This is it. Azhar is close to achieving what he wanted. He had taken the refuge of politics to smartly duck away from the match fixing allegations. He spread the rot of corruption in Indian cricket and he is now aptly a politician, someone with whom the word corruption is synonymous with.

How much disgusting can it get. If one joins politics, it seems even a prostitute can proclaim herself as a virgin.

Shame on Azhar really.

A: “Sachin plays for himself. I better, he stops playing”
B: “Hey! What are you saying? He is a great match winner”
A: “But don’t you think he is old enough to be pensioned?”
B: “He is still scoring tons. Isn’t he?”
A: “He is past his prime”
B: “Yeah with average of 50 during last year! I think your mind is sub-prime”
A:  “Go to hell”
B: “You go to hell”
…
…
A: “Coffee?”
B: “Ok.”

This is what a cricket discussion in India sounds like. A general discussion suddenly gets focused on Sachin and from no where rival gangs sprout up. Pro and anti Sachin sentiments start flaring. Swear words and curses are thrown all around. Then there is truce. This cycle repeats itself day after day.

My earliest encounters with cricket date back to my Grandfather. He was a great cricket enthusiast and even greater Sachin basher. I reckon he lost a bet or two coz of Sachin and he remained pissed off with him forever. “Out ho gaya. Yeh bhi nahin socha ki mausa ji ke paise lage hain”, I remember him mumbling when Sachin got out stumped while chasing against NZ. Above statement is a classical example of raw humor of the oldies. It relates the player who got out to my grandmothers family. So the loss is blamed squarely on the player and my poor old grandmother. I tell you, these oldies can be quite cruel sometimes. The trick lies in not being over smart with them.

He was not a fan of what we call the purest form, the Gavaskar style of cricket. He adored Windies team of 70-80’s. “Lala, kaalon ka aakhiri khiladi bhi aata tha toh chakka maarata hua aata tha” (Even their last player started off with a six). The only Indian player of old about whom I heard anything positive from him was Kris Srikkanth. “Jab who ballebaaji karta tha toh bazaar soone ho jaate the” (Streets got deserted when he came on to bat). For all those who say that oldies preferred Tests to ODIs here’s the last salvo. “Are yeh paanch din ka khel humse nahin dekha jaata. Ghanton baithe raho, ek bhi chowka chakka nahin lagta” (Not a single boundary is hit for hours).

From the current era Jayasurya and Afridi (Afriki for him) were his favorites. Indian team was the most unreliable team as far as he was concerned. “Are inka koi bharosa nahin. Lanka ke khilaaf 200 kuch banana the, saala aaya raam gaya raam shuru ho gaya, aur sab ke sab 78 run pe simat gaye. Mausaji ka nuksaan ho gaya”.

I think T20 would have been the best format for him. Sadly it was during his last years that T20 got popular. It would have been wonderful to watch IPL with him. However he took off even before season one.

Regardless of what people are saying nowadays, I can never lose interest in and ODI game. I have grown up with it. It’s like a ritual to me. And of course it has memories of my grandpa. I remember one of his favorite quotes. Whenever Azhar played well, he used to say, “Captaan hai koi naayi ka launda thode hi hai” (He is not a commoner, he is the captain after all). So it goes for the ODIs.

Jakarta, Indonesia,
Mantan Kapolres Jakarta Selatan Kombes Pol Williardi Wizard menyatakan kasus Antasari Azhar, mantan Ketua Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi ( KPK ) sebagai tersangka pembunuhan Direktur PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran (PRB) Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, merupakan rekayasa.

“Pada jam 12.00 WIB (pemeriksaan dirinya di Polda Metro Jaya), didatangi Direskrim dan Wadireskrim Polda Metro Jaya serta kasat-kasat (Kepala Satuan, red) menyatakan sasaran kita hanya Antasari Azhar,” katanya saat menjadi saksi dalam persidangan Antasari Azhar, di Pengadilan Negeri (PN) Jakarta Selatan, Selasa.

Kombes Pol Williardi Wizar sendiri menjadi terdakwa dalam kasus pembunuhan itu, bersama-sama dengan Sigit Haryo Wibisono, Jerry Hermawan Lo dan lima eksekutor lainnya.

Dengan suara bergetar menahan emosi, Wiliardi menyatakan dirinya seusai didatangi Direskrim Polda Metro Jaya lalu dibacakan Berita Acara Pemeriksaan (BAP) Sigit Haryo Wibisono. “Direskrim menyatakan samakan saja BAP-nya ( Wiliardi Wizard ) dengan Sigit Haryo Wibisono,” katanya.

Kemudian, kata dia, BAP dirinya itu ditayangkan di stasiun televisi swasta hingga dirinya mempertanyakan kepada Direskrim Polda Metro Jaya melalui pesan singkat (SMS) yang memprotes isi BAP tersebut. “Karena saya tidak pernah memberikan keterangan seperti itu kepada Direskrim,” katanya.

“Ini perintah atasan,”  katanya dalam persidangan yang dipimpin hakim Herry Swantoro.

Allahu Akbar

Antasari Azhar ketika mendengar keterangan saksi Wiliardi Wizard itu, badannya lemas yang bersamaan dengan diskors-nya persidangan oleh majelis hakim, sembari menyatakan kalimat ” Allahu Akbar “.

Antasari Azhar terkulai lemas sembari berlinang air mata di kursi setelah sebelumnya dipapah oleh sejumlah tim kuasa hukumnya.

Kuasa hukum Antasari Azhar , Juniver Girsang, menyatakan, dirinya kaget dengan keterangan saksi yang dianggap pertama kalinya di sejarah dunia peradilan tanah air. “Pernyataan saksi menyatakan bahwa seorang terdakwa dapat diskenariokan dan sasarannya adalah Antasari Azhar ,” katanya.

Juniver Girsang menyatakan Antasari Azhar sangat kecewa dan meminta keadilan kepada pemerintah. “Orang tidak bersalah tapi diskenariokan. Ini fenomenal padahal Antasari Azhar sudah banyak melaksanakan tugas,” katanya

Abnaa al Gebelawi (Children of Gebelawi), By Ibrahim Farghali, Cairo: Al Ain, 2009

In Ibrahim Farghali’s Abnaa al Gebelawi, all of the texts of the great Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz suddenly vanish from the face of the earth. This happens without explanation, reason, or ostensible cause: wherever they might be found – not only in libraries and bookshops but also on bookshelves and bedside bedside tables – novels by Mahfouz in their original Arabic are simply nowhere to be found. The authorities’ attempt to remedy the situation in the face of worldwide and (notably, if somewhat incredibly) popular uproar are juxtaposed with sightings of Mahfouz’s characters in a variety of locales, seldom having anything to do with the settings in which they actually appear in Mahfouz’s books.

With six – now seven – books to his name, Farghali (b. 1967) is among the most prolific novelists of his generation. In his devotion to the genre and his formal conservatism, he is perhaps the worthiest heir to Mahfouz (1911-2006), the Nobel prize winner most known for his mid-century tales of Cairo. Unlike Mahfouz, however, Farghali is firmly steeped in a magical realist tradition. Running through much of his prose are echoes of Jose Saramago’s nightmarish humour or shades of Italo Calvino’s fascination with the fantastical nature of fiction. He is taken by twins, telepathy and teleporting, and his firmly middle-class characters – otherwise utterly ordinary – have been known to reappear after they have died.

In Abnaa al Gebelawi – Farghali’s latest and greatest work – we face the prospect of a world without literature. The myriad voices in the book — for the young narrator cum author assumes many guises throughout these pages — express concern as to the fraught future of Arabic literature, about the erosion of the liberal and humane values that Mahfouz and his work represent, and (reflecting perhaps the essential fear of all true writers) about oblivion at large.

The events of the book are staged around a relatively uncomplex love affair involving the narrator and the eccentric daughter of a well-to-do family— occasion for Farghali to probe the psychology of class and sex in contemporary Egyptian society. Further in, however, the story breaks up and morphs into countless alternative and subordinate plot-lines, until it becomes clear (although it is never stated) that the whole of Abnaa al Gebelawi is but the barely coherent waste of a single pluralistic mind – the mind of a young writer concerned with the literary wasteland around him. The allegorical dimension remains predominant, and in this way recalls Awlad Haretnah (Children of Our Alley, 1959), the title of whose earlier English translation Farghali translates back verbatim for his own.

As it happens, Awlad Haretnah was the only book by Mahfouz to suffer censure from the religious establishment. In it the history of a popular residential quarter in Cairo stands in for the sum total of humanity’s spiritual experience. That quarter’s oldest, strongest and most benevolent resident – for many generations hidden away in his mansion – is called Gebelawi. Gebelawi has envoys or representatives, descendants or grandchildren, whose struggles to spread peace and justice make up episodes of the saga. Each is a retelling of the life of one of the prophets of Islam, starting with Adam and ending with the False Messiah. Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad all feature, but at the end a rumour spreads that Gebelawi himself has died. In Arab literary circles it is frequently claimed that if not for Awlad Haretnah, Mahfouz would not have received the Nobel Prize. But it proved too much for orthodox, let alone radical Muslims, for whom Mahfouz would become the enemy soon enough.

a letter from Mahfouz to Mohammad al Badawi

Radical Islam had claimed many lives since the 1980s when in 1994 Mahfouz barely survived being knifed to death outside his house in Cairo. The irony was that, of all the helpless octogenarians his bearded young assailants could have targeted for apostasy, he was probably the least secular. A typical Cairene of the pre-bin ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Laden era, the man had led an all but exemplary (for which read profoundly unadventurous) life. He did not seek revolution, he did not take great risks. He had no utopian or transcendental illusions. And perhaps it was thanks to this and this alone that he was able to invent and reinvent the novel, the youngest genre in the language, defining it for generations of writers down to Farghali.

Applying every novelistic model at his disposal, Mahfouz produced a phenomenal number of readable books: social chronicles, political critiques, philosophical manuals. None was too difficult or experimental to render it inaccessible to even the most common reader. None sought to undermine whatever pillar of the status quo it came in contact with. Notwithstanding the elaborately veiled, painstakingly respectful Ages-of-Man narrative in Awlad Haretnah – a Muslim treatise on the meaning of life if ever there was one – in Mahfouz’s books, the family, the creed, the government are never attacked for what they are or what they stand for, but only for their most striking deviations, omissions or excesses.

For a magic realist like Farghali, Mahfouz may not be the most obvious point of departure; the Nobel laureate is, after all, best known for devotion to the real even in his least realistic works, and one would have trouble imagining him so much as hinting at the paranormal or the fantastical. Yet in Abnaa al Gebelawi, the grand opera to Farghali’s various arias, Mahfouz is an embodiment of something not so different from the sense of sight. His books stand in for almost everything Farghali values: Literature, Thought, Freedom, Knowledge, even Love. The premise could not have been more powerful.

Sexual harassment is definitely an issue in Egypt but it’s relatively tame, especially when compared to other countries; mainly due to religion; it stops people from getting too far. That was more or less was Galal Amin’s initial response to a question about sexual harassment during a discussion of his book Whatever Happened to the Egyptians this month.

Galal Amin at his house in Maadi, October 2007. By Sarah El Sirgany.

But what I like about Galal Amin – who I hade the pleasure to interview twice – is that he’s willing to reconsider his opinions if presented with new evidence, factors or arguments. And that’s exactly what happened at the discussion.

Amy Mowafi, Enigma editor and author of Fe-mail: Trials and Tribulations of Being a Good Egyptian Girl, interjected, comparing London to Cairo. While catcalls are rare in the former, they are abundant in the latter. And it has nothing to do with clothes or neighborhood. Crossing the street to get coffee, she said, is an adventure.

After a bit of back and forth, with Amin saying that difference in social class could also be a factor in harassment, he finally agreed acknowledging that he might not have the full picture when it comes to sexual harassment.

However, the reason why I’m writing this is that I completely disagree with his initial answer. While I didn’t get the chance to discuss it with him that day and might do that later, let me explain it here first.

First of all, sexual harassment here isn’t tame, whether we are talking verbal or physical harassment.

Secondly, religion, or rather skewed religious discourse propagated by some ignorant “preachers”, is largely responsible for harassment.

Recently, many ‘sheikhs’ have become apologetic and reasonable about harassment – not in a good way. Suddenly, many have become sociological experts who can give many reasons why men resort to sexual harassment: decadent video clips, the internet (in the broad sense of the word), and most importantly what women are wearing. I remember reading an interview for one specifically blaming “jeans el mohgabat” (veiled women who wear jeans, presumably tight ones).

But rarely do I hear sheikhs saying harassment is haram, forbidden, un-Islamic, you do it you go straight to hell, etc.

What’s appalling is that many of these sheikhs frown on a handshake between a man and a woman. Some go as far as saying it’s haram. Well, a handshake is pretty much consensual and quite harmless, but there aren’t a lot of those spouts of reason or sociological analyses there.

Even if we go beyond the handshake to the issue to which pages of magazines and newspapers have been dedicated, the issue responsible for many bad Egyptian films that plagued the screens throughout the 1980s and the 1990s: urfi (unregistered) marriages.

Again, it’s consensual and has a well of social factors behind it. But there are no sociologist sheikhs here, trying to find reasons, or rather excuses for the young men and women involved. For the most part, there is a consensus that urfi marriages are haram, forbidden, un-Islamic, you do it you go straight to hell, etc.

Although such tone hasn’t brought down the number of such marriages or affairs, but still I can’t help but when wonder: Where’s this clear cut tone when it comes to harassment?

The logic is: if consensual non-sexual physical contact is haram or frowned upon (best case scenario), then non-consensual, sexual physical contact must be hell-material, right?

Sexual harassment is definitely an issue in Egypt but it’s relatively tame, especially when compared to other countries; mainly due to religion; it stops people from getting too far. That was more or less was Galal Amin’s initial response to a question about sexual harassment during a discussion of his book Whatever Happened to the Egyptians this month.

Galal Amin at his house in Maadi, October 2007. By Sarah El Sirgany.

But what I like about Galal Amin – who I hade the pleasure to interview twice – is that he’s willing to reconsider his opinions if presented with new evidence, factors or arguments. And that’s exactly what happened at the discussion.

Amy Mowafi, Enigma editor and author of Fe-mail: Trials and Tribulations of Being a Good Egyptian Girl, interjected, comparing London to Cairo. While catcalls are rare in the former, they are abundant in the latter. And it has nothing to do with clothes or neighborhood. Crossing the street to get coffee, she said, is an adventure.

After a bit of back and forth, with Amin saying that difference in social class could also be a factor in harassment, he finally agreed acknowledging that he might not have the full picture when it comes to sexual harassment.

However, the reason why I’m writing this is that I completely disagree with his initial answer. While I didn’t get the chance to discuss it with him that day and might do that later, let me explain it here first.

First of all, sexual harassment here isn’t tame, whether we are talking verbal or physical harassment.

Secondly, religion, or rather skewed religious discourse propagated by some ignorant “preachers”, is largely responsible for harassment.

Recently, many ‘sheikhs’ have become apologetic and reasonable about harassment – not in a good way. Suddenly, many have become sociological experts who can give many reasons why men resort to sexual harassment: decadent video clips, the internet (in the broad sense of the word), and most importantly what women are wearing. I remember reading an interview for one specifically blaming “jeans el mohgabat” (veiled women who wear jeans, presumably tight ones).

But rarely do I hear sheikhs saying harassment is haram, forbidden, un-Islamic, you do it you go straight to hell, etc.

What’s appalling is that many of these sheikhs frown on a handshake between a man and a woman. Some go as far as saying it’s haram. Well, a handshake is pretty much consensual and quite harmless, but there aren’t a lot of those spouts of reason or sociological analyses there.

Even if we go beyond the handshake to the issue to which pages of magazines and newspapers have been dedicated, the issue responsible for many bad Egyptian films that plagued the screens throughout the 1980s and the 1990s: urfi (unregistered) marriages.

Again, it’s consensual and has a well of social factors behind it. But there are no sociologist sheikhs here, trying to find reasons, or rather excuses for the young men and women involved. For the most part, there is a consensus that urfi marriages are haram, forbidden, un-Islamic, you do it you go straight to hell, etc.

Although such tone hasn’t brought down the number of such marriages or affairs, but still I can’t help but when wonder: Where’s this clear cut tone when it comes to harassment?

The logic is: if consensual non-sexual physical contact is haram or frowned upon (best case scenario), then non-consensual, sexual physical contact must be hell-material, right?

to make it through this far requires tremendous amounts of patience and love. and being patient and loving is exactly what you are to me. I can’t seem to express our love in words, because it’s more than that. It’s an unspoken bond and trust that we share, it’s sacred and loyal and faithful and really, it’s beautiful.

So i toast to many more beautiful days ahead with you, and sincerely, thank you for loving me.

xoxo

-    Buta Singh on Justice P.D.Dinakaran case – “Dinakaran being targeted for being a Dalit”

-    Omar Abdullah on the detention of a Kashmiri cricketer in Bangalore – “Rasool was targeted because he was a Kashmiri Muslim”

-    Mayawati on her political opponents targeting her erecting statues all over Lucknow – “They are targeting me because I am a dalit”

-    Moh’d Azharuddin on him being framed in the match-fixing scandal – “I am being targeted because I belong to a minority community”

Does belonging to a minority community automatically provide immunity against being corrupt and wrong? The answer unquestionably is yes. While Mayawati, Dinakaran, Azharuddin may all be big names, there are more unreported incidents involving less known/ unknown people.  Quoting from my personal experience, an employee of a public sector bank [apparently a SC/ST] was reprimanded by her superior during the course of employment.  The said employee created a ruckus and raised the caste card to defend herself against her misdoings.  The superior realizing that the whole issue was attaining an entirely different colour, decided not to pursue the matter further, apologized and closed the issue.

Now the big question is who exactly are these minority or backward communities? Is being a minority or backward a social indicator or a social status? How long does a backward caste remain backward? Do they really move ahead towards social equality? Well, there are no proper answers to the same.  The constitution of India does not define who a ‘minority’ is. Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 defines ‘minority’ as “minority, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government”.  Its upto the Central Government to define a ‘minority’ from time to time.  All this means ‘minorities will remain minorities’ as long as there is no political will to get them into a ‘majority’.

The hard truth also is that minorities or backward classes prefer remaining minority/ backward for the whole of their life, the reason being the preferential access to jobs and education they get by virtue of this status.  Imagine how easy it is getting into one of India’s top engineering colleges by scoring just 60% and without having to undergo the pain of competing with those poor souls who have scored 96-98%.  No matter we are also not surprised to see the protest and struggle when such backward status is taken back. One such struggle for remaining backward was witnessed in 2008 when the Gujjars had taken to the road protesting against the government.  They had launched the agitation seeking a downgrade in their social status and an inclusion in the government’s list of scheduled tribes (ST).  They ought to have succeeded by now I guess.

Now, a question may arise on who is a majority? That is a fairly simple question to answer. Majority is the opposite of minority.  Therefore ‘majority’ may be defined as ‘rest of the citizens of India who do not fall under the category of minority’.  In short, the most underprivileged and unfortunate citizens of India. In a typical ‘application form’ parlance, all those falling under ‘General category’ fall under tag of ‘majority’.

It is high time in this country we get rid of all divisions based on caste, religion, colour, region and language.  It is also high time we realize that all such divisions are for achieving political gains being carried out by our political class by using the people of the nation as a means to achieve their ends. I know this is all wishful thinking, since caste system is as deep rooted as corruption in this country.  But no harm thinking positive, right???

Back in college, I got one of those forwarded emails about a physics exam with question about hell: whether it absorbs or gives off heat. The brilliance of one student, which prompted the circulation of the email, was reflected in the starting hypothesis.

After concluding that once a soul enters hell it won’t leave, he stated the following: “Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell.”

He then proceeded to calculate the mass of hell based on that assumption. I was glad to find different versions of that email still floating around. You can find them here, here and here.

This email, which I got when I was 17 or 18, got me thinking about the possibility of being wrong. Not doubting my beliefs, but the fact that we can’t all be right. How the satisfaction that we are right and everybody else is wrong, which is the corner stone of any faith, could sometimes be meaningless in everyday life.

Take the South Park episode about afterlife for example. Supposedly people of all faiths are resurrected but find that they are standing at the gates of hell. They start shouting: I’m (Jewish/Christian/Muslim/etc), I’m right, I should be in Heaven. Eventually they start asking the inevitable question: “Who was right?” A stuttering man looks at some papers and answers: The Mormons, The Mormons were right.

The idea, I guess, was that all those people spent their lives on the sole hope that they’ll be awarded for being right without actually trying to live together.

The point is: it’s all relative when it comes to religion. There’s no point trying to get others to conform to your own ultimate truth. But you can always find common grounds that allow peaceful coexistence.

It’s this, among other encounters, that led me to firmly support the rights of other people to practice things I don’t believe in. Things that might seem ridiculous.  Individual choices. Differences. All these things, as long as there is no harm inflicted on me or others.

Sometimes it needs having your own beliefs dismissed as ridiculous by some people who claim intellectual superiority to empathize with those who face discrimination on a daily basis. I’m grateful I was put in such situations repeatedly, because it prompted me to have a firm stance when it came to violations of individual freedoms, regardless of how I feel about the action/practice in question.

I wrote an article in support f niqab based on this belief for Daily News Egypt. I got a number of mixed responses. I realize that some of those who voiced their agreement with what I wrote might have done so because the issue of niqab wasn’t far off from what we grew up learning in Egypt. Some might not support this theory if the practice in question is new to our society and its customs. Something difficult to stomach.

And even though I might be struggling too, this theory about accepting differences even if it contradicts with our understanding of religion is applicable in all fields. The right for a woman to wear the niqab is the same as the right of another woman to wear a short skirt or a bikini. As much as the first woman doesn’t want anyone telling her to take off the niqab or harass her because of it, the second woman doesn’t want anyone to tell her to put on a longer skirt or harass her because of it.

We don’t live in a perfect world, but we should try.

Here’s part of the article, which disagrees with Rania Al-Malky’s editorial, but she’s the one who suggested I write mine to present all points of view in the paper:

CAIRO: We live in a world with so many gods and sometimes with no god at all. Even those who pride themselves on worshiping the same god do so each in their own way. The many faiths and sets of beliefs render any discussion of what’s religiously right or wrong irrelevant.

But as social animals we don’t live in a perfect world. Reading the news, it’s easy to conclude that humans are intolerant by nature. What makes one society seem as if it’s more tolerant than another is its threshold of accepting differences. Some accept differences in skin color but reject different faiths. Some are more accommodating of sexual orientations than ethnicities, or vice versa.

Each society draws the boundaries of its accommodation and sets limits to its threshold of acceptance. But standing on this fine line — that separates accepting a different set of beliefs or rejecting it on the grounds that it’s too alien from the norm or dismissing it altogether because it’s harmful — is the will to integrate all members in society.

The full article can be found here.

Egypt’s highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women’s veils, known as the niqab.

Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.

…

The niqab question reportedly arose when Sheikh Tantawi was visiting a girls’ school in Cairo at the weekend and asked one of the students to remove her niqab.

The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him expressing surprise at the girl’s attire and telling her it was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8290606.stm

When the head of the worlds most prestigious Islamic institutions calls for a ban of the niqab, stating it has nothing to do with Islam .. you realize we really need to start questioning today’s concept of ’scholarship’

We are truly living the second jahiliyya foretold by our noble Prophet (salallahu alaihi wasalam).  Those who are not following a true guide now will be left back, lost in the oceans of confusion..

Bismillah arRahman arRaheem

La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. It’s unfortunate.

Egypt’s highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women’s veils, known as the niqab.

Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.

Although most Muslim women in Egypt wear the Islamic headscarf, increasing numbers are adopting the niqab as well.

The practice is widely associated with more radical trends of Islam.

The niqab question reportedly arose when Sheikh Tantawi was visiting a girls’ school in Cairo at the weekend and asked one of the students to remove her niqab.

The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him expressing surprise at the girl’s attire and telling her it was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran.

Source: BBC

I dont understand. Even if he was to consider this a cultural practice, how does it mean it should be banned?

May Allah Guide us and Keep us on the straight path.

Allahu ‘Alam

Of lately we have been praising indian cricket team for its accomplishments ,thanks to Dhoni and his boys who have performed exceedingly well in Twenty20,ODI and Test matches . leaving this topic aside i wanted to praise a person who was a real indian cricketing hero but now he is remembered for his match-fixing scandal.Yes! Its  none other than Mohammad Azharuddin .

Azhar as we used to call him still remains one of the greatest flickers of all time . He had the lightest bat ever manufactured (Brand: Reebok) yet with minimum effort he could clear the ground . Azhar remained as Indian captain for quite some time. Going by statistics  he still remains as one of India’s most successful captains. He has won 103 ODI matches as the captain of the Indian team, which is still an Indian record. His 14 Test Match wins as captain, was a record until it was bettered by Ganguly.

Azhar  scored a century in each of his first three Tests which is a record. An excellent fielder, he took a world record 156 catches in ODI cricket. Who could forget Chaminda Vaas’s run out  in 1996 world cup semi finals by Azhar who hit the stumps by  without looking at them. Azhar also had an cool  attitude he gestured at the crowd during a test in south africa to applaud when he flicked a  boundary of his pads

Azhar was widely praised by other nationals ,As John woodcock, a noted cricket writer, said, “It’s no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. For, it would be like expecting a greyhound to win the London Derby!” . Azhar was also awareded as wisden cricket of the year 1991.

Due to his match fixing scandal Azhar couldnt join the elite clube of hundred as he was banned from international cricket after his 99th test match apperance.

Azhar will always remain as one of the best batsmen and captain no matter whatever allegations were made against him.

A slum section near Bandra (East) train station, Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Azhar and his family in front of their home. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

The home of Azhar in a slum near Bandra Station, Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Azhar is exercising in the slum where he still lives with his family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Children are playing inside the slum next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Rubina Ali is looking at the mirror inside her uncle's house in the slum where she still lives with her family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Rubina Ali is smiling while on the streets near her uncle's house in the slum where she still lives with her family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

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It appears that almost eight months from the Oscars’ big night of Slumdog Millionaire, and after so many promises were made by those in the production circle and the Indian Government, the children might finally move out of the slums of Bandra Station, Mumbai.

Not only, but it seems the children might end up owning two houses each, or even more, as the details of various pledges are becoming more clear. Both the trust that Danny Boyle set up for the children and the Government  have promised new homes for the families, while there are rumors about a third one in the state of Kerala. If that was the case, the children might have really won it big this time. And come on, why not? I think they deserve it.

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Azhar is laughing with friends in the slum where he still lives with his family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Azhar is playing with a water pump near a drain in the slum where he still lives with his family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Rubina Ali is smiling while on the streets near her uncle's house in the slum where she still lives with her family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

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The movie in itself, beautiful, but maybe a little too near to be a modern-day fairytale than anything else. There is some agreement over the clear existance of the social problems represented in the movie, but it would need 1 in 100 billion chances for the story plot to actually happen altogether.

But then, what about all the inspiring movies where something is clearly wrong with the odds of chance? They are movies, and that is a good enough reason. However, they should not be confused with real documentaries or journalism, even though a fictional movie might be based on or be inspired by real events, in this movie we are not provided with a clear perspective or in-depth reporting in the lives of street children in India, gangsters or the likes. We are given hints, yes, and we are offered a partial window over those realities in a way that might be similar to real-life experiences, however it should not be considered exhaustive at all.

Nevertheless, I believe this is not what the slumdog guys wanted their movie to be all about.

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On the other hand, a part of the magazine story was to meet Shafiq Syed, the other famous Indian child actor and main role of the 1988 Cannes Camera D’Or Winner ‘Salaam Bombay’ , directed by Mira Nair. Now a grown-up man of 34, he lost his grip on fame and works as a rickshaw driver in Bangalore, his home city.

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The poster of 1988 movie Salaam Bombay where Shaifq Syed, now 34, is the boy on the left. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Shaifq Syed, 34, is portrayed inside his home in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Shaifq Syed, 34, is driving his rickshaw from home to the city centre of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

Shaifq Syed, 34, is smiling at his daughter, Simran, 7, while playing with his children in their home inside a poor neighbourhood of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

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A happy father-of-three, he lives humbly but with the conscious pride of those people who feel they deserved more from what they have accomplished and failed to somehow obtain it. Let’s not forget that in his early teenage years, Shafiq was already living on the streets in both Bangalore and Mumbai, before being discovered and invited to act in the movie, which some say presents reality more objectively than Slumdog Millionaire.

After the fame (he wasn’t however taken to Cannes for the award ceremony – times were different I guess) Shaifq had to return to the streets for some time and he was not even allowed to live in the ‘home’ of the Salaam Balak Trust, an NGO established by the producers to help street children in India after the movie’s success. The reason being Shafiq was a couple of years older than the rest and would not ‘fit in’. How ironic…

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Shaifq Syed, 34, is holding her daughter Simran, 7, in front of their home in a poor neighbourhood of Bangalore, Karnataka, India, while his elder son Waseem, 11, is standing by. Copyright: Alex Masi - All Rights Reserved

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These days Shaifq has more mundane worries like paying the monthly  installments of his now-owned auto-rickshaw or earning enough money for his children’s education. His bubble has burst a long time ago, but when you hear him recounting his stories and adventures in detail, you cannot but smile, feel proud of the man standing in front of you and yes, also grow a little sad.

For more images from this set, feel free to visit this page.

Sebuah maha karya dari Buya Hamka, yaitu Tafsir Al-Azhar. Mulai disusun ketika beliau masih aktif memberikan kuliah subuh di Masjid Al-Azhar sejak tahun 1958. Ebook tafsir ini berisi tafsir untuk juz ke-30.

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