|
There is much talk about democracy these days
in Pakistan and everywhere else. Is democracy the solution
to Pakistan’s evils of linguistic racism/caste system, lack
of schooling (not education because we are more educated
than a Harvard or Oxford graduate will ever be), industrial
cities to produce things, lack of proper housing, roads,
public services such as rubbish collection, communication
networks? We lack the above mentioned Western infrastructure
to be called a civilized society by the West at the moment.
How did our society function up until we were
colonized by England in the 18th century? Did we
look down upon our own people for lack of money or did we
fear God and think that sustenance is given by Him to whom
He pleases.
Was there a dress code to enter a
gathering/party? Were only richly dressed people allowed to
enter the abode of their rulers? Did the king and his
courtiers make fun of people to their faces? Did fake
heelers weigh down heavily on the victims, fleecing the
poor? Doctors cheated patients; a price tag acted as a
menace for the health care system, rich given better care
and the poor ones were given substandard. Did we believe
knowledge was power back then , were best schools set up to
teach rich children and lesser kind for the poor so they can
never compete? Or were the king’s children taught the very
same books that poor ones would learn from? Was one language
considered superior to others or were they all equal? Did
the rich keep dogs in their rooms and were spotted
collecting its fecal matter from the roads in the evenings
while walking their dogs like the elite these days or they
kept cleaner domestic animals such as goats and cows for
their dairy needs. Did they think that eating with forks and
knives was the civilized behavior and eating with one’s
first three fingers was the norm according to the Hadis?
Were the women told they don’t have a soul
and won’t enter paradise?
The answer to aforementioned questions is
simple: of course not; it would be barbaric to practice
these atrocities. But now the Muslim world has been brain
washed into submission, the characters in Islamabad as well
as 50 other Muslim capitals think exactly like their western
masters do and they think they are behaving in a civilized
manner! How did we get to this despicable state of mind?
Well Western colonization of course!
Poor aren’t civilized in western culture
because they aren’t given an opportunity that the rich get
to receive an education, healthcare, housing, clothing and
other amenities on an equal footing with the rich due to a
presence of monetary caste system called the class system as
well a gender based caste system in which a woman is not
considered worthy of respect and isn’t allowed to take part
in most activities that men are involved in. A woman must be
seen and not heard runs the wisdom. To top it all there is
skin color based caste system in which non Europeans are
considered God’s step children therefore openly scorned
abused and even lynched until 1960s Civil rights movement.
Now since they have democracy the rest of the world must
have it too.
Let me share the little knowledge that I have
about the roots of democracy and its introduction in US and
then the rest of the planet.
Democracy was first written about the ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle, known as Arastoo in the Eastern
world. After the fall of the ancient world of Rome which was
carrying forward the legacy of the Greeks (who were at the
time more learned than them). The resulting Holy Roman
Empire led by the Catholic Church rejected all things that
belonged to pagans i.e. the writings of ancient Greeks,
Romans and any eastern doctrine that was in existence.
Everything was considered heresy. Ironically the Church
continued its rule on Europe and Africa in the same manner
as the previous govt., of Romans used to. The taxation, the
manners, the life styles, pride in one's education,
heritage, monetary status were all influenced by the Romans.
The rich used to get the best seats in the church, they used
to be exempt if made a serious offence, they used to get a
covered path for carriages in case of rain, and the poor had
to stand out in the rain or snow. The concept 'when in Rome,
dress as the Romans do' was strictly adhered to and is still
in vogue today. The Roman elite were the only members of
society allowed to wear pearls. Hence today people wear them
on evening clothes, casual clothes, even with T shirts! In
the east it was the Persians who had their own civilization.
After the fourth century the Roman Empire was moved to
Qustutunia (known as Constantinople, named after the king
who founded it, i.e. King Constantine. Later on it became
Istanbul (modern day Turkey)).
The western part of the empire in Rome went
into decline, Dark Ages descended upon it only to come up in
the 18th century when England tricked Indians
and took over the reigns of a second most richest country of
the planet at the time. Everything to do with the Romans was
amalgamated into the east and the negative things of the
Romans such as back breaking taxes, class system, the idea
of some one being a citizen or not, permission/documentation
to travel from their realm to another country, slavery in
the form of treating humans as beasts, making them wear an
iron collar were non existent. Slaves in the east rose to
the post of teachers, commanders of armed forces, even
kings. (Skin color based slavery didn't exist among the
Romans, this idea came about later in the Holy Roman Empire,
and apparently Rome too had at least one black king).
Banu Ummaiiya (known as the Omayyad dynasty
in the West) took over from Imams in Madina and moved the
capital of the Islamic empire from Madina to Damishq
(Damascus) in Syria. They ruled for 150 years and their
cousins Abbasis (known as the Abbasid dynasty or Empire in
the West) took over from them & Ummayyads moved to Spain.
Hence the great Andalusian Empire under the rule of Abdur
Rahman the first came about in Spain.
It was in this period that the Muslims began
trading with the Native Americans (known outside America as
'Red Indians'). Native Americans existed in large tribes or
'nations' and one such large group of five Red Indian
nations lived in New York called the 'Iraqois confederacy'.
Iraqois is a French way of spelling their name, its
pronounced 'Iraquaa' in the United States and as 'Iraqoy' in
the UK.
Muslim traders found them fighting amongst
themselves and advised them to use Aristotelian idea of
democracy and form a council and establish a government.
This was done by the tribes. When the Europeans came later
in the 17th century, they took this idea and applied it to
their nation as well i.e. the Europeans. Hence United States
became a democracy. Naturally Muslims couldn't give the
Native Americans the Sharia which was in existence in their
lands since the Iraqois were a non Muslim people. There are
graves in Canada that have the four Quls inscribed on them
and are a witness to Muslim presence in the Americas before
Columbus ‘discovered’ it in 1492, ( the Vikings also brought
ships for trade to these shores because there has been
discoveries of their ship wrecks on the American shores).
The Muslims had gotten the works of Aristotle
and other Greek philosophers translated into Arabic when the
Banu Ummaiiya had moved into Spain in 750 C.E, because the
Abbasis had taken over their rule in Damascus and now the
capital of Islamic rule was shifted to Baghdad from Syria.
The Ummayyads continue to rule in Spain but because Spain
was so far it was of no use for Abbasids to pursue them
there. Spain flowered under the rule of Ummayyads, it lifted
the long veil of the 'Dark Ages' over Europe. Sugar and
paper and other goods began to flow into Europe through
contact with Muslim Spain or Andalusia as it was known and
is still sometime referred to when that period of Spanish
history is being referred to.
A great known as 'house of wisdom' was set up in Baghdad
with the appointment of scholars of all religions and
schools of thought. Some major works were translated there.
Spies sent by Andalusia used to take copies of great books
(translated or written in Baghdad) to Spain for the benefit
of the people. Paper was used not parchment as was the case
with Europeans of the time hence printing was cheap and
easily transported. Within a month a book was circulated in
all corners of the Muslim Empire.
So friends Democracy was an idea long
rejected by the Europeans and now they are its champions and
we are seen as primitive folk who don't use democracy.
We are given a constitution by the Creator
Himself but we have disregarded it for a lesser form of
government called democracy. It’s appreciated more by non
Muslims than Muslims!
Why do I say that because there is a program
presented by a fellow on America’s Public Television station
known as PBS. (Its called Public Television because it
doesn’t run ads or commercials). Well this veteran anchor by
the name of McLaughlin has a discussion program called
McLaughlin Group in which he brings some of the top
panelists or columnists. McLaughlin once said a good two
years ago and I will paraphrase his words: ‘we have to
support Musharraf because he the is last whiskey sipping
General left in Pakistan, if they choose a bearded man
[religious person] it would be problematic for the US!
So even a common American TV guy knows that
if we Pakistanis bring in a religious person for the top job
it would be good for our country, but the characters in
Islamabad live in the 1940s England, they think this kind of
person is bad for the country’s image, he would be openly
called confused, backward, insipid by the fellow
parliamentarians. They don’t want someone with a soft
personality but a person who is slimy, so Mr. McLaughlin is
worried for nothing. Pakistanis have a fat chance of getting
out of the hegemony of the West.
Pakistanis are willing to kill a woman who
happened to be their former Prime Minister for power &
money!!!!! In Sindh we are taught gold is a spark from hell
fire! Keep it away from your children. Live as a traveler on
an airport until you reach your destination i.e. paradise.
The whole world watched the drama that
unfolded in Pakistan after December 27th
assignation of Benazir Sahiba, She was martyred; and in my
humble opinion she shouldn't even have been given the
ghusl (traditional washing of the dead before burial)
since martyrs are not dead there are not given a ghusl,
they will rise with the blood oozing out of the wound they
died from on the day of judgment. She is in heaven inshallah
but she has left the country that is in deep trouble. How
will we get out of this mess that the idiots in Islamabad
have put us into.
The killers may feel that they probably won't
have an appointment with Munkar Nakeer but they are wrong.
Just like Muhtarma Bhutto ( May Allah make her grave
fragrant with the fragrance of paradise) left this world
with a white shroud, their hoardings and palaces won't go
with them, they will leave everything behind for someone
else to enjoy and leave this world with nothing. But this
does not register in their thick skulls. They want their
paradise right here on Earth. The angel of death looks at
every face 5 times daily to see whose time is up and when he
sees them smiling he wonders why are they smiling since
death is about to knock on their door!
Munkar Nakeer won’t ask them if they followed
Democracy or did they drive a Ferrari or a tin can on
wheels, they will ask them if they [the leaders] followed
the constitution that was given to them and live life
according to the Holy Law and if the answer is in the
affirmative, only then will one pass the final exam.
It seems that the West knows our strengths
more than we know it ourselves. President Bush started
reading the biography of Salahuddin Ayubi the first week he
took oath of his office in 2000? (His name is often
mispronounced as Saladin in the West). Salahuddin lived a
thousand years ago, what could his life teach a 21st
century US president? Bush wanted to learn about
Salahuddin’s character. A brief introduction of this great
person is that he had liberated Jerusalem with his pious
character as well as brawn, was a Kurd by ethnicity and was
born in the town of Tikrit in Iraq. Incidentally Saddam
Hussein was also born in the same town.
Salahuddin Ayubi had inherited his kingdom
from a worthy predecessor, King Nuruddin son of Zangi. Until
Nuruddin the Muslim society was engulfed by vice, community
was divided, a group called Assassins used to carry out the
most spectacular assassinations in public of prominent
government or religious personalities, Bazaars of Baghdad
were filled with drunken soldiers after 5 pm. He decided to
put an end to this miserable state of affairs. Nuruddin
stopped wearing the expensive attire worn by the kings of
the day and began to wear simple cotton instead. This
embarrassed the jewel and diamond wearing princes of the
nearby principalities. He fixed a little sum to run his
household expenses instead of using the unlimited supply he
was entitled to as a King. He stopped soldiers from imbibing
alchohol. Soldiers were wary of this new king who never
smiled and his company seemed to be the ulema. He wrote to
the religious figures running seminaries to pray for him,
ordered the court poets to highlight the merits and
importance of the city of Jerusalem. He would often call
upon the amirs of the area to send their armies to aid his
against the western onslaught on the Muslim lands and they
had no choice but to oblige due to public pressure and
prayers of the dervishes of the Muslim lands who used to
read the letters of Nuruddin and weep in front of their
followers cursing those princes who didn’t want to send
their army to help Nuruddin.
Salahuddin was called upon to Egypt to save
it from the Crusaders, until then Egypt was under the
control of Fatimi Khalifa who had written to King Nuruddin
for assistance because he could no longer fight the
crusaders alone and his vizier had become a traitor. So once
Salahuddin took over Egypt, Muslim lands of Syria, Baghdad,
Egypt came under his command as a whole, so for the first
time the Muslim world became united.
This man
was even more humble than Nuruddin, he settled his deputy in
the grand palaces of the Fatimi khalifa and settled in the
vazier’s dwelling himself. So Allah granted him victory on
the very day of Meraj when he liberated Masjid Aqsa. He had
gotted rid of crusaders from Palestine one by one as they
had four city states, Edessa, Tyre, Tripoli and Jerusalem.
The battle fought between Salahuddin and the Western forces
was between two hills in Palestine known as Hittin so the
battle is known as ‘the battle of Hittin’. When Salahuddin
died there were two ingots of gold in the state treasury and
few pieces of silver because he used to give everything away
to charity, his assistants used to hide some wealth form the
Sultan so that it could be used when needed! The westerners
had come poor some eighty years earlier but became very rich
in the East and he allowed them to leave unharmed with the
wealth. And his name lives in History of both east and west
as one of the greatest human beings. He needless to say
didn’t follow democracy or any caste systems practiced by
our glorious rulers today |
