(J: Sometimes an email goes universal in its brilliance. yay sis!)
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY. Well, one of the big ones. I am going to RESIGN! Shout it from the rooftops people! I am about to begin a WHOLE NEW LIFE! <ecstatic irrepressible expressions of happiness…>
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(printed in The News)
| I come to bury, not praise |
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| (Adapted from Julius Caesar – Shakespeare)
Saturday, July 25, 2009 The good is oft interred with their bones/ So let it be with Musharraf/ The noble CJ Chaudhry will tell you Musharraf was ambitious/ If it were so, it was a grievous fault/ And grievously hath Musharraf answer’d it/ Here, under leave of the media and the rest — For the media is honourable/ So are they all, all honourable men/ Come I to speak before Musharraf’s funeral/ He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But the CJ says he was ambitious/ And CJ Chaudhry is an honourable man. But yesterday the word of Musharraf might have stood against the world/ now lies he there/ And none so poor to do him reverence/ O masters, if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage/ I should do the media wrong, and Nawaz Sharif wrong/ Who, you all know, are honourable men… Jahanzaib Haque Karachi |
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=189753
(Published in The News)
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Having various friends and contacts in Iran, I think the response which all of them would resoundingly give to Dr Muzaffar Iqbal’s two recent article titled “Challenges to Iran’s revolution” would be: the spirit of revolution is no longer about the turban-wearing mullahs responding appropriately to the disenchanted youth — it is about the disenchanted youth redefining freedom for themselves (as Dr Iqbal himself said). If they wish to adopt western notions of freedom to escape tyranny, is that a sin? The assumption (as always) in Dr Iqbal’s pieces is that everything coming from ‘the west’ is evil and out to destroy the Muslim world.
He suggests the Iranian youth are impressionable and easily led astray by the cultural hegemony of western ideas. Well for one, the notion of personal, individual freedom and liberty is not solely the property of the west and nor is it the only place it has occurred indigenously. Secondly, not all things coming from the west are evil. Thirdly, Dr Iqbal’s sleight-of-hand suggestion that the Iranian youth are deluded in their choices and will be swayed by forces either good (Islamic regime) or bad (the west) is an insult to the intelligence of the public he cites. It should never be assumed that people are dumb and cannot make choices – that’s what sparks revolution eventually.
Jahanzaib Haque
Karachi
ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
As a very significant footnote to Roedad Khan’s article “In Napoleon’s footsteps” I would like to add these oft-stated quotes attributed to Bonaparte: “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet” and “Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.” Keeping these quotes in mind, I think we can more cohesively re-interpret the religious rhetoric of Bonaparte quoted in Mr Khan’s article as being diplomacy and tact first, sincerity a feeble second. It also supports Mr Khan’s concluding remarks where he suggests the proper way to judge President Obama is in his deeds. The general public must stop falling for rhetorical banter, which any statesman of calibre (with a team of speech writers) can produce. However, this does not suggest Obama is necessarily a bad guy — it just says that adoration and adulation over words has no place in politics. Can we set aside our emotional responses to great speeches? Yes we can.
Jahanzaib Haque
Karachi
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=184754
ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW
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If one needs an example of how our nation’s psyche is subtly allowing extremism to flourish in ideological terms,we need look no further than Ms. Danielle Ali Riaz’s letter (April 30) entitled, ‘Impact of Sharia on women’. While claiming to be an, ‘extraordinarily independent person’ who opposes terrorism, Ms. Riaz goes on to lay down her rule of law, including the much-disputable issue of women covering their heads and the necessity of a male companion for any movement outdoors. I use the term much-disputable, because while i oppose Ms. Riaz’s concept of Pakistan, i do not outright condemn it, and would definitely never ask her to shut up and get out of the country for thinking and acting the way she does. However, she is very comfortable with marginalising the population and getting rid of them to, ‘go to live in England or the US etc’.
What Ms. Riaz is unwilling to accept is that there can be (and are) other Pakistanis who completely disagree with her, and (dare I say it?) some who would even argue that many values of the west are better than our own. Are they not Pakistani then Ms. Riaz? Such definitions are limited, to say the least – and at their very worst, they give cover and create grey areas where radical extremism can grow. My mother does not cover her head, would prefer not to cover her head and she is a Muslim. If the Taliban were to lash her for coming out in public as she has always done in this country, what would Ms. Riaz’s stance be then? Uncomfortably quiet? We as a nation need to be more aware of what our words are actually conveying, and more importantly, we should no longer be afraid of voicing our differences. Better late than never.
Jahanzaib Haque
Karachi
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Atif Ali Khan’s letter (May 5) seems to have completely missed the point in its final line where it is stated: “Now that we see that we might have to readjust our ways and synchronise with the dictates of Islam, we are up in arms to ‘preserve our way of life’.” The main objection to Ms. Riaz’s letter arises (and I think the other writers will agree with me) over whether the Taliban’s representation of Islam is in any way legitimate, and not over whether Islam is the best way to live (that is a seperate debate). Atif Ali Khan either believes the Taliban-style edict of religion-under-compulsion-and-threats is the true nature of Islam and should be implemented, or he has misunderstood the criticism levelled against Ms. Riaz.
Jahanzaib Haque
Karachi
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print1.asp?id=175271
