Adultery vs. Rape: A clear example of shortsightedness

Although there are contradictory views on “human cloning” as well, the topic here is a recommendation of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in terms of “adultery and rape”. From media reports, it does not seem like they differentiated between adultery and rape. And this is the main point of discussion. As stated in a comment in article, Rape cases: DNA tests not admissible as main evidence says CII, the following says it all:

Talk about twisting the Sharia; the 4 witness rule applies to adultery when one party is making an allegation upon person indulging in adultery. Rape is NOT just adultery; it is a heinous crime not just having the element of adultery but also wronging an innocent, who is a victim.

In this regard, rape should be taken as an offensive leading to a situation such as murder, where normal “shahadat” and circumstantial evidence is sufficient. This is as clear as it seems. Why can’t our religious scholars see that?

Another view in favor of the recommendation is interesting, again in the comment section of the article, Rape cases: DNA tests not admissible as main evidence says CII.

There is a scientific reasoning behind this because DNA can be extracted from common daily use items such as combs, clothes, etc. with the help of commonly available laboratory equipment and then could be planted anywhere to mislead the medical staff doing the medical report. A woman who wants to seek revenge from an ex-husband could do this to ruin a man’s life.

Well, in this case, the investigations should also seek of other evidences just as in murder case. It really does not justify the 4 shahadats instead.

Tattoo and December 21

While the people who want to destroy Pakistan are attacking on our Air Force installations, exploding bombs in the markets, and killing the lady health workers vaccinating the kids for Polio, we are busy in discussing tattoos and the “End of the World”. Its really sad to see the sorry state of our country. It is bad that there are many forces acting against Pakistan. The worse is that the political and military forces have no motivation and agenda to solve the problems. But the worst is that we as a nation are misguided and acting against ourselves.

While watching Bolta Pakistan, it was shocking to see a large majority of people taking the tattoo on the back of one of the terrorist killed in Peshawar Airport attack as an International conspiracy. Many online comments from users also confirm that a substantial population of Pakistanis still believe in sincerity of these people (See Stop wasting time discussing a tattoo). Sadly, these are the people who have access to the open knowledge and supposedly have some rationale.

Through some social media, it was revealed that the person with the tattoo was actually a “handler”, not a fighter. He was accidentally surrounded and ultimately killed. Nevertheless, just looking at so-called proof, how can we say that he was not a Muslim. And even if he was not a Muslim, he “was” acting with the Muslims. The reality is that the organizations such as AlQaida, TTP, LJ, JM, Uzbiks, Tajiks, Chechens act using the slogan of Islamisation. They started their activities in 80s, gained their peak in late 90s, kept a relative silence in 1st decade of 2000s, and now gaining their momentum again. These elements do not care who is in their ranks and many a times completley divert from their cause just to survive (read Salim Safi). And this is exactly in accordance with the human nature.

Unfortunately due to this conspiracy oriented mentality, these elements get local support maintaining active hideouts all across the country. They kill lady health workers in Karachi, they attack on Malala in Swat, they threaten journalists and place bombs in the cars in Islamabad. And we still think that they are sincere to Islam.

Our leaders such as Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan do not want to “hurt” these people. Our Army still thinks that they are our assets. Our Government is only looking for the money they would get from USA leaving these issues to Army. The saddest part is that we as a nation do not realize the truth as well.

USA after leaving the Afghanistan would left us on our own. It would make sure that the Afghanis keep fighting with each other for decades. They would be doing it following their traditions. And the pressure of extremism and “so-called” Islamisation would shift to Pakistan. Even if we rout these people after sacrificing a lot (blood, bread, grace, and even land), they would find a hideout in lawless Afghanistan, and there would be no end to it from Pakistan point of view.

While the whole world is working towards betterment of their people, we think that vaccinations are non-Islamic. At the same time, in spite of having a belief in the concept of the end of the World, we “are” the ones discussing what would happen on 21st of December the most. What a nation of hypocrites we are.

Obama’s speech in Cairo

At least some good words from Obama in his recent speech in Cairo:

Quoting the region’s three holy books, the Holy Quran, the Torah and the Bible, he evoked a future of ‘mutual interest and mutual respect,’ examining all sources of tension between America and the Muslim world.

‘America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition — in fact, they overlap and share several principles,’ he said.

He said extremists have exploited the denied rights of Muslims, adding that change cannot happen overnight.

However, the interests that the Muslims and the United States seek are more powerful and shared than the differences that exist between us, Obama said.

Islam is so clearly a part of America that there is a mosque in every state, he said, adding that nearly seven million Muslims are living in the United States.

‘America is not and will never be at war with Islam,’ he said.

See full story at:

Obama calls for new beginning between US and Muslims

Islam is a part of America, says Obama

Malakand Sharia – Unanswered questions

Malakand is a region in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Named after Malakand Agency, a part of this region, it covers one third of the total area of the province.The area of Malakand Region is 29,872 sq. Km and its population is 5.52 million. The region is further divided into Chitral, Dir upper,Dir Lower, Swat, Buner, Shangla Districts and Malakand Agency. Although the bill of Islamic Law (Sharia) for Malakand division in Pakistan was passed almost unanimously by the parlimant, there were few voices against it: “This agreement was signed under the shadow of guns and most importantly the guns of Taliban had turned out to be more powerful than the guns of our Pakistan Army.” See link

In addition to issue of imposing the law at gunpoint, there are concerns about the very nature of laws itself blamed for brutality and violations of basic human rights. But there is an alternate view as well ( See link.) Further for West, it means providing help to militants in the region which would not be inline with war against terror. See link. Implementing law in one region of the country can escalate the demand for implementing it in other regions which can result in complete takeover of Islamists in the country with dozens of nuclear weapons. West recently started blaming Pakistan Army and ISI for purposefully remaining silent against Islamic extremists. In fact they blame army to support these factions. “The risk of an Islamist takeover in Pakistan is a myth invented by the Pakistani military to consolidate its hold on power. In fact, religious political parties and militant organizations are manipulated by the Pakistani Army to achieve its own objectives, domestically and abroad. The army, not the Islamists, is the real source of insecurity on the subcontinent. Sustainable security and stability in the region will be achieved only through the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. The West should actively promote the demilitarization of Pakistan’s political life through a mix of political pressure and capacity building. Enlarging the pool of elites and creating alternative centers of power will be essential for developing a working democracy in Pakistan.” See link .

Being a Muslim and Pakistani, I seek answers to the following questions.

1. Is Islamic law really horrific? What makes it unacceptable to the West? Are they afraid of potential of an alternate system?
2. Is Talibnization of Pakistan possible? Does majority of people of Pakistan support Islamic Law in its current form? Does majority of people of Pakistan support Talibnization of Pakistan?
3. What is wrong with accepting the will of people of a region?
4. Does not Pakistan has right to safeguard its own interests i.e. neutralizing the insurgency in a region by accepting demands of its majority?
5. What is war against terrorism?
6. What is the importance of Pakistan’s nuclear assets and Pakistan Army in the whole scenario?
7. What is the role of India, Iran and Russia as common stakeholders in the region along with USA?
8. What is the policy of China?
9. What should be the policy of Pakistan in current circumstances?
10. What is the future of Pakistan? Are we able to survive internal and external issues we are facing?

I seek your participation to answers these questions. Maybe we can compile it and float it on the Web.

Miracle of the Qur’an – Be careful

We see a continuous flow of mails related with ‘miracles’ of Quran and Hadiths. Some present statistical analysis, some mathematical proofs etc. Although, the analysis performed in some or many cases may partially be true, but there are reservations. Do we really need these kind of proofs for ‘authenticity’ of our religion? Doesn’t it drifts us away from the REAL thing.

I recently received such a mail from my friend.

that s quite interesting but in urdu, so i ll translate a bit of what it says. the email shows a graph with the X-axis being the number of the surah of the Qur’an (in total 114) and the Y axis being the number of ayah of the surah. So for Al-Fatiha, it is the 1st surah (x axis) with 7 ayah (y axis) and that is the place for the dot. surah baqarah would be 2nd surah (x axis) and 286 ayahs (y axis) and this is the place for the 2nd dot etc. and when you make all the dots and combine them you get the arabic word Allah and arabic world Muhammad as a result. both words appear in the same graph (as seen in image 3) and are only separated for ease of readability in image 1 and 2.
and later on it describes how the graph has been done in detail (scientifically and with aid of computers). blabla…didnt read that part.
i just found it quite interesting…

My comments: It look ‘amazing’ initially, but looking into it in detail, it just a matter of carving the ‘desired’ out of set of points. I may be wrong, but to me its just an intentional drawing of lines to get desired results. Just imagine points alone, you can make anything out of it. Example of one such intention is insertion of ‘paish’ and ‘zabar’ of Muhammad (PBUH); no such effort is performed for Allah. Just look at paish carved out of four points. Why these points were joined like that. The trajectory of right side of upper two points is not related to trajectory of left side from same points (How does author claims that it follows some kind of science (for example Neural Network)).