

ONLY IN AMERICA : Guantanamo Bay prison guard converts to Islam because of the living faith of Muslim detainees