R O N I Nammar yasir’s personal blog

At the time when the excited lot at Time Square was celebrating the death of OBL, we in Pakistan were in a state of absolute shock and bewilderment. Like an uninvited guest in a party who’s asked to say a few words on the stage, we had no clue on how to react. A large fraction in the west expected us to celebrate the death of OBL like New Yorkers. Similarly a friend in India tweeted that the moderate Pakistanis should come out of their houses to show their contentment on the death of the Saudi businessman turned Al-Qaeda’s founding daddy. But on the other side of the border we were still chewing on the facts that came our way via western news sources. Contrary to Scooby Dooby Cartoon show, where the evil villain was unmasked in the end; this episode further mystified everything we were made to believe in last one decade.

The answer to why Pakistanis didn’t celebrate OBL’s death came a few weeks after; when a double suicide attack was carried out in Charasadda (taking 89 innocent lives and injuring 140 people) followed by a  drone strike claiming the death of Al-Qaeda militants. So those American friends who are still curious on why we didn’t celebrate OBL’s death should realize that you might have won this year’s ‘Super Bowl’ but like always we have to clean up the created mess irrespective of who comes out as a winner.

Having said that, I secretly wish that Pakistanis would have been banned from expressing on this incident by our pro-active Supreme Court. As only few hours after the announcement of OBL’s death a section of journalists and anchors started referring him a martyr and Islam’s true soldier, who also turned out to be a porn lover (now I know who to blame). But what disappointed me the most was the shocking stance of some of Pakistan’s respectable names including writer/poet/ diplomat Ataul Haq Qasmi (creator of PTV’s classic like Khwaja & Sons) who found nothing wrong in publicly admiring OBL on the local channels. Similarly lawyers, political parties and even citizens in various Pakistanis cities offered prayers for the terrorist who publicly declared a war against Pakistan and its people, resulting in the death of over 3500 Pakistanis (majority of who never supported the US war mongering policy in the region).

BBC radio’s Urdu service interviewed a house wife in Abbottabad who wished if she knew of OBL’s presence in her neighborhood, she would have showed him the well known Pakistani hospitality. From the mood of our nation the Abbottabadi house wife is not the only one who follow this peculiar mind set. In fact I am pretty much sure that she or someone in her family will not mind a US citizenship if offered. Pakistanis who criticize the US policy the most find no problem in living or wish to live the American dream in USA or any prosperous part of the west. I fail to understand this behavior.

Numerous times in the past Islamic states have also sabotaged the sovereignty of Pakistan but we don’t want to talk about that. We trained facilitated and harbored foreign terrorists in the past and continue to do so today even if it proves out to be hazardous for our safety, economy and future. Only because the terrorists claim to follow the same religion or appear more Muslims than we are. Does that make sense to anyone out there?

We want our kids to study and work abroad, to bring back Dollars, Pounds, Euros and foreign degrees. At the same time we find it completely appropriate to publicly display open affection towards dead Al-Qaeda leaders and approve of Taliban version of Sharia in our country. So from what it appears we are either utterly stupid or despicably a hypocrite nation that does not want to learn from its past at all, as if learning from the past was freshly banned by LHC or have been put on the blasphemy list by the local Mullahs. We secretly wish to win a gold medal for our Islamic ghairat, if there was a championship where they gave out prices to Muslim Cheerleaders for showing off their affection for the religion we would have been world champions. If there was a reality show by the name ‘Muslims got Gherat (honor)’: Pakistanis would have voted their hearts out to win the title and we would have easily won it too for banning facebook two years in a row.

But no awards or rewards; religious or otherwise are handed over for absurdity or irrationality. The world is watching us and our growing extremist behavior. The legacy we are leaving behind for our next generation is only going to make them unwanted and disrespected as global citizens. As a matter of fact we are half way there.

Popularity: 28% [?]

New to Cricket? Interested to learn about the teams who are participating in the biggest tournament of this game? Here is my one line description of the cricket teams in ICC World Cup 2011:

South Africa: Once upon a time we were Chokers, now sometimes we lose games in ordinary series as well (im.provement)

Ireland: Murphy Law states; “If anything can go wrong it will go wrong”. Ireland is exactly the danger Chacha Murphy is warning about.

Canada: Product of friendly immigration policy

India: Smugs who can sell fans, cars, hair oil, fairness creams, ointment and Cricket to its audience

Sri Lanka: Better version of team India with an inferior PR

Pakistan: The Usual Suspects… who play for the mafia

England: The new Pakistan of world Cricket

Australia: HOFOA (HALL OF FAMER OVER ACHIEVER), yea I just made up that term

West Indies: Just the cool part of what used to be the mighty West Indies

New Zealand: Decent folks with a license to wear black

Bangladesh: World Champion of minnows (not really)

Popularity: 38% [?]

We live in a society where people insist on labeling every living soul based on their religious, ethical and political association. It helps us judge people. Back in 3^rd grade and way before I started reading the Holy Quran I came to know about my sect. The reason that I fast forwarded to the secondary details before knowing the basics of the religion was of two reasons. Firstly, many of my class fellows were interested to know about how different my religious beliefs were from them. They asked inciting questions that weren’t their own. I wonder who planted those words in their young minds. Maybe their parents or perhaps the Qari who taught them Quran and religious education? Can’t blame the Indian or western media here or can we? The second reason that I had to keep up with the sectarian know-how was a tragic incident that took place in my extended family, when a teenage scout boy was brutally murdered among two other scout boys in a local Karachi mosque. It was just a start of the dark age of sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Contradictory to Imran Khan’s delusional belief, pre 9/11 Pakistan had a record number of target killings and sectarian attacks that took place in the name of religion. Also, the population of Pakistani minority thinned from a good 20% (in 1947) to a low 4%. Not that the remaining 16% converted to Islam or escalating Muslim population outdid the Non-Muslim population in the country. But it was half a century long discriminatory behavior and exponentially growing hate that forced them to move out of this country. When a TV anchor inquired a religious political leader about this trend, he blamed the rulers and their economic policies that have forced not only the minorities but also the Muslim majority to look out for better prospects in other countries. He went on saying that none of the Muslim religious schools in Pakistan incite hate or promote discrimination. He hinted that a religious revolution will bring the change every Pakistani is wishing for. Right!

Revolution this year has ironically become a fashion statement, just like the Che Guevara’s picture on a T-Shirt or the new iPad; “if they are having it, I want one too!”. But if we can actually learn something here  from the Egyptians; its the unity among the oppressed people which helped them get this far. They didn’t break down the protests and selfishly protested as Muslims or Christians. They didn’t even let their political affiliation come in the way of their national interest. When they protested they protested for the rights of every Egyptian irrespective of religion, class, sect or gender. And that’s something we hardly witness in Pakistan. We all are affected by terrorism and exponentially growing hate caused by a group of people over past few decades but still when a tragedy happens, our reaction is relative to social or religious association of the victims. A Shiite is seen mourning for a Shiite only, a group of energetic liberal activists will organize a vigil when the victims are Ahmedi or Christian. Only Bravelis will come out to protest the attacks on Sufi shrines and an attack on girl schools will only be protested by women.

Why a loss should be personally associated or it won’t be endorsed as a loss? Where does the humanitarian activist in us goes when something like that happens? If religious politicians who otherwise go to different mosques to pray can execute a common campaign to incite hate and score political points, than what’s stopping the hate victims?

Popularity: 33% [?]

The other day I was introduced to legendary Turkish rock star Barış Manço thanks to my twitter time line which is occasionally quite resourceful. Despite great musical attributes of the song, it was the video and Baris’s attire that caught my attention the most and I couldn’t restrain myself from tweeting:

Someday I’ll grow such mustache, wear my mum’s necklace, sing stories to the kids and feel hip about it

Immediately got the following reply from a Turkish friend:

It takes a lot of confidence to dress like that and pull it off and he did. I like his songs btw, wish listen more often

Maybe it’s not just confidence but a set of bad friends/advisers that keep reminding you that whatever you doing, you are doing great. Like in the case of our pro-active judiciary, who are ready to buy any rumor (aka news ) broadcasted on the rating frenzy media.

Anyways, in reply to my Turkish friends tweet, I responded with a video of our own folk/rock star Arif Lohar who has been sporting similar attire (long hair, moustache, mummys jewelry and clothes) with the same confidence. Enjoy the video:

Popularity: 47% [?]

Ever heard of Murphy law of terrorism? It says; “If a suicide attack can take place, it will”. Especially if the province is Punjab and the interior minister is Rana Sanaullah, probability of a terror attack maximizes. But it would be unfair to other law enforcers (intelligence agencies in particular) if the entire credit of incompetence, criminal negligence and corruption goes to the PML-N minister. After all he’s not the only one who allowed sectarian violence to prosper and flourish under the protected umbrella of law enforcement. Pakistani courts, military agencies, police and rangers for the past many years made sure not to catch any terrorist who is linked to sectarianism and if someone ever gets caught, they are back on the streets on the basis of lack of evidence, political influence or for reasons that we don’t like to discuss in public.

Prime example is the escape of four Jundullah militants from police custody in June, who were being tried for the deadly Ashoura attack earlier in Karachi. The government later on blamed the police for the security lapse (how convenient). After the Ashoura incident, series of sectarian attacks took place in including the attack on a bus full of women and children who were on their way to attend moharram procession. Sectarianism in Karachi didn’t stop there, there hasn’t been a month when sectarian killing didn’t take place leaving many innocent civilians shot dead. Brothers Shahzad Raza and Asif Raza belong to one of the many families who lost their loved ones in sectarian violence.

Now I am aware that this country is going through the toughest times in its 60 years of history, everyday there is a new story which leaves us shocked, distressed and dispirited. We opt to detach ourselves from every incident unless it’s personal. We indulge in discussions that revolve around on how these terror attacks are CIA funded or a reaction of Muslims that are disgruntled by the US presence in Iraq, Aghanistan and Pakistan. Religious clerics who can actually talk some sense into the trigging hands and stop them from killing fellow Pakistanis, conveniently shy away by taking no responsibility at all. But then religious clerics who went out of the way to condemn terrorism (Dr. Sarfaraz Naeemi) paid the price for their patriotism.

So the question arises where we go from here? We can blame Black Water and call it a reaction of drone attacks because we don’t want to take any responsibility for our religious intolerance that has been there before USA was discovered. Or we can adopt the easy way and ban the religious processions because ideologically speaking we don’t have anything to do with it and every blast brings strong graphics on the screens which kind of spoils our mood. Or we can condemn these attacks and ask the victims to stay calm because that’s what they do best after every attack.

With ongoing terrorism it’s kind of hard to keep track of who died for what reason but with every innocent death, Pakistan dies a little. With every lost life, the flame of what remains to be called hope diminishes. And this will continue to happen, unless we decide enough is enough!

In the end I would like to share the TED talk of Pakistani documentarian Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy whose allowing us to look inside a school of suicide bombers:

Popularity: 55% [?]