Political Maligning of Freedom Fighters

Political Maligning of Freedom Fighters

Maligning of an ethnic group is a political issue. You see where ever a freedom struggle is in progress ,the govt machinery maligns that ethnic group. In India, the Punjabi Sikhs are maligned due to their political motives. Their brethren in Pakistan, the Muslim Punjabis, who are the same people, on the other hand, are projected as some ethnic group which has come from heaven due to having political advantage. This proves that it is not the ethnic group but their geo-political status which matters.

The Pashtuns in Afghanistan are not called Pathans or maligned much or even those in FATA as they were used by Pakistan military as cannon fodders and as proxy warriors to safeguard the interests of Pakistani establishment by fighting against Russia. In case of Russia it was Pashtun Mujahedeen backed by Pakistani army, ISI and CIA ,who were used to defeat Russia and when that was done then ISI controlled all the Mujahidin groups and installed puppets govt of these mujahedeen to use Afghanistan for its strategic depth against India.

Nowadays, it is Taliban who are being used by ISI to defeat US and then once that is done they will used to have a puppet govt in Afghanistan to be used against India on the pretext of Religion.

The Pakhtun who are associated with the Pakhtun nationalism, on the contrary, are maligned as much as possible in various forms. It is another fact that in this business Pakistan’s own existence has also been threatened and its chances of survival are decreasing with each passing day. The reason is that there is a religious polarization and hence conflict in army on one side and on the other side the masses are suffering even in Punjab and this policy only serves military generals of Pakistan not her masses.

Similarly the Irish who are pro Britain are glorified while those who are against British hegemony are projected as some fanatics and the list goes on and on.

Despite the fact that according to one school of thought which advocates Jewish origin of Pashtuns or atleast some of its tribes like Yousafzais , Afridis etc the ancestor of Pashtuns , Kais Neka ,later named Abdur Rashid ,After embracing Islam at the hands of the prophet Muhammad, should be considered by Muslims as Sahabi [companion of prophet, according to the definition of sahabi –any person who has seen and met Prophet is a Sahabi according to Sunni school of thought ] they are still maligned in Pakistan for example ,due to political vested interests. Even the word used by the Prophet [the one who is literally worshipped by, for example, Bralvees of Pakistani Punjab] was “Batan” and as there is no P in Arabic so it was perverted to Patan or Pathan.Later it was perverted to a derogatory meaning synonymous to the one who is a kidnapper.

This proves one thing. Religion is not the deciding factor in Politics otherwise why would Pakistani establishment and military be against Bengalis ,Baluch and Pashtuns as they are much better Muslims than the Punjabi Muslims. But when it comes to vested interest, all these abstract ideas of religion become less important and ethnicity and nationhood become more important. If you pinpoint this bitter fact, the establishment and those in the higher echelons of power will call you racist and give you sermons of worshipping their country which as a concept is not only a sin but equivalent to “Shirk”- the biggest sin in Islam - even by the national poet and the alleged conceiver of Pakistan.

If you believe in the sanctity of a state and consider Pakistan as your country but try to seek help or shelter when you are in distress from your fellow countrymen then the state will get huge amounts of money from the world in your name but will not even let you take refuge in one or another of its provinces like Punjab or Sind forgetting that you are Pakistani and should have the right to take refuge in case your province or district or city is hit by a disaster ,catastrophe or terror.

If you fight the terrorists and sacrifice your lives in Pakhtunkhwa to safeguard Pakistan then it is okay but if the terrorists change their strategy and attack Punjab then the CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif literally asks the terrorist to spare Punjab [hinting them to focus on the Pakhtun areas and use Pakhtuns as scapegoats].What a country to live in??

The Nagative Role of Clergy in Pashtun Society

The Nagative Role of Clergy in Pashtun Society

The internationalization of religion and its presentation as a system of life is a conspiracy of the clergy which could be understood once the history of the organised religion is studied. In every religion, be it Judaism, Christianity, Islam , Jainism, Buddhism or others, the religious bureaucracy has always transformed some progressive concepts meant for the betterment of a certain nation into an organised religion. Vested interest and the greed for wealth and influence on the lives of others are so tempting instincts that it is difficult to overpower them.

More interestingly the clergy class has always made compromises with the power elite to have their share. Abdul Wahab Najdi was a prime example. His compromise with the monarchy and the current power structure of Al Saud having reigns of power and the Wahabis having control over the faith and destiny of the ignorant masses is very vivid. Jeddah which is a versatile prostitution market under the veil for the royal family, is a good amalgam of the religious bigotry of the clergy and the autocracy of the monarchy.

Another example from the past has been the deterministic ethics which were prevalent in the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid Dynasties of Arabs. It was in those times that "Sufi" school of thought came into existence to institutionalise and intellectualise the oppressive concepts of religion into a system of thought.Individualism,Introspective and Introvert mode of life was glorified instead of emphasizing on the collective and social aspects of life and the duties of the state (called sultanate at that time).

The same religious concepts were raised to the zenith of human thought by the Indian intellect.Ashraf Ali Thanvi's concepts of religion and Sufism as presented in his books are the master pieces of such oppressed individualistic mentality. The same was preceded by Hafiz Shirazi of Iran.

Sufism was the tool to justify and intellectualise the monarchy of the Arab rulers. It was later made a philosophy of life by personalities like Ibne Arabi and AlGhazali.The "Futoohate Makkiyah" and "Fusus ul Hukam" of Ibne Arabi and "Kitab Ur Rooh" of AlGhazali were the intellectual efforts to institutionalise Sufism as an intellectual school of thought. The two school which emerged out of it were called Wahdatul wajood (Ibne Arabi) and wahdatul shahood (Sheikh Ahmed sirhindi aka Mujadad Alf thani).Later the two schools were reconciled by Shah Waliullah.

In Pashtuns though Rahman baba, Hamza baba and Ghani khan represent a class which is comparable with the intellectual level of the Sufi thought,however the nature of Pashtuns, like Arabs, is more extrovert and hence more practical contrary to an introvert one, which is the type of mentality and behavior which suits Sufism.

The crux of the discourse is the dogmatic , anti social and impractical concepts of religion in Pashtuns is a continuity of the same virus from which our societal structure has been suffering.This virus produced a confused mentality about our national interests as any struggle toachive it as any struggle to progress and prosperous.

Reflections on Pakhtun Freedom

This is an article which I wrote on Friday, 30 October 2009.

Pir Rokhan
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Reflections on Pakhtun Freedom

The Pakhtun cause is to become a sovereign, free and respectable nation in the world. There are two goals to be achieved for the Pakhtun Freedom.

The Stability of Afghanistan:
The days of using Afghanistan for strategic depth against India are gone. Afghanistan is and will remain to be a free and independent sovereign state despite of the malicious propaganda by the Punjabi dominated media of Pakistan. The sell-out Punjabised Pakhtuns on the payroll of ISI known as Taliban could not even divide it. Even the non-Pashtun Afghans are against any division of the unitary Afghanistan which has been the graveyard for all those who tried to ruin and devastate it. As the Durand line is not acceptable to Pakhtuns hence the issue still remains between Pakistan and Afghanistan like the Kashmir issue.

Provincial Autonomy for a United Pakhtun Province in Pakistan:
Pakhtuns are more exploited, humiliated and now killed along with a loss of language, culture, identity, history and glory in Pakistan. The only way for the Pakhtuns to remain in Pakistan is to unite them within Pakistan in a united Pakhtunkhwa province consisting of NWFP, Northern areas, Attock Mianwali, Pakhtun belt of Baluchistan as demanded by the Pakhtun nationalist parties. Provincial autonomy is the next step to make them really a part of Pakistan. This is the demand of all three provinces whose resources are being exploited by Punjab for the last 60 years plus. A true federation is the only way out for Pakistan.

Pakhtuns and other oppressed nations, if given their due share and rights in governance are not in favour of merging with Afghanistan unless the compulsive forces of history merge them. The crux of the matter is that all the nationalities in Pakistan have to be given their due rights and share in power otherwise Pakistan will disappear from the map of the world. If these conditions are met Pakhtuns are not in favour of getting separated from Pakistan. It is life of dignity and honour which is what Pakhtuns demand which they don’t find in a rogue state like Pakistan which has become a symbol of dishonour, terrorism, fundamentalism, corruption and defacto rule of Punjabi army and the malicious intelligence agencies.

Hurdles in the Pakhtun Freedom:

The Pakistani Media:
Pakhtuns are already mesmerised by PTV,ISPR and “Mutalia Pakistan” so much that they do not know who was Amir Karor, Mirwais Neka, Ahmed Shah baba,Abdul Ahad Momand, Khuhshal Khan Khattak, Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, Bacha Khan, Sanober Husain kakaji , Hamza Shinwari etc.The Pakistanised Pakhtuns now only know those British puppets who were used by them to create a banana republic for the cold war using the name of religion or those Punjabis who offered their services for safeguarding the interests of Punjab etc.

The Power Elite of Pakistan:
The elite class of Pakistan consisting of military and civil beaureocracy is enjoying their lives at the cost of those innocent, poor, exploited Pakhtuns, Balochis and Sindhi labour class who have been living below poverty line in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan due to the autocratic rule of Punjabi army who have been scaring the people of Pakistan with India phobia.The fact ,thought, is that the Pakistan Punjabnis are the same people as their cousins across the border.A people who are no different from the Punjabis of India and Pakistan as both have the same blood, color, culture, history. It is just some Arabic phrases , sentences and rituals which the Muslim Punjabis have adopted which is not sufficient to make them different from their cousins.Pakhtuns dont even recognize the version of Punjabi Islam which justifies killing millions of Afghans and devastating their state to safeguard their interest covering it under the cover of their version of Islam.

Options for Pakhtuns:
I propose that Pakhtuns have three options contrary to Baloch, who have no other option but to get separate and Pakhtuns should support them to get rid of Punjabi imperialism.

1) Pakhtuns can still can live in Pakistan (anyway the current Pakistan was an Afghan colony under Ahmed shah baba's Afghanistan) but under the condition that there should be a united province called Afghania or Pakhtunkhwa or Pakhtunistan with provincial autonomy. If Pakistanis want to run Pakistani affairs,Pakhtuns should be given equal share in power to rule.If our demands for our legal rights mean the breakup of Pakistan then Pakistan should break up sooner than later.

2) The creation of a separate state for Pakhtuns like Baluchistan, Karachi city state (on the lines of Singapore), Sindho Desh, Bengal etc.

3) The merger of Pakhtun land with Afghanistan.

Conclusion:
The Pakhtuns who were made a part of Pakistan as a result of the fraudulent referendum which all Punjabised Pakhtuns refer to in their writings are still facing the music. It is good that Khudai Khidmatgaars boycotted the drama which stamped misery and deprivation on the fate of Pakhtuns in Pakistan once and for all. We should think about what we have gained and what we have lost after being a part of Pakistan. Are our ears deaf not to hear the cries and miseries of those IDPs whose parents, kids, sons and daughters are killed by Punjabi army and air force to prove their efficiency in meeting the two weeks deadline given by the US to Pakistan after which they were going to invade Pakistan???Are we blind not to see the exploitation of our water and power resources by Punjab? Will we give an inch of your land to any person of our own lineage and kinship?

Here the situation is that Punjab has got all the waters of our rivers and diverted them to make their lands fertile and left us jobless to beg for petty jobs in the streets of Punjab? Don’t we see the revenue from tobacco being used just to make that Pakistan prosperous which means Punjab only? Does the failure of Gadoon Amazai by Punjabi industrialists and beaureocracy not ring bells in our mind? Don’t we know that this entire Taliban phenomenon is an ISI drama? Don’t you know that it is a strategy to malign Pakhtuns and to show to the west that Taliban is a reality and hence get dollars at the cost of innocent Pakhtun blood? Don’t we know that Fazlullah's radio was established, maintained and safeguarded by army ? Are we not aware of Sufi Mohammad? Don’t we know that he is an ISI stooge who was used by ISI through major Amir in nineties? Pakhtuns should stand for their kith and kins, rights and nation ,land and "watan" and reject submission to any oppressor.

Pakhtuns are Afghans and they by their very emotional and mental make up cannot consider submission to be wisdom. The international political scenario now needs the unification of Pakhtunland.Intellectualising our slavery, justifying the occupation of our resources by Punjab, pacifying the natural retaliation against the usurping of our property, our resources is not in the national interest of Pakhtuns. Preferring to be a slave and being proud of it and calling it wisdom is a death to the Pakhtun cause. It is not wisdom to submit our freedom to Pakistan after selling our conscience for some bucks, it is rather a shame for any Pakhtun.


The author is a political analyst based in Saudi Arabia
pirrokhan@hotmail.com

Critique of Religious Authorities in Pashtun Society

Pashtuns have typical sources of knowledge in their society who are considered authentic called "Mullas". These Mullas are normally the teachers and preachers of religion who use reason,logic and argument only to their advantage.The intellectual level, academic abilities and acquaintance of contemporary social and physical sciences of a mulla are not upto mark. Most of them have obsolete knowledge about the life and universe which is transmitted to their audience without being challenged.

This is 21st century.It is worth listening to a scientist who knows much more about the world and universe then the Mullas who use religion as their source of income. What scientist is saying is based on scientific proof acceptible globally.

The problem with religeous people is that the moment they hear anything related to knowledge and science, they directly reject it attributing it to God without knowing what they mean. For example ,saying God can destroy the world does not contradict what science says.Sceince tells us how will the God destroy the world.God sends the rain may be the belief of a believer but science tells us how He sends the rain. God created the universe but how has He created is what science tells us. The illogical mentality nurtured by our religious people is a big hurdle to our progress.

Knowledge and creativity is the product of enquiry and skepticism not belief and faith. It is another bitter fact that what we call faith is just the emotional and non scientific explanation of some clergymen who have no idea of what the world and universe is all about and have conquered the minds of our simple people with their sweet words which are meant as a social requirement to get more and more alms and charity.

I would like to opine that the only logical way for considering any point of view is a skeptic approach towards it. We should neither accept nor reject a point of view if it is not supported by sufficient arguments.

The rejection of a point of view should always be the rejection of the arguments for that point of view while the acceptance of a point of view is the acceptance of the arguments for that point of view. This has been the principle of all those societies which have evolved from primitive to modern.

Pakhtuns can never progress and evolve to a higher level of scientific culture if they continue to believe in something just because their parents or ancestors used to believe in it. It is better to be a non believer with arguments than to be a believer without arguments.

Pakhtuns are broad minded,accommodating and freedom loving people by their very culture. They do not hate anyone due to one's religion ,race ,language , colour or creed. However they refuse to accept the authority of anyone who wants to impose his or her views on us without arguments and just by force.

The Intrinsic Contradictions of Pakistan

The Intrinsic Contradictions of Pakistan

With the policies adopted by the power elite [mainly from Punjab] in Pakistan there is no doubt about its destiny to become history as history will prove in the coming years. One should know that as Mohammad of Arabia once said very wisely, "Al-harbo Khidyatun" [War is the name of deception] so Pashtuns, Balochis and Sindhis should not get deceived by names and sweet words by the sympathizers of Pakistan. These sympathizers are the killers of Pashtun and Baloch children , women, youngsters and men and are the boot licker of military mainly constituted of North Punjabis.

The balkanisation of Pakistan is destined due to its intrinsic contradictions.

1) The country was claimed to have been created in the name of religion while neither Mohammad Ali Jinnah approved of this idea nor Iqbal.Both wanted separate provinces within the Indian confederacy.

2) Other than few sold outs among Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Mahajirs, Seraikis and Kashmiris who are the peons of Punjab [every nation has such black sheep and scum], the majority of these nations hate Pakistan's higher echelons of power represented by killers-for-hire Military, boot licking civil beaurauocracy,Feudal Punjabi class, pseudo intellectuals and biased media.

3) "India phobia" and "Islam mania" are the two tools which the elite class of Pakistan uses to exploit the wealth and resources of various nations living in Pakistan.

4) There is an ideological clash between the fundamentalists and the progressive minded Pakistanis which has made Pakistan a failed state. If Pakistan does not stick to its theocratic stance it loses its reason for existence and if it sticks to it then it goes by atleast one thousand years back in history.

Pakistan cannot make a choice as the so called two nation theory has also already been proved wrong with the creation of Bengal. The brave nation which got freedom from the shackles of Punjab - a precedent to be followed by the freedom fighters in Balochistan, Pakthunkhwa and Sindh.

5) The monster of Taliban which was created by ISI to destabilise Afghanistan and to have strategic depth against India has fired back and the drama which was fabricated by military has reached GHQ, Sargodha, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi after destroying Pakhtunkhwa initially.

6) Pakistan has become a synonym for terrorism, nuclear proliferation, fundamentalism, a military empire and a hell on earth for her inhabitants, after destabilising Afghanistan by its agencies. It has lost all justification for its existence in the eyes of its own people as well as international community.” Pakistan Zindabad" has now been replaced by "Pakistan say Zinda bhaag".

7) Pakistan is like a reactionary man with no genuine desires, aims and ambitions of its own. It equates herself to India and Israel. While the fact is there is no comparison whatsoever in the excellence achieved by these states despite being projected as enemies by Pakistani media. It is a matter of a decade and if India survived its north-south differences, it has all the potential to become the second super power after china. We see it with our own eyes here in the Middle East. The brain behind Aramco, Sabic, Adnoc, Batleco, QP, Rasgas etc and construction industry is 90 percent Indian.

8) By presenting history in a distorted manner and using false lies about Pakhtuns, Baloch and Sindhis who are justified to fight for their freedom and liberty, as projected in Pakistan studies by Ahmed qureshi, I.H.Qureshi, Altaf Gohar etc and other writers who have no conscience, it is difficult to fool all people all the time.

Pashtun Freedom and Power Politics

Pakistan was a product of British far sighted policy to prevent Afghans and Indians from becoming the next powerful nations who could challenge the British hegemonial designs. Pakistan was carved out of India using Muslim league which was a party of Nawabs and had not much people from the middle class.

In order to get rights and autonomy, Power Politics will never be fruitful for Pakhtuns in Pakistan for the following reasons:

 

1) Power Politics needs majority which Pakhtuns will never attain in Pakistan

2) Power Politics has reduced to a business which if adopted by Pakhtuns leaders or parties will be catastrophic to the Pakhtun problem of getting basic rights.

3) Power politics in the form of parliamentary politics is just a civilized form of grabbing the resources of other nations living in Pakistan by the civil, feudal and military elite of Punjab.

4) The real problem of Pakistan can be solved by making constitutional amendments to give max authority to the nations over their historical lands and resources and their due share in power to run their affairs in the form of provincial autonomy. Pakistani elite will never let it happen.

5) History has proved that it is the technique of acting as a pressure group and struggling for rights that a nation can achieve its rights to live a better life and this cannot be achieved via power politics.

Interpretations of Islam

Interpretations of Islam

This is extracted from Pukhtoon Khan's book "Religious Exploitation of Afghans and World Peace"

 

Due to the existence of Politico-religious parties in the Politics of Muslim countries, the interpretation of Islam has become a major, central and pivotal issue in Muslim scholasticism. While it was always there potentially even when Islam was limited to the Arab stock, it became significant when Islam was exported to the Non Arab or civilized world. Arabs, being the inhabitants of Arabian Peninsula, were the residents of deserts. The structure of their social fabric was missing the complications of Greek philosophy and oriental logic. Hence Muslim history saw major manifestations of difference in interpretation.

In contemporary world, all those parties like JUI,JI etc with religious agendas based on the political interpretation of Islam, have to answer which interpretation would they opt for in order to run the business of a nation state. The following is a historic evolution of various interpretations in the Muslim world in general and south Asia in particular.

The Shia Interpretation:
 

Before Greek works were translated during the Abbasid dynasty, which encouraged knowledge and wisdom, the Arab history had already seen the battle of “Jaml” between the wife of the prophet and the son in law of the prophet, who was also the caliph at the time, as an ugly face of difference in interpretation. Even the killing of Usman - the third caliph was the due to the same reason. The genius of the Jews, who were the major rivals of Ishmaelites, saw the potential of theological interpretation as a tool to break the unity of the nascent community called Muslims. Thanks to Abdullah Ibn Saba, the Jew scholar, who transformed the difference between the wife of the Prophet and Ali into a school of thought and those who accepted his teachings based on his conspiratory interpretation , became the supporters of Ali and were called “Shiyaan-e-Ali”.Abdullah Ibn Saba also took advantage of the primitive nature of means of communication at that time and the vast Arab empire under Ali and started preaching about the divinity of Ali being an incarnation of God to those who did not have information about the new religion which was propagating. Hence the Shi'ite sect was founded on a cultist version of Islam.Shi’ism is the first visible consequence of difference of interpretation in Arab or Muslim history.

Mutazilite’s Interpretation:

 

After that the Arab history saw another major controversy over the issue of Quran being a creation of God popularly called the “Khalq - Quran - Controversy”. This was also an example of interpretation. It discussed about the nature of the word of God – the Quran. The rationalist’s school called Mutazilla’s maintained that Quran is just a creation of God and hence it does not have an origin which is infinite in time. While Malik, who is also the proponent of a jurist school in Islamic jurisprudence maintained that the word of God has no origin and it is an infinite (ancient) in time as God is. The logical consequence was that as the Word of God was in Arabic hence Arabic also turned out to be a language with infinite origin and hence sanctified.

The Sufi Interpretation:

 

The Arab history saw increasingly more controversies after the Greek philosophy was translated into Arabic. The supporter of Islamic and Arabs world had to face a lot of problems to interpret their point of view vis-a-vis the new world of knowledge and reason. The interpretation has political implications too. When ever the interpretations challenged the political hegemony of the Arab rulers they had to resort to the worst type of violence in the name of Islam. The scholars of Islam wanted to segregate themselves from these controversies as they were becoming increasing harmful for the masses of the Muslim masses. Hence they came up with an individualistic and mystical interpretation of Islam called Tasawuf or Sufi Islam. This interpretation produced renowned scholars and intellectuals of all times who propagated the non political interpretation of Islam aimed at the purification of mind and soul.Al-Ghazaali and Ibne- Arabi are two examples of intellectuals giants who reached the zenith of Sufi interpretation of Islam.

Indian Interpretation:

 

When Islam came to the land of the saints, myths and mind called India, enriched with music , poetry, arts, culture and saintly wisdom, Indian mind gave the highest intellectual interpretation to the city state oriented Arab cultural ideology revealed to mankind through prophet Muhammad. Indian interpretation not only gave an intellectual foundation to Islam as a philosophy of life and presented it as an explanation of existence and universe along with an integrated system of thought for the socio-politico-economic issues of humanity. The interpretation of Islam was formally performed by taking the bold initiative of translating the Quran into Persian – a step which had no precedence in Islamic history. The teaching s of the Quran were integrated into a logical network of ideas with rational explanation by Shah Waliullah in his “Hujjatullah al Baligha” which again was a pioneering step and birth of a new science which later became the foundation stone of modern Islamic scholasticism. Later on Shah Abdul Aziz, Syed Ahmed Khan, Obaidullah Sindhi, Hameedud din Farahi, Amin Ahsan Islahi and contributed their part.

On parallel lines Another Indian interpretation came into existence which emphasized more on the collective aspects of life with reference to modern science. Iqbal and Mawdudi, Ghulam Ahmed Pervez and Rafiuddin are those scholars who interpreted Islam as a philosophy of existence as well as a potential ideology capable of becoming the social order of a modern state. “The Reconstruction of religious thoughts in Islam” by Iqbal, “Al Jihad Fil Islam” of Mawdudi, “Islam a Challenge to religion” by Pervez and “Ideology of the Future” by Rafiuddin are the master pieces of collectivistic intepreation of Islam.

Western Interpretation:

 

With the advent of industrial revolution and the advancement of science and technology human knowledge has evolved. After centuries of dark ages when west woke up from the deep slumber of ignorance and went through the Renaissance and Reformation movements, they almost interpreted every aspect of life according the tenets of the modern science and technology. Religion was no exception. A critical study of history in the light of scientific evolution revealed the roots and causes of prevalent myths, ideas and creeds and notions and west discarded all those concepts which were not upto mark according to the benchmarks of modern science. The scholars of Islam also could not isolate themselves from the effects and advancement of modern science and were compelled to interpret Islam in terms of the modern concepts which emerged after the industrial revolution. Harun Yahya, Zakir Naik, Dr Israr, Javed Ghamdi and a host of other Muslim scholars are the ones who are aware of the modern concept of science and also cognizant of the facts discovered in sciences of sociology, economics, Politics and Philosophy of history etc.