Gaza Carnage and why Israel attacked Gaza

As I sat on my lazy-chair, straight resting crossed legs, I could only frown my eye brows in discomfort, squinted my eyes in disgust and wept in agony when I saw the grotesque images of the savagery unleashed on Gaza.
Cease-fire agreements fail to be reached consistently under the notion “…Israel has the right to defend itself”
A narrow strip, measuring 10 km by 45 km, has been locked out from all sides and turned virtually into a prison.
As the images of racing ambulances, crying children, screaming women, blood-drenched corpses flashed on the TV, I was coincidently struck with the question: WHY?
If one was to answer that question quoting Tzipi Livni, ”we want to liquate Hamas and its rocket attacks”, it would advisable for to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak out and remove all doubt.
Or if one accords with the GW Bush, “I understand Israel’s desire to protect itself. The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas”, it would be surprising how every fool finds a better one to admire them.
Out of the many genuine reasons, the one that promptly adheres to mind is the nearing election season in Israel and the dampening poll rating of the ruling Labor Party. It is surprisingly evident, that though the Israelites are not very much content with the present government body, the best way for Mr. Ehud Olmert to regain their support was to eliminate the single greatest threat to the country and erase Palestine!
Another thoughtful reason is the timing. The new US government has sought to bring about ‘Change’, effectively in the US policies in Middle East. Israel, while still time and US permitting them, waged the greatest onslaught on Gaza in history.
Lastly, and the most defining reason, is the continued hind-sightedness and ignorance of the current Middle East leaders to the illegal occupation of Israel on the Palestinian land. Had there been a collective and positive effort in the past, the US would not have been able to create Israel into such a monster that is currently haunting the entire region. And it is a fact very much acknowledges by these leaders, yet they refuse to indulge themselves into cooperative society that could avert such crisis.
Now, at best, all we could do is remorse within ourselves and sympathize with our fellow brothers and sisters there. May God Help them.

The Gaza Tragedy - Time to Speak Up!!

Mr. Ehud Barak’s address to the parliament affirmed Israel’s intention for the Invasion of Gaza strip as the continued air strikes drew a horrible blood-bath leaving the International Community in tears and zipped mouths. . In wake of hitting critical Hamas targets, Israel has flattened schools and government buildings, refugee camps, University Buildings killing women and children remorselessly to salvage and protect their territory from Hamas rockets. Almost the entire Arab & Muslim world seems as silent as the grave and have turned away their eyes from the terrorizing onslaught and massacre of the innocent Palestinians.
The tally of the death nearing 400 and almost 1500 injured requiring immediate medical attention in hospitals that are almost incapable of functioning and those facilities are now bleeding every resource available owing to the Israeli sanctions. Israel have taken up a strategy what the world refers to as ‘Terrorism’ – instilling fear for an ideological goal and deliberately targeting, and disregarding the safety, of non combatants. This is as much an act of terror as a suicide bomber rips apart a market place.
It is the sole responsibility of our Arab and Muslim leaders to join hands and voice as one a common stand against such carnage. These concerns can no better be addressed to the world powers, who blindly support not only the Israeli occupation but also approve of the onslaught by stating that: "Israel has the right to defend itself", by our current Muslim leaders, especially the Arab League as they hold with them the Key to driving their economies. Not as a threat rather a stern warning.
It is also vital for the Muslim world to realized that if Israel could hamper the UN resolutions and care less about the International Criminal Laws and deem the Invasion of Gaza as its right, it could very well breach their borders to further secure itself from potential threats; since Israel has vividly indicated that "... it is in continuous threat from its neighbors"
This is the time for the Muslim Leaders to set side their differences and stand united against a common cause, for their fellow brothers and sisters, for humanity and for themselves. Help yourself, Help your brothers and sister, Help Gaza - if is after all a part of us.

Taking Science on Faith

Science – the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypothesis. Faith, on the other hand, is a belief in the trustworthiness of an idea. Many regard science as the only authentic source of dependable, immutable, absolute, universal, mathematical laws of an unspecified origin that governs the universe. However, others rest their faith on a set of beliefs derived from religious precepts. There has always been a constant debate between those who believe in having faith is sufficient and those who need scientific evidence that could proof the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue.
Below is a small excerpt from one of the reading material I was brushing through. Though the source and authenticity of this passage is dubious, it justifies the clean-connection between science and faith:

An Atheist Professor of Philosophy was speaking to his Class on the Problem Science has With GOD, the ALMIGHTY. He asked one of his New Christian Students to stand and…
Professor : You are a Christian, aren't you, son ?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, you Believe in GOD ?
Student : Absolutely, sir.
Professor : Is GOD Good ?
Student : Sure.
Professor : Is GOD ALL - POWERFUL ?
Student : Yes.
Professor : My Brother died of Cancer even though he Prayed to GOD to Heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn't. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent )

Professor : You can't answer, can you ? Let's start again, Young Fella. Is GOD Good?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Is Satan good ?
Student : No.
Professor : Where does Satan come from ?
Student : From . . . GOD . . .
Professor : That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this World?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Evil is everywhere, isn't it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?
Student : Yes.
Professor : So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer)

Professor : Is there Sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the World, don't they?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, who Created them ?

(Student had no answer)

Professor : Science says you have 5 Senses you use to Identify and Observe the World around you. Tell me, son . . . Have you ever Seen GOD?
Student : No, sir.
Professor : Tell us if you have ever Heard your GOD?
Student : No , sir.
Professor : Have you ever Felt your GOD , Tasted your GOD , Smelt your GOD ? Have you ever had any Sensory Perception of GOD for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Professor : Yet you still Believe in HIM?
Student : Yes.
Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student : Nothing. I only have my Faith.
Professor : Yes, Faith. And that is the Problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as Heat?
Professor : Yes.
Student : And is there such a thing as Cold?
Professor : Yes.
Student : No, sir. There isn't..

(The Lecture Theatre became very quiet with this turn of events )

Student : Sir, you can have Lots of Heat, even More Heat, Superheat, Mega Heat, White Heat, a Little Heat or No Heat. But we don't have anything called Cold. We can hit 458 Degrees below Zero which is No Heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as Cold. Cold is only a Word we use to describe the Absence of Heat. We cannot Measure Cold. Heat is Energy. Cold is Not the Opposite of Heat, sir, just the Absence of it.

(There was Pin-Drop Silence in the Lecture Theatre )

Student : What about Darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as Darkness?
Professor : Yes. What is Night if there isn't Darkness?
Student : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the Absence of Something You can have Low Light, Normal Light, Bright Light, Flashing Light . . . But if you have No Light constantly, you have nothing and its called Darkness, isn't it? In reality, Darkness isn't. If it is, were you would be able to make Darkness Darker, wouldn't you?
Professor : So what is the point you are making, Young Man ?
Student : Sir, my point is your Philosophical Premise is flawed.
Professor : Flawed ? Can you explain how?
Student : Sir, you are working on the Premise of Duality. You argue there is Life and then there is Death, a Good GOD and a Bad GOD. You are viewing the Concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can't even explain a Thought. It uses Electricity and Magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view Death as the Opposite of Life is to be ignorant of the fact that Death cannot exist as a Substantive Thing. Death is Not the Opposite of Life: just the Absence of it Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your Students that they evolved from a Monkey?
Professor : If you are referring to the Natural Evolutionary Process, yes, of course, I do.
Student : Have you ever observed Evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a Smile, beginning to realize where the Argument was going )

Student : Since no one has ever observed the Process of Evolution at work and Cannot even prove that this Process is an On-Going Endeavor, Are you not teaching your Opinion, sir? Are you not a Scientist but a Preacher?

(The Class was in Uproar)

Student : Is there anyone in the Class who has ever seen the Professor's Brain?

(The Class broke out into Laughter)

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's Brain, Felt it, touched or Smelt it? . .. . No one appears to have done so. So, according to the Established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that You have No Brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then Trust your Lectures, sir?

(The Room was Silent. The Professor stared at the Student, his face unfathomable)

Professor : I guess you'll have to take them on Faith, son.
Student : That is it sir . .. . Exactly ! The Link between Man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that Keeps Things Alive and Moving.

NB:
That student was Albert Einstein.

Though the story is a little dramatized, it does assert the notion that science has its own faith-based belief system that suffices merely to strength the Link between Man & God!!!

Mumbai Attacks - A different Perspective

In the latest developments of the mystique Mumbai Attacks, Pakistan has, after intense pressure from the US and continuous pinching from India, arrested the accused masterminds and reassured every critic eye its complete ‘Focus & Commitment’ towards fighting global terror.
It is intriguing how the Indian government has put forth ‘baseless’ claims and delicately entangled Pakistan through the universal blame-game-strategy to pacify an enraged and anguish population which had immediately become skeptical of its present government policies and demanded quick results. Baseless - because the claims have been derived on the authority of the statements of one of the captured gunmen who is ostensibly a Muslim, whose own name is a mystery (is it Mohamed Ajmal Amir or Ajmal Amir Kasav?), who is accountable for spreading terror and killing innocent people, who earlier posed as a Mujahidin from Deccan and later a Jihadi from Faridkot, who had been a thief for the good part of his life and who feels no regret nor remorse for such a merciless act. How credible could he or his information be? How rationale would it be to indulge in political confrontations? I would grade his information as worthless and insignificant.
Would be it interesting to view the entire scenario as a complete fabricated plot devised by the Indian government as an elusive attempt to destabilize LeT operations in Kashmir, amid the election season, by pressurizing Pakistan to have their chief arrested since the Indian Security forces have failed to gain control and avert the menacing situation. Or is it a blatant message from Raj Thackery to the North Indians to exit Mumbai.
The Indian authorities should refrain from making any accusation towards Pakistan's involvement as the balance of speculation could shift either way.

JIHAD - understand it!

The on going War-Against-Terror by the US and its Allies in Afghanistan and Iraq and the troubled tribal areas of Pakistan by it well-fashioned army against the Al-Qaeda network has instinctively cultivated and further nurtured a great misconception and blemished one of the fundamentals of Islam – JIHAD. The Al-Qaeda fighters, termed as ‘Jihadis’ – the one who fights for the cause of Jihad, have deteriorated the very meaning of Jihad and convinced feeble minds in the west, and across the globe, in affirming the fallacy and delusion portrayed about Jihad and Islam.
JIHAD – commonly translated as the ‘Holy War’, however, recently it has become synonymous with a vision of marching band of religious fanatics with savage beards and fierce some eyes, brandishing swords and attacking infidels wherever encountered and pressing them under the sword of the sake of Islam. This awry and deceitful vision is the courtesy of those benefactors of ours who are engaged in an extremely unholy war to attain the mere joys of the worldly lure. Their fight and struggle is not for God but for their contentment and pleasure. They have manufactured regulations to deceive the innocent minds to take up guns and wrap explosive belts and justify their approach and confuse the understanding of Islam.
True Meaning of Jihad
Islam is neither a religion nor Muslims a nation since it nullifies the true essence of Jihad (which is known as ‘The best of all Prayers’). Islam is a revolutionary ideology and program which seeks to perfect the social order of the whole world and rebuild its conformity with its own tents and ideals. Muslim is a revolutionary party that is organized by Islam to carry into effect the revolutionary program. And, Jihad is a revolutionary struggle by Muslims to achieve this objective. The most nearest and correct meaning, in layman terms, would be “to exert one’s utmost endeavor to promoting a cause.” Islam established an ideology for the welfare of not just a common man, a community, a Nation but for the entire Mankind. Towards this end, to press all forces either speech, pen. Spending good, physical effort or, lastly, by the power of sword and a composite term for the use of all of these forces is JIHAD.
Conditions of Validity
Jihad is not merely a struggle, it is a struggle ‘in the way of God’, which is the essential condition that governs the validity of this struggle. Many have without a thought, sorted to the literal translation of the condition and have misled their mindset. However in Islam the expression undermines all such work done for the collective well-being of mankind and in which functionary has no vested interested other than to attain the pleasure of God. A person devoted to bring about a revolution in the system of life and establish a new system in conformity with the ideology of Islam, his / hers struggle should be free of any self-fish motives.
Current Scenario
The current scenario and misconception poses a great threat to the Muslims and if not rectified it shall eventually lead to a bigger hatred towards the Muslims. It has become the utmost responsibility and a paramount duty of all the Muslims to educate and spread the reality of Jihad not only to the far west but also, and most significantly among those feeble minded young enthusiastic Muslims - ready to lay their lives - trapped deep within a labyrinth of an unholy war manifested by those seeking only their equanimity. I hope my message reaches out to those far and wide and to those lost.

Pakistan engulfed in Terror War

The US led war-on-terror spilled over from Afghanistan into Pakistan as heavily armed US commandos ambushed a village near the Pak-Afghan border in elusive attempt to regain supremacy in the lost war and since then the drone attacks on Pakistan soil have become much consistent and even more dominating. The Bush administration appears prepared to lash out at its most cordial ally to war-on-terror, Pakistan, who it blames for the humiliating failure to crush Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. This current scenario is synonymous with the situation during the Vietnam War when after failure to contain the North Vietnam Army, US urged invasion of Cambodia.
Though the path leading to the end of the terror-war is no different than the Vietnam-War, the dear consequences of more US attacks on Pakistan soil can be far more catastrophic than being imaginable to any extent. Firstly, such attempts are counter-productive, on the contrary defy the very basis of cooperation between Pakistan and US and might further fuel the fire of hatred and violence Pakistani government is eagerly trying to diminish.
Secondly, these attacks would eventually result in widening the Anti-US war and merging it with Afghanistan’s resistance to western occupation. Also, Pakistan army might chip in for retaliation in view to preserve their national sovereignty and protect national pride.
Lastly, it might reignite the old irredentist movement to reunite Pashtun parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan into an independent state – Pakhtunistan, which will pose an even greater and more powerful threat to the US coalition forces.
The entire civilized human history, till date, has witnessed the catastrophes incurred by the use of force to gain dominance and reign supreme over the weak. There ought to be better thought out ways to tackle the insurgents residing in Pakistan and the war-on-terror and its eventuality be reevaluated before the world witnesses another setback to the great world power.

Karadzic and Saddam: The difference

And so, after thirteen long years of hunting, Radovan Karadzic has been captured and transferred to The Hague where he will stand trial on the charges of genocide. Karadzic went into hiding by drawing upon a false identity of Dr. Dragan Dabic, with a big hairy beard. A scenario much similar to the tale of the Middle East villain, Saddam Hussein, yet the disparity is drastic.

The invasion of Iraq by the US troops led to the capture of Saddam. He was then handed over to a local court in Iraq to be tried for his part of crimes where there were dim chances of a fair trail to be held. Although his crimes were against humanity, were far less heinous than those by Karadzic, at no point were the American prepared to have him tried in an International Court. Probably since the verdict of the capital punishment by a local court would sound much reasonable and far less debatable. Capital punishments around the world have been abolished by democracies and Karadzic would probably be jailed not executed if found guilty.

It would be interesting to see if Karadzic would end up the same fate that of Pinochet and Milosevic or Saddam Hussein.