Weltanschauung

The structuralist poetics described the weltanschauung or the world view one has structured around the language that we speak growing up, in other words, our mother tongue. People like us, who grew up in the post colonial era, where English was and still continue to be of more importance than the language of our ancestors, our world view seems to be distorted, torn between three things; our tradition, our culture and that of our colonial masters. As they say, the gap that is left by the colonial armies, is filled with the language of the colonial masters and those gaps later empower everything as language is ten times more stronger than the physical armies as one can resist those armies and those power with more aggression and throw them out, but once language is embedded in the minds of the opressed, they become better slaves, even after the armies leave, the psychological remnants of the culture and language never let them be free of those masters and that inferiority complex that they had embedded within the minds of the slaves that they created.

In the post modern world, where structures have crumbled, where there seems to be no center whatsoever anywhere, where the moral values, and moral compasses have no grounding or no anchor and it shifts like sand dunes with winds or move around in the ocean with the waves and currents, one wonders where will we find some kind of structure to give meaning to all the madness that is going on around the world. The recent events of colonial settler’s genocidal war on Ghazza and later bombing of the most poor country in the world i.e. Yemen, has put a question mark on every single idea that has been floating around the world for so many years about the moral superiority of the global north. The movies like Avengers, Batman, Superman, all of them white, saving the world and rescuing the opressed people all around the world, seem to have crumbled as soon as the confict started. The idea of free speech, democracy, having opinions, everything that West used to justify it’s illegal bombing of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc. all became invalid. The colonial, imperial powers came out as nothing but a facade that blew up like a balloon and there is nothing left of them to admire anymore.

The question now arises, what will be the world view or the weltanshuaang that we should look at. The language, that has enslaved us for so long, is breaking into small pieces, and we being more aware of the shackles that we knew were there but we never consciously tried to break free of them as we are now trying, struggling to. The world around, be it the north or the global south, nothing has answers to the questions that are being raised in this era. Where is the moral grounding? Where do we anchor the ship of values? The global north, which they made us believe that they have all the best universities, colleges, institutions, crumbled and shattered as people were fired, sacked, slandered for speaking up for a ceasfire. Imagine being called out for asking to stop the killing of innocent civilians and children. Imagine asking to not to target hospitals and being called a terrorists. The question now arises, if you have all the knowledge, all the technology in the world, but no moral values, would you create a human or a monster?!

About the other side of the picture. What is the world view or the weltanshauung of the other side of the conflict. What kind of worldview do these opressed people have? What understanding of the world do these people in Ghazza have to be so resilient, to be so patient in the time of such catastrophe, devastation and destruction.
‘Everything from Allah is beautiful’, were the words of the man who stood on the rubble of his home and his burnt shop smiling.
Such a simple sentence and such a beautiful and deep answer that people like me and you can’t fathom. The worldview that this simple man had is beyond any professor, intellectual that sits in the University of Oxford or Harvard. The weltanshauung that is metaphysical and transcends beyond the realm of the Western culture, langue and discourse. What makes his weltanshaaung so different from everyone we see around us. Living in the MiddleEast for most of my life, the comfortable lifestyle I had, I could never see things the way he is. This is not the story or words of just one man, but an entire population, who I never saw complaining amidst the destruction and devastation. The words, the attitude is the same that we have read about the Sahaba, the companions of the Prophet (SAW). It seems that they have internalized the word of Allah in such a way that they see life, death, destruction, and loss in an entire different way than we do. They seem like a different people, people who are connected to some kind of sabr that comes with endurance and huzn and love of Allah, Quran and the Prophet Muhamad (SAW).

Since the waltenshaaung has shifted with the crisis, it seems the strive to find a new moral ground or anchor has been created too. Once we know that the world, and specially the colonial, Western world has nothing to offer in this regard, where do we shift our focus too. The facade has fallen, the veil has been lifted, the ugliness of the colonial Western world, that has no moral grounding and loves killing children and innocent civilians, we know now, that the moral grounds have to come from the beautiful people, who have the worldview that is not tainted by the hypocrisy of the West and its influence like ours have. The tradition, the Book and the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), is the beacon of light, is the anchor of the moral compass and the grounding of the very foundation of our values as humans and not some farce that change every few years to suit some powerful people ans countries.

Blood on Their Hands

As the death toll mounts, and the world looks at it with horror, the insanity and the foolishness is revealed. I thought we have seen the low of humankind when they killed indiscriminately in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. But with the events unfolding with every passing moment, we realise that we discover that we were wrong and it’s a bottomless pit and these ministers and leaders are racing to show us how horrendous their insides are. Every time has it’s own Pharoah. Musa (AS)’s Pharoah killed babies too, then there was Abu Jahl, the Pharoah during the times of Prophet Muhammad(SAW), and today, it’s Netanyahu, Biden and Sunak. Their brutality knows no border.

When 9/11 happened, I was in school. The events that followed destroyed not only Afghanistan but Pakistan too. If you take out the interviews, the media, the news, articles, anything from those times, the words, the narrative, the propaganda is still the same. When Bush was asked to try Osama Bin Laden in a neutral country, he said that he wanted to go on a ‘Crusade’ and hence, bombed the country to bits. The soldiers there did every inhumane thing they could have possibly do; keeping parts of Afghan’s human bodies as trophies, raping girls, and killing off whole families at point blank, and all of this was during the ground invasion. They blew up houses and killed innocent civilians through drones in Pakistan too, claiming militants were hiding there. The Blackwater organization was on its feet working in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq killing whoever they wanted whenever they wanted.

The war crimes that happened in those days came to light years after they had taken place. The people were kidnapped, and abducted from various parts of the world, and were sent to Guantanamo Bay Prison, Bagram Prison and Prisons in Iraq. The pictures are still on the internet and the testimonies are there of how these prisoners were treated, and were kept in prisons for years and years without any charges and they were subjected to worst kinds of tortures that anyone in this world could ever imagine. The so-called harbingers of peace and the flagbearers of justice, turned out to be savages with no morality whatsoever. They didn’t have any humanity, they didn’t have any moral values, and certainly were not the best of the people as they claimed to be.

The so-called freedom of speech turned out to be a hoax too because in US now it is illegal to ban Israel and go for BDS but it is okay to condemn the people of Palestine to a genocide! They are now proposing bills to expel Palestinians from their country. So much for free speech and freedom and the American Dream and what not. If you want to expel them from your country then rid their country from the occupiers. But no, they can’t even do that. The very fact that these countries, the best countries in the world, who have the moral high ground, thinks that chanting pro-Palestinian slogans is also ‘hate speech’ and want to turn around the tables and are propagating that this is ‘antisemitism’! When you scroll around your social media, you come across these people, and the talking points only revolve around the events that happened on October, the seventh! And how appalling it is that there are no pictures on the internet whatsoever of ‘decapitated’ babies and children. But everyone turns a blind eye to the babies, that are not even days old and are killed by Israeli airstrikes, the pictures of children killed and mutilated by the bombs. Have you seen the father who was carrying parts of his children in a polythene bag?! Do they count for anything? But the most appalling thing was when the Israeli minister screamed in the cabinet that these children are not equal to our children. If this was a statement of any Muslim minister, the West would have bombed that place saying that these people are terrorists and are a threat to their ‘national security’ and their existence.

There in no moral background of the US or the West’s policies. The people, who caused Holocaust, dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killed millions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, everywhere, say that Muslims are terrorists and a threat to their existence. How ironic! As the world watches in horror and the leaders, be it democratic, or dictatorship or whatever, I have come to this conclusion, wherever there is evil in this world, US, UK and the West are in compliance with one another in abetting to those crimes and stand steadfast in those values that only harm other people mostly because they are not the same race i.e. white!

Now the West, and the world stands with Israel, with it’s so called notion of ‘right to self defense ‘. Imagine how comical it is that the only nuclear power in the Middle East, is wailing like a child over some stones that were thrown by some teenagers at their fully armored tanks. And in retaliation killed over 10,000 innocent civilians, most of whom are kids. Now their cultural minister is asking for a Nuclear bomb be dropped on the city of Ghazza, because carpet bombing was not killing enough of the Palestinians and they want that piece of land for themselves. It seems to me that the times have not changed yet, some people are always more equal than the others. The idea of being ‘white supremacist’, ‘white man’s burden’ and ‘others’ will always be there. The US and Europeans, the British and the Israelis have very beautiful notion that they are the supreme race. US President Biden saying that US is the greatest country and is responsible for the world (bully of the world). These countries have this notion that they are untouchables and will never be held accountable for the crimes they committed because all of them would veto one another in the UN and get away with everything.

The reality is that the supporters of genocide and ethnic cleansing that is happening in Ghazza, will face dire consequences in the future. You cannot do injustice in this world and sleep like a baby. There will always be consequences. And Insha’Allah we will see who will win in the Hereafter.

Phalasteen

Yesterday, I was talking to my brother and was asking him if he has written something regarding the current issue. He replied that he hasn’t, and continued to say that what is there to write?! Today, as Isat down to write something, my heart skipped a beat, my chest felt contracted as if my heart is constricted and there is not place for it to beat. And I felt his words weighing heavy on my chest and I sit here, and I’m thinking, my words are just mere words.. no one reads my blog anyway, but still, what will my words do?! When there is need for an active combat, words are worthless. I sit here and feel as if my existence is worthless for not being able to do anything for my brothers and sisters in Ghazza or Phalasteen. As I sit here with my blood boiling, I wish I were able to do more even if it is hurling one stone at the occupying forces.

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that how can one think it is okay to bomb hospitals, residential areas , mosques and churches. How can all these people say it is okay to annihilate a whole area where 2.1 million people live where 50% of them are children? How can you not allow food, water, medicine and electricity to hospitals, and innocent civillians. This is not new. People don’t even know that Israel has time and again, even before October 7th, has bombed schools, hospitals and civillian population. They have time and again used tanks and bombs and white phosphorus over civillian population not just in Gaza but even in the West Bank. I had written on Gaza and Palestine over and over again in the past 10 years of my blogging era, and Israel has always breached international laws, and has committed war crimes time and again without any remorse. They think they have a right to exist and in this right, they will trample over other people’s right to exist. The existence of the ‘other’ is a threat to mine. It’s ironic that the people, who came as refugees to Palestine, took over the land, houses and the rights of the people who already were living there by killing them, by driving them out of their houses and bombing them with support from USA and British.

The Israeli minister said, that their babies do not have a right to exist only our babies have. The US presidential candidate said, kill them all. The Israeli minister said that they are dogs. Their language is the same as Winston Churchill when he said that they were right in killing blacks of Australia, Red Indians of US, browns of the subcontinent, claiming whites being a superior race and ‘others’ are animals and do not have a right to exist.

The West hs always been like this. But Oh Ummah! Oh Leaders, Kings, Prime Ministers of the Muslim World… Where art thou?! Where is the united army of 40 countries? Where is Raheel Shareef? Where is Khalid tank? Ghauri missile? Where is the ISI? Where is Asim Muneer? Do we not have any duty in the current state of affairs?!Oh my heart!!! How will I face my Lord on the Day of Judgement when I know that this was not a time to write but a time to fight…

Modern Day Colonialism

The first ever department of English was established in the colony of the subcontinent. And do you wonder why? To make us into better slaves. And if you still cannot understand what it means, you can just listen to Rishi Sunak, the PM of UK. He is of an Indian descent and India was a British colony up until 78 years ago. When you look at him, stating his stance on the ceasefire, his refusal to consider the ceasefire and letting humanitarian aid into Gaza, you understand that he still has that mentality of a people that were colonized years ago and still can’t break out of this colonial mindset where you cannot steer away from what your “master” wants.

The colonials have always believed that the whites are a superior race and everyone else is touched by the devil and are cannibals. Everyone else is less human and are animals and have to be treated as such. One would have thought that this is the twenty first century and human beings will not be judged by the colour of their skin or the country they are born in or the religion they follow. It turns out that you are wrong! Even when there are millions of immigrants in the European countries and US and Canada, Muslims are not equal human beings and will never be treated as one. The people of colour will always be the people of colour. The constant repetition from the Israeli Ministers, calling Palestinians, as ‘human animals’ doesn’t come as a shock. This has always been the case with the colonizers, oppressors and occupiers. The Western Media, who claims to be the upholder of human rights and free speech, is not disgusted, or shows any remorse into supporting the idea that ,’Yes! They can say that to the people of Palestine, as they are not “white skinned, blue eyed, Europeans”. There is no backlash as such from the so called human right activists that how can one human life be less worthy as compared to a fair-skinned European.

The language, the lexicon that has been used in the news by the anchor persons or the interviewers or the leaders of the world shape the way they want people to think about a certain situation and the events. There are always sides. The right and the wrong side. What these small ‘slip of tongues’, deliberate use of certain words and the words that construe a certain image in the minds of the masses, do is sometimes completely change the way a person might be thinking. Let’s start with a context, when 9/11 happened, Bush, on the TV called war on Afghanistan, ‘ a crusade!’ This word ‘crusade’ have a religious context and this is exactly what they tried to implant in the minds of people. The kind of phrases that followed were, ‘whether you are “with us” or “against us” driving people into thinking that there is only one way to handle this situation and that be to wipe out a country where “others” live, who in turn are a threat to our existence. The constant need for asking the Muslims to condemn what happened on 7th October has become a crucial part of how the media starts their day but the same people are not saying a word of condemnation on the killings of 7000+ innocent civilians, because these innocent Palestinian civilians are “the others” and not “humans” and are “lesser beings”. They have started calling it a war between Israel and Gaza. What hypocrisy is this?? Israel, having ‘weapons of mass destruction’, the best intelligence agency, sophisticated and trained army, against innocent civilians without water, food supply, electricity and medicine… There is NO COMPARISON!

I don’t personally think that it’s colonialism. This is pure ethnic cleansing as the US minister said that they will turn Gaza into “parking lot”. Time and again the Israeli minister has said that we will “kill” everyone of them. The Israeli Minister saying on TV that drive them out into the Sinai Desert. The Israelis chanting in Jerusalem that ‘ there are no schools in Gaza, we have killed all the children’. This is not colonialism, this is a GENOCIDE! This is their mindset, this is their aim. The so-called flagbearers of peace, are all murderers. The journalists sided with the oppressors. The news channels aided the massacre of innocent children, unborn babies in the wombs of their mother, the mothers, the fathers, and the innocent people just because they lived on the “other side”!

All Children Are Not Equal

So the genocide of the Palestinian people started when a reporter falsely reported the death of 40 babies by Hamas. It is the same as US lying about September 11 (as it was an inside job), as they lied about WMDs in Iraq. It is the same rhetoric that we have seen from the Western Media cells where they wrongly accuse innocent people of crimes and justify their own act of war crimes by acting as if they need to ‘defend’ themselves.

My blog is filled with posts from the beginning about how Gaza, Westbank, Sheikh Jarrah, Silvan have been targeted time and again by the occupation forces, who kill, arrest, bomb innocent civilians and children. More than 1000 children have been killed by Israeli bombs since October 7th, 2023 and no one from the Western Media has condemned it. Not a single voice is heard from the so-called-civilized leaders of the Western World, condemning the killing of children, of babies and of innocent civilians in Gaza or the West Bank.

The Israeli Cabinet minister screamed and shouted in the Cabinet saying the Palestinian babies are not babies, the Israeli defense minister saying that these Palestinians are ‘animals’ and need to be treated like one. One would have thought that the champions of human rights would spring from their seats and would stand up for the people of Palestine but all they would say is that, Israel has a right to defend itself. This is the same White Supremacist mentality that was prevalent during the colonial times but seems as if it is still prevalent and everyone else is lesser human than these Israelis. They can violate every International law, commit war crimes but just because Europe treated them differently during the 20th century, Europe will give them a green ticket to waive off the guilt of killing jews during the world wars.

The Afghan war happened, and the whole world watched the people of Afghanistan being annihilated calling Talibans terrorists, then Iraqis were called terrorists, alas, all Muslims were called terrorists and they were tortured in prisons in Gauntanamo Bay, in Bagram prison, and prisons in Iraq. This has been happening in the name of ‘the right to exist’. Be it Muslims in China, or Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Bosnia or Chechnya, they are never considered as equal human beings, not worthy of basic human rights by the West just because they are Muslims.

Loss

I lost my eldest maternal uncle yesterday. He was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and went through two surgeries, multiple chemo sessions and had been in constant pain for the past one year; the pain was such that he was restless even after taking several heavy doses of pain killers. When I visited Karachi in July, whenever I asked him about his health, he would always say,’tabeat theek nahin hai.’ Being a Muslim and Pakistani, it is very rare that we’d ever affirm our pain in front of anyone, and his saying that he is not feeling well, was an indication enough that he definitely wasn’t well. Anyway, we lost him yesterday and with heavy heart I am penning this down here.

My mamoon (term used for maternal uncle in Urdu), was a gem of a person. He, not only loved or pampered his kids, but he pampered, loved, spoiled all of his nephews and nieces equally. Sometimes my sister used to say that I received more love from him than her in front of him to tease him and he would just laugh it off. From making us into airplanes (when we were toddlers)to taking us to amusement parks, picnics, fast food joints and making us all laugh with his jokes and entertaining us with stories with his personal twists, he did it all with us.

I got married and moved to Riyadh around 13 years ago, but whenever I visited Karachi, I would always go and stay at my nani’s and all of my mamoons and mumanis welcomed me and my kids with open arms. Even this year when I went, I remember their love, their warmth and their hospitality to be ever growing. SubhanAllah. I have always wondered at this trait of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala, of how He fills our hearts with love and how our heart feels like it is squeezed and feels physical pain when something happens to our loved ones. My mamoon left this world, and I can’t still believe that he is gone. But Allah has such a beautiful way of soothing our hearts, where we know that we can pray for him and when we pray for others, Angles say Ameen to those prayers; when we do a good deed and pass on the hasanat to the dead, they receive it, and SubhanAllah the most sincere kind of love where we know that the dead person cannot possibly do anything for us, but we, nonetheless, make dua for them and ask the Most Merciful to be merciful to our loved ones and Allah responds and most beautiful thing is the hope that we will see our loved ones in Jannah.

This is not the end, InshaAllah we will meet again in Jannah, where there will be no pain, despair or sorrow.

The Verdict!

‘If he dies before getting hanged, drag his body to ‘D’ chowk and hang him there for three days!’

The ‘note’ after the verdict said that. So yes, everyone starting going bonkers. Everyone kind of started questioning the words the judge used for the verdict. Moeed Pirzada started wailing like a baby, all others started saying that this should not have been the end of such a ‘patriotic’ leader. He is a hero and what not.

Just a few questions to those who deem him the epitome of patriotism:

1. If he was such a patriot, how could he sell his land, his military bases to US military?

2. If he was such a patriot, how could he sell people of Pakistan for US dollars?

3. If he was such a patriot how could he let American drones target tribal areas of KPK and Baluchistan?

4. If he was such a patriot, how could he let Blackwater Army roam freely around the country?

5. If he was such a patriot, how could he let US open up a fortress in Karachi in the name of US Embassy?

6. If he was such a patriot, how could he humiliated the hero of the nation, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan?

The questions are numerous. The General did not only commit crimes against his own people, his own country, the neighbouring country, he committed crimes against humanity.

He shouldn’t be charged only with treason but with murder of thousands of people, of torturing thousands of people and of human trafficking.

In my honest opinion, there is no punishment in this world that can do justice to what he did when power was entrusted to him.

What ‘tabdeeli’?!

Sahiwal massacre has left it’s marks deep upon my soul. I still can not fathom the fact that the killers are still at large. The Prime Minister has said that after he returns from Qatar, he will give ‘exemplary punishment’ to those involved and will bring reforms in thr Police Department. The Law Minister still claims that the driver that was killed was a terrorist and the family was ‘collateral damage’.

There are a numbers of questions raised with the incident that need to be addressed and Prime Minister thought that Qatar visit is of prime importance rather than providing justice to those who were murdered brutally in cold blood. The Prime Minister has waited this long to bring reforms in the Police Department! The DPO Pakpatan was transferred within a night when he stopped the car of an influential person, the IG was dismissed in a matter of seconds. The rhetoric continues sadly that some people are definitely more equal than the others. Providing justice to the victims of the families is of no importance, but meeting with the U.S. senator was more important. Sadly, we are all standing where we were… not soo much of ‘tabdeeli’ in the way we deal with things.

So the U.S delegation came to meet the Prime Minister and later in the press conference said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was always right ,(smirk) providing the so much celebrated celebrity with a lollipop and later said that we want ‘joint military operations’ for making Afghanistan a better place! The choice of words still resonate in my ears as the Prime Minister said that we will not be used as ‘hired guns’ but perhaps as ‘coalition partners’. The whole Musharraf era is literally playing at thr back of my mind. The whole debate of military court’s extension debate seems to be a part of this whole larger picture which has started to show it’s true colours. The way CTD executed the whole Sahiwal incident, this is how military exectues mist of it’s operations too. We only hear the ISPR’s side of the story, where is the rest of the picture. Only a fool will believe everything they say.

It is not the start of a new era, it is just how history repeats itself…

Dil-e-Ranjeeda

My taya( father’s elder brother) was shot dead 9 years ago when he tried to stop the burglars from snatching the phone away from my husband at the gates of his resident. I did not witness the exact moment as I was inside his house while he was greeting my husband. But I can not still detach myself from the exact memories of that night, I still feel these pangs of pain inside my heart whenever I recall that incident, sometimes I just sit still and recount those moments in my head. Sometimes I can not still believe that my uncle just passed away in an instant, in a second, without any goodbyes, without any last words to us, his sons and his daughters. My husband has not yet gotten over the trauma of actually seeing an old man being shot dead in span of seconds as that old man tried to stop those phone snatchers. Why am I repeating all this after soo many years…

Yesterday, the Sahiwal incident happened. The CTD people killed innocent civillians at short range and took the children from the car and left them at the petrol station! I mean what kind of CTD protocol was that?! If the car had stopped, why was there an urge to open fire at everyone and kill them all without any prior investigation as to who was sitting in the car and what was actually happening. Will those kids ever be able to out of this trauma? How can any ‘financial aid’ ever compensate for the loss of thise children. A thirteen year old girl was brutally murdered! A mother was repeatedly shot! A father was grilled with bullets! What was this? I can NOT fathom the whole thing. I am flabbergasted!!! I am shocked!!! I am devastated! I am heartbroken and I am ANGRY! The tweets of the leaders of the country are just as pathetic and provide no solace whatsoever to the grieving family or the people of Pakistan.

We do not want military courts for the same reason. We do not know how many people have the military killed in the name of all those operations that started off during the time of Musharraf. Who knows what ISPR is covering. The innocent people killed via drones, the people who were killed in Waziristan, or during Zarb-e-azb, who is responsible for even one innocent life that was taken?! We do not want military courts because we do not know if those people are terrorists or not?! Was Dr. Afia a terrorist?

We do not want military courts! Period!

May Allah protect us from the zulm of these zalimuns. Ameen.

Words Fail Us

A mother loses a child in her womb.

A mother loses her baby in her lap.

A mother loses her toddler.

A mother loses her teenage son.

Have you seen those dead bodies, crying mothers, wailing fathers and shocked kids. Will they ever get over the trauma they are facing every day. My heart goes out there for everyone suffering from the far east to the middle… But the atrocities that human beings are capable of just leaves you dumbstruck… Out of words…