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The dimensions of the Palestinian Conflict

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The Palestinian Israel conflict is in the news again. It can be said to be the single crisis that initiated the clash of civilizations and was the seed for all the dissatisfaction and unrest in the Muslim world. Yet, few people tend to understand that the conflict has multiple dimensions which is what has made a resolution so elusive. The first dimension is territorial. Due to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, an Israeli state was created for the Jews in the heart of the Muslim world. The proponents of this argued that this is where an ancient Jewish civilization used to live but then none of the modern states geography has been carved keeping mind where ancient ancestors lived. Judaism came before Christianity and Islam so its current followers cant have the right to choose territory base don their initial place of inhabitance simply because their religion preceded others. With that logic followers of all ancient religions should be given their original place of dwelling as...
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How could a Muslim do such a thing!

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Whenever terrorist incidents happen, such as the one that happened on London Bridge a couple of days back, conversations start happening to understand the true underlying reasons & motivations. When it come to explaining Muslim terrorism, there are various theories and often the people most confounded by such flagrant acts of barbarism are the Muslims themselves because they are completely unable to relate to the act themselves. A non Muslim would have so many unknowns in his mind that he would not be able to reach ay conclusion. But a Muslims, thinks of the injunctions of Quran and sayings of the Prophet (PBUH), & then fails to understand how the perpetrators are linking their act to Islam. Below Hadit is just one example of the many you can find that forbids Muslims to harm Women and Children in a war. "It is narrated by Ibn 'Umar that a woman was found killed in one of these battles; so the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) forbade the killing of wome...
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At the crossroads again

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Pakistan has always had the potential to be a regional power. However, Years and years of economic and governance decadence and the lack of an independent foreign policy has brought us to a situation whereby Pakistan is completely isolated in terms of International relations and our reputation is seriously tainted as a sponsor of state terrorism. As the world is going through an oil shock, the financial muscle of Saudi Arabia has severely deflated and our great benefactor cannot help us too much anymore. On the other hand, Iran has stabbed us in the back, and is actually colluding with India to weaken Pakistan, as was evidenced by the capture of the Indian spy in balochistan who'se base was in Iran. Afghanistan has been hostile since independence and its alliance with India has been becoming stronger. In this context, the final nail in the coffin has been the joint statement in US post Modis visit that indirectly blames Pkistan for supporting terrorism and lays the foundation of jo...
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On Evolution !

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 I was just watching a series of lectures on Khan's Academy on Evolution. From the very start I had somehow believed that evolution is a continuous process whereby the entire generation of a specie undergoes small incremental modifications in traits in order to be able to adapt to the environment better. However Khan explains evolution as "survival of the fittest" which leads to more reproduction of the genetic makeup of the particular specie which has a genetic edge in terms of survival.  So, if humans needed to stand upright inorder to survive, then amongst apes, due to natural variation that is present in all members of a specie, there would be an ape which due to its genetic makeup was able to survive in a slightly better way as compared to the rest of the apes. Over many generations, this ape's posterity would be growing at a faster rate as compared to the offsprings of the other apes and eventually there would be a time when these apes who stand slightly up...
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When Temples will become Forts

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There are 120,000 registered mosques in PAkistan and another 120,000 unregistered mosques. Also, there are 25,000 registered Madrassahs and perhaps as many unregistered ones. All combined, these would be having almost 100% coverage of the area of Pakistan. Now, lets imaginate a scenario. Its 2023; 10 years from now. The US after having withdrawan from Afghanistan in 2014 never looked back. Vested interests continue to channel resources into TTP so as to achieve their respective strategic objectives. The Taliban over the course of these years have increased their suicide attacks manifolds, having obliterated the State of Pakistan and having spread terror in each and every Pakistani's heart. Moreover, they have established complete hegemony over KPK running their own government. Also, over these 10 years, TTP increased their contacts with the Imaams of the mosques channeling their funding and influence to these mosques and madressahs all over Pakistan to drive their pseudo Wahabi ag...
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Breaking Bad

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Wow ! Just saw the 2nd last episode of the final season. This has got to be one of the most brilliant television series ever. Distinctly remember that scene in the first season with the chemistry professor Mr White saying to his students, "Chemistry: it is the study of change…It is growth, then decay, then transformation.” And thats the word that sums up this series:  transformation. Transformation of character ! “My wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we didn’t intend,” Walt explained in Season 2. “My 15-year-old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make 43,700 dollars per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable. And within 18 months, I will be dead. ” From being that loser of a chemistry teacher, who gets humiliated by his boss at what is his second job at a car wash, to becoming the methamphetamine kingpin of Uni...
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Here to stay

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Its so fascinating looking at the american economy bouncing back. It was all but done with in 2009. The subprime crisis had prompted everyone to think that the age of US led capitalism is over and the age of state capitalism is here (with state owned firms such as Petrobras, Gazprom, China Mobile, ICBC and even Emirates airlines growing the fatest). There was such intense opposition to the state bailing out the ailing automobile and financial firms with the popular slogan "private profits and public losses". Quarter after quarter unemployment data kept getting worse. But here we are again. US growth seems to have stabilised at 2% and unemployment at 7% is on a downward trend. Its really a matter of a few months when the FED would start sucking out excess money from the US economy (by stopping buying treasury bonds) the anticipation of which has already started strenthening the dollar and shaking emerging economies such as India and Turkey which had been benefiting from the i...
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