To be a Shia in Pakistan

To be a Shia in Pakistan is to court death itself these days. There are literally countless stories out there like this one : http://dawn.com/2013/01/14/a-descent-into-darkness-the-plight-of-victims-families/ - of lives ended too soon; of sole bread-earners of countless households taken away from their families mercilessly; and for what? These atrocities are such widespread now that all of us know somebody who has been a victim of this - a victim of this insane and barbaric killing spree by dogs let loose by the State willingly.

Why is Malik Ishaq still allowed to hold rallies in Karachi and other parts of the country openly threatening action against the Shias? Why is that poison-spewing man even outside roaming our streets free? Why has he been let loose for "lack of evidence" by the supposedly rejuvenated justice system of Pakistan (even after openly confessing many Shia killings)? Why? why? why?!

Whose interests does that serve? Is the State afraid of going against these religious fundamentalists, because it fears for it's own safety when it needs them for Afghanistan and India? At what expense? Thousands are dead. No city in Pakistan is safe anymore for Shias. This is unprecedented and unbelievable for anyone wishing for a modicum of normalcy in their daily life. How can you live this?

You can't!

The recent outcry for justice following the barbaric double bombings in Quetta was heartening to see. For once, the country did wake up to the plight of the Shias. But has anything actually been done since then? Is there someone now magically willing to go after LeJ, SSP, and their friends in TTP? Meanwhile, the killings continue unabated. Two Shia doctors were killed in the space of a few hours two days ago.

One Shia doctor in #Peshawar, another Shia Doctor in #Karachi is gunned down in space of few hours. #ShiaGenocide continues in #Pakistan.
— Ali Salman Alvi (@alisalmanalvi) January 22, 2013

The killings go on, and like everything else in Pakistan, the news fades away. It is the silence that kills. So speak up!

Faith in Religion

At a time when religion (Islam in particular) are the target of much ridicule for being "backward" and "out of date", we need to re-affirm our faith in the real message given by our beautiful religion. Lately, many hard-line and narrow-minded approaches towards religion and life have come to the fore in many Muslim societies sadly. It is, therefore, imperative for us to refer back to the deeds and sayings of the great people that lived before us, and who better to look back to then the people who surrounded our great Prophet (PBUH). At the forefront of those people were Hazrat Ali (A.S). Once Ali (A.S) was asked about faith in religion. He replied:

"The structure of faith is supported by four pillars endurance, conviction, justice and jihad.

Endurance is composed of four attributes: eagerness, fear, piety and anticipation (of death). so whoever is eager for Paradise will ignore temptations; whoever fears the fire of Hell will abstain from sins; whoever practices piety will easily bear the difficulties of life and whoever anticipates death will hasten towards good deeds.

Conviction has also four aspects to guard oneself against infatuations of sin; to search for explanation of truth through knowledge; to gain lessons from instructive things and to follow the precedent of the past people, because whoever wants to guard himself against vices and sins will have to search for the true causes of infatuation and the true ways of combating them out and to find those true ways one has to search them with the help of knowledge, whoever gets fully acquainted with various branches of knowledge will take lessons from life and whoever tries to take lessons from life is actually engaged in the study of the causes of rise and fall of previous civilizations .

Justice also has four aspects depth of understanding, profoundness of knowledge, fairness of judgment and dearness of mind; because whoever tries his best to under- stand a problem will have to study it, whoever has the practice of studying the subject he is to deal with, will develop a clear mind and will always come to correct decisions, whoever tries to achieve all this will have to develop ample patience and forbearance and whoever does this has done justice to the cause of religion and has led a life of good repute and fame.

Jihad is divided into four branches: to persuade people to be obedient to Allah; to prohibit them from sin and vice; to struggle (in the cause of Allah) sincerely and firmly on all occasions and to detest the vicious. Whoever persuades people to obey the orders of Allah provides strength to the believers; whoever dissuades them from vices and sins humiliates the unbelievers; whoever struggles on all occasions discharges all his obligations and whoever detests the vicious only for the sake of Allah, then Allah will take revenge on his enemies and will be pleased with Him on the Day of Judgment."

Notice the emphasis on acquiring knowledge and studying a subject in detail? Notice how he connects the pursuit of knowledge to the development of patience and tolerance in oneself? Isn't that we, collectively as an Ummah, are not doing at all? Food for thought.

Apologies

I've never ever been known to cuss like I did in that last blog post of mine. So please accept my apologies. I was just so freaking mad at the umpteenth depressing news coming out of my country. I am just so sick and tired of self-serving and incompetent people playing havoc with the lives of millions of my fellow countrymen, and I just HAD to vent. Hope that is understandable.

On the bright side, I hope this has brought me back to blogging.

The Pakistan of 2012

I could not think of any other title for this post. So much has gone on in that country, that it would take an eternity to address how seriously we have managed to fuck everything up that was once nice in Pakistan. I haven't written for a long time, and I do not want to do one of those lame political posts again advocating one political stance over another. Enough of that crap! All that is going in the country defies belief, where a President is basically running the country like a mafia gang, appointing his appeasers on all the important posts. First, that Gilani whose response to every question asked of him began with: "We have a constitution, assembly, and elected members". And now the infamous Mr. Raja Rental. A new low for the country considering the dude is accused and has been requested to be placed on the ECL by NAB!

This government has a lot of fucktards, but Rehman Malik has to take the cake for me. I mean who else can be absolutely inept at their job; have no credibility whatsoever; think and act as depicted in the video below, and still hold arguably one of the most important posts in the government? It defies belief, and it makes no fucking sense!

Where do I begin? What do I say? And all this time, terrorists roam free spreading religious hatred and spouting poison under the garb of following the Sahaba. Lashkar e Jhangvi continues to kill Shias and other minorities it deems as KAFIR with impunity. Our ever so nice Sunni brethren continue to not give a fuck until their local mosque is attacked. Where the fuck is the Chief Justice in all this? Just because there is no political gain to be had here, no one cares to speak about all this innocent killing? What good is a state then? What reason do you have to live in a state without a semblance of justice whatsoever?! Mr. Imran Khan continues to hire lotas to get seats, and his latest appeasement takes him ever so close to Jamaat e Islami. Surprised?

Why do things have to be so unbelievably fucked up?! Leaving the political douchebags aside, why can't the rest of us just do our fucking jobs to make the country at least livable?! Forget 100%, why can't we be 50% loyal to our professions and at least make the country function like a normal fucking country!! Even if Mr. Tabdeeli-Aa-Gayee-Hay wins, how do YOU expect to change the country in 90, 180, or 365 days?! Are you waiting for a messiah before you mend your ways? Will you start throwing trash in the trash cans once PPP is out? Will you stop bribing your way out of everything then? And if then, why not now?

P.S. Sorry for all the french. That was absolutely necessary.

Life in the fast lane

Saw this ad on TV the other day. To me it epitomizes this smartphone-enabled life of ours these days. Everything is just so readily available and accessible now, its crazy!

I love my iPhone as much as the next guy, but too many people are overdoeing this I feel. Constantly staring at your smartpohne when you could be making a perfectly good conversation with the guy next to you isn't my idea of utilizing my time, its dumb. So stop!

Blogger iPhone app

First post from the iPhone app. A good way to share on-the-go. Who knows ... maybe this'll get me back to blogging.

Google+

Ok, I will be first person to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of Google+ when it came out. But despite all criticism thrown at it, it seems to have come out of that early phase and is slowly and steadily increasing its user base. With the addition of Google Pages, business of all size and popular websites are creating their pages on it. Looks like Google+ is here to stay. But how long before companies start touting their Google addresses publicly, in advertisements, in theaters, on TV? Google still has a long way to before it catches up with Facebook, but do we even know if its gaining on it? For example, how many of you have dumped Facebook in favor of Google+ yet? Not many I bet. The only reason I've seen people *really* switch is because they can't stand Facebook, and it's ok. Having 1000+ friends and gradually becoming overly-social can take its toll. But those users are a minority.

What Google+ is great at, admittedly, is gathering new followers. People add me almost daily over there. How many of them are spam bots, I'm not sure though. I love Google as a platform. I love Gmail, I use it all the time. Google Calendar is what drives my iPhone. Google Reader, Images, Videos, Scholar, you name it I use it. But what innovation will Google bring via Google+ that Facebook won't replicate soon, and present it to its much larger user base? But I bet Google has a great plan for it going forward. We'll just have to wait and watch.

Are you the remembering type?

I don't know why people are so forgetful, or maybe it is me that tends to remember things or people more than most. I'm talking about regular stuff - like running into people randomly or remembering people you met through a mutual friend. I tend to remember this stuff pretty well, but I often find that the other person has absolutely no clue who I am in some situations, and some don't even recognize me at all! Surprisingly for me, I've found not a lot of people are of this nature. Or maybe they're too preoccupied with other stuff, but come on seriously you can't remember a guy you met couple of days ago?! People should eat more almonds I say. That's what I used to do ..... especially in exam season ;)


So, are you the remembering type?

The never-ending search for a domain

Hi y'all!

Its been a while since I've updated this blog, and I do apologize for that. Things have been changing rapidly in my life, which has sort of prevented me from venting my anger and frustration about everything that has come to pass lately. And by that, I do mean all things Pakistan. But we'll come to that in other post. Right now, I'm hoping to move the blog to my own domain soon. Unfortunately, I have one of those common names that aren't available at all. For instance:

Raza.com

RazaAbbas.com

RazaSyed.com

are all taken. This severely restricts my options, and frankly I have no choice but to go for a simple prefix/suffix with my name. Something along the lines of:

AllRaza.com

RazaGeek.com

RazaNow.com

They're all available btw. The trouble is I like 'em one day, and not like 'em at all another day. Help me decide people!

On reading the Quran

A friend had shared this link on twitter, and I just had to post it here. It is a TED talk given by Lesley Hazleton, author of the book 'The Shia-Sunni split in Islam' which I previously reviewed here. Such an objective and outside view of Islam is refreshing, and shows how much Islam is really misunderstood!

Hiatus

Wow, it has been so so long since I last posted on this blog. I apologize and I will get back to posting very soon ... trust me I will. There is so much to talk about. Can't wait to let it all out.

Why you should recycle

Something useful I spotted in one of my campus shuttles the other day:

Recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy then extracting it from the ore.

If 1 ton of aluminum is recycled, it would power an American home for 15 months!

I guess it could potentially power a Pakistani home for double that duration, seeing how much power is wasted here.

If only we could somehow build up a healthy energy conservation infrastructure, so that so much energy which is normally wasted would be saved and more importantly, it'd go towards catering for the exponential growth in demand that we face nowadays. There is a way out of every crisis. All it needs is a proper and sincere effort!

Firefly

You gotta check out this awesome sci-fi series. Set in the future (obviously), it is based on the simple premise that we, as humans, may evolve and develop better technology over time but that doesn't necessarily mean than we will also evolve to become better human beings. So basically, in the future as well, we are plagued with the same problems that haunt us today - moral turpitude, poverty, greed, corruption et al. This is different from other sci-fi universes, most notably Star Trek, where humans have evolved to the point that Earth is akin to paradise; there is no poverty on Earth and humans no longer engage in currency-based economics. Both universes, although in stark contrast to each other, represent how the respective show's creators think about the future. And As a sci-fi fan, both are equally intriguing I must admit. If I were to pose this a hypothetical question to you, which future do you see most likely as the future for human race?

If you like sci-fi, and haven't seen this show yet, then drop whatever you're doing and go watch it! It was created by Joss Whedon (who also happens to be the creator of Dark Angel (Jessica Alba). But unfortunately, the show got cancelled after its first season and it was only when there strong uproar over it from the fans, and on the back strong DVD sales that Whedon n co. did a follow-up movie called Serenity, which btw was just as good. The main character in the series and the movie, Malcolm Reynolds, is played by Nathan Fillion. Nathan also has another great TV series on air these days called Castle, where he plays a mystery novel writer that helps solve murder mysteries with a cop played by the beautiful Stana Katic. Check out both shows. You are sure to like them!

Going back to Pakistan

This post has also been published on The Express Tribune's blog section here.

If you're a Pakistani student studying abroad (US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia wherever) pursuing whatever degree, people automatically assume you're staying there for good. And by people here I'm referring to our fellow countrymen. When you meet them at a gathering or a get-together, such topics are often the subject of discussion. Telling them that you have plans of returning home will earn you looks of utter bewilderment, as if you've said something embarrassing. You come go back to Pakistan to visit family and friends, and everyone invariably asks you how you are doing abroad, so you tell them you're getting by OK ... which is almost always followed by something along the lines of `Good! Get a job / green card, and do not come back`.

I know things are bad, but this utter hopelessness is not going to do us any good. If we abandon our own country, when it needs us the most, what right to we have to call ourselves proud Pakistanis when we couldn't even bother to spend the prime of our lives living in it and working for its betterment? My mind tells me it's a foolish obsession that makes no sense, given the instability prevalent over there, but then my heart says: `No matter what the outcome. At least I would have done the right thing`.

The battle between my heart and my mind rages on.

Football, the ultimate unifier

There's hardly any other sport on the face of this planet that's likely to draw out people of a more varied nation, race or color other than Football (or Soccer as it's known over here stateside). It is simply amazing how you don't need to even speak the same language in order to understand one another on a football field. I have been going to play Football on weekends with a bunch of guys from every corner of the world. It is absolutely fantastic to see the amount of diversity there. We have people from USA, Nigeria, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Holland, Spain, Mexico, India, Pakistan (me :P) and god knows how many more countries. If there is an ultimate unifier, it has to be football!

And what better showcase for football than the ongoing World Cup in South Africa. The game is getting some good press here in the US, perhaps as big as it has ever gotten, which is great. Normally people here are far too obsessed with their own sports, but thanks to coverage from ESPN and ABC, people are excited about the World Cup to some extent. This surge in popularity is also helped by the fact that the US football team is putting up a decent showing at the World Cup. They won a nail-biting encounter against Algeria today to press to the Second Round along with England in Group C. Good luck to them, and for the neutrals, the real World Cup starts with the knock out rounds on Saturday. May the best team win!

Hypocrisy galore!

The hypocrisy of this world really does my head in sometimes. So, by now you must have heard of the fresh wave of sanctions that have been imposed on Iran by the United Nations, and that too, unanimously (12-2). I am not a proponent of Ahmadinejad's politics, and certainly not of his provocative stances, what pisses me off, however, is how Israel manages to break every other International law or UN resolution in the book, and still walks away scott free! They pull off sh*t that nobody else in the world can ever think of pulling off (without seriously getting sanctioned or diplomatically isolated), and yet they get a sweet $3 billion per year paycheck from their great ally, the US.

The US (and other Western powers) are ever so vocal about imposing sanctions on a country trying to obtain nuclear weapons technology indigenously (they're not stealing or doing anything illegal you know), and yet a country with a substantial nuclear arsenal, that commits atrocities one after the other, is not even chided once in the strictest terms by the so-called civilized western powers?!

Hypocrisy galore!

Mera Karachi

I know things haven't exactly been very rosy in Karachi of late, but I was out and about yesterday, and couldn't help but notice how drastically travel times across the city have been reduced. OK ok, it may have been a working day and I may not have been out at a rush hour (it was 4PMish), but kudos to the city government for doing a great job of planning and maintaining the infrastructure in the city. Also, it was nice to see almost NO rain water on the major roads, which is so unlike Karachi. And thanks to the signal-free corridors, I was able to get from North Karachi to Malir Cantt in a mere 25 minutes, imagine that! I'm sure travel times are much lesser for people who live in more central parts of the city. Anyhoo, just wanted to say it felt great. Kudos to the government, for once, and to Mustafa Kamal of course. Well done!

Is it all worth it?

I am not trying to rattle any cages with this blog post. Or perhaps it is a sign of my weakening faith, but I've found myself asking some real basic questions over the last couple of days, most notably: Is it all worth it? I mean religion. Did God create one of the most beautiful things in the verse so that so many people could one day abuse it and kill their fellow beings in their attempts to be closer to Him? They say terrorists have no religion, I say every religion has its terrorists - people who are so blinded by their faith and devotion to God that they forget the most basic principle there is: the sanctity of a human life. Is religion just a tool to kill other people in a society with such alarming levels of poverty and illiteracy? Or alternatively, if there were no religion, would people still kill like they do today?

We all believe in leading good lives and going to jannah (paradise), but I ask: at what cost? Is it not a collective responsibility of a religion and a society based on one to condemn injustices and speak up against them. Do you really want your paradise so bad that you're willing to stay stilent on every injustice and act of barbarism you see around you? What good is paradise then? I keep referring to paradise, because frankly we're obsessed with it. We're far too obsessed with being "good" Muslims individually that we've forgotten perhaps the most basic Islamic principle there is: Husn-e-Ikhlaq. Someone asked the Prophet (PBUH) to define Islam in two words, and thats what he said: "Husn-e-Ikhlaq". Islam is nothing but husn-e-ikhlaq, in every aspect of life, individual and collective. That is all, and alas! how badly we have failed at it.

The attacks on Ahemdis two days ago are nothing new in the context of our history, they are another persecuted minority in Pakistan. What has truly been sickening has been people's reaction. How can so many people be devoid of humanity? How can you condone the killing of an innocent human being? Is everything that we practice somehow more important than whether another person lives or dies (regardless of their beliefs)? Time to put things in perspective and root out the proponents of this venom who seem to think all this is OK, all in the name of God and paradise.

If we must ban something, it should be these poison-spewing madrassahs and maulvis spreading such hatred and blatant disregard for human lives. Facebook may have partaken in blasphemy but there's plenty of it going on in our cities and society. How about cleaning our own house first?

So much for a 'New Beginning'

It has been almost a year since Barack Obama delivered his address to the Muslim World in Cairo, which he ambitiously entitled "A New Beginning". While he was very forthcoming in his desire to bring peace and stability to the world - especially the Middle East - he did admit that "years of mistrust" will simply not go away overnight. Well, to be perfectly honest, they're not going anywhere judging by his actions in office so far. The events of the last couple of weeks have obviously been worrying for the Pakistani in me. While it saddens me to see all fingers are pointed at Pakistan right now, and some for just reasons too, what I would like to know is why nobody tends to bring up the fact that the alleged perpetrator of this attempted bombing belongs to the same area in Pakistan that is continuously being bombarded by American drones for the past 2 years! Now, I'm all for taking out the Taliban by any means necessary, but when your degree of collateral and is so god-damn high (something along the lines of 2.5% success rate against militants), then at least do not pretend to be surprised when someone decides to fight back (using whatever wrong methods they adopt). The fact that a supposed moderate guy like Faisal Shahzad could turn against America is itself extremely worrying. Instead of painting the guy in all sorts of evil, why not go through his life and try to determine what drove him to the brink. Thoughts?

And don't even get me started on Israel. Simply put, America's unconditional support for the Zionist regime is the number ONE reason why everyone dislikes America (to put it mildly). And somewhat surprising (at least to me) is the sheer number of Americans I've met who share that opinion, but at the same time admit that no politician in America can ever get elected to a public office of significance unless they pander to the pro-Israeli lobby. Such is the sad reality. The new right-wing Israeli government has refused to heed to any objections by the international community over their construction on occupied Palestinian land. After backing this belligerent regime, does Mr. Obama still expects the Palestinians to "give up violence", and sit down for peace negotiations?

I do not know what the future holds for us. The world is certainly not getting any safer. On one hand, we have these religious nutbags willing to go to great lengths to cause harm to anything belonging to the West, and on the other hand, we have these powerful countries committing mass injustices (backing Israel, Going into Iraq et al) thereby providing these nutbags just what they need to get more recruits. And so goes the cycle. God help us. Do you see anything changing?

Movies Galore

I know its been a while since spring break was over (heck, the entire semester is over now!), but I got to watch so many movies that I thought I should share my thoughts on some of them with you. So here they are, in no particular order:

Iron Man 2 - Saw this the day it premiered. A pretty decent film, although I was expecting a little bit more from it, but Robert Downey Jr. saves the day for me. Worth watching definitely.

Avatar - finally saw it. Visually spectacular movie, no doubt about that. Good story too. Whether it has racist undertones or not is subjective but overall the movie was good. Didn't deserve best picture though.

Shutter Island - creepily good. Was half-expecting this one to suck (because of di Caprio), but turned out to be pleasantly surprised. You should definitely watch this one. I forgot who recommended this movie to me, but thanks to whoever that was, since I wasn't planning on seeing it.

The Blind Side - Amazing story, and a great feel-good movie. A must watch!

Gangs of New York - A not-so-recent film, but I'd heard good things about it. It was a pretty good movie (even though di Caprio is in it). Having visited New York, you appreciate its diversity even more when you know its history. The movie is rated, so watch out.

Date Night - Disappointed. Not half-as-funny as I thought it would be (given Tina Fey and Steve Carrel were in it). Not worth going to theater for IMO.

The Fourth Kind - Has Milla Jovovich in it, ahem. But seriously, it takes the Paranormal Activity mockumentary thing a little too far. Good movie though.