Decision Making in bharatiya parampara

In bharatiya parampara decision making occur at four different levels.

Level One. Follow another person or group. Do what s/he does on the assumption that s/he knows better, on the basis of life experience/knowledge level/ merely because it is easier to follow and/or because of being enamoured of the personality- kama.

Level Two. Decision on the basis of anticipated material advantage, artha.

Level Three. Decision on the basis of what is righteous- dharma. Choosing the option that sustain values in society.

Level Four. Decision on the basis of brahma-jnana. Decision taken with intuitive knowledge of brahma.

How the decision is taken reveals the varna of the person or group or the society.

Traditionally in bharatiya parampara decisions affecting society were taken by the kshetriya under the guidance of brahmana guru, criteria for decision being upholding of dharma. Such decisions encouraged dharmic values in society and fostered prosperity and peace.
Decisions on family matters took into account artha- material aspects, in addition, while on personal level, kama- personal preferences, were also considered.

Decision Making in Modern Democracy

In a modern democracy, it is the majority consent that decides matters at societal level.

Majority consent is shaped by public opinion formed on the basis of the following mediums:-

1. News Media- Television, radio, newspapers, magazines.

2. Art – Movies, TV serials, drama, songs, dance, sculpture, paintings, cartoons.

3. Academy- Educational curriculum, text books, classroom discourse, research programmes.

4. Government, including Judiciary- government sponsored schemes, information campaigns, policies, governmental institutions, offices, government servants, law and law enforcement agencies.

5. Political party/NGO activities- demonstrations, mass movements, public awareness programmes, personal interactions.

6. Commercial organisations- MNCs, private companies, advertisement campaigns

7. Religious discourse- Church, Mosque, Sunday Schools, Madrassas, Satsang.

8. Traditions and Culture.

9. Public personalities- Sports stars, movie/tv stars, Sant, Baba, ‘Intellectuals’, political/society leaders, artists, media personalities.

How each of the above mediums perform vis-a-vis the criteria of kama, artha, dharma and moksha, influences the shaping of public opinion and varna of society.

Tamas

News media that follows the lead of western media, Art forms that are shaped under western influence, Academy that looks towards the west for inspiration and direction, Government that is based on western model, Political parties and NGOs that are influenced by western discourse, Companies that function on the lines of western organisational structure and motivations, Religious discourse based on western thought, Traditions and culture of western origin and Public personalities under western influence. These help form a society that is tamasic in character, sudra in varna, that always seek to follow the lead of somebody else.
On occasions where no previous model exists to follow, such a society defers its decisions until passage of time throws up a default decision or presents an emulatable course to follow.

Tamasic Rajas

When the mediums that shape public opinion act with the motive of material gain, society acquires rajasic quality in addition to tamas. Such a society has media dominated by news of material nature, business and financial matters; Art forms exploring technical excellence, deficient in ethics; Academy oriented towards technological advancement, devoid of morals; Government actively involved in infrastructure building, economy, promoting consumerism; Political Parties, NGOs funded and sponsored by business houses. Commercial organisations dominating society; Religious discourse colored by material motivations; Traditions and Culture stressing on material accruement, and Public personalities selling products.

The discourse of such a society will be on material benefit. Decisions revolve around this criteria.

Sattvic Rajas

When the mediums shaping public opinion discourse on values, society acquire sattvic tinge along with rajas. Such a society will have news media discussing ethical ramifications while analysing current events, Art aimed at inspiring altruistic imagination in minds of the public, Academy oriented towards fostering moral living values in society, Government acting decisively to uphold righteousness in society, Law and judicial decisions reflecting dharma, Political parties, NGOs acting motivated by values, Companies producing goods for sustenance of society as well as Nature, Religious discourse directed towards righteous living in harmony with diverse viewpoints, Traditions and Culture promoting moral values in society, and self-effacing public personalities upholding dharmic values.

In short, rama rajya.

Sattva

When the public concentrates on moksha, the mediums that shape public opinion converge towards that goal. In news media, incidental nature of news lose relevance and karmic causes and ramifications are paid attention. Art forms a medium to experience and express realization. Academic pursuit, like all other, orient towards brahma-jnana. History is no more mere chronicling of incidents, instead record the eternal cycle of creations and dissolutions under karmic effect and their dharmic lessons provide inspiration and guidance towards spiritual living. Centralised government lose relevance as people govern themselves dharmically at local and individual levels. Companies shrink in size and number as materials required by society reduce. Religions disappear as people live spiritually. Traditions and Culture inspire realization and Personalities dissolve upon brahma-jnana.

Society Today

Indian society today, by and large, emulates western society and engages in material advancement at all costs to individual, family, society, nation and Nature. Thus it shows predominantly sudra varna that is transforming into vyshya.
Symbolically, India today is headed by people chosen for their sudra characteristic of followership, though trained to be vyshya – products of the british created education system designed to produce technically qualified workers for the empire.

Way Ahead

As rajas rises in society, represented by the transformation to vyshya characteristic from sudra, to check the deleterious effect on human psyche and on Nature, of unbridled rajasic indulgence in materialism, evident in human society today, and for long term sustenance, of individual, society, as well as Nature, tempering and channelization with dharmic considerations are necessary.

Increased deliberations on dharmic aspects at societal level impart kshetriya varna to society and raise sattvic characteristic.

Sustained rise of sattvic characteristic inspire brahma-jnana.

Julia Rooke accompanies former heroin dealer, Urfan Azad, back to the remote madrassa in north west Pakistan where he received drugs rehabilitation, and finds that addicts are given training to fight in Afghanistan…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: fashion designers. The blog is also related to: fashion shirts.

STATEMENT BY CONCERNED CITIZENS

•  1.We, the under signed, are shocked at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (M group) unprovoked move to revive the Vande Matram controversy now. It is a well-known fact that the debate on Vande Mataram was settled way back in 1930s with the consent of the then leadership of the Jamiat. It was then agreed upon that the controversial parts of the Vande Matram would not be recited. The practice continues. We neither believe that the Vande Mataram is a test case of some one’s patriotism. Nor do we agree with the Jamiat interpretation that reciting the song would endanger one’s faith. Therefore, we strongly condemn the Jamiat move to unnecessarily provoke a controversy around Vande Mataram at this juncture. The Jamiat move has only strengthened the Hindutva forces, which have been in disarray since the last parliamentary election. We also condemn the Hindu right wing forces’ attempt to impose its recitation on citizens to prove one’s patriotism.

•  2.We are further shocked with the Jamiat attitude towards girls’ education. The Jamiat wants to “establish non-residential modern educational institutions for girls education” with “specially carved out syllabus which should be completed within six years.” The Jamiat further demands: “On completion of 10 years of age, complete shariat norms should be observed while continuing their education.” It is a retrogressive move not only to isolate girls from the mainstream of the national education but also to keep them confined in a secluded sectarian atmosphere. It is shocking to demand shariat norms in education for girls or for any segment of society in a secular state. We condemn this anti women move in the strongest possible manner and demand that such moves must be checked in time.

•  3.The Jamiat though encourages Muslims to take to modern education but it advises the young Muslim students not to take admissions in government or non-government schools because in such institutions Muslims students “get isolated and sometimes unaware about their Islamic values. We see this move as an indirect attempt to keep Muslims boys away from the mainstream education, which is exactly what Hindutva forces want. It will not only keep the community backwards but would discourage Muslims from taking to education for the fear of unnecessarily loosing “Islamic values”. We, therefore, condemn it in the strongest manner and appeal the Muslims not to heed to such ill-advised moves.

•  4.The Jamiat has also come out strongly against the Central government move to standardize modern education syllabus through establishing a madarsa board. The move, as practiced in nine other states, will open a window for madarsa students to the modern education. It will also streamline and standardize teachers’ salaries within madras’s. We support the government move in this regard and appeal the Muslim clergy to accept it in the larger interest of the community, madarsa students and madarsa teachers most of whom are presently very lowly paid.

•  5.A widespread debate on the women reservation bill is going inside and outside the parliament. There is a divide on this issue among various political parties. But the Jamiat move to oppose the Women Reservation Bill on the ground that it is a ‘desparate attempt to bring women into the mainstream’ and that ‘this will create various other social problems including their insecurity’ is highly objectionable. We strongly condemn it because it is another move to keep the Muslim women backward.

God bless them…

p.s : Thanks IHM..

Info Courtesy- http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/11/india-concerned-citizens-statement-in.html

Image Courtesy : http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/msaud/gallery/salah/slides/117_Indian-Muslims-praying-.jpg

Young women at the madrassa's mosque

Places in madrassas here in Bosnia are highly sought after.   A third of the curriculum is religion-based and there are options to learn Latin, Persian or Turkish.  The madrassa we visited today was built about 12 years ago and designed by an award winning architect.  There are about 480 boarding students, young men and women 14-18 years of age.  Many of the students will progress to leadership roles within Islam, so in some ways it is like a theological college.

Design on mosque carpet

The place was unbelievably clean and tidy for a college full of teenagers!  The most beautiful part was the mosque, which is open to everyone for prayer.  It has white walls and a creamy carpet (not green) with a symbolic design on it representing water, warmth, the sun and life – instead of lines or prayer-mat shapes to guide worshippers.  The mosque is light-filled and designed to appeal to young people.

One of our group addressed the young people after lunch-time prayers

The discussion with the Director and his staff team ranged from the challenge of educating and looking after young people at the height of their energies and while their personality was being formed to the differences between madrassas in Britain and Bosnia.  Bosnian Muslims are part of the indigenous population and have been worshipping for hundreds of years, continuing even when the Austro-Hungarians assumed power.  They have a great ease and confidence in their tradition.  The Imams wear suits, ties and tidy haircuts like other men here – I haven’t seen any with long beards or wearing particular clothes for prayer.  The Mufti this evening wore a black robe and cylindrical white hat to show his position, but the regular Imams are indistinguishable by dress from other Bosnian men.  Women pray in the mosque with men, not behind screens, but they are not obliged to attend Friday prayers.

The staff at the madrassa were interested in British madrassas and one of our party said that they were very mixed – some were excellent, others mixed Koranic teaching with dubious politics.  Our Bosnian friends pointed out that the search for identity of first, second and third generation migrants inevitably got mixed up with the expression of religious tradition.  Bosnia itself may be unstable politically, but Bosnian Muslim tradition is secure and confident.

Given the painful recent history for each of the three communities here (Muslim Bosniac, RC Croat and Serbian Orthodox), it was good to have the local Serbian Orthodox priest with us all day today as we visited Muslim projects and mosques.   The Roman Catholic member of the Bosnian team was not able to join us – a special festival relating to St Francis takes place today and tomorrow.  Tuzla has had an imams and priests (RC and Orthodox) football match!   This is obviously becoming a global phenomenon – Clapham & Stockwell Faith Forum, Balham & Tooting Community Association and Tuzla!

The Indian government’s efforts to set up a central madrassa education board to introduce modern education in the 30,000 madrassas of the country were stonewalled on Saturday when a meeting of 59 Muslim MPs failed to reach a consensus.

However, Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Kapil Sibal, who presided over the meeting, claimed the MPs could reach consensus at future meetings. “This was just a beginning. We have noted the concerns raised by the MPs and we will continue discussions,” he said in his concluding remarks.

During the meeting, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) lone Muslim face, Syed Shanawaz Hussain, questioned the structure of the education board overseeing madrassas, claiming that its representation from various sects, such as Deobandi, Barelvi and Ahl-i-Hadith, was a conspiracy to divide Muslims. “It is wrong to have Sunnis, who constitute 98 percent of the Muslim population, represented by a single member with the same voting power as Khojas, who are miniscule in number,” he said.

To read full article click here

3

Islam in American Classrooms 

American children are being indoctrinated with anti-Democratic ideologies in American colleges, universities, and K-12 public schools with socialism, communism, and Islam. While parents believe traditional societal values are upheld, some schools are intentionally breaching customary positions of trust by providing a failing quality of education as compared to generations past. The widespread violation of standards infringe on family orientation, political and social identity, and religious persuasion.

Seditious movements fund educational programs in an effort to undermine American values to alienate children from their parents and grandparents, and ultimately replace traditional concepts with those subservient to a new world order. Emerging ideologies that alter the mind of American children are totalitarian allies– Communism and Islam. In full assault on our nation, the ideologies are demeaning our founding fathers and undermining the core of our Democracy through our children.

A September 2008 article titled “Saudi Infiltration into U.S. Education,” written for Israel National News, by Hillel Fendel warns that Saudis are using petrodollars to influence American education beginning in elementary schools. Sarah Stern, who heads the Washington, D.C. based Endowment for Middle East Truth think-tank (EMET) said the Saudis are making use of a clause called “Title VI” to indoctrinate teachers from K-12th grade with anti-American, anti-Israeli standards. Title VI and the loopholes in Bill Clinton’s 1995 Educational Guidelines allow off-campus activists to propagandize teachers and students at the taxpayer expense. Stern noted that: 

 “The law says you have to have teacher training seminars on campuses, and these have a radical anti-American bent. There is a place in New Mexico called Dar el Islam, a giant 1,300-acre complex that has a mosque, a madrassa [Islamic theological school], a summer camp, a teacher training workshop, and a publishing house that publishes some of the most virulent translations of the Quran, as well as the materials for their teacher-training that are used all over the country – and all stamped with the fancy blue-green-white star emblem of ARAMCO, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia. They are very, very stealth – I call this the ’soft jihad’ against America.”[1] 

Title VI was first legislated in 1958 as a response to the Cold War because it was felt that American children did not know enough about the threat of Communism or the global market. Subsequently, a large amount of taxpayer money was set aside to fund college campus programs for regional studies such as African, Asian, and Middle Eastern studies.

In 1978, Edward Said of Columbia University wrote a book called “Orientialism” which became the prevailing and dominant trend in academia, making a Middle Eastern studies program very indoctrinating.  In the book, Said espoused that only individuals from given regions are qualified to talk or write about that region’s main religion.

Politicians welcomed programs and students from the Middle East when Arab leaders began lavishing generous donations to American educational institutions. In return, they demanded special privileges and the right to influence policy favorable to Islam.

Over the last 30 years, the Saudi royal family has contributed over $70 billion to promote Arab studies that center around Islam and spread anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda. The Saudis give millions of dollars to American Universities and their motive is clearly stated by the official Saudi English weekly Ain-Al-Yaqeen: 

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz, has positively shouldered its responsibility, and played a pioneering role in order to raise the banner of Islam all over the globe and raise the Islamic call either inside or outside the Kingdom.” [2]

 Donations to universities can be made anonymously so it is impossible to know exactly how much money they receive and from whom. Some institutions receiving millions of dollars in Saudi funds are listed in the table below. Some of the Universities that receive Saudi endowments include Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia University, USC, Duke University, and even Texas A&M, to name only a few. [3]

By no means complete, the list includes known donations where possible. 

Rice University accepts Saudi money for an Islamic Studies Chair. Duke University, Syracuse University, American University of Colorado, American University in Washington, D.C., and Howard University have allowed the Saudis to set up research institutes.

The endowments allow professors and so-called intellectuals the ability to promote an Islamic agenda while afforded protection under freedom of speech laws. Title VI allows for the payment of professors salaries. It also supports Saudi student activists that are trained overseas in the summer to learn terrorist tactics, and return in the fall. Thus, more and more anti-American and anti-Israel doctrine is spread, with nothing being done to stop it.[4]

Islamic organizations within American Universities are numerous. Islamic studies programs or research programs within the institutions also support the spread of Islam in America. One fund, named after Osama Bin Laden’s brother, The Bakr M. Binladin Visiting Scholar Fund at Harvard Law School, brings “visiting scholars” to study law at Harvard with the stipulation is that scholars must be citizens of a predominantly Muslim country.

The Saudi Arabian government views Western culture as its enemy, and so uses our universities as propaganda machines and research facilities. It may even use them as terrorist havens, such as The Muslim Student Association (MSA), an organization that encourages involvement in jihad, has established hundreds of chapters on colleges and university campuses across America. The co-founder of al-Qaeda, Wael Jelaidan, is one of several MSA members arrested on terrorist related charges.[5]

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Georgetown University Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, (ACMSU) is just one organization that has been donating millions of dollars for Middle East studies programs. The so-called “gifts” shrewdly promote Islamic indoctrination without condemning Islamic punishments of amputations, stonings, hangings, honor killings, punishments for blasphemy, executions of apostates, persecutions of non-Muslims, sanctioned wife-beatings, female genital mutilations, etc. Rather, ACMSU presents Islam in ways that will appeal to naïve Westerners. Using terms like “Interfaith Dialog” and “Islamic Art,” the pretense of a more “moderate” version of Shari’ah law is really just to get the camel’s nose in the tent, and allow for radicalism once numbers allow. Radical Islam can take years and generations to take root, but once put into practice, it is far from what Americans call moderate.

There are many programs that take advantage of the Title VI Program. The King Fahd Chair for Islamic Shari’ah Studies, the Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud Program in Arab and Islamic Studies, the H.E. Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani Islamic Legal Studies Fund, the King Fahd Chair of Oncology and Pediatrics, and the Bakr M. Binladin Visiting Scholar Fund. Saudi funded educational institutions in the United States give millions of dollars to American Universities to implement their agenda. Brigitte Gabriel, author of “They Must Be Stopped,” and founder of ACT! For America, a national grassroots organization dedicated to spreading the truth about the Islamic agenda, refers to recipient universities as “occupied territories.”

The American Educational Trust (AET), established in 1982 was funded by American businesses and Arab donors. AET can afford to provide speakers to scores of colleges and universities at no charge, reportedly setting up its organization with $1,072,237. [6]

The AET website claims to: 

“provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. AET perceives a dearth in knowledge about the Middle East, Arabs, and Muslims, in the U.S., and pursues an educational mission of Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans; Interpreting North America for the Middle East.” 

Saudi billionaire friend of Hillary Clinton and advisor on Islamic affairs, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, then President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, sentenced to jail in 2004 for eighteen counts of terrorism related activities and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, met often with Bill and Hillary Clinton to contribute to Bill Clinton’s Religious Expression in Public Schools education guidelines. As a result of this alliance, funding for Islamic educational materials poured in from Saudi Arabia and Muslim nations.

Launched by Clinton in 1995, these guidelines greatly affect public schools today even though education is not in the federal government’s jurisdiction, but is actually adjudicated to individual states.

In August 1995, Clinton provided every public school district in America with the Religious Expression in Public Schools education guidelines, which included an ambiguous statement of principles for religious expression, and activity in our public schools. Colluding with non-religious groups as well, Clinton removed all former reference to the Bible, Christianity, and the Pledge of Allegiance from our public schools. The Pledge of Allegiance is now unconstitutional because it contains the phrase “one nation under God.”  Nadine Stresses, President of the ACLU, refers to the 1995 guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools.

The 1995 guidelines drafted by the American Muslim Council, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the ACLU’s effective removal of Christianity diminished a cultured sense of American nationalism. Regarding his contribution to the guidelines, the director of the CIE at the time, Shabbir Mansuri, boasted that he was “promoting world cultures” and “waging a bloodless revolution” in America’s classrooms.[7]

The ACLU and the Council of Islamic Education (CIE) helped write Houghton Mifflin textbooks for K-12 American public schools with Islamic beliefs presented as historical fact. Houghton Mifflin collaborates with Microsoft and also publishes college textbooks for MS software programs actively promote multiculturalism, globalism, and political correctness indoctrination in college settings.

Way back in 1995, the Council of Islamic Education warned American scholars and public officials they would be perceived as “islamophobes,” racists, reactionaries, and enemies of Islam if they did not support promotion of Islam in American public schools. Islamic organizations applaud Clinton for helping them achieve the victory of their religious obligation to propagate Islam.

At the end of his term, Bill Clinton addressed Muslim leaders with a Ramadan message. Muslim leaders often ask for public statements, as they would later ask President Bush to humor them with formal public statements on behalf of the Arab vote. The statement that Clinton made is particularly disturbing because it is beyond protocol and good manners. The public message Clinton gave the Muslim leaders contained the unnecessary Islamic story as if it were an undisputed fact:

 “As America’s six-million-member Muslim community grows in numbers and prominence, Americans of every religious tradition are learning more about the origins and meaning of Islam. That on ‘the Night of Power,’ the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet Muhammad and revealed to him the first verses of the Koran. That the Koran declares that Ramadan was the month Allah’s words were sent down, and so should be spent in fasting.” -Bill Clinton

 It is plausible the statement was a concession an act of obligatory allegiance and loyalty. A leader’s honor and loyalty hinges on public statements and in this case requires endorsing a disputed Islamic doctrine, while alluding to allegiance on behalf of all Americans and American policy and compromising the American education system.

Today, Christian instruction, prayer, and public nativity scenes are outlawed yet Clinton nominee, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of San Francisco, approved an interactive program  called “Islam: A Simulation,” for public schools. The program forced California children at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, California to “learn to become Muslim, recite the Quran, fast for Ramadan and pray Islamic prayers.”[8] In December 2003, the San Francisco court determined the school district did not violate the Constitution and was not indoctrinating students when it required them to adopt Muslim names and pray to the Islamic deity, but was just teaching them about the Muslim religion.[9]

The course was part of a curriculum taught to seventh-graders all over the state which many California schools participated in. California ruled that the state’s public schools must teach Islam in classes. California standards require Islam be taught in 7th grade, Judaism and Christianity is to be taught in 6th grade, and is covered in just two days as opposed to two weeks for Islam. Studying Christianity does not involve role playing and is presented as oppressive.[10]

The simulation forces students to memorize Islamic prayers and recite verses from the Quran. Students adopt Islamic names, and write about their experience as a Muslim at the end of the program. The exercises encouraged students to incorporate Islamic devotional phrases into speeches, and imagine they are on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The program involves state-approved curriculum using state-adopted textbooks that have now been part of the instructional program in California for over a decade. [11] 

A textbook adopted by the State of California “Across the Centuries,” published by Houghton Mifflin, prompts students to imagine they are Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a Mecca pilgrimage. Simulations encourage children to use devotional phrases such as “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “Allah is greatest,” and to fast during lunch to experience fasting during Ramadan. Yet, Judge Hamilton ruled the program was devoid of “any devotional or religious intent” and was, therefore educational, not religious in nature. [12]

But this is endorsement of Islam with Islamic indoctrination in our public schools under the guise of social studies and history, and at the expense of freedom of religion. Stealth Islamic conversion of our youth, using loopholes in the Education Guidelines is part of a traitorous alliance that enables the Muslim Brotherhood’s resolve to destroy America.

Not only is the alliance shocking, the longer it continues, the more difficult and dangerous it will be to reverse. Victories in Islam are like a Russian doll, setting the stage for subsequently larger victories. Ultimately, when numbers allow, the Islamic penalty for any who try to take away an Islamic achievement is death. The penalty for anyone who converts out of Islam is also death. Therefore, Islamic indoctrination puts non-Muslim children in peril because according to Islamic doctrine and Shari’ah law, one must agree to follow Islam once principles are known whether agreed or not. In the Islamic context, “understanding Islam” is not meant to be interesting information. When Muslims tell non-Muslims about Islam, they are telling them required behavior; i.e.; what to think and how to behave to avoid a backlash and condemnation in the future.

Michigan State University researchers showed the importance of leading students through a logical chain of information to break down pre-existing conceptions “that are deeply held and based on intuitive or naive beliefs about the world.” The study found that acting out lessons makes information stick.

Michigan State researchers developed an experimental middle-school science curriculum, found that science is not just memorized facts and terms, but an information process that is acted out to build a picture and an explanation. One of their key findings was the importance of leading students through a logical chain of evidence, showing them a variety of phenomena that can be explained by the same basic principle, and providing the chance to use the ideas. Researchers found that this procedure is not only essential to making the insights stick, but crucial in breaking down  pre-existing beliefs, noting that science is not just memorized facts and terms, but a process that builds a picture. Findings showed that regardless of the accuracy of a curriculum, action makes the information stick.

A separate article, “The Trouble with Textbooks,” written by Stephen Budiansky in February, 2001 refers to the Michigan State study. In an effort to describe what sticks in a students mind, Budiansky noted that:

 “textbooks have always been an easy target for those out to lambaste the state of public education, and that in the area of science and math, many factors are at work in the poor showing of U.S. students, including poor teacher preparation.”

 Budiansky also noted the importance of research by George Nelson, a former astronaut who directed a science and mathematics reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement, called “Science Project 2061.” Noting the importance of textbooks, Nelson wrote:

 “textbooks are the de facto curriculum in this country,”

 and that:

 “textbooks ought to be the easiest things to fix.”

 Therefore it can be concluded that the acting out process in “Islam: a Simulation,” did not merely serve to teach history and culturally enlighten, but according to the Michigan State research and Project 2061 research, the information was presented in a manner that is scientifically proven to make the Islamic teachings stick in the minds of the California youth, regardless of accuracy.

According to Budiansky, the study of middle-school science textbooks studied by Project 2061 found that science books examined did not meet the minimum requirements for effectively teaching science. Nelson said that: 

“Our students are lugging home heavy texts full of disconnected facts that neither educate nor motivate them.” 

In a study conducted by the National Science Teachers Association, 23 percent of middle school teachers reported they have taught subjects in which they had no prior course work. Nelson emphasized that because so many teachers are deficient in math and science skills, they rely disproportionately on the provided texts. [13]

A book titled “The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion,” conducted by president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR), Dr. Gary Tobin, and research associate Dennis Ybarra, details a 5-year joint study noting a significant amount of misinformation in American textbooks and supplemental materials in schools in every state. The study cites offensive passages that present false information and undermine the very foundation of the American educational system.

The IJCR study looked at 28 prominent history, geography and social studies textbooks and concluded that American public school students are being overloaded with Islamic and Middle Eastern indoctrination at the expense of Christianity and Judaism. It found 500 problematic passages about Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Middle East in widely used textbooks in public schools. The study supported similar assessments that history textbooks throughout the U.S. school system glorify Islam and are critical of Jews and Israel; and disrespectful of Christianity.

Tobin and Ybarra observed that Islam is taught in the books as a matter of fact, while Judaism and Christianity are treated as beliefs. The glossary of the textbook, World History: Continuity and Change, states as undisputed fact that the Koran is the “Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God.” The same glossary describes the Ten Commandments as “moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai.” Likewise, the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages was described as “a time of unqualified glory without blemishes.” Other excerpts  state that Muslims “always tolerated Jews,” “unlike their Christian counterparts.”

Tobin and Ybarra concluded that history and religion are alarmingly distorted in schools in every one of the 50 states. The study describes how the textbook publishing process suffers from lack of competition and expensive development and adapting of textbooks. Major competitors are down from nine to three in less than twenty years, and control the K-12 textbook market today.[14]

The American Textbook Council (ATC), established in 1989 as an independent national research organization to review social studies textbooks and advance the quality of instructional materials in history, worked for two years to review five junior high, and five high school World, and American history texts. The ATC found that the history textbooks used by hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. public school system blatantly promote Islam. The resulting report, authored by Gilbert T. Sewall, was titled “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us.”

The ATC report noted that Islamic organizations are active in curriculum politics and willingly provide misinformation in an effort to expel any critical thought about Islam, without eliminating its agenda. Assisted by partisan scholars and public relations associations many individuals with the power to shape the curriculum are blind to, or openly promote Islamic efforts. The report confirms findings that the texts present “disputed definitions and claims with regard to Islam as established facts.” The report continued: 

“Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content…Particular fault rests with the publishing corporations, boards of directors, and executives who decide what editorial policies their companies will pursue…”

The review examined how history textbooks characterize Islam’s foundations and creeds; what changes and additions have occurred in textbook material written before and after 2001; what textbooks say about terrorism, 9/11, and weapons of mass destruction. It outlines Islamic challenges to global security and asks about looming dangers to the U.S. and the world. The ATC found that deficiencies about Islam in textbooks copyrighted prior to 9/11 persisted and in some cases have grown worse. Errors about Islam in older textbooks had not been corrected even when publishers had having learned of contested facts, and were given time to make corrections.[15]

Instead of making corrections or adjusting contested facts, publishers and editors defend misinformation with omissions profound and intentional. The report said lessons contain “stilted language that seem scripted or borrowed from devotional, not historical, material.”

The book, Medieval to Early Modern Times features a two-page prayer to Allah “the Merciful.”[16]

The textbook, “World Civilizations,” published by Thomson Wadsworth said, 

“Excepting the Old Testament’s poetry, the Jews produced very little of note in any of the art forms … There is no record of any important (early) Jewish contributions to the sciences.” 

Another book, titled “The World,” published by Scott Foresman, claimed that

 “Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus.” 

Historical inaccuracy does all students of religion, history, and social studies a disservice, and further suggests a motive for such bias, such as the endorsement of Islam over other religions. Discoveries in the study include routine negative stereotyping of Jews, Judaism and Israel. Some of the texts accuse the Jews of committing deicide (exterminating a diety such as Allah), and blame Israel for starting wars in the Middle East. The texts describe Jewish writings as “stories,” “legends” and “tales,” and errors are frequent throughout the books that were investigated.

The ATC report noted that several of the textbooks were harshly criticized by parents. In a Sacramento district, a parent whose child was given the text, “History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond” published by the privately held Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI), accused the publisher of an extremely pro-Muslim bias.

The students’ parent believed that teaching world history was acceptable, but objected to the teachings of Islam, while not addressing Christian doctrine to the same degree. The same parent said the book has only one page referencing Jews. Most of the information concerning Jews was to convey that the Jews were tortured by Crusaders to force them to convert to Christianity. It did not mention the Holocaust, or Jewish persecution by Arab Muslims for centuries thru today. The book did not give due credit to the Jews for their significant impact on the region or the culture at large, but blamed the Jews for the plagues and problems in the land.

Bert Bower, founder of the Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI), and an executive for one of the texts reviewed by ATC, told World Net Daily that not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California and scholars from all over the world also reviewed it and approved it for use in public schools. One of those worldly experts was Ayad Al-Qazzar, who helped write The Arab World Notebook, a book that will be discussed next.

The ATC report noted that most textbook publishers align their work to a ban on “adverse reflection.” Adverse reflection means that a topic is conceptually at odds with historical and geopolitics. One book asks readers the question, “How did the caliphs who expanded the Muslim Empire treat those they conquered?” The book’s answer: “They treated them with tolerance.” The report said:

 “Glossing over the actual physical conquering of some peoples, the book, World History: Medieval and Early Modern Times says people converted to Islam because they were attracted by Islam’s message of equality and hope for salvation.”

Islamic presentation throughout the books is described as “sugar coated,” and the books describe Islam as a “wonderland-of-tolerance often spun like cotton-candy,” where “Hope for salvation” may actually mean “survival”, when history shows that the only escape from death literally was submission to Islam. Westerners erroneously think that submission means conversion. In reality, submission means allowing Islam to reign supreme. The lives of the conquered could then be spared only if they agreed to pay a “jizya” tax and agree to live as second-class citizens known as “dhimmis.”

The books describe the Crusades as “religious wars launched against Muslims by European Christians.” “History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond” says the Crusaders wore red crosses. The French Templars wore red crosses, but Spaniards, English, German, Italians, and Greeks also fought against the Muslims in the Crusades after Muslims had encroached on their Christian lands for centuries. For centuries leading up to the Crusades, Muslims had sanctified the invasion and pillage of Christian lands murdering and taking the indigenous citizens as slaves. Yet, the books describe the process of Muslim invasion of Christian lands as “building an empire,” and describes Christian attempts to restore those lands as “violent attacks” and “massacres.”

The report also found that the books magnified Christian brutality while ignoring precedent information on Islamic inequality, subjugation, and enslavement, while inaccurately describing Shari’ah religious law, dhimmitude, women’s rights and terrorism. Regarding 9/11, the book “The Modern World”  gives an example of such non-committal in reference to 9/11: 

“On the morning of September 11, 2001, teams of terrorists hijacked four airplanes on the East Coast. Passengers challenged the hijackers on one flight, which they crashed on the way to its target. But one plane plunged into the Pentagon in Virginia, and two others slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York…” 

The description unconcernedly fails to explain who “they” were, and what they wanted to accomplish. The minimal explanation evades any connection to Islamic terrorism and jihad, and indicates a total lack of understanding and remorse. The ATC report concluded: 

“Many political and religious groups try to use the textbook process to their advantage, but the deficiencies in Islam-related lessons are uniquely disturbing. History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security.”[17] 

An imam from Turkey, Fethullah Gülen, who considers himself a prophet has a network off hundreds of charter schools in America Gülen is touted as a reformist and advocate for tolerance, a catalyst of “moderate Islam.” He is praised in the United States as an intellectual, scholar, and educator even though his formal education is limited to five years of elementary school.

Gülen has met with Christian clergy, Pope John Paul II, and Jewish rabbis in an effort to promote Islam under the guise of promoting an interfaith dialogue. Islamic doctrine has traditionally tied itself to Christianity and Judaism using common stories between the latter two as a door opener. Gülen has also used the literature of great Sufi thinkers pretending to share in their moderation. Gülen’s movement is called the Fethullah Gülen Community (FGC). The FGC runs hundreds of secondary schools and dozens of universities in 110 countries including charter schools in twenty-four states in the U.S. Gülen’s followers target youth in the eighth through twelfth grades preparing them for careers in law, politics, and education to create the ruling classes of a future Islamist, Turkish state. The FGC also donates money to universities such as Georgetown University.[18]

ACT! For America, a grassroots organization that helps Americans understand the tactics used by Islamists in their world conquest endeavor, issued an exclusive report about the FCG. The report revealed that Gülen is particularly dangerous is his strategic and tactical means to achieve this goal. Not only does Gülen oversee a worldwide network of schools, but his estimated budget of 25 billion dollars also funds businesses, foundations and media outlets. In a 1999 sermon on Turkish television, Gülen described stealth jihad: 

“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers … until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria … like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it … You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey … Until that time, any step taken would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence … trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.” 

The FCG schools offer recruitment for outside school activities such as summer camps, which recruit members and followers. They advocate “taqiyya,” which is sanctioned as obligatory lying when deception is a means to protect and further Islamic causes. Misleading information and headlines often convey two different messages, one to the indigenous Islamic population and one to the West. This deceptive practice is common in the Islamic world, and has led many in the West, including political leaders and academics, to be misled as to the true intentions of Islamists.

President Obama is pushing to relax requirements for charter schools while Islamic organizations are pushing to expand Charter schools. Not classified as “private” schools, charter schools currently cannot legally endorse or promote a religion.

Funded by Minnesota taxpayers, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) is a K-8 charter school in Minnesota that operated as an Islamic school for five years before the state finally ruled against it.

TIZA has one campus in Inver Grove Heights and a smaller site in Blaine, has about 430 K-8 students, most of who are Muslim. Founded in 2003, TIZA receives state per-pupil funding. The state education department expected funding to total $4.7 million for the 2008-2009 school year.

With a mosque and the headquarters of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota share the school building, founders Asad Zaman and Hesham Hussein, both leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, and local imams, opened TIZA for the 2003-2004 school year with Imam Asad Zaman as the principal. TIZA is named after a Muslim warlord, Tarek ibn Ziyad, who invaded Spain from Africa in a bloody battle in the eighth century, marking the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Spain. Upon his arrival in Spain, Tarek ibn Ziyad ordered his Muslim forces to burn their boats: 

“Brothers in Islam! We now have the enemy in front of us and the deep sea behind us. We cannot return to our homes, because we have burned our boats. We shall now either defeat the enemy and win or die a coward’s death by drowning in the sea. Who will follow me?” 

The soldiers then rushed ahead, crying “Allahu akbar.” To defeat a superior Spanish force.[19] Islamists boast that Muslims ruled the country for hundreds of years afterward so well that Spain became a fountainhead of culture and civilization for the whole continent of Europe.[20]

An initial review of TIZA operations found that the school was nonsectarian, and not in violation of Minnesota law or federal guidelines on constitutionally protected prayer in school. The Minnesota Department of Education maintained that TIZA was not an Islamic or a religious school. The review found that prayer on Monday through Thursday appeared to be voluntary and student led.

In January 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota filed suit against TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education. The ACLU claims that TIZA  received millions of dollars of taxpayer money to support a private religious school, citing that the school receives state per-pupil funding expected to total $4.7 million for 2008-2009 school year.

The state’s ACLU Executive Director, Charles Samuelson, said the school used government aid money to pay rent to holding companies, and then funnel funds to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota and Minnesota Education Trust, which the ACLU says is a non-profit group that promotes Islam. The ACLU claims that a conflict of interest is created because the society and the school were incorporated by the same person, and on the same day, and are really one in the same organization.

Students at TIZA pray Islamic prayers, the cafeteria serves food that is prepared according to Islamic law, and Islamic Studies are held on the campus at the end of the school day. According to a TIZA report, seventy-seven percent of TIZA parents said their main reason for choosing TIZA was for the after-school programs. Yet the Imam-Principal Asad Zaman maintained that TIZA is not a religious school.

For years, Asad Zaman used loopholes in President Bill Clinton’s 1995 Educational Guidelines to teach Islam at TIZA, as will be evident in the unfolding story. The Guidelines were assembled with the help of Hamas and Hezbollah supporter, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, who, prior to his arrest and conviction on terrorism related charges in 2004, was President of the American Muslim Council.

In March 2008, a substitute teacher at TIZA revealed that Islam did play a significant role at TIZA. On the Friday the substitute teacher  arrived at TIZA, and was told that after lunch there would be a “school assembly” in the gym. Prior to the assembly her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the restroom to perform what was described as “their ritual washing.”

After their ritual washing, teachers led the children into the gym, where a man dressed in white was preparing to lead a prayer. Beside him was another man prostrated in prayer on a carpet.

The substitute teacher said that the prayer activity was not voluntary. Children were “corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred.” She also said that the school day included after-school Islamic Studies. She said that assignments written on the blackboard included studying the Koran, and was told that Islamic Studies were held after school and she might have to stay for hall duty.

At the end of the day, her fifth-graders stayed in the classroom. The man who led the prayer in the gym came into the classroom to teach Islamic Studies to the students while the busses waited outside. After the Islamic Studies class was over, the busses took the children home.

The Minnesota Department of Education had not noticed the religious practice during any of their visits. In 2004, the Assistant Commissioner sent two letters to the school inquiring about reported religious activity. When questioned, Imam-Principal Asad Zaman said that prayer in the school was voluntary and student-led, and the department accepted Zaman’s answer without confirmation. [21]

TIZA’s website requested volunteers to help with the Friday prayers. The website advertised a “rigorous Arabic language program” as well as “an environment that fosters your cultural values and heritage.” It explained the school’s efforts to provide students with a: 

“…learning environment that recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”

 In an e-mail, Zaman explained the request for volunteers to help with Friday prayers was to ensure that TIZA staff members were not involved in organizing the Friday prayers. However, it is still probable that it was TIZA staff members who planned the website, organized the schedule, and requested the volunteers. It does not change the fact that the prayer services took place in the school building during school hours. According to federal guidelines on prayer in schools, teachers at a public school cannot participate in prayer with students. Zaman admitted that “some” Muslim teachers “probably” attended the prayer session. [22]In the spring, 2008, Minnesota Department of Education began a review, saying that the school must change the way it handles prayer in school and after school busing. Also, under Minnesota State Law, the school was ordered to raise an American flag every day in session. Furthermore, the Department informed TIZA that Minnesota state law requires schools to provide transportation at the end of the normal school day.[23]

Zaman claimed that K-8 school began to receive death and arson threats as a result of media attention, frightening students, so police began patrolling the school. In response to Zaman’s claims and because television reporters went to the school unannounced, TIZA obtained a security system requiring visitors to buzz at the school entrance.

As a result, on Fridays the school began to release teachers and most students at midday. Parent volunteers, or a community member led students who stayed behind in prayer, and those who did not want to pray could read or engage in a quiet activity. From Monday-Thursday, students were given the option of signing up for after school activities including a fee-based Muslim studies course, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or a free secular program.[24]

While it may seem reasonable to say that students can sit out of the prayer, there is enormous pressure to pray within a group. Students who choose not to pray will be noted and stigmatized, potentially leading to problems at home from religious parents who would then feel shamed. Prayer in school is a form of coercion, and would likely lead to problems for non-praying students, and more lax parents within the larger Muslim community. This same coercion would automatically extend to fasting at Ramadan, when food is probably not even available at Muslim schools, and eating in front of fasting students would be viewed as ‘blasphemous.”

Muslims would have us believe that prayer is mandatory at prescribed times, when in fact it is not. Muslims are allowed to postpone their prayers as long as necessary. If prayer is not convenient at a given time, for reasons such as when in the presence of non-Muslims, or at a workplace, or normal public school, etc., Muslims can postpone them. Prayers can accumulate for days on end, but cannot be done in advance. Of course, it in inconvenient to have to do more prayers later, but children could actually wait to do their afternoon prayers when they are at home.

Concerning young female students is the requirement that women do not pray when they are menstruating. In fact, Muslims believe Allah will reject prayers of women when performed during monthly menstruation. Therefore, whenever a female student sits out of a prayer, everyone will know she is menstruating. In a subtle way then, and a gross violation of privacy, all boys and men in the school will know which girls are menstruating and which ones are not. Furthermore, some students may not want to practice Islam and would prefer to live in a Democratic society without Islamic coercion.

Allegations against TIZA are that the school’s main campus was not originally built as a school, and the lease was not reviewed by either the state Department of Education or the state Department of Administration. Also, there are prayers on the walls of the school entry and teachers have participated in student prayer activities. Samuelson said the school used its website to seek volunteers to lead prayers, and that it requires students and staff to dress in attire that conform to Islamic religion. He also said the school issues a handbook instructing staff to not discuss what goes on at the school.

Federal guidelines do allow students to organize prayer groups in public schools, but teachers and school employees may not compel students to pray or actively participate in student prayer. Samuelson noted that the Minnesota ACLU has sued other public school districts for promoting Christian sects. It has sued cities around the state for violating the separation of church and state clause of the First Amendment, including the city of Duluth for putting a Ten Commandments monument on the city hall lawn. [25]

Saudi-associated organizations hold the mortgages of 70% of America’s mosques. Along with financing comes control over many, if not all, aspects of the mosque. For example, Saudi/Wahhabi authorities are able to influence the selection of their imams, their training, the Korans and other materials they use, their sermons and programs for mosque schools.[26]

Aside from charter schools, another serious concern is Saudi Arabian government run schools. The Saudis run nineteen international schools including The Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in northern Virginia. Chaired by the Saudi ambassador to Washington, the school shares the embassy’s employer tax number under the name of the “Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.” Since 2003, The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has issued four reports warning that the school’s textbooks contain intolerant language that indoctrinate students with Islamic supremism, polarization, and incitement. The Saudi government agreed to remove disparaging references, but in 2008, passages still clearly pressed readers to commit acts of violence.

According to a June 11, 2008 article by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a twelfth-grade textbook the school uses defines just cause for killing in the case of:

 “…unbelief after belief, adultery, and killing an inviolable believer intentionally.”

 Saudi Wahabbi interpretation of Islam identifies Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Shiite Muslims, and Sufi Muslims as major polytheist religions. Another twelfth-grade textbook describes:

 “…major polytheism makes blood and wealth permissible,”

 Non-Muslims can be exempt from the cruel and unusual punishment if they have certain agreements with the Islamic governments such as American businesses in Saudi Arabia, as described in a ninth-grade textbook:

“It is not permissible to violate the blood, property, or honor of the unbeliever who makes a compact with the Muslims. The blood of the mu’ahid is not permissible unless for a legitimate reason…the mu’ahid is an unbeliever who contracts a treaty with a Muslim providing for the safety of his life, property, and family.”

 The implication is that violence against non-Muslims is lawful unless an agreement is effective. Such agreements for loyalty are exemplified by American oil companies operating in Saudi Arabia, financial institutions that provide Shari’ah compliant products, politicians and agents who lobby for Saudi causes such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama. It is reasonable to conclude that even George W. Bush’s lack of immigration enforcement and open borders was an agreement to keep America safe from attack.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has long called for Saudi Arabia to be designated a “country of particular concern,” for systematic violations of religious freedom. Expressing concern over promotion of religious intolerance, and religious-based violence in textbooks used in Saudi Arabia and at Saudi schools abroad, the Commission has urged the U.S. government to press the Saudi government to promote tolerance since 2001. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights bans discrimination and incitement, and specifically provides that education: 

“shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups…”

 The Declaration specifically provides that: 

“The child shall be protected from any form of discrimination on the ground of religion or belief. He shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, peace and universal brotherhood, and respect for freedom of religion or belief of others. . .” 

It is shocking that high school students in the United States are among those discussing when, and under what circumstances killing non-Muslims is allowed. The U.S. government must ensure that the Saudi government reviews and revises the globally distributed books. The U.S. government should insist that the Saudi government behave as members in good standing of the international community, regardless of the huge amount of world market dollars they may control.[27]

Ayad Al-Qazzar, a Muslim apologist, so called ‘worldly’ expert and frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes

 helped write a 540 page Arab World Notebook that was distributed to over 10,000 teachers, reaching 25 million students. The Arab World and Islamic Resources (AWAIR) is a proselytizing non-profit organization that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools in an effort to promote Islam.

The Textbook League in Sausalito, California is a resource for middle school and high-school educators. It lists readings, resources, and so-called lesson plans in a two-version publication aimed at teachers. A 1998 version of their publication says The Arab World Studies Notebook  is published jointly by the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) and by the Arab World and Islamic Resources and School Services (AWAIR). The editor of the Arab World Notebook is also the director of AWAIR, a woman named Audrey Shabbas.

The MEPC is a pressure group based in Washington, D.C., known prior to 1991 as the Arab American Affairs Council. Its activities include sponsoring teacher workshops to indoctrinate teachers about the Arab World and Islam.

President of the Textbook League, William J. Benneta investigated MEPC’s Web site, and Arab World Studies Notebook. On the Website page with the same name as the notebook, he read a claim about the Arab World Studies Notebook:

 “…an updated and enhanced version of the Arab World Studies Notebook (1990), a previous work so highly regarded that educators in California were permitted to purchase it with state funding.” 

Bennetta investigated and found the claim false, noting that the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office (CFIRO) of the California State Department of Education does not appraise content. Therefore, granting approval does not mean that an approved publication is highly regarded. Furthermore, Benneta contacted the administrator of the CFIRO and found that there was no record of ever approving The Arab World Studies Notebook. The Introduction to the Arab World Studies Notebook, states:

 “Believing firmly that teachers are the vanguard of change in any society, AWAIR has taken as its mandate, to impact the very resources chosen and used by teachers as well as the training and sensitizing of teachers themselves.”

 The phrasing “training and sensitizing” actually means subjecting teachers to heavy bombardment of religious and political propaganda, knowing that they have little to zero prior knowledge on the subject of Islam. Bennetta wrote that:

 “The Arab World Studies Notebook is a vehicle for disseminating disinformation, including a multitude of false, distorted or utterly absurd claims that are presented as historical facts. I infer that the Arab World Studies Notebook has three principal purposes: inducing teachers to embrace Islamic religious beliefs; inducing teachers to embrace political views that are favored by the MEPC and AWAIR; and impelling teachers to disseminate those religious beliefs and political views in schools.”

 Bennetta noted further that: 

“The promotion of Islam in the Arab World Studies Notebook is unrestrained, and the religious-indoctrination material that the Notebook dispenses is virulent. Muslim myths, including myths about how Islam and the Koran originated, are retailed as matters of fact, while legitimate historical appraisals of the origins of Islam and the Koran are excluded. Shabbas wants to turn teachers into agents who, in their classrooms, will present Muslim myths as history,” will endorse Muslim religious claims, and will propagate Islamic fundamentalism.”

 A lesson in the Arab World Studies Notebook says that Jesus ‘is an important figure in Islam’ Another lesson plan says that Islam ‘recognizes Jesus.’ It is a fact that Muslims recognize Jesus, yet deny and denounce basic Christian teachings, such as that Jesus was divine and part of the Trinity. Jesus is apparently important enough in Islamic teachings that Muslims are enjoined to not take Christians and Jews as friends (Koran 5:51). They also are enjoined to believe that Christians are perverse (Koran 9:30). And to deny that Jesus was crucified. (Koran 4:157). 

Koran passages reject essential Christian beliefs about Jesus, and Muslim propagandists conceal the Koran’s judgment that Christians and Jews are unfit to be accepted by Muslims as allies or friends.

The prevailing belief of Muslims about Jesus is that Christians are wrong in their understanding of Jesus; and that Jesus, who lived before Muhammad,  was actually a Muslim. Yet, Muslim propagandists in America, strive to create the impression that Islam is congenial to, and a logical conclusion to Christianity while routinely and dishonestly exploiting how Jesus is perceived in the Koran and in Muslim culture.

In the Arab World Studies Notebook, unsupported claims about Muslims in the pre-Columbian New World are completely without documentation or support, leading one to speculate the intended audience consists of teachers who in an effort to keep their jobs, and lacking knowledge of history and religion, will advocate what they are told without question.

One ridiculous and unsupported myth in the Arab World Studies Notebook is that Muslims supposedly reached the New World in pre-Columbian times, spreading throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and even Canada. According to the myth, by the time Columbus arrived, the New World was full of Muslims. English explorers supposedly met Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs who had names like ‘Abdul-Rahim’ and ‘Abdallah Ibn Malik!’ Shabbas does not cite any sources to support the claims and does not reveal names for the English explorers.

The Arab World Studies Notebook is full of unqualified statements such as the one on page 27 that states, “As is well known, the Qur’an was revealed through the Prophet Muhammad . . .” It does not say how it is well known, or by whom it is well known. In fact, in America, a country where 80% of the population claims to be Christian, it is neither well known nor mainstream. It is however, recognizable to Christians as Islamic-fundamentalist myth.

The Arab World Studies Notebook states, “The Koran is the last link in a chain of revelation going back to time immemorial, even to the very origin of humankind.” Muslims believe the Koran is a miraculous revelation channeled through Muhammad, who was illiterate. Left to memory for centuries, it is not known how many versions of the Koran were written and rewritten before an accepted version was assembled, or who actually wrote them down.

Another myth in the Arab World Studies Notebook is that the Koran condemns wars of “territorial conquest.” No doubt, Muslims would prefer peaceful conquests, however the book says that from the 8th through 13th centuries, Arabian Muslims built a great empire that “extended across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, from Spain to the borders of China.” It does not say exactly how the conquest took place or acknowledge that thousands of churches, temples, and civilizations were destroyed in the process, or that 270,000,000 non-Muslim lives were lost in nearly 1400 years of violent jihad.[28] [29]

Americans will not tolerate loss of freedom for subversive ends through trickery and deceit. Yet a stealth movement is rapidly seeking to impose objectionable “Shari’ah Law” in place of Democracy and the Constitution.

According to Lebanese born terrorist expert, and founder of ACT! For America, Brigitte Gabriel, 

“For the last 16 years, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states … because of the money coming from the oil,  have been pumping millions of dollars into our universities appointing Arab professors who are anti-American, and anti-Israel, have been basically brain-washing our students to believe we (Americans) are the problem.”

 “The children, who have been educated in American universities for the last 16 years, have graduated and are now working … not influenced … by our patriotic education as Americans, but they have been influenced by Arab thinking … and hatred based on revenge.”

 The evidence of such brainwashing is an attempt to raise our children against us and force them to ultimately live in dhimmitude. Many responsible groups and individuals aware of the treacherous violations of freedom are aware that an attempt to undermine our society is underway. Western free thinkers will never stand for such a breach in conscience and it will be exposed and stopped as historical fact and geopolitical reality  inevitably lead to differences in culture and religion. Forced multiculturalism and political correctness provide fertile ground for hostilities in an attempt to abolish cherished and established standards of the hosting culture, which in this case is America.

[2] Shapiro, Ben; “King Fahd’s Plan to Conquer America,” December 20, 2002, http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/408 

[3] Kaplan, Lee; “The Saudi Fifth Colimn  on Our College Campuses,” April 5, 2004, http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=13551

[4] Esposito, John and Algar, Hamid; “The Fifth Column [On Middle East Studies, Title VI, Saudi Funding], The Conservative Jedi Blog, January 23, 2008,  http://conservative-jedi.blogspot.com:80/2008/01/fifth-column.html & http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4725

 [5] Shapiro, Ben;“King Fahd’s Plan to Conquer America,” http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/408

 [6] Emerson, Steve; The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection, Chapter 15, p.292, Franklin Watts Publisher, 1985 

[7] Richard, Riley W., Secretary of Education; Archived Letter to American Educators, http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html 

[8] Schroeder, Jen, “Islam, A Simulation Handout,” http://www.blessedcause.org/islam.htm

 [9] Lynne, Dianna; “Islam Studies Spark Hate Mail, Lawsuits,” January 16, 2002 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26074

 [10] “Schoolhouse Shari’ah,” September 24, 2009,  http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=507056

[11] Shroeder, Jen; “How Clinton Sold Our Children to Islam,” June 26, 2004, http://www.blessedcause.org/proof/Clinton%20Abdurahman%20Alamoudi.htm

 [12] “Islamic Indoctrination Taken to Supreme Court,” June 9, 2006, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50562

 [13] Budianski, Stephen; “The Trouble With Textbooks,” February 2001,  http://www.prism-magazine.org/feb01/html/textbooks.cfm

[14] The Trouble With Textbooks, http://www.troublewithtextbooks.org/

 [15] “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” http://www.historytextbooks.org/islam.htm

 [16] Unruh, Bob; “Brave New Schools: History Textbooks Promoting Islam,” May 10, 2008, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=63872

[17] Sewall, Gilbert T.; “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us, American Textbook Council, New York, NY, 2008

 [18] Sharon-Krespin, Rachel; “Fethullah Gulen’s Grand Ambition: Turkey’s Islamic Dagger,” Middle East Forum, Winter 2009 , http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition

[19] Spencer, Robert; “Muslim Elementary School Welcomed in Minnesota,”  March 13, 2008, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25470#continueA

 [20] World Net Daily,  “Imams Promote ‘Our Values’ On Taxpayer Dime,” March 15, 2008, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58967

[21] “Teacher Spills Beans About Islamic Classes,” April 9, 2008, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61129

  [22] Kersten, Katheryn; “Teacher Questions Muslim Practices at Charter School,” May 19, 2008, http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html

 [23] Tarek ibn Ziyad Press Release,”  http://kstp.com/kstpImages/TiZA_Media_Statement.pdf

 [24] Lemagie, Sarah; “State Orders Charter School to  Correct Two Areas Tied to Islam,” May 28, 2008, http://www.startribune.com/local/south/19076119.html?page=2&c=y

[25] Furst, Randy and Lemagie, Sarah; “ACLU Files TIZA Lawsuit,” January 22, 2009 http://www.startribune.com/local/east/38034459.html?elr=KArksDyycyUtyycyUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

 [26] Gaffney, Frank; “A Troubling Influence,” December 9, 2003,  http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/read.aspx?guid=c7cd908b-6d7e-49eb-a0a9-da0a18745a29

[27] June 11, 2008: Saudi Arabia: USCIRF Confirms Material Inciting Violence, Intolerance Remains in Textbooks Used at Saudi Government’s Islamic Saudi Academy, http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2206&Itemid=1

[28] Administration; Social Daily News, November 8, 2007I, “Islam: 270,000,000 Million Bodies in 1400 Years,” http://www.socialdailynews.com/2007/11/islam-270-million-bodies-in-1400-years/

 [29] Bennetta, William J.; “Arab World Studies Notebook lobs Muslim Propaganda at Teachers,” October 8, 2003, http://www.textbookleague.org/spwich.htm

E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: The telephone rang in the middle of the night. Pythagoras (570-495 BC) woke up with a start but did not know what to do or how to stop the noise.

Euclid was equally puzzled.

Luckily Srinivasa Ramanujan was around. He asked Pythagoras to lift the hand set, say ‘Hello’ and listen to the voice first and then speak, if need be.

“Hello!”

“Hello! Is it janaab Pythagoras?”

“Yes, it is. What do you want?”

“Listen. We need more proof for your theorem of the right-angled triangle. Without that, we cannot teach your theorem in our schools any more.”

“May I know who is speaking, please?”

“Pytho-saab, I am Shah Mehmood Quereshi, foreign minister of Pakistan. Our secondary school board chief and President, Asif Ali Zardari, feel your theorem lacks irrefutable clinching proof. Do you understand? Irrefutable clinching proof. Without that I am afraid we will have to drop your theorem from our schools and madrassas.”

“Pakistan? Zardari? Madrassa? Are these new theorems? My theorem simply states: ‘The sum of the areas of the two squares of a right angled triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse’. I have proved it myself and I believe there are around 80 proofs for my theorem now. I don’t understand what your problem is.”

“Pytho-ji. Please understand. We in Pakistan need more proof that would hold good even in court… By the way, has the United Nations approved your theorem?”

“Mr Quereshi, you cannot make a triangle with just two sides. This is elementary geometry. You must have a third side to make it a triangle and call it UNO or something like that.”

“I was using a short form of UNO. Anyway, I will call you again tomorrow. If you want your theorem should be taught in our schools, you will have to provide more conclusive, clinching proof. Otherwise, we will drop your theorem from our curriculum. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Khuda hafiz.”

***

Pythagoras did have Euclid, Garfield and Ramanajan with him for company. But none of them could think of irrefutable clinching evidence which could be used in Quereshi’s courts, schools, madrassas etc. Finally they found someone who felt he could satisfy Quereshi.

Pythagoras was relieved.

Next day when the call came, Pythagoras was ready.

“Do you have conclusive proof now?” asked Mr Q.

“Yes. Note down please. As you know, my theorem is: A squared + B squared = C squared.  I have modified the theorem for you. You can now read the theorem as: Taliban squared + LeT squared = ISI squared. where ISI is equal to members of Inter-Service Intelligence, and Taliban and LeT is equal to the terrorists.  This in a way describes your country too. I hope your President and students will be able to understand the theorem better and follow the proof I have given earlier.”

“Thank you Mr Pythagoras, now it is pretty clear you have been decorated with the nishaan-e-Greece. I get the complete picture.  I can also use it for the 26/11 Bombay seige. We are unable to prosecute some of our people for lack of irrefutable, clinching evidence. By the way, who helped you with the modified theorem? Some South Indian, I suppose?”

“No, no. These Indians are still happy finding water on the moon! It was your countryman General Zia-ul-Haq who helped. He explained the various forces that operate in your country. This helped me to modify my theorem.  If you know how many Talibans and LeT are there with you, you can easily calculate the number of ISI in your government It is just the square root of Taliban squared plus LeT squared. General Zia was confident this will help you a lot. Is this so?”

“Yes, it will.”

“If you know any two, you can calculate the third.”

“Now your theorem makes sense. QED.  We will use the modified theorem. Thanks again, Pythagoras saab“.

“Hang on, there is a corollary to my theorem. I understand the position in Pakistan is always rather acute. If that is so, Taliban squared + LeT squared will always be greater than ISI squared. Got it?”

“Yes. Thank you Mr Pythagoras. Khuda hafiz.”

“Take care, my friend.”

29-07-2009

Antes de salir de Samarcanda pasamos a hacernos las fotos obligadas en el Registán, donde se encuentran las madrassas más antiguas de Asia Central, y frente al mausoleo de Tamerlán.

Vamos en dirección a Tashkent, la capital (“TOSHKENT”, viene indicado) y hoy no tocan muchos kms. Hay muchos controles policiales pero sin presentar ninguna dificultad. A lo poco de pasar uno nos damos cuenta de que nos teníamos que haber desviado  (parece que más adelante hay obras) y nos volvemos a preguntar…pero en dirección contraria y justo al lado de la policía (¡?!).  Si es que nos lo buscamos… (“es Homer”, dice Juanlu) y nos caen 50$ de multa tras mucho negociar, pasando de estar muy serios a terminar de mamoneo con los oficiales.

En Tashkent la frontera queda justo al lado de la ciudad pero nos dicen que está cerrada con la carretera en obras. Vamos a tener que volvernos 70km hasta la frontera más cercana, que abre a las 7 de la mañana, así que tendremos que hacer noche por allí.  Aprovechamos para cenar pinchitos de ternera (“muu” le decimos) y por fin aprendemos cómo se dice frío (“sook”, “sook piva” o algo así para la cerveza fría).

Para dormir empiezan las dificultades. Tashkent es una gran ciudad, con avenidas grandes y todos los hoteles son de 5 estrellas, algunos en plan Las Vegas. Una opción es acampar o dormir en los coches cerca de la frontera que estaba cerca para estar allí pronto al día siguiente. Viéndolo ahora, íbamos a la primera de las fronteras porque entendimos que la carretera esta cerrada, cuando era la frontera lo que estaba cerrado.

Cuando paramos a preguntar por algún hotel nos asaltan literalmente tres policías fuera de servicio y con aliento a vodka: que si nos hemos saltado una línea continua, que si llevamos dinero, móviles…se ponen a enrear y me pasan un teléfono con alguien que habla en inglés. Resulta que han despertado de la cama a un compañero suyo y le hacen venir. Fue un momento un poco tenso, pero parece que con la ayuda de esta cuarta persona se solucionó el asunto. Lo cierto es que Uzbekistán es un país en el que controlan mucho quien circula por ahí y más si es en las proximidades de las fronteras.

Terminamos durmiendo en uno de los hoteles que vimos primero, los cuatro en la misma habitación. Al día siguiente probaríamos con la frontera que se encuentra 70km al sur.

the melbourne somalian muslim community were featured on sbs’s insight program last night to get their responses on last month’s alleged suicide plot on an australian army base by a few of their boys, as well as how they see themselves within the australian society…

it really showcased, demonstrated (i hope) to the general australian public that islam is not just a monolithic religion, where everyone is a clone of each other, that there wasn’t just one interpretation of islam even within one specific ethnic community yet alone global therefore we all don’t back radical, extreme movements like al-shabab, the taliban, al-qaeda…that those who proclaim that they are representing the real islam are only using it for their own personal gain…

just listening to the discussions reminded me of how fragmented, disconnected we really are as an ummah into how we really should be…is the hajj an ideal utopia of what we should be but so so distant from? that just because one can understand/read arabic makes him think he can be another imam yet hardly understands what he’s reading/preaching that we lose the real meaning/message of it -especially the beautiful, spiritual part…

at the same time they highlighted the struggles of every other muslim living in a western country trying to juggle and be the multiple identities that they are and yet still be disowned by the very country they have actively contributed and abided by…

when it came to little ones, they did mention madrassa’s -apart from the assumed breeding ground for recruiting extremist activity by authorities -aws a way for parents to keep their kids out of trouble and on in the straight path especially if they were just newly migrants or else their kids away from drugs…it did make me be a little concerned in terms of how -what kind o environment, education i should bring baz up in…

the public schools look a little scary at the moment with all the bullying, even deaths and suicides of students…here it matters which suburb you belong to because it can determine whether you will drop out or round up your education by the time you reached year 10 or your high school rounds up being in the top 10 in the state, your classmates top of the state…

the only gangs i happen to know or even heard of were the sword boys and thats as underground as you will ever get from me…never did drugs because i saw the effects of those who did -turned blue, bubbly and buried…that was enough to keep me away

i did go to an islamic college for the most part of my primary and secondary education and i have to say, as much as i was able to do the islamic things like pray zuhr, read quraan, learn about islamic history, jurispudence i was nowhere near an angel…who is anyways when their hormones are going berzerk and your mum happened to also be going through menopause at the same time!

my parents expected the education system to mould us to be good-abiding, obedient citizens when really it was their job to do so…so for me, it wasn’t till i finished high school that what i learnt helped me decide that this was how i wanted to be, not the environment…so maybe thats it…that i have to teach baz well even before he steps foot inside a schoolground to at least have the basics to get by…

i hope its enough especially when he’ll be without a father…

here’s the transcript to this episode

http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/117#transcript

here’s a taste of the type of forum this insight program features…

L’Union Européenne cofinance avec le GAP la rénovation d’édifices historiques. La madrassa de Cizre mérite sans aucun doute une visite.

Who are the ” Taliban” in Pakistan? Islamist militants in the country have won significant international attention after wrestling control over the Swat Valley, the restive region in northern Pakistan where elements of sharia law are now in place. Yet these militants do not self-identify as “Taliban”, unlike the Afghan Taliban who chose the name for themselves, and preferred it to the then generic term “mujahideen”. The term “Taliban” means students; the original Taliban were educated in madrassas, religious schools. Groups and individuals that are being labelled the “Taliban in Pakistan” (TIP) are very different from their Afghan counterparts in important respects. It is pertinent not just to think through the implications of these differences but also to raise questions about why distinguishing details are being lost in the media frenzy of recent months.

In Swat, the group that has gained the most notoriety in recent months calls itself Tehreek Nifaz e Sharia Mohammadi (TNSM).  This can be roughly translated as the “Movement for the Implementation of Mohammaden Law”. However, such a rough translation is inevitably problematic because substituting “Law” for “Sharia” here conveys the sense of a rigid set of rules. The “sharia” is, instead, a fairly broad set of guidelines allowing greater subjectivity and contextualisation to the individual judge than “law” does. (See for instance, Mohammed Qasim Zaman, Ulema in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change, 2007; Wael Hallaq, Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law, 2001)

Unlike the core of the Afghan Taliban, the so-called TIP are not madrassa educated; most of them are semi-literate or illiterate. Those who have received some educational training have generally attended local schools but not madrassas. Based on what little information there is about the militants, it seems that the leadership of the TIP consists in large part of men who have worked or continue to work in shops, as day labourers, as hawkers and peddlers, or in the case of the current leader, Maulana Fazlullah, as a chair-lift operator.

The TNSM was started by Sufi Mohammed, a local religious leader, in 1992. Since the beginning there have been suspicions regarding his relationship with the ISI – Pakistan’s now infamous intelligence agency. The speculation is that ISI support for his movement for the imposition of sharia in Swat in 1992 created instability that put tremendous pressure on the government of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Those were the days when the ISI was very suspicious of Benazir Bhutto’s support for its activities; later, perhaps, such conflicts of interest no longer existed.

Here at least the TNSM shares a history with other Islamic militant groups; the progeny outstrip the desires and commands of their parent. After his largely unsuccessful attempt to force his way into public view in the 1990s, Sufi Mohammed came to wider attention when he issued a call for the support of Afghan Taliban after the US invasion Afghanistan in 2001. Tellingly, his call for support received a lukewarm response from the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Arrested by the Pakistani government for inciting violence, he was released from prison in 2008.

During this period his son-in-law Fazlullah headed his movement. Fazlullah’s claim to fame, initially, was his FM radio channel and, in particular, his own program which established a significant following among the women of Swat. This is paradoxical given his emphasis on public piety, the burden of which often falls on women. Nevertheless, it appears from local reports that the FM radio channel had some variety in its offerings – from recipes to discussions on local politics – and was popular enough to be noteworthy.

How and why Fazlullah decided the time was ripe for his call to arms, and precisely what was the extent and nature of his activities up till that point remain uncertain due to the little information available. What is quite certain is that the Pakistani army’s decision to blockade the region – at times stopping the movement of food and medical supplies – and to attack some villages swelled the ranks of the TNSM. After an uncertain and largely ill-planned foray into the valley, the army retreated leaving the TNSM with a moral victory and control over some regions.

A recent report in the New York Times claims that the Swat Taliban have exploited class rifts within Swat to deepen their hold. They first targeted the two dozen or so local landlords. Each time a landlord fled in response to TNSM threats, local peasants were allowed greater access to the vacated land. The new arrangements also allowed for a share of revenue for TNSM. Other reports in Pakistani newspapers suggest that emerald mines from the area have been reopened under a profit sharing scheme with the local miners.

While critics have slammed the government for making concessions that allow sharia law in the region, the motivation behind imposing sharia may stem from more than just religious zeal. The much discussed Nizam-e-Adl (Mechanisms for Justice) regulation that was passed as part of the ceasefire agreement between the Taliban and the government of Pakistan and ratified by President Asif Ali Zardari on 14 April, makes perfunctory mention of the desire to adhere to Quranic injunctions, but rather is concerned primarily with providing quick and effective justice. The mechanisms may be misguided, open to abuse and problematic, but it is easy to see how the fundamental thrust of the regulation has found resonance locally. It is ultimately an endeavour to bypass Pakistan’s judicial system that is heavily biased against the powerless, and to facilitate quick decision-making.

A history of inequity and resistance may feed into contemporary events. The Malakand area of Swat was an important hub of peasant mobilisation during the 1970s, agitations that were suppressed only with a certain amount of brutality and with the connivance of local landlords and the state machinery. Not surprisingly, the landlords are often the region’s political leaders and administrative officials. Though it would be quite a stretch to see the TSNM in Swat as the heirs of these older peasant movements, their legacy no doubt lingers in the restive region.

Much media attention has focused on the worsening plight of women in Swat, particularly after the video-taped public flogging of a 17 year-old girl. Unfortunately, the kinds of atrocities perpetrated by the TNSM against women also occur in the feudal holdings of many of the “secular” political elite of Pakistan. Yet these incidents do not make headlines in the same way. Few Pakistanis can ignore the fact that restricting women’s mobility and reducing their educational opportunities (as the TNSM intend to do) along with gang rape, abduction, and honour killing have a long history in southern Punjab and Sind, areas where both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani have vast landholdings.

The alleged video recording the public flogging of a woman by Taliban in Swat has not been conclusively proven as authentic. A woman named Chand Bibi was initially identified as the one being flogged. However, she was reported to have sworn before a judge that the video was not hers (Jang newspaper, 11 April, 2009, front page). It is entirely feasible that she did so under duress. Quite rightly, the video generated debate and outrage within Pakistani print and television media.

Along with the very legitimate concern for women’s rights, sectors of the Urdu language press as well as various local TV channels expressed disquiet that the video and its reception have echoes of the campaigns carried out just before the US attack of Afghanistan. “White men liberating brown women from brown men” (to use Gayatri Spivak’s terminology) has a long history in justifying wars and occupations. The brutal treatment of women by the Afghan Taliban became the subject of email petitions, news reports and first person accounts in magazines like Elle, Ms. and Cosmopolitan.

Charles Hirschkind and Saba Mahmood point out the usefulness of this campaign in justifying the attack on Afghanistan and the callousness that was allowed within this framework:

“In the context of this intense concern for Afghan women, it is striking how silent the vast majority of Americans have been about civilian casualties that resulted from the US bombing campaign. In December 2001 – two months after the start of the US military offensive – the Feminist Majority website remained stubbornly focused on the ills of Taliban rule, with no mention of the hundreds of thousands of victims of three years of drought who were put at greater risk of starvation because US bombing severely restricted the delivery of food aid. The Feminist Majority made no attempts to join the calls issued by a number of humanitarian organizations – including the Afghan Women’s Mission – to halt the bombing so that food could be transported to these 2.2 million Afghans before winter set in.” (Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency, Anthropological Quarterly, 2002)

Hirschkind and Mahmood wrote this in 2002. It is arguable whether women in Afghanistan have benefited at all from the invasion since then. Even with the best of intentions the actual reach of the NATO forces remains severely limited within Afghanistan, and the writ of the Karzai government hardly extends beyond Kabul.

This is not to say that the developments in Swat should not cause concern, or that TNSM deserve our support, but rather that we need to look deeper to see where their strength stems from. Only then can we come up with an effective counter-strategy. The way the crisis is being constructed in mainstream media – highlighting the group’s affinity with the Afghan Taliban – seems likely to generate only one kind of response- a military one. US and UK governments have been openly pressurising Zardari to take the military option. Since Sunday, Pakistani troops have already started another “operation” in Buner.

However, the attention that the Swat TNSM have received from the US administration, including most recently Hilary Clinton, in recent weeks belies more than benign concern for the fate of the Swatis. The threat of these “Taliban” justifies the blatant disregard for civilian lives evidenced by the US army’s drone attacks inside Pakistan and creates the ground for an overt extension of the war in Afghanistan to Pakistan. This extension of the war in Afghanistan to Pakistan has resonances with earlier tried and tested strategies of the Pentagon. Using a template from the Vietnam war, Washington’s “AfPak” strategy follows a familiar logic: “The US has pretty much won the war in Vietnam/Afghanistan. This is the last little bit that needs sorting now, because Cambodia/Laos/Pakistan are harbouring Communists/Taliban. Once they are cleared up we can declare complete victory.”

Pakistan face many real problems, stemming in large part from the stifling inequity that pervades its political structures. The task of tackling these challenges is not abetted by intensifying militancy in the country, which has increased dramatically since the US invasion of Afghanistan, a spillover effect that Pakistan can ill afford.

However, it is still not beyond the capacity of Pakistani society to contain these militants. I am reminded here of what Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Laureate and Human Rights Activists said in response to a question from an audience at Cambridge University some years ago. She was asked about what feminists in the west could do to help women in Iran. “Nothing,” she said, “We are capable of fighting our own battles and will manage, as long as you can stop your governments from invading us.”

Steve Doocy, of Fox News, is back on the attack against President Obama. This time, however, ABC is the pawn caught in the middle of the controversy. ABC has tremendous access to President Obama for a big interview it apparently will air. Doocy called ABC the “All Barack Channel.” Like several other hypocrites at Fox, Doocy has the nerve (I was going to say audacity) to criticize ABC for its coverage of President Obama after Fox had tremendous access of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Doocy has a history of smearing the president (or, is it just a bias?). He was a part of a false report advanced by numerous conservatives (including many on Fox News) that said President Obama attended a Muslim school, a madrassa. Normally, I would not spend much time fussing over a false report, but this one seems to have been driven by an ideological bias against Barack Obama (when he was a candidate for the presidency).

WOLF BLITZER: CNN did what any serious news organization is supposed to do in this kind of a situation. We actually conducted an exclusive first-hand investigation inside Indonesia to check oout the school that Barack Obama attended as a little 6-year-old boy.

Here is the transcript from Media Matters:

From the January 19, 2007, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends First:

DOOCY: When people find out this stuff, they’re going to go, “Why didn’t anybody ever mention that that man right there was raised as — spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father — as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa?”

KILMEADE: Yeah, is that a problem? Evidently, when he was a little kid, he went over to Indonesia and went to a madrassa. He — in his two best-selling books, he doesn’t really mention this in detail, says, you know, I went to — mostly raised secular but went to a Muslim school, went to a Catholic school, and then a little bit later on, he would become a Christian, almost like a born-again Christian. But Barack Obama had a father born in Kenya who was a Muslim.

[...]

DOOCY: Is it ancient history or do you think madrassa matters? Josh joins us from Colorado. Good morning to you, Josh.

CALLER: What’s up?

DOOCY: What do you think?

CALLER: I think that, ultimately, this will probably be one of the main reasons he’s not elected.

DOOCY: Just the fact that his father was a Muslim, he was raised as a Muslim for awhile, and went to a madrassa school in Jakarta?

CALLER: Right. I mean, where — you’d think that could possibly give him, you know, better insight on the enemy, maybe he doesn’t really consider terrorists the enemy.

DOOCY: All right, Josh.

KILMEADE: Well, we’ll see about that. Yeah, Josh says that. Larry from Tennessee, where do you weigh in?

[...]

CALLER: Hi, good morning. Yes, I think it does matter. The fact that he omitted it must mean that he feels that somebody is going to have an opinion, and President Bush certainly comes under scrutiny, so why shouldn’t he?

KILMEADE: Well, he didn’t admit it. I mean, that’s the issue is that –

CARLSON: Well, she said he didn’t.

KILMEADE: Yeah, says he didn’t come out, and say, look, I was — was over in Indonesia for five years was — or roughly five years, went to a madrassa. And there is some reports that Wahhabism was the curriculum there –

DOOCY: Yeah.

KILMEADE: — which is a problem because they start with “We hate America” and work their way back from there.

DOOCY: Well, the way it was framed in one of his biographies, he said quote, “I was sent first,” this is in Indonesia, “to a Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school.” He doesn’t say, “I went to a madrassa, where they taught Wahhabism.” He simply says, “I went to a predominantly Muslim school.”

From the January 19, 2007, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

DOOCY: And in today’s Insight Magazine, which is a publication of The Washington Times, they talk about how Barack Obama, raised as a Muslim by his stepfather, also who was a Muslim, eventually an atheist, in Jakarta, Indonesia. And, you know, what have we heard about — coming out of the madrassa schools over in Indonesia? This is huge.

KILMEADE: It’s big about his background. It’s also interesting. He had two best-selling biographies. It did not come up — was not directly addressed. He also — they also found out that some of the characters in his biographies are composite characters, which he did not say up front. And if you think that Barack Obama is under some scrutiny now, just picture what’s going to be happening if he continues to lead over in Iowa and in New Hampshire, like he’s doing in two of the polls.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200701300007

The Boston Channel:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/10836367/detail.html

I retrieved this article from the NY Times website at about 10:15pm EST on June 10. It deals with alleged controversy surrounding the expansion of a Saudi school in Virginia. At the time that I accessed it, one part of the article read as follows:

James Lafferty, chairman of a loose coalition of individuals and groups opposed to the school, said that its teachings sow intolerance, and that it should not be allowed to exist, let alone expand.

“We feel that it is in reality a madrassa, a training place for young impressionable Muslim students in some of the most extreme and most fanatical teachings of Islam,” Mr. Lafferty said. “That concerns us greatly.”

The first minor error is that James Lafferty does not appear to have any position with this “loose coalition”. After a few minutes of Googling, I learned that Lafferty’s wife, Andrea, heads the “coalition”, called the Traditional Values Coalition, with her father, Rev. Lou Sheldon.

Here’s where the Times’ cursory mention of Lafferty’s background creates real problems. The TVC is a particularly vitriolic, right wing Christian organization whose extremist views seem to focus on homosexuality. Two links in its navigation panel that stand out immediately on its home page are entitled “Causes and Cures of Homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorders” as well as “Homosexual Urban Legends”. They’ve even gone after the YWCA, and seem to have played a role in getting a former YWCA employee fired on the grounds of (1) being bisexual, and (2) having “feminist spirituality”.

A further search on nndb shows that Andrea Lafferty has ties to an organization called the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters, also linked to the Christian Right’s usual suspects, including Tony Perkins (Focus on the Family), Rod Parsley (Ohio megapastor of “The US was founded to destroy Islam” notoriety), and Watergate felon-turned-evangelist Chuck Colson.

The serious flaw in the Times’ sloppy reporting here is that is gives the appearance of credibility to James “Jim” Lafferty’s comments. Proper reporting might instead have explained, “Conservative Christian lobbyists are using their influence to try to stop the expansion of the school.”

The first time I passed by a madrassa and heard the word a shiver went down my spine. All those frightening images I see from all the camps in other parts of the world came to mind. But when I went inside, I haven’t met more gentle teachers nor a more innocent bunch of students.

I have shot many images here and will post them in due course.

Excerpts From Wiki:
Madrasah literally means “a place where learning/teaching is done”. In the Arabic language, the word مدرسة (madrasah) simply means the same as school does in the English language, whether that is private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim, or secular. Unlike the understanding of the word school in British English, the word madrasah is like the term school in American English, in that it can refer to a university-level or post-graduate school as well.

A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study: a hifz course; that is memorisation of the Qur’an (the person who commits the entire Qur’an to memory is called a hafiz); and an ‘alim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, Tafsir (Qur’anic interpretation), shari’ah (Islamic law), Hadith (recorded sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic), and Muslim History.

People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an ‘alim for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A good number of the huffaz (plural of hafiz) are the product of the madrasahs. The madrasahs also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasahs is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madrasahs may enroll female students; however, they study separately from the men.

All the images on this blog are protected by copyright. Please do not copy, blog or repost in ANY way. If you wish to use them please get in touch with me through email.

Coddling of the Taliban over the years, the inability to tag (or document) “foreign fighters”. The habit over the years to “forgive” all illegality by FATA or Baluch feudals (listen to all the people on media lament the demise of the “Nawab” Bugti).

While sending Sheikh Rashid to jail for displaying a Kalashnikov.

Pakistan has been ruled under a schizophrenic system for decades. Where different rules apply to different people.

I could not do what “Nawab” Bugti did while in the cities. Yet journalists and politicians waste no time in praising “Nawab” Bugti and badmouthing Musharraf. They remember the missile that killed Bugti, but they forget the missiles that downed helicopters prior to that (The Story of Bugti’s Death).

Those people who have an urban background longer than a generation DO have a strong sense of what it means to be Pakistani. Not just in an “emotional” sense, but in a logical, philosophical sense which has a “vision for Pakistan”.

Urban/rural divide
Those who arrived into government jobs fresh from the village have not been able to reconcile the two. This split is visible in the government and other institutions as well.

It is at it’s most evident in the Mohajir/Punjabi divide. But it is also evident within Punjab in the East Punjab/West Punjab divide. Or the urban Lahori vs. rural Punjabi divide.

Pakistan is going through an urban/rural critical point.

Previously it was tilted heavily in favour of the urban group – as the urban groups took hold of the reigns of power after Partition. Slowly – thanks to the quota system – you had people injected into the government groups from more rural areas.

This divide became most well known by the rise of the MQM a number of years ago.

Over time however the urban groups have increased in size, as villagers have moved to cities and their children have grown up in cities. However this shift has not been reflected in the census and distribution of electoral weight (number of seats each area SHOULD have in Parliament). Many of these urban villagers, goto their village to cast their vote, when they spend most of their time in the city.

But the steady stream of village people has given rise to a stark difference in perspective. The current divide between the madrassas and the mainstream schools had it’s counterpart in the village schools and city schools of yesteryear.

Those people with a village background – most often with mothers and sisters who were relatively subservient and less educated – have a starkly different viewpoint on the Taliban.

But it is a view that is informed more by what they know than by what they have thought through. For them the Taliban are the closest thing to their former village life.

The Taliban are NOT reminiscent of ANYTHING to those who have been urban for more than one generation.

The process of assimilation into cities is quite fast but it still takes a generation. So for example Pashtun groups in Karachi rapidly turn “native” (compare Shahid Afridi to his elder brothers in language and attitude). Although they may still retain links to their villages, they cannot imagine going back for an extended period of time. They have become urban.

It is this divide which drives the different attitudes we find in our society.

The first generation village segment may send their kids to Beaconhouse, but they may harken for a Taliban revival. They will NOT think how it impacts their children’s education or their wives newly found freedom in the city. In fact only when the Taliban are there and blowing up those institutions do they realize things are out of whack. And they are confused.

Thus the nonthinking “idealist” villager has ignored that he is taking advantage of things the Taliban would prohibit. Yet he cannot help himself in supporting the Taliban because “they are so close to his heart”. Basically they provide “taqviat” to the non-thinker in him.

To the urban groups who live in more complex societies there is already an understanding of the complexities of major change. To them groups like the Taliban are obviously a primitive and unnecessarily harsh response that would never survive in the diversity that is a city. The Taliban’s appeal to a militarist and absolutist ideal (where only THEIR interpretation is right and NO, they will not argue about it either) is also too strong for their taste.

To the villagers, that aggression is reminiscent of the bravado and hype they exercised when they browbeat some poor folk in their punjab vilage.

Or in FATA, where the actions of the Taliban are reminiscent of the time they transported stolen cars to their areas and were not answerable to anyone.

The problem is people like Hamid Gul and Imran Khan find this behaviour “quaint” – it does not trouble them that why a person has different rights in different parts of the country. And therefore they are not surprised by the Taliban as well.

It has not helped that the education system in Pakistan DOES NOT uniformly expose ALL it’s people before they enter the civil service (there is relatively MORE uniform training in the Army though) or everyday life. Or that it pushes matriculating students to serve for 1-2 years in another part of Pakistan, so they become thoroughly “Pakistani” by the time they are in their 20s. This is what any thinking country would do – to build up it’s affinity with itself.

However the political process has evolved in very different directions – with feudals initially wanting to retain local power and thus being more inclined to stave off extra-local influences, schooling and “national” identity in favour of local tribal or cultural identity.

In addition the practice of cousin-marriages (inbreeding) which is rampant in Pakistani society – leads people to not escape their village past. If a person graduates to a higher level of understanding in the Army they are STILL saddled with their uncle’s daughter as their wife and their uncle and his daughter may not have gone through that same exposure.

For this reason you will find pretty intelligent folks in our services STILL saddled with cow-brained wives. And a climate of “jihalat” at home. There are exceptions, but it is still disturbingly common to find people who COULD escape the “jihalat” of their families unable to do so because their extended family is represented by their cousin-wife.

As a result you will find that the “jahil” in our society not get separated by a filtration mechanism from our organizations.

The quota system also does not help.

Generational jihalat
Once you allow “jihalat” to enter you have people unaware of the Islamic school of thought followed by their grandparents. And WHY their grandparents followed that fiqh. These questions do not occur to them – last thing they knew the village maulvi was the one deciding on all that stuff.

It is for this reason that this group of people are ESPECIALLY reluctant to go against jahil or pretending “maulvis” (like Maulana Fazlullah son-in-law of Sufi Mohammed – neither of whom is qualified to give fatwa, and the son-in-law is not even a Maulana – it’s just a title he’s given himself).

When faced with such people, the village generation wimps out. They seem to associate these people with Islam. Because that is how it was in their village.

The urban educated group has a far different response than this. They have seen maulvis in action in the cities. There are more people, they meet a greater variety of people. And pretty soon after living a number of years in the city they are NOT impressed by just anyone claiming to be a “maulvi”.

Plus many urban people have a longer history of awareness of what fiqh their grandfather followed.

These people are not as likely to be enamoured of the Saudi Wahhabi/Salafi sects – because they remember their grandfather badmouthing them as outside the 4 schools of Sunni Islam (or Shia).

If they study a bit of history – they may also have learned how the Saudis were instrumental for the British (Lawrence of Arabia) in carving out the Holy places from the Ottoman Empire, thus leaving them without moral grounds for existence as an Islamic Caliphate.

If they are more aware they may even see parallels between how the Saud tribe took assistance from Abdul Wahhab to do what no maulvi dared to do – i.e. encourage fitna against the Islamic State. And then to loot, pillage and massacre people in order to elevate the Saud tribe above all others.

They may also realize the non-compatibility of the Saudi state – with it’s “special family” status for the Sauds with the concept of Pakistan and the history of the Muslims in the Subcontinent.

The weak and the impressionable
However there is a significant group – among the village group AS well as among the urban group (usually the more ignorant section of the urban groups) who DO fall under the spell of the Saud family and the Wahhabi sect. And who forget WHY their forefathers were Hanafi (in both the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire) and WHY their forefathers considered the Wahhabi to be outside the pale of Islam (primarily because by not accepting one consistent “school” they open themselves up to innovations like fitna against the Islamic state – as the Saud/British did with the fatwas of Abdul Wahhab).

And they do this because they see a deficient system in Pakistan – but a system that is deficient for OTHER reasons. Because feudals are in power and seek to deny education and uniform “vision for Pakistan” in their training.

However because they are ignorant they never examine what/why.

They just see wealth everywhere in the oil countries. They work there a few years and become “namak khaya hai”.

The more ignorant among them begin to see the Saud as some sort of “holy” family. Some may even think they are related to the Prophet or something (the history of Saudi Arabia is not taught in our schools).

They see strict rules in effect – and it makes them feel safe. They are unable to examine how or why the situation is different in Pakistan.

All they know is they find it easier to just adopt this more strict system. And then they don’t have to think.

They come back to Pakistan. Some turn to wearing the Saudi veil – WITHOUT examining if it suits them. Or what the Hanafi school says about veiling the face etc.

In effect they visit Saudi Arabia and they change their culture. And that also without examination.

And the reason is because in Saudi Arabia they are inundated by a system that does not brook any alternate view of things. These people begin to think that is all there is.

Then in Pakistan no one publicly talks about Saudi Arabia involvement in Western intrigue against the Usmania Caliphate. And they are not aware how strong the Usmania Caliphate was in the history of Indian Muslims (early 1900s).

They are also not aware that Muslim women sacrificed their jewelry to support Turkey – jewelry that went into creating the Turkish State Bank. Something the Turks are still thankful for after all these years.

The main problem in Pakistan is that history is not taught in a manner that elucidates, that simplifies, that relates to the people and which LINKS them to the past. AND to their mistakes and to the lessons of history.

Pakistan’s successive incompetent governments – because they are incompetent, turn to anyone who will “help” – including Saudi oil money.

Thullay to a foreign tribe
Nawaz Sharif turns to them to get his family out of a tricky situation.

The requirement for Haj also makes many “thullay” to the “intizamia” in Saudi Arabia.

For many feudals the demonstration of Saudi tribalism is a refreshing relief (as demographics shift more towards urban centers).

They fail to realize that Pakistan could take over Saudi Arabia in a week. That is, if the U.S. wanted us to – since right now the Sauds have invited the U.S. over.

This potential usefulness of Saudi money, makes discussion of Saudi a taboo subject in Pakistan.

In this climate – you find Saudi money pouring in – for Afghan war, then the proxy war against Iran (Saudi/U.S./Israel) – the effort at containment of Iran’s revolution.

You see the labeling of Shia as “wajibul qatal” in open language in our mosques – and no one moves a muscle. In fact the Shia “wajibul qatal” slogan was the PRIMARY recruiting tool for Pakistani youth to fight in Afghanistan. Why else do you think people would go there to fight the Northern Alliance.

When the Shia were not called “wajibul qatal” for 1400 years, then how come it becomes “acceptable” now ? Because of Wahhabi “innovative” readings. Because when you don’t have a system to adhere to (whether Hanafi, Shafii, Maliki or Hanbali) there is MUCH more leeway for activist “fatwa” baazi.

A “religious” reason was constructed to fight the Northern Alliance. And it was given wide coverage in Pakistan. Shia being called “wajibul qatal” was the driving force for recruitment for going to Afghanistan.

It also led to untold killing of Shia by the Taliban. The Northern Alliance was probably worse.

This was a disaster waiting to happen.

Conflicted interests
The only reason it “worked” for so long was that there were people who were not only NOT ALARMED at it’s development within Pakistan. But they were in fact AGENTS of these foreign powers.

The already existing group of Saudi enamoured, non-thinking, Hanafi-abandoned, groups COULD have seen the “tazaad” in the situation.

But they did not. Why ? Because they were some of the most non-thinking people in our country.

It was FAR FAR easier for them to toe the Saudi line and to continue to do so until it did not make sense anymore, than to examine the contradictions, their own contradictions, and the contradictions between Wahhabi and their own family’s Hanafi roots.

And so now when the Taliban are at their door – been unfettered for years. EVEN when they were a visible danger, this obvious threat was considered “benign”. And if some people raised issues which did not have answers, then tar and feather those people i.e. character assassination – so you have the same people blaming Musharraf (even though the religious parties were unable to give an alternative when Musharraf told them Pakistan could resist the U.S. for some minutes).

These same people (Hamid Gul, Imran Khan) and the media (Dr. Shahid Masood, Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi) CONTINUED to remain in a state of denial. Why ? Because it was TOO DIFFICULT now to reverse course for them. Their minds could not fathom how to reverse the trend – so they passed the buck – by getting people involved in destabilizing whoever was saying there WAS a problem to resolve.

Notice the number of people agitating for change RIGHT at the time when Pakistan is facing it’s most crucial time in recent history.

It was ONLY after these people started seeing the CONSTRAINTS that these Taliban would put on THEM that they suddenly faced confusion.

The “lawyers” finding that the Taliban didn’t consider them human. Iftikhar Chaudhry finding that he was a nobody in their eyes. Aitzaz Ahsan finding that he maybe out of a job. The media (who Musharraf supported over the complaints of the PML-Q politicians) finding that suddenly the Taliban was not the “friend” after all.

Suddenly what was apparent to people earlier – that the media could not have a better benefactor than Musharraf (despite the period of Emergency) who encouraged criticism of himself, that the Taliban was a danger because it was controlled by TOO MANY outside forces whose ideals did NOT necessarily include the preservation of Pakistan. That the lawyers movement was promoting Iftikhar Chaudhry whose own lawyers considered him a corrupt judge, but saw it as a good tool to use to bring Musharraf down. Suddenly all this became known to these people as well.

It was when the Taliban took over other religious organizations madrassas, or killed their people, did the religious groups “realize” that the Taliban is not from amongst us.

The Taliban are following the SAME pattern of the early 1900s Saud family/Abdul Wahhab doctrine. Of GOING AGAINST the Islamic State. They did that ONLY because Abdul Wahhab was able to craft a “Takfiri” ideology – which for the first time meant a cleric was available to badmouth the Caliph and central authority of the Islamic state. Something that was a no-no before (as it is always a prelude to fitna), suddenly became an asset for the British. They had the tool to drive against the Ottoman Empire now.

We are now witnessing the SAME thing in Pakistan with the Taliban. They TOO are styling themselves as iconoclasts, as people going against the grain. And like the early 1900s, these too do not need to listen to any of the religious groups working in Pakistan, just as the Wahhabi crushed the existing ulema in the Holy places.

The Taliban embody the SAME arrogance and self-righteousness which distinguished the Saud/Wahhabi tribal violence against the religious ulema in the Holy places in early 1900s.

In their naivete a lot of the Pakistani religious groups have used the Taliban – because it was opportune to “zich” Musharraf.

Now their gaffe is going to hit them – as the Taliban wreak GREATER revenge on all the ulema and religious challengers in Pakistan. In fact the Taliban expect far LESS challenge from the liberals (who will keep quiet and sit in their homes), than they do from competing religious groups who have their OWN assets in Pakistan to protect from being taken over by Taliban.

Pakistan’s friend
The sooner Pakistan realizes that the real enemies of Pakistan are U.S. and SAUDI ARABIA. The sooner they will be able to deal with this.

It is in this light that I was APPALLED to find the media were not covering the MQM Ulema Conference in Karachi a few days ago. Sure they covered Altaf Hussain’s speech, but they should have covered the other varieties of Ulema and their speeches over the course of the WHOLE day.

Given that the media spends much of it’s time portraying the “muzloomiat” of the Taliban, and now they are seeing the real face of the Taliban (as they threaten the media with silence). They SHOULD have showed the ENTIRE conference.

This is because in the short segments which WERE shown it was apparent that they were making much the same message – that the ideology of Abdul Wahhab is damaging to the 4 schools of thought (Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, Shafii) and Shia. As Wahhabism does not care for either.

And the delicate framework on which the schools have been developed is destroyed when you have a Wahhabi system. Because then ALL the same questions (whether an individual should go against the state or not) become “debatable” points again. As the whole slate of accumulated thought and logic within the systems (like Hanafi) is in one stroke FORGOTTEN.

And in that clean slate plenty of new mistakes are open to be made – as Wahhabism experiments again and again with the same questions which have been resolved within Hanifi school for instance.

At the very least this PRESUMPTION that Saudi Arabia is a great friend of Pakistan should be removed from people’s minds.

A natural governorship
The Saud family could scarcely be Pakistan’s friend when it is not even their own people’s friend – if any revolution were to strike Saudi Arabia these Saud princes would free to Europe and take all the ACCUMULATED wealth of their Saudi oil for the last 50 years with them away from their country.

Saudi Arabia is sitting on a powder keg without a great deal of resilience.

Pakistan is a far different country with 160M people. We can talk about an “ambience” in our country with that many people. We can call it a state, a country.

There are far fewer people in Saudi Arabia to make them a “country”. They do not have sufficient populace to oppose ANY invader.

In fact a lot of people criticize Saudi Arabia unfairly for being “pitthoo” of U.S and “why” they allowed U.S. bases etc. (for example Osama Bin Laden was supposedly pissed at the moronic Sheikh Fahd’s wimped out decision to bring U.S. bases right after Iraq attack of Kuwait). The people who have been fed Saudi Arabia’s dogma EXPECT them to behave independent. But this problem happens because a lot of people are drinking the Kool Aid (i.e. swallowing what the Sauds say) of the Saudi government.

The fact remains that Saudi Arabia was NEVER a country. It was part of the Ottoman Empire (Caliphate) and it was a special zone (like the Vatican in Europe).

They were always a governorship – first under the protection of the Ottoman Empire (lot of Mughal Empire funding also went into the Holy places) and once that was removed, they BECAME a governorship under the British/U.S. powers.

It will be a fact that Saudi Arabia will ALWAYS remain under SOMEONE’s thumb.

They should never have been a separate country – but should have remained under Ottoman rule as a special “Holy Land” maintained for the use of the whole muslim nation.

By separating it, the Saud tribe has IMPOSED a tribal primacy over a piece of land that belongs to ALL muslims from Egypt to Indonesia.

By becoming a country they expose themselves to standard diplomatic issues – people want to build embassies there. People ask why aren’t there rights for westerners in the Holy areas, if the Saudi public can visit New York. These questions would not arise if Arabia was a special zone within a wider Muslim empire.

And because Saudi Arabia cannot defend itself it has to get protection from the strongest player out there (i.e. U.S.). If they took protection from a weaker player, that would create instability and war as the stronger player would take over, thus ruining the Saud family’s primacy.

It is for this reason that they will remain subjugated to foreign governorship. By being a country and subjecting themselves to normal diplomatic rules – opening up the country to reciprocated agreements countries – they are opening up the “Holy Land” to very different compulsions.

Short-term arrogance, long-term damage to Islamic history
In addition the Wahhabi arrogance has made them do things in Arabia – destroying archeological sites – that NO Muslim has dared to do in 1400 years. Because no Muslim is sure if 100 years from now people MAY want to see many things that date back from the earlier times of Islam.

Sure you can destroy these things, but you cannot bring them back if a post-Wahhabi government decides that “oops, we made a mistake”.

Yet it was this interloping Wahhabi group which FOISTED itself on the sentiments of all the muslims of the world by destroying archeological, gravesites, trees planted by the Prophet etc. JUST because there was a “danger” that people were indulging in too much reverence to these objects.

What is surprising is that what could have been prevented by stronger guards, instead of that they have shown a gleeful readiness to DESTROY stuff. It is as if they are intent on removing any vestiges of Islamic culture and heritage – that while peripheral to Islam itself is an important TESTAMENT to the reality of Islamic history.

When most religions crave SOME clue to the reality of their religion (as Christians debate whether Jesus existed or not), the Wahhabis are in the process of destroying evidence that was a secondary testament to the reality and conditions of a time gone by.

A 100 years from now, when people ask what Mecca, and Medina looked like at the time of the Prophet, it will be hard to imagine. And there will be people who will ask what is the proof that Muhammed actually existed or that he lived in this area. It will be at that time that people will sorely miss the archeological evidence that was EVERYWHERE in the Holy places, so that it was impossible for any outsider to even question the existence of Muhammed, or to question the hardships he and the early muslims faced.

What the Wahhabi have done in a short 50 years is destroy so many peripheral evidence, and so much continuity of tradition that IF it was the British which had been doing this activity, the whole muslim world would be up in arms.

And this is what is most intruiging. HOW easily the muslims of the world accept the Saudi tribe’s domination of affairs in Arabia. So much that they call their holy places “Saudia” (the place that belongs to Saud). How easily they accept decisions made by the Saud family over how changes should be made in Mecca/Medina when during the Ottoman Empire these were the affairs of the whole muslim world !

What is happening in Pakistan is a repetition of the same thing that has happened in Saudi Arabia. The duping of the Muslim world into accepting a small group (a family in Saudi Arabia, a group funded by Saudi supporters in Pakistan) – and their hegemony over their affairs. JUST BECAUSE they ACT pious or Islamic.

Can you imagine if the British had been doing what the Wahhabi have been doing ?

What if 20 years later people found out that the Wahhabi were in fact agents of the British ? Or that Abdul Wahhab was a Jewish agent ?

What is truly troubling is that when the oil boom ends, the REALITY of Saudi Arabia will dawn on people. And they will realize how the impoverished Holy places – which represented the spartan existence of the Prophet – became a Shopping-Mall like marble laden place of luxury that not only destroyed MUCH of the evidence of the houses of the early Sahaba and Hazrat Khadija but obliterated the environment of the original Haj.

The future of Saudi Arabia
The “development” of the Holy places is a smokescreen to mirror the development the Saudi princes do to their own palaces. In order to reduce the public pressure on their own lifestyles, they progressively make the Holy places more and more glitzy, so that in a few short years they look a FAR cry from the much more sufi, thoughtful place that these were at the time of the Prophet.

When the money dries out, the there will be no Al-Huda schools, and no Dr. Farhat Hashmi training her sights on rich wives of wayward rich husbands.

And people will realize what 50 years of Wahhabism has wrought on Arabia. And how poor it has left them.

In any case, coming back to the Taliban, what a lot of people are missing is the need to understand the phenomenon at a deeper level and from it’s linkages to regional players. And not to see it purely as a oozing of local village sentiment.

What the villagers of Pakistan need is guidance.

But the weakness in our society is that the “educated” or urban groups are either weak, or if they are rich, they are rich because they are corrupt. Or if they are rich and not corrupt then they are too “westernized”. Which means they AVOID Islamic issues and choose to leave it to the maulvis.

However what is required now is for people to have an understanding of religion and Islamic history, to BEGIN to understand whether the so-called “islamic” groups are actually Islamic or are they just using that as a tool

When major parts of our country leave this challenge to their ulema, they weaken themselves.

Perhaps to the chagrin of many, it is a reality that Pakistanis WILL have to learn about Islam if their enemies are using the banner of Islam to fight them.

In the end it might achieve the SAME thing that many religoius reformers have been wishing – that the public should be more aware of Islamic doctrine.

Perhaps the arrival of the Taliban (and their eventual discrediting) will by necessity achieve the SAME goal. That is, a much more robust and aware Pakistani society.