“When I was new in the USA. One of the happiest day of my life was to be able to afford a pair of khakis from Walmart. I thought I had achieved something big. It was a time when 15$ pants were hard to come by. Alhamdulillah such experiences are a reminder who I was.
All I can think now is alhamdulillah”
Tag: USA
Spending my life in parts has left me with no true friends I think. I lived in Pakistan until I was eleven and left all my school friends to move to Bahrain. Then spent my teenage years in Bahrain and made friends there. When it was time to move again, I had to leave all that. I moved back to Pakistan to a new adventure, without Email/Skype/Facebook during those days meant that those friends had better things to do.
Leaving all behind in Bahrain was especially hard as all I knew and learned was in Bahrain. But in Pakistan I did make friends and good friends, but once I settled in and had a social life, I had to move again, this time to USA, to unchartered territory.
USA was specially a different game; I didn’t know anyone or anything. Learning the ropes of life on my own for the first time was hard and kept me busy though. Friends in USA is a different scenario, it was especially along the lines of friends who were opportunist. This meant that whoever became a friend was a friend for a little while until his or her opportunity or personal gain was fulfilled. Then it was off to other people. Also one thing here is that people do tend to move all over the place, so someone you know today might not be in your area for long and might move somewhere else due to job, family or education. This means that they were there for a little while and what you thought was a friend was an acquaintance actually. I can’t think of any true friends that I can fall back on; I do have some friends that I am proud of but they are not here in USA.
I did make one friend who I thought that was a true friend (literally thought that), who I could rely on in my bad times, sadly in my bad times he was the first one to dump and run away from me. It was harsh and hurting, it still hurts but I can say this that he helped me a lot in life so not holding a lot against him. Although I haven’t forgiven him, if I was at fault then that doesn’t matter but if I wasn’t, then I will see him on the day of judgment Inshallah, I am glad he did abandon me as I would have otherwise trusted him with my life, my family and most probably would have been surprised and shocked to see his actions, if I needed his help in worse Times.
Allah is my Lord, my friend, mytrustee and everything at this point but sometimes it is nice to have someone who you can call or sit down to talk to and open your heart. As of now that doesn’t exist and I doubt it will ever be. Time for such friendships have come and gone, it would have helped to stay in one place to have such luxuries. Lack of true friends, cousins or family sometimes truly sucks.
All I just can say
hassbunallah wa ni’mal wakeel
‘Allah is sufficient for us, and how fine a trustee (He is).’
When i came to the USA some 10 odd years ago, i witnessed the first election in 2000; it was closely fought and very controversial. I looked at the election from a distance as i was working odd jobs and trying to make a living. From what i saw from far was a noble system that was working so well for the people. I would think then that this is the way Pakistan needs to be at, with elections held and results handled so well (although the results that year were decided by the supreme court very much in USA (Gore vs. Bush))
Muslims were very happy with the results, Gore had chosen a pro-israel politician to be his running mate and when bush defeated him, it was all cheers.
Well i am not going to talk about Muslims and USA or anything but coming back to my original point about the noble electoral system, i was fascinated. Later on i got a job where i had to commute 1 hour every day and i would listen to CSPAN Radio every morning. This was in 2003-2004 election season. By this time i have had some time and learned about the political system. As the election got closer, it became clearer that the system was as dirty as i had left behind in Pakistan. Politicians don’t work for their constituents, but they work for the party. Right or wrong, the party line was used to vote on critical issues and decisions that impacted citizens every day.
Attack campaigns and much uncivilized manner of political wrangling, use of lobbyists and many more dirty tricks were used to win elections, defeat bills and play the politics game. It is very interesting for me that in the last 10 years or so, i have seen the American society disintegrate into religious and liberal groups. This division was never this clear before but now it is clearer than before. The ads on TV now a day are based on lies, deceitful statements and religion. Is this is the United States of American or United States of Christian America?
Recently reading a book on a troublesome event in the history of Muslims, Siege of Mecca was about taking over the holiest place for Muslims by extremists, the author in the end had emphasized that after defeating the terrorists/extremists, the Saudi government gave in to their demands and adopted what they wanted to force on the society. It seems that after defeating the confederates in the civil war, the US government had adopted a lot of their extreme agendas and defeating them was nothing but a makeup with the extreme right. I think the reminiscence of those extreme are now part of Republicans.
Well I am not going to speculate about a nuclear Iran, It was definitely be a problem for Muslims (Sunni I mean) who dont like Iran. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan I am sure won’t be happy with that fact. Maybe they might even help USA some how covert to stop Tehran from getting closer to a full nuclear program. Shias in Pakistan are a minority and so are they in Saudi Arabia; A Nuclear Iran will help those minority get stronger.
Well I didn’t start the blog about this issue but as I was thinking of a possibility of an attack on Iran from USA, it will do a lot of opposite things that USA wouldn’t want. What am I talking about, well if GW decides to attack Iran that will result in the unthinkable i.e. Unite the Muslims.
Think about this, this will be the platform for Muslims, Sunni or Shia to come together to condemn USA. This will also bring them together to form anti US alliances in the Middle East which is exactly what the USA doesn’t want. So I guess Mr. Bush now you are at a cross roads, you have to protect Israel but can’t afford a united Muslim nations. The US policy and officials have to walk a very fine line on this issue. Israel and US strategic interests go way back and so does the distrust between Shia Sunnis. If the attack does happen, this will push Muslim to come together who won’t care if they are Shia or Sunni but their common ground will be hatred of US Policy.
Then it won’t be hard to imagine people like Zarqavi getting training and resources from Iran, they will open flood gates of problems for the Middle East rather than just USA.
Countries like Pakistan can get trouble and might not be a favorable please for a US friendly government. If Iran becomes hostile then Pakistan has to worry about unfriendly countries from most of its borders, they include Iran, India and Afghanistan. Currently internal problems in Pakistan are causing for them to rethink their policies, Balouch and NWFP problems and Army’s involvement is causing an ever deteriorating problem from getting stable to getting worse. In such scenarios Pakistan might not be able to handle another fiasco in the Middle East, i.e. Iran.
So I guess we can hope and pray that nothing like that happens. Inshallah :). But Bush will have to keep a cool mind and try to work with Iran.
I just read an article online on BBC urdu Ofcourse. it is amazing to see this kinda crap happening in pakistan.
they fired an Airforce Officer for giving out Quran with urdu trans, they ground Airforce pilots for having beards, They fire people for things like this?? What kind of Armed forces we want, the ones who fight for secularism or for Islam for which pakistan was created.
They had an interesting take on it saying that Pilots cannot fly with beards due to requirements for a mask with oxygen but the pilots in question were trained in usa and they had gotten no objection in USA for anything like that but in pakistan it seems we are trying to eliminate the essence of pakistan from the armed forces which is Islam. We should remember if we go on a path like this then we have no right to call Army personnel Shaheed or Ghazi as they are islamic terms and Allah’s help comes to those who defend his religion not make a mockery of it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2006/04/060410_military_beard.shtml
Well let me clarify something. I am not in favor of killing anyone but If Afghanistan says the law is based on Shariah then what the Shariah says should be done.
One thing a lot of people don’t realize is that why interfere in some countries internal Affairs, Ohh well Afghanistan is already an American run country then they sure can. But if they preach Democracy and claim that Afghanistan is a democratic state then I guess they need to let the course of the law take its shape. I read quite a few blogs online about how savage is Islam and all that crap.
The God fearing Christians forget that it was them only who were part of the killing of thousands of people in the name of religion during the Crusades and Inquisitions. I never question the law of God as it has been in Islam. I would never do that and any respecting Muslim would also not question it. It is the law. If Abdur Rahman apostated and is proclaiming his faith just to incite people then he should be returned to Europe where he came from.
We need to realize that the case has been brought by his own family in the first place. It is not the government who arrested him just for that but he is the one who told repeatedly that he was a Christian and brought it on his own. It is like the case in USA right now. The law states if Zacarias Mossavi is responsible for the deaths of people then he should be put to death. No one will question that because the law states that. So in an Islamic country the law states that if a Muslim apostates then he is dealt according to the process.
It is funny we forget that US’s close allies like Saudi Arabia and quite a few of the rich oil states don’t allow preaching of any religion. Anyone caught preaching any other religion other than Islam is put in jail. So why be surprised about this afghan case. Hey if worse comes to worse, US can always use its covert ops teams to extract the dude. 🙂
Well I thought I will document the undeclared, below radar wars going on in the world. These are mostly IT wars and take place constantly online, in forums, sometimes spills out in real life also.
1. Shia Sunni:
Very evident it is happening in Iraq, Pakistan and quite a few places. Shias hate Sunnis and vice versa. It is also happening online, just visit any community related to shias on Orkut or sunnis, you will find evidence of such battles.
2. West and Muslim World
This one is also very clear with Iraq, Muslims fighting West’s presence in Iraq, also in Pakistan, Iran resisting US Pressure on Nuclear ambitions and so on. This was is not about religion but clash between values and societies, Their civilizations and cultures.
3. Islam and Christianity
This war has been on for quite a while. The influx of missionaries who try to convert people to Christianity and Muslims following suit. sometimes it erupts in bloody conflict like Lebanon or Nigeria.
4. India Pakistan
This is a proxy war which has been going on for a long time. With the Afghan conflict out of hand Pakistani still wage this undeclared war until God knows Who.
5. Saudi/Pakistan and Iran
To counter shia Islam the sunnis countries try to fight the shia Islam in Iran and now maybe Iraq. Iran has been sponsoring shia militancy in Pakistan for quite a while. Saudi Arabia has supported Sunni militant groups in Pakistan for a long time.
6. China and India
These two powers have had clashed once and now fight unconventional wars between each other. China supports Pakistan in its efforts to match India’s might and china also achieves its hidden agenda also against India at the same time.
7. America and China
The war of economy and communism vs. capitalism goes on. China is being fought now by helping India.
8. Israel and Muslim World
The centuries old conflict with Jerusalem in the middle and Israeli occupancy also happening at the same time. Israel has USA on its side and non one can beat them economically or militarily.
I came across the poem that has been causing a lot of stir in Pakistan. It is amazing to just try to understand that the Ministry of Education will look at provoking the public in such a manner. Pakistanis don’t feel very high about USA and then the policies of the current establishment have not helped in improving its image with War in Iraq and Afghanistan. To make the matters worse the government of Pakistan decided to add this poem to the syllabi of the 11 grade student. One thing they don’t realize is that the high school students are the most emotionally charged and explosive among the different groups in Pakistan. They are at the forefront of all demonstrations and such activities.
The poem if included maybe in the earlier grades might not have caused such uproar but it had to be included in the books for the grade 11. I don’t know what the education ministry was thinking. Maybe they had the thought of testing the public. “Let’s see if this Poem will piss the Pakistani people off”.
What should we expect next a poem about Israel. I am sure that will get the people’s attention.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4501132.stm