Big Crimes in Little Kremlin

A few years ago the US attacked a certain city of Iraq. It was a part of their bigger operation in that country. The truth is that such operations had become quite commonplace in the last decade. The US and NATO were busy in liberating people either in Iraq or in Afghanistan. I would not be any exaggeration to assert that many people around the planet were either oblivious of the fine details of the events happening there or they did not have enough time to follow up the news. I was one of them. So as I heard about the attack, it was a surprise for me. Due to the astonishment of the event I rushed to a close friend of mine and told him about the incident. My friend is a Roman Catholic. I cannot disclose his complete identity due to the purpose of confidentiality. All I can say is that he is a Hungarian Romanian with Shaman roots. He is a very nice man and a very dear friend. He helped me in various critical phases of my life in which if he had not helped me, I would definitely have had very tough times.

As I broke the news of the incident to my friend. He accommodated me by absorbing the information. In order to emphasize the severity of the news I had to reiterate about the event to him twice. At last he assuaged my concerns by telling that it was after all not a very bad deal in relative terms. He further instigated me to consider a scenario in which Russia or China had invaded Iraq (or any other country for that matter). In the case of China he literally said that they might not even spare animals from getting into the oven when they decided to march. And while saying this the blue eyes of my friend were as bleak as the cold war itself.

My friend has an extremely cool personality. Everyone loved to hang around with him for a while when we were together. Muslims specially loved him. Moreover, we always used to love to suspect that he would convert to Islam one day. My friend has many qualities a good friend should have. One of them is that he can make you feel good about your present circumstances no matter how bad they are. He has a knack of showing that all the thinkable alternatives are worse than the current plight. Consider this incident for example. One day I told him that sometimes I wished that I had been born in the times of Alexander the great or some other similar dignitary from ancient past. My wish did not ensue from the misery of my lifestyle. Rather, I had a comfortable life. I wished to live in that era simply because I could have witnessed with my own eyes the glories of great empires as we see them in movies. However, my friend was very quick in discouraging me for nurturing such a desire. As soon as I told him about the wish he very quickly discouraged me by saying that it was a very bad desire since we could most probably have been slaves had we been born and living in any of those eras. This made quite a lot of sense to me for the first time in my life.

Consider seriously what would Chinese have done to a country if they invaded it. I have another friend who is from China. When we were together we used to tease him for having connections with Bruce Lee. He used to feel very proud about that. He even knew quite a bit of Kung Fu and related arts. Upon wheedling a lot, we could even persuade him to make those peculiar Bruce Lee sounds from his mouth, that he used to make while breaking wood or bones. 

One of our friends somehow knew that China has some sort of a problem with Tibet. I do not know what the problem really is. All I know is that there is some geopolitical problem between the two countries that has not been resolved since long. My friend used to ask him that how would he propose to solve the problem. Our Chinese friend used to say all the time that that was not a problem and all that he needed was a few tanks and a few men to take care of Tibet. This was his typical answer that he used to give us with his smiling face and we used to laugh. However, I am sure that he used to propose this solution not due to the viability of this sort of a solution, but to make up for his very limited ability of speaking in English. I believe that it was a much easier verbal short cut for him to speak like this.

But what would Chinese do if they ever invaded a country. Pakistan has always had very good terms with China and we really like them for so many things. Indeed, our relationship has always been cozy and we hope it to become cozier. But we also have an impression that on the day the Chinese decided to march out of their country to the rest of the world, they would even put every single green leaf in the broth. What we know about chinese is that they make soup out of even frogs and rattlers. Indeed, if this is true, then a war would just be a picnic trip for them. Let's hope that they learn and adopt better ways of dealing with world's problems.

Let's consider Russia now. Russians have developed a bit of a reputation for being at war for many decades. Every now and then we read about the cold war and geographical necessities of the Russians to expand their borders westward (and possibly also eastward). It has become a personality thing for them to project themselves like this. With Vladimir Putin as its facade the Russia looks all the more scary too. 

Let's try to recall Alexander Letvinienko for a while. He was an ex-KGB defector who had absconded to the UK. He was a critic of Kremlin and a particularly harsh critic of Mr. Putin. In the days when he was dying the news of his terminal illness were all over the media. I wonder if I read about him through Stratfor. If my memory is not betraying me, then I can assuredly say that Stratfor covered each and every aspect of that episode. 

The crux of the story is that he was given radioactive poisoning. One of the reasons why he was given radioactive poisoning was to give him a slow death in which he could see himself dying very slowly and helplessly. I even remember that I read something like that if he would die like this he would know who killed him. And that he would die slowly like this in front of his own eyes and wonder, and eventually know, that who killed him and that why he was killed. It took him around twenty days to die. And all of this happened in front of his very own eyes. It all happened as it was planned. Indeed, this is an extremely pathetic way of killing someone.

There is no safe mechanism of internal criticism in Russia as well. At the time of Alexander Letvinienko's death there was a discussion of assassination of another lady journalist whose name was probably Anna (Something). She was found dead in her apartment. Her crime was that she was a critic of Mr. Putin.

One of the crimes of Alexander Letvinienko was that he criticized the unspeakable atrocities committed by Kremlin in Chechnya. Indeed, what the Russians have been doing to Chechens is also extremely heinous. Or is it a lot more than that?

These days Mr. Putin is trying his luck in Ukraine. Are the eastern Ukrainians really happy that Russia has finally come for their redemption? What about their oligarchs? Perhaps they cherish the idea to live under the constant and perpetual bad influence of Russia that it actually is. We shall know about all of this from Crimea in due course.

On the other hand, it would have been much nicer of Russia and its people to model their polity on some sort of a democracy. But when did the people of Russia win an opportunity to have any influence in shaping a better government for their country? The truth is that no matter how much we detest the US or other such states for their hegemony and domineering tendencies, such polities at least have certain soft power mechanisms that make them appear as acceptable leaders on the world's political canvass. Whether they are their think tanks, better institutions, outreach mechanisms, higher education, research institutes, general liberty, economic aids and incentives, egalitarian societies or generally humane philosophies etc., in one way or the other many western states have these and many other appealing qualities that not only make them amenable as global leaders but also suitable for inhabitation by foreigners.

The truth is that Russia has no such mechanism by which it can project itself as a humane entity that it may wish to pretend to be. With Mr. Vladimir Putin as its facade, it appears to be a lot more fearsome and grotesque.

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  by  josef.stuefer 

Bonjour

Time passes very quickly. Most of the times we spend our present moment in trying to anticipate or plan about the future or to reconcile with the past and the time does not tend to pass. However, there is a lot of time of our lives that we have left behind when we look towards the hindsight.

A few years a go I had a privilege to work in France for one year. I was based in France telecom's R&D headquarters in Lannion as a researcher. Lannion is a nice little town in the South West of France in its province of Brittany. Like the rest of France, and most of Europe, Lannion is also extremely beautiful. And not only that the people are mostly also very friendly and extremely nice. The year lived in Lannion was very memorable. We were a few Pakistanis in the town who had befriended numerous French, Romanian and people from other nationalities. Together we had loads of fun. I wanted to write a bit more detailed article about my stay in Lannion, but I would save that for another time. I am writing this article for another purpose and a different experience.

I was lodged very close to France Telecom R&D. I could walk to work from home in around 15-20 minutes. This is not much. In order to walk conveniently and to enjoy the experience, I had found a combination of streets that were rather solitary and that were also full of typical Celtic flora and European houses. As I write this, I deeply yearn from inside to go and live there again. Walking to work and back used to be a healthy process that I really enjoyed. Sometimes it rained and I had to take a bus. But normally I preferred to walk. Walking also allowed me to develop new perspectives about my work, as it allowed me ample time to reflect and think about work. 

On a few occasions I passed by a small boy in one of the streets. And this is one of the reasons why I am writing this article. I will talk about the other reason latter below. The boy was around 6--8 years old. He'd be going school. He'd be well-dressed, well combed, neat and tidy, with a schoolbag hanging on his back. Whenever he'd pass by me, while robotically walking to the school, he'd say "Bonjour" to me loudly while his eyes were almost always lowered. The only things I clearly remember about him now are that he had blond hair, he'd be wearing large glasses with a brown frame, and that he had blue eyes.

I cannot forget this experience. And I have always wondered that definitely his mother may have taught him to behave nicely to strangers. Of course, such children can also be at a risk of being abused in some way due to their innocence. But the fact that he was being groomed and nurtured very elegantly should not be overlooked. Irrespective of his family background, and our cultural remoteness, I still think about that boy at times. And I think that he deserves enormous praise. I could never muster the courage to ask him his name and related things. All I'd say in return was Bonjour. I was wary that if I reacted in any way more or less than that, the pigeon will fly away, and I would never be able to see him again.

Let me digress a little bit to another topic for a while. This seemingly does not have any relevance with the context of this article. However, this is the second reason why I wanted to write this post. In as much as the two incidents are disconnected, the truth is that they come to my mind simultaneously. So, let us digress to Innocence of the Muslims for a short while. Recently I read somewhere that google has promised, in front of one of the relevant US courts of Law, to remove the movie from YouTube. This is a commendable effort indeed. This would not only allow Government of Pakistan to remove a ban from YouTube, it would also help in subsiding unnecessary rifts between various cultures and civilizations. 

When the movie was first released I had a chance to look at the movie a little bit. This is to say that I had a chance to look at the boy and the girl who starred in the movie. The truth is that I had a strong feeling that the people had been duped into playing those roles. This is quite embarrassing for those children as well.

I have a feeling that movies like these are not made without a purpose. One of the purpose they serve is obviously to uproot people. In this case they were Muslims. And in case of the Muslims, the other reason is to gauge the emotional temperature of the Muslim society. People react badly and they are termed as barbaric and terroristic. Indeed, this is a pity.

However, as I said earlier such movies create unnecessary rifts in the human society. As a general impression such movies are also self harming in a moral sense too. On the other hand we can learn so much good from the example of the boy that I quoted above. Irrespective of whether the boy came from a Christian family, or whether his parents had become atheists after loosing all hope on religion, due to its hyper institutionalization or terrorism, the truth is that they groomed him in a nice way to say hello to strangers. Such people should be remembered.

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A Great Book About Islam and Tolerance

Recently I had a chance to read a very nice book on the subject of Islam and tolerance. The book is written by Hazrat Hakeem Tariq Mehmood Majzoobi Chughtai, editor of the monthly Ubqari magazine. The book is basically a collection of almost all the episodes of the section, "Islam and Tolerance", that is published in the monthly Ubqari magazine. This means that almost all the episodes since around 2007 to 2014 have been compiled into a book. The book is in Urdu. The English version is due very shortly. 

The book covers almost all the aspects concerning human interaction in which Muslims should exhibit extreme tolerance and generosity towards non-Muslims. It begins with the Makkan period of Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) when he was confronted by the lethal hostility of his own uncles towards his religion. 

The rise of Islam coincides with the chronic hegemony of the Persian and Roman empires. The author discusses the abject plight of the christians and jews living under their rule. The Roman empire specially had a Christian disposition in running its state. The author discusses how Muslims guarded, restored and elevated the rights of the people of the book and other non-Muslim minorities. It is very interesting and enlightening to read that how strictly Muslim Caliphs used to oversee the delivery of rights to the common people by their governors. How religious freedom of the minorities was ensured enacted is also discussed in the book.

One of the important thing about the book is its presentation of the Islamic constitution of war. It is indeed quite enlightening to read that how Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) evolved an extremely humanistic war constitution as the Muslims started coming in conflict with their neighbors. For instance, it is profoundly surprising to read that Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) has forbidden Muslims to separate war prisoners from each other who are each other's relatives. It is also forbidden to torture or to kill the captives. Muslims should take good care of their food and clothing. And as soon as the enemy extends an apology, he/she should be forgiven immediately or the conflict should start to recede. This is extremely humane, specially considering the barbaric pre-Islamic Arabian peninsula where people could be decapitated for extremely trivial things.  

The book also talks about many other aspects from which one can draw conclusions on as to how to treat one's neighbors and related aspects. For instance, it is interesting to read how various people from medieval Islamic period used to treat their Jewish neighbors in the light of Prophetic Hadith of Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and revelations of Allah.

As a whole the book addresses all sorts of people. It tells the Christians about the Islamic opinion of Jesus Christ (PBUH). It also tells that why, as a matter of principle,  one of the most veritable caliphs of Islam refused to pray in a Church in Egypt, as it was conquered. For the jews, it has a message that they perhaps owe a little bit of gratitude to the Muslim community, as their forefathers were supported by a just Islamic governance system when they had to face frequent diasporas. It reminds the love of Sufis to the Hindus. It invites the statesmen to review their public policies in its own light. It incites the modern civilizations to see if they can create peace conventions that are better than those of the religion of Islam. For the zealot, it has a message that fanaticism and terrorism are rather grotesque applications of religion. Lastly, the accounts of a few exchanges between various sufi saints and their contemporary Zoroastrian neighbors insinuate us to use reason to develop an argument. 

This book is a must read. Everyone should read it whether Muslim or non-Muslim. This is specially important to develop and refine opinions about Islam and for faith literacy. And even if you are a non-Muslim who is theoretically opposed to Islam or religion, you can at least refer it to a Muslim acquaintance. This may have collateral benefits.  

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Based on a work at http://www.psyops.tk/.

  by  Koshyk