I’ve always preferred non-fiction. Ayad Akhtar’s entrancing novel American Dervish has caused me to shift a bit toward fiction. The protagonist, like the author, grows up in America’s Midwest and the passion and certitude in the pages makes the reader consider, that perhaps, the novel is a bit of an auto-biography.
The charms of the book are many. Akhtar is a maestro with language; his style flows despite the usage of several words that one doesn’t come across generally. One feels this superb sculpting of a story without a hint of verbosity, just a draw to pick up the book again quickly.
The incredulity and innocence of a ten-year old is another winner. The simplicity with which Hayat Shah reports arguments and events in his family underscores the very convoluted nature of adults. The small Midwestern Pakistani-American family’s life changes rather dramatically with the arrival of Mina, Hayat’s mother’s best friend. Hayat’s mother for some reason has a masculine name, Muneer, and interestingly his father’s is a unisex one, Naveed. It might have been less jarring to have transposed the names, but no matter.
Ayad Akhtar depicts the culture well, but “behta” is phonetically incorrect; the word for child is beta or baita in Urdu. Initially I found “bhaj” confusing and then realized that he was using the short form for baji, or sister. It should have been abbreviated baaj and not bhaj for the latter spelling sounds like a short-form for a vegetable.
Hayat’s infatuation with Mina and how a ten-year old deals with its turbulence is poignantly portrayed. Ayad Akhtar is deft at this and the reader acquiesces as it were to what would be classified as an unnatural relationship. And what is more, in the detail of this relationship, all others that we have had, however odd and unconventional, find a strange vindication.
The story does not build up, the book is a veritable pendulum of emotions; taking the reader from one crisis to another storm. And perhaps this is why it just doesn’t drag.
Besides the language Ayad Akhtar is very grounded in his knowledge of the Quran and in page after page, events in Hayat’s life are correlated with Quranic verses smoothly. And the reader senses Hayat’s tender wonderment vicariously. The verses appear, sometimes in such profusion and detail, though, that it almost has a proselytizing feel.
The spectrum of opinion with regard to Jews is delivered very aptly. Muneer typifies Muslims that love and respect the Jews, especially Jewish men and then there is the venom that Imam Souhef and Dr. Ghaleb Chatha spew. This is so palpable in the American-Muslim community; rarely are people indifferent; they follow the all or none law-effusively awed by the Jews or tightly wrapped with antipathy. The ill-logic is even starker when seen through the eyes of a child.
Patriarchy, male chauvinism and domestic violence are alive and practiced with impunity by Chatha and Mina’s first and second husbands. And Dr. Chatha’s wife pulls in a literal interpretation of a Quranic verse to become not just a willing victim but desirous of a beating for in her mind she “needs it”.
Mina’s God-centered life-view and her capsules of Sufism provide for the deep joy in the narrative. “To be a Sufi means to depend on nothing, to want nothing and to be nothing. A Sufi is a day that needs no sun, a night that needs no moon, no stars. A Sufi is like the dust on the ground that no one knows is even there.” And amazingly: “This is what life is behta. It grinds us to dust. The Sufi is just someone that does not fight it. He knows that being ground to nothing is not bad. It’s the way to God”.
American Dervish is one of those books in which the end is essentially disclosed at the start of the book. The narrative is magnetic and yet before you’re quite ready, it’s done. Every chance I got, I found myself reading the book, loving the roller-coaster feel, and suddenly one feels like a giant wall accordions you, and it’s over. The languid feel of the book should have been carried right to the end. I didn’t like the wall. And yet I know that my mind is spinning from the story and not the sudden end.
Ayad Akhtar is an actor, playwright and novelist and American Dervish was his debut fiction. He is working on his second novel while he continues to direct plays in New York City. Till his second novel appears, I just might go for a second helping of American Dervish. So much for not liking fiction.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She is also president of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
From ephedrine to Ecstasy
The powerful in Pakistan don’t just indulge in designer items that cost more than an average person’s monthly income, they seem to promote designer drugs.
The current alleged Rs. 7 billion ephedrine corruption case involves Prime Minister Gilani’s son, Ali Musa Gilani and his principal secretary Khushnood Lashari. In October 2011 two firms from Multan were granted export quotas far exceeding those normally allowed for the drug which was then sold locally. Lashari made a furious cover-up attempt by transferring the Anti-Narcotics Force investigating team. The Supreme Court of Pakistan acting rapidly, reversed the transfer and reinstated the investigation. The ANF’s Regional Director Brig. Fahim Ahmad Khan made the stunning revelation to the Supreme Court that Lashari had advised him to leave Ali Musa Gilani out of the investigation and if he did so an investigation could be conducted against the two pharmaceutical companies, Danas Pharmaceuticals and Berlex Labs, which could then be “ruined and the state machinery will be with you”.
The powerful in Pakistan are not only oblivious to the hunger, homelessness and economic deprivation of a massive number of Pakistanis; they are clueless to the scourge of rampant drug addiction within it. Time was that marijuana was all that addicts used. But thirty years ago the Russian invasion of Afghanistan caused not just the influx of refugees to Pakistan but opium as well and Kabul became the opium capital of the world.
Marijuana is classified as the gateway drug and the stage was well set in Pakistan. Morphine is obtained from opium and the cheaply available acetic anhydride is used to convert morphine into heroin. Almost overnight intravenous heroin and cocaine users mushroomed all over Pakistan. The 2006 National Report on Drug Use in Pakistan estimates that there are 628,000 opiate users in Pakistan, out of which 77% are heroin users. According to the Report, the prevalence of opiate use is 0.4% in Punjab and Sind and 0.7% in NWFP and 1.1% in Baluchistan; the higher prevalence in the last two being due to the border sharing with Afghanistan.
Serious health issues are common among opiate users: 8% reported HIV infection, 11% reported Hepatitis C and 18% reported tuberculosis. Most opiate users use other substances on a daily basis. As naturally derived drugs such as marijuana and opiates became entrenched in Pakistan, synthetic or designer drugs made their entrance.
Amphetamine likes substances such as Ecstasy or MDMA, Crystal-Meth or methamphetamine and MDA are synthesized from ephedrine in “meth-labs”. Ecstasy and Crystal-Meth increase alertness, reduce fatigue, and lead to feelings of increased physical and mental powers, and euphoria. MDA is also known as the "love drug" because of the feelings of intense euphoria and desire to be with others that it produces.
Besides their addictive nature these amphetamine like designer drugs can cause severe agitation, life-threatening increases in heart rate and blood pressure as well as bleeding in the brain, heart attacks, tearing of the aorta, irregular heart rhythms, seizures and death.
Chronic use of Ecstasy, in typical recreational doses, can lead to a paranoid psychosis that is clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia. A recent important study reveals that MDMA use (possibly in conjunction with marijuana) can lead to cognitive decline in otherwise healthy young people.
According to the 2006 National Report on Drug Use in Pakistan, amphetamine like synthetic drug use was low in Pakistan; Ecstasy was the most common and was imported into Pakistan from various countries. The recent dramatic according of ephedrine to Danas Pharmaceuticals and Berlex Labs allegedly by Ali Musa Gilani and Khushnood Lashari, is evidence that Ecstasy users need not rely on imported Ecstasy; our home-grown meth labs can easily fill the demand.
The Anti-Narcotics Force seized 13 tablets of Ecstasy in 2005 and, get this, 8326 tablets in 2006, an increase of 63,938%! Difficult to wrap one’s mind around these statistics; was it truly a dramatic increase in the abuse of Ecstasy or did the ANF get a shot in the arm or both?
Ecstasy is more expensive than other drugs of abuse in Pakistan and is used largely in parties by young people, ages 16-25 belonging to upper-class families. These young people, high on Ecstasy, also indulge in risk-taking behavior such as car and motor-bike racing among a host of other activities.
Drug addiction knows no boundaries of class, wealth, race, age, profession or education. Like the chronic relapsing disease that it is, akin to diabetes and high blood pressure, with worse socio-economic issues, it eats at the fiber of society at every level.
All that an addict worries about is his next fix and all means to that end seem justified be it cheating, lying, robbery, prostitution or murder. With its widespread unemployment and economic decline the last thing that Pakistan could have afforded was its large addicted population. That the powerful and privileged of Pakistan would become sickeningly wealthy through untold corruption is bad enough; to think that those billions have the stench of deaths and destruction from Ecstasy use allegedly manufactured by the ephedrine scam of Ali Musa Gilani is a travesty.
The current alleged Rs. 7 billion ephedrine corruption case involves Prime Minister Gilani’s son, Ali Musa Gilani and his principal secretary Khushnood Lashari. In October 2011 two firms from Multan were granted export quotas far exceeding those normally allowed for the drug which was then sold locally. Lashari made a furious cover-up attempt by transferring the Anti-Narcotics Force investigating team. The Supreme Court of Pakistan acting rapidly, reversed the transfer and reinstated the investigation. The ANF’s Regional Director Brig. Fahim Ahmad Khan made the stunning revelation to the Supreme Court that Lashari had advised him to leave Ali Musa Gilani out of the investigation and if he did so an investigation could be conducted against the two pharmaceutical companies, Danas Pharmaceuticals and Berlex Labs, which could then be “ruined and the state machinery will be with you”.
The powerful in Pakistan are not only oblivious to the hunger, homelessness and economic deprivation of a massive number of Pakistanis; they are clueless to the scourge of rampant drug addiction within it. Time was that marijuana was all that addicts used. But thirty years ago the Russian invasion of Afghanistan caused not just the influx of refugees to Pakistan but opium as well and Kabul became the opium capital of the world.
Marijuana is classified as the gateway drug and the stage was well set in Pakistan. Morphine is obtained from opium and the cheaply available acetic anhydride is used to convert morphine into heroin. Almost overnight intravenous heroin and cocaine users mushroomed all over Pakistan. The 2006 National Report on Drug Use in Pakistan estimates that there are 628,000 opiate users in Pakistan, out of which 77% are heroin users. According to the Report, the prevalence of opiate use is 0.4% in Punjab and Sind and 0.7% in NWFP and 1.1% in Baluchistan; the higher prevalence in the last two being due to the border sharing with Afghanistan.
Serious health issues are common among opiate users: 8% reported HIV infection, 11% reported Hepatitis C and 18% reported tuberculosis. Most opiate users use other substances on a daily basis. As naturally derived drugs such as marijuana and opiates became entrenched in Pakistan, synthetic or designer drugs made their entrance.
Amphetamine likes substances such as Ecstasy or MDMA, Crystal-Meth or methamphetamine and MDA are synthesized from ephedrine in “meth-labs”. Ecstasy and Crystal-Meth increase alertness, reduce fatigue, and lead to feelings of increased physical and mental powers, and euphoria. MDA is also known as the "love drug" because of the feelings of intense euphoria and desire to be with others that it produces.
Besides their addictive nature these amphetamine like designer drugs can cause severe agitation, life-threatening increases in heart rate and blood pressure as well as bleeding in the brain, heart attacks, tearing of the aorta, irregular heart rhythms, seizures and death.
Chronic use of Ecstasy, in typical recreational doses, can lead to a paranoid psychosis that is clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia. A recent important study reveals that MDMA use (possibly in conjunction with marijuana) can lead to cognitive decline in otherwise healthy young people.
According to the 2006 National Report on Drug Use in Pakistan, amphetamine like synthetic drug use was low in Pakistan; Ecstasy was the most common and was imported into Pakistan from various countries. The recent dramatic according of ephedrine to Danas Pharmaceuticals and Berlex Labs allegedly by Ali Musa Gilani and Khushnood Lashari, is evidence that Ecstasy users need not rely on imported Ecstasy; our home-grown meth labs can easily fill the demand.
The Anti-Narcotics Force seized 13 tablets of Ecstasy in 2005 and, get this, 8326 tablets in 2006, an increase of 63,938%! Difficult to wrap one’s mind around these statistics; was it truly a dramatic increase in the abuse of Ecstasy or did the ANF get a shot in the arm or both?
Ecstasy is more expensive than other drugs of abuse in Pakistan and is used largely in parties by young people, ages 16-25 belonging to upper-class families. These young people, high on Ecstasy, also indulge in risk-taking behavior such as car and motor-bike racing among a host of other activities.
Drug addiction knows no boundaries of class, wealth, race, age, profession or education. Like the chronic relapsing disease that it is, akin to diabetes and high blood pressure, with worse socio-economic issues, it eats at the fiber of society at every level.
All that an addict worries about is his next fix and all means to that end seem justified be it cheating, lying, robbery, prostitution or murder. With its widespread unemployment and economic decline the last thing that Pakistan could have afforded was its large addicted population. That the powerful and privileged of Pakistan would become sickeningly wealthy through untold corruption is bad enough; to think that those billions have the stench of deaths and destruction from Ecstasy use allegedly manufactured by the ephedrine scam of Ali Musa Gilani is a travesty.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Inaccuracies and generalizations increase hatred
A letter writer to The Blade in his irritation with columnist Amjad Hussain paints with a broad brush: “But citing the misdeeds of a few practitioners of Christianity and Judaism relative to the atrocities committed by entire Muslim nations in the name of Islamic jihad, promoting global terrorism, suicide bombings, execution of nonbelievers, mass murder, and the constant threat of genocide against their Israeli neighbors, pales by comparison”.
Which“entire Muslim nations” have committed atrocities, promoted global terrorism, suicide bombings, execution of non-believers and mass murder in the name of jihad? Groups like the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have hijacked Islam and can be implicated in the above as well as the gross distortion of the most basic teachings of Islam.
The dispossession of the Palestinians and their continued dehumanization by Israel in flagrant violation of international law as well as the Sabra-Shatila massacres by the American tax-payer financed 5th most powerful military in the world, is more reminiscent of a “threat of genocide” than is vaguely possible by minimally armed Palestinian militia and rock-throwing teenagers.
Should the March 11 gun-rampage by a US serviceman in Afghanistan that killed 16 Afghan civilians be blamed on American hegemony or the result of a disturbed mind?
In a world beset by serious and extremely complicated issues, we are in need of the balance and calm of Dr. Amjad Hussain’s articles. As Americans and practitioners of our personal faiths, we must separate the actions of individuals from the practice of entire nations and especially from the teachings of their religion, that many have possibly studied little or not at all. Dr. Hussain skillfully graphs not just these individual actions but also the way they are perceived and how they can be manipulated, distorted and generalized to tar entire religions.
Our national socio-political conversation should be dispassionate and based on evidence and fact rather than wild, blinkered and baseless imaginings. These just serve to marginalize and inflame and conglomerate to become the problem rather than the solution.
Which“entire Muslim nations” have committed atrocities, promoted global terrorism, suicide bombings, execution of non-believers and mass murder in the name of jihad? Groups like the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have hijacked Islam and can be implicated in the above as well as the gross distortion of the most basic teachings of Islam.
The dispossession of the Palestinians and their continued dehumanization by Israel in flagrant violation of international law as well as the Sabra-Shatila massacres by the American tax-payer financed 5th most powerful military in the world, is more reminiscent of a “threat of genocide” than is vaguely possible by minimally armed Palestinian militia and rock-throwing teenagers.
Should the March 11 gun-rampage by a US serviceman in Afghanistan that killed 16 Afghan civilians be blamed on American hegemony or the result of a disturbed mind?
In a world beset by serious and extremely complicated issues, we are in need of the balance and calm of Dr. Amjad Hussain’s articles. As Americans and practitioners of our personal faiths, we must separate the actions of individuals from the practice of entire nations and especially from the teachings of their religion, that many have possibly studied little or not at all. Dr. Hussain skillfully graphs not just these individual actions but also the way they are perceived and how they can be manipulated, distorted and generalized to tar entire religions.
Our national socio-political conversation should be dispassionate and based on evidence and fact rather than wild, blinkered and baseless imaginings. These just serve to marginalize and inflame and conglomerate to become the problem rather than the solution.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo Monitor editorial & President's message
Our wonderful religion emphasizes niyyah, good intentions and hard work. And it seems we don’t do too well if both are not present in good proportions. Taking from this premise 2012 insha’Allah will be a year of energy, activity and unity.
The focus shall be on raising membership of the ICGT, reinvigorating the Youth Club, reorganizing the Ladies Auxiliary, having regular events at the Center as well as visitation to the community. And the wonderful news is that many of these aims are well on their way to being fulfilled!
Membership to the Islamic Center is as fundamental as clients are to a business. Many of our community members enjoy the fabulous facilities that the ICGT provides, for it is a birth to death resource. Membership is nominal at $150/person or $300/family and you can pay this in installments as well. We now have new membership boxes, reminiscent of the Star Wars R2-D2 robot, at the entry of the ICGT and in the foyer area upstairs. The form can be filled and deposited with either a check or credit card info into the boxes. A membership form is also included in this edition of The Monitor as an insert.
The Youth Club has been formed and has already had a few meetings and activities. If your over 12-year old child or relative wishes to join they can contact the Youth Club coordinator Faiza Husain at faizahusn@gmail.com They plan to have events like Meeting of the Minds, Spelling Bee, Math Bee, debating competition, Quran tafsir groups, sports, movie night, game night and ice-cream socials.
The Ladies Auxiliary had dissolved in 2011. The President, Mahjabeen Islam, Treasurer S. Saeed Zafer and Council-member Shabana Farooq met with community ladies on January 22, 2012. The meeting was emotional and the ladies raised many issues of the past and fears for the future. Most issues were addressed and we were able to accomplish elections of the officers that very day. Rabha Saie was elected President Ladies Auxiliary, Lisa Alcodray Vice-President, Reema Andrabi Secretary and Faye Sugheir Treasurer.
For far too long our community has been riddled with politics and agendas. Insha’Allah with this New Year and new Council, it is our resolve to work toward healing and unification. To help all of us toward the realization that we are but an Islamic Center, rather than the grandiosity in some minds of engaging in politics and division as though this was a country! To that end visitation to members of the community is planned by a small Visitation Committee consisting of the Imam, the President and a Council or community member. The purpose of this visitation is manifold: to engage the community and inform it of the many programs that are going on in the Center, that an effort is being made to “de-politicize” the Center and accommodate all shades of opinion and to increase membership and donation to the Center.
Regular events are already being held at the ICGT. On January 28, 2012 Mawlid-al-Nabi was held in the Social Hall which was packed with over 250 people. Do view the photos and the program in this Monitor edition. Hamd in praise of God and qaseedas in praise of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were recited in Arabic and Urdu by several wonderful voices. Speeches extolled the life and beauty of Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) character.
You will want to follow the Visiting Scholars Lecture Series. On February 18th Dr. Mounir Elkhatib will be speaking on “How to use your food as medicine” and on March 24th. renowned North American scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi will be speaking about the Sharia and misconceptions about Islam.
It is my heartfelt appeal for all of us to work for revitalizing the ICGT in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation, keeping the interest of the ICGT and service to Islam as our main focus. Life should not be a spectator sport, but a participatory one. Join us on Fridays, Sundays, and during all events at the ICGT and remember to become a member and give your zakat, sadaqat and donations to the ICGT.
Mahjabeen Islam M.D. is President of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. She is an addictionist and family physician in practice in Perrysburg. mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
The focus shall be on raising membership of the ICGT, reinvigorating the Youth Club, reorganizing the Ladies Auxiliary, having regular events at the Center as well as visitation to the community. And the wonderful news is that many of these aims are well on their way to being fulfilled!
Membership to the Islamic Center is as fundamental as clients are to a business. Many of our community members enjoy the fabulous facilities that the ICGT provides, for it is a birth to death resource. Membership is nominal at $150/person or $300/family and you can pay this in installments as well. We now have new membership boxes, reminiscent of the Star Wars R2-D2 robot, at the entry of the ICGT and in the foyer area upstairs. The form can be filled and deposited with either a check or credit card info into the boxes. A membership form is also included in this edition of The Monitor as an insert.
The Youth Club has been formed and has already had a few meetings and activities. If your over 12-year old child or relative wishes to join they can contact the Youth Club coordinator Faiza Husain at faizahusn@gmail.com They plan to have events like Meeting of the Minds, Spelling Bee, Math Bee, debating competition, Quran tafsir groups, sports, movie night, game night and ice-cream socials.
The Ladies Auxiliary had dissolved in 2011. The President, Mahjabeen Islam, Treasurer S. Saeed Zafer and Council-member Shabana Farooq met with community ladies on January 22, 2012. The meeting was emotional and the ladies raised many issues of the past and fears for the future. Most issues were addressed and we were able to accomplish elections of the officers that very day. Rabha Saie was elected President Ladies Auxiliary, Lisa Alcodray Vice-President, Reema Andrabi Secretary and Faye Sugheir Treasurer.
For far too long our community has been riddled with politics and agendas. Insha’Allah with this New Year and new Council, it is our resolve to work toward healing and unification. To help all of us toward the realization that we are but an Islamic Center, rather than the grandiosity in some minds of engaging in politics and division as though this was a country! To that end visitation to members of the community is planned by a small Visitation Committee consisting of the Imam, the President and a Council or community member. The purpose of this visitation is manifold: to engage the community and inform it of the many programs that are going on in the Center, that an effort is being made to “de-politicize” the Center and accommodate all shades of opinion and to increase membership and donation to the Center.
Regular events are already being held at the ICGT. On January 28, 2012 Mawlid-al-Nabi was held in the Social Hall which was packed with over 250 people. Do view the photos and the program in this Monitor edition. Hamd in praise of God and qaseedas in praise of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were recited in Arabic and Urdu by several wonderful voices. Speeches extolled the life and beauty of Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) character.
You will want to follow the Visiting Scholars Lecture Series. On February 18th Dr. Mounir Elkhatib will be speaking on “How to use your food as medicine” and on March 24th. renowned North American scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi will be speaking about the Sharia and misconceptions about Islam.
It is my heartfelt appeal for all of us to work for revitalizing the ICGT in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation, keeping the interest of the ICGT and service to Islam as our main focus. Life should not be a spectator sport, but a participatory one. Join us on Fridays, Sundays, and during all events at the ICGT and remember to become a member and give your zakat, sadaqat and donations to the ICGT.
Mahjabeen Islam M.D. is President of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. She is an addictionist and family physician in practice in Perrysburg. mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
Friday, December 2, 2011
Candidates and closet skeletons
Republicans in America have been raked over the coals these past few months; the clowning on the presidential-hopefuls stage would make even a Democrat cringe.
And the gaffes of the wannabes in the Pakistani paradigm are no different, except that the clowning there seems to include the prominent of all the parties.
Betrayed by Bill Clinton’s private adventures in the White House, America seemed to have gone on overdrive to redefine its moral compass. Fairly elected or not, George W. Bush ruled for eight years with misadventures more grave, numerous and enduring than this article could accommodate. The personal life of any presidential candidate or many a politician for that matter has become as easily examinable as their tax-returns.
In a debate Texas Gov. Rick Perry listed three departments that he would do away with but for the life of him, in the interminable silence of a waiting national audience could not remember the name of the Department of Energy. On another note he thunderously said that the first order of business if he were to become president would be the termination of aid to all other countries. This time, with greater alacrity than the amnesic crisis though, he stuttered “except Israel”. For in the minds of all presidential hopefuls there is no crossing the Israeli lobby.
History can be a pain, but I’d brush up on it if I were aspiring to lead the United States. Republican presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman stated that “The Founding Fathers, men like John Quincy Adams, did not rest till slavery was extinguished in this country”. As a matter of embarrassing fact John Quincy Adams died in 1848; slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution after the American Civil War ended in 1865.
Her worst faux-pas, by far, is while commenting on the UK closing its embassy in Iran. She says if she were president she would close the US embassy in Iran as well. The ouch is that the US has not had an embassy since the hostage crisis in Iran in 1980.
But self-named “Harmanator” Cain takes the cake. Again and again. He would not have a Muslim in his cabinet because a Muslim friend that he trusts told him that most American Muslims were extremists. Asked about Libya he said that the Taliban was trying to get a control of the government; unaware that they only roil Afghanistan and Pakistan, only a continent away.
His intense and reflexive prejudice is difficult to digest as he must have ancestors that suffered dehumanizing segregation and whose woeful stories make up legend that communities absorb into their DNA. He encountered oncologist Dr. Abdullah during his prostate cancer treatment and was markedly disturbed at the prospect of being treated by him. Cheerily, the nurse announced that Dr. Abdullah was Christian. Cain was hugely relieved.
However geographically and factually challenged as the Republican hopefuls may be, casting perhaps a much needed eye on the American education system, it is not their gaffes that get people mad; it’s the lies and the denials. Four women have come forth with stories of a sexual nature involving Herman Cain and even though two of them were paid compensation, Cain is adamantly denying the charges. The death-knell to Cain’s campaign though will probably be the 13-year affair that he had with Ginger White right until early November and announcing his candidacy.
Speaking of Whites, leadership fervor in Pakistan is now focused on Imran Khan. No one quite predicted his popularity as displayed in the massive Minar-e-Pakistan rally in Lahore. The PML (N) has been caught most flat-footed and its attempts to diminish Imran Khan end up being entertaining. That people from all over the world are trying to be part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has now left the PML(N) primarily and the PPP secondarily, whose indignation is hampered by their steadily slipping hold on power, to mount a character assault. Or an attack on his book, paragraphs of which in a boisterous TV talk show can be easily taken out of context.
Ms. Sita White is in Imran Khan’s past. He did marry a Jewish woman and does have a British politician as a former brother-in-law. He could despise feudalism and be less chauvinistic. And yet one wonders, both in the US and in Pakistan-are the people to elect the Pope for president or the best that the nation has on offer at the current time?
Muslims love to judge one another and that is what politicians prey on. That an overwhelming majority of common-folk in Pakistan are done with Zardari is incontrovertible. That “Zardari” is now a slur in Pakistan speaks for itself. The intoxicating Pakistan’s “Kursi Syndrome”(the ruler’s chair syndrome), that I have written about in the past, inherently involves being killed off or kicked out. It is simultaneously delusional and utopian to imagine a graceful exit for the Zardari-Gilani duo.
Is unprecedented corruption by the Zardari-Gilani clan as well as the not-too-far-behind mega-wealth of the Sharifs more desirable than the past physical indiscretions of Imran Khan? Are we giving our daughter’s hand in marriage to these men or considering their suitability to lead a nation that is at the brink of collapse and endures chaos of numerous hues on a daily basis?
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will most likely compete for the Republican nomination. Romney is dogged by flip-flopping on issues and being Mormon. Gingrich though astute will suffer his relationship indiscretions baggage. The candidate that rightfully deserves the nomination is Dr. Ron Paul. But with his take on The Patriotic Act being unpatriotic and similar well thought out but against-the-herd views, the chances of being front-runner are slim to none.
Predicting the future in Pakistan is akin to astrology. Events unfold at lightning speed and change the scene completely. Zulfiqar Mirza credits General Kayani for the continuance of democracy in Pakistan. More than normally boisterous and disorganized, its Pakistani version is still the best for Pakistan. For its continuance it is vital to get out the vote and not just scream in mega meetings. Pakistanis must mature in the democratic process and evaluate the candidates on their leadership credentials and ability to yank Pakistan out of its ever-deepening morass. Not whether they would be good brothers-in-law.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
And the gaffes of the wannabes in the Pakistani paradigm are no different, except that the clowning there seems to include the prominent of all the parties.
Betrayed by Bill Clinton’s private adventures in the White House, America seemed to have gone on overdrive to redefine its moral compass. Fairly elected or not, George W. Bush ruled for eight years with misadventures more grave, numerous and enduring than this article could accommodate. The personal life of any presidential candidate or many a politician for that matter has become as easily examinable as their tax-returns.
In a debate Texas Gov. Rick Perry listed three departments that he would do away with but for the life of him, in the interminable silence of a waiting national audience could not remember the name of the Department of Energy. On another note he thunderously said that the first order of business if he were to become president would be the termination of aid to all other countries. This time, with greater alacrity than the amnesic crisis though, he stuttered “except Israel”. For in the minds of all presidential hopefuls there is no crossing the Israeli lobby.
History can be a pain, but I’d brush up on it if I were aspiring to lead the United States. Republican presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman stated that “The Founding Fathers, men like John Quincy Adams, did not rest till slavery was extinguished in this country”. As a matter of embarrassing fact John Quincy Adams died in 1848; slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution after the American Civil War ended in 1865.
Her worst faux-pas, by far, is while commenting on the UK closing its embassy in Iran. She says if she were president she would close the US embassy in Iran as well. The ouch is that the US has not had an embassy since the hostage crisis in Iran in 1980.
But self-named “Harmanator” Cain takes the cake. Again and again. He would not have a Muslim in his cabinet because a Muslim friend that he trusts told him that most American Muslims were extremists. Asked about Libya he said that the Taliban was trying to get a control of the government; unaware that they only roil Afghanistan and Pakistan, only a continent away.
His intense and reflexive prejudice is difficult to digest as he must have ancestors that suffered dehumanizing segregation and whose woeful stories make up legend that communities absorb into their DNA. He encountered oncologist Dr. Abdullah during his prostate cancer treatment and was markedly disturbed at the prospect of being treated by him. Cheerily, the nurse announced that Dr. Abdullah was Christian. Cain was hugely relieved.
However geographically and factually challenged as the Republican hopefuls may be, casting perhaps a much needed eye on the American education system, it is not their gaffes that get people mad; it’s the lies and the denials. Four women have come forth with stories of a sexual nature involving Herman Cain and even though two of them were paid compensation, Cain is adamantly denying the charges. The death-knell to Cain’s campaign though will probably be the 13-year affair that he had with Ginger White right until early November and announcing his candidacy.
Speaking of Whites, leadership fervor in Pakistan is now focused on Imran Khan. No one quite predicted his popularity as displayed in the massive Minar-e-Pakistan rally in Lahore. The PML (N) has been caught most flat-footed and its attempts to diminish Imran Khan end up being entertaining. That people from all over the world are trying to be part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has now left the PML(N) primarily and the PPP secondarily, whose indignation is hampered by their steadily slipping hold on power, to mount a character assault. Or an attack on his book, paragraphs of which in a boisterous TV talk show can be easily taken out of context.
Ms. Sita White is in Imran Khan’s past. He did marry a Jewish woman and does have a British politician as a former brother-in-law. He could despise feudalism and be less chauvinistic. And yet one wonders, both in the US and in Pakistan-are the people to elect the Pope for president or the best that the nation has on offer at the current time?
Muslims love to judge one another and that is what politicians prey on. That an overwhelming majority of common-folk in Pakistan are done with Zardari is incontrovertible. That “Zardari” is now a slur in Pakistan speaks for itself. The intoxicating Pakistan’s “Kursi Syndrome”(the ruler’s chair syndrome), that I have written about in the past, inherently involves being killed off or kicked out. It is simultaneously delusional and utopian to imagine a graceful exit for the Zardari-Gilani duo.
Is unprecedented corruption by the Zardari-Gilani clan as well as the not-too-far-behind mega-wealth of the Sharifs more desirable than the past physical indiscretions of Imran Khan? Are we giving our daughter’s hand in marriage to these men or considering their suitability to lead a nation that is at the brink of collapse and endures chaos of numerous hues on a daily basis?
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will most likely compete for the Republican nomination. Romney is dogged by flip-flopping on issues and being Mormon. Gingrich though astute will suffer his relationship indiscretions baggage. The candidate that rightfully deserves the nomination is Dr. Ron Paul. But with his take on The Patriotic Act being unpatriotic and similar well thought out but against-the-herd views, the chances of being front-runner are slim to none.
Predicting the future in Pakistan is akin to astrology. Events unfold at lightning speed and change the scene completely. Zulfiqar Mirza credits General Kayani for the continuance of democracy in Pakistan. More than normally boisterous and disorganized, its Pakistani version is still the best for Pakistan. For its continuance it is vital to get out the vote and not just scream in mega meetings. Pakistanis must mature in the democratic process and evaluate the candidates on their leadership credentials and ability to yank Pakistan out of its ever-deepening morass. Not whether they would be good brothers-in-law.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Haunting, bold Bol
A prerequisite before enjoying Bol is an open mind. But even for the lead-lined mind of the zealot, just the sensory input of the film could break a steel-web or two. And staunch liberals might feel whiplashed at times as well.
Director Shoaib Mansoor insists that we talk. All that he brilliantly directs happens rampantly, but Pakistanis know not to talk about it. Our taboo issues are learned as if by rote and almost every issue raised in the film is where angels fear to tread.
The reviews were so wonderful and most films disappoint, for a movie, like life, is really all a matter of expectation. Not Bol. It is amazing that one film could mirror Pakistani society and tackle taboo issues so successfully. The art and savvy of the film is not its plot, for most of it is easy to predict; it is the depth, the dialogue and deep heartache that the lives of the characters create within you that makes you want to see it again so that you can savor what you surely missed the first time around.
While Pakistan is one of the few nations of the world that recognizes transvestites as a third gender, their ridicule is a given. Theirs is a mold that was predominantly created by society and has unfortunately continued to be filled and characterized today the way it was centuries ago. Recognition as a third gender is present in the law, but again like all things in Pakistan the law is useful only when cases of murder and gross usurpation of rights have to be fought in court. Societal bias and ridicule have not changed an iota and this is addressed very successfully in the film. When a child with gender confusion is born in a Pakistani family, hell does break loose. And this is the most heart-rending part of the film. In a single sentence of a single character the concepts of cross-dressing and homosexuality are challenged. Taking umbrage of religion, Pakistanis have stolidly ascribed the issues of cross-dressing and homosexuality to the environment; the film shatters this.
Patriarchy, intimidation and the preferential treatment scooped up by men is shown even in the small touches of the father getting mosquito net protection and the larger portion of food, but no one else, for the rest of the family is all women. Deprivation of education by the father and then ridicule for illiteracy is the typical double standard of numerous households. The practice of palming off endless daughters to any Tom, Dick or Harry and feeling the burden when the bad decision returns in the form of a divorce or undereducated or illiterate girls waiting a lifetime for Prince Charming is painful to see.
Hot-button issues of ethnicity and sectarianism take you on another roller-coaster ride. And Bol is an equal opportunity employer. If you feel embarrassed for the crudeness of Punjabi behavior, don’t despair, for the arrogance and superficial sophistication of Delhi-wallas is pitiable. If Shias are seen to be cultural Muslims, one sees Sunnis as blinded and without perspective.
Human life has little or no value in Pakistan. And Bol is graphic about this. We are more concerned with honor and societal respect than simply “the milk of human kindness”. And we are willing to sacrifice, in the literal sense of the word, a whole heck of a lot for ratings of friends and family. “Loag kya kahein gey” (what will people say) might as well be “kishwar-e-haseen shad bad”(happy be the bounteous realm).
The father’s cronies are unmoved when he says that he will kill his daughter or she will kill him one day. He only grabs their attention when he says that she questions Hadith.
Islam stands up to harsh inquiry and only those that understand a bit more than its basics don’t get hot and bothered by seemingly pointed questions. The logical inquiry of a young mind which is totally on point and is premised on the “dua and dawa” (prayer and medicine/action) concept bother the father endlessly, for his is not blind faith, but a dead one. Islam promotes inquiry and many a verse in the Quran asks you to wonder, challenges you to seek and learn.
That women perpetuate the exploitation of women is also well illustrated in the film. And the harsh and abusive circumstances that many families are living in day in and day out make you count your blessings.
For days Bol haunts you. You talk about it ad infinitum only to realize that everyone is not a fan. “We should make films that give a better image of Pakistan” said a friend. Is an image more important or the reality I asked? But ours is a society steeped in veneers. The veneer of a spotless drawing room but filthy kitchens and filthier bathrooms. Ours is a “sub theek ho jaye ga” society. Colonialism has not left us; we are more concerned about what is thought of us than righting our ills.
“The movie is very stressful” said another. Really? And Pakistan is not? Terrorism and corruption ridden, bursting with an uncontrolled population we should still put our collective head in the proverbial sand and make those movies in which they prance around in the grass singing love songs.
Free will and predetermination are also discussed. And the widespread attitude of receiving without lifting a finger and the raging confusion of submission to God’s will meaning to just be a puppet that perpetually procreates. Ironically this puppet-like submission does not come with an acceptance of God’s will when He showers a household with daughters.
A painfully human and particularly Pakistani trait is sharply shown: to blame a person for the way they look, for their gender and for their sexual orientation.
Shoaib Mansoor’s films are reminiscent of the soul-searching films of Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal. And more; they are pointed and courageous and Bol puts you through an emotional vacuum cleaning, if you let it that is. And we must collectively let it; we must talk about these issues rather than cloistering them into a stench.
The theme that the film wants to promote is not understood sufficiently because it comes way late in the movie. All else that it wants to convey it shouts, it screams and it harmonizes in a beautiful but sad symphony.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
Director Shoaib Mansoor insists that we talk. All that he brilliantly directs happens rampantly, but Pakistanis know not to talk about it. Our taboo issues are learned as if by rote and almost every issue raised in the film is where angels fear to tread.
The reviews were so wonderful and most films disappoint, for a movie, like life, is really all a matter of expectation. Not Bol. It is amazing that one film could mirror Pakistani society and tackle taboo issues so successfully. The art and savvy of the film is not its plot, for most of it is easy to predict; it is the depth, the dialogue and deep heartache that the lives of the characters create within you that makes you want to see it again so that you can savor what you surely missed the first time around.
While Pakistan is one of the few nations of the world that recognizes transvestites as a third gender, their ridicule is a given. Theirs is a mold that was predominantly created by society and has unfortunately continued to be filled and characterized today the way it was centuries ago. Recognition as a third gender is present in the law, but again like all things in Pakistan the law is useful only when cases of murder and gross usurpation of rights have to be fought in court. Societal bias and ridicule have not changed an iota and this is addressed very successfully in the film. When a child with gender confusion is born in a Pakistani family, hell does break loose. And this is the most heart-rending part of the film. In a single sentence of a single character the concepts of cross-dressing and homosexuality are challenged. Taking umbrage of religion, Pakistanis have stolidly ascribed the issues of cross-dressing and homosexuality to the environment; the film shatters this.
Patriarchy, intimidation and the preferential treatment scooped up by men is shown even in the small touches of the father getting mosquito net protection and the larger portion of food, but no one else, for the rest of the family is all women. Deprivation of education by the father and then ridicule for illiteracy is the typical double standard of numerous households. The practice of palming off endless daughters to any Tom, Dick or Harry and feeling the burden when the bad decision returns in the form of a divorce or undereducated or illiterate girls waiting a lifetime for Prince Charming is painful to see.
Hot-button issues of ethnicity and sectarianism take you on another roller-coaster ride. And Bol is an equal opportunity employer. If you feel embarrassed for the crudeness of Punjabi behavior, don’t despair, for the arrogance and superficial sophistication of Delhi-wallas is pitiable. If Shias are seen to be cultural Muslims, one sees Sunnis as blinded and without perspective.
Human life has little or no value in Pakistan. And Bol is graphic about this. We are more concerned with honor and societal respect than simply “the milk of human kindness”. And we are willing to sacrifice, in the literal sense of the word, a whole heck of a lot for ratings of friends and family. “Loag kya kahein gey” (what will people say) might as well be “kishwar-e-haseen shad bad”(happy be the bounteous realm).
The father’s cronies are unmoved when he says that he will kill his daughter or she will kill him one day. He only grabs their attention when he says that she questions Hadith.
Islam stands up to harsh inquiry and only those that understand a bit more than its basics don’t get hot and bothered by seemingly pointed questions. The logical inquiry of a young mind which is totally on point and is premised on the “dua and dawa” (prayer and medicine/action) concept bother the father endlessly, for his is not blind faith, but a dead one. Islam promotes inquiry and many a verse in the Quran asks you to wonder, challenges you to seek and learn.
That women perpetuate the exploitation of women is also well illustrated in the film. And the harsh and abusive circumstances that many families are living in day in and day out make you count your blessings.
For days Bol haunts you. You talk about it ad infinitum only to realize that everyone is not a fan. “We should make films that give a better image of Pakistan” said a friend. Is an image more important or the reality I asked? But ours is a society steeped in veneers. The veneer of a spotless drawing room but filthy kitchens and filthier bathrooms. Ours is a “sub theek ho jaye ga” society. Colonialism has not left us; we are more concerned about what is thought of us than righting our ills.
“The movie is very stressful” said another. Really? And Pakistan is not? Terrorism and corruption ridden, bursting with an uncontrolled population we should still put our collective head in the proverbial sand and make those movies in which they prance around in the grass singing love songs.
Free will and predetermination are also discussed. And the widespread attitude of receiving without lifting a finger and the raging confusion of submission to God’s will meaning to just be a puppet that perpetually procreates. Ironically this puppet-like submission does not come with an acceptance of God’s will when He showers a household with daughters.
A painfully human and particularly Pakistani trait is sharply shown: to blame a person for the way they look, for their gender and for their sexual orientation.
Shoaib Mansoor’s films are reminiscent of the soul-searching films of Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal. And more; they are pointed and courageous and Bol puts you through an emotional vacuum cleaning, if you let it that is. And we must collectively let it; we must talk about these issues rather than cloistering them into a stench.
The theme that the film wants to promote is not understood sufficiently because it comes way late in the movie. All else that it wants to convey it shouts, it screams and it harmonizes in a beautiful but sad symphony.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The US-Israeli no-win solution
President Obama performed beyond the expectations of his supporters; like a faithful wind-up toy. ‘Tis the season to be afraid of the reach and retribution of the Israeli lobby; after all the presidential election is right around the corner. Jewish writers have pointed out that Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, could not have done better. And like the consummate politician, Obama is counting on public memory to be ultra-short and forget his famous Cairo speech and others of the same content, in which he spoke convincingly of a two-state solution in the Middle East. Maybe he doesn’t expect the world to forget, as long as he’s re-elected, for integrity and justice don’t hold the key to victory; AIPAC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, does. Obama threatened to veto the bid for Palestinian statehood if it came to the UN Security Council.
America worked feverishly to prevent Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ presentation of the statehood bid to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, with threats of aid cuts and more taxes by Israel.
In his speech afterward to the UN General Assembly, Mahmoud Abbas got a hero’s welcome. Repeated applause and wolf-whistles permeated the otherwise formal air, crowned with a standing ovation when he referenced a copy of the statehood bid. The American delegation looked grim and uncomfortable.
After Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to an eerily silent hall and called the UN a “theater of the absurd”. The Israeli delegation tried hard to applaud loudly, but had a solo run.
That only the United States, Canada, Israel and Botswana were against and 189 countries for Palestinian statehood, matters little to a self-steeped sole super-power and the always-arrogant Netanyahu.
Obama parroted Netanyahu in demanding that the Palestinians negotiate with Israel instead of going to the UN for a statehood bid. In protesting to him, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan read back to Obama, Obama’s own address to the UN a year previously in which he spoke of Palestinian statehood.
Negotiations between Israel and Palestine had broken off in 2010 as Jewish settlements had continued. Netanyahu’s demand now is that Israel be recognized by the Palestinians. The fact that in a two-state solution recognition is implicit shows the mala-fide that this is based on.
Mahmoud Abbas got a wonderful welcome on his return to Palestine even though some do not subscribe to the two-state solution and Hamas felt that the 1967 borders were not the acceptable bargaining limits. BDS or Boycott, Divest and Sanctions is a campaign that began in 2005 against Israel’s apartheid. It aims for a one-state solution in which Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel have full equality, ending of the occupation of all Arab land and dismantling of the Wall, and promoting the return of Palestinian refugees as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
It is not just the hegemony of Zionism but the steadily changing demographics in Israel that seriously threaten it, that make BDS more of a pipe-dream than ever. ABC’s Ben Knight in an article “Make no mistake, Israel’s existence is under threat” writes of how secular Jews pay taxes, serve in the army and have an average of two children per couple, while the ultra-orthodox don’t pay taxes, don’t defend Israel and have an average of eight children per couple. Ben Knight reports that there are three types of state-funded schools in Israel: regular schools, Arab-Israeli schools and ultra-orthodox religious schools. In 1960, Knight writes, only around 15 per cent of Israeli children were enrolled in religious or Arab schools. That figure is now around 50 per cent. In 30 years, it will be almost 80 per cent. That is a frightening statistic for the nation of Israel, he says.
Additionally, Ben Knight reports that the ultra-orthodox study the Bible all day, every day; no math or science. Funny that the report that some madrassahs in Pakistan do not teach math and science causes the West to go into self-righteous convulsions.
Ben Knight sums it up thus: “if the figures are to be believed, in less than 30 years, Israel will have a population where the majority either can't, or won't join the workforce – putting an increasing, and impossible burden on the secular minority to pay the taxes and serve in the army.” Knight claims that the Palestinian issue aside, “Israel's demographic time bomb is still ticking away.”
However much of a blind eye the Israeli government may have turned to this ticking demographic time bomb, it is entirely impossible that it will entertain a one-state solution.
However divided the opinion maybe regarding the best solution for the Palestinians, this much crystallized in the recent UN General Assembly session. That America’s first black president disrespected the blood, sweat and tears of his people, just sixty years ago, and unleashed apartheid on another. Though isolated, arrogant and blatantly unjust, Israel and its Zionist diaspora hold US presidential hopefuls, congressmen, politicians and the media in a death grip. That the Palestinians don’t get statehood or equal rights within the state of Israel; it is the typical heads I win, tails you lose philosophy.
A nation that was dehumanized by a Christian army in the horrors of the Holocaust, routinely murders and maims with American taxpayer funded Apache helicopters and Caterpillar bulldozers. No one “negotiated” with the Palestinians when they walked into their land and took it as their own. With the pathetic Republican presidential candidates on offer, Obama might win a second term. On the backs of Palestinians, not that he could care.
One day, some day there will be a land for the Palestinians. It takes time and wreaks havoc on the way, but justice like inevitability, surfaces.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
America worked feverishly to prevent Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ presentation of the statehood bid to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, with threats of aid cuts and more taxes by Israel.
In his speech afterward to the UN General Assembly, Mahmoud Abbas got a hero’s welcome. Repeated applause and wolf-whistles permeated the otherwise formal air, crowned with a standing ovation when he referenced a copy of the statehood bid. The American delegation looked grim and uncomfortable.
After Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to an eerily silent hall and called the UN a “theater of the absurd”. The Israeli delegation tried hard to applaud loudly, but had a solo run.
That only the United States, Canada, Israel and Botswana were against and 189 countries for Palestinian statehood, matters little to a self-steeped sole super-power and the always-arrogant Netanyahu.
Obama parroted Netanyahu in demanding that the Palestinians negotiate with Israel instead of going to the UN for a statehood bid. In protesting to him, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan read back to Obama, Obama’s own address to the UN a year previously in which he spoke of Palestinian statehood.
Negotiations between Israel and Palestine had broken off in 2010 as Jewish settlements had continued. Netanyahu’s demand now is that Israel be recognized by the Palestinians. The fact that in a two-state solution recognition is implicit shows the mala-fide that this is based on.
Mahmoud Abbas got a wonderful welcome on his return to Palestine even though some do not subscribe to the two-state solution and Hamas felt that the 1967 borders were not the acceptable bargaining limits. BDS or Boycott, Divest and Sanctions is a campaign that began in 2005 against Israel’s apartheid. It aims for a one-state solution in which Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel have full equality, ending of the occupation of all Arab land and dismantling of the Wall, and promoting the return of Palestinian refugees as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
It is not just the hegemony of Zionism but the steadily changing demographics in Israel that seriously threaten it, that make BDS more of a pipe-dream than ever. ABC’s Ben Knight in an article “Make no mistake, Israel’s existence is under threat” writes of how secular Jews pay taxes, serve in the army and have an average of two children per couple, while the ultra-orthodox don’t pay taxes, don’t defend Israel and have an average of eight children per couple. Ben Knight reports that there are three types of state-funded schools in Israel: regular schools, Arab-Israeli schools and ultra-orthodox religious schools. In 1960, Knight writes, only around 15 per cent of Israeli children were enrolled in religious or Arab schools. That figure is now around 50 per cent. In 30 years, it will be almost 80 per cent. That is a frightening statistic for the nation of Israel, he says.
Additionally, Ben Knight reports that the ultra-orthodox study the Bible all day, every day; no math or science. Funny that the report that some madrassahs in Pakistan do not teach math and science causes the West to go into self-righteous convulsions.
Ben Knight sums it up thus: “if the figures are to be believed, in less than 30 years, Israel will have a population where the majority either can't, or won't join the workforce – putting an increasing, and impossible burden on the secular minority to pay the taxes and serve in the army.” Knight claims that the Palestinian issue aside, “Israel's demographic time bomb is still ticking away.”
However much of a blind eye the Israeli government may have turned to this ticking demographic time bomb, it is entirely impossible that it will entertain a one-state solution.
However divided the opinion maybe regarding the best solution for the Palestinians, this much crystallized in the recent UN General Assembly session. That America’s first black president disrespected the blood, sweat and tears of his people, just sixty years ago, and unleashed apartheid on another. Though isolated, arrogant and blatantly unjust, Israel and its Zionist diaspora hold US presidential hopefuls, congressmen, politicians and the media in a death grip. That the Palestinians don’t get statehood or equal rights within the state of Israel; it is the typical heads I win, tails you lose philosophy.
A nation that was dehumanized by a Christian army in the horrors of the Holocaust, routinely murders and maims with American taxpayer funded Apache helicopters and Caterpillar bulldozers. No one “negotiated” with the Palestinians when they walked into their land and took it as their own. With the pathetic Republican presidential candidates on offer, Obama might win a second term. On the backs of Palestinians, not that he could care.
One day, some day there will be a land for the Palestinians. It takes time and wreaks havoc on the way, but justice like inevitability, surfaces.
Mahjabeen Islam is an addictionist, family physician and columnist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com
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