Dear God …

… why does Ramzan make everyone believe they are Soddy Arabians?

That, I suppose, should have been

Dear Allah, why does Ramadan … etc.

OK, maybe some of them did come from there, too, to India, Africa, Malaysia, and also to other Eastern and European places, when the Arab Muslims were expanding their empire. What they did about this set of rules from the Qur'an, I don't know. But surely some Aalims of the times must have thought that you could bend it a bit. Not too much, though!

The first verse of the minor jihãd, the armed struggle, revealed at that time is in Chapter 22, Surah Al-Hajj, of the Qur’ãn, verses 39-40. It clearly explains the purpose of the minor jihãd: “Permission is granted to those who are fighting because they have been oppressed … those who have been expelled from their homes without any just cause…” (Surah al-Hajj, 22:39-40). Again, referring to the non-believers of Mecca who waged war after war against the Prophet and his followers in Medina, the Qur’ãn in Chapter 2, Surah al-Baqara, verse 190, says: “Fight in the way of God those who are fighting against you; and do not exceed (the limits). Verily Allãh does not love those who exceed (the limits).”  (Surah al-Baqara, 2:190). In this verse, the talk is about responding to a war by defending yourself; there is no talk of initiating aggression at all. Even in the defensive mode of struggle, Almighty God warns the Muslims that they should not “exceed” beyond the proper limits. (You can see the original here.)

Most of the people, we know, converted — from Pagans, Jew, Christians, Hindus, and many other religions. Some with a feeling that this religion is much better than theirs. Others - quite a few - converted because the rulers or conquerors were Muslims. A few, because they were (and still are!) threatened. We hear that in Pakistan many Hindu girls are abducted by Muslims and are married off to one of them.

SA, please note, is a country. That's all! It has no reason to be the Head of the Muslims' faith, just because it has the most important parts of the early Muslim culture there. The Ka'aba, the Prophet's house and Mosque, and many other important areas happen to be there, yes. But the King of SA does not own them. They do serve those areas, as did the heads of Arabia before. Sadly, the present heads and their teams sell some of the historic sites that now have new hotels and other places built on them because they don't think it is Islamic to keep these sites. Pity. It takes away a lot of history when they do this. They do this to the graves, too — so we do not know where many of the Muslim leaders, men and women, are buried.

Of course, it is their kingdom and they can do anything they like — except do something to the Ka'aba or the Masjidé Nabvi. We hope so, anyway.

The worst part, of course, is that SA also send tons of money - one way or another - to slowly enforce their own brand of Islam: Wahhabism. Their proteges are many, from LeJ to other nutcases, including Al-Qaeda, plus a few Caliph-loving groups who want to move us back a thousand years. There are many Sharia-loving Muslims everywhere (in UK and the USA :) to start with, who want everyone to follow the Sharia (regardless of how variously it is interpreted in each different group's ideas).

Among their open-hatreds are the Ahmadis, whom almost everyone seems to think should be killed, even when they are offering their Friday prayers in their own masjid. Not only were they killed there, the killers also went into the hospitals where some of the injured were and, helped by the medical staff,  opened fire there, too.

Now there are, increasingly, Shias that are targeted. We can see every day how many are killed by these mad-bad-sad groups. Type in something like 'Shia Killings in Pakistan' in to your Google and you'll find loads of sites discussing this. In Balochistan the killings of Hazaras - a Shia group - is done daily. They are easy to identify with their language or facial description. They are stopped and taken off buses, they are beheaded or shot, their bodies stay on the roads with Shias (and several sensible Sunnis) protesting about these deaths … but nothing really comes of it. The killers and their leaders tell the press that there will be many more Shia deaths and this can often be seen in the newspapers.

Other Shias get killed too. Even the Bohris have been attacked in Karachi. Aga Khanis have been spared but enough is written about them in hardcore fundo papers that is fairly false in most cases.

In Karachi we have seen Shia Doctors killed (and with each doctor's death we have a smaller number of doctors treating a larger number of patients!) … and we have heads of businesses and lawyers and more tortured and killed.

This is Ramzan and I am told that in the first 14 days we still have Muslims killing other Muslims - (about 75 have died so far!) - many of them for sectarian reasons, with Shias mainly being the target, except for political killings. And imagine: the killers and the victims, are fasting. Wow! (As an aside, even the dacoits are fasting and asking the victims to make Sehri for them.)

Today an ad for Josh (a condom) was removed from TVs because it was considered offensive … “Airing of such immoral advertisement on Pakistani channels - and that too in the holy month of Ramazan - warrants serious action,” said F. Mughal. (It was because of Foreigners that I had to shorten his first name. Especially in Ramzan.) Killing is OK, I guess.

To push us further back, way back - and we are not even counting schools being blown up, or even Taliban's attack on Malala (who received a strange letter from a Taliban Leader) - there are news items every day that tell us what's happening in KPK. This is a PTI ruled province. Here is an editorial in The Express Tribune that appeared yesterday after people 120km away from Peshawar put out a new local law.

I am certainly not saying that the PTI is responsible for this … but Imran Khan and PM Nawaz Sharif's parties want to negotiate with the Taliban. The Taliban and their other 'groupies' have little to offer in such a negotiation. They want the Khilafat (Caliphate) back. They want Sharia everywhere (including the rest of the world - in the long run). And they want women in the house, unwilling to learn or do anything other than religious ideology.

The Hadees that many of us heard in our childhood - and one that is still heard from scholars - was that the Prophet had said that Muslims (he didn't say Muslim men!) must go everywhere to find knowledge, even to China! Obviously China was not offering much in the way of Islamic teachings. But who cares: "We'll-do-what-we-want-and-forget-the-good-things-that-the-Prophet-said!" is the order of the day …

If you think Pakistan is going from bad to worse, think of what's happening in other parts of the world. They are all getting there.

Here you will find why the major portions of the world that follow FGM are Islamic. Closer to home, in India and Pakistan there are groups that follow it, too. Remember the history: People were being converted, as soon as Islam arrived, from every religion or belief system, to Muslims. There was no way that anyone would have said "No Circumcision", because circumcision was carried out by many Arabian tribes, among them pagan Arabs as well as Jews (and some Christians). Mainly done for religious reasons, it was generally for males … but in many cases women were also included. The allowance made it possible for Jews and many others, who had been circumscribed earlier, to join into the Muslim world and not get left out. It is from a Hadees that almost all Muslims do it … and it is not a Farz! Yet you will find recently converted people of all ages being forced to do it. Why?

Recall Indonesia, where the Ahmadis are often killed. The killers gets a light (3 months to 6 months) sentence … but Ahmad Nuryamin, an Ahmadi, stabbed Rendy Apriyansah while trying to defend himself. The court sentenced him for 9 months. Supporters of Rendy said Ahmad should have been given a nine year punishment.

Think of Malaysia. Once considered a heaven for modern Muslims. A lot of my friends wanted me to shift there. I am glad the thought never crossed my mind. Once people in Malaysia were doing very well, with a big Chinese population and a fairly large Muslim population. But was it going to last? No.  This is the beginning of what they are up to now.

In Sudan in the Lubna Hussein case, the (eventually commuted) sentence of lashing was for wearing trousers – an offence that not even the Qur'an or other sources of religious law had foreseen and legislated against. One cannot ever forget that the execution of Islamic thinker Mahmoud M. Taha - for the charge of apostasy - was one of the most farcical miscarriages of both religious and civil justice in the country's history.

It's 2013 … Muslims. Wake up!