Toledo City Council should join national ceasefire chorus

 

The Toledo Blade is on a streak of writing misplaced editorials. On January 14^th, 2024, it dissuaded Toledo City Council from passing a Gaza ceasefire resolution. 

 Yet Toledo City Council represents our Toledo community, which was classified as a Compassionate Community in 2014. How can our representatives be silent when they witness genocide? 

There were 32 hospitals in Gaza; Israel has destroyed most of them and, most importantly, provided the world no evidence for the claim that the tunnels underneath the hospitals harbored Hamas. 

Israel has killed 25,000 civilians and has provided no evidence of having captured or killed Hamas fighters that were using the 25,000 as human shields. Besides this massive death toll by incessant bombardment of civilian sites, Israel has stopped and retarded food and water supply to Gaza, threatening 2.3 million Palestinians with famine. Active and passive decimation, following Israel’s ethnic cleansing agenda, publicly verbalized by its ministers.

 

As though the death toll was not heart-rending enough, human rights groups report that Israeli soldiers have looted $25 million of Gaza’s cash, gold, laptops and mobile phones. Hebrew language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has acknowledged these crimes, publishing news reports on the so-called “loot unit” in the Israeli army’s technology and logistics branch. It confirmed that, since the ground incursion began, the Israeli army had seized the shekel equivalent of $1,320,000 and called it “the systematic theft of money of Gazans”. 

 

Pillage is prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

 

More disturbingly, human rights groups report the theft of body parts of Palestinians as well as the desecration of graves. 

 

As a Compassionate Community, Toledo City Council should join the growing number of city councils across the nation that have, mostly unanimously, passed Gaza ceasefire resolutions. Richmond, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, Akron, Providence, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Seattle, Cudahy, Chicago, Albany, Long Beach and Hastings are some of the names. Wilmington, Delaware, President’s Biden’s hometown, passed the resolution as well.  

We are so grieved at the daily, grisly massacre of children, and years from now, we will all face the question about what it was that we did to stop it. And Toledo City Council in passing the ceasefire resolution will be remembered for being on the right side of history. And sending a nationally orchestrated message: ceasefire now!

 

 

Speech at Gov. Mike Dewine's visit to Islamic Center of Greater Toledo

December 1, 2023 
15,000 Palestinians killed. Over 5000 children dead and the world let it happen. How did the descendants of Holocaust victims become war criminals? 

Hitler’s information minister Joseph Goebbels had a philosophy, that if you repeat a lie often enough, people believe it to be the truth and after a while you yourself believe it to be the truth. And this is the power of propaganda. 

In 2012, Randy Linn was continually listening to Fox News and one day, overcome, intoxicated, and armed he entered the Islamic Center and set fire to the prayer area. Ten minutes before he entered, three ladies had just left the Center. He said in court that he had never known a Muslim and was angry with what he had heard on Fox News. 

Political scientist and son of Holocaust survivors, Prof. Norman Finkelstein was asked about what happened on October 7th and he said it was a slave revolt. When you steal the land of a people and imprison them in the largest open-air prison in the world for 75 years, you get a slave revolt. 
 
What is happening in the war on Gaza, is savage power hunger using the two methods of supremacy and dehumanization. 
I’m sure you’ve heard of the missing White woman syndrome, in which disappearances of young attractive, White women gets a lot of attention, but the disappearance of Brown or Black women does not. This is White supremacy in action. 
 
This supremacy premise was in full action when President Biden said about hostage Abigail Edan that “what she had endured was unthinkable”. 
 

I want to ask President Biden why Palestinian children half-alive under the rubble of Israeli savagery, funded by the American taxpayer, don’t classify as enduring the unthinkable. 
 

I don’t have to ask because I know. Zionists, and the self-professed Christian Zionist that Biden is, believe that an Israeli life is more precious than a Palestinian one. They want to wallow in the Chosen People premise, when the major world religions, and even secular democracies recognize that all people are created equal. 
 
The world was in an uproar at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the loss of civilian life. But more women and children have been killed in Gaza in 50 days than were killed in Ukraine in two years. But the supremacy premise preaches that White Ukrainian life is more precious than brown Palestinian life. 
 
The image of a hand waving under the rubble in Gaza is etched in my mind and stops me from sleeping at night. So how do you unleash the barbarity of killing 15,000 innocents? By dehumanizing them, calling them vermin, calling them human animals. 

Israel, with the United States in faithful tow, does not get to making the rules. The world must not let the maniacal political ambition of Netanyahu continue the genocide in Gaza. 

Chapter 4, verse 135 in the Quran is my favorite: Stand firmly for justice and testify to the truth, even if it goes against yourselves, your parents, or your relatives. The great monotheistic faiths are embedded in justice. My request: don’t side with the oppressor and injustice. Be faithful to your faith.

Editorial ignored Israeli atrocities

 Your editorial "Release the hostages," Nov. 7 has some significant inaccuracies.

We wish President Biden wanted a cease-fire.

Mr. Biden only wants humanitarian pauses, which is a different concept from a cease-fire and is an oxymoron, for a pause in the bombing of civilians cannot be labeled humanitarian.

You label the 250 Israelis “defenseless hostages” and make no mention of the 11,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians that Israel has killed.

Pirates take hostages you say, in reference to Hamas. What do you label a people who occupy Palestinian land, dehumanize them so it is easier to kill them, and indiscriminately bomb hospitals, shelters, and schools?

War criminals?

You call for an unconditional release of hostages, but even Israeli families of the hostages demonstrating in front of Israeli war headquarters recognize the injustice and nonviability of that demand.

“All for all” are their chants and placards — 250 hostages for 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t budge.

Mr. Netanyahu invoking Amalek from the Hebrew Bible raises this to a holy war, justifying the killing of women and suckling children.

The U.N. Charter, secular democracies, and journalistic ethics recognize that all human beings are created equal.

Israel needs to shed the Chosen People supremacy premise, and the consequent impunity with which it is killing Palestinians, so that peace can prevail.

MAHJABEEN ISLAM

Monclova Township

The writer is vice president Islamic Center of Greater Toledo

https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/2023/11/19/to-the-editor-we-must-do-and-be-better-than-this/stories/20231119033?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=opinionbrief&pnespid=7bM7EHQdLKAIyPOctjm9GpKBuguhDoNvNeyj3bNorEJmjJ60USsIAZwHpdjP0vSgbS48iXRH

Zindagi: Allama Iqbal's poem translated

 I’ve always felt that the majority of great Urdu poets of old spun out their work in the midst of a major depression. They are wonderful to read when you’re lonely or going through a rough patch. Sadness sometimes has to go through that wallowing, immersive phase and Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Daagh Dehlavi to name a few, validate your grief. 

 

Years ago, I approached Allama Iqbal’s poetry with the same mindset, only to find that he is motivational, logical and upbeat. The only barrier in reading him is his profound philosophy, and dense language, which require close study and interpretation. 

 

Fortunately for us we have an Allama Iqbal class every Sunday at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, and it is essentially a spiritual and emotional rejuvenation that we go through afterwards. One of his poems Zindagi, is my mainstay.  And I translated it and read it and remind myself of it, both when things are great and especially when life turns tough. It is quite the tonic, you will agree. 

 

Zindagi

Life                            

Bar tar az andesha-e-sood-o-ziyaan hai zindagi

Hai kabhi jaan aur kabhi taslim-e-jaan hai zindagi

Life is beyond the concern for gain and loss

At times it is living at others it is sacrifice

 

Tu isey paimanaey imroz o farda say na naap

Javidaan paiham dawaan har dam jawaan hai zindagi

Don’t measure it with the mundane passage of day and morrow

Life is eternal; it is in perpetual motion and forever youthful

 

Apni dunya aap paida kar agar zindoan main hai

Sirr-e-adam hai zameer-e-kun fakan hain zindagi

Create your own unique world if you are among the truly alive

The secret of being human is to reflect the Divine essence: “be and it is”

 

Zindagani ki haqeeqat kohkan key dil sey pooch

Joo-e-sheer or teeshaey sang-o-giraan hai zindagi

Ask Farhad, the mountain digger, what the reality of life really is

Life is creating the river of milk by digging and pulverizing granite

 

Bandagi mein ghut ke reh jati hai ik joo-e-kam aab

Aur azadi mein behrey bai karaan hai zindagi

Enslavement strangles you like a static stream which grows toxic

And a life of true freedom acquires the quality of a limitless ocean

Aashkara hai yeh apni quwatey taskheer sey

Garchey ik mitti kay paikar mein nihaan hai zindagi

Humans manifest themselves with their power to conquer

Even though life remains latent within the structure of clay

 

Qulzamey hasti sey tu ubhra hai manind-e-hubab

Is ziyan-khaney mein tera imtihaan hain zindagi

You have surfaced from the ocean of life like a bubble

The mortal universe is a test for life to move beyond it

 

Khaam hai jab tak to hai mitti ka ik ambar tu

Pukhta ho jaey to hai shamsheer-e-bey zinhaar tu

Undeveloped, you are but a mound of clay

Self-developed you become a fearless blade

 

Ho sadaqat key liye jis dil mein marney ki tarap

Pehley apney paikar-e-khaki mein jaan paida karey

If one’s heart is burning to sacrifice for the sake of integrity

Then one must first create life in one’s own embodiment of clay

 

Phoonk daley ye zameen-o-asmaaney musta’ar

Aur khakistar sey aap apna jahan paida karey

Discard borrowed existence and throw away false glory 

And then create your own unique world from the ground up

 

Zindagi ki quwat-e-pinhaan ko kar dey aashkar

Taa ye chingari farogh-e-jawidaan paida karey

Make the power of inner life rise and manifest

Till this spark creates an everlasting momentum

 

Khaak-e-mashriq par chamak jaaye misaal-e-aftab

Taa Badakhsaan phir koi laal-e-giraan paida karey

Like the sun, brighten the horizon of the East

Till Badakhsaan produces those rare rubies (Muslims) again

 

Soo-e-gardoon nala-e-shabgeer ka bhejey safeer

Raat key taaroan mein apney raazdaan paida karey

Send your emissaries of lamentation to the heavens in the late night

And make the stars your confidantes 

 

Yeh ghari mehshar ki hai tu arsa-e-mehshar mein hai

Paish kar ghafil amal koi agar daftar mein hai

This is a moment of reckoning and you are in an apocalypse

Present deeds if you have any in the record of your lifetime

Orphaned

 

And from the glamor of the diplomatic corps, my mother and I were suddenly left with a paltry pension and provident fund in patriarchal Pakistan

Being biologically orphaned carries much pain. Yet to think that I could be metaphorically orphaned, twice, and that the hurt would carry the same quality is hard to accept.

 

Biologic

I was 17 when my father died of a heart attack while playing tennis. Our family was still reeling from the loss of my teenaged brothers to a car accident five years previously. And from the glamor of the diplomatic corps, my mother and I were suddenly left with a paltry pension and provident fund in patriarchal Pakistan. The recommendation of the Quran in the treatment of orphans (4:8-10) is particularly tender when you live it. And sadly, not much has changed in 1400 years; the treatment by family, friends and society ranged from inhibitive to cruel. 

 

Pakistan

Pakistan of the late seventies and early eighties was safe and fun. Society had not been transformed by the heroin and Kalashnikov culture that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought. Neither had Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabization reached the common man. Our identity was Pakistani, and we remained a devout people. 

 

We were not taught addiction medicine in Dow Medical College and didn’t see its fallout in our clinical years and internships, neither were there any rehab centers in Pakistan. The heroin and crystal meth (also known as ice) epidemic has transformed Pakistan’s youth, and educational institutions. Responding to this crisis, rehab centers dot Pakistan’s major cities. And Wahhabization created a literalism that left its own practitioners awkward and confused.  

 

The most alarming, and, sadly enduring, change has been of our value system, in which the acquisition of money, lawfully or dishonestly, is now a national preoccupation.  This in turn occurred due to the massive economic mess that a burgeoning population, diminishing resources, lack of democracy and legal recourse, and embedded corruption in the government, judiciary, and media. 

 

This is where I feel I was orphaned by Pakistan. In face of desperate and visible poverty are the pursuits of the elite. Where a practicing physician from the United States feels decidedly poor. Of name brands I haven’t heard of and (disgusting) luxury I have never seen. I feel so out of place that a two-week vacation becomes onerous. That the azaan,and twittering of the birds at dawn, remain my only attraction to going to Pakistan is such sad commentary. 

 

United States

Distressed at the corruption and lack of health care resources for patients in the government funded Civil Hospital, I left Pakistan during my internship. My intention was to complete a residency in the US and return to Pakistan. And perhaps this is why my estrangement with Pakistan happened; too much time went by, and I could not adjust to what was Pakistan’s new reality. America then was awesome too. People were friendly and said hi to strangers jogging in the neighborhood. There was value for education, respect for others, legal recourse and diversity. Societal values of good manners and tolerance prevailed. I would go grocery shopping in a shalwar kameez and no one stared. 

 

The unbridled greed of the Sacklers, owners of Purdue Pharma, unleashed the opioid epidemic in the 1990s, and the 2008 election of Obama, the first Black president of the United States set in motion the rise of White supremacy, the Proud Boys and QAnon. This unfortunate confluence of factors has changed the character of America. Hatred and violence are published creeds of White supremacists and the Proud Boys. Gone are the days of careless shalwar kameezwearing in the grocery store. Even dressed in jeans and a shirt I get glared at, sometimes unblinkingly, and clearly only for being brown. I again feel orphaned and out of place. 

 

The Black Lives Matter movement in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic added fuel to the fire of White supremacy. The January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection made for a sickening similarity between Pakistan and the United States. And seems to have cast a near-mortal blow to the greatest democracy in the world. So much so that US military leaders are now concerned of a military insurrection after the result of the 2024 presidential election.

 

Republicans are very focused on the two symbols of their freedom: masks and guns. Not wearing one but assuredly carrying the other. Economic stress created by Covid-19, conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and its vaccination, perpetuating the big lie of Biden not winning the election, high gas prices and daunting inflation, make for a powder-keg type of scenario. Road rage is essentially a daily occurrence. I make sure I don’t look at the driver that overtakes me after riding my tail under the delusion that he has a flying car. Who knows he might be armed and I would become a statistic? 

 

Solution

For both Pakistan and the United States, we need to return to the raison d’etre of both nations. Muhammad Ali Jinnah founded Pakistan due to the economic and educational disempowerment of Muslims in India, and Pakistan was to be a haven for Muslims and all its minorities. The creed of the United States is democracy, equal rights, and liberty. 

 

In both Pakistan and the United States enduring change can only occur if it starts at an individual level, goes to the family and community and is thereafter legislated nationally. You can’t be corrupt or racist, or condone it when you see it, and expect that things will spontaneously improve. 

 

I know I cannot get my father back. But I frequently, and wistfully, dream of getting my Pakistan and America back. Insha’Allah. 

 

Mahjabeen Islam MD FAAFP FASAM practices addiction and family medicine in Toledo, Ohio. Her email is mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com

End Israel's Apartheid

Israel’s intoxication with power has reached its pinnacle. And unlike any other time, public opinion against Israel is also reaching a crescendo. Even within Israel it is said that this is breaking the moral fiber of Israelis

It’s been Heartbreak Hotel, no kidding. The 500,000 Covid deaths in the US, the Covid death of my classmate’s husband, and the near-death of my best friend just reached in and took a sliver of my soul it seemed. This happening in the sleep-deprivation environment of Ramadan forced me to take a week off to prevent complete burnout. 

 

Al-Aqsa attack

But it didn’t work out as planned. On the holiest night of the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, Israeli forces barged into the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, threw stun grenades and fired rubber bullets, killing 13, including children and wounding 300. I awoke to images of Israeli soldiers walking into Al-Aqsa Mosque with boots on, billowing smoke, chaos, pushing, shoving and a man laying blinded in both eyes. That is seared in my mind and makes me cry. 

 

Facts versus peddled fiction

There’s a lot of stimuli we deal with in our lives. But it is important for us to get our timeline, facts, and verbiage right. Netanyahu has failed to form a coalition government and is facing criminal charges. From the hackneyed playbook of power-intoxicated rulers, he used the diversionary tactic of evicting Palestinians from East Jerusalem and then attacking the Al-Aqsa worshippers. The plan for the following day was to do a ground assault and a 3000-strong settler march into Gaza. This was prevented by rocket fire from Hamas. So the rockets came after the Israeli attack. 

 

A brief history

After the horrors of the Holocaust, Jewish refugees came to Palestine in 1947 with boats emblazoned with banners saying, “The Germans destroyed our families and homes-don’t you destroy our hopes”. The map of Palestine radically changed, and the Israelis dispossessed the Palestinians of their homes and established a Jewish state with rights only for Jews and not for Palestinians. 

 

This so reminds me of the ironic story of the Arab and the camel. So an Arab was in his tent and the camel said that he was cold and could he put his head into the tent. The Arab said yes. Then the camel said his body was cold could he come in a bit more. And this happened successively and pretty soon the camel was in the tent and the Arab was out. Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have the same rights as their Jewish counterparts and the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are an open-air prison. 95% undrinkable water, 45% unemployment, 4 hours of electricity per day, 46% children have anemia, 50% children express no will to live and 2 million are denied freedom of movement. With checkpoint after checkpoint and a sickening penchant of Israeli soldiers to want to kill children. 

 

The Derek Chauvin chokehold that killed George Floyd was perfected by Israelis on Palestinian necks and thereafter exported to the United States police departments.  

 

A tiger and a bunny

Supported by 3 billion a year US taxpayer-funded dollars Israel has the fourth most powerful military in the world and the Iron Dome technology, a missile defense system that inactivates rockets coming into Israel. Important to remember that Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza before Hamas existed as part of the Zionist expansion project. Hamas has rockets that fizzle when they touch the Iron Dome. And of course, rocks. Don’t forget the rock-throwing terrorist Palestinian teenager. The imagery is good huh? A tiger versus a bunny or better yet an elephant versus an ant. Just like a spry bunny could aggravate a tiger or an ant could get into an elephant’s trunk, some rockets do get into Israel and cause the population to flee to underground shelters. Injury and killing are reprehensible, regardless of ethnicity or religion; but the death toll in Palestine is easily ten times that of Israel. The current death toll  is 145 Palestinians including 41 children. And ten Israeli casualties. 

 

Call it what it is-apartheid

The word apartheid is rooted in Afrikaans and means separateness or apart-hood, based on any discriminating factor be it ethnicity, national origin, religion, or gender. The apartheid in S. Africa began in 1948 and lasted until Nelson Mandela’s election win in 1994. 46 long years of barbarianism. The dehumanization of the Palestinians is a mirror image of the intense suffering in apartheid S. Africa. So why does the world shy away from calling it what it is? Is it that the United States government and many states of the European Union, as well as Hollywood and the media are controlled by Zionists?

 

US House of Representatives echoes with the word apartheid

US Congresspersons Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Ayanna Presley, Andre Carson and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez spoke emotionally and eloquently about Israel’s apartheid policies. If the House walls could speak, they’d first shudder.

 

The wrong side of history

President Biden may well have taken millions from AIPAC-the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and is thus soul-obliged to them. And as much as he is such a reprieve from Trump-trauma, his statement that the US stood with Israel for its right to self-defense, with no mention of the Palestinians whatsoever, is beyond reprehensible. His steady hand and impressive work with the Covid vaccine rollout, will be wiped away when history inscribes him as an enabler of the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. These are war crimes, and the enabler is as much incriminated as the perpetrator. Israeli apartheid will end but Biden’s will be a sick legacy. 

 

Grassroots manipulation

Several years ago, I gave a talk at our local synagogue related to the commonalities between Jews and Muslims and creating an atmosphere of cooperation and understanding. In that process I was befriended by this lovely Jewish lady who was charmed with my writing skills. We would hang out and discuss writing and publication. I was invited for dinner with Jewish friends, which included a rabbi, and we had fun discussions in person and on an email group. One day I mentioned the horror of Palestinian women, unable to make it to hospitals and delivering at checkpoints. The emails suddenly got very hot.  And I was told to apologize as I was “talking to people who broke bread with the Congresswoman”. That logic is foreign to me. I wondered why I had to apologize for what was a fact. And so, it continued till they threw me out of the email group. Very influenced with Quranic verses (4:9 and 33:70) which say to be mindful of God, to speak in a direct fashion and for justice, I had no regrets. A year or so later I ran into my Jewish friend and she apologized for the harassment and intimidation. 

 

In retrospect, those months feel eerie to me and very choreographed and deliberate. Didn’t work for them like they had planned but they probably do with a lot of people; intimidation in academic, professional, and business circles are well known. 

 

The Goebbels Method

Hitler’s Information Minister perfected a form of propaganda in which lies repeated often enough became the truth to the masses and the perpetrator themselves. We have been fed these “Israel has a right to self-defense” and “Hamas is a terrorist organization” type phrases till they have become internalized. The regular American has learned to not consider Palestinians human or worthy of acknowledgement.

 

Heads I win, tails you lose

Israel does not want a one-state solution for the Palestinians will outnumber Jews in less than 20 years. Giving equal rights to Palestinians, while it is the democratic and right thing to do, is not acceptable to the concept of Jewish supremacy. 

The two-state solution is also not acceptable to Israel as it involves giving up land that Israel has acquired by forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians since 1948. 

Occupation, an open-air prison and the brutalization of the Palestinians is Israel’s sole focus. 

 

The end of oppression

A beautiful couplet from a poem by Sahir Ludhianwi a famous Pakistani poet:

Zulm phir zulm hai barhta hai to kat jaata hai 

Khun phir khun hai tapkey ga to jam jaye ga

Oppression is but oppression and when it reaches its peak it is destroyed

Blood is but blood, when it drips, it congeals to always be a testament to oppression

 

Solutions

• ·      Moral pressure and the tide of public opinion:

Like Sahir Ludhainwi said it appears that Israel’s intoxication with power has reached its pinnacle. And unlike any other time, public opinion against Israel is also reaching a crescendo. Even within Israel it is said that this is breaking the moral fiber of Israelis. In the past Israeli brutalization happened in pervasive silence. But now Peter Beinart’s New York Times article speaks of a one state solution, Senator Bernie Sanders wrote that Palestinian Lives Matter, Ali Velshi spoke courageously of Israel's apartheid and ethnic cleansing and Trevor Noah of The Daily Show explained the power inequality between Israel and Palestine

• ·      BDS: Boycott, Divest, Sanction bdsmovement.net

Boycotts involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime. Divestment campaigns urge banks, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid. Sanctions campaigns pressure governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid.

• ·      Boycott Israeli products, bar code 729

A bar code beginning with 729 on any product indicates that it is made in Israel. This can be our individual effort so we can rest the gnawing of our consciences and not keep feeling this intense helplessness. The BDS movement and the boycott of Israeli products can have an intense cumulative effect. 

• ·      Suspension of trade and diplomatic ties with Israel

Until a firm and equitable solution is found. Be it a one-state or a two-state solution. 

• ·      Filing war crimes cases against Israel in the International Criminal Court

The ICC is watching the current escalation in Palestine. Israel is not a member of the ICC and says the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the West Bank and Gaza but the main ICC prosecutor Ms. Bensouda says the ICC does have jurisdiction.

• ·      American solutions

Americans in general and Muslim Americans in particular, must do their due diligence and work to elect candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Andre Carson, Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison and Rashida Tlaib. Our hard-earned money must not go for photo ops or favors with candidates servile to Israel.

 

The apartheid in S. Africa ended after 46 years. The Gaza and West Bank occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing began in 1967. Israel expected the extinction of Palestinians and is frustrated that they still exist. The world must end 54 years of Israeli apartheid. Free Palestine-it is more than time. 

Bhang cultivation endangers Pakistan's youth

In this bhang situation the benefit of cultivation is the $1 billion over three years. The risks are worsening of the addiction crisis in Pakistan, psychosis developing in the vulnerable, driving while impaired and thus increased traffic fatalities, progression of use from marijuana to hard drugs and individual and family financial devastation.  

Amid the Covid confusion and the Karachi rains came the curious news that Pakistan plans bhang cultivation. Pakistan’s addiction treatment professionals were not consulted. And we are very concerned about the fallout of this decision on the mental health of Pakistan’s youth. And how adolescent cannabis is associated with the development of psychosis and schizophrenia at a later age. 

 

The Control of Narcotic Substances Act of 1997 defines the cultivation of bhang as illegal, but Pakistan’s 2020 Cabinet, noting the potential influx of $1 billion in three years, the strength of hemp rope and the medicinal uses of cannabidiol has agreed to the industrial cultivation of cannabis. 

 

Bhang is an edible mixture of the buds, leaves and flowers of the marijuana plant and has been used in the Subcontinent since 1000 BC. Hemp is also derived from the marijuana plant, and has industrial uses in making rope, clothes, shoes, paper. THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in bhang, is addictive, helps relieve pain, increases the appetite, and reduces nausea and vomiting. Cannabidiol is a low-potency THC product with multifarious claims of reducing pain to controlling seizures. The only FDA approved indication for cannabidiol is for two rare types of childhood seizures. All the other claims for cannabidiol are not borne out by research. And it is unregulated and frequently contains high doses of THC.  

 

In my addiction practice I am able to help patients achieve sobriety from a variety of addictive substances, from heroin to amphetamines. But cannabis addiction is usually very resistant to all forms of treatment. Cannabis causes relaxation and euphoria, but in the acute stage can cause a violent psychosis, especially when used in a pure form, which is what is easily found in Pakistan. Long term use in teenagers results in psychosis at a later age, and use in adults causes slowed reflexes, sleepiness, memory loss and cognitive issues, presenting the picture of dementia. 

 

In June 2020 the Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association published my article on Pakistan's alcohol, opioid and methamphetamine crisis. The neurobiology of addiction is explained in the article and it is basically all a matter of receptors. If your endocannabinoid receptor enjoys marijuana, you are likely to become addicted. Per capita Pakistan is the most heroin-addicted country in the world! And the crisis of alcohol, opioids and methamphetamine, or Ice, is ravaging society, especially our young. For the longest time we have known that marijuana is the gateway drug. And it becomes a matter of progression from marijuana to Ice and heroin. The article also details how little Pakistan spends on addiction treatment.

 

Medical marijuana has been approved in some states of the US only because of the powerful marijuana lobby and the US Congress being itself on sale to the highest bidder. In my research for this article, it appears that there are is a powerful and persistent marijuana, I mean, bhang lobby, in Pakistan. And it has clearly succeeded.

 

As addiction specialists we practice evidence-based medicine, relying on scientific studies to guide our management. This, combined with years of experience, allows us to make both individual and national recommendations. 

 

Cannabis use is widespread in Pakistan, true. And everyone does not develop psychosis with cannabis use. The neurobiology of addiction, as well as its consequences, are not completely known, and it appears that there is a vulnerability to the serious adverse effects of cannabis. We are unable to tell who has this vulnerability and who does not. 

 

The claim is that this bhang cultivation will be tightly regulated and overseen by the government. In Pakistan’s environment this is a delusional claim at worst and an optimistic one at best. The message that goes out loud and clear to Pakistanis is that cannabis is being officially cultivated and its use is really not an issue. 

 

For every condition in Medicine we weigh the risk-benefit ratio of each management option. So, in this bhang situation the benefit of cultivation is the $1 billion over three years. The risks are worsening of the addiction crisis in Pakistan, psychosis developing in the vulnerable, driving while impaired and thus increased traffic fatalities, progression of use from marijuana to hard drugs and individual and family financial devastation. 

 

Pakistan has a very youthful population. Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry and Prime Minister Imran Khan while salivating over the billions from bhang, need to clearly understand that they will have consigned some of Pakistan’s youth to a terrible future. We should in fact work toward a university-affiliated addiction center that can be the national repository of statistics and research, guide addiction treatment and participate in health care policy as related to addiction. Even with this bhang issue, there is more to it than just money.