First Muslim in US Congress and Bigotry

On Dec. 22, Michael McElroy wrote an interesting post on the political blog of the New York Times, "The Caucus", regarding the announcement of the newly elected first Muslim member of US House of Representatives, Keith Ellison, who have said that he would take oath on the Quran in a private ceremony in January, and the bigoted reaction the announcement received from Rep. Virgil Goode, Virgina Congressman and others. "Blogtalk: The Koran Debate".

Then I stumbled upon this blog and found it thought-provoking so I put my two cents in the comments section. My comment was published on Dec. 24th and was numbered 213 on the comments list. Then next day, on Dec 25th, someone named C. J. MacAlpine quoted my comment and commented on it and the original blog. It was nunbered 241.

I am reproducing the blog, my comment and C. J. MacAlpine's comment:

Blogtalk: The Koran Debate

In an age of instantaneous electronic mail, text messages and video-conferences, a typed letter has caused a political frenzy. The letter sent by Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia warning his constituents about Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has stirred up dust on both sides of the street, with Mr. Goode getting his fair share of derision from left-leaning blogs. But, some conservative sites supported the Representative.

While many of the more prominent conservative blogs and bloggers — Redstate, Michelle Malkin, and the former Congressman, Tom Delay, veered away from the issue — Powerline took it on.

The blog qualified a bit — “I personally don’t think that the issue of Ellison taking his oath of office on the Koran is a good one for conservatives to emphasize” — but broke down for its readers the important parts of the letter. “The key point here is the MSM’s unthinking acceptance of Ellison’s reassurance that the separation of church and state applies to Muslims just as naturally as it does to members of other faiths. The problem is that, to my knowledge, there is no significant branch of Islam that recognizes anything like a separation of church and state.

The Virginia based Nova Town Hall tackled a couple of issues raised by Mr. Goode.
“As to the question of whether one should be allowed to take an oath on the Koran rather than the Bible, … the Koran appears to permit quite a few additional behaviors one would not hope to see in a courtroom.”
The blog then questioned why any religious text should be used in the swearing in of public officials at all.

Later, the blog addressed Mr. Goode’s fears of Mr. Ellison’s influence on immigration.

My Comment

213.December 24th, 2006 1:21 pm

Is it going to be another “Muhammad Ali Episode”, this time in politics, all over again? I hope not. Is Keith Ellison going to be the one who will break the barriers against Musllim’s involvement in mainstream political process in America as Muhammad Ali did in sports? I hope he is.

There were Virgil Goodes of Muhammad ALi era who nobody cares to know about. I believe this Virgil Goode will be just a foot note in the book of American political history while Mr. Ellison will claim at least a chapter in it.

— Posted by Khalid Masood Butt

C. J. MacAlpine's Comment

241.December 25th, 2006 11:43 pm

“Is it going to be another “Muhammad Ali Episode”, this time in politics, all over again? I hope not. Is Keith Ellison going to be the one who will break the barriers against Muslim’s involvement in mainstream political process in America as Muhammad Ali did in sports? I hope he is.”

This is hardly an enlightened viewpoint. Someone whose spiritual axis lies with a religion who approves of killing non-believers, throwing black African children alive into fire and committing gang rape upon their mothers does not bode well for assuming any kind of political power in this country. You may not want to admit it, but there really are people in the world who do not like you and you need top recognize them for what they are. I have no problems with Mr. Ellison’s religion, I have problems with it assuming political power in my country. I doubt that he or any other Muslim would appreciate myself - a descendant of New England Puritans seeking political office in their country.

— Posted by C. J. MacAlpine

Pakistanis and Manto's Sakeena!

Sakeena is a 17 years old girl in Sa'adat Hassan Manto's masterpiece short story "Khol Do" – Open!. She falls victim to communal riots on her way from Amritsar to Lahore and gets separated from her father and mother.

Sirajuddin, her father finds himself alone in the refugee camp of Mughalpura and cannot recall where he had seen her last time. He remembers, however, his wife dying with her guts out on the road to Pakistan.

When he can't find her for many days and is at the verge of total disappointment he finds eight gun carrying volunteers who vow to find his daughter. It turns out that they do find her but never bring her back to her father. They rape her for so long and so often that she loses all consciousness and they abandon her to die next to the rail tracks.

Her body is found by some good people and Sirajuddin sees them carrying it to the camp hospital not knowing this is his own daughter, Sakeena. Still he follows them hoping that she could be her.

When she is left on a gurney in a dark hospital room he approaches her to find out. At the same time a doctor walks into the room and turns the light on. Sirajuddin recognizes her from a black mole on her cheek. The doctor asks him who he was and he says he was dead girl's father.

Doctor while checking her pulse for any sign of life asks him to "open the window". Sakeena recognizes the now familiar words "Khol Do" so well that her hands unconsciously but limpidly move, untie and lower down her 'Shalwar'. Doctor is mortified with shame but Sirajuddin is happy to see her alive.

Now read the following news piece and think why it has conjured up Sakeena's image in my mind. Is there any resemblance in the characters on the political scene of Pakistan and the ones in this eternally poignant short story, or it is just me?

Six out of 10 Pakistanis favor army rule while people in other South Asian countries overwhelmingly support democracy.

The Third Deadliest Country for Journalists - After Iraq & Afghanistan

Gen. Musharraf’s Pakistan has earned another dubious distinction. According to a report compiled and released by a US-based “Committee to Protect Journalists”, Pakistan has become the third deadliest country for journalists who dare to reveal official corruption, crimes, extra-judicial killings and human rights violations. Iraq and Afghanistan were the first and second deadliest countries respectively. Some other courtiers that made the list are Philippines, Russia, Mexico and Columbia.

But Pakistan, I believe, has been deprived of the first position it rightfully deserved as far as the manner of the crime committed is concerned. Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan where almost all the journalists have been targeted, kidnapped, and executed by insurgents for working with the organizations affiliated to the Iraqi government or sponsored by the US, in Pakistan it is the government or its agencies or its allies who have targeted, kidnapped, and executed journalists.

Though apprehensible and unacceptable even in Iraq and Afghanistan I fail to understand why Pakistani government has become an enemy of truth and wish to wrap up its citizens in a blanket of ignorance if it is not committing any corruption or crime? We don’t have the insurgents or the foreign occupiers in Pakistan at least in the recognized sense of the terms. Why would, then, an indigenous military junta become an enemy of pen and its holders in Pakistan?

In Iraq the journalists, at least, have a green zone to work from. Where is that green zone in Pakistan where the journalists can go if they feel threatened? But reporting the truth can be fatal Ask 38-year-old Dilawar Wazir Khan who works for the Urdu language service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Pakistan's English daily the ‘Dawn' and was kidnapped from Islamabad, the capital, blindfolded, fettered, and tortured for 30 hours before he was released. His fate was different from his colleagues who had been murdered after they were similarly kidnapped because protests from journalists' unions been launched for his release. The journalists in Islamabad had threatened to boycott parliamentary proceedings. International media organizations also raised an outcry. The BBC Urdu service carried the story of his abduction for two consecutive days and World Service director Nigel Chapman called on the Pakistani government to ascertain his whereabouts. He was released but he says: "Many of my colleagues have given up their profession and others have left the area."

Dilawar had escaped two earlier attempts on his life in which two of his colleagues, Allah Noor Wazir and Amir Nawab, were left dead. His 15-year-old brother Taimur was kidnapped and murdered in 2005. At that point Dilawar moved out of his hometown of Wana, in South Waziristan, to Dera Ismail Khan.

After his abduction he said, he did not "know where to find refuge. No place seems safe enough. This time I was lucky and came home almost unscathed but I am not sure if I'll be this lucky the next time."

Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said in a statement on Nov. 21, after Dilawar's release: "The disappearances and deaths of several Pakistani journalists have gone unexplained, uninvestigated, and unreported by the authorities. Police and courts must bring to justice the people who harm and intimidate journalists." But unfortunately it is the police, government agencies and courts who have become partners in these crimes.

Hamid Mir is a well-known Urdu language columnist for the Jang newspaper and anchor of a popular Geo TV current affairs talk show 'Capital Talk'. He has been termed, in his words, "an anti-state element" by the Pakistan army and has been receiving numerous threats for his coverage of the insurgency in Balochistan province and for writing about the assassination of his friend Hayatullah Khan, another journalist from North Waziristan. He said about Dilawar Khan that: "Dilawar was abducted because his story in Dawn about the peace deal in North Waziristan proved that it was signed by militants not by local tribal elders. He was released because Dawn published the vehicle number that belonged to the ISI in which he was taken away."

Dilawar says that he has "been threatened with dire consequences" if he divulges who had kidnapped him. He says that he has "caused enough trauma and pain" to his family because of his profession and he has "fear for their lives". He thinks it was because of his journalistic work that his brother was killed. "It was to teach me a lesson and to bring me down to my knees", he says.

Mazhar Abbas, secretary of Pakistan Federation of Unions of Journalists (PFUJ), said the first kidnapping incident took place in the 1990s when a senior Islamabad-based reporter Humayun Fahr was detained by the ISI for "working against the national interests". Humayun was sentenced to death by court martial. He was released when his health deteriorated but died shortly after his release.

Kamila Hayat, joint director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) calls these abductions as "harassment and intimidation", and says "it is part of a broader campaign to stifle dissent, opposing opinions and embarrassing news through intimidation."

While the government boasts of giving media freedom of expression but it has subjected journalists to kidnappings, tortures, executions and other terror tactics for reporting the truth. Hamid Mir says that initially Musharraf gave full freedom to the media so it may criticize the prime minister Nawaz Sharif he had overthrown. "But the situation changed after 9/11, when Musharraf became an ally of the United States and he was given a free hand by the West", says Mir.

The hoax of media's freedom of expression is exposed when you see that Geo and ARY (another private TV channel) have their transmission centers not in Pakistan but in Dubai where they have bear heavy expenses to keep their freedom away from the clutches of eve present government agencies. Hamid Mir gives the reason for these TV channels being out of Pakistan: "... they don't have permanent uplinking license for Pakistan. They get an uplinking license on monthly basis. The government can ban any channel anytime, like they banned Sindh TV recently."

Is it the legacy Gen Musharraf promised when he illegally took over power in 1999?
The journalists used to be considered neutral observers and portrayers of the facts but in foreign occupier-run and dictator-run countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan they have become an endangered species.

The state terrorism and murder is not the only tool Pakistan’s dictator is using in its war against truth. The courts and the laws are also being brought to the fore in this war of words against guns. A coalition partner of the military junta, MQM, filed a criminal, rather than a civil, case under the highly controversial 'Pakistani Criminal Defamation Law', and the district and session court in Karachi on Thursday indicted three journalists of evening daily The Star, Kamal Majidullah, Syed Saleem Shahzad and crime reporter Ralph D. Cruze. They could face imprisonment because their paper ran a front page story last year about the alleged linkage of Shoaib Khan, a underworld crime king pin and MQM. The 53-year-old newspapers was shut down on 2 December, 2006, under pressure from the government coalition partner MQM.

The case, the indictment, and the law have been criticized by national and international journalist and human rights organizations.

How far military is willing and able to go in deteriorating the situation in Pakistan? I know it has the wherewithal, the will and weapons. Why it does not have a consciousness, a rein, a check, on its un-opposable, unbridled power?

Pakistanis deserve to know the vital story, the truth. A free press is the only window to the facts and its ability and freedom to report the news as is vital to maintain an informed and aware public and a check on officials to make responsible decisions. If the government wants to limit its ability to provide the real story what recourse, the citizens of Pakistan have left than to leave the pen and pick up the gun? Why government wants to leave the press crippled and on its mercy to operate? By declaring an unannounced war on journalists the military government and its callous allies are working together to create an environment of fear and setting a dangerous precedent in this tormented nation to prevent the factual reporting.

Rubbing Elbows with Gouty Kings

I can only write this post because the pain in 'my left foot' is not at its peak level at this time. Thank God! The indomethecine capsule I have taken with a full glass of water couple hours ago has somehow choked some of cells in my brain somewhere and they are not transmitting their signals. To be more precise, the cells meant to transmit may still be, foolishly, sending their signals not knowing that no one is receiving them on the other end.

The numbness induced by Indomethcine may also be the reason for the thought coming to my mind of writing a lighter post about, of all things, gout. But I don't know how long the humor will last.

When I read the biography of Benjamin Disraeli a years ago I found out that he was a gouty. Today when I was surfing internet I came across some other celebrities who were also gouties. I feel a kind of pride that, after all, the company I keep is not a bad one.

But that does not mean that I will be known by the company I keep because probably gout is the only characteristic I have common with them.

Actually the first book I ever read about any American was the autobiography of the First American, Ben Franklin. It was an abridged little book whaich I had bought from Hero's Old Book Shop in a side alley of New Anar Kali Bazar, Lahore, sometime in late seventies.

At that time, somehow, I did not notice that Ben had gout. May be it was the part abridged. Publisher did not deem it important? Too painful? It is impossible Ben himself abridged it. Gout is too painful to ignore. It assumes centrality and every thing else kind of recedes to the peripherial spaces, especailly when it flares up.

May be it was there. It did not register because I had no clue at that tender age that one day I will be rubbing elbows with him and other celebrities of past.

Later on when I read Disraeli's life only thing which stuck out was gout.

Matter of fact, gout was known as the “Disease of Kings” due to its association with rich foods and alcohol consumption and kings. Henry VIII, Charles V, and George IV had it.

So did Nostradamus, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Samuel Johnson, , Pablo Neruda, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Jefferson, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham William B. Finneran, Kirk Reuter and Benjamin Franklin.

The Weakest as the Most Popular

Two amazing, back to back, pieces of news in two days about the same person: General Musharraf. Both from America. One, a survey conducted in Pakistan in September by the research wing of the US Republican Party says
Musharraf is ahead of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in popularity among Pakistanis.

No wonder the Republican Party was routed in recent American elections. Its research wing must have been doing surveys of American voters and finding the Republican candidates more popular than the Democratic candidates.

The second news piece contradicts what the first one claims. The American magazine 'National Journal' in its current issue quotes some observers that Musharraf is at his weakest he has ever been and the "only friend in the world" Musharraf has is US President George W. Bush.

Even More interesting piece of news is hidden in the first one. The survey found out that 70 per cent of the Pakistanis said their personal economic conditions remained unchanged or worsened over the past four years; and they want both exiled former prime ministers to be allowed to return home to contest the next general election. Majority of the respondents also said that Pakistan was heading in the ‘wrong direction’.

I don't know which one of the two statements Musharraf is going to believe. I hope he believes the first one and in his excitement sheds off his uniform and runs in some kind of election, such as a Nazim of some Union Council.

According to the survey, the PML-Q is at the top in Punjab, followed by Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N. I hope ruling League also believes in the first statement as it always follows "his master's voice". I see good signs. On Saturday, Punjab's Law Minister Basharat Raja applauded the survey's findings.

Is Musharraf more popular for taking Pakistan in the wrong direction, not improving or making worse the lot of an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis?

The Journal says that Musharraf's core constituency is the military, and there are indications that he has started to lose that as well. "There's a lot of anxiety about Musharraf's reckless behavior", one of experts says.

There is a little bad news for Musharraf too. Analysts have advised that Washington should abandon the tendency to support the military "strongmen" and instead have more faith in civilian leadership. They have also asserted that even if Musharraf were to leave the scene, "Pakistan is not likely to descend into anarchy nor will its nuclear weapons fall into terrorist hands, or its government come under the control of mullahs and militants". South Asia expert Marvin Weinbaum who says that if Musharraf is "taken out tomorrow, there would be strong continuity" because the vice chief of the army would step up.

Pakistan's ambassador to the US Mahmud Ali Durrani is quoted acknowledging that the military is growing weary of ruling the country. Freedberg writes: "Sooner, not later, he will lose his footing".


According to Alexis Debat, a former French counter-terrorism office, who quotes Stephen Cohen of Brookings Institute that "there’s a lot of anxiety about Musharraf’s reckless behavior".

All Set To Surrender Kashmir

President General Pervez Musharraf told a private Indian TV channel NDTV on Tuesday, December 5, that Pakistan would give up its claim over Kashmir if India accepted his "four-point solution" to the long-festering Kashmir disputed between India and Pakistan. Asked whether he was really prepared to give up his country's claim on Kashmir, he reassured the interviewer: "We will have to, yes, if this solution comes up."

This is not the first time Gen Musharraf has made "out of the box" proposals on Kashmir in media interviews. Ever since he toppled the democratically elected government of Nawaz Sharif, he, in all his impetuous urgency, has been spewing out in a rapid-fire mode what the Pakistani Foreign Minister called "endless proposals".

General Musharraf has done this diplomatic drill so often that it has become a well-rehearsed routine.

This is how he does it: he comes up with a novel proposal, presents it in some media interview, preferably in India. He waits India to accept it. India ignores it; makes a demand of some kind; or an unimportant official in India's foreign ministry makes an ambiguous sound. He expects and asks some US or other foreign government to pressure India to accept his proposal. He expresses his frustration at the lack of any response from India or any pressure from US. In frustration makes another proposal, more novel than the previous one which, coincidently, happens to be a little closer to India's position. Same lack of Indian response or US pressure; another Indian pre-condition or demand; or an ambiguous sound. His frustration grows. In desperation he makes another proposal a little more closer to India's position. And the cycle starts all over again.

Now, I believe, he doesn't have to do it any more because his drill has brought his position on Kashmir to coincide with India's position to such an extent that an Indian analyst C. Raja Mohan calls, Musharraf's latest proposal "closest to India's negotiated position". India has dexterously brought, by a combinations of myriad diplomatic maneuvers, Pakistan's position very close to its own without showing its hand or offering any quid pro quo.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the ruling Muslim League (PMLQ) general secretary, on Friday said that General Pervez Musaharraf’s recent offer for resolving the Kashmir issue has put the ball in India’s court.

Mushahid should know it is not India's court where General Musharraf has put the ball. He has given it in Manmohan Singh's hands. All he has to do is to run with it.

Musharraf is all set to surrender Kashmir.

The question is why Musharraf in his dual capacity as a chief of army staff and the president is striking at an issue that has been used by the army as its raison d'etre and an excuse for ever increasing defense expenses?

A couple of reasons: the army is so entrenched in every aspect of the civilian, political, and business life of Pakistan that it does not need Kashmir as an excuse any more; greatly improve economic relations with India could help the army retain its position as the dominant power in Pakistan; General Musharraf faces elections next year and would want to present himself as the architect of a new India-Pakistan accord and a statesman.

Standing With The Losers

The voice of the youth is the voice of future. An overwhelming majority of them now believe the 'war on terror' is already lost. At least in their minds, the real battleground!

The BBC World Service hired a research agency to conduct a survey. 300 or more youngsters aged 15 - 17 were interviewed October this year in ten cities of the world: New York, Nairobi, Cairo, Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Baghdad, Delhi, Jakarta, Moscow and London.

71% of respondents said the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were making the world not a safer place. Only 14% of said they were. The remaining 15% did not know or declined to answer.

Negative views of the "war on terror" were strongest in Baghdad (98%) and Rio (92%). Nobody asked Afghanis or Pakistanis.

Had Lahore, Karachi or any other Pakistani city been included in this list I don't think the result would have been different.

The writing on the wall is very clear for anyone willing and able to see. But the lucre-blinded military junta in Pakistan, the 'proud' but forced partner of the aggressors, cannot see.

The war is already lost. The resistance in America against this unnecessary war is growing every day. Even the most adamant proponents and supporters of this war are slowly but steadily crumbling. Rumsfeld left for Bush a 'cut and run' memo only one day before he resigned. The neo-cons, the sires of this foolish war, who had pushed Bush towards this hell are now hastily scurrying of this sinking ship and are turning on Bush. Kennedy was right when he said victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan.

Kofi Annan is saying that the life for ordinary Iraqis is now more dangerous than it was under Saddam Hussein and the country has descended into violence "much worse" than civil war.

How long will it take for Musharraf and his partners in crime to realize that they will be standing with losers once the fog of war evaporates? Or, are they already pulling their hand out gingerly by giving mixed signals to NATO to make deals with Taliban and htting hard on Madrassahs?

Who Will Trace The Chief Justice If He Goes Missing?

I think the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is entering the dangerous territory now.

Locating the missing girls is a different matter altogether. Their kidnappers and abductors are lowly lawless individuals or groups. They can be brought to the book with impunity. But asking the Eternal Ruling Party of Pakistan (the military) to go find the missing Pakistanis is not a course I will recommend anyone who does not want to go missing himself. Especially if the military agencies (Inter Services Intelligence and military intelligence) are the ones who made these missing Pakistanis disappear in the first place.

Now the Chief Justice is asking the agencies, actually the military, to go fish the missing Pakistanis out of the damp, dreary and dark dungeons run by the agencies.

If military can rule Pakistan uninterrupted why it has no right to make the irritating or “marked” Pakistanis vanish. After all it is military’s Pakistan. Not the other way around.

The army colonel and the Operations Director (simultaneously) of the Interior Ministry who had to provide a list of the missing Pakistanis showed his claws a little when he asked the court “to close the case”. But the chief justice did not listen and rather “rebuked” him saying: “Who are you to tell us to dispose of the case? It’s a question of our authority. You are responsible for tracing out the missing people”.

What about the military authority or the martial law? Or lack of any law for that matter? Lawlessness, in other words?

Come on Chiefie! You know the game. They can wrap you up real fast. Who will locate you when you go “missing”. Who do you have on your side? They have Bush and his extra-legal powers. You say it is the government’s duty to trace the missing people and the Interior Ministry should contact all intelligence agencies to know the whereabouts of people taken by the agencies. Which government you are talking about? You must have some school book, idealistic ideas about governments which listen and respond to people. It is military, dude! This is no ordinary political government. Not in Pakistan.

Who the hell are provincial home secretaries or the Interior Ministry? They have no power to contact intelligence agencies and ask them questions regarding whereabouts of people abducted by them.

You are asking the agencies to “find” them. They don’t have to find them. They “have” them. Who are you to order them around? Be careful. I am telling ya!

Do you know what they have told the 10 people they have set free? They had been warned not to talk to newsmen about their detentions, or else they will be arrested and never freed.

By the way, did you ask them where the 10 they have not released are? What do they mean they have “traced” them? Ask them who had abducted them in their own country? Where they had been in the intervening years? Why were they abducted? What was their crime? What about those who are still missing? What do they mean when they say they were able to locate only 20? Do you think they will “trace” the rest in two weeks? I mean release them?

You are already stepping on their toes. It is their territory. Their Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah just worked for them. Millions of people gave up their homes and hearths for them to enjoy the choice lands and perks in and out of service so they can make millions. Now the same people, or their descendants must pay with their freedom and liberty.

If you want to be free and live the rest of the days of your life out of some military dungeon then stay out of their way. Go locate missing girls. Don’t mess with them.

Don’t you know this is war of terror? Why do the people ask for their basic rights? Don't they know Military comes first. And its rights start with the right to rule Pakistan. Pakistanis are just their chattels. They can do whatever they want with them.

Don’t take any action against their military abductors as some people are urging you to. You may go missing too, if you do. Who will trace you if that happens?