PAKISTAN: Muslim leaders who issued decree to kill a Christian woman should be prosecuted

ISSUES: Blasphemy law; judicial prosecution; right to life and religious minority
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission received information that Muslim fundamentalist and extremist groups have advocated publicly that a Christian lady, Aasia Bibi, sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws should not be pardoned even though her pardon was awarded by a session court on the instigation of Muslim religious leadership. Some have offered a cash reward for Aasia’s assassination. Since the introduction of 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) by a military dictator in 1986, dozens of persons from religious minority groups have been killed or lynched by mobs. Pakistan’s courts have also proved themselves biased on blasphemy law.

Throughout Pakistan, wall chalking and graffiti declare support for killing Aasia, call for death to Aasia, and declare support for blasphemy law. A high profile campaign has also started in the private media channels against reforming the blasphemy law, and participants use filthy words against those persons who are advocating amendment of section 295-C of the PPC.

Please sign the appeal urging the authorities to pardon Aasia and abolish the amendments in blasphemy law. The religious minorities should be given full protection from the misuse of blasphemy law.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Aasia Bibi, 45, a Christian and mother of five, was sentenced to death by a local court in Nankana district, Punjab province, on charges of committing blasphemy. Ms Bibi's case dates back to June 2009, when she was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields and a group of Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she should not touch the water bowl. This resulted in exchange of hot words between her and Muslim women against each others’ religious beliefs. Five days after the incident, a local Muslim leader, Qari Salim, jumped into the matter and pressured some people in the area to claim that she committed blasphemy.

When finding no way to get Ms. Bibi to confess, Salim used the loudspeakers of the mosque, as other Muslim leaders usually do in the cases of alleged blasphemy acts, to spread the news of blasphemy and instigate the people of the locality to punish the alleged blasphemer. The people of the locality beat her severely in the presence of her children. The local police came and took her into protective custody, but at the police station the crowd under the leadership of Qari Salim pressured the police to file a charge of blasphemy against her and arrest her for desecrating the last prophet of Islam (peace be upon him).

On November 1, 2010, 16 months after her arrest, the court pronounced a death sentence on charges of committing blasphemy. The judge totally ruled out in his judgment any chance that Aasia was falsely implicated; he said that there were no mitigating circumstances. His comment in his verdict shows that he knew that it was a weak case and that people will oppose his judgment giving a death sentence to a woman in a blasphemy case for the first time in the history of Pakistan. According to the reports, the court relied on the witnesses provided by the Muslim leader of the mosque and Christians were not allowed to produce witnesses. The judge also did not know that according to the 2004 amendment to blasphemy law the investigation of any blasphemy charges should be conducted by an officer who is at least a Superintendent of Police (SP). In the case of Aasia, all the investigation was done by a low rank officer, the Assistant Sub-Inspector.

It has been found that Pakistan’s judges, from the lower courts to the highest courts, are eager to get popularity through their verdicts and comments during the hearing. When the chief justice of the Lahore High Court stopped the government from withdrawing the case of blasphemy against Aasia on the assumption that president of Pakistan would withdraw the case, Ms. Asma Jehangir, the president of Supreme Court Bar Association told the judges that if they want to get popularity through their judgment then they should do some other job rather than being a judge. The judiciary’s attitude towards the blasphemy law is no different than that of ordinary Muslim leaders. When the Chief Justice implored the government not to pardon the sentence, another bench of the same court also asked the government not to amend the blasphemy law.

It is also evident that those persons responsible for extra-judicial killings of persons accused of blasphemy will never be punished by the courts because of the biases of the courts and because of the lengthy period of trial during which witnesses were pressured by the militant groups.

A prominent Muslim leader, Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a hard line Pakistani Islamic cleric, told a rally in the north-western town of Peshawar that his mosque would give Rs. 0.5 million (,000 US dollars) to anyone who kills Aasia Bibi. The Maulana is the leader of Mosque Mahabat Khan, the biggest in the Khyber Pakhtoon Kha province. His announcement was carried by all electronic and print media, yet the government has not taken any legal action against Maulana for inciting people to kill extra judicially. Muslim religious groups all over the Pakistan are holding protest meetings in large numbers, instructing followers that there should be no compromise if the government or courts pardon Aasia’s death sentence.

The governor of Punjab, who met Aasia in jail after her sentence and assured her that he would take her case before the president of Pakistan, advocating to pardon her. However, the Lahore high court suddenly stopped the process and said before the decision of the court that the government cannot do such a thing. All the religious groups and parties maligned the governor as he is violating the basic teachings of Islam or he is an infidel.

Ms. Bibi’s husband and children are hiding. They left the house after receiving threats from the Muslim extremists. It is difficult for them to survive, as the husband and his other brothers are always chased by Muslim groups. There is a strong chance that her family would be attacked and might be killed as these happened in previous cases when persons were accused of blasphemy. In a recent case of two Christian brothers, the AHRC informed the authorities of the threat well before those brothers were killed in custody. Please see the urgent appeal in the case of Rashid Emmanuel and Sajjid.

In another case dating from July 2009, a Christian youth was killed by extremists in November 2010 after being released from charges of blasphemy. Please go to his case by clicking here.

One daily newspaper, Nawa-i-Waqt has written an editorial in favour of Maulana Yousuf Querashi, who issued a decree against Aasia Bibi and announced a cash reward for whomever kills Aasia Bibi. The newspaper wrote that Maulana was great in his decree and his action is according to Islam therefore Aasia Bibi should be killed.

The speaker and legislators of the provincial Assembly of Punjab province who support the move against Aasia Bibi are no better. When Mr. Shara, a minority member of the assembly, wanted to discuss the issue of Aasia and her punishment, the speaker, Rani Iqbal Ahmad, refused to allow Shara to speak on the issue, describing it as "sensitive". Protesting against the speaker's attitude, legislators belonging to minority communities walked out of the House. However, when Ali Haider Noor Niazi of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan party began speaking emotionally on the same issue, the speaker did not stop him. Niazi began shouting within the assembly as he criticised those who were trying to defend the woman. Niazi criticised Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer for raising his voice in favour of Asia Bibi. "The governor has no right to make efforts for Asia's pardon,” he said. Niazi was also of the view that those demanding the woman's release are blasphemers.

It is very much feared that Aasia Bibi or her family members may be killed during her detention or when she is released. The Punjab government is silent on the issue and allowing fundamentalist groups to decide all things.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The deliberate institutionalisation of Islam’s status as protected and predominant promoted the perpetuation of religious intolerance by Islamic fundamentalists. According to data collected by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), at least 964 persons were alleged of violating these anti-blasphemy clauses from 1986 to August 2009, while more than 30 persons were killed extra-judicially by the angry mob or by individuals.

Militant Muslim organizations are using blasphemy laws as the best way to keep religious minority groups under pressure and even forcibly take land. The state is failing to protect the lives and property of minority communities. The blasphemy law has made it compulsory that no police officer below the level of Superintendent of Police can investigate the charges but this is rarely adhered to.

Recent cases in Pakistan suggest a criminal collaboration among government authorities, police, and fundamentalist organizations, in which the Muslim clergy, receiving bribes from land-grabbers in the National and Provincial Assemblies, colluded with local police to expropriate land owned by minorities by bringing blasphemy allegations against them. The situation is especially worrying in Punjab province after the formation of the PML-N government, which has a record of intolerant policies against Christians and Ahmadis in particular.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write the letters to the authorities urging them to pardon Aasia and release her immediately. Please ask them to arrest those Muslim leaders who are instigating the people to kill her and have announced rewards for killing her. Please also urge that the children and family members of her be provided protection and employment.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Religious tolerance calling for his intervention into this case.

To support this appeal please click here:

Winds of Change from ‘Holly Land’

By Ahmad Nadeem Gehla
Those who have had an opportunity to do business with Arab corporates know very well that deals are neither transparent nor free from political influences. This is very rare that any corporate head from ‘Royal Family’ lodges a complaint with foreign governments or approaches other power centres in foreign states. Conspiracy theorists are terming the complaint of Saudi Prince against Ministry of Religious Affairs to be first cool wind of change from ‘Holly Land’. Obviously, their can be other reasons as well, as the present Minister for religious Affairs belongs to a sect of Muslim which is vocal against Taliban and not a favourite of Arab Kingdoms. This also might be a genuine discontent of business tycoon but it is difficult to believe that a Prince wont follow the ‘rules’ and protest as at home business follows the ‘Royalty’.
As Supreme Court of Pakistan has takes Suo-Moto notice on Prince’s complaint, discussing the merits or otherwise of the case might prejudice the issue but political implications are open for public debate. The famous quote of ’3 A’s', Allah, America and Army is crafted very carefully, intentionally ignoring another ‘brotherly ‘A’; the Arab Empires’. The infamous ‘American interference’ in internal affairs of Pakistan is a favourite topic of right wing ‘Talk Show Hosts’ , political Mullahs and politicians. However, they conveniently ignore interference of ‘Brotherly Sheikh’, as it does not hurt our half-sovereignty. Historically, some Arab Kingdoms’ has always been actively micro managing internal affairs of Pakistan and played key role in making and breaking of governments.
Iran is the only ‘Islamic Nation’ which is not qualified to be included in ‘Brotherly’ group as it is disliked by ‘Sheikh’. A’s consider micro managing war torn Afghanistan as their legitimate right. However if Hamid Karzai makes a statements about Pakistan, the custodians of half-sovereignty start condemning ‘foreign interference’ in internal affairs of Pakistan. Certainly, one has to be rich and powerful to qualify as a ‘brother’ – that is our culture. Presently ‘Holly Land’, not only influences the decisions of establishment and politicians in Pakistan but it has got new followers in corridors of justice.
Zardari regime earned displeasure of ‘Sheikh’ by defying the wish of ‘His Highness’ to stay away from Iran, which irritates badly the’ Elder of Ummah’. The supply agreement of ‘impure Gas’ from Iran through a pipeline project has put present regime at odds with ‘Holly Land’. Although since assassination of King Faisal, ‘Sheikh’ has never been very kind towards secular Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The ‘Soviet War Project’ brought ‘Kingdoms’ further closer to right wing dominated establishment and politicians. Some Arab Kingdoms were unhappy when Benazir Bhutto came in to power, as the women’s rule is against their interpretation of religion.
The brotherly states played a major role in convincing ‘political Mullah’s’ to assemble against secular Pakistan Peoples Party. No-confidence motion against Benazir Bhutto was generously funded by Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, a great well-wisher of Pakistan who wanted the ‘land of pure’ to get rid of ‘women rule’. Same ‘Kingdoms’ played an active role in formation of infamous IJI and later brokered a deal with Pervez Musharaf to get Mian Nawaz Sharif released despite his multiple convictions from court. There are speculations that tenure of agreement between Pervez Musharaf, Kingdom and Mian Nawaz Sharif will expire next month and later is ready to bid for premiership. Certainly the ‘Elder of Ummah’ would like to reward his friend and previous host for his obedience and common goals towards ‘impure Iranian gas’ and identifying good Taliban.
Democracy might be a best revenge but democracy in third world is not a wise revenge when playing against the wishes of economic, religious and regional players. They got the powers to make example out of Bhutto, King Fasial, Benazir and adventurism of those who tried to defy the system. Things are not that complicated. Zardari regime has to decide weather it wants to stay in power or make enemies. Gas pipeline from Iran irritates the ‘Highness’, recognition of good Taliban is a joint project of ‘Elders of Ummah’ and righteous. Going against the tide wont help when corruption’ allegations against Minister of Religious Affairs are ‘proved’ in Supreme Court and general elections follow with this much inflation and allegations. Iranian gas is good for economy and war against terror is important for nation but survival is the key – get wiser before you get revenge – feel the winds of change from ‘Holly Land’.

Science and Fundamentalist's Illusions

Science and Delusion

by Awais Masood

Freak Stage Magician

They use Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to find out the direction of Kiblah. Their smart phones, priced hundreds of dollars, are equipped with all the necessary software they need to perform their religious duties. Their black berry devices are all too ready to send out emails containing lucrative material preaching the ideology of the school of thought they belong to. They use World Wide Web to watch streaming videos of hate-mongers, pseudo-scholars and so called security analysts spilling out the most profound lies in the name of history. They watch TV Channels dedicated to bring stage illusionists, presenting self-sustaining and cyclic arguments as rational proofs of what they want to believe. They cannot help but clapping, along with all the mindless spectators present at those TV “entertainment shows”, at the most ludicrous arguments that any college freshman, taking a course comprising of epistemology, can debunk in less than five minutes.

They belong to the urban educated middle class of Pakistan. They are one of the luckiest people in this country who are equipped with the necessary tools of language and basic understanding to grasp the reality of this universe and the way this world behaves with an open mind. But here comes the catch. The method that has assisted us in learning how this world behaves is termed as a human invention, a faulty tool created by all so incompetent and “evil” human species. The way science elegantly describes this universe and challenges our dogmatic notions is ignored and most of the time comically challenged with the utmost stubbornness. It has become a custom of these people to dig

DNA could be used to confirm paternity or convict criminals but not evolution?

deeper into its intellectual ignorance by rejecting natural sciences and at the same time using the technology developed (by infidels of course) upon the foundations of  science. It is therefore not strange to find a person rejecting Theory of Evolution, modern genetics or the Big Bang Model of the universe but it will not stop him from having a DNA test to confirm the paternity of his children (what else could one expect from male chauvinists) or play with the wireless inventions of the modern day that owe their existence to the underlying electromagnetic theory of Physics.
I can recall watching a discussion with Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg (who shared Nobel Prize for Physics with Abdul Salam and Glasshow). Weinberg narrated how Salam went to oil rich Gulf States, in order to convince them to develop universities in the Islamic world, where research in natural sciences would be given its due share. He was given a cold shoulder as most of the rulers of Muslim majority countries are interested in technology but consider natural sciences as corrosive to faith and hence to the hegemony of those monarchs who use religion as a tool of authoritarian rule and subjugation of their subjects.
What else could be more comical than a religious zealot using a computer connected to internet and within all his/her senses (if

Internet

he/she is left with any) denying the authenticity of science. What is more troubling is the fact that he/she does not even appear to understand the absurdity of that claim. One must need to realize that the GPS devices, desktops, laptops and the blackberries and all such computing devices are manifestations of elegant engineering achievements which are based upon the basic predictions and theories of natural sciences. Any powerful computing device of today consists of a large number of micro-processing devices. It is quite common these days for an average microprocessor, which itself is no large than a postage stamp, to contain millions of embedded electronic switches, turning on and off more than one billion times a second in a musical harmony which can easily disrupt a fundamentalist’s mind as it is usually unable to understand figures such as billions. It is quite natural because for most of the fundamentalists, planet earth is a few thousand years old (rather than four billion years, which is the actual age of the earth).

This state-of-the-art computing technology of today did not grow out of nowhere. It was not plucked from trees. It did not land from the heavens. It was not brought to us by extra-terrestrials traveling in U.F.O(s).  It was developed scientifically, systematically, meticulously and (most importantly) intelligently. It is based upon some of the most important discoveries of natural sciences that explain how a certain element of nature named Silicon shows a peculiar electronic behaviour under certain conditions. The electronic behaviour is itself explained by natural sciences as a phenomenon that exists due to the flow of an elementary particle of all matter, named as electron. If just for once, it is assumed that there exists no such particle named electron or that there exists no such phenomenon as the motion of electrons, the whole body of knowledge that was used to develop the world of today will collapse. There will be no foundations to support the sky scrapper of the modern day technology. Therefore whenever a fundamentalist uses his/her computer to post, on an online forum, an arrogant, ignorant and absolutist stance that science is not reliable, he/she actually exhibits a perfect example of self-contradiction, intellectual degeneration and cowardice.

The purpose of above example is to relate how technology exists due to the accurate and precise explanations predictions of the natural sciences.The same argument could be based upon the examples of breakthroughs in applied sciences such as medical science, mechanical and structural engineering to name a few. Therefore whenever a Science-Rejecting-Arrogant-Fundamentalist visits a doctor to seek cure for an ailment affecting him/her or his/her children, undergoes a complicated surgical procedure, drives an automobile, boards an airplane, switches on an air conditioner, makes an electronic financial transaction to his/her favourite Jihadi outfit or simply switches on TV to watch the renowned stage magician from India, play tricks with his/her mind, in the name of religion, he/she implicitly acknowledges the accuracy of the scientific theories and their predictions that led to those technological achievements. Natural science is the firm, solid and essential foundation of all the luxuries that these confused arrogant fundamentalists use to preach their baseless hypocrisy to unsuspecting youth, caught in the vicious ford between modernity and tradition.
Scientific Method
Scientific method allows human species to expand the circumference of its knowledge. These techniques, employed by scientists, allow us to understand this universe as it is. Science is elegant and beautiful as it incorporates both the beauty and creativity of human consciousness and at the same time requires the accuracy and precision of observation and evidence. Scientific method involves:

1. Observation of natural phenomena.
2. Formulation of a hypothesis – an outcome of the creativity of human mind which could be artistically aesthetic – to explain the observed natural phenomena.
3. Usage of the formulated hypothesis to predict new phenomena or observable outcomes of the model, that are testable.
4. Testing those predictions through experiments and hence falsify the hypothesis if those predictions are wrong.

By continuously applying the above method, human species has been able to expand the sphere of its knowledge to a level where children of both Secularists and Fundamentalists alike have much higher chances of survival through infancy as compared to their ancestors. Science has beyond no doubt helped us in reducing infant mortality rates. It has allowed us to live longer and healthier by providing better health care services. It has served to raise our consciousness  by ridding us of the self-indulgent delusion of being the centre of a small pre-Galilean universe. It has saved us from indulging in the horrors of burning alive old women at stakes after declaring them as witches just because we had low yield of crops that year. It has freed us (or at least some of us) from the evil spirits and demons that ran amok during the times of our ancestors and caused great damage through storms, hurricanes and thunderstorms. It has allowed us to stop exorcising demons out of anguished psychological patients and instead provide them with proper medical care and finally it has enabled us to challenge the tyranny of those ruling in the name of divine rights. Science is a perpetual, systematic quest of seeking the unknown and turning it into the known. It requires respect towards facts, the ability and courage to shed already present notions of the world, when finally contradicted by evidence, no matter how dear and personal they are to the scientist.  Most importantly, science operates on the principle of methodological naturalism, that is; this universe, which is to be studied, is a closed, self-sustained system where we strive to explain the unknown. But whatever remains unknown in this system does not belong to the supernatural. It only remains “unknown” to be later explored, sought, explained and hence converted to the “known” by the systematic study of the world.

Had it been a habit of the scientists to attribute, what they could not understand- during the course of their work- to the supernatural, we would not have known this world as we now know it today. Had Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday used supernatural explanations, rather than conducting experiments, to study and explain the phenomena related to electric charges, our beloved fundamentalists would not have been able to appear on TV screens and shamelessly deny the discoveries of science. Had Galileo and all the following astronomers, made use of tradition instead of observation to explain a model of the solar system, these modern day stage acts would have been using their putrid arguments to explain how their scriptures prove that sun and everything else in the universe revolves around the planet Earth.  Had Newton (and every one else) attributed motion of objects and their fall towards the earth to a divine presence rather than the inherent laws of this ordered universe, we would not have even developed a basic theory of mechanics and hence pop-artists-turned-fundamentalists would not have been able to travel in Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV), priced millions, along with their fellows in order to preach what they thinks is right. In fact no fundamentalist would have been able to drive a car, board a plane (or crash those cars/ planes into buildings) because there would not have been any cars or planes.

Modern astronomy has shown us that this universe is extremely vast for our minds to fathom. We live on a a small sized planet, revolving around a middle sized star, located at an insignificant spiral of a galaxy, that contains billions of such stars and we are in an expanding universe that may contain billions of such galaxies. Not to forget the theoretical possibility, that there could be many, perhaps billions of such universes. To imagine such cosmic loneliness may turn out to be one of the most horrifying mental experiences by opening doors to an intolerable feeling of despair and hopelessness. But perhaps all is not that bleak as we expect. The same doors that can make a human mind plunge into despair, may lead a way towards the realization of the most cherished gift of nature to human species. The very same, not yet fully understood, human consciousness that allows us to realize the vastness of this cosmos, look at it, touch it, feel it and perhaps love it, is what makes us special. It is exactly when Descartes exclaims, “Cogito, ergo sum“, a human is defined. Our brain creates a visual model of this world inside us, which is then interpreted by our subjective consciousness as the world we see. This world is all what our mind shows us to be. It is, at the end, only our ability and capacity to think that differentiates us from lifeless matter and most of the other animal species. Being extremely insignificant creatures of this universe, the very thing that makes us special is the ability to realize, understand and explore this insignificance. Such a realization can open new doors towards appreciating the beauty of life, consciousness and last but not the least, every other being that can think, feel and understand like us. To develop a very humble feeling of pride in being a human  and to be able to feel and care for every other human being is perhaps not a bad deal at the end. Note: The example of electron is inspired from an audio recording of a Keynote address delivered by Pervez Hoodbhoy.

Hindu families evicted for drinking water from mosque

By Rabia Ali

As many as 60 Hindu men, women and children were forced into abandoning their homes in Memon Goth and taking refuge in a cattle pen all because of a boy from their community who drank water from a cooler placed outside a mosque, police officials and community members told The News.

These hapless people ran away from the wrath of some of the influential tribesmen of the area who got so enraged by the incident, which took place last week, that they beat up the members of the Hindu community and forced them into evicting their quarters.

“All hell broke loose when my son, Dinesh, who looked after chickens in a farm, drank water from a cooler outside a mosque. Upon seeing him do that, the people of the area started beating him up.

“Later, around 150 tribesmen attacked us, injuring seven of our people — Samo, Mohan, Hero, Chanu, Sadu, Heera, and Guddi — who were taken to the Jinnah Hospital,” said Meerumal, a resident of the area.

One of the injured, Heera, while showing this correspondent his wounds, said that another 400 families of the area, located in the vicinity of Malir, were also being threatened to leave the area.

“Our people are even scared of going out of their houses. We are also putting up with living in the filthy pen because we cannot go home for fear of being killed,” he said.

The SHO of the Memon Goth police station, commenting on the issue, said, “A trivial incident led to riots between the people of the area. Since both the communities happened to be illiterate, the matter just flared up.”

However, he dismissed the claims of lack of security to the Hindu community in the area and said that they could go back to their homes anytime they wanted to.

Meanwhile, Minister for Minority Affairs Dr Mohan Lal assured the Hindu community of full government protection.

“I have directed the DPO and the SHO to ensure that these people go back to their houses safely,” he said.

The minister said that the culprits would be dealt with severely.

Abdul Hai, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that these people, who belonged to the Bheels caste, had been living in the area for several years.

“They are former bonded laborers. Now they earn a meager sum of Rs4,000 to Rs5,000 monthly as watchmen at the farms. Some of them also work for the tribesmen.

“The government must help them in moving back to their homes in order to instill confidence in other families and prevent them from packing their bags too,” he said.

Science ends here

Nadeem F. Paracha

Many Arab as well as some western academics (who were paid large sums of money and perks) were continuously invited to the rich, conservative kingdoms and asked to scribble books claiming that the Muslim holy book was punctuated with scientific truths hundreds of years before the West discovered them in their labs. — Illustration by Abro

I am itching to get my hands on a recently published book, God Created the Universe by Fatehulla Khan. After reading the review of the book, I can safely assume it is yet another document in the long line of glorified assertions that much of what we call scientific truths today was mentioned in the scriptures a long time ago.

Ever since the late French physician, Maurice Bucaille — on a hefty payroll of the Saudi royal family in Riyadh — wrote Islam, Bible & Science (1976), many believe that ‘proving’ scientific truths from holy books has been the exclusive domain of Muslims. However, in spite of being impressed by the holy book’s ‘scientific wonders’, Bucaille remained a committed Christian.

Very few of my wide-eyed brethren know that long before Muslims, certain Hindu and Christian theologians had already laid claim to the practice of defining their respective holy books as metaphoric prophecies of scientifically proven phenomenon. They began doing so between the 18th and 19th centuries, whereas Muslims got into the act only in the 20th century.

Johannes Heinrich’s Scientific vindication of Christianity (1887) is one example, while Mohan Roy’s Vedic Physics: Scientific Origin of Hinduism (1999) is a good way of observing how this thought has evolved among followers of other faiths. It is interesting to note how a number of Muslim ‘scientists’ have laboured hard to come up with convoluted interpretations of certain scriptures. Ironically, their ancient counterparts, especially between the 8th and 13th centuries in Baghdad and Persia, had put all effort in trying to understand natural phenomena and the human body and mind through hardcore science and philosophy.

Those great men of Islamic antiquity weren’t over-reading into divine texts for scientific answers; instead, to them God’s command to reflect on nature and the world around them was enough to inspire them to become dedicated rational scientists and philosophers. They were celebrated not only by Muslims, but humanity at large for their scientific prowess.

But, alas, beginning around the early 1970s, with the collapse of a secular nationalist mindset in the Muslim world, and the rise in influence of totalitarian oil-rich puritanical monarchies, Muslim polities and mindset began to suspect science as a tool of western and communist social engineering and imperialism.

Whereas the wealthy monarchies remained firmly in the western camp during the Cold War, they aggressively proliferated reactionary literature that attacked both western and Marxist ideas across the Muslim world. Added to this was the propagated perception that modern science was the creation of the continuing Judo-Christian tradition (nay, ‘conspiracy’) aimed at undermining Islam.

Many Arab as well as some western academics (who were paid large sums of money and perks) were continuously invited to the rich, conservative kingdoms and asked to scribble books claiming that the Muslim holy book was punctuated with scientific truths hundreds of years before the West discovered them in their labs.

This practice — clearly emerging from a mixture of an inferiority complex and the passion for shouting down modern liberal and leftist notions — sanctified myopia and an unscientific bent of mind in the Muslim world. As many Muslim scientists such as Ziauddin Sardar and Pervez Hoodbhoy, and renowned Islamic scholars like Muhammad Akhund, have already lamented, Muslims through such literature are actually encouraged to drop out of any field or lab work required for genuine scientific research. Many are persuaded to follow the belief that all they need to know about science is already in the holy book.

Rationalist Islamic scholars have been insisting throughout the 20th century to date that the holy book is less a book of laws or science. It is an elaborate moral guide for Muslims in which God has given the individual the freewill to decide for him or herself through exerting their mental faculties and striving to gain more empirical knowledge.

Iranian writer, Vali Reza Nasr, is right to mourn the trend today that though most Muslims are quick to adopt western science, they simply refuse to assume a rational scientific mindset. No wonder then, for example, most Pakistanis still don’t have a clue about what the country’s only Nobel Prize winning scientist, Dr Abdus Salam, got the award for, but many are quick to quote from books written by super cranks like Harun Yahya and Maurice Bucaille, explaining how things like the Big Bang and others are endorsed in the holy book.

In addition to such claptrap, there are already books out there claiming that electricity can be generated from jinns. A whole session was organised in Islamabad in the late 1980s during the Ziaul Haq regime in which fringe crackpots (disguised as scientists) were invited by the dictator to determine the ‘speed of heaven’, and how to overcome the energy crisis with the aid of jinns!

So why read books of science, or enter a lab to understand the many workings of God’s nature and creatures; just read the holy book. Who knows you may find a theory on time travel and laser guns in it as well? Forget about all those great Muslim scientists of yore, or Abdus Salam, Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Just get in touch with your friendly neighbourhood jinn for all your energy needs.

The real Culprits

Yasser Latif Hamdani

As the second most populous Muslim nation state after Indonesia, our dilemma is no different from the confessional states of Europe that over time became the staunchest defenders of civil liberties and secularism

Rakesh Mani was kind enough to mention my article ‘Faisal Shahzad’s radicalisation’, (Daily Times, May 10, 2010) in his article ‘The University of God’ (Daily Times, May 20, 2010). While I agree with most of his observations about Islamic organisations on American university campuses, I must raise a note of dissent in so far as his treatment of Pakistan and Pakistanis is concerned.

First of all, Pakistan’s fixation with faith has nothing to do with the creation of Pakistan, which was in any event not on the basis of religious ideology. This is a moot point for most objective historians studying the creation of Pakistan. Indeed the champions of religious ideology were entirely opposed to the creation of Pakistan. Jinnah’s references to Islam — few and far between — were to reinforce the idea that a pluralistic constitutional democracy is indeed a cardinal principle of the dominant religio-cultural system to which his constituency belonged.

Mani makes an important point when he speaks of a Bengali being Bengali before he is a Muslim or a Hindu or a Punjabi being a Punjabi before he is a Muslim or a Hindu. I am sure he would be surprised — to say the least — that those were the exact words that the founding father of Pakistan used when explaining to Mountbatten why Bengal and Punjab ought to be kept united as late as mid-May in 1947. The League’s ‘Two Nation Theory’ was a counterpoise to Congress’s ‘One Nation Theory’ and not regional identities. The great irony of the partition of India is that it was the Congress that insisted on dividing Punjab and Bengal on religious lines and not the Muslim League. Indeed Mr. Jinnah endorsed Sarat Chandra Bose’s plan to keep Bengal united as late as June 3 but it was vetoed by Nehru. Unfortunately, this is one of those nuanced realities that nationalist mythologies on both sides cannot grasp or articulate.

This is not to say that through the Objectives Resolution and beyond we have not mixed the state and religion. The crowning glory of the Islamist project is the 1973 Constitution, which restricts freedom more than it protects it (precisely why actions like a blanket ban on Facebook is possible constitutionally in Pakistan). However, it is here that Mani errs again. The most fanatical Muslims are not almost exclusively Pakistani. Indeed Pakistan contributes — proportionally — a far fewer number of fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists than the Arab world for example. Roughly 16-20 percent of the terrorists in recent times planning an attack in western countries have been Pakistanis. Somalia — a much smaller country — contributes a higher number of extremists and terrorists.

On the other hand, it is no doubt a very interesting fact to put out that Indian Muslims, only a few million less than Pakistan’s total population, contribute even fewer terrorists in the West. Indian Muslims in the West come across as much more conservative and religious minded than the Pakistanis and yet hardly any terrorists have come from it. There are — in my opinion — two possible reasons for it. One, if the Muslim diaspora was ever studied, it would show that Pakistanis in the West outnumber Indian Muslims by 20 or 30 to 1. Secondly, Pakistan has inherited the legacy of the Afghan War, not India. This second point is at the heart of the issue.

The important thing that Mani should have noted is not how Pakistanis tend to be more fanatical, which is not true — after all Mani’s friend from Karachi who he mentions in his article as being a clubbing type party girl is also a Pakistani — but how every terrorist plot finds a connection to Pakistan’s northwest. The issue here is not that Pakistanis are terrorists, but Pakistan’s government has tolerated far too long militancy and terrorist organisations on its soil. And then there is a broader issue. A great majority of terrorists are not Pakistani. They are global jihadists informed and indoctrinated by the ideology of Ikhwanul Muslimeen and Hizbut Tahrir, two organisations whose roots are firmly outside of Pakistan. By focusing on Pakistan and forgetting that 15 out of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Saudis and none of them were Pakistanis, by forgetting that the mastermind of 9/11 was an Egyptian working in an organisation led by the Egyptians and the Saudis, Mani is glossing over the real causes of Islamist terror worldwide. By singling out Pakistan and feeding a misperception about its history, the real cause, i.e. the last hurrah of revivalist Islamism, is obscured. It is the Qutbian-Maududian Islamist ideology that needs to be taken to task and the failure to recognise that will only lead to more heartbreak.

Pakistan as a constitutional democracy with a rising Muslim bourgeoisie is the greatest hope against this riding tide of Islamist revival. Democracy has always ensured that Islamists are kept out of the power equation. The great battle for the soul of Islam is being fought in our streets, our assembly halls and our courts. Pakistan is going through the pangs of rebirth and with it will come a reformation of the Islamic world itself. As the second most populous Muslim nation state after Indonesia, our dilemma is no different from the confessional states of Europe that over time became the staunchest defenders of civil liberties and secularism. Only in our case, the information age has accelerated the speed of this evolution. This also explains the knee-jerk reaction of the pillars of our state to Facebook, but that is a whole different issue.

Yasser Latif Hamdani is a lawyer based in Islamabad. He can be reached at yasser.hamdani@gmail.com

FacebookGate

Faraz Rana

Depictions of the Prophet (pbuh) are banned in Islam so people (presumably, Muslims) don’t idolize the images. The lawyer in me will tell you that a non-Muslim drawing a similar image, especially in jest, will not violate that rationale. Nor will Muslims ever confuse a cartoon with a serious depiction. Of course, using technical legal arguments to quell incensed religious rhetoric is about as effective as eradicating objectionable content on cyberspace by blocking it. Oh, wait.

The debate on FacebookGate and the underlying arguments on the limits of free speech will never be resolved by rational minds. So, in case you missed it, here is just a quick sampling of the conversations sprouting all over, coincidentally, Facebook.

The Facebook group was a collective effort to malign Muslims. The group was intended to be a demonstrated exercise in free speech by some bloggers, as a direct response to the decision by the producers of another TV show to curtail their creative outlet in the face of death threats. As often happens on the Internet, the ones with the most pent up vitriol for just about everything under the sun tend to have the most free time to vocalize it. The group was hijacked and the posts became offensive. What is interesting, though, is that the group was not very popular until people started pointing fingers at it. After that, it went Facebook viral and the offensive content just perpetuated itself. It is as if Muslims snatched the offensive content from the jaws of obscurity and brought it back to life for the whole world to see.

I don’t believe in free speech when it offends my religion. You are out of luck. Free speech is a concept that exists outside your belief system. It even exists outside the legal limitations imposed on it by the United States Supreme Court. It will continue to exist so long as humans are capable of free thought. What makes free speech so vexing, however, is that it becomes important to people only when it manages to offend someone. Otherwise, you call it, in legal parlance, “small talk.”

Think about what your mother told you when you were bullied as a kid. She was a playground sage and understood that fighting back only worked if the bully wasn’t twice your size. Even then, how many times were you going to fight him? It is a fact known for hundreds of playground years that bullying someone is only fun if you can get a predictable reaction out of the bullied. Ignore them, she would lecture, and the bully has no raison d’etre.

They don’t make fun of other religions. Everyone is against the Muslims. Two words: Family Guy. If you are not a fan of the American cartoon show, the “I dream of Jesus” episode is a particularly funny episode. It is available on Youtube. The irony is free, as well. Find mocking Christianity to be too 8th century? Spend some time on the Internet, and you will find a website dedicating to ridiculing virtually every race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, belief and preference known to man. There are even Facebook groups dedicated to hating women. Yes, the entire gender.

We need to fight back when people attack our religion. We are soon going to run out of people to fight. Muslims are not winning any popularity contests (Miss USA Pageants, a different story), which means finding a more effective way to vocalize our presence. The history of Islam is filled with parables about how being a good Muslim is an effective way to fight ignorance. Perhaps highlighting our meaningful contributions to society, rather than staging protest after protest, might be a better way to spend our free time.

Boycotting Facebook will show them our collective strength. Not even close. We created Facebook groups about how we were going to quit Facebook. We could not help but make use of the powerful and innovative forum Facebook has created for people to communicate and launched our own protest groups on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg was just sitting back and smiling that everyone showed up to play in his own backyard. When a Muslim creates an innovative way to communicate on the Internet, perhaps a kitab-e-shaqsiat for you Urdu speakers, we can then perhaps think about dictating the rules of the game.

Well, I’m just bored and need to fight for something. Great! Last time I checked, Muslims were going through an existential crisis, marred at the very least by poverty, illiteracy and the inability of all of us to agree on anything remotely relevant. Islam is a beautiful religion. Lets spend our free time practicing it, helping others follow it and helping the poor. When we have overcome our collective troubles and fed and empowered even the weakest amongst us, we can shift our attention to figuring out how to celebrate Eid on the same day.

As an appointed bureaucrat, supreme court justice or elected official of a country with a majority Muslim population, it is our duty to dictate what is morally acceptable to our population. Shame on you, the government of Pakistan. Once the dust settles, you deserve the greatest blame for turning a farce into an international incident. It is your job to transcend the knee-jerk sways of your people and implement the functions of a government, much like how every other government acts in the face of impassioned protests. Never mind that you once again managed to associate our country’s great name with a message so myopic that it was barely comprehensible to the outside world. Lets not even bother to romanticize the message of a nation’s founder who, in his inaugural address, promised that the state would not interfere in the religious affairs of its citizens, much less dictate to a nation of 170 million what they should consider “sacrilegious.” All of this pales in comparison to the amazingly swift manner in which you acted. You may have noticed our country has had some problems as of late. If you could only use the same efficiency to value and save human lives, we might not care so much about your moral inclinations.

On the bright side, when it is time to eradicate corruption from the halls of our government, we do know how to get your attention.
I am a spiritual leader or Imam and I found the views on Facebook to be offensive so I instigated a protest in my neighborhood. What in the world were you doing on Facebook in the first place?

Faraz Rana, a lawyer based in New York

The author can be reached at Farazarana@gmail.com

Let us ban thinking…

As muslims lets be outraged and have shut down or at least boycott the site that was sacrilegious

then close or at least boycott facebook
then close or at least boycott the email
then close or at least boycott twitter
then close and or at least boycott the internet
then close or at least boycott email
then close or at least boycott sms
then close or at least boycott mobiles
then close or at least boycott books
then close or at least boycott paper
then close or at least boycott the pen
then close or at least boycott speech
then close or at least boycott gesture
then close or at least boycott thinking
now my brother we have arrived
lets make a pile of these things and burn them till they are smoke
and fire the nukes till there is no trace left_

_then lets pick some of that charcoal, and some fireproof sheets
and have a draw satan day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

Has Google Been blocked in Pakistan?

PTA has blocked another site in order to ensure that all Pakistanis are unable to see the Blasphemous images

This time its Google!!!

Blocking Facebook was a reasonable step as FB wasnt even sticking to their own Terms & Conditions, Wikipedia was blocked because it contained articles and links about the Blasphemous event

But Google … ??? It means I cant even search within my personal blog as its search is powered by Google!!

What next?? expect Bing, Altavista, Alexa, Mywebsearch, Yahoo … and may be even e-mail sites (as pictures can be mailed) blocked in a couple of days and whatever PTA thinks fit!!

Has Google Been blocked in Pakistan?

PTA has blocked another site in order to ensure that all Pakistanis are unable to see the Blasphemous images

This time its Google!!!

Blocking Facebook was a reasonable step as FB wasnt even sticking to their own Terms & Conditions, Wikipedia was blocked because it contained articles and links about the Blasphemous event

But Google … ??? It means I cant even search within my personal blog as its search is powered by Google!!

What next?? expect Bing, Altavista, Alexa, Mywebsearch, Yahoo … and may be even e-mail sites (as pictures can be mailed) blocked in a couple of days and whatever PTA thinks fit!!

Has Google Been blocked in Pakistan?

PTA has blocked another site in order to ensure that all Pakistanis are unable to see the Blasphemous images

This time its Google!!!

Blocking Facebook was a reasonable step as FB wasnt even sticking to their own Terms & Conditions, Wikipedia was blocked because it contained articles and links about the Blasphemous event

But Google … ??? It means I cant even search within my personal blog as its search is powered by Google!!

What next?? expect Bing, Altavista, Alexa, Mywebsearch, Yahoo … and may be even e-mail sites (as pictures can be mailed) blocked in a couple of days and whatever PTA thinks fit!!

Has Google Been blocked in Pakistan?

PTA has blocked another site in order to ensure that all Pakistanis are unable to see the Blasphemous images

This time its Google!!!

Blocking Facebook was a reasonable step as FB wasnt even sticking to their own Terms & Conditions, Wikipedia was blocked because it contained articles and links about the Blasphemous event

But Google … ??? It means I cant even search within my personal blog as its search is powered by Google!!

What next?? expect Bing, Altavista, Alexa, Mywebsearch, Yahoo … and may be even e-mail sites (as pictures can be mailed) blocked in a couple of days and whatever PTA thinks fit!!

Jamaat-e-Islami: The Fountainhead Of Religious Extremism

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

Pakistan will have to undo the Maududian infiltration of its state and society. It means liberating our campuses of organisations like the IJT. It means purging the state and its machinery of elements that are furthering the Jamaat’s hate-filled agendaMy article last week on Faisal Shahzad’s radicalisation elicited unprecedented response on the issue of Islamic organisations operating in the US, thereby necessitating this sequel. There are things that need to be said before it is all too late.

Faisal Shahzad’s e-mail to the “peaceful ummah” as published in the New York Times (http://documents.nytimes.com/e-mail-from-faisal-shahzad#text/p1) leaves no doubt about Shahzad’s state of mind. It was his association with Islamic organisations in the West that transformed him into a global jihadist in the classical Qutbian mould. His language, his denunciation of the West and of hypocritical governments in Pakistan, his appeal to “Khilafah” had all the fingerprints of a campus or a local Islamic body, possibly one infiltrated by the Hizb ut-Tahrir and/or global activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

All this however should not mean that we should shut ourselves off from the reality of religious extremism in our own neck of the woods. The lashkars and the mujahideen Pakistan’s cynical and wretched establishment prepared against the Soviets, with American blessing, are obviously one part of the overall story. Religious extremism in Pakistan has a sordid history, one of the state’s constant retreat in the face of religious parties — the same religious parties that had opposed the very creation of Pakistan — and horrible compromises with extremist and fascist elements.

To recap, Islamic religious organisations have been part of the political landscape of the subcontinent ever since Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi brought them into politics under the guise of the Islamist ‘Khilafat Movement’. It bears repeating that when Gandhi first encouraged Islamic religious clerics for his own anti-imperialist goals, the lone dissenting voice of reason was that of Pakistan’s founding father Jinnah who told Gandhi not to bring “unwholesome elements into public life”. Yet it is Pakistan — ironically — that has come to be associated with the same unwholesome elements today.

After partition, religious extremism in Pakistan reared its ugly head when Majlis-e-Ahrar, a vociferously anti-Pakistan Islamic party during pre-partition days and an erstwhile ally of Gandhi, in 1953 started its campaign of terror against a hapless sectarian minority with the help of another witchdoctor of dubious history, i.e. Maulana Maududi, who till then had become completely irrelevant after his opposition to Jinnah and the Muslim League. To the credit of Pakistan’s judiciary, it swiftly handed down a death sentence for the person who is singlehandedly responsible in providing the ideological foundations for not just the Islamisation in Pakistan but the global Islamic jihad.

Nevertheless the Maulana’s sentence was commuted and it is Pakistan that has suffered as a result. Subsequent to commutation, his book, Islam and Communism, was picked up, reprinted and distributed allegedly by CIA’s JI desk all over the Muslim world. The idea was to use Maududian extremism to stiffen resistance against Soviet expansionism. It is therefore ironic that the JI, Maulana Maududi’s enduring creature, which in 1977 received funds from quarters in the US to overthrow the increasingly pro-Soviet Bhutto, is today the bastion of anti-Americanism. Wonders never cease.

The fountainhead of religious extremism in our country is Mansoora, the headquarters of the JI, in Lahore. Unless Pakistan and the US seriously take a look at the activities of the JI, any meaningful progress in stopping extremism feeding this terror will be impossible. The JI actively works on Pakistan’s largest university campuses to spread its doctrine of hate and bigotry not just against other countries such as the US but religious and sectarian minorities in Pakistan. Its student wing, the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba (IJT) is modelled after the National Socialist Party. The JI seeks to infiltrate the army, the air force and the civil bureaucracy to weaken the state’s resolve against extremism in Pakistan. Key members of the JI sit in departments such as education introduce nothing but poison in Pakistan’s young minds.

The JI’s mouthpiece, the Daily Ummat, is full of (fifth) columnists who advocate not just extremism but open violence against minorities. Maududi has inspired a generation of Islamists globally. His exegesis of the Holy Quran is widely read and followed by the Salafi Islamic order, predominantly found in the West and the main source of terrorism in the name of religion. Along with Sayyid Qutb of Egypt, Maududi remains the most widely read Islamist ideologue for relatively more affluent Muslims in the west. Within Pakistan too, the target audience is the middle class. It is, therefore, not uncommon to find inter-city bus services advertising during their in-coach entertainment the publications containing “sagacity and wisdom that defeated Communism, Secularism and Capitalism, which flowed from the pen of Sayyid Qutb and Sayyid Maududi” (direct translation). In the triumphalist Islamist narrative, Qutb and Maududi are prophets without parallel.

Pakistan — if it is serious about tackling terrorism — will also have to undo the Maududian infiltration of its state and society. It means liberating our campuses of organisations like the IJT. It means purging the state and its machinery of elements that are furthering the Jamaat’s hate-filled agenda instead of doing their job. The time has come to take stock of the damage this body of conspiratorial and bigoted men has done repeatedly to the body politic of Pakistan.

It must be remembered, for those who still care about the reasons why we made this country in the first place, that Jinnah’s Pakistan and Maududi’s Pakistan are mutually exclusive. Pakistan must decide here and now: do we wish to make Pakistan a prosperous and democratic state, which is at peace home and abroad ala Jinnah? Or do we wish to make Pakistan a violent dystopia run by maniacs and religious extremists with twisted ideas about religion ala Maududi?

The former route shall save us a lot of heartbreak and humiliation. The latter will ultimately lead to our destruction.

Yasser Latif Hamdani is a lawyer based in Islamabad. He can be reached at yasser.hamdani@gmail.com

Jamaat-e-Islami’s rag “Daily Ummat” Asks Me To Leave Pakistan !

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

In his recent column (“Mera beta teri fauj ka sipahi hoga”) in the rag, Daily Ummat, Kashif Hafeez Siddiqui has asked all Pakistanis like the “Qadiani supporter” Yasser Latif Hamdani who speak of a secular Pakistan to move to India. Could things be more ironic?

I find it strange sometimes that Jamaat-e-Islami claims positions thinking that everyone reading their lies is going to buy their crooked distortions as facts. In a campaign not long ago against Aga Khanis, they claimed that Aga Khanis were Zionists and opposed to the ideology of Pakistan. Ofcourse such inconvenient facts as the first president of the Muslim League being Aga Khan are of no consequence.

In his aforementioned article Mr. Siddiqui declares – with what one can imagine is a very straight face- that Pakistan was made by his parents under the slogan Pakistan ka matlab kiya La illah ilallah. The controversy of the slogan Pakistan ka matlab kiya la illah ilallah ought to have been put to rest when Jinnah himself denounced this slogan as being nothing but the handiwork of a few people who wanted to “catch a few votes”.

Now as someone whose family was involved in the Pakistan Movement and whose great grandfather, Syed Aurangzeb Ali Shah Hamdani, was honored at the Muslim League centenary on March 23^rd, 2006 with a posthumous gold medal, awarded by the then Prime Minister of this republic to his grandson at the Aiwan-e-Tehreek-e-Karkunan-e-Pakistan on the Mall Lahore, by the Nazaria-e-Pakistan foundation for his contributions to the Pakistan Movement, I believe I can speak with much more authority about what Pakistan Movement was about than some third rate crook of the Jamaat-e-Islami- a party that not only VOCIFEROUSLY opposed the creation of Pakistan but then actively tried to create hurdles for Pakistan Government and its moves in Kashmir in 1948.

To me my great grandfather’s connection to the Pakistan Movement is irrelevant. Besides my view of partition is informed by the Ayesha Jalal school of thought. I do so now only because I have asked by a crook to leave my country because his “parents” allegedly made it. My great grandfather’s contribution, significant as it is, was essentially politics and not part of some grand millennial fantasy. And he did end up losing upto 1200 acres of prime agricultural land as a result – because League having endorsed Independence for British India as part of manifesto was an opposition party- but to my mind the creation of Pakistan was the result of the breakdown of negotiations between the League and the Congress. It might just have gone another way in 1946. Therefore despite having been honored by the state as a freedom fighter and a worker in the Pakistan movement, I view my great grandfather as a shrewd notable and a landowner who had the prescience to abandon the Unionist camp long before other landowners and feudals of the area did.

Those who have read my writings know that I admire Mahomed Ali Jinnah probably more than any other historical figure. For this I have sustained the most abuse not just from Indians but even other groups that dislike my admiration for Pakistan’s founding father. I usually refer to the Quaid-e-Azam as Mr. Jinnah because that is what he preferred to be called. Yet – get this – Mr. Siddiqui has taken issue with the fact that I don’t call Mr. Jinnah Quaid-e-Azam… this Mr. Siddiqui who follows crook Maulana Maududi who not only opposed the creation of Pakistan but whose abuse against Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah (here I said it again) is well documented.

Dear Mr. Kashif Hafeez Siddiqui of Jamaat-e-Islami – terrorist sympathizer and supporter of the Taliban - before you ask bona fide citizens of Pakistan who are here by choice and free will (unlike you who would run to America the first chance he gets if America ever opens its doors to crooks, cranks and mad men like you) to leave Pakistan because they state such honest and inconvenient truths as the fact that Jinnah’s Pakistan and Maulana Maududi’s Pakistan are mutually exclusive, answer this :

1. Why did Maulana Maududi call Pakistan Movement and idea of Muslim Nationalism akin to an oxymoron as the “chaste prostitute”?

2. Why did Maulana Maududi constantly and repeatedly abuse Quaid-e-Azam and declare that Pakistan would be based on kufr?

3. Why did Maulana Maududi oppose the Kashmir War in 1948?

4. Why did Maulana Maududi hobnob with the establishment to bring down the government of Khawaja Nazimuddin?

5. Why did Maulana Maududi prostitute himself to America when America published and printed his “Islam aur ishtrakiat” to be distributed in the Islamic World?

6. Why did Maulana Maududi aid and abet the military regime of General Yahya Khan ?

7. Why did Maulana Maududi create Al Badr and other Islamist organizations to kill off Pakistanis in East Pakistan?

8. Why did Mian Tufail Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami accept funds from CIA to participate in CIA’s operation wheel jam in 1977?

9. Why did Jamaat-e-Islami support and form part of General Zia ul Haq’s government?

10. Why did Jamaat-e-Islami aid and abet Americans in the Afghan War?

11. Why did Jamaat-e-Islami help General Musharraf pass the damned 17^th Amendment?

Mr. Siddiqui, unlike you I won’t ask you to leave Pakistan despite the fact that you are a confirmed traitor and a fifth columnist. After all you yourself claimed that “your son shall be part of my army”. What I will do is to continue to fight against is the curse of Maududi and his remnants in Pakistan for as they say in Seraiki “Khooo ichu kuta na kidhasoon, tey wuzzu kithoo karaisoo” translation: If I won’t take the dog out of the well, how would I perform my ablution?

Mass madness over the internet

Ahmed Nadeem

There is a ‘mass madness’ ranging from TV talk shows to headlines of News Papers and debate on internet. Charged workers of religious organisations are out in streets of Pakistan. As Malaysian are relatively more religious people as compared to Pakistani’s and share the same Prophet. I was thinking that today country would be choked like Pakistan from electronic blackout to burning shopping malls and McDonalds. Especially, the State of my work my worst as it is currently being ruled by a conservative religious party considered as ‘fanatic’ as Jamat e Islami of Pakistan.The conservative religious rulers of the State where I work have already declared Friday as a off day despite the fact the rest of the country have off days of Saturday and Sunday.

Since yesterday Pakistan Telecommunication authority has blocked Facebook, Youtube and Wikipidia along with interruption in Blackberry services on orders of a ‘Holly Lordship’ of Lahore High Court. The bearded Mullah are on the loose in streets chanting against western infidels burning tyre’s and destroying public property. There are 45 million Pakistani users of social media site Facebook, twice the entire population of another Islamic state, Malaysia. Many of them running businesses, charities and communicating with families and friends have been deprived of access to communication without being heard by a religiously charged self righteous judiciary. All being done in name of a ‘Holly Cause’ to defend the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) from conspiracies of Infidel west.
So, this is Friday today, my neighborhood mosque is packed, the Imam is shouting in loudspeaker at top of his voice, but it is ‘state approved’ weekly address. There is no mention of Facebook or waging war against infidel west for conspiracies against Prophet (PBUH). I am a bit disappointed. I decided to go to town as there might be ‘some fun’, i mean, chanting bearded men carrying sticks and guns, smashing cars and street lamps. To my disappointment traffic is as smooth as always, bazaars are busy and shopping malls are packed with young couples holding hands. There is no Kalashnikov wielding ‘warrior of Allah’ to flog the girls wearing mini skirts or to harass those wearing scarf. No body is even talking about the great conspiracy against Prophet of God – a page on Facebook website set up by some western kid.

Now I am rather frustrated. I miss Lahore, you can have lot of fun there. I decided to go to beach, fortunately just walking distance from my house. The ‘white’ tourists girls are taking ‘sun-bath’ wear just bras and panties. White men are drinking beer, some are enjoying water sports and others swimmingLocals are busy selling spicy foods and expensive gift items to tourists. What is wrong with this country? I am totally mad at these people. They are totally unaware of the great conspiracy against there Prophet while their Muslim brothers in Pakistan have literally choked their country to defend their religion. Extremely disappointed I return home in hope of finding something in papers or Malaysian Blogs, unfortunately here too is no mention of Facebook, no statement from any politician or religious leader.

On my Facebook page which is working finely in this Islamic state, I ask my Iranian, Saudi and Indonesian friend, from three biggest Islamic nations, the business is as usual. No wonder Pakistan is ‘Fort of Islam’, no other Muslim nation is concerned about ‘infidel’ conspiracies against Islam. The worst thing about these nations is that ordinary people even doesn’t know the names of their Chief Justice’s or Army Chief’s. Off course their Chief Justices are not that ‘Media Savoy’ and their Judges as ‘righteous’ as Lordships of Lahore High Court. And on top of it the ‘Islamic Lawyer Forum’ here is not as active in defense of Islam. Their religious leaders are not as bold to smash cars and burn shop and their youth not as radical as our international fame ‘Taliban’. The life is totally boring.

Back in 70′s Pakistan too was a quite boring place and quite ‘Un-Islamic’ when General Zia hanged Bhutto with help of Lahori judges and establishment started the ‘Islamisation process’.With help of scholars of Jamat e Islami, right wing ‘handpicked’ judiciary and ‘inducted journalists in media he successfully transformed it as a ‘model Islamic state’. The real ‘fun’ started when CIA funded and organised the PNA movement bringing all right wing factions on one table. The ‘righteous men’ used to protest together against Bhutto and offered their prayers separately. That time we still had not reached the stage of suicide attacks on rival sects prayers. Thanks to ‘Madodisation’ of syllabus of government institutions, today even a ‘Normal’ Pakistani’ youth is as radical as a so called ‘fanatic’ in Malaysia.

With American sponsored ‘Holly War to Defend Islam’, the religious groups have become major players in power game. First time Army has dumped these groups on American pressure but once in the market, there is always another ‘buyer’. After decades of ‘power sharing’ every institution has became a state within state and always ready to hire the religious fanatics to forward their agenda. These groups can not survive if there a ‘long interval’ without activity for their members. They need to organised ‘Warm-Up’ events for their members in order to keep them in’combat ready’ mode.

By any standard of censorship or sensitivity, it was sufficient when PTA blocked the ‘controversial link’ of Facebook. Was there really a need for ‘Judicial Interference’ to block entire website or protests, rallies, blockage of internet and madness of this level to choke the entire nation? If this all was really necessary then why same is not happening in rest of Islamic world? This is something to really worry about. This is not incidental that every second terrorist is associated to Pakistan while those who ‘preach’ and nourish extremism are always under protection of some institution, either military or judiciary and mostly both. While Qazi Hussain Ahmad has much respect for courts and rule of law as Taliban do,as his ‘Brigade’ of Shahab e Milli and Islami Jamiat Talba use same tactics as Taliban do to teach morality in educational institutions.

What is his Qazi’s interest in siding with judiciary. The model of Islamic state of Syed Qutab and Madodi is based on taking over of a state by power and turn it in to a religious authoritarian state. There is no place for judiciary or democracy or freedom of expression. It is not long time when Ansar Abbasi, a JI planted journalist defended the flogging in a live TV show and JI Chief was defending Taliban. When these hate mongers support judiciary or military or defends the freedom of media, there is always some deal as these institutions are actually a hurdle for Madodi’s model of takeover by power. At the same times the state institutions which ally with these groups knowingly that their model even doesn’t recognize these institution have their own needs.

Whenever there is an elected government in Pakistan these groups feel threatened and need allies in state institutions for protection. The institutions after sixty years of power sharing have become too rouge that they also welcome these groups to form alliance. In past establishment, army and agencies used these groups to capture power and nourished them for their agendas. Once dumped by Army same groups have allied them with present judiciary which was restored through a popular movement. In return several JI activists and right wing political workers were appointed judges in superior courts in recent elevations. Some of them even lack a single reported case on their profile.

A part of corrupt media corporates has also joined the alliance to avoid state taxes. This new alliance is based on ‘you scratch my back I scratch your’s’ principal. As result Qazi Hussain and some Anchorpersons are out to implement the ‘judicial order’ of Supreme Court. The judiciary is ‘generously’ passing restraint order against recovery of taxes from these media giants and interfering in religious issues ‘as prayed’ by religious fanatics. Some mainstream media outlets benefiting from ‘judicial activism’ are out to create hype out of non issue like a page on Facebook which was already blocked. This is providing religious fanatics an opportunity to keep their ‘brigades’ warm and combat ready and also to defy and weaken the state, democratic process and unwanted ‘infidel liberal’ government.

This all originates from Lahore and ends there, even other parts of Pakistan are not that active in ‘defense of Islam’ just like rest of the world. Karachi is burning and dozens have been killed in racial violence, Baluchistan is victim of violence, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa is under war and South Punjab is demanding a separate Provence. Judiciary, media and Mullah’s from Lahore are silent on all these issues but would not leave any opportunity to defend Islam. Malaysia with 25 million population, every year attracts 25 million tourists with US$ 20 Billion revenue – almost equal to Pakistan’s exports. No tourist can imagine to travel to Pakistan because of the mess created in name of ‘defense of religion’.

Does it really need Einstein to understand that we are in present ‘mass madness’ not in defense of Prophet of Allah (PBUH) against threat from Facebook page but in a power game being played by corrupt and greedy Judges, Mullah’s and some media outlets. If Islam was really under threat the Malaysian Muslim would not have been as comfortable with ‘infidel western’ tourists. Jakarta, Tehran and Riyadh would have also been burning and Facebook, Google, Twitter and Blackberry would have been also blocked in rest of Muslim world. This is not the Islam of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which is under threat, its interests of Lahori establishment, Mullah’s and Judges who feel threated by power getting in to hands of leaders elected by people. Their interests are under threat and we are happy defending Lahori Islam – of which both Facebook and Pakistan are the victims.

Facebook saga: Dilemma of Urban Middle Class

On Wednesday 19th May 2010, the Lahore High Court, famous for acting as a “moral brigade” rather than judiciary, once again passed a strange order to ban Facebook across Pakistan on a petition of Muslim Lawyers Forum. The demand for blocking of the social media site came after it refused to remove certain pages displaying Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons.

This order was passed against the request of the government and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority that controversial pages of Facebook were already being blocked and there was no reason to block entire social media website which has over 2 million Pakistani users.

Few months back Lahore High Court took suo-moto notice of album of a popular female singer and declared her songs to be ‘vulgar’. This was followed by Chief Justice Lahore High Court’s remarks that Hindus were financing the terrorism in Pakistan which attracted protests from Hindu minority of Pakistan. This mixing of religion in to matters of state is opposite to the judgment of the Bangladesh’s Supreme Court which imposed ban on religious parties to take part in politics.

The court order to ban entire social media site is not only unreasonable but amounts to restrict the freedom of expression of which judiciary is a guardian. It also reflects the mindset and strong inclination of present superior judiciary towards right wing religious fundamentalist groups which can easily get ‘desired justice’.

JI, a religious fanatic group which is strong supporter of present judiciary and was successful to get its members recruited in superior judiciary after restoration of Chief Justice is organizing the protests to ban all ‘Western Infidel’ websites including Facebook,Google, YouTube and Twitter etc. The wish for a ‘stone age’ as termed by Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi, a youth leader. The Islamic Lawyer forum which filed the petition to block Facebook itself is a lawyers wing of JI fanatics.

The most interesting fall out of the court order is the strong reaction of Pakistani urban middle class youth, which widely uses Facebook for social interaction. The same youth was the most active supporter of movement for restoration of present judiciary. They are demanding from the government to immediately lift the blockage of Facebook website.

One of the protesters and an active blogger/civil society activist Dr. Awab Alvi writes ; “As members of civil society and professionals who depend on social media networks for our daily communications, we demand the immediate restoration of Facebook and an end to Internet censorship by the Government of Pakistan”.

But if government does lifts the ban on this demands, it will be disobeying the court orders.

Should not it be a protest against judiciary instead which has allied itself with religious fanatics and is acting as ‘Moral Brigade’ rather than an institution to dispense justice?

Historically religious groups in Pakistan have been providing support to military dictators and been associated with intelligence agencies to bring down the elected governments. After removal of Pervez Musharaf, the military establishment decided not to interfere directly in political issues. Certain sections of establishment and religious groups which are eager to remove present regime have associated themselves with judiciary.

Many critics blame that Lawyers movement which was initiated by lawyers and civil society was later hijacked by PMLN, PTI and JI and judiciary is under strong influence of right wing fundamentalist groups. The recent recruitments in superior judiciary are also being criticized as being from a certain ‘mind set’ and comprise of judges from certain political and religious parties.

As the conflict between PPP government and Judiciary is becoming intense, the judiciary is gathering the support of religious groups. Recently Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the former head of JI announced to get SC judgments implemented through ‘street power’. Yeah, now judiciary needs religious goons to get its orders implemented – though no suo-moto by good Chief Justice asking Mr. Qazi that who appointed him the ‘bailiff’ of SC!

In order to retain the support of religious fundamentalist groups, judiciary would have to deliver more judgments like ban on Facebook as per fanatics demands. This seems to be just the beaning as the demands of religious fanatics would not anything less than turning Pakistani society in to Taliban style Emirates.

As Supreme Court declared in its recent judgment to be custodian of imaginary ‘basic features’ of constitution of Pakistan and judging the righteousness of elected representatives, closer cooperation between fundamentalist and judiciary is inevitable. The top leaders of lawyer’s movement like Ali Ahmad Kurd are openly confessing that this is not the judiciary for what we struggled.

But where do the Urban middle class youth, which worked tirelessly for restoration of judiciary fits in this whole set up? Would they be able to digest the fanatic’s demands? They do not want to loose the freedom of expression and reject the ban on Facebook. They do not want court of Qazi to ban their favorite singer but they are demanding from government to lift the blockage of social media site.

Protesting against government while the ban is ordered by a ‘holly lordship’ of Lahore High Court is sign of their confusion.

In fact they are still unable to accept the fact that Lawyers movement was hijacked by right wing fundamentalist groups and present judiciary is composed of and an ally of religious fanatics. The fact they should have been realized when Supreme Court slept over the so called ‘Missing Persons’ issue, 12th May probe and countless other slogans raised during lawyers movements.

The only hope which still keeps them away from straight away protesting against ‘moral policing’ of judiciary and its partial judgments and instead make the government a scapegoat is that one day judiciary will boot “evil” Zardari out from his office. But what they are unable to understand is that it wont be possible unless a strong alliance of religious fanatics is there to support judiciary. As has been a custom when we underwent the military dictatorship – judicial dictatorship wont work differently.

What will be the cost of that alliance doesn’t need Einstein to figure out – and that is civil society itself. More influence of religious fanatics will hurt these urban middle class youth, who are not willing to compromise on their liberties but confused and unable to face the reality.

Can the civil society and urban middle class youth be part of the Mullah-Judiciary alliance against PPP government? They must ask themselves. It is up to them to decide whether they want an other repeat of notorious Ziaist era when general associated religious fanatics in power game. The Mullah-Judiciary alliance is going to be much more disastrous for civil society than what we have experienced in past.

Facebook Fiasco: What Would Muhammad (PBUH) Do?

Ideally I would have preferred not to have had to write this post. But I have over 300 messages in my in-box of people fussing over the so-called “Draw Muhammad Day” page on the social networking site Facebook and now the Lahore High Court’s decision calling for a ban on Facebook has forced the issue. And that is what pains me.

I hope that Facebook administration will remove the page. Not because of any “banning” movement and not because of the Lahore High Court. Just because the page and the idea behind the page is inflammatory and offensive. Regardless of what your belief or religion might be, to throw out offensive and hateful vitriolic for the simple and primary purpose of hurting someone else’s feelings - when you know that (a) those feelings will be hurt and (b) when hurting those feelings is really the only purpose of doing what you are doing - is inhuman, cruel, and clearly offensive. If Facebook does not recognize that, then it knows nothing either about “social” or about “networking” and certainly not about “community.”

But at one level, that matters little now. Whether Facebook removes the offensive page or not. The page and its creators have already fulfilled their purpose, met their goals. And it is we ourselves who have helped them do so. And that is what pains me.

I have not visited the offensive page in question and do not intend to. I had also not intended to help publicizing that offensive page, but by having to write this post that is exactly what I am doing. And that pains me. I am offended by the idea that page purports and the goals it seeks to achieve. So, why should I dignify it by a visit? Why should I publicize it? Why should I give it the attention it was created to seek. Yet, all of us (now me included, which is why writing this is uncomfortable) are doing exactly that.And that is what pains me.

Many of the emails I have received give me the link to that page and invite me to visit it so that ‘I can see for myself how offensive it is.’ I do not need to do that. Yet, that is exactly what we have been doing. We have been acting exactly as the creators of that page intended us to. Acting as the promoters and publicists of that page. And now having turned it into an international legal matter giving the attention seekers behind the page the exact thing they wanted: Attention.

But we have done more than that. With the Lahore High Court decision we have allowed the PTA and authorities another precedent and excuse to aggressively “manage” the internet; something that can and will be misused in the future.

I have not been receiving emails from the proponents of that page. The only ones who seem to be noticing us is us Muslims (and for some reason Pakistani Muslims more than any other). If we too had ignored the offensive page - as it deserves to be ignored - it would have gone the exact same way to oblivion as thousands of other sophomoric attempts at cheap attention seeking on the Internet. Instead we have now turned it into an international incident and given it far more limelight than it ever deserved.

Let’s think about it, what did the creators of the offensive page want to do when they set it up? First, they sought attention, and hits, and notoriety in a world where attention is too easily confused with fame. Second, they wanted to ridicule Muslims by the reaction they excepted from this. If you think of it, irrespective of whether Facebook removes the site or keeps it, the organizers of the page have achieved their goal. Well beyond what they expected. Now every other Islamophobic nutcase will get new ideas about how to have his little 10 minutes of fame spewing bigotry and hatred against Muslims.

But more importantly, they simply could not have done this without us. The only people who have turned this from nothingness into a huge issue is us. I am sure that those who set up the page are jumping up and down and thanking us for making their page such a huge success! And that is what pains me.

I am also pained by the sacrilege of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that this entire drama signifies. As pained as anyone else, and as pained as I would have been at the sacrilege of any other Prophet or religion. But unlike for many others, that pain is neither reduced nor resolved by protesting against Facebook. For me, the antidote to that pain is in the teaching of the Prophet (PBUH) themselves. What would the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) have done in such a situation.

The one thing I am absolutely positive of, is that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would not have done what we are doing now: making an international public spectacle of ourselves. Most likely he would have just walked away and ignored (the ‘look the other way when someone throws garbage at you’ model), he might have negotiated with Facebook on the basis of their own stated rules (the Hudabia model), he might have reasoned with detractors (the discourse and discussion model). Nearly certainly Muhammad (PBUH) would have handled it with grace, with composure, and maybe even with a touch of good humor. Most importantly, the Prophet (PBUH) would have kept focusing on his own actions and proving his point with his own deeds rather than with slogans, banners and naara-baazi.

Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad charged with attempted use of weapon of mass destruction

U.S. prosecutors have charged the man accused of trying to explode a car bomb in New York's Times Square with five counts, including trying to explode a weapon of mass destruction, and they said he admitted receiving bomb-making training in Pakistan.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen, returned from Pakistan in February and told authorities he spent five months there visiting his parents, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

After being arrested on Monday night at John F Kennedy International Airport trying to leave the country, he admitted to authorities he had tried to detonate a bomb in Times Square on Saturday night, the documents said.

Accused: Facebook and other social networking website pictures of a man that ABC News identifies as the Faisal Shahzad arrested in connection with the Times Square bomb car bomb attempt

A law enforcement official said that Shahzad had effectively admitted to all the charges.

'He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,' the source told Reuters.

'He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,' the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.

Shahzad told investigators he acted alone and denied any ties to radical groups in his native Pakistan, the official said.

However investigators are not buying his story.

A U.S. Department of Justice graphic showing the positioning of charges in the Nissan Pathfinder allegedly driven by Shahzad and left in Times Square on Saturday

'Based on our collective experience it's hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own. It seems hard to pull off alone. There's a lot we don't know yet,' the source said.

Pakistani police have arrested several people in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb attack, security sources said.

'We have picked up a few family members' related to Faisal Shahzad, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also arrested.

Shahzad, who received U.S. citizenship last year, was seized while on a flight apparently trying to flee the country.

The Emirates flight taking him out of the U.S. to Dubai was already heading to the runway when FBI agents caught up with it.

In scenes that could come straight from a Hollywood film, as agents raced to Shahzad's home in Connecticut he was already on his way to New York's JFK airport.

Investigation: Police search a home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, this morning. The property is a known home for Faisal Shahzad, the man arrested on suspicion of leaving a car bomb in New York's Times Square

By the time investigators realised he was on the flight, the Dubai-bound jet was already on the way to the runway ready for take off.

But agents called it back to the gate and 30-year-old Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was taken into custody.

'They just caught him at the last second,' a federal law enforcement source said.

WHO IS FAISAL SHAHZAD?

The suspect in the Times Square bombing is believed to be a married father-of-two, a girl and a boy.

Shahzad, 30, became a U.S. citizen in April of last year.

He is believed to have visited Pakistan last year. The BBC has reported that he rented a house in a middle-class neighbourhood in Karachi, while the U.S. media claim he spent five months in Peshawar.

The BBC claimed security sources said that Shahzad's wife and at least one child are still in Karachi.

A neighbour at his former home in Shelton, Connecticut, has apparently told investigators that Shahzad claimed he worked on Wall Street.

The neighbour claimed Shahzad and his family lived in the house for three years.

He left in May of last year, his wife following a month later, she claimed.

'They left a lot of their stuff there,' she said. 'All they really took was a refrigerator.'

The neighbour, Brenda Thurman, told U.S. media that Shahzad was 'a little strange'.

'He didn't like to come out during the day,' she said.

Other neighbours claimed he was friendly.

The airline today revealed that three men were removed from a New York to Dubai flight due to depart yesterday.

It is currently unclear whether the men were on the same flight that Shahzad was trying to board.

'Emirates can confirm that its flight EK 202 was called back by the local authorities prior to departure. Three passengers were removed from the flight,' the airline said in a statement.

'Full security procedures were activated, including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage. Emirates is co-operating with the local authorities.'

Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife. He is an American citizen with an address in Shelton, Connecticut.

The suspect bought a sports utility vehicle, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, from a Connecticut man about three weeks ago and paid cash, detectives said.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District in Manhattan will handle the case and said Shahzad would appear in court Tuesday on formal charges, but those charges were not made public.

FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the early hours of this morning Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz.

Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house, which is in a mixed-race, working-class neighbourhood of multi-family homes in Connecticut's largest city.

A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said America 'will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice', suggesting additional suspects are being sought.

The bomb in the vehicle could have produced 'a significant fireball' and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows, police said.

The SUV was parked on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theatres, and full of people out on a Saturday night.

Members of the media walk around a house in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where FBI agents had searched for Shahzad

The mailbox of suspect Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad's former home is seen on Sheridan Street in Bridgeport

The vehicle identification number (VIN) had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the recorded owner.

'The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to the identifying the registered owner,' said Paul Browne, chief New York Police Department spokesman. 'It continues to pay dividends.'

The US attorney's office in Manhattan will handle the case. It was not clear if additional suspects were being sought.

Officials say the SUV's registered owner, whose name has not been released, is not considered a suspect in the bomb scare.

In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Saturday's attempted bombing was a terrorist act.

The motive remains unclear. The Pakistani Taliban appeared to claim responsibility for the bomb in three videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said.

Hero cop: Wayne Rhatigan (right) was the first police officer on the scene. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (left) took him out for a steak dinner last night to personally thank him

New York officials said police have no evidence to support the claims. It is unclear if the suspect in custody has any relationship to the group.

The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show South Park that the militant group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Mohammed by depicting him in a bear costume.

Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.

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This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder, loaded with explosives, being driven into Times Square shortly before it was abandoned

The explosive device had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate the petrol cans and set the propane alight in a chain reaction, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

A metal rifle cabinet placed in the cargo area was packed with fertiliser, but bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertiliser used in previous terrorist bombings.

The exact amount of fertiliser was unknown. Police estimated the cabinet weighed 200lb to 250lb when they pulled it from the vehicle.

Following the attempted bombing on Saturday night, police have focused their efforts on the hundreds of CCTV cameras in the area.

New York police commissioner Ray Kelly said a man in some the footage made public was a 'person of interest'.

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NYPD forensics officers load the Nissan Pathfinder on to the back of a truck following the alert in the early hours of Sunday

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One of the alarm clocks found as part of a bomb in the sports utility vehicle

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CCTV: Police also appealed for a man seen taking off one shirt to reveal a red one underneath to come forward. He is standing next to the Nissan Pathfinder

'He looks around, takes off that shirt, puts it in a bag and continues to walk south, looking a couple of times in a furtive manner,' he said.

'This happened around the time the pops started to go off in the car, so that's why we want to talk to him.'

The CCTV shows the middle-aged man walking into the shot from the top right and pausing in the centre to take off his dark coloured shirt, revealing a red one underneath. He puts that away and quickly walks off.

Police also revealed more details about the car bomb which is being analysed by forensic teams.

A spokesman for the FBI said that once all the forensic information was collected it would be cross-checked with law enforcement agencies around the world, including Scotland Yard, for similarities.

In 2007 a Mercedes packed with an 'Iraqi-style' bomb was parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Leicester Square in central London, close to many West End shows.

Like the New York bomb, it was homemade with propane gas and petrol and designed to be set off by timers in a packed public place.