What’s wrong with Islam in the 21st century by Salman Khan

This is what’s wrong with Islam in the 21st century:

Yes! That’s the picture of a couple taking a ride in their horse carriage. That’s the analogy I wish to present here. There’s a very good reason for me picking this analogy. Let us begin.

Throughout the Islamic world, there is this mass marketing of this idea that the perfect way of life is to be found back in time. Meaning that if you wish to prosper, instead of progressing, try to live the way they lived in 7th century Arabia. Throughout the Muslim world, there are countless books, videos, TV channels, preachers and even ordinary people who mass market this nostalgic romantic view of how perfect the world was some thousand and a half year ago. As a result, instead of progressing, Muslims are encouraged to try and regress to those “glory days”. So what’s the relevance of that to a horse carriage?

Well, let’s imagine that we live in a world where a large number of us are religiously convinced that the ideal way for us to live is by using horse carriages. Do horse carriages work? YES! They do work. Will they get some work done? Of course! However, it’d be a very bad idea to bring them back and make them the norm. The people who have been brainwashed to romanticize those good old days of horse carriages must understand that the world has changed a lot. There are many problems with that old mode of transportation, for example:

They may not be structurally fit for the roadsThey may be too slow and slow down others as you bask in the “glory” of your horse carriageThe amount of horse-poop that will result from it simply might be unacceptableIt will lead to lower overall productivity for the nation’s peopleA lot of animal welfare/abuse issues might cause some serious concerns.

So you see, it’s not that horse carriages don’t work. It’s just that it doesn’t make much sense to regress back to that mode of transportation from what we currently have access to. That is the problem with Islam in the 21st century. Given that Islam, like any other religion, is more or less what a Muslim makes it to be, I guess it’s a problem with Muslims. There are progressive brands of Islam which are 21st century compatible. However, the fact remains that 99.99% of Muslims don’t belong to that group.

Is Hafiz Saeed's popularity growing in Pakistan? by Sohail Khurianwala

As a Pakistani who wants COURSE CORRECTION to happen very quickly in my country,

Hafiz Saeed’s popularity may be growing among the violent and Jihad minded sections of our society and country but it does not bode well for our country and society.

I hate both Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar as well as their financiers and backers - certain politicians and high ranking officers in the ISI and Pak Army.

I do not want to play the Kashmir-Card anymore since it is only causing Kashmiris to lose their lives fighting a formidable war machine which is the fourth largest in the world, backed by the second largest population in the world and an economy which is ten times the size of our economy.

Just like the Chechens could not wrest their country free from Russia, or the Tibetans and Uighurs cannot think of breaking away from China, the same holds true for Kashmiris whose interests are best served if they make peace with India and discourage Pakistani authorities from meddling in their affairs.

I have interacted with Indians in Dubai and I can tell you this - Indian Muslims and Hindus are both very angry with this blinkered attitude we demonstrate, where they accuse us Pakistanis of thinking about ourselves to be the sole custodians of Muslims in the entire subcontinent and being more Muslim than the Muslims in India or Bangladesh.

We Muslims in Pakistan are not the model or template for all Muslims in South Asia. We need to recognize this fact. There are Muslims in India and Bangladesh who are doing well or perhaps even better than us.

We Pakistanis have not done anything substantial in humanitarian terms to call ourselves the custodians of all Muslims South Asia - We have not raised the standards of living of either our countrymen in our country now or in the past and nor did we help improve the lives of our former countrymen - The East Pakistanis and keep them with us.

The one thing that has happened consistently since 1947 is this fact:

Pakistan and the Two Nation Theory has led to the marginalization and KILLING of more Muslims in the entire subcontinent in the name of Islam, in the last 70 years than we can ever think of - beginning with the partition riots of 1947 in both Bengal and West Punjab, where the Muslim League supporters first carried out religion-motivated attacks against minorities in both Bengal (Calcutta and Noakhali) and Western Punjab and the Frontier Areas - inviting - massive retaliatory attacks and massacres against Muslims in both Bihar and East Punjab.

Pakistani authorities were responsible for the genocide of Bengali speaking Muslims in East Pakistan in 1971, the killing of many Pashtuns in the blow-back of the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the killing of thousands of Kashmiris in their futile Jihad against India since the lates 1980s and finally the murder of many Muslim minorities like Shias, Ismailis, Ahmedis and Bahai in our own country.

When will all these killings stop in the name of religion ?

When will we stop financing terrorists who want to cause mayhem in South Asia ?

That is the big question… which all upright and conscientious Pakistanis… each one of us need to address.

It can only be tackled if sane, secular minded and liberal folks like me in Pakistan stand up, shake our fists vigorously at the Pakistan Army, Intelligence Agencies and Political establishment who support this carnage and cry out once and for all.

ENOUGH is ENOUGH ! Stop sponsoring Jihads in our neighboring countries … if we do not want our country to be in the world- news daily dues to terror-attacks like these:

Senior police officers among 13 killed as suicide bomber strikes Lahore

Things Muslims are allowed to do in India but not in other countries - by Shubham Kulshreshtha

This is Dr. Abdus Salaam, Pakistan’s one of the two Nobel Laureates, and the one and only in Physics. Unfortunately the Pakistan State nearlydisowned him because he was an Ahmediya Muslim.

We have always talked about the huge religious diversity of India but we have the largest sectarian diversity too.

For common Indians and also our system, it doesn’t matter to which of the thousands of sects (from any religion) you belong.

India is one of the few countries, among those with such a big Muslim population, where it doesn’t matter if you are a Shia or a Sunni . There are 73 firqas in Islam throughout the world and India is the only country in the world where all these 73 firqas live together with peace. Same applies for all the sects of Christianity.

Not even any Muslim country has got so huge sectarian diversity of muslims like we have in India. As a Muslim you are free to be a Bohra, Ahmedi, Ismaili, Yaqubiyya, Hanafiyya or anything without the fear of your achievements getting ignored like those of Dr. Abdus Salaam.

Pakistan or most Muslim countries who claim to be the guardians of Islam, recognize only a few Firqas as ‘Islamic’. They have even got many laws that discriminate between ‘Islamic’ and ‘UnIslamic’ firqas.

You can’t expect Saudis to be generous with you if you are a Shia or Iran to be kind with you if you are a Sunni. In fact the whole conflict b/w Iran and Saudi Arab is based on this sectarian difference. For many Iraqi Sunnis, ISIS is the Sunni retaliation against the oppressive Shia govt. of Noori Al Maliki. The same Shia community whose complete villages were once washed out by Saddam Hussein.

India not only tolerates this sectarian diversity but also accepts it. Many people who talk about rising intolerance misses the point that tolerance is not our country’s characteristic, complete acceptance is ! India not merely tolerated all these faiths but accepted them as true. This is because of the Dharmic roots of ancient Indian societies. There are numerous sects of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism in India but never have we heard of any violence between them. Similarly, there have even been wars between sects in Middle East, though there may be ideological differences, but Shia-Sunni riots are rarely heard in India.