ATIF ABDUL RAHMAN (Shaikh Chronicles)

Getting a Driving License in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2008-09-14T23:01:00.003+02:00

Yes, you have just stepped into the Kingdom and one of the first thing you have already realized or will soon is life in the Kingdom is pretty stagnant without one's own private conveyence. This also holds to the Holy cities as well to an extent provided you are a local resident. Getting a car is not as difficult as getting a driving license. The traffic has increased in the recent years and a lot more cars are added on the roads thanks to a very poor public transport system in major cities like Riyadh. Getting a license has also become difficult due to the presense of many nutcases on the roads which will make you think of the term 'defying gravity' in a totally new way. For special considerations of this, do take time to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXpv_5yolTU

Anyways, to get a private license called Rukhsa Khaasa (for private cars etc) as compared to a public license called Rukhsa Aaamma, you must be a MALE to start off with. Once you possess the required gender, you can go to one of the four driving schools/offices to get a license. The two major ones are Dallah Driving School at Takhasussi Road and Sulayee Driving School. I was myself recommended to goto Dallah and it didnt disappoint me much, so ill reinforce the recommendation to goto Dallah for reasons like RELATIVELY better administration, RELATIVELY leneant examiners, and RELATIVELY closer to the city center.
If you are not aware of Arabic and the general route to getting information in Saudi Arabia, getting a license can be a bit frustrating. But here is a simple guide, hopefully to make your life easier, atleast in getting a license (welcome to the roads then, MUwahaha).

Get a taxi and tell them togot Dallah Driving License office. Once you get out of the taxi, a small mob will surround you asking you to do an atm transaction. Before you feel bemused with such personal assistance, keep in mind the following documents required:

1. Valid Saudi Iqama (for special types like business visas etc, sorry chap, i dont know much...)

2. Blood Report (Ask any medical center to get you a driving license blood report, they will need your iqama verification).

3. Filled Form. (form is in arabic and is available just outside the entrance).

4. Four passport size photographs with white background. (If you are not sure of their acceptance, dont worry, there is a photographer just outside the entrance).

5. A letter from your company allowing you to get a driving license. Huh? And this letter should be attested from the chamber of commerce called "Gurfah Tijaariyah" for around 25 Saudi Riyals

6. Finally a payment slip of SAR75 in the name of the Traffic department called "Maroor". This is easily done at any Riyadh Bank or Rajhi Bank ATM with an ATM card of the same bank. If you dont have an ATM card of these two banks, you dont need to worry much.

7. Valid driving license of another country. (optional)

OK, now you are out on the road again, facing the mob, you already know that you dont have a Riyadh or Rajhi ATM card with you, so you accompany with one of the Saudis from the mob to the nearest ATM and let him do your transaction using your Iqama. Make sure he doesnot take your iqama and fleeeeee. He will though charge you on a bargain of 15-20 Riyals for his service.

After the payment, goto the Translator office, right outside the entrance and ask him for the form. He will fill it up for you as well for SAR 5. He will also translate your driving license of your originating country and prepare a file for you. He will also make sure your docs are in place. He will take something around SAR20 for all these horrid services.

Ok, you finally have the file ready, make your grand entrance inside the Dallah License Office cum Driving School and as you enter, goto building 2 on the left of the entrance. Once you enter, there will be a counter on your left, a booth on your left, two counters on your right and an exit on your front.

Goto the counter on the left for an eye test, the officer sitting will simply see whether you have eyes or not using his own eyes and will stamp your file papers.

Then goto the counters on the right. Out of these two counters now, first goto the counter on the right, he will simply put a stamp without doing anything. After that, go out of the exit (not the one you came in from) . you will find yourself in the middle of a driving test area where newbies and license aspirants are demonstrating their skills to an examiner. There will be seating arrangement afront, just go there and wait till the examiner brings the car infront of you, hand him your file and wait for him to call you for a spin.

This is test number 1:

You simply have to start moving the car and make a turn on the right, then stop, then reverse back into an L shaped lane. Simple. If he puts a tick on top of your form in the file, you may proceed, if not, taxis are a way of life.Once you get the very special TICK, go back to building 2, and goto the second counter you visited, where he will again put a stamp on your file. Now goto the counter next to this one, that is the left of these of the two counters. He will take your file and SAR100 and give you a reciept called Fatoora. Take this and come out from building 2 from the entrance you came in the first place. On your left will be building 5, called something like Immediate Training or crash course. Before the entrance to building 5, there is an open entrance inside the building where there are some seating arrangements, you can wait there if building 5 is closed. An instructor will then invite you into building 5 where he will hand you a chart of traffic signals and signs in your desired language. Some of the langauges they have include English, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Philiphino and Arabic. You will be confined in the training room for an hour or so. Take this time as na opportunity to learn all the signs, especially the ones the instructor specifically mentions because they always appear in the test.

This is test number 2:

There will be 20 multiple choice questions, in 2 sections of 10 questions each. You have to correctly answer ALL questions from the first section, yes 10/10 to proceed. In the second section, out of ten, as soon as you correctly answer 5 of them, you are cleared. This takes place at a touch screen terminal. The intrsuctor will guide you to the place where you can find these terminals. Once you enter the building, just wait for your call as they already have your file with them. You will immediately know the result of your test. If you fail, you have to reappear after a week and the license office might subject you to attend a one week course on driving, so make sure you utilize your one hour with the instructor well.

Once you clear this, just go outside this small office and wait at the fan booth for a police officer to call you.

This is test number 3:

Get in his car, ideally on the right back seat. Each ride will test four applicants, if you want to tbe last one (so taht you can see the feedback of the examiner on others), get yourself seated on the right back.

After that your test will be finished and you have to come again into the small office you gave your traffic signals test. There will be two counters there, one of them will call your name and will hand you your file back with a report sheet on the front. This is the lifeline of your license. If they tell you to proceed, you are cleared, if not, they will ask you to reappear next week or whenever they deem necessary and it might include some training classes to be attended with an additinonf SAR430. Make sure you learn some basic arabic, especially directions like Yameen (right) and Yasaar (left), Qaff (stop), Yalla (hurry up) etc. as this examiner might not speak anything but Arabic. Whatever you do, dont be INTIMIDATED by his personality. Afterall, he is a cop....

Hopefully you'll get the green lights in your report, head out of the entrance of the license office and right opposite the entrace is building 1. As soon as you enter, goto the first left booth, i think it is number 15, but cant be sure. He will write a number on your file. Once you get the number, goto a desk on the right of the entrance and make sure all your papers are punched inside the file, especacially the recent test result sheet. Then goto your designated counter and wait for your turn.

Hand in all the documents, photographs and payslip of SAR75 to the officer on desk. If things go well, he will ask you to wait, and thats about it. You wait till someone calls your name to hand you your Saudi driving license!

Make sure you dont consider this as an official guide and this is just my personal experience. By the time you apply, the requirements and procedures might have changed.
best of luck!

Long Walk to Justice

2008-06-09T22:20:00.001+02:00

Comes the hour after a long silence of a nation, a silence not so easy ot maintain amidst social and economic starvation of the masses, amidst contradictions and paradoxes prevailing since the February elections. At that juncture, there was hope and a refreshing vibe of change, symbolized by the denial of a judge who found his awakening a year ago. Justice was done when the elections wiped the culprits off the government. The new coalition government has a lot of support and people under all the stress it withstood, granted patience to let the new coalition stand on solid footings. Three months passed by and now several revelations of disappointment is obviously apparent to every sane soul especially the masses.

The good news is that in this mob of politics and politicians, milk is separated from water, and now the confusing mists are over. A clear picture is ahead, one man, in one political party, has taken hostage this entire country. The significant coalition partner although not the most impressive in terms of actions, have done the rightful in their limited capacities and it is time to break the silence.

There was an apartheid which brought a revolution in South Africa, although we lack the Mandela in our leadership but likely figures do exists and a formidable civil society block along with the lawyers man force and now a newly mobilizing ex-servicemen community join the APDM members on 10th June to force the politicians to respect their mandate.

This long awaited march has far greater repercussions for PPP as even though the march claims apolity, will still bring PPP with a sour taste for much worse things to come. A formal motion against the PPP mismanagement and lack of spine will be launched with this, a true opposition in action will take place which won't be good for PPP to sustain five years of mere talk. Add to that around a hundred PPP workers desiring to participate in the walk indicates the lack of confidence in any top level PPP policy.

The old general has also spoken, on a very pinching time during the PPP' leadership's visit to the Kingdom. With a public gesture to openly challenge AZ to impeach him using the instrument of the parliament is a final pre-walk charge that will make this walk much anticipate and very effective. Already AZ has started to give public gestures of impeachment, if even it remains mere talks, they too took some spanking before coming.

These are all positive signs for those who believe that the country's revival is dependent on its justice system and policing to actually work. Where the definition of right and wrong as per our constitution is applied to the rich and not just the poor, the first step is to bring the judges back who stood against continuing fraud.

Let them know we are coming, MARCH FOR JUSTICE!

Parallel Universes of Human Diet

2008-06-08T11:12:00.008+02:00

I have been so much intrigued by this photo essay by TIME magazine, I couldnt help but repost it...

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City - 2 adults, 2 teenagers

Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Great Britain: The Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis

Food expenditure for one week: 155.54 British Pounds or $253.15

Kuwait: The Al Haggan family of Kuwait City
Food expenditure for one week: 63.63 dinar or $221.45

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

United States: The Caven family of California
Food expenditure for one week: $159.18

China: The Dong family of Beijing
Food expenditure for one week: 1,233.76 Yuan or $155.06

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna - 4 adults, 1 teenager
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo - 7 adults, 5 kids
Food expendit ure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Mongolia: The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar
Food expenditure for one week: 41,985.85 togrogs or $40.02

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo - 4 adults, 5 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village - 7 adults, 6 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp - 3 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

The Book Bank

2008-04-26T21:02:00.005+02:00

I love books! Not because they are hard covered or paperbacks but because the quality of discourse these bounded prints provide which include opinionated, context-oriented or summarized collections serve my hunger for an unexplainable desire. I have always made an inert distinction among people who read books and who don't and it isn't much difficult to split the two. However, there are many people who have the desire to venture over the territory of ideas but can't either because of a lack of public libraries, or lack of money or lack of an environment where book readers are cherished. From the afsaanas of ibn-e-safi to the passionate semi-historical accounts of ibn-e-insha, to the philosophical discourse of bano qudsia-ishfaq ahmed couple, to the romanticized religious self-discoveries by umera ahmed, to the political insight like those of the politicians, the faujis, the x-faujis, the analysts etc, the religious books which made this quote real that the Quran was revealed to the Arabs, recited by the Egyptians and understood by us Pakistanis and Indians, a vast amount of readership is unaware of even their existence.

Inspired recently by an article in the news and a followup blog by Dr. Adil Najam, I am proposing my little idea to solve some of the challenges mentioned to some extent. take it or throw it, but i'd love it if you grow it. lets have this combined brainstorming on how to setup a public library by people's funding, a rather book bank based on accounts where investments is not just in terms of money but also in terms of books lent to the bank. The more books you lent (probably out of your private libraries) to the central pool, the more privileges you can get, like for instance the ability to borrow more books at time, or maybe even home delivery.

The funds can be managed by advertising on the back of the front covers of each book. Imagine mehran masaala advertisement in a book Cooking for Dummies, or an advertisement of Askari Bank behind In the Line of Fire, for instance. Or Techlogix behind Data Warehousing, or Arif Habib Investments behind a book on Portfolio Management.

Books can be increased by merging many university libraries. I have seen most private university libraries in Karachi and they are mostly substandard, exceptions are there. Having a combined library where each university buys a corporate account membership for its students can help the universities in getting rid of maintaining their library and its staff while providing students a much wider array of books. Ofcourse, such a library can be distributed in which case universities can borrow books from one another.

Many companies would also be interested in forming such a joint library for its employees as most companies in Pakistan are in the need of libraries especially in the technology sector but can't afford to have one.

Ironically all this fuzz and I am assuming there will be a huge crowd rush to join in the bandwagon but it probably won't be so. So for crowd pulling, special incentives for schools...

Allowing space for book readers clubs to meet and socialize.....

more to come but first lets hear your say....

Achieving your childhood dreams

2008-03-13T13:39:00.003+01:00

Today I received an email from a friend reminding me of a t-shirt I had which said "Failure is a postponed victory!". Many elders ridiculed me and my shirt during college days back but over the years the motto seemed true-er than ever. The email my friend posted goes:

"To succeed in business or life we must continually take remedial actions. Putting yourself on the line day after day can be extremely draining, especially when things do not work out as desired. Hence, each time a disappointing event happens, I like to get reminded of these famous failures:

Bill Gates founder and chairman of Microsoft, has literally changed the work culture of the world in the 21st century, by simplifying the way computer is being used. He was the world's richest man for more than one decade. However, in the 1970's before starting out, he was a Harvard University dropout. The most ironic part is that, he started a software company (that was soon to become Microsoft) by purchasing the software technology from "someone" for only $US50 back then.

Abraham Lincoln received no more than 5 years of formal education throughout his lifetime. When he grew up, he joined politics and had 12 major failures before he was elected the 16th President of the United States of America.

Isaac Newton was the greatest English mathematician of his generation. His work on optics and gravitation made him one of the greatest scientists the world has even known. Many thought that Isaac was born a genius, but he wasn't! When he was young, he did very poorly in grade school, so poor that his teachers became clueless in improving his grades.

Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer of classical music, is widely regarded as one of history's supreme composers. His reputation has inspired – and in many cases intimidated – composers, musicians and audiences who were to come after him. Before the start of his career, Beethoven's music teacher once said of him "as a composer, he is hopeless". And during his career, he lost his hearing yet he managed to produce great music – a deaf man composing music, ironic isn't!

Thomas Edison who developed many devices that greatly influenced life in the 20th century. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S patents to his name. When he was a boy his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. When he set out on his own, he tried more than 9,000 experiments before he created the first successful light bulb.

The Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original five-and-ten- cent stores. The first Woolworth's store was founded in 1878 by Frank Winfield Woolworth and soon grew to become one of the largest retail chains in the world in the 20th century. Before starting his own business, Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21. But his employer would not let him serve any customer because he concluded that Frank "didn't have enough common sense to serve the customers".

By acclamation, Michael Jordon is the greatest basketball player of all time. A phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of grace, speed, power, artistry, improvisational ability and an unquenchable competitive desire. Jordan single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar. Before joining NBA, Jordan was just an ordinary person, so ordinary that was he was removed from the high school basketball team because of his "lack of skill".

Walter Disney was American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor and animator. One of the most well-known motion picture producers in the world, Disney founded a production company. The corporation, now known as The Walt Disney Company, makes average revenue of US $30 billion annually. Disney started his own business from his home garage and his very first cartoon production went bankrupt. During his first press conference, a newspaper editor ridiculed Walt Disney because he had no good ideas in film production.

Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade. However, that never stopped him to work harder! He strived and eventually became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most important leaders in Britain and world history. In a poll conducted by the BBC in 2002 to identify the "100 Greatest Britons", participants voted Churchill as the most important of all.

Steven Spielberg is an American film director. He has won 3 Academy Awards and ranks among the most successful filmmakers in history. Most of all, Steven was recognized as the financially most successful motion picture director of all time. During his childhood, Spielberg dropped out of junior high school. He was persuaded to come back and was placed in a learning-disabled class. He only lasted a month and then dropped out of school forever.

Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 and "for his services to Theoretical Physics". However, when Einstein was young, his parents thought he was mentally retarded. His grades in school were so poor that a teacher asked him to quit, saying, "Einstein, you will never amount to anything!"

In 1947, one year into her contract, Marilyn Monroe was dropped by 20th Century-Fox because her producer thought she was unattractive and could not act. That didn't deter her at all! She kept on going and eventually she was recognized by the public as the 20th century's most famous movie star, sex symbol and pop icon.

John Grisham's first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishing houses. He went on writing and writing until he became best known as a novelist and author for his works of modern legal drama. The media has coined him as one of the best novel authors even alive in the 21st century.

Henry Ford's first two automobile companies failed. That did not stop him from incorporating Ford Motor Company and being the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the production of affordable automobiles in the world. He not only revolutionized industrial production in the United States and Europe, but also had such influence over the 20th century economy and society. His combination of mass production, high wages and low prices to consumers has initiated a management school known as "Fordism". He became one of the three most famous and richest men in the world during his time.

Soichiro Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation during a job interview as "engineer" after World War Two. He continued to be jobless until his neighbours starting buying his "home-made scooters". Subsequently, he set out on his own to start his own company. Honda. Today, the Company has grown to become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer and one of the most profitable automakers - beating giant automaker such as GM and Chrysler. With a global network of 437 subsidiaries, Honda develops, manufactures and markets a wide variety of products ranging from small general-purpose engines and scooters to specialty sports cars.

Akio Morita, founder of giant electric household products, Sony Corporation, first product was an electric rice cooker, only sold 100 cookers (because it burned rice rather than cooking). Today, Sony generates US$66 billion in revenue and ranked as the world's 6th largest electronic and electrical company."

Sadly, it doesnot cover Steve Jobs or Abdus Sattar Edhi, both of whom started with improbable circumstances to survive, Jobs a dropout, Edhi a poor man's lad. But they have moved the worlds they represent by persisting. Check out this famous graduation speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford a few years ago:

Abdus Sattar Edhi , on the other hand, doesnot create technology but porvides the largest private ambulance service in the world, and astrong contender of the Noble Peace prize atleast. His NGO has served millions numerous times. And if one would have forecasted his career when he was selling toothpicks as a street hawker as a kid to earn his own bread, no one wuold have come close.

I have been recently moved by a dying person, dying from this world but not from life. Professor Randy Pausch at the Carnegie Mellon University, inventor of the Alice Project and many more interesting projects all which he says have been a realisation of his dream. A computer scientist who wanted to become and astronaut fufilled his wish by working on NASA projects albeit as a computer scientist. A researcher who wanted to becmoe an artist, finally made it to Disney World creating Virtual worlds for them. According to him, life is about living your dreams even when they dont appear to be achievable.

This video has been famed as the the Last Lecture of Randy Pausch, but one that has a long lasting effect:

FYI - Siege of Makkah - Final Part (10)

2008-03-06T22:03:00.003+01:00

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Here is part 10, the last part:

Siege of Makkah - Part X

Many parts of the Masjid were completely destroyed by the end of the siege. The militants were paraded in front of the TV cameras and reporters were invited to the Sacred Masjid to show the world that, at last, the Masjid was free. Though the official death tolls were much lower, eye witnesses and other unofficial sources claim that nearly a thousand lost their lives, many of them innocent pilgrims. Of those who were captured alive, 67 men were put to death by beheading, including Juhayman. Those condemned to death were sent to all major cities of the Kingdom to send a message to the citizens that such insurgency will not be tolerated. The heads of the dead were displayed outside the Masajid in every major city for days to come. Others, those under 16, were imprisoned for ten to twenty years. One, Mahrous bin Laden, was spared his life and is a member of the board of directors of the Bin Laden family business today. Another, an African American Muslim, was quietly sent back to the U.S. in a shroud of secrecy because the U.S. was worried about the perception of U.S. involvement in the affair. (Imam Siraj Wahaj, a student in Makkah at the time and one of those present in the Masjid at the time of the siege, has been occasionally mentioned as the person in question, though these are nothing more than rumours and the Imam recently denied any involvement in an interview with Trofimov.)

Juhayman remained unrepentant of what he had done till the very end, though in talking to one of the scholars of Makkah, he did say that he wouldn't have done what he did had he known it would end the way it ended. He did claim a moral victory, for much of what he demanded was done soon after his death. The scholars had asked for many reforms in return for the fatwa and the government hastily put them in place. A nationwide ban was put on employing women in private offices (with the exception of health care and primary education), a ban that remained for the next two decades. Post-secondary education became more difficult for women. Women were specifically prohibited from driving. Saudi women were removed from TV (though curiously, Egyptian and Syrian women were left). Every newspaper and magazine was required to be censored to hide hair, legs or arm of women in any pictures. Most importantly, the infamous Mutawwas were introduced to the streets of Saudi Arabia to promote virtue and forbid vice.

I will not go into whether these reforms were good or bad since that is not my call to make. However, it is interesting to note that many of these reforms were slowly phased out over the next 25 years and others are being phased out now. It is perhaps no surprise then that the grievences of Bin Laden against the Saudi government, much before Bin Laden became a household name in the West, were not different from what Juhayman gave his life for. Osama bin Laden was then 20-years old and his future interviews indicate he was deeply influenced by Juhayman's sacrifice and his cause. He was also greatly disturbed by how the Saudi government handled the whole affair. Zawahiri too was greatly influenced by Juhayman. A student himself, he had personally distributed many copies of Juhayman's Seven Letters and was enraged at the worldwide condemnation of Juhayman's cause. Two decades later, Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri would come together to form a partnership that we are all too familiar with today.

The timing of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan couldn't have helped the Saudis more. Coming at time when Juhayman had widespread sympathy in the kingdom, many of his followers left Saudi Arabia to fight the godless communists instead. The root cause, the hard line understanding of Islam, was not tackled and continued to spread unchecked. And while the Muslim Ummah could have learnt many lessons from the debacle, it largely failed to do so. A bit of introspection would have helped us greatly, but Saudi played the incident down as a minor domestic incident and the rest of the Ummah accepted that all is well and moved on to more immediate problems. Prince Turki Al-Faisal and others from the royal family openly wondered after 9/11 if the government was too kind to the scholars at the time and is indirectly responsible for the spread of extreme ideas.

The result?

Muslims are still blaming Israel and the U.S. for all their problems.

Muslims are still unable to accept that something within us might need changing.

Muslims are still prone to finding themselves between extremism and laxity.

With a serious lack of qualified scholarship in the Ummah, the stage has been left wide open for orators to pose as scholars and sway the minds of the Muslim youth. The youth are looking for quick fixes and have forgotten that Islam is the balance between extremism and laxity, as said by Hasan Al-Basri. Many have picked up one aspect of Islam and try to run with it, leading to extremism, even when Allah has commanded that we enter into Islam completely. Many do not seem to realize that the wholesome approach to Islam means simultaneous pursuit of many things, a coordinated effort to advance at many fronts. Very few today realize that Islam includes da'wah, pursuit of knowledge, call towards the Sunnah, purification of the self, political activism, physical training, promotion of art and culture, promotion of commerce and establishment of social welfare initiatives. This comprehensive Islam is what we find in the life of Muhammad SAW, not the piecemeal approach that many have taken up today.

To enter into Islam completely is to not ignore any of the aspects of Islam as a community. To enter into Islam completely is to strike a balance between all these aspects and to prioritize them based on our circumstances. And to strike that balance, we need people who understand the objectives of Shariah and the Quran and Sunnah in its whole as scholars of the Ummah. Because to follow the sources literally without understanding the objectives leads to extremism. And to follow the objectives without a wholesome understanding of the sources leads to laxity. And both are not from Islam.

May Allah SWT lead us to the way that He is pleased with, and save us from the way of those who He punished. May Allah SWT make us from the people of the right hand side, and make us of those who will be under His Shade on the Day when there will be no shade but His. Ameen.

I have tried my best to relate the events as I know them; however, mistakes were undoubtedly made for which I seek your pardon. And verily, Allah is best of those who know.

Siege of Makkah Part 9

2008-02-29T19:40:00.003+01:00

Siege of Makkah - Part 8

2008-02-26T13:47:00.001+01:00

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Here is part 8:

The Saudis brought in APCs--Armoured Personnel Carriers--to take out the militants as soon as the fatwa from the scholars was obtained. The ensued is detailed in Trofimov's book. I would limit myself to pointing out only a couple interesting details.

The minarets were secured through anti-tank missiles that were used to take out the militant nests on top. The sturdy structures remained otherwise undamaged. Without the militants firing from the minarets, the Saudi army enter the Masjid from Bab Salam with a few soldiers hiding behind each APC. Shielded from the militant fire, the Saudi army was able to inflict what were perhaps the first few casualties on Juhayman's band. Among the militants were some African Americans who had joined Juhayman. They were mostly former Black Panthers with an above average knowledge of violence and makeshift weapons. It was on their suggestion that some of the militants went and emptied out gasoline from vehicles parked in the basement of the Masjid. (These were the vehicles used by Juhayman and his followers to smuggle in food supplies and some of the weapons.) They then filled water bottles taken from pilgrims with gasoline, stuffed the bottle-top with a piece of cloth, showed it fire and threw them at the advancing Saudis from across the Safa-Marwa gallery. The 'grenades' worked well enough, and Saudis started running away. The 'grenades' weren't enough, however, to deter the advancing APCs.

Someone suggested that to stop the APCs, the 'grenade' would have to be dropped in the APC from the cupola. The task was near impossible though with APCs and remaining Saudis firing at anything that moved. This was when something extraordinary happened--something that only worked to strengthen the belief of Juhayman's band in their mission.

Muhammad al-Qahtani, who was in the Safa-Marwa gallery, stood up and said he will do the impossible. He was the Mahdi after all, and the Mahdi cannot die in these initial stages. He has to live to fight dajjal alongside Isa AS. With that, Muhammad al-Qahtani took two bottles of gasoline in hand, and ran across the Safa-Marwa gallery. Zig-zagging while being fired upon by many machine guns, he reached the first APC safely, climbed on it, killed the soldiers hiding behind the APC, opened the cupola, dropped in his grenade and ran to the next APC. The insides of both APCs exploded, with the occupants burning to their deaths. Muhammad al-Qahtani came back safely and other APCs started retreating, running over the poor soldiers that were hiding behind them. There was no room left for doubting the Mahdiship of Muhammad al-Qahtani among his followers.

The Saudis came back with vengeance and better planning the next day, though the carbonized APCs in the door way meant other APCs couldn't go in. Soon, Muhammad al-Qahtani and his few remaining companions were cornered, shielded by the rocks of Safa. After a while, the Saudis advanced further and decided on a different strategy.

They threw in grenades towards the militants. Muhammad al-Qahtani, once again believing in his immortality, did what is considered impossible. A 25-year old youth in good physical shape, he jumped, picked up the grenade, and threw it back at the Saudis. He proceeded to do that at least a dozen time in the next few minutes. But his luck finally ran out. As he reached another grenade to throw it back at the Saudis, it exploded, and along with it vanished the legs and the right arm of Muhammad al-Qahtani. When the Saudis identified the body four days later, a pathologist report indicated that he had only died a day ago. Some claimed seeing the unfortunate man crawling with the help of his remaining elbow and screaming for help.

It was reported in the local newspapers at the time that the mother of Muhammad al-Qahtani was arrested and brought to King Khalid in the early days of the siege. The monarch asked her if there was any way that Muhammad al-Qahtani can be stopped from what he is doing. The old lady calmly replied, if he is al-Mahdi, he will kill you no matter what you do to stop him. And if he is not al-Mahdi, you will kill him and for that you don't need me.

Seeing the Mahdi blowing up like that shook the belief of a few followers who saw what happened. However, they did not have any options left. The fatwa clearly said that anyone who surrenders will be spared and it was announced by the Saudis before the assault began. But a few who tried to surrender in the darkness of Safa-Marwa valley, where both sides let their machine guns loose on anything that moved, were killed within seconds of getting out of their hiding spots.

Only one militant was able to escape from that hiding spot in the Safa-Marwa gallery. Faisal Muhammad Faisal was always a hesitant follower, and now he had no doubt left that this mission was wrong. He found a way to Juhayman, who was busy securing the Qaboo--the basement area of the Sacred Masjid. Faisal Muhammad Faisal went straight Juhayman and informed him of the Mahdi's death. Juhayman knew that his game was over, that he was wrong in doing everything he had done. But he couldn't give up after coming this far. So he hid the news of al-Qahtani's death, and ordered a retreat to the basement, where hundreds of pilgrims were kept hostage. Faisal Muhammad Faisal turned in his gun and went in one of rooms where the pilgrims were kept hostage. He spent his remaining days crying over what he had done, asking for Allah's forgiveness. It was he who disclosed to the world many of the details of Juhayman's plan and the battle in the Safa-Marwa gallery. Faisal Muhammad Faisal was beheaded for his role in the affair--may Allah accept his repentance.

With the top floor of the Masjid secure, the Saudis started assessing the damage. The Safa-Marwa gallery was full of blood and body parts. The wall between the gallery and the Masjid was no longer there. Beyond that, there were pockets of resistance that were easily dealt with. The longest battle was put up by two young Egyptians who had hid behind the Hateem. They survived from as long as they did because of the Saudi's reluctance in shooting towards the Ka'baa.

The Saudis announced victory, though there were over a hundred and fifty militants still hiding in the basement, with King Khaled posing next to Hijr al-Aswad in a picture distributed to the media. With the militants coming out of the basement every so often to fire on the Saudi army before retreating back, the Masjid was not safe for the worshippers. With the massive damage and evidence of hundreds of deaths, the Masjid was not suitable for the media yet. After all, the Saudis still maintained that the incident was minor. The battle was to go on for many more days and the Saudis struggled to find a way into the vast Qaboo.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Love under Occupation - An Arab Woman's Blues

2008-02-24T21:39:00.003+01:00

An Arab Woman Blues is a blog worth following if you like to see the life in Iraq from this individual's eyes which pretty much resmebles the directorial touch portrayed in the War of the Worlds which focused on the protagonist when the world is attacked by aliens. She has published a very influential post at her blog here.

I am merely reposting it here:

I heard Mahmoud Darwish is in town. M.Darwish, one of the best contemporary Arab poets. A Palestinian who has been in exile for so long...surely he knows all about aesthetics -- the sublime, the ugly, the comic and the beautiful...surely he knows all about occupation, misery, loss, longings and tragedies...

I cancelled whatever appointments I had this evening and rushed to hear him recite his latest. By the time I arrived to the old hall, it was so packed they would not let anyone in, anymore. Over 500 people were already in there...

I tried squeezing in, and felt my dissapointment rising as I realized it was impossible for me to see or hear M.Darwish in person.

I looked at the crowd, mainly young adults, in their late 20's, and a few from the older generation...That gave me a slight surge of hope. If Arabs can still appreciate poetic words streaming from one occupation, then maybe all is not lost.

Or, maybe words are the only thing left...

Words to compose poetry, words to convey the tragedies, words to subtitle the pain...

Unsure of the crowd's intent, I just bought his latest prose and walked out.

I did not get to hear M.Darwish. He wrote hundreds of poems. But since when do poets change realities ?

They are just transmitters of truths, ordinary truths that ordinary people can't express in aesthetic forms. So they read or listen to poetry instead. Giving themselves a temporary feeling of "we're in it together" -- finally united by words.

I was sort of relieved to be out in the fresh air. The staleness of waiting for a possible seat, place, grew denser - mingled with the odor of expectant bodies, thirsty for words. All this was making me dizzy...

A trap, I felt to myself. Another trap of raising hopes and be let down, once more...

As I breathed in the crisp cold air, I felt a presence a few steps behind me.

"It's a pity we were not given a chance to hear his sublime poetry"

"Yes it was" I replied abruptly and continued walking...

"You must be an Iraqi" he said

I stopped, looked at him and saw a very thin man, with deep lines creasing his hollow face.

"Yes,I am an Iraqi. How did you guess?"

"I detected a very faint accent when I heard you talk to one of the ushers. I am an Iraqi too."

"Yes, I can tell, from your accent of course."

"I am a poet as well. Had to escape Baghdad."

"So do you write poetry on Escapism ?"

He laughs.

" No, I write poetry on Love"

"Love? Is there Love under Occupation?"

He looks at me, pauses for few minutes and says

"I write about where to find Love under Occupation"

"I thought so too" I replied. Saluted him and walked away...

So what do you do if you are in my place ?

What do you do with the torrents of words that I hear daily from seekers of Love under Occupation?

What do you do with sentences like -- "How will I survive?", "I have no future",
"I can get over the grief", "The memories follow me everywhere", "I am lost",
"We are in a tunnel","I have no hope"," This will never end ","We have been abandoned","No one wants us","We have been forgotten","We don't count anymore",
"We have no more country","My home has been destroyed","I am ill and can't work and have no money","They killed my son, husband, wife, daughter, parents...",
"They raped me. I will never be the same again","I've been tortured and no one understands and I don't even understand myself","We are worthless in their eyes..."

And I can go on and on...

What do you do with these words? How do you turn them around ? What do you say to them ?

What do you do with the pain that accompanies these sentences ?

What poetry would you write?

More words handed out as props, as crutches for the crippled and you say "be patient, endure more, persevere, things will change, God is generous..."

And you and I know these words are empty, they have lost meaning a long time ago. They have become like some worn out, tattered cloth whose colors have faded away from being exposed for too long, in a scorching sun...

And where do you find Beauty and Love ? In which experience? In which setting? In which memory? When all previous memories have been erased leaving nothing but a void, to fill with more worn out, tattered cloths...

What do you do with the ugliness that remains stuck to you, like some second skin, deforming your vision, perverting your perceptions, settling in your mind, like some unwanted visitor who refuses to leave. Colonizing your being.

What do you do with the Ugliness ?

What do you do with the Ugliness you've witnessed, seen, felt, heard ?

What do you do with the Ugliness of what you thought to be a human face unmasking itself only to reveal the most hideous traits ?

What do you do with the Ugliness of mass genocide, cruelty, hypocrisy, indifference, abandonment, poverty, survival...?

I keep asking myself these questions, and the questions that naturally follow -- Will we ever heal from all of that ?

And where do you find Beauty ? Except in tarnished souvenirs maybe - turning us into a people that keep digging in a past, since a future is so out of reach.

And what do you do with the Present? How do you accomodate it? Or more aptly how does it accomodate you, from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute...?

Will you keep trying to squeeze in as I tried doing in that old poetry hall or will you simply give up and walk out into the unknown? And if you opt for the latter, where will you go ?

This is no defeatism. This is Reality. A Reality you know nothing of.

A parallel reality that can drive anyone absolutely insane. A form of schizophrenia as this reality has become our bubble. A bubble that no one addresses or even looks at.

And where do you find Love in a bubble ? A survival bubble.
You attach yourself to a bubble ? Or maybe you attach yourself to people living with you in a bubble ? In a mental, physical, emotional ghetto, where Space keeps shrinking and becomes a point.

And you stand in that point and that point becomes your vital space, and all you're concerned about is to be able to keep standing on your feet, in that precise point.

A desperate point. And where does one find Love in a bubble tainted with despair?

A myopic, ignorant, Westerner wrote to me and said:

"How do I hook a worn out, patriotic old rag? How do I reel in an unwanted, rusted Iraqi tin can? More to the point, how do I manage carnal knowledge of its contents? How can you say you are unwanted? How can you think you have no future?"

Why can't people conceive of the personal and the collective as one ? A common destiny, that we carry inside of us, like some collective gene pool.

This is not about me, this is about us.

And us, as we stand today, have no future. We have been robbed of a vision of a future. That is fact.

And if someone can still come up with so much ignorant "philosophical" crap -- then they have understood nothing at all about occupation, mass genocide, torture, rape... loss of reference, loss of trust, loss of meaning...loss of Life in a philosophical sense, since you are all so bent on philosophy.

They have not confronted that deep existential abyss of occupation with no end in sight. A hideous occupation with all of its facets and consequences...

But then I can offer nothing but words...even these slide away into a pool of cold detachment, or bump against a brick wall made of "humans."

So again, I ask you, where does one find Love, when one's personal and collective experiences are brushed off with so much flippancy ? Is that not, yet another form of despair that we have to confront daily ?

There is only one way out - Fury.

A collective fury that will set ablaze all your notions, all your philosophies, all your analysis, theories and concepts...

A gigantic fury, like some wild fire that will burn and wash away the tragic ugliness, hatred, indifference that have flooded us through your Presence.

Yes, that is the only way out from the aesthetics of your multi-layered Occupation -the Aesthetics of a sublime Fury.

Siege of Makkah - Part 7

2008-02-23T13:24:00.004+01:00

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Here is part 7:

As the situation of the Ummah deteriorates, we have developed an alarming tendency to blame all our misfortunes on the Americans and the Zionists. We, many Muslims believe, can do no wrong. Everything is a conspiracy. And the response to every misfortune is rallies against America and Israel all over the Muslim world.

If our rulers are corrupt, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

If a military dictator takes over our country, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

If a politician or a dictator is killed, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

If Iraq attacks Kuwait, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

If planes fly into buildings, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

If a newspaper somewhere publishes offending cartoon, it must be an American-Zionist plan.

We get out of our homes to shout slogans, close down shops--striking against America, and hurt no one but our own economy. Something similar happened in November 1979. Protests were held in front of every American embassy in the Muslim world. Caucasians were beaten up by mobs in every Muslim country. And in Hyderabad, India, where the Muslim mobs could find no American embassy for protest and no Caucasians to beat up, they turned on Hindus and burnt down dozens of their shops.

Ever ready to blame the other, have we ever looked within ourselves? Have we ever thought that may be, just may be, the cause of all our misfortunes is us? The siege of Makkah by Muslim militants highlighted the need to look within for problems, but the Ummah, once again failed to learn its lesson. That lesson needs to be learnt, sooner rather than later. And that was my sole intention for writing this series.

The recovery of Ka'baa was an important issue and everyone wanted the credit for doing so. Prince Abdullah's National Guard, Prince Nayef's special security commandos, and Prince Saudi Army were combined to come up with an attack team of willing soldiers. The problem was, the three units had never trained together and didn't even have compatible radios. The first hodgepodge joint force to attack and recover the Sacred Masjid started its mission in the early hours of November 22. The joint force picked Bab Salam in the Safa-Marwa gallery ( http://www.randomho use.com/doubleda y/siegeofmecca/ mapOfTheMosque. php) to make their way into the Masjid.

Here they met another unexpected hurdle. They had expected to be fired upon from the minarets as they made their way to the gate, and made adequate arrangements to shield themselves from the militant snipers. They had also expected that the gate would be locked and would need to be opened somehow. They didn't expect that opening door would be as much trouble. As it turned out, the gates were very well built. And they were under orders, given the lack of fatwa, to make sure they do not damage the Masjid in any way. As the task force stood by the door, trying to find a way to open it, the militants opened the second floor windows, turned their machine guns to the ground, and killed the entire task force in a matter of seconds.

Near fajr time, a plan was devised to open the gate using TNT. Colonel Homaid, leading the troops this time, suggested to Prince Nayef that they should wait until the nightfall to attack again. Prince Nayef was infuriated, called Colonel Homaid a coward, and declared that the loss of life should be of no concern. This was, after all, a noble mission and any soldier killed would a martyr going straight to the promise paradise. The poor Colonel had no choice but to comply with a prince eager to send his men to paradise.

Bab Salam was chosen once again to be detonated. The sun was out by that time, and inside the Masjid, the Safa-Marwa gallery was in near darkness since the militants had cut all electricity. The Saudi military outside was in full view of the militants inside. Muhammad al-Qahtani himself, armed with two machine guns, had decided to greet the Saudi army. He was hiding in the Safa-Marwa gallery along with some fifty other militants. Once the Saudi army entered the building, the militants opened fire, killing every single one of them on the spot. Colonel Homaid, understanding the suicidal nature of this mission, had decided to lead from the front and was the first one to lose his life.

Outside, Saudi information minister went on Saudi radio and TV and announced that by the grace of Allah, the Masjid had been recovered and the "minor incident" was resolved. The Muslims rejoiced. Heads of States from all over the world sent congratulatory messages to King Khalid. And the newspapers all over the world had front page headlines praising the quick recovery of the Masjid. But Saudis weren't going to fool too many people for too long. Barely 24 hours later, Muslims around the Middle East turned on their TVs to see the Juma' Khutbah from the Sacred Masjid. There was none. The Saudi government had lied to the world, and not for the last time. During the next two weeks, various princes and ministers would claim victory another six times. Each, except the last of these, were white lies.

On that Friday, sermons in Masjids around the world condemned Juhayman and his band. Khateebs all over the world declared that Juhayman and his band deserve the wrath of God for what they have done. The 29 top scholars of Saudi Arabia, however, were still discussing their response.

They had decided to play hardball with the Saudi government. They shared many of Juhayman's grievances against the regime, though they did not approve of Juhayman's means. The ulema would only give the fatwa if, and only if, the government agreed to introduce certain "reforms" in the Kingdom. The government kept its side of the deal, and in the days after the siege many reforms did take place. Women were forbidden from working and appearing on TV. The newspapers were required to obliterate the face of women in any published pictures. Alcohol in Western compounds was outlawed. And most importantly, the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice was established. The 'Mutawwas' of this committee became infamous in the next two decades as loose cannons. As children growing up in Saudi Arabia, we never feared anything or anyone as much as a mutawwa in a GMC at the time of Adzaan.

The 29 ulema did come out with the fatwa later that Friday. They had decided fairly quickly that Muhammad al-Qahtani cannot be al-Mahdi since the hadith of al-Mahdi mentions an army of 70,000 Jews originating from Isfahan in Iran. The Iran after the revolution did not have any Jews, let alone 70,000 in Isfahan. They were also able to find verse 191 of the second Surah of the Qur'an in no time. The point of contention that delayed the fatwa for three days was the last part of the verse which states, "but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of the unbelievers." Could they declare Juhayman and his band unbelievers?

The fatwa that eventually came out, according to Arab News, roughly had the following wording.

The armed group should first be asked to surrender and lay down their arms. Should they agree, they must be imprisoned until their case in considered in accordance with the Islamic Shariah. But if they resist, all measure could be taken to arrest them, even if it led to a fight and killing of those who were not arrested and had not surrendered.

And then after quoting the above verse, the fatwa stated that although this verse has been revealed in connection with the unbelievers, its connotations include those who act like unbelievers and fighting them is therefore permissible.

Over the next few days, the Saudi army would try many more times to enter the Masjid. Each one of those tries was from Bab Salam. Each one of those tries ended similarly. Prince Nayef succeeded in sending many young men to paradise with his stubbornness. With the fatwa, however, they brought in King Abdelaziz Armored Brigade with artillery support.

TO BE CONTINUED

Siege of Makkah - Part 6

2008-02-20T22:57:00.003+01:00

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Here is part 6:

Imam Subiel did all he could to warn the authorities of the severity of the situation, but no one seemed to believe him. The police station sent three more patrol cars that met a similar fate. The militants on top of the minarets made it a point to single out uniformed police officers only--letting the civilians be.

Imam Subiel was finally able to reach Sheikh Nasser bin Rashid, the senior Imam responsible for the two Harams--Makkah and Madina. He had the authority to go to the top, and it was he who rose Kind Khalid from his bed to give him the news. Within minutes Prince Nayef and Prince Turki Al-Faisal were on their way to Makkah. Crown Prince Fahd and Prince Abdullah (the current monarch) were not available, with Fahd at an Arab League summit in Tunis and Abdullah vacationing in Morocco.

Meanwhile, the news of Juhayman and the Mehdi was spreading rapidly in Makkah and Jeddah. As pilgrims were trickling out, they brought with them the stories of the appearance of Al-Mahdi, and a copy of the Seven Letter (Saba Rasail) written by Juhayman. Within hours, the appearance of al-Mahdi was the talk of the town. The Saudi government realized that if the news spreads, it will cause a serious law and order situation within the country. Outside the country, it will show the Saudi government in extremely poor light. So as is the fashion among many governments in that part of the world, the Saudis immediately ordered a communications blackout. The Canadian phone company that managed international calls to and from Saudi Arabia was ordered to close all lines.

The American embassy in Jeddah noticed right away that the phones were down. They made some inquiries and heard that there was some sort of trouble in Makkah, but they could not get any more details. Diligent as they were, the embassy officials contacted every government person they knew to find out more information until they got a vague idea of what is happening in Makkah. The phones were down, but the embassy had a secured cable link to Washington, and they wasted no time in communicating the news to the White House. That same day, President Carter had ordered USS Kitty Hawk to the Gulf to put pressure on Iran and a State Department Spokesman was briefing reporters on that decision. In what was to become a very costly mistake, the spokesman made a casual comment. "There has apparently been some kind of a seizure of a mosque by a group in Makkah." Giving an interview to the media a couple months after the incident, Prince Abdullah remarked that given how quickly the Americans knew about the incident, one cannot be blamed for wondering if they had advance knowledge of it.

The local media in Saudi Arabia gave no hint of any trouble in Makkah. On top of that, Sheikh Ibn Rashid decided that if the Masjid in Makkah can be attacked, then the Masjid in Madina would be at risk too. He was right, to some degree, because Juhayman had announced that his people controlled both Masjids. Juhayman, however, was bluffing. Precautionary closing of Masjid An-Nabawi would cause rumours to intensify. Almost everyone believe it is the work of either the Iranians or the Americans, and Saudi Arabia was in no hurry to correct the misinformation. The Saudis were deeply offended by the leak from the American embassy. That was probably the reason it took the Saudi government five days to release a statement saying that no Americans are involved in siege of the Sacred Masjid.

Back in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi military faced another unique problem. Getting the Saudi army and the National Guard to Makkah was no problem at all. However, given the rumours of the Mahdi, the Saudi government faced another unique problem. The soldiers had their oath of allegiance to the King, but it also limited their obedience of the King only to the matters allowed by Allah. The rank and file of the Saudi military openly started to wonder. What if the person claiming to be the Mahdi really is al-Mahdi? What if the end of time is near? What would be their end if they were among those who fought against the forces of truth, the forces of al-Mahdi? And above all, what about the clear prohibition by the Prophet of bloodshed in Makkah? "The fighting in Makkah was not permitted for anyone before me, and will not be permitted for anyone after me." How could they raise their weapons and fire towards the Sacred Masjid? And even if the claim of Muhammad al-Qahtani was wrong, should the defense of the Sacred Masjid be left to Allah, like it was left to Allah by the grandfather of the Prophet against the Army of the Elephant?

Desperate, King Khalid called an immediate Shura meeting with 29 of the top scholars in the Kingdom, led by Sheikh Bin Baaz. However, where it took the Sheikh of Al-Azhar a few moments to give a fatwa permitting fighting against the militants, the Saudi scholars took much longer.

The morning of November 21, the Saudi government decided that it should tell its citizens about the situation. Trofimov provides the four line statement given by Prince Nayef at 5 AM on Saudi radio: "A handful of deviators infiltrated the Holy Mosque with arms and ammunition during the early morning prayer Tuesday, the first day of the first month of Hijra year 1400. They presented someone to the worshippers in the mosque to perform the morning prayers, pretending that he was the expected Madhi, and urged them at gunpoint to recognize him as such. The authorities concerned took all necessary means to control the situation after procuring a fatwa from the ulema to protect the lives of Muslims inside the mosque. The Ministry of Information will issue a subsequent statement on developments in the situation."

The fatwa had not yet been procured. And the handful of militants actually numbered over 200. It appears that the Saudi government did not believe the number could be as high as 200 until many days later. Meanwhile, the American embassy in Pakistan was burnt down and Muslims around the world protested against the American/Zionist attack on Makkah.

TO BE CONTINUED

Importance of Language in Education

2008-02-17T20:02:00.004+01:00

Today my best friend forwarded an interesting article by Shahzad Roy, the educationist (and pop singer).Shahazad Roy runs a young but wonderful NGO working on grass root education for the poorest strata of our society and his economic model to make this happen is well appreciated and what better to call it than Zindagi Trust (Life Trust). Here is a video song he made:

I have referred to The Zindagi Trust earlier here, but more information can be found from their website The Zindagi Trust.

As for the article, Shahzad points out a very pertinent point in our education, the role language plays in building analytical skills. Being a product of Pakistani's Federal Board, the devastating culture of relating a foreign language (English in our case) as being an indicator of intelligence had ever been pertinent and I have seen so many talented people lose out due to the language. It is a case well made by proponents of English that it is necessary to be in the 21st century since most of the progress stems out from research and publications in this language. Nevertheless, in primary education, English infact hampers the very cause education tried to solve. My dad 'escaped 'from Lyari (a poor desolate area in Karachi) through Urdu medium schooling (even that was mildly foreign since he is a Sindhi) but managed to graduate and post graduate in Physics in English and to much surprise a Bachelors with distinction. Earlier on in my age, I never heard of better pronounced English than his, and better physics been taught elsewhere, the reason has been the ability to learn a critical thought process from childhood. My generation and the ones which follow haven't been so lucky, since English as a primary language for education has been more pervasive throughout while the ability to think in English hadn't. As as Shahzad Roy suggests in his article that analytical thinking allows faster learning of foreign languages, atlest that was the case in my family too. It is very important to harness the localized knowledge, either it be langauge or cultural teachings, etc as these are the skills most inbuilt and hard wired into a child. This is what the famous Greg Mortenson, a philanthropist, an educationist working in Paksitan also thinks about, check this for instance.

When I arrived in Germany nearly three years ago, I was surprised by the pervasiveness German language has in everything. And yet countries like Japan and Germany who are at the front in technological excellence, all did it in their native languages, ofcourse so did Americans :-)

There has been numerous published work on the role language plays on education both from linguistics and sociology but there is also a growing research which believes that the fundamental requirement to develop an analytical thought process is the ability to visualize abstract concepts. Although developed from a much earlier age than schooling, there is a growing user base of using virtual reality based learning to develop analytical skills. Ofcourse still a luxury but not for long. Virtual Based training for children is picking up, here is an organization I was once affiliated with providing technical and vocational training using visualization, the VDTC. However, their focus was on adults. There has been a popular programming language which teaches kids about logic building using visual concepts called LOGO. Another interesting project is developed by Carnegie Mellon University for teaching students programming(analytical skills) in a 3d environment again harnessing the power of visualization, the Alice project as it is called is easy to learn for both students and teachers alike. It is a bit hard to imagine NGO's offering such tutorials to children now but this cannot be a distant future, inshallah!

Siege of Makkah - Part 5

2008-02-17T10:05:00.001+01:00

Thalassemia, how you and I can help...

2008-02-14T19:46:00.005+01:00

Philanthropy, I believe can make a change, even if it be negligible. For cynics it might be a shady business but for the unprivileged and deprived for whom governments and bureaucracies can offer only shallow promises, NGOs and public services powered by philanthropists is the only option. Or simply because governments of developing worlds are under already so much preasure to deal with other so-called bigger issues that such matters as health are often deprioritized.

Thalessemia is a painful and persistent disease and is most pervasive in the subcontinent, including Pakistan. There are some notable philansthropist activities in the health sector in Pakistan, for Thalassemia,
a friend of mine documents of one such effort, the Kashif Iqbal Thalassemia Canter which offers free patient care and treatment.

According to him,
Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Center is one of a facility in the country where Thalassaemia patients are treated free of cost. This trust came into being when the 16-year old boy of Mr. Iqbal died from this dreadful, genetic disease. Today, he along with his highly dedicated family and staff members work day and night to save children from dying. And they don't ask for donations. People, rich and poor, pour their bank accounts and their sympathy to this organization.

Today, with 18 branches across Pakistan, this trust serves countless children and adults by educating them on this disease, its prevention, and providing free testing facility to all who want to know whether they are a Thalassaemia minor or not. Two Thalassaemia minors must not marry. If they do, the chances are that 1 in 4 children born will be a Thalassaemia major. And that's a life-time of a problem.

For further details contact:

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Center (KITCC)
Becham Road, Laiqabad, Landhi,
Karachi - 75120

(+92-21)-8232414
(+92-21)-4515600
(+92-21)-5021188 (Fax)

kitcc@gem.net.pk
http://kashifiqbal.com/

Ammeer Hamza is one of my favorite photojournalists of Pakistan who covers the lives of the poor and the unreachable mostly in rural Pakistan. His work has been frequently noticed by various international institutions, most recently by National Geographic. He maintains a Flickr page at:
Ameer Hamza

Siege of Makkah - Part 4

2008-02-11T22:41:00.000+01:00