MQM Meeting in Dallas about reorganization of Pakistan

MQM – Muttahida Qaumi Momvement, a grass root organization of the Pakistani people for social justice, equal access and equal opportunity in affairs of the nation had organized a seminar in Carrollton, Texas.  Mr. Junaid Fahmi, Chief organizer for the US gave a talk about the upcoming reorganization of nation based on a combination of factors like demographics, geographic and other criteria.

Here is my observation

Everything in the universe is created with a balance, when that balance is lost; the system struggles to regain it and in the process creates chaos, but will lead to balance again. Social, political and economic structure also needs a balance, if the resources of a nation are doled out disproportionately, demands for correction occurs, in reality the demand is for justice.

The meeting called for 20 states/ districts or whatever. Studies are needed to determine its impact, if this recreates the same structure with favors to a few and injustice to others, it will collapse again.

All the turmoil in the world, no matter where, is always caused by injustice. If nations can think of long terms solutions backed by studies and genuine participation of all its stakeholders, stability of the nation, and thus prosperity is assured in the long haul.

I am glad MQM has taken the initiative to fix the long term problems of the nation. I was rather pleased to hear that the leader Mr. Altaf Hussain wants to see a Pakistan where everyone works together without bias towards any religious group. I would like to know more about this aspect, as this will drag Pakistan forever, if her people are not treated with dignity.

Last night I read the proposal from Hindu Council of Pakistan to commence an interfaith body to be headed by the PM initially. It is a good thing, and should have done that.  http://www.dawn.com/news/1143412/hindu-council-proposes-interfaith-body-headed-by-pm and I will be happy to be a part of that to get a smooth start. I will write more about it at http://RedeemingPakistan.blogspot.com and Dallas Pakistanis at Yahoogroups.com Indeed, in the last two centuries Lahore held the first interfaith meeting in the world after a lapse of another 200 years. Islam was represented by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed.

Prophet Muhammad did not say in his last sermon, “White Muslims are not superior to black Muslims, Arab Muslims are not Superior to Non-Arab Muslims….and vice versa. Instead, he said, Whites are not superior to black ….nor Arabs are superior to any and vice versa.  Quran, Islam and the Prophet are consistent in sharing the wisdom – that all are equal – Muslim or not.  I wish Pakistan (since it is institutionalized) follow Allah, Quran, Prophet and Islam – and work on removing the discriminatory and oppressive laws of blasphemy, hudood, etc.

I hope the nation consciously tells the beauty of Islam by example in treating all its minorities with fairness and justice and full freedom of speech. If each Pakistani decides, on his or her own, that from this day forward no Pakistani is less than him or her, and that Shia, Sunni, Ahmadiyya, Bohra, Ismaili, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsee, Bahai and others are all equal citizens. That would be a good first step and as a Muslim, I pray for that. Amen!

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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post.  All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Nawaz Shariff should respectfully resign for the sake of orderly democratic Pakistan

Nawaz Shariff should respectfully resign for the sake of orderly democratic Pakistan.

By Mike Ghouse
The Ghouse Diary.com

Shariff was elected by the people and the same people are asking him to step down - and that is indeed a genuine democratic thing to do. He should remember that peaceful demonstrations earn respectable name for Pakistan in the world, and if he honors the peaceful people, he will have a place in history.

Pakistan turmoil, courtesy Rueters

On the other hand if Nawaz Shariff goes berserk, he will cause Pakistan to go violent and endanger his own existence. What does he think of himself, a Netanyahu or Al-Baghdadi that he can silence the people by brutal force?

If he were any smart, he would go on the national TV and appreciate the people and welcome them for peacefully exercising their democratic right to protest, and do what the people ask; to recount the ballot or resign. Is that a problem?   More than likely, the demonstrations would have been called off and he would have remained respectable and would have won another landslide victory, but the he did not have the brains to do that. 

Every peace loving person should be outraged at this dude for deploying 10,000 Special Forces to disperse the peaceful non-violent crowds seeking political solutions. On the top of it, he ordered firing at nearly 200 injured women, which reminds me of Jalianwala Bagh incident where British forces did the same thing and women jumped into the wells and died. I am proud of these women who stood and took the bullets. But, this is outrageous and unacceptable, he ain’t no Baghdadi. 

When the bad guys were killing fellow Pakistanis be it Shia, Christians, Ahmadies and others, Shariff let it happen, and now when his days are numbered, he deploys 10,000 forces to squelch the peaceful demonstrators. It does not work that way.

What kind of non-sense is he talking about when he says he wants to protect democracy? If he steps down respectfully, he will have a chance to continue in some form of governance, if not, he knows her kuttay ke din hotay hain, he has seen every dog had his day, and he will be one too if he goes against the will of the people.

Its time for Obama to ask Shariff to step down, it is in our (American) interest and the interests of the people of Pakistan to have stability in the region, we cannot have more than one Afghanistan.  I hope Obama will not wait until it becomes messy to ask Shariff to step down; as he did the right thing with Mubarak in asking him to step down by siding with the people of Egypt. Obama made the same mistake with that Idiot Maliki in Iraq, had Maliki formed an inclusive government, we would not have seen this mess. Of course, all these problems stem from Bush's criminal adventure in Iraq. Obama is a good guy, but he needs to be a bully to deal with the bullies.

It’s time for Obama to be on the side of the Pakistani people and not with the guys who are desperate to remain in power. Be smart and be with the people and not with the transients.  All Obama has to do is ask Nawaz Shariff to announce recounting, or announce a date for re-election. It will restore calmness. The people of Pakistan deserve that.

Nazia Khan, Aqeel Qureshi and a few others are out there witnessing the mayhem first hand, and I hope to incorporate their quotes in the piece, I am writing on our goofy foreign policy about nurturing democracies.

Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Imran Khan can be an exemplary Pakistan President, if he choses integrity over appeasement

Imran Khan, can he be an exemplary prime minister?

Thanks to Daily Times, Pakistan for publishing this.
 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C05%5C08%5Cstory_8-5-2013_pg3_5

By Mike Ghouse

The fitna was started by Maulana Maududi; had it not been for him, Ziaul Haq and Bhutto, the Pakistanis would not have been belligerent towards fellow Pakistanis 


Imran Khan is by far the least-worst candidate among the field of candidates for Pakistan. Indeed, he can be an exemplary candidate if he fixes some of the flaws of sectarianism blatantly expressed by him. Khan’s statement that he has not asked the Ahmadiyya Muslims to vote for him is disturbing. Shouldn’t the future head of Pakistan’s government care about “all” Pakistanis? Does he not want to represent them? He sounded precisely like the Romney guy, thank God for saving America from him (Disclosure: I am a Republican, and he lost because not all Republicans voted for him). I see those reflections in Khan; he is playing like Romney in the last few weeks of the campaign, appeasing the right wing.

The second statement was made in Urdu, reaffirming that the Ahmadiyya are not Muslims because they do not subscribe to the Khatimun Nabiyeen, the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the last prophet, as if he exclusively represents the Sunni Muslims and the hell with the others. Is this acceptable? As a leader of the nation he represents everyone, whether they believe in the Prophet (PBUH) or not. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself set the example of respecting Jews, Christians and others who did not believe in him, and not only that, he signed the treaty with them to co-exist and co-govern their own affairs per their own laws.

If Khan is like one of those other bad guys, that would be different; but he is a decent man and probably the only hope for Pakistan. He has earned that by being honest and a non-appeaser. Now worried about winning, he has started appeasing the mullahs, and speaking the language of the Jhangvi idiots who want to declare Pakistan as a Sunni nation; the next would be Ahle-sunnat, and then those among Ahle-Sunnat whose pants length is precise to the millimeter. There is no end to appeasing or calming down the fanatics, and they would extract a pound of flesh from him.

The question is why Khan should worry about the insignificant Ahmadiyya, Shia or Hindu minority. Is that the right thing to do? Did Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) not speak out for the oppressed? Here are some civil examples, and I hope at least the Pakistani Americans would understand and support it. 

1. Civil rights acts were passed to right the wrong done to the African Americans, a tiny minority. It was passed by the white majority; it was for the common good and justice, that all men are equal. Shouldn’t Islamic Republic of Pakistan adopt this? Isn’t that an Islamic value? 

2. Lincoln’s abolishment of slavery for Africans was passed by the white majority, indeed the only voters in senate then were white.

3. Barack Obama took the risk to stand up with the LGBT community where as everyone thought it was the death nail for him politically; even Muslims gave him over 80 percent of their vote, despite his support for the same sex marriage.

4. Humanity in general and Muslims in particular are guided to stand up for justice. Only the civility of majority can change things. Minorities do not have a voice in Pakistan and they live on with apprehensions. The Hindu parents worry when their daughter will be abducted and forced to convert or when the Ahmadiyya girl student will be kicked out of school or their graves are desecrated, Shias ordered out of the bus and shot point blank and Christians will be framed with blasphemy charges. Societies are judged by how they treat their minorities, women and children. Good Pakistanis are letting bad things happen in their names.

5. It is the Muslim thing to stand up against oppression.

6. ‘Baad may karliengaye’ (we will do it later), after election, is a lie. It will never happen. The foundation of Khan’s campaign should be based on integrity. As 96 percent of Pakistanis prefer freedom of faith as per the new Pew survey about Muslim attitudes towards the Sharia. Who is he representing then?

In all the cases above, there was an assumption that the majority does not favour it. Just like the statements from a few Pakistanis that Ahmadiyya should not call themselves Muslims. It is a Pakistani thing and not a Muslim thing.

Perhaps the issue started with the dictator brainwashing the vocal Pakistani public, because before that people minded their own business. The fitna was started by Maulana Maududi; had it not been for him, Ziaul Haq and Bhutto, the Pakistanis would not have been belligerent towards fellow Pakistanis. Had that evil draconian anti-Islamic Hudood laws was not shoved on to Pakistanis, they would be standing up for the rights of all Pakistanis. Dictator’s Hudood laws have become Allah’s laws now, what an Irony. The germs have infected Bangladesh and Indonesia, and now affecting a few Indian Muslims as well.

Muslims around the world have little prejudice towards the Ahmadiyya. I meet large groups of Muslim scholars, imams and ministers from Muslim nations twice a year for coaching in pluralism. They do not have the bias that a few Pakistanis vocalise. I firmly believe if there is referendum, where individuals will not be identified, the Pakistani public will overwhelmingly want to get rid of the Hudood laws and the harassment of the Ahmadiyya Muslims.

A few, just a few will say why on earth is Ghouse supporting the Ahmadiyya? My answer is simple: it is not support for the Ahmadiyya, but rather an effort to preserve the character of Muslims and Islam, which is to stand up for Justice. I have nothing to gain but hear ugly words from a few. I am better off spending my time making money, aren’t I? Doesn’t that make me run from the responsibility of doing my personal share of work towards a better world? The Prophet (PBUH) said that the least you can do is to speak up, didn’t he?

The issue is really not about Khatimun Nabiyeen, but do we as Muslims believe that Islam allows us to mistreat those who are not Sunnis? Khan should have said the Ahmadiyya (not Qadianis, which is like the N word to them) are Pakistanis, and they have every right to vote, instead of reiterating that they are not Muslims, and that as a possible head of the government I represent them and to represent them, I would ask for their vote. 

Democracy is not an easy system, it asks a lot from everyone. It is testing one’s ability to hear different opinions without feeling hatred for the others. Most Muslims have democracy in their hearts and souls; many more are yet to get it. Thank God, I was a minority in India, and a minority in the US. The majoritarian arrogance is not by the majority, but by a few among them, who assume a blanket authorisation by the silence of the real majority. It is time for the majority to speak up and get Imran Khan to represent every Pakistani without discrimination. If not he is just another politician claiming to follow the Prophet (PBUH), but he is not.

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links

The Pakistanis Who Won’t Vote

It is a shame that in this day and age, the Pakistanis dictators have made the lives of ordinary Pakistanis difficult. Here is a great example of brainwashing the whole nation with hatred for Ahmadiyya Muslims. 96% of Pakistanis believe in freedom of religion, but they need to speak up. Their belief means nothing, if they cannot speak up.  - Mike Ghouse

By Umar Farooq

Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Members of the Ahmadi community community prayed during Friday prayers in Lahore, July 16, 2010.

Rights groups welcome Pervez Musharraf-era reforms to Pakistan’s electoral system, which helped put religious minorities on an equal footing with Muslims. But Ahmadis say they were left out, and some other religious minorities say they still don’t have adequate representation in Parliament.

“We want to be part of the mainstream, but they [the government] won’t let us. They are keeping us out of elections,” a spokesman for Pakistan’s Ahmadi community said.

Muslim extremists in Pakistan persuaded the government to pass a constitutional amendment in 1974 declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates there are at least one million Ahmadis in the country.

Ahmadis follow the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a late 19th Century reformer who they consider a prophet.  Most orthodox Muslims believe there were no prophets after Prophet Muhammad.

In 1985, President Zia-ul-Haq altered the country’s election laws so that when someone registered to vote, they were put into a group based on their religion. Non-Muslim groups were given a handful of seats in Parliament and barred from voting in general elections for their districts. Ahmadis, for example, regardless of where they lived in Pakistan, could only vote to elect representatives to one of two reserved seats at the national level.

The rules left minorities without effective representation, said I.A. Rehman, secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Even in districts where minorities made up a sizable chunk of the population, they were never courted by mainstream candidates because they couldn’t vote for them.

In January 2002, President Musharraf introduced a “joint electorate,” lifting the requirement to declare religion when registering to vote. Millions of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan were listed along with Muslims, and could vote in general elections.

Ahmadis could also vote in general elections, but they were listed separately to Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Also, any candidate running for office was still required to sign a document saying Ahmadis were not Muslims.

“We are glad that in 2002 that system was abolished and replaced with a joint electorate. Now Muslims and non-Muslims living in the same street have their names in [a single list] – except for members of the Ahmadi community,” said Mr. Rehman.

“The Ahmadi community has a right to vote, like all other citizens, but they are not enrolled in a joint list,” he added.

A spokesman for Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, confirmed that the agency keeps a separate list of Ahmadis in each district.

The separate listing means that despite the 2002 reforms, most of Pakistan’s Ahmadis will boycott the upcoming elections on May 11, as they have been doing since the separate electoral rolls were first introduced.  “They don’t get registered as voters and they don’t take part in elections,” said Mr. Rehman.

The Ahmadi community spokesman said voting would affirm the government’s view that he is not a Muslim. “We Ahmadis do not want to disassociate ourselves from the Prophet Muhammad,” he said.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court took up a petition against the practice last month, but neither Pakistan’s Attorney General nor the Election Commission replied to the court’s request to explain why Ahmadis were being listed separately. The listing could also allow religious extremists to easily identify Ahmadis in each electoral district, the Ahmadi spokesman said. In 2010, 86 Ahmadis were killed in attacks on worshippers in two mosques in Lahore.  Last year, at least 20 Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s constitution sets aside 10 seats in Parliament for religious minorities, but they are not filled by direct elections. After general elections, each political party nominates candidates from minority communities for the seats based on the party’s proportional representation in the new Parliament.

“People are chosen for us,” said Zeeshan Joseph of the All Pakistan Christian League.  “When our homes, our churches are destroyed, all we get are checks. We don’t need checks, we need justice.”

Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Houses of Christians torched by a mob in Lahore, March 11, 2013.

Mr. Joseph says minority representatives are not accountable to the groups they are supposed to represent, but only to the political party that nominates them. A handful of minority groups, including the All Pakistan Christian League, advocate giving minorities in Pakistan a second vote, which they would use to select parliamentarians to fill the 10 reserved seats.

The right to cast two votes played a decisive role in the creation of Pakistan. In 1909, British rulers ceded to pressure by Muslims in India, allowing them a second vote for seats reserved for Muslims. Mr. Joseph says that without the additional representation in the colonial legislature, Muslims wouldn’t have been able to demand an independent state of Pakistan.

“We are sincerely loyal to Pakistan, but we are being kept from being politically involved. In our churches, the first thing we pray for is the well-being of our country and of our leaders,” he said.

Umar Farooq is an independent journalist based in Pakistan.  He blogs at umar-farooq.com and tweets @UmarFarooq_ 

Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

Copyright 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Is Imran Khan a misfit or the least fit?

Freedom to Practice Religion, Is Imran Khan a misfit or the least fit?

URL - http://redeemingpakistan.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-imran-khan-misfit-or-least-fit.html

Here is the good news from the Pew worldwide survey released yesterday, 96% of Pakistanis prefer freedom of religion, and they have no problem with what others practice.

This is one of the most valuable facts of the world wide Pew survey released on April 30, 2013. Muslims are sick of living under monarchies, dictators and under the thumbs of Mullahs and Fatwa bombs, but when they have the freedom they do the right thing: to be fair and just, a basic human trait.

More than 80 percent of the Muslim respondents prefer freedom of faith across the world. The dissonance is particularly strong in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where democracy is yet to realize its fruits, while one nation is laden with senseless, imperialistic, unjust Hudood laws, which the dictator of Pakistan, Zia ul-Haq, imposed and carried through with no one having the guts to repeal. But Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have spoken strongly against it with 96 percent and 97 percent of them supporting freedom to practice religion. It shows their disgust for the current practices which are not their choosing.

Imran Khan seems to be the least bad candidate among the runners,  is he gutless?

Leaders take the nation forward and represent the genuine feelings of the people. IK seems to be disconnected with the public.  He is still afraid of taking a stand worrying what the Mullah’s will do? The video tape expresses appeasement.

Imran said he follows Prophet Muhammad, since he said that, he needs to demonstrate it. When Prophet agreed to sign the peace treaty with Meccans, most of the Suhabas were not happy with the terms – he dared them and took the risk to go forward. They were not even willing to change his title to the signature from Muhammad ur Rasool Allah to Muhammad bin Abdullah, he dared them, because he respected the otherness of others.

If you have seen the movie Lincoln, he struggles with having continued support by not pushing for abolishment of slavery, or doing away with slavery and risk losing the presidency, he makes the right choice, the moral choice; standing up for what is right.

Like Lincoln, President Obama took one of the biggest risks in politics by standing up for the rights of Lesbian and Gay community. The majority of the African community and the Christians were against that stance, including the Muslims and Hispanic members of the community. What did Obama do? He dared them all. He probably said to himself, hell with the Presidency, but do the right thing. Standing up for women’s right was the right thing, standing up for the civil rights of African American minority was the right thing and now standing up for the rights of LGBT community was the right thing to do.  What happened? Instead of losing the election, that the Republicans thought would happen, people turned around and voted for him in droves.

 Aren’t Pakistani Muslims going to be happy, if Obama clamps on any harassment of Pakistani Americans? We all want someone to stand up for us? Despite the disagreement on same sex marriage, 85% of Muslims voted for him, and 93% of African Americans voted for him.

The Pakistani public is inherently good, like all peoples, and they want justice and fairness to Ahmadiyya, Shia, Hindu and other communities – it is sickening to them, and it is eating their psyche alive without realization. If you are unjust to people, you lose out. I am a damned Muslim and to be a Muslim is to speak out against injustice, shame on me, if I did not and shame on you, if you don’t.

 If Imran Khan can do what the Prophet did, what Lincoln and Obama did, he will uplift Pakistani from a major burden on people’s psyche, just as Martin Luther King did.  His pandering to the extremists need to stop. He needs to say, hell with elections, let me do the right thing.

It is easy to appease every one and do the chamchagiri, but difficult to speak up when you are gripped with the fear of getting chewed out.

Now turning to you, the Pakistani Americans, how many of you would accept a 2nd class citizen’s role in America? How many of you would remain silent if your rights are stripped?  How many of you would stand up for fellow Pakistanis whose right to vote is stripped?

I expected Imran Khan to be the man of integrity. Is he not begging people to believe him that he is not going to stand up for Ahmadiyya Muslims? They cannot vote in Pakistan.

Video https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151346288027126

So he wants to be Romney and not represent the Ahmadiyya Muslims.  Shame on him. He is indeed a doogla insaan who is depriving the rights of fellow Pakistanis. Aaj wo, kal tum hoge.
And he says, “"I have never asked Qadianis to vote for me. PTI endorses the status of Qadianis as non-Muslims in the Constitution of Pakistan. PTI shall not change or amend this status in the Constitution." - Imran Khan”

What is he afraid of? 96% of Pakistanis prefer freedom of faith, who is he representing?

90 percent of Americans and 80 percent of the Republicans in our successful democracy want background checks on purchase of guns, but what do the Senators and Congressmen do? Go against the will of the people like those damned dictators and Mullahs. Their days are numbered. Who wants these men and women?

Isn’t Imran Khan going against the will of the people for fear from a handful of Mullahs?  Are you accepting him because he is the least worst among the pack?

There goes Tahreek-e-Insaaf, it sounds more like Tareeki-e-Insaaf.

IK needs to show he is a man of principles. A majority of the Pakistanis will stand up with him if he uplifts Ahmadiyya Muslims from 2nd class Citizens to equal citizens. He just has to follow the example of Prophet.
..........
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.

Shaping Pakistan

Tariq;

You can cause these sensible voices to reach out to more people that will have an impact on the society at large. There have been many good people, but with their own agenda for power. If you look at the successes of people in the history- they did not want anything for themselves and did not have any agenda for themselves. Tahirul Qadri is doomed for having his own perceived agenda, rather than an agenda for Pakistan. Imran Khan seems to have an agenda for Pakistan, but he has not shown any boldness when bad incidents happen, he is waiting for what others say and then shares his take, that is deficiency in having guts.

 

The successful leader of Pakistani will be someone who has an agenda for Pakistani people and uplifting them economically and socially without anything for himself. If that person appears on the scene, the public will be behind him or her. Any one will succeed if he or she does not have anything to gain but focus on getting Pakistan out of doldrums. This someone will focus on training more people to become able leaders, and he or she is not there for the long haul, and some one who does not have the arrogance to believe that he alone can save Pakistan.

This may be the first time, that the Pakistan Admin has responded to an incident like Joseph Town, and this must be the response to every civil disturbance. They need to act the same when Shia, Ahmadiyya and Hindu communities are harassed to earn credibility. Round up the bad guys as individuals and not give them labels like JI, LeJ etc.. It puts a damper on tensions, people are willing to cheer beating up bad guys, but if you give them an affiliation or a label,  then you have created a division. It's not against bad guys anymore but against a group.

 We can blame Bush for unleashing misery and terror in the world and causing all the death and destruction. Had he done what Obama did, just get the bad guy Bin Laden and the world would have cheered for him and none of the destruction of America and the world would have happened. But blaming others does not solve Pakistan's issues.

 Just go back to 1960 - Pakistan was a fine country! People were great! What happened then? The Zia Bhutto combine are the criminals of Pakistan, they completely brainwashed Pakistanis to believe what they did not believe before 1960. The discrimination against Bengalis, the Hudood laws, the breakup of the nation, and dividing society and pitching one Pakistani against the other. 

Can someone Un-brainwash Pakistanis and restore them to pre-60? They got along fine, the prosperity was there. What is needed is unselfish leaders who can have people focus on what can they do together as individuals for the nation. Someone who can get them off in making other people's life difficult based on Religion.

Some one who has the balls to tell that what you believe is between you and God - and no one is responsible for the other. Whether you are a Christian, Deobandi, Ahmadiyya, Barelavi, Ahle-sunnat,  Shia, Wahhabi, Hindu, Parsee or a Jew,  each one is responsible for his or her own Aamals, and not you. You have no business in the matters of other's faith, let them believe what they believe. For God's sake back off from hounding others with blasphemy, khatimun nabiyeen, apostasy, idol worship, dargah worship and other issues. Because you are not responsible for what one believes, and you have no GD business in meddling with others belief, live your own.

Hamid Mir's piece below is good, while Qadeer khans appeal will hit his fans big time. The more of them speak the greater impact it will have in correcting the course. A movement of good speakers, a movement of leaders who care about Pakistan needs to be encouraged to speak.

I hope Raja Khan Zada, Sajjad Azhar and others from DFW can upload a lot of good in the Pakistani Papers they represent, and TV in Pakistan. This is the least the Dallas Pakistanis can do to focus on well being of all people. I hope Safeee-e-Pakistan will beam back that unified message to Pakistan as well on the March 23.

----

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work and social settings. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him. 

On Mar 11, 2013, at 5:28 AM, tariq xxxxx @ wrote from Lahore

one more:
http://jang.com.pk/jang/mar2013-daily/11-03-2013/col14.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Tariq..........

Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 5:27am
 "Mike" <ghousemike@gmail.com>
Subject: two important articles published today [urdu]

http://jang.com.pk/jang/mar2013-daily/11-03-2013/col2.htm

http://jang.com.pk/jang/mar2013-daily/11-03-2013/col1.htm

Inshallah, we will raise voice against this madness !