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Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Our Heroes on July 18th, 2012
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Our Heroes on July 3rd, 2012
An ambassador of Islam
Canada reluctantly bade farewell with sorrow, admiration, respect and warmth to a loving daughter – who had brought happiness to many of Canada’s daughters and sons.
Initially, Canada didn’t want her daughter to go. But when her departure became imminent Canada honored her and told her she was loved and valued.
When she departed, Canada honored her again, at a memorial ceremony that moved everyone who attended.
Lieutenant-Commander Wafa Dabbagh made history when she joined the Canadian armed forces in 1996 – the first Muslim woman wearing a hijab to do so. Officers were baffled by why she wanted to join, and wondered how her recruitment would work out. She won that battle easily – everyone she met loved her friendliness. They not only accepted her, they embraced her.
When Wafa left she made history again. For the first time in Canada, an official memorial service was arranged where the function began and ended with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an.
Padre Captain Suleiman Demiray began by reciting from Sura Aal-e-Imran. He concluded by reciting Al-Fateha. Both, seeking forgiveness and divine guidance, were translated and printed in the memorial service program.
The Canadian military invited Ottawa’s Muslim community to the function. VIPs and guests included General Walter Natynczyk, Chief of the Defense Staff and the most senior military officer, Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy) Jill Sinclair, Major-General Ian Poulter, representing the Vice-Chief of the Defense Staff, Rear Admiral Ron Lloyd, Chief of Force Development and others.
The speeches illustrated Wafa’s powerful impact. Rear Admiral M.F.R. Lloyd, Wafa’s senior commander, stated that Wafa “epitomized the best of human qualities and inspired everyone.” He said she had made it easier for Muslims to join Canadian forces.
Rear Admiral Lloyd declared that he had never met a person who didn’t like Wafa. Everyone loved her. A friend, Corporal Nesbitt, recalled that when Wafa learned she had cancer she arranged a feast to share the news with friends.
Other speakers said her devotion to Islam increased their own faith in their religions and reminded them that we are all human. They said she always added “God willing” in her e-mails. So highly was she regarded that when her superiors learned that she’d probably lose her battle with cancer, they went to the hospital and presented her on behalf of the government with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal, a prestigious award that marks the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne. She was honored for “her dedication to duty, her cheerful spirit and for improving understanding between Muslims and the Canadian military.”
Rear Admiral Lloyd stated that they went to the hospital with heavy hearts but “left buoyed by her fighting spirit, her infectious good nature and her overall enthusiastic approach to life.”
Wafa died in Ottawa at the age of 50. A Palestinian who was born in Egypt, she grew up in Kuwait and moved to Canada in 1990 when she was 28. She had two degrees but jobs were not easy to come by in Canada so she tried the military.
“The commanding officer sat me down and said ‘I don’t know what to do with you,’” Wafa recalled. “He had called every branch of the forces and no one had a covered Muslim woman in their ranks. I told him, ‘What you see is what you get, sir. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t eat pork, but I can do everything else.’”
She wore a longer skirt and a looser shirt. But she worked with such enthusiasm that she was accepted and she advanced. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.
Wafa was a pioneer. “I want the Muslim community to know the door is open for them in the Forces. My experience has been 95 percent positive,” she declared.
“And I want other Canadians to know that there are people serving Canada who are not white with blond hair and blue eyes. We are all working together, white, black, Asian, Arab, Aboriginal.”
In addition to praying five times a day and wearing the hijab, Wafa followed the Islamic teachings of gratitude, kindness, integrity and good manners. Though she never married, her sister lives in Montreal and her brother in Dubai, she counted many colleagues and neighbors as family, and they loved her as well.
She recalls that when she asked to shower alone, her female friends stood outside the shower to guard and make sure nobody barged in. The cooks provided her pork-free dishes and her superiors gave her 10-minute prayer breaks.
Chemotherapy and radiation weakened her but she kept working, and entertaining her colleagues and neighbors. She wished them Merry Christmas and they wished her Happy Ramadan.
Her lifestyle represented the true Islam. Her colleagues’ attitude toward her represented Canada’s multiculturalism. She brought the two together in her life and death. May Allah grant her paradise.
— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian newspaperman, civil servant and refugee judge. He has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Our Heroes on June 27th, 2012
According to the media reports dead body of a Sep Muhammad Hussain, Shaheed has been recovered on the 50th day of Rescue Operation in Gayari Sector. The soldier’s body would be sent to his native village located near Skardu. On 7 April 2012 an Avalanche has hit 138 officers, soldiers and civilians at Gayari sector near Siachen Glacier. Lt Col Tanvir Ul Hassan, Maj ZakaUlHaq and Capt HaleemUllah (AMC) are part of the missing soldiers. The incident occurred at about an altitude of 16,000 feet and 180 miles northeast of Skardu, the capital of Baltistan. President Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Army Chief, PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif, COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, leading journalists and media anchors visited Siachen. Whole nation expressed deep sorrow and regret over the “unfortunate snow slide”. The nation has shown solidarity with the aggrieved families of the soldiers and is continuously praying for their survival and safety.
However, the rescue operation is underway and entered into 50th day of the operation. Despite weather hazards, brave Pakistani troops with the help of experts from Germany, Switzerland, Xinhua and sniffer dogs, aided by helicopters and heavy equipment are recklessly trying to find their comrades under 80 feet deep snow after the avalanche engulfed the camp in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
According to ISPR update of May 22, 2012, “clearance efforts continued round the clock at Gayari Sector. Simultaneous efforts are being undertaken to tackle effects of water on the site in the shape of pondages, cutting and crevasses. The water has started draining and has resulted into quick reduction of water level in the lake to the tune of 27 feet”.
“Excavation work has resumed its full pace despite difficulties posed by seepage of the water at the sites, hazards of crevasses / cutting by water and sinking effects for plant equipment”.“Meanwhile during physical inspection of the area, some equipment was found”.
Notably, COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is directly looking after the rescue efforts and being courageous commander determined to excavate each inch of the area in the search of his brave soldiers. I, being his cadet and retired commander of “The Volunteers” (an infantry unit that served in Siachen Sector) can visualize the importance of search of the bodies of martyred soldiers for their comrades and families. But still, as fighter, familiar with the circumstances where many soldiers laid their lives in the war zones and area like Siachen but still their bodies did not recover or traced out due to topography, unfavourable environmental conditions and weather hazards. It doesn’t mean that soldiers do not remember their comrades or nation forget its heroes those scarified their lives for their tomorrows. But, I would only say that while viewing the efforts of rescue operation, we must consider the ground realties too. Moreover, being Muslims, we fully convinced and have full faith that person who gets martyr in Allaha’s path, will remain alive and never dies. Thus, it would not be wrong in saying that soldiers who had scarified their lives for us would be taken as everlasting invisible guardian of Pakistan’s territorial boundaries. I also know that some loves one of the missing soldiers of Gayari Sector are in the opinion that now search of the bodies of missing personnel be stopped and they should be declared as Shaheed (martyr) since it is difficult to fight the nature.
On May 3 2012, father of Major Zaka, who came under avalanche accompanied COAS during his visit to Siachen, while talking to journalist appreciated the efforts of troops participating in rescue operation. He also stated that he is proud of his son and other soldiers who scarified their lives. According to ISPR press release, at that occasion, COAS remained with the troops for some time and lauded their motivation in face of tough conditions and extreme weather. He appreciated their resolve to upkeep Army’s proud tradition of not leaving a man behind, until humanly possible, regardless of cost.
Anyhow, being one of the old warriors of Siachen, I know that after passing 50 days the chances of survival of soldiers buried under 80 feet of snow are very rare and meager. By now, the dead bodies might also be started decomposition because of natural phenomena. Moreover after two months time the temperature will again start decreasing which will definitely make the snow harder and harder. I would like to suggest here that “Let Martyred Soldiers should stay there to Defend Siachen” and now army should start taking steps of compensation of the aggrieved families while declaring their loves one as martyred. Moreover over, in the houner of country’s defenders, Army should build a memorial in Gayari sector. The memorial will keep us reminding about our brave soldiers those are there to defend our territories.
I would also like to mention few words of Indian Army Chief Interview of May 26 2012. In this interview, he instead acknowledging and giving serious thoughts over Pakistani COAS to de-militarize Siachen area rejected the same while considering his troops in the better deployment position where as it just amount to live in fool paradise. Indian Chief must consider the weather hazards and expenditures incurring on Siachen Issue. He should not forget his causalities which are more than Pakistani casualties.
The writer can be approached through [email protected]
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Our Heroes on June 3rd, 2012
We are a now nuclear state, so no-one can let us go bust. We may have turned down billions of dollars. But many more billions will follow”
Pakistani government minister, as told to BBC;
An Short Introspection or Self Examination
There is a healthy streak of pessimistic cynicism in many Pakistanis. If you tell them that so and so has bought a new car, their response would be, “haram kay paisay say lee ho gee.” If you say that a woman is beautiful, they will quickly try to assassinate her character and question her morals. Although, they carry their faith in their pocket, but in practical terms, the practice of faith in human interactions among Pakistanis is almost non-existent. Every one has a hustle as to how to get their needs fulfilled by others. Never to fulfill others needs. Hustle, hustle, hustle is the opiate of Pakistani society these days. And, where does it comes? The answer is simple. The country has been run by a bunch for crooks (with few exceptions) for the last 65 years. It seems that the corrupt environment has caused a gene for honesty (if there is such) to mutate and convert to a gene for roguishness or corruption.
The Juggernaut of Unending Crisis and the Psychotic Depression of Pakistan’s Enemies, When These Crisis Makes Pakistan Stronger, Instead of Self-Destruct!
The country has faced a tidal wave of crises, since its inception, to list a few:
Given Pakistan’s track record of surviving such disasters, most
Western academics, talking heads, cynics, and historical Pakistan bashers are now debating whether the country is in fact more stable than many people think!
But, there is another explanation beyond scientific rationalism as pointed out by Professor John M. Artz of Information Systems in the School of Business at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C, integrates his studies of philosophy and computers to conclud, ” that today’s “rational” model of knowledge will soon pass. During the later half of the 20th century, scholars worshipped at the altar of scientific rationalism, the belief that knowledge is obtained through objective empirical observation of physical phenomenon. This prevailing view held that the world is out there to study independent of our perception and understanding — our goal was to understand reality as it exists. Things like emotions and social relations were meaningless because they cannot be studied objectively as independent empirical phenomenon.”
The Factor X behind Pakistan’s Existence for Times to Come.
We would like to add the Factor X, which Islam brought forth at its genesis, and that is Taqwa.
Taqwa is a concept in Islam that is interpreted by some Islamic Scholars as God consciousness. Governance of our Universe and others (Multiple Universes) is by The Creator, Rab-il-Alimeen, “Title of Allah Ta’ala. Lord of all Creation. Literally means “Lord of the Universes“, both in the Seen and in the Unseen. Every Pakistani no matter how secular has this Factor X buried deep within his or her psyche. they may not admit it. They may rebel against it, but it keeps coming back in good times and bad.
The Way or the Beacon of Pakistanis Life
Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, Al-Wadud (Allah’s name, Al Wadud, the Loving-Kind, means He desires and does good for all even if that good isn’t reciprocated. Al Wadud is the epitome of Unconditional Love.)
Humans cannot define or describe God, they can only describe God’s attributes, because, if they could, than, they would themselves be God (Nauzobillah). God is in human conciousness.Though love is an emotion, one can only feel love, but one cannot describe love through empiricism. It cannot be captured in a bottle and sold, although some scam artists have tried it. Similarly, God (in Arabic Allah) lies in the Realm of Human Spiritual Perception. Empiricism can only be applied to Allah’s Creation, but NOT, to the Creator.
And that is why one has to Attain Knowledge of Allah’s Creation, to Attain closeness to Allah.
His Creation- The Nebula-The Massive Universe
The Minuscule or Sub-Atomic
In the words of an English Poem by Cecil Frances Alexander:
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset, and the morning,
That brightens up the sky;
The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.
The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
We gather every day;–
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.
God is beyond human comprehension.
Humans cannot even describe his minutest Creation the Quarks, the Charms, and the Bosons. Physicist can describe their behavior, but no one has ever seen one with a naked eye, except to tracks in Hadron Collider.
But, it still survives and in the words of an American slang, PAKISTANIS
Pakistan has enormous number of problems ethnic, sectarian, economic, social, cultural, environmental, and a host of other strifes.
And yet Pakistan has proven to be remarkably resilient.
The Secret of Pakistan’s survival lies in the Steadfast Simplicity, Purity, and Faith in Allah and Deen by the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 180 Million Strong Pakistanis.
These are:
The Majority of THE SILENT PAKISTANIS, eke out a meagre subsistence, but, still thank their Maker, before they go to sleep at night.
The Purity of Faith among the HAVE-NOTS of Pakistan has given resilience to Pakistan as a nation. Pakistani masses have been through HELL and High-Water of Incessant Disasters, but still survive to dream of better days.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
So, verily, with every difficulty, there is relief:
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
Verily with every difficulty there is relief.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانْصَبْ
Therefore, when thou art free (from thine immediate task), still labour hard
وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَبْ
And to thy Lord turn (all) thy attention.
To Pakistan and its Relation to Almighty Allah apply the Words of George Herberts Poem,
Islam, the Deen of most Pakistanis requires Intrinsic Trust Way Beyond Loyalty and Utmost Patience in God’s Protection, which will bring the nation from the darkness of the night of misgovernance and corruption,
And,
in belief and optimism lies the resilience of Pakistanis.
And
Imran Khan fits into the Relief, the Benevolent, Compassionate, and Merciful, Creator of Universes, promises to all humany, including to the long suffering SILENT PAKISTANIS.
Yes, Pakistanis deserve Imran Khan. they have suffered enough already!
Pakistanis have paid their dues with “Sabr” and “Tahamul.”
This night of horrors too shall pass, to the bright sunlight and and blue sky of effervescent hope.
Muslims Never Despair!
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Our Heroes on May 29th, 2012
“Patriotism,” Samuel Johnson said nearly 250 years ago, “is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” These days in India, the adage can be safely applied to nationalism. There is no other explanation of the threat to arrest and try Arundhati Roy on charges of sedition for what she said at a public meeting on Kashmir, where Syed Ali Geelani too spoke. I was not there at the meeting, but I have read her moving statement defending herself afterwards. I feel both proud and humbled by it. I am a psychologist and political analyst, handicapped by my vocation; I could not have put the case against censorship so starkly and elegantly. What she has said is simultaneously a plea for a more democratic India and a more humane future for Indians.
I faced a similar situation a couple of years ago, when I wrote a column in the Times of Indiaon the long-term cultural consequences of the anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002. It was a sharp attack on Gujarat’s changing middle-class culture. I was served summons for inciting communal hatred. I had to take anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court and get the police summons quashed. The case, however, goes on, even though the Supreme Court, while granting me anticipatory bail, said it found nothing objectionable in the article. The editor of the Ahmedabad edition of the Times of India was less fortunate. He was charged with sedition.
I shall be surprised if the charges of sedition against Arundhati are taken to their logical conclusion. Geelani is already facing more than a hundred cases of sedition, so one more probably won’t make a difference to him. Indeed, the government may fall back on time-tested traditions and negotiate with recalcitrant opponents through income-tax laws. People never fully trusted the income-tax officials; now they will distrust them the way they distrust the CBI.
In the meanwhile, we have made fools of ourselves in front of the whole world. All this because some protesters demonstrated at the meeting that Arundhati and Geelani addressed! Yet, I hear from those who were present at the meeting that Geelani did not once utter the word “secession”, and even went so far as to give a soft definition of azadi. By all accounts, he put forward a rather moderate agenda. Was it his way of sending a message to the government of India? How much of it was cold-blooded public relations, how much a clever play with political possibilities in Kashmir?
We shall never know, just because most of those who pass as politicians today and our knowledge-proof babus have proved themselves incapable of understanding the subtleties of public communication. They are not literate enough to know what role free speech and free press play in an open society, not only in keeping the society open but also in serious statecraft. In the meanwhile, it has become dangerous to demand a more compassionate and humane society, for that has come to mean a serious criticism of contemporary India and those who run it. Such criticism is being redefined as anti-national and divisive. In the case of Arundhati, it is of course the BJP that is setting the pace of public debate and pleading for censorship. But I must hasten to add that the Congress looks unwilling to lose the race. It seems keen to prove that it is more nationalist than the BJP.
It is the hearts and minds of the new middle class—those who have come up in the last two decades from almost nowhere and are middle class by virtue of having money rather than middle-class values—that both parties are after. This new middle class wants to give meaning to their hollow life through a violent, nineteenth-century version of European-style ‘nationalism’. They want to prove—to others as well as to themselves—that they have a stake in the system, that they have arrived. They are afraid that the slightest erosion in the legitimacy of their particularly nasty version of nationalism will jeopardise their new-found social status and political clout. They are willing to fight to the last Indian for the glory of Mother India as long as they themselves are not conscripted to do so and they can see, safely and comfortably in their drawing rooms, Indian nationalism unfolding the way a violent Bombay film unfolds on their television screens.
Hence the bitterness and intolerance, not only towards Arundhati Roy, but also towards all other spoilsports who defy the mainstream imagination of India and its nationalism. Even Gandhians fighting for their cause non-violently are not spared. Himangshu Kumar’s ashram at Dantewada has been destroyed not by the Maoists but by the police. I would have thought that writers and artists would be exempt from censorship in an open society. As we well know, they are not. The CPI(M) and the Congress ganged up to shut up Taslima Nasreen by saying she was not an Indian. As though if you are a non-Indian in India, your rights don’t have to be governed by the Constitution of India!
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The trend of harassing political dissenters for their “seditious” writings and actions started early. It started with the breakdown of consensus on national interest in the mid-’70s. Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency and introduced serious censorship and surveillance, she claimed, to protect national interest, democracy and development. (She had foresight, for though she included development in her list, it took another two decades for the consensus on development to break down.) The difference between the 1970s and the first decade of the 21st century is that millions are now acting out their dissent and speaking out of their radical differences with mainstream public opinion. The whole tribal movement—wrongly called the Naxal movement, because the Naxals have taken advantage of the tribal problem—is an example of this.
There are times when a national consensus is neither possible nor desirable. The best one can do is to contain the violence and negotiate with those who act out their dissent. That may not be easy in the case of the Kashmiris because their trust in us is now close to zero. Psychologically speaking, the Kashmiris are already outside India and will remain there for at least two generations. The random killings, rapes, torture and the other innovative atrocities have brutalised their society and turned them into a traumatised lot. If you think this is too harsh, read between the lines of psychotherapist Shobhna Sonpar’s report on Kashmir.
What is it about the culture of Indian politics today that it allows us to opt for a version of nationalism that is so brutal, self-certain and chauvinist? Have we been so brutalised ourselves that we have become totally numb to the suffering around us? What is this concept of Indian unity that forces us to support police atrocities and torture? How can a democratic government, knowing fully what its police, paramilitary and army is capable of doing, resist signing the international covenant on torture? How can we, sixty years after independence, countenance encounter deaths? Could these practices have survived so long and become institutionalised if we had a large enough section of India’s much-vaunted middle class fully sensitive to the demands of democracy?
The answers to these questions are not pleasant. We know things could not have come to this pass if those who are or should be alert to these issues in the intelligentsia, media, artistic community had done their job. Here I think the changing nature of the Indian middle class has not been a help.
We are proud of our democracy—the consensus on democracy still survives in India—but unaware of a crucial paradox in which we are caught. The democratic process has created a new middle class, a large section of which is not adequately socialised to democratic norms in sectors not vital to the survival of democratic politics but vital to creativity and innovativeness in an open society. The thoughtless, non-self-critical ultra-nationalism, intolerant of anyone opposed to the mainstream public opinion, is shared neither by the poor nor the more settled middle class. Ordinary Indians, accustomed as they are to living with mind-boggling diversity, social and cultural, have no problem with political diversity. Neither does the settled middle class.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, for instance, wrote an essay savaging the middle class in mid-nineteenth century. We had to study this in our school and it has remained a prescribed text in Bengal for more than a century. Today you cannot introduce such a text in much of India without probably precipitating a political controversy and demands for censorship.
Recently, at a lecture organised by the Information Commission of India, I claimed that the future of censorship and surveillance in India was very bright. It’s not only the government that loves it but a very large section of middle-class India too would like to silence writers, artists, playwrights, scholars and thinkers they do not like. In their attempt to become a globalised middle class, they are willing to change their dress, food habits and language but not their love for censorship. We should thank our stars that there still are people in our midst—editors, political activists, NGOs, lawyers and judges—to whom freedom of speech is neither a value peripheral to the real concerns of Indian democracy nor a bourgeois virtue but a clue to our survival as a civilised society.
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