Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

Urdu Section

24 May 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Will Utter Despair help Pakistanis Recognise the Real Enemy?
	Well-known Pakistani columnist Hamid Mir writes a touching story of Fazal Badi who has finally left Pakistan to join his doctor son in Malaysia. He could not continue living there after the recent suicide attack on the holy night of Shab-e-Qadr in which two sons of a poor mother he had been supporting financially for their education, one now a soldier and another a driver, died together in the continuing reprisal attacks by Taliban following the killing of Osama bin Laden. In his letter to the columnist Badi analyses the situation in Pakistan and says: “The enemy (the US) has filled us with so much hatred against one another that we are killing each other indiscriminately.” This website has no desire to defend the US foreign policies. In any case these are too complex issues to be just declared right or wrong, good or bad. But what struck us at New Age Islam was that this summation of this heart-rending Pakistani tale by a common Pakistani. It brings out the crux of the problem not only Pakistan but the entire Muslim community faces: sadistic enjoyment of victimhood. We are a persecuted community and we wish to permanently remain so. Common sense seems so uncommon among us that we can’t see what must be obvious to everyone else. Muslims are killing Muslims everywhere. They have been doing so virtually since the demise of the prophet. Three of the first four rightly-guided caliphs, heirs to the Prophet’s legacy, got killed. But it is the enemy (either the Americans or Zionsists or Hindus) to blame for everything. Hadi says that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are not enemies; it is only America that is the enemy. He writes to Hamid Mir before leaving Pakistan as the columnist had predicted 10 years ago at the beginning of the War on Terror that America will deceive Pakistan again. We hope that the anguish of one common Pakistani today will also lead to some introspection. Who knows, in the depths of their despair, Pakistanis might start looking within and thus recognising the real enemy too. – Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Will Utter Despair help Pakistanis Recognise the Real Enemy?

Well-known Pakistani columnist Hamid Mir writes a touching story of Fazal Badi who has finally left Pakistan to join his doctor son in Malaysia. He could not continue living there after the recent suicide attack on the holy night of Shab-e-Qadr in which two sons of a poor mother he had been supporting financially for their education, one now a soldier and another a driver, died together in the continuing reprisal attacks by Taliban following the killing of Osama bin Laden. In his letter to the columnist Badi analyses the situation in Pakistan and says: “The enemy (the US) has filled us with so much hatred against one another that we are killing each other indiscriminately.” This website has no desire to defend the US foreign policies. In any case these are too complex issues to be just declared right or wrong, good or bad. But what struck us at New Age Islam was that this summation of this heart-rending Pakistani tale by a common Pakistani. It brings out the crux of the problem not only Pakistan but the entire Muslim community faces: sadistic enjoyment of victimhood. We are a persecuted community and we wish to permanently remain so. Common sense seems so uncommon among us that we can’t see what must be obvious to everyone else. Muslims are killing Muslims everywhere. They have been doing so virtually since the demise of the prophet. Three of the first four rightly-guided caliphs, heirs to the Prophet’s legacy, got killed. But it is the enemy (either the Americans or Zionsists or Hindus) to blame for everything. Hadi says that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are not enemies; it is only America that is the enemy. He writes to Hamid Mir before leaving Pakistan as the columnist had predicted 10 years ago that America will deceive Pakistan again. We hope that the anguish of one common Pakistani today will also lead to some introspection. Who knows, in the depths of their despair, Pakistanis might start looking within and thus recognising the real enemy too. –Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam Source: Jang (Urdu), Pakistan URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamUrduSection_1.aspx?ArticleID=4694