Showing posts with label Islam and Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam and Politics. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Power of Religion & Roots of Religious Extremism - Dr. Mubarak Ali.


Generally, the domination of religion on politics takes place as a result of the weakness of the state and its institutions. When the state fails to fulfil the needs of the people and is unable to protect them against internal and external threats, religious elements who claim to establish a society based on justice, and get rid of the corrupt political set up, begin to gain power. In this case religion dominates politics and uses it as a tool for implementation of its practices. Religion gained domination over politics in two ways. In the first case, a ruler, in the interest of his rule and stability of his ruling dynasty, implemented the shariat and allowed the ulema to play a leading role in the state affairs. In the second case, the ulema, after capturing political power, established a religious state and forced people to follow their religious agenda. Such religious states, whether they were founded in the West or in the East, basically believed that human beings could be reformed only by coercion and control over their actions. Therefore, to set up a purified society, strict and exemplary punishments were given on minor crimes. It was also believed that worldly rulers were corrupt and evil-minded, therefore, only religious scholars could rule with honesty and work for the welfare of the people. One example of this type of domination is the city-state of Geneva that was established by the Christian reformer Calvin (d.1599). After acquiring political power, he was in a position to implement his religious ideals. The first thing he did was that he announced that those who were not in favour of his religious ideas should leave the city. Those who stayed back faced rigorous disciplinary action on various offences; the punishments included excommunication from Christianity, exile from the city, imprisonment, and death.

Tracing the Roots of Religious Extremism - Dr. Mubarak Ali

URL: http://youtu.be/WuHLmwxdSvw

On his orders all hotels and guesthouses, which provided sexual facilities to the guests, were closed down. Those traders and shopkeepers who were found involved in cheating in quality or quantity were severely punished; vulgar songs and playing cards were prohibited. Care was taken that Bible should be available at all-important places. Those who were found laughing during a sermon were reprimanded. It was obligatory for every person to thank God before eating. As a result of these strenuous laws, the people were completely under the control and supervision of Calvin`s spiritual police. Punishments were severe and no consideration or exemption was given to anybody; for instance, once a child was beheaded because he struck his father. It is said that during the period of six years 150 heretics were burnt alive. The result was that the citizens of Geneva soon got fed up with this system, which ended after Calvin was expelled from the city.

In the Islamic world, in the 18th century a religious movement erupted in Najad and Hijaz and soon engulfed the whole region. Its founder Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab (d.1792) launched the campaign to purify Islam from irreligious practices. Muhammad Ibn Saud, the founder of the Saudi ruling dynasty, was influenced by his teachings; this resulted in matrimonial alliance between the two families. When Ibn Saud`s son, Saud (d.1814) established his rule he made the Wahabi religious ideas his state religion. As Wahabis believed in revivalism and purity of religion, they demolished tombs, took away religious relics which were kept there, and banned pilgrimage to shrines.

On the one hand, the Wahabis wanted to revive the ideal society of early Islam, while on the other, they destroyed all those historical monuments of the early Islamic history only because people had emotional attachment to them and regarded them as holy and sacred. They implemented strict rules and regulations for observation of religious practices as praying five times regularly and those who tried to avoid them were chased by the police and forced to go to mosques. The Wahabi model inspired religious reformers in other Muslim countries as well and a number of movements emerged to capture power and reform the society on the basis of their religious agenda. In India, the Jihad movement of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid (d.1831) followed this pattern. To fulfil his mission, he migrated from North India to North Western Frontier in order to establish his Islamic state there. In 1827, he proclaimed himself the caliph and Imam. He and his followers used all coercive methods to establish a pure and virtuous society in the frontier region.

Mirza Hyrat Dehlvi, in his book, Hyat-I-Tayyaba, writes that Sayyid sahib appointed many of his followers on important posts with the order that they should force people to follow shariat. However, these officers misused their authority and sometimes forced young girls to marry them. It was also observed that some young holy warriors forcibly took away young ladies from bazaars and streets to mosques and married them without their consent. Those officers who were appointed to look after peasants also misused their power and treated the common folk with arrogance. The result was that poor and simple villagers were fed up of them. The officers, in order to assert power, declared anybody who did not follow the instructions as kafir (non-believer). If somebody`s beard was found to be larger than the standard, the lips of that person were cut off as punishment. If somebody was found wearing tahmad (cloth to cover up lower body) below the ankles, the bones of his ankles were broken. The same happened in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule and in some altered shape in Iran, after the overthrowing of the Shah in 1989, where all coercive methods were used to implement its own version of the shariat. REFERENCE: Past Present: Power of religion By Mubarak Ali April 12, 2009 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/69442

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Imran Khan "ISSUE" Fatwa to Violate Ramadan's Sanctity.


The Central Executive Committee of the PTI that met at the party’s Central Secretariat in Islamabad today has decided to hold a series of protest demonstrations in Islamabad as part of its “Hakumat Hatao Mulk Bachao” movement. Announcing the decisions of the CEC, the party Chairman Imran Khan stated that a public meeting would be held in Faisalabad on July 24 followed by a series of protest demonstrations in Islamabad. He said the series of weekend Dharna’s would be held in front of Parliament House in Islamabad in the last week of July and during Ramadan. The exact dates of the Islamabad dharna’s would be announced soon. The PTI Chairman condemned the government for letting loose a reign of terror in Karachi. He said the situation in Karachi is reminiscent of a civil war where killers of innocent citizens are roaming the streets of Karachi with impunity. The writ of the government has all but collapsed. The PTI Chief said that the PTI’s consistent demand of mid-term polls under a neutral caretaker government, independent election commission, and new electoral rolls is the only democratic way forward. The PTI Chairman Imran Khan stressed that the present NRO manufactured government is destroying vital state institutions and causing irreparable damage to the economy. He said the PML(N) and the PPP are both responsible for the present mess in the country. He said those who provided support to the government in the last 3 and half years cannot suddenly become the saviors of the country. The grand alliance initiative of the PML(N) is a grand fraud alliance. If the PML(N) is serious about removing the government, it should resign from Parliament and the Punjab Government. Imran Khan reiterated that free and fair elections under a caretaker government set up by the President who is also the Co-Chairman of the PPP is only wishful thinking. He said the massive rigging in the AJK elections and a number of bye elections is proof that the general elections under a PPP caretaker government cannot be free and fair. To save the country from bloodshed which would be an inevitable consequence of rigged elections, the PTI intends to intensify its remove the government campaign and expects the Supreme Court to take decisive action to remove the present destructive government and install a truly neutral care taker set up. He said the PM and President should he held in contempt of court for obstructing the implementation of Supreme Court judgments. He said only a neutral care taker government set up with the blessings of the Supreme Court can hold free and fair elections under an independent election commission and transparent Nadra based electoral rolls. The PTI Chief lauded the Chief Justice of Pakistan for his historic decision to remove the bogus votes and register almost 37 million new voters by December 2011. He said the PTI would mobilize the youth in each constitutuency to register their votes. REFERENCE: PTI to Stage Protest Demonstrations in Islamabad Islamabad (July 10, 2011) http://insaf.pk/News/tabid/60/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/7073/PTI-announces-plan-to-bring-Hakumat-Hatao-Mulk-Bachao-Tehreek-to-Islamabad-Qazi-a-witness-to-Sharifs-lies-says-Imran.aspx  


























































LAHORE, May 14: Tehreek-i-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan has accused President Pervez Musharraf and MQM leader Altaf Husain of bloodshed in Karachi and called upon the opposition to unite on one-point agenda of getting rid of Musharraf and dictatorship. Addressing a press conference after presiding over a meeting of the Tehreek central executive committee here on Monday evening, he said the disturbance in Karachi was not unexpected because the issue had been raised in the National Assembly session only a day earlier, but the government did nothing to prevent the bloodshed. “Instead of taking steps for maintaining law and order in Karachi, it got the MQM rally arranged intentionally to sabotage the reception of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which was expected to be much better than Lahore.” He said President Musharraf was not tired of talking about enlightened moderation on the one hand and had joined hands with “top terrorist” MQM leader Altaf Hussain on the other for remaining in power. “The hardened criminals of MQM set at liberty by the government continued firing bullets at the people but the police and the Rangers did not fire even a single teargas shell at them. Ten PTI men were among those who sustained bullet injuries and were under treatment in hospitals.” The PTI, he said, was consulting lawyers to lodge an FIR against Gen Pervez Musharraf and Altaf Husain for the Karachi killings. He said the PTI would also file a case against British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the UK for harbouring MQM leader Altaf Husain who “headed a fascist organisation and was living like a king there through the money sent to him from Pakistan. The MQM is a fascist organisation like Hitler’s Nazi Party. No body dared to challenge the Nazi Party because it got its opponents eliminated. The MQM first fired bullets on the people and then tried to portray itself as a victim.” He said Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had not played the Sindh Card, but President Musharraf continued playing the MQM card and was not tired of praising Altaf Husain in his speeches. “Innocent people were being killed in Karachi but there were jubilations in Islamabad at government expense.” REFERENCE: PTI to sue Blair for ‘harbouring’ MQM leader By Our Reporter May 15, 2007 Tuesday Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1428 http://archives.dawn.com/dawnftp/72.249.57.55/dawnftp/2007/05/15/nat5.htm 

Imran Khan Lies on MQM.

URL: http://youtu.be/2I68Fe7YO4A


Imran Khan is very fond of "Islam" and "State of Medina" & "Rule of Allah", the second banner says "Allah's Order" & "People's Government" (NO SUCH THING IN ISLAM CALLED "PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT - IT IS HARAM)

Lets read what the Traditions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) orders Muslims during the month of Ramadan.

"QUOTE"

The ummah is agreed that fasting the month of Ramadaan is obligatory, the evidence for which is in the Qur’aan and Sunnah. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“O you who believe! Observing al-sawn (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become al-muttaqoon (the pious).” [al-Baqarah 2:183]

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Islam is built on five [pillars]…” among which he mentioned fasting in Ramadaan. (Reported by al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, 1/49). Whoever breaks the fast during Ramadaan without a legitimate excuse has committed a serious major sin, The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, describing a dream that he had seen: “… until I was at the mountain, where I heard loud voices. I asked, ‘What are these voices?’ They said, ‘This is the howling of the people of Hellfire.’ Then I was taken [to another place], and I saw people hanging from their hamstrings, with the corners of their mouths torn and dripping with blood. I said, ‘Who are these?’ They said, ‘The people who broke their fast before it was the proper time to do so,’ i.e., before the time of iftaar.” (Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/420).

Al-Haafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said, “Among the believers it is well-established that whoever does not fast in Ramadaan without a valid excuse is worse than an adulterer or drunkard; they doubt whether he is even a Muslim at all, and they regard him as a heretic and profligate.” Shaykh al-Islam [Ibn Taymiyah] (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “If a person does not fast in Ramadaan knowing that it is haraam but making it halaal for himself to do so, kill him; and if he does it because he is immoral [but believes it is haraam], then punish him for not fasting.” (Majmoo’ al-Fataawa, 25/265).

Etiquette and Sunnah of fasting

Some aspects are obligatory (waajib) and others are recommended (mustahabb).

We should make sure that we eat and drink something at suhoor, and that we delay it until just before the adhaan of Fajr. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Have suhoor, for in suhoor there is blessing (barakah).” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, Fath, 4/139). “Suhoor is blessed food, and it involves being different from the people of the Book. What a good suhoor for the believer is dates.” (Reported by Abu Dawood, no. 2345; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/448).

Not delaying iftaar, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The people will be fine so long as they do not delay iftaar.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, Fath, 4/198).

Breaking one's fast in the manner described in the hadeeth narrated by Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him): “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to break his fast with fresh dates before praying; if fresh dates were not available, he would eat (dried) dates; if dried dates were not available, he would have a few sips of water.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 3/79 and others. He said it is a ghareeb hasan hadeeth. Classed as saheeh in al-Irwa’, no. 922).

After iftaar, reciting the words reported in the hadeeth narrated by Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with them both), according to which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), when he broke his fast, would say: “Dhahaba al-zama’, wa’btallat al-‘urooq, wa thabat al-ajru in sha Allaah (Thirst is gone, veins are flowing again, and the reward is certain, in sha Allaah).” (Reported by Abu Dawood, 2/765; its isnaad was classed as hasan by al-Daaraqutni, 2/185).

Keeping away from sin, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “When any of you is fasting, let him not commit sin…” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, no. 1904). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever does not stop speaking falsehood and acting in accordance with it, Allaah has no need of him giving up his food and drink.” (Al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, no. 1903). The person who is fasting should avoid all kinds of haraam actions, such as backbiting, obscenity and lies, otherwise his reward may all be lost. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “It may be that a fasting person gets nothing from his fast except hunger.” (Reported by Ibn Maajah, 1/539; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/453).

Among the things that can destroy one’s hasanaat (good deeds) and bring sayi’aat (bad deeds) is allowing oneself to be distracted by quiz-shows, soap operas, movies and sports matches, idle gatherings, hanging about in the streets with evil people and time-wasters, driving around for no purpose, and crowding the streets and sidewalks, so that the months of tahajjud, dhikr and worship, for many people, becomes the month of sleeping in the day so as to avoid feeling hungry, thus missing their prayers and the opportunity to pray them in congregation, then spending their nights in entertainment and indulging their desires. Some people even greet the month with feelings of annoyance, thinking only of the pleasures they will miss out on. In Ramadaan, some people travel to kaafir lands to enjoy a holiday! Even the mosques are not free from such evils as the appearance of women wearing makeup and perfume, and even the Sacred House of Allaah is not free of these ills. Some people make the month a season for begging, even though they are not in need. Some of them entertain themselves with dangerous fireworks and the like, and some of them waste their time in the markets, wandering around the shops, or sewing and following fashions. Some of them put new products and new styles in their stores during the last ten days of the month, to keep people away from earning rewards and hasanaat.

Not allowing oneself to be provoked, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “If someone fights him or insults him, he should say, ‘I am fasting, I am fasting.’” (Reported by al-Bukhaari and others. Al-Fath, no. 1894) One reason for this is to remind himself, and another reason is to remind his adversary. But anyone who looks at the conduct of many of those who fast will see something quite different. It is essential to exercise self-control and be calm, but we see the opposite among crazy drivers who speed up when they hear the adhaan for Maghrib.

(*) Not eating too much, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The son of Adam fills no worse vessel than his stomach.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, no. 2380; he said, this is a hasan saheeh hadeeth). The wise person wants to eat to live, not live to eat. The best type of food is that which is there to be used, not that which is there to be served. But people indulge in making all kinds of food (during Ramadaan) and treating food preparation as a virtual art form, so that housewives and servants spend all their time on making food, and this keeps them away from worship, and people spend far more on food during Ramadaan than they do ordinarily. Thus the month becomes the month of indigestion, fatness and gastric illness, where people eat like gluttons and drink like thirsty camels, and when they get up to pray Taraaweeh, they do so reluctantly, and some of them leave after the first two rak’ahs.

(*) Being generous by sharing knowledge, giving money, using one’s position of authority or physical strength to help others, and having a good attitude. Al-Bukhaari and Muslim reported that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was the most generous of people [in doing good], and he was most generous of all in Ramadaan when Jibreel met with him, and he used to meet him every night in Ramadaan and teach him the Qur’aan. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was more generous in doing good than a blowing wind.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, no. 6). How can people exchange generosity for stinginess and action for laziness, to the extent that they do not do their work properly and do not treat one another properly, and they use fasting as an excuse for all this.

Combining fasting with feeding the poor is one of the means of reaching Paradise, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “In Paradise there are rooms whose outside can be seen from the inside and the inside can be seen from the outside. Allaah has prepared them for those who feed the poor, who are gentle in speech, who fast regularly and who pray at night when people are asleep.” (Reported by Ahmad 5/343; Ibn Khuzaymah, no. 2137. Al-Albaani said in his footnote, its isnaad is hasan because of other corroborating reports). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever gives food to a fasting person with which to break his fast, will have a reward equal to his, without it detracting in the slightest from the reward of the fasting person.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 3/171; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/451). Shaykh al-Islam [Ibn Taymiyah] (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “What is meant is that he should feed him until he is satisfied.” (Al-Ikhtiyaaraat al-Fiqhiyyah, p. 109).

A number of the Salaf (may Allaah have mercy on them) preferred the poor over themselves when feeding them at the time of iftaar. Among these were ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar, Maalik ibn Deenaar, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others. ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar would not break his fast unless there were orphans and poor people with him.

The virtues of fasting

The virtues of fasting are great indeed, and one of the things reported in the saheeh ahaadeeth is that Allaah has chosen fasting for Himself, and He will reward it and multiply the reward without measure, as He says [in the hadeeth qudsi]: “Except for fasting which is only for My sake, and I will reward him for it.” (al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, no. 1904; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/407). Fasting has no equal (al-Nisaa'i, 4/165; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/413), and the du’aa’ of the fasting person will not be refused (reported by al-Bayhaqi, 3/345; al-Silsilat al-Saheeh, 1797). The fasting person has two moments of joy: one when he breaks his fast and one when he meets his Lord and rejoices over his fasting (reported by Muslim, 2/807). Fasting will intercede for a person on the Day of Judgement, and will say, “O Lord, I prevented him from his food and physical desires during the day, so let me intercede for him.” (Reported by Ahmad, 2/174. Al-Haythami classed its isnaad as hasan in al-Majma’, 3/181. See also Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/411). The smell that comes from the mouth of a fasting person is better with Allaah than the scent of musk. (Muslim, 2/807). Fasting is a protection and a strong fortress that keeps a person safe from the Fire. (Reported by Ahmad, 2/402; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/411; Saheeh al-Jaami’, 3880). Whoever fasts one day for the sake of Allaah, Allaah will remove his face seventy years’ distance from the Fire. (Reported by Muslim, 2/808). Whoever fasts one day seeking the pleasure of Allaah, if that is the last day of his life, he will enter Paradise. (Reported by Ahmad, 5/391; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/412). In Paradise there is a gate called al-Rayyaan, through those who fast will enter, and no one will enter it except them; when they have entered it will be locked, and no-one else will enter through it.” (al-Bukhaari, Fath, no. 1797).

Ramadaan is a pillar of Islam; the Qur’aan was revealed in this month, and in it there is a night that is better than a thousand months. “When Ramadaan begins, the gates of Paradise are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the devils are put in chains.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, no. 3277). Fasting Ramadaan is equivalent to fasting ten months (See Musnad Ahmad, 5/280; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/421). “Whoever fasts Ramadaan out of faith and with the hope of reward, all his previous sins will be forgiven.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, Fath, no. 37). At the breaking of every fast, Allaah will choose people to free from Hellfire. (Reported by Ahmad, 5/256; Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1/419). Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid (Saudi Arabia) http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/books/8#Ruling%20on%20fasting 

"UNQUOTE"

The second banner of PTI (ABOVE) says "Allah's Order" & "People's Government" (NO SUCH THING IN ISLAM CALLED "PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT - IT IS HARAM)

Secular Democratic - Anglo Saxon system and Islam are two different systems and instead of perverting both [i mean mixing it] one must choose between either one of them.

If those who are living in West and enjoying Lucrative Jobs in Purely Infidel Setup and that too an Infidel Military Setup, and also have "ITCH" for Islam then Quran and Hadith should be ultimate for them. They should go back to their Islamic "Home Country" and start living in Muslim Society and should sacrifice Green Bucks and Social Security.

Those who want to observe Islam, Veil and Islamic Culture should come back and live in Afghanistan and Northern Areas of Pakistan.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلآئِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَالُواْ فِيمَ كُنتُمْ قَالُواْ كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الأَرْضِ قَالْوَاْ أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُواْ فِيهَا فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَسَاءتْ مَصِيرًا


Lo! as for those whom the angels take (in death) while they wrong themselves, (the angels) will ask: In what were ye engaged? They will say: We were oppressed in the land. (The angels) will say: Was not Allah's earth spacious that ye could have migrated therein? As for such, their habitation will be hell, an evil journey's end; [AN-NISA (WOMEN) Chapter 4 Verse 97]

Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I disown every Muslim who settles among the mushrikeen.” [Sunnan Abu Dawood]

It is obligatory to migrate from the kaafir lands to the Muslim lands for those who are able to do that, if they are unable to practise their religion openly.

Ibn al-‘Arabi al-Maaliki said: Hijrah (migration) means leaving dar al-harb [non-Muslim lands] and going to dar al-islam [Muslim lands]. This was obligatory at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and remains so after his time for those who fear for their lives. From Nayl al-Awtaar, 8/33, by al-Shawkaani.

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar said concerning the hadeeth, “I disown every Muslim who settles among the mushrikeen”:

This is to be understood as referring to those who are not safe to practise their religion there. Fath al-Baari

Only Following is allowed [if you talk of Islam, Quran and Hadith]:

وَلَا تُجَادِلُوا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ إِلَّا بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْهُمْ وَقُولُوا آمَنَّا بِالَّذِي أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَأُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَإِلَهُنَا وَإِلَهُكُمْ وَاحِدٌ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ

And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our Allah and your Allah is One, and unto Him we surrender. [AL-ANKABOOT (THE SPIDER) Chapter 29 - Verse 46]

وَإِنْ أَحَدٌ مِّنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ اسْتَجَارَكَ فَأَجِرْهُ حَتَّى يَسْمَعَ كَلاَمَ اللّهِ ثُمَّ أَبْلِغْهُ مَأْمَنَهُ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لاَّ يَعْلَمُونَ

And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not. [AL-TAWBA (REPENTANCE, DISPENSATION) Chapter 9 - Verse 6]

لَا يَنْهَاكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ لَمْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوا إِلَيْهِمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ

Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers. [AL-MUMTAHINA (SHE THAT IS TO BE EXAMINED, EXAMINING HER) Chapter 60 - Verse 8]

If one want to live in the West then follow their Law and don't complain about Prohibition of Veil, dont raise hue and cry when someone amongst them use 'Freedom of Expression' to practice Homosexuality and Lesbianism openly [what do you think when an underage or even adult Muslim male or female watch these acts of Hedonism? Wont this effect him or her? Forbidden as per Quran to even go near to those things which lead to Adultery].

وَلاَ تَقْرَبُواْ الزِّنَى إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَسَاء سَبِيلاً

And come not near unto adultery. Lo! it is an abomination and an evil way.[AL-ISRA (ISRA', THENIGHT JOURNEY, CHILDREN OF ISRAEL) Chapter 17 Verse 32]


Even watching these things gives you wrong ideas?

What about your Tax Money through which USA and other NATO Countries financing War On Terror and bombing Innocent Muslims? Forbidden in Quran to help Combatant Non-Muslims in any way. What do you think your Tax Money does? Undoubtedly the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not compromise in matters of his religion. When he was in Makkah, before the Hijrah, he used to pray openly, whilst they were looking on. After the Muslims became a distinct community, a specific style of dress was ordained for them, and they commanded to forsake anything else that was a symbol of kufr and was distinctive to the kuffaar, because this is imitation, and whoever imitates a people is one of them.

How can the believer be content to live in the land of the Non Muslims where the rituals of kufr [Disbelief] are proclaimed openly and rule belongs to someone other than Allaah and His Messenger, seeing that with his own eyes, hearing that with his own ears and approving of it, and even starting to feel that he belongs there and living there with his wife and children, and feeling as comfortable there as he does in the Muslim lands, even though he and his wife and children are in such great danger and their religious commitment and morals are in such peril?

AS PER PURE ISLAMIC LAW [FOR WHICH THIS UMMAH IS ITCHING] and since these don't exist in the West and that is why those who condemn Secular-Anglo-Saxon Western Democarcies should come back to 'Islamic Countires'. Following are the salient feature of the Secular Democracies through which Islamic Political Activists Type of Muslims e.g. Imran Khan and those who belonged to Jamat-e-Islami and Ikwan but settled in the West, reap all the benefits and then shamelessly raise finger against the same system.

"QUOTE"

A- Foreign Exchange:

1 – Dealing in buying and selling for the purpose of profit, and this dealing is usually done in major currencies or financial certificates (shares and bonds) or some types of products, and it may include trade in options, futures and the indexes of major markets.

2 – Loans, which refers to the money given by the agent to the customer directly if the agent is a bank, or via a third party if the agent is not a bank.

3 – Riba, which occurs in this transaction in the form of fees for delaying the deal. This is interest that is charged to the purchaser if he does not make a decision on the same day, and which may be a percentage of the loan or a set amount.

4 – Commission, which is the money that the agent gets as a result of the investor’s (customer’s) dealing through him, and it is an agreed-upon percentage of the value of the sale or purchase.

5 – The pledge, which is a commitment signed by the customer agreeing to leave the contract with the agent as a pledge for a loan, giving him the right to sell these contracts and take back the loan if the customer’s losses reach a specific percentage of the margin, unless the customer increases the pledge in order to compensate for a drop in the price of the product.

Firstly: It involves obvious riba, which is represented by the addition to the amount of the loan which is called “paying fees for delaying the deal”. This is a kind of haraam riba. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“O you who believe! Fear Allaah and give up what remains (due to you) from Ribaa (from now onward) if you are (really) believers. 279. And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allaah and His Messenger but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less than your capital sums)” [al-Baqarah 2:278-279]

Secondly: The agent stipulates that the customer must deal through him, which leads to combining both giving a loan for something in return and paying commission, which is akin to combining giving a loan and selling at the same time, which is forbidden in sharee’ah because the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “It is not permissible to give a loan and sell at the same time…” The hadeeth was narrated by Abu Dawood (3/384) and al-Tirmidhi (3/526), who said it is a hasan saheeh hadeeth. In this case he has benefited from his loan, and the fuqaha’ are unanimously agreed that every loan that brings a benefit is haraam riba.

Thirdly: Dealings that are done in this manner in the global markets usually involve many contracts that are haraam according to sharee’ah, such as:

1- Dealing in bonds, which comes under the heading of riba which is haraam. This was stated in a resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Council in Jeddah, no. 60, in its sixth session.

2- Dealing indiscriminately in company shares. The fourth statement of the Islamic Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League in its fourteenth session in 1415 AH stated that it is haraam to deal in the shares of companies whose main purposes are haraam, or some of their dealings involve riba.

3- Selling currencies is usually done without the hand to hand exchange which makes them permissible according to sharee’ah.

4- Dealing in options and futures. A resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Council in Jeddah no. (63), in its sixth session, stated that options are not permissible according to sharee’ah, because the object of dealing in these contracts is not money or services or a financial obligation which it is permissible to exchange. The same applies to futures and trading in indexes.

5- In some cases the agent is selling something that he does not possess, and selling what one does not possess is forbidden in sharee’ah.

B- Establishing Insurance

1) All kinds of commercial insurance are clearly and undoubtedly ribaa (interest/usury). Insurance is the sale of money for money, of a greater or lesser amount, with a delay in one of the payments. It involves riba al-fadl (interest-based transaction) and riba al-nas’ (interest to be charged if payment is delayed beyond the due date), because the insurance companies take people’s money and promise to pay them more or less money when a specific accident against which insurance has been taken out happens. This is riba, and riba is forbidden in the Qur’aan, in many aayaat.

2) All kinds of commercial insurance are based on nothing but gambling which is haraam according to the Qur’aan:

“O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al-Ansaab (stone altars for sacrifice to idols etc.) and Al-Azlaam (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Shaytaan’s (Satan’s) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful” (al-Maa’idah 5:90 – interpretation of the meaning).

All kinds of insurance are kinds of playing with chances. They tell you, Pay this much money, then if this happens to you we will give you this much. This is pure gambling. Insisting on differentiating between insurance and gambling is pure stubbornness that is unacceptable to any sound mind. The insurance companies themselves admit that insurance is gambling.

3) All kinds of insurance are forms of uncertainty, and transactions which involve uncertainty are forbidden according to many saheeh ahaadeeth, such as the hadeeth narrated by Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him):

“The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade transactions determined by throwing a stone and transactions which involved some uncertainty.” (Narrated by Muslim).

[“Transactions determined by throwing a stone” – this was a type of transaction that was prevalent in the markets of pre-Islamic Arabia, whereby a stone was thrown by either the buyer or the seller, and whatever it touched, its transaction became binding. “Transactions which involved some uncertainty” – is a transaction in which there is no guarantee that the seller can deliver the goods for which he receives payment. Footnotes from the translation of Saheeh Muslim. (Translator)].

All forms of commercial insurance are based on uncertainty of the most extreme kind. Insurance companies and those who sell insurance refuse to insure cases except where there is clear uncertainty in whether or not the condition being insured against will happen or not. In other words, the condition being insured against must have a possibility of happening or not happening (as opposed to, for example, someone who has a pre-existing condition, such as a person who is on death row applying for life insurance--translator.) Moreover, this transaction involves something uncertain, which is when an accident will happen and the extent of the damage caused. Hence insurance combines three kinds of extreme uncertainty.

4) All kinds of commercial insurance consume people’s wealth unjustly, which is haraam according to the Qur’aan:

“O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly” (al-Nisaa’ 4:29 – interpretation of the meaning).

All forms of commercial insurance are fraudulent transactions aimed at consuming people’s wealth unjustly. The precise statistics calculated by one of the German experts state that what people get back of what has been taken from them is no more than 2.9%.

Insurance is an immense loss for the nation, and there is no evidence or excuse to be found in the actions of the kuffaar who have lost the ties of kinship and friendship and are therefore forced to resort to insurance, which they hate as much as they hate death.

These are only some of the violations of sharee’ah which insurance is essentially based upon. There are numerous other violations which we do not have room to mention here, and there is no need to do so, because just one of the violations which we have mentioned above is sufficient to make insurance one of the things which is most prohibited in the sharee’ah of Allaah.

It is a shame that some people are deceived by the ways in which the insurance companies make insurance attractive and confuse them by calling it “co-operative” or “mutual support” or “Islamic”, or other names which do not change the unjust nature of insurance in the slightest.

The insurance companies’ claim that the ‘ulamaa’ have issued fatwaas stating that so-called “co-operative insurance” is halaal, is a lie. The reason for this confusion is that some insurance companies approached the ‘ulamaa’ with a deceitful set-up which has nothing to do with any kind of insurance, but they said that it was a kind of insurance which they called “co-operative insurance” (to make it sound attractive and to confuse the people). They said that it was purely in the nature of a donation, and that it was a kind of the co-operation enjoined by Allaah in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning): “Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety)…” (al-Maa’idah 5:2), and that the aim was to co-operate in alleviating the overwhelming disasters that may befall people. But in fact what they called co-operative insurance was just like any other kind of insurance; the only difference was in the way in which it was set up, not in its essential nature. It was far from being any kind of simple donation or co-operation in righteousness and piety; in fact it is a kind of co-operation in sin and transgression. It was not aimed at helping to relieve the distress of calamities, but at depriving people of their wealth by unjust means, which is absolutely haraam, as are other kinds of insurance. Hence what they proposed to the ‘ulamaa’ is not even insurance at all.

With regard to the claim made by some, that part of the premium (money paid to the insurer) is returned, this does not change anything and does not free insurance from the taint of ribaa, gambling, transactions based on uncertainty, unjust consumption of people’s wealth and going against the principle of trusting in Allaah (tawakkul), and other kinds of haraam actions. Insurance is deceit and confusion. Anyone who wishes to learn more should refer to the essay al-Ta’meen wa Ahkaamuhu (Insurance and its rulings). I call on every Muslim who has pride in his religion and whose hopes are focused on Allaah and the Last Day to fear Allaah and to avoid all kinds of insurance, no matter how attractive their proponents make them, for they are undoubtedly forbidden. In this manner he will protect his religion and his wealth, and he will be blessed with security from the Owner of security, may He be exalted.

3- Banking

Riba is emphatically forbidden in Islam. Allaah has condemned the one who does that and has declared war on him, and spoken of his bad end on the Day of Resurrection. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Those who eat Ribaa will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaytaan (Satan) leading him to insanity. That is because they say: ‘Trading is only like Ribaa,’ whereas Allaah has permitted trading and forbidden Ribaa. So whosoever receives an admonition from his Lord and stops eating Ribaa, shall not be punished for the past; his case is for Allaah (to judge); but whoever returns (to Ribaa), such are the dwellers of the Fire — they will abide therein.

Allaah will destroy Ribaa and will give increase for Sadaqaat (deeds of charity, alms). And Allaah likes not the disbelievers, sinners”

[al-Baqarah 2:275, 276]

“O you who believe! Fear Allaah and give up what remains (due to you) from Ribaa (from now onward) if you are (really) believers.

And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allaah and His Messenger but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less than your capital sums)”

[al-Baraqah 2:278, 279]

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) cursed the one who consumes riba, the one who pays it, the one who writes it down and the two who witness it, and he said, “They are all the same.” Narrated by Muslim, 1598, from the hadeeth of Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him).

And he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A dirham of riba consumed knowingly by a man is worse before Allaah than committing zina thirty-six times.” Narrated by Ahmad and al-Tabaraani, classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, no. 3375.

And there are other texts which point to the enormity and abhorrent nature of this crime.

The Islamic financial system does not approve of any transaction that includes riba, rather the sharee’ah forbids certain transactions so as to prevent the means that lead to riba.

Secondly:

The banks that exist nowadays are all riba based banks, with a few rare exceptions. Just because a bank is located in a Muslim country does not mean that it is an Islamic bank. Most of these banks are connected to Jewish and Crusader banks overseas. It is most regrettable that in the Muslim lands which are home to more than a billion Muslims there is no Islamic bank that is free from riba, apart from a few institutions.

So the decision makers among the Muslims have to pay due attention to this matter and establish an independent Islamic banking system. There are scholars and people who are able to work in this field, and there is a great deal of capital, praise be to Allaah.

Thirdly:

The true Islamic financial system is a system that is free of riba, because it is a system that is derived from the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Your saying in your question that you have noticed riba in financial transactions in theIslamic banks needs further explanation. Perhaps you think that some of these transactions involve riba when they do not.

We ask Allaah to set the Muslims’ affairs straight and to help those in authority to do what is right and proper. Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds.

4- Adult Franchise and Voting Power:

Democracy is a man-made system, meaning rule by the people for the people. Thus it is contrary to Islam, because rule is for Allaah, the Most High, the Almighty, and it is not permissible to give legislative rights to any human being, no matter who he is.

Undoubtedly the democratic system is one of the modern forms of shirk, in terms of obedience and following, or legislation, as it denies the sovereignty of the Creator and His absolute right to issue laws, and ascribes that right to human beings. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“You do not worship besides Him but only names which you have named (forged) — you and your fathers — for which Allaah has sent down no authority. The command (or the judgement) is for none but Allaah. He has commanded that you worship none but Him (i.e. His Monotheism); that is the (true) straight religion, but most men know not” [Yoosuf 12:40]

“The decision is only for Allaah” [al-An’aam 6:57]

Secondly:

The one who understands the true nature of the democratic system and the ruling thereon, then he nominates himself or someone else (for election) is approving of this system, and is working with it, is in grave danger, because the democratic system is contrary to Islam and approving of it and participating in it are actions that imply apostasy and being beyond the pale of Islam.


It is not permissible for a Muslim to nominate himself in the hope that he can become part of a system which rules according to something other than that which Allaah has revealed and operates according to something other than the sharee’ah of Islam. It is not permissible for a Muslim to vote for him or for anyone else who will work in that government, unless the one who nominates himself or those who vote for him hope that by getting involved in that they will be able to change the system to one that operates according to the sharee’ah of Islam, and they are using this as a means to overcome the system of government, provided that the one who nominates himself will not accept any position after being elected except one that does not go against Islamic sharee’ah. End quote.

The Muslims in a country that is not governed according to Islamic sharee’ah should do their utmost and strive as much as they can to bring about rule according to Islamic sharee’ah, and they should unite in helping the party which is known will rule in accordance with Islamic sharee’ah. As for supporting one who calls for non-implementation of Islamic sharee’ah, that is not permissible, rather it may lead a person to kufr, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And so judge (you O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) among them by what Allaah has revealed and follow not their vain desires, but beware of them lest they turn you (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) far away from some of that which Allaah has sent down to you. And if they turn away, then know that Allaah’s Will is to punish them for some sins of theirs. And truly, most of men are Faasiqoon (rebellious and disobedient to Allaah).

50. Do they then seek the judgement of (the days of) Ignorance? And who is better in judgement than Allaah for a people who have firm Faith”

[al-Maa'idah 5:49-50].

Hence when Allaah stated that those who do not rule in accordance with Islamic sharee’ah are guilty of kufr, He warned against helping them or taking them as allies or close friends, and He commanded the believers to fear Him if they were truly believers. He says (interpretation of the meaning):

“O you who believe! Take not as Awliyaa’ (protectors and helpers) those who take your religion as a mockery and fun from among those who received the Scripture (Jews and Christians) before you, and nor from among the disbelievers; and fear Allaah if you indeed are true believers”

[al-Maa’idah 5:57]

And Allaah is the Source of strength. May Allaah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. End quote.

"UNQUOTE"

Friday, November 7, 2008

Calamity of Dr Shahid Masood & TV Anchors - 2




HOW USA BACKED GENERAL MUSHARRAF IS CONTROLLING THE MEDIA:


Through amendment in Section 30 of the Pemra Ordinance, the bill seeks to give discretionary powers to the authority to vary licence conditions and suspend or revoke the licence. It calls for abolition of a three-member committee that is to be constituted, under the present law, by the federal government under the chairmanship of a retired judge of the high court or the Supreme Court. The committee is empowered to render its opinion as to whether or not a licensee has contravened any of the provisions of the Pemra Ordinance. The committee's other members include one representative each from the licensee and the authority. The bill seeks deletion of the committee-related provision.


The bill has further expanded Section 29 through addition of Section 29(A) which has enhanced the recovery powers of Pemra. The bill seeks recovery of arrears and penalties from licensees as arrears of land revenue. The amendment bill has also enhanced the amount of fine which may be imposed by the authority from Rs1-2 million. Suggesting addition of clause (b) to Section 27 of the ordinance, the bill presumes the possibility of what it says abuse of media power, which it does not define. The clause authorises the authority to prohibit any broadcaster from engaging in any practice or act which amounts to abuse of media power by way of harming the legitimate interests of another licensee or wilfully causing damage to any other persons. In a move to oust the jurisdiction of the superior courts, the amendment bill has sought to restrict the licensee's right to pre-empt a negative order from the authority by adding to the same clause a provision that allows him/her to go to high court only (reducing forums of appeal) within thirty days of an order of the authority and not a show cause or other notices. The present laws leave a room for pre-empting a negative order and seeking a stay against it by the high court. But the amendment seeks to restrict the licensee from moving the high court before an order of the authority. It is also not explained if the order of the authority will not be implemented within 30 days of its passage to allow the licensee to move the court and stay its enforcement lest it is enforced first and then challenged in the court. According to the proposed amendments, the authorized Pemra officials are being empowered to inspect the premises of the radio/TV stations.


Regarding enforcement powers, the amendments tabled in the National Assembly seek to require the federal, provincial and district governments to assist the authority in discharge of its functions. This, according to Matiullah Jan of the Internews, means the police have been empowered to take action on a report from an authorized Pemra official. Similarly, the bill also allows the Pemra officials along with the police to get a search warrant from the court (The court hasn't been defined) and raid any premises which is suspected of housing an illegal broadcasting station. A crucial change being proposed in Section 21 of the ordinance is the proposed deletion of its clause (3) wherein the authority is under obligation to expedite the licensing and operation of private radio and TV stations with the objective of facilitating freedom of expression on the airwaves. The present law also requires the authority to ensure that no unreasonable delay occurs in processing the applications on the grounds that the federal or provincial governments require an unspecified time to complete their procedures. This whole clause (3) is being proposed to be deleted in the amendment bill.


According to the report, the public interest argument is also being used to enhance the authority's powers to provide exemptions from any provisions of the ordinance to anyone.
Section 32 of the present law requires the authority that such exemptions shall be made in conformity with the principles of equality and equity as enshrined in the Constitution. But the amendment bill seeks to do away with this restriction which is rooted in the Constitution. The bill also suggests that the authority should be empowered to appoint members of the Council of Complaints as against the federal government's power at present. However, it states that the federal government should approve such appointment. The bill also seeks powers for the council to summon a licensee to explain his position on a complaint. The bill proposes amendment in Section 6 of the ordinance wherein it seeks payment of authority-specified fee and expenses to the ex-officio members of the authority as well just like other members. They were not entitled to such payments earlier. The ex-officio members are secretary ministry of information, secretary Interior Division and chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. {5}


CONTROL IN TIMES OF FREEDOM:

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was set up to regulate the airwaves and issue private broadcast licences for radio and television. In the intervening two years, close to 100 FM radio and 25 satellite TV licences have been issued, transforming the country's media scene drastically. While all this looks good as the new media outlets, especially television, begin to provide news and information to a starved Pakistani public, it is increasingly becoming apparent that the authorities are not letting the potential of these independent sources of information to develop fully. The government still issues threats against the media, and keeps pressurising them to not become 'too independent'. Journalists are harassed and media outlets, especially the new radio licencees, are actively discouraged from broadcasting 'national' news. The refusal of the authorities to put an end to the era of influencing news flow is a worrying sign that does not seem to be abating even as the private media presence grows. There are signs that even as unprecedented media freedoms come into effect in Pakistan, a counter media establishment is taking shape that is nullifying the gains. Even though dozens of private TV channels and radio stations have been licensed to operate in the last two years, their outreach to viewership and listenership is severely restricted through laws and mechanisms that hinder the development of an enabling environment.

For instance, while state-owned TV and radio have universal audience outreach (150 million people!), the private broadcasters don't. This is because private TV channels are satellite (expensively beamed in from abroad), not terrestrial (cheap national transmission). The reason is clear: the government does not want to share its massive captive audience with competitors. This intentional bias is killing the spirit of media freedoms. One major reason why civil society in Pakistan is weak is because the state-owned media with its massive outreach does not promote it and private media which does is limited in impact because of restricted access. Making matters worse is the recent toughening up of media laws dealing with speech that have drastically raised the punishment for defamation, encouraging self-censorship. A separate new law makes criticism of the judiciary even more difficult. Then the Ministry of Information has been assuming a greater role in discouraging the private media from reporting on issues such as politics, terrorism, current affairs, etc. The biggest challenge in the media sector in Pakistan remains in the absence of universal broadcast access to private media, which is currently severely restricted. There is no terrestrial TV in the private sector. Either the satellite TV stations should be awarded the right of terrestrial broadcasts or the state-owned PTV and PBC need to be brought under the ambit of PEMRA, which they currently are not. A level playing field for the media players in Pakistan does not currently exist. Currently the private TV channels have to operate as offshore channels, beaming in through satellite and are available through an intervening distribution system thereby severely restricting access. The private channels cannot be beamed terrestrially from within Pakistan, thereby being victims of double jeopardy as they have to incur heavy operational expenses. By not letting all Pakistani citizens have access to local private television media as freely as they can access PTV, the government is guilty of denying them the complete right to freedom of information promised them under Article 19 of the constitution. A rigorous and diverse mass media is an essential component of a democratic society. If Pakistan is to have a more participatory, representative and accountable democracy, the country's nascent independent electronic media sector must be aggressively supported. In a country of 150 million people, where the functional literacy rate is a dismal 30 per cent, the power of independent television and radio to educate and inform cannot be overstated. Too much governance has been Pakistan's perennial problem. But controlling the airwaves in the information age is taking things too far by even local standards. This last link to freedom should be unpoliced. {5}

NOTES:

Manufacturing Dissent: Noam Chomsky on Journalism. {1}

Media Control by Noam Chomsky Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 17, 1991 Excerpted from the Alternative Press Review, Fall 1993 {2}



Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free) by Arundhati Roy Presented in New York City at The Riverside Church May 13, 2003 Published on Sunday, May 18, 2003 by CommonDreams.org Copyright 2003 by Arundhati Roy {3}

http://www.cesr.org/

Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free), by Arundhati Roy {3}



Transcript of full speech by Arundhati Roy in San Francisco, California on August 16th, 2004. Copyright 2004 Arundhati Roy. For permission to reprint contact arnove@igc.org


THE PRESS IN CHAINS BY Late. Zamir Niazi {Published by Royal Book Company Karachi 1986} {4}

Civil society fears curbs on media freedom By Our Staff Reporter February 20, 2005 {5}.


In Afghanistan, journalists find satire is no laughing matter [Mirwais Social, quoted toward the end of the article, is Internews Afghanistan's Production Unit Manager] {5}

http://www.internews.org/articles/2004/20041201_yahoo_afghan.htm


Conference argues journalists have role to play in conflicts Reporters urged to initiate dialogue, mediation Speakers focus on how to define conflict, how parties can best communicate By Nada Bakri Special to The Daily Star Thursday, November 25, 2004 {5}.



ARTILCES BY EQBAL AHMED.

The Post-Colonial State From Potato Sack to Potato Mash: The Contemporary Crisis of the Third World [Arab Studies Quarterly, Summer 1980]

Post-Colonial System of Power [Arab Studies Quarterly, Fall 1980]


The Neo-Fascist State: Notes on the Pathology of Power in the Third World [Arab Studies Quarterly, Spring 1981]


Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, Cease Fire Please [Dawn, 7 April 1991]

In a Land Without Music [Dawn, 23 July 1993]

As Afghanistan Goes [Dawn, 24 September 1995]

What After Strategic Depth? [Dawn, 23 August 1998]

Bloody Games [The New Yorker, 11 April 1988]


The War at Home
War on Women [27 February 1994]
Murder of a Metropolis [Dawn, 17 July 1994]

Karachi’s Alarming Message [Dawn, 28 May 1995]
Beyond this Battle of Karachi [Dawn, 17 August 1995]

When Government Violates the Law [Dawn, 27 August 1995]

Writings on the Wall [Dawn, 17 September 1995]

A Town Called Shantinagar [Dawn, 18 February 1997]
Roots of Violence in Pakistan [Dawn, 25 January 1998]

Feudal Culture and Violence [Dawn, 2 February 1998]

The Conflict Within [Dawn, 15 February 1998]

An Islamic Predicament [Dawn, 22 February 1998]

http://www.bitsonline.net/eqbal/articles_by_eqbal.asp?id=7

Islam and Politics
Religion in Politics [Dawn, 31 January 1999]

Profile of the Religious Right [Dawn, 7 March 1999]
Book Review: Kanan Makiya, Cruelty and Silence:War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World
[The Nation, 9 August 1993]
Islam and Politics [The Islamic Impact, eds. Y. Haddad, B. Haines and E. Findly, Syracuse University Press, 1984]


Hopes and Possibilities
Questions of Rights [Dawn, 27 September 1992]
The Maulana’s Lieutenant [Dawn, 2 January 1996]
Your Country’s Balance Sheet [Dawn, 5 February 1995]
Culture of Complaint [Dawn, 14 June 1994]
The Shape of Pakistan

Pakistan Portents [The Nation, November 1, 1993 ]
Pakistan’s Endangered History [Dawn, 4 June 1995]

The Betrayed Promise [Dawn, 18 June 1995]

How A Continent Divided? [Dawn, 24 August 1997]
Letter to a Pakistani Diplomat [New York Review of Books, 2 September 1971]

Notes on South Asia in Crisis [Bulletin of Concern Asian Scholars, Winter 1972]

Meanings in the Disaster [Dawn, 17 April 1994]



Militarism and the State
Pakistan – Signposts to A Police State [Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1974]

Pakistan: Military Intervention [Le Monde Diplomatique, October 1977]
Pakistan in Crisis: an interview [Race and Class, XXII, No.2 1980]

Pakistan’s Praetorian Curse [Dawn, 23 December 1989]
The Signals Soldiers Pick [Dawn, 12 November 1995]

India’s Obsession, Our Choice [Dawn, 17 May 1998]
When Mountains Die [Dawn, 4 June 1998]
Nuclear Gains and Losses [Dawn, 14 June 1998]
Reason As Spectator [Dawn, 11 June 1998]
India
Fever: Between Past and the Future [Dawn, 1 April 1994]

Islam as Refuge from Failure [6 September 1998]
Roots of the Religious Right [24 January 1999]

Nurturing Democracy [Dawn, 13 September 1992]

After The Indian Winter [New Socialist, March 1985]

India’s Uncertain Future [Dawn, 26 May 1991]
We Meet Again [Dawn, 13 December 1992]
BJP’s Challenge to Pakistan [Dawn, 22 March 1998]

A Conversation With Gujral [Dawn, 10 May 1998]

Kashmir [Himal, November 1996]

http://www.bitsonline.net/eqbal/articles_by_eqbal.asp?id=4

Kashmir
A Question of Values [Dawn, 20 September 1992]

Law Against Justice [Dawn, 4 October 1992]

Intellectuals Role in Society [Dawn, 10 December 1995]
Jinnah, in a Class of His Own [Dawn, 11 June 1995]

Kashmir - India’s Nemesis [Dawn, 10 February 1990]

Is War Imminent? [Dawn, 19 May 1991]

Thoughts Of A Secular Sufi Noam Chomsky

NOTE: This article is a review of:

Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire

Interviews with David Barsamian Introduction by Edward W. Said

Cambridge: South End Press, 2000


THE TRUTH GEO, ARY AND INDUS TV NEVER TELL:

Taliban in Texas: Big Oil hankers for old pals by Pepe Escobar May 18, 2004

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FE18Aa03.html

Pipelineistan revisited by Pepe Escobar Dec 25, 2003

War Is Peace

The world doesn't have to choose between the Taliban and the US government. All the beauty of the world—literature, music, art—lies between these two fundamentalist poles.

Arundhati Roy Also Appeared in Outlook

http://www.zmag.org/roywarpeace.htm

Interview with Eqbal Ahmed {PART-1} India, Pakistan, Palestine, Bosnia, etc. by David Barsamian by courtesy & © 1993-2001 Zmag & Alternative Radio
Interview with Eqbal Ahmed {PART-2} From Bandung to Mexico: The Decline of the Third World by David Barsamian by courtesy & © 1993-2001 Zmag & Alternative Radio

http://www.mediamonitors.net/interview6.html

Calamity of Dr Shahid Masood & TV Anchors - 1






This was compiled when Dr Shahid Masood was Islamic Socialist Political Activist Type of TV Anchor in ARY ONE [now in 2008 he is Advisor to the PM of Pakistan] when General Musharraf's popularity was at its peak. Please keep in mind the time of those days.

Friendship of Musharraf and Shahid Masood:

Since the days of General Ziaul Haq and his cohorts who are still in business {1977-2005} hired several journalists to present a controlled picture {read information} in several magazines/newspapers like Takbeer and Ummat and many others and several journalists of that particular class are in every newspaper. But after 9/11 many things changed and print media took a back seat and came the Boom of Private TV Channels and with these channels comes Plagiarism par excellence particularly in the talk shows of ARY ONE {specifically Dr. Shahid Masood of Views on News}, GEO TV {Adnan Awan and Shams Kazmi}, GEO TV {Dr. Amir Liaquat Hussain}, AAJ TV {Syed Talat Hussain} and above all Indus Vision {Mujahid Barelvi}. The agenda of these gentlemen to project an image of ‘Enlightened Moderation’ of General Musharraf and his other Praetorian cohorts. Zia used to exploit Islam, Quran, and Hadith with a twist to perpetuate his Unlawful Rule whereas the present Dictator has been using the nomenclature of Liberalism, Secularism, and Progressivism to perpetuate his Unlawful Rule. Neither Zia nor Musharraf were sincere with Islam, Quran, Hadith, Liberalism, Secularism and Progressivism respectively. The days of Paid Journalists are gone but a new era of Paid Experts, Hosts and Anchors is arrived. The PEMRA {Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority} has replaced Intelligence agencies and ISPR who used to Brief and De-brief selected brand of Journalists, now PEMRA doing the same with hosts of the Talk Shows and other such Tamashas (Circus) prevalent these days in the name of Views on News with Dr. Shahid Masood, Q&A with P.J.Mir, AlimOnLine with Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain {member of MQM i.e. a Barelvi (A Muslim sect of grave worshippers also has representation in MMA) Version of Jamat-e-Islami}, Aneeq Ahmed with Alif, Abdul Rauf with 50 Minute, Mujahid Barelvi on Mujahid on Line, Alia Salahuddin d/o Ghazi Salahuddin with George Ka Pakistan.etc.etc.

Dr. Shahid Masood at the end of his program always advises his viewers to look after yourself, and people around you so to enable viewers to take Dr. Sahab as an angel on earth. There is a very bad thing going on that very channel of Dr. Shahid Masood and that is Plagiarism because 90% of his commentary and facts and figures are consist upon the work of Scholars who he never mentioned like for example his most famous program “The Hidden Truth” was actually a translation of Arabic Program relayed on Al-Jazeera TV and the commentary he gave was consisted upon a book by Dr. Israr Ahmed but both of these sources were never mentioned ever, and now Dr. Shahid’s book/CD/DVDs are in the market with his name on it. Recently in a program he read a whole chapter from a famous book ‘Awaz-e-Dost’ by Mukhtar Masood without having any shame and decency to at least mention the learned and humble scholar like Mukhtar Masood. Dr. Shahid’s heart pains and cried on the plight of Muslims while telling the gory details of ‘Resistance against the USA in Baghdad, Tikrit, Faluja and other places’ in one of his program while narrating the detail of a wanted Terrorist Abu-Musab Al Zarqawi he used the complete byline story of Journalist named Pepe Escobar {Read the complete stories Taliban in Texas: Big Oil hankers for old pals and Pipelineistan revisited by Pepe Escobar appeared in www.atimes.com links are in the notes} obviously without even mentioning the learned journalist. But that is not the end Dr. Shahid used only those stories which are not detrimental to General Musharraf and his Military Government because the same Pepe Escobar filed an story about Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders having closed links with several Generals in Musharraf’s present regime, Pepe Escobar had indepth disucssed the Taliban’s Mullahs visit to US State Department before 9-11 {The link is given below} nor Dr Shahid Masood mentions Arundhati Roy {Read the complete story War Is Peace by Arundhati Roy in the notes below} routs the present US Neo-Cons supporter of Musharraf and earlier the same US Neo-Cons were the supporters of Talibans. What Dr Shahid does is that he chooses the truth and news selectively to implement and enforced the agenda of Musharraf’s Military Regime and he does it so innocently that it seems very harmless whereas the distortion he is causing can only be called worst kind of Plagiarism and that too with picking and choosing the truth.


It is very strange that during any self-created Crisis by Musharraf {e.g. Dr. Shazia Rape/Baluchistan insurgency}, Dr Shahid Masood ‘finds’ himself in the centre of it e.g. nobody had that access to Dr. Shazia, Akber Bugti, Attaullah Mengal and Bugti’s grandson Brahamdagh Bugti like Dr Shahid Masood. You might have noticed that recently when the Parliamentary Team wanted to go to meet Bugti in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan the Pakistan Armed Forces refused clearance but isn’t it strange that Dr. Shahid ‘successfully’ conducted detailed interviews of Bugtis and not only that he recited letters from Dr. Shazia and even if that was not enough he travelled with Dr. Shazia and her husband from Islamabad to London or Dubai. Not a single noted journalist in Pakistan was successful enough to meet with Dr. Shazia while she was in impregnable security in Karachi. But years of blind following of everything we are told, we have become so pathetic that nobody questions as to why there is always Dr Shahd Masood in the middle of conspiracy created by General Musharraf?


Indus TV {PAF Shaheen Foundation} started talk shows just before 911 and whole purpose of Mr. Mujahid Barelvi to adopt a typical Military Establishment line to give any political talk show a turn that it would portray all the politicians in country responsible for every mess. Mujahid Barelvi tried his best before General Elections 2002 at the behest of ISPR to portray Politicians as responsible for every mess in the last 57 years whereas the reality is quite different. What the Pakistan Army and its establishment did with Pakistan is far worse than what the politicians did with this country. In a typical way all the programs of Mujahid Barelvi were edited in way that clear picture was never emerged at the end and Mujahid tried to play a part of Establishments’ apologist and he failed miserably but for general public he succeeded in presenting a bad picture of country’s politicians. The worse thing is that whole Indus TV and Indus Plus have become haunts for elite class’s plagiarists whose work its CEO Ghazanfar Ali and Mujahid use to perpetuate the agenda of Military Establishment.


Similarly on GEO TV, Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain in his program Alim On Line instead of listening to the guests, tries to push Altaf Hussain’s so-called Pragmatic Theory down the throats of Scholars and viewers as well. Instead to quoting authentic Quranic and Hadith references he takes the refuge of Fairy Tales and Concocted Hadiths to boost the unity amongst so-called Muslim Ummah, a unity that was finished the day Prophet Mohammad {PBUH} passed away. Actually MQM is a Barelvi version of Jamat-e-Islami and so-called Religious Fascism runs in the blood of the Muslims of the Sub-Continent particularly the Urdu Speaking class some way or the other they end up using Religion which they violate so thoroughly daily without fail. In the same GEO TV, Mr. Aneeq Ahmed in his program ‘Alif’ instead of listening to the guests who as compare to host are genuine scholars of repute, the host tried to put his or GEO’ words in the mouths of Scholar. The host want to solve the problem of pathetic Muslim Ummah and even more pathetic Pakistani Nation rather MOB through a single TV Talk Show. Instead of putting his words in the mouth of other Aneeq must listen to the scholars.


The 200 years of British slavery added further miseries into the lives and psyche of Sub-Continent Muslims, there is a program in BBC known as Hard Talk with a very shrewd and sharp host Tim Sebastian who ruthlessly fingers the guests to get truth out of them but Tim Sebastian knows what he is doing and he know his art and subjects well whereas the ridiculous parody of Hard Talk prevalent in Private TV Channles Indus, ARY, GEO, AAJ make all of us sick to the bone and soul. Like Iftikhar Ahmed GEO and P.J. Mir of ARY do on their programs because there is no sense of direction and the programs end up in shouting and even the Hosts didn’t ask them what should be asked, again they try to put ISPR words into the mouth of hosts they invite.


Recently another Tamasha {show} in the name of Enlightened Moderation or Secularism relayed by NGO Mafia on GEO TV, this time they used late. Eqbal Ahmed’s life to exploit his works and articles to serve the selfish interest of Military Junta using Secularism and Liberalism. Very few people know that Late. Eqbal Ahmed’s entry was banned in Pakistan during General Yahyah {due to Kissinger and Nixon’s interest in China through Pakistan} and General Zia, and Eqbal carried death sentence on his head during the times of Musharraf’s favourite dictator General Yahyah {Read two in-depth Eqbal Ahmed interviews conducted by by David Barsamian for Zmag and Alternative Radio and re-produced in Media Monitoring Network. Complete text in the links given in the notes} But these things were never mentioned on that particular program on Eqbal Ahmed {the program was the brainchild of Adnan Awan and Shams Kazmi and both were right hand men of Mujahid Barelvi in Indus Vision and now they are in GEO}. The program seemed to be an effort to counter Mullahs but several aspects of Late. Eqbal Ahmed’s life were intentionally ‘dropped’ from the program to appease the Military Regime of Musharraf. Particularly Eqbal’s detailed articles against the Filthy Pakistani Military Establishment, Hindu Fundamentalism of RSS and BJP and his strong stand on Kashmir and ethnic divide were never mentioned in the GEO TV’s so-called enlightened moderate program on Eqbal Ahmed. The articles are as {for detail text click the links given in Eqbals’s article in the Notes.

Militarism and the State

Pakistan – Signposts to A Police State [Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1974]

Pakistan: Military Intervention [Le Monde Diplomatique, October 1977]

Pakistan in Crisis: an interview [Race and Class, XXII, No.2 1980]

Pakistan’s Praetorian Curse [Dawn, 23 December 1989]

The Signals Soldiers Pick [Dawn, 12 November 1995]

India’s Obsession, Our Choice [Dawn, 17 May 1998]

When Mountains Die [Dawn, 4 June 1998]

Nuclear Gains and Losses [Dawn, 14 June 1998]

Reason As Spectator [Dawn, 11 June 1998]

Chomsky views the media as an ideological system serving the powerful elites in society. He explains how governments get away with lying, how academics and intellectuals manufacture consent to the actions of government, and how the media confine debate to the conservative middle ground. Chomsky argues the Western media have neglected their questioning role, instead repeatedly giving primary access to intellectuals who defend the role of Western governments. He sees the media's role as producing consensus amongst the public towards the ruling elites in government and business. "The [media's] current mission is to ensure that any thought of controlling their destiny must be driven from the minds of the rascal multitude," he has written in, Year 501: The Conquest Continues. And, in Deterring Democracy, he writes: "The goal is to eliminate public meddling in policy formation".

Probably Chomsky's most known book in this country is Manufacturing Consent: the political economy of the mass media, which he wrote in 1988 with Edward Herman, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania. The Propaganda Model sketched out in this book describes the structures and influences that Chomsky believes produce systematic propaganda in the media. "It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalise dissent, and allow government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public."

The model puts forward five filters on our news:


* The size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth and profit orientation of the dominant media outlets;


* Advertising as the primary source of income for most media;


* The reliance of the media on information provided by government, business, and `experts' funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power;


* `Flak' - criticism by the powerful of negative media statements - used as a means of disciplining the media;


* Control mechanisms of `anticommunism', `muslim fundamentalism', and so on.



"Most biased choices in the media arise from the preselection of right-thinking people, internalised preconceptions, and the adaptation of personnel to the constraints of ownership, organisation, market, and political power," they write in Manufacturing Consent.



"It's intended to pick out major factors that frame the way an institution functions," says Chomsky. "Now as any scientist knows you start a rational inquiry by trying to identify the major factors and then there's a whole set of secondary and tertiary factors that interfere. If you really look down into the details you'll find all sorts of other things going on. I'll mention one which is known to any serious investigative journalist, and a lot of them use it. "There are periodic scandals - meaning some horrible thing that happened by accident escapes, that's called a scandal - and the media feeders have to pretend to be very irate: how can our democracy survive etcetera etcetera. "It is well known among serious journalists that after a major scandal, like say Watergate or Iran-Contra or something, there is a period of a couple of months when the media tend to be more open. And then you can sneak in the stories that you've been storing up. "So if you take a close look at the media you'll discover that the really smart reporters often are coming out with things in that window of opportunity that opens up in reaction to the scandal.


In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky argues that the media establishes and defends the agenda of the dominant privileged groups in society. "The media serve this purpose in many ways: through selection of topics, distribution of concerns, framing of issues, filtering of information, emphasis and tone, and by keeping debate within the bounds of acceptable premises."


"Actually academic scholarship isn't all that different. If people start breaking out of the expected framework - if they are esoteric enough it may not matter - but if they are anywhere near issues of policy of power, they may find themselves in trouble. "I know plenty of journalists who've been told look you're getting too emotional why don't you take off a bit of time and go to the metro desk and work on that sort of thing. {1}


He further said…


...Let me begin by counter-posing two different conceptions of democracy. One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free.... An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing of their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled. That may sound like an odd conception of democracy, but it's important to understand that it is the prevailing conception....

Early History of Propaganda

...[The Wilson administration] established a government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission, which succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world. That was a major achievement, and it led to a further achievement. Right at that time and after the war the same techniques were used to whip up a hysterical Red Scare, as it was called, which succeeded pretty much in destroying unions and eliminating such dangerous problems as freedom of the press and freedom of political thought. There was very strong support from the media, from the business establishment, which in fact organized, pushed much of this work, and it was in general a great success.


Spectator Democracy


...Walter Lippman, who was the dean of American journalists, a major foreign and domestic policy critic and also a major theorist of liberal democracy...argued that what he called a "revolution in the art of democracy," could be used to "manufacture consent," that is, to bring about agreement on the part of the public for things that they didn't want by the new techniques of propaganda.... ...He argued that in a properly functioning democracy there are classes of citizens. There is first of all the class of citizens who have to take some active role in running general affairs. That's the specialized class. They are the people who analyze, execute, make decisions, and run things in the political, economic, and ideological systems. That's a small percentage of the population... Those others, who are out of the small group, the big majority of the population, they are what Lippman called "the bewildered herd." We have to protect ourselves from the trampling and rage of the bewildered herd... That means they have to have instilled in them the beliefs and doctrines that will serve the interests of private power. Unless they can master that skill, they're not part of the specialized class. They have to be deeply indoctrinated in the values and interests of private power and the state-corporate nexus that represents it. If they can get through that, then they can be part of the specialized class. The rest of the bewildered herd just have to be basically distracted. Turn their attention to something else.... ...In what is nowadays called a totalitarian state, then a military state, it's easy. You just hold a bludgeon over their heads, and if they get out of line you smash them over the head. But as society has become more free and democratic, you lose that capacity. Therefore you have to turn to the techniques of propaganda. The logic is clear. Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state....

Public Relations


...The corporate executive and the guy who cleans the floor all have the same interests. We can all work together and work for Americanism in harmony, liking each other. That was essentially the message. A huge amount of effort was put into presenting it. This is, after all, the business community, so they control the media and have massive resources... Mobilizing community opinion in favor of vapid, empty concepts like Americanism. Who can be against that? Or, to bring it up to date, "Support our troops." Who can be against that? Or yellow ribbons. Who can be against that?... The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything. They mean as much as whether you support the people in Iowa. Of course, there was an issue. The issue was, Do you support our policy? But you don't want people to think about the issue. That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything, but its crucial value is that it diverts your attention.... {2}.



The worst example of misguiding the whole Pakistani Nation was when the USA invaded Iraq a whole lot of Defence Analysts like General Hamid Gul, General Aslam Baig, Shahid M Amin and lots of others invaded GEO, ARY, INDUS TV and did their best to prove that the resistance against USA in Iraq is being spearheaded by Saddam Hussain and they never mentioned once as to what Saddam used to do with the US help against his own Iraqis and then Iranis and then Kuwaitis. Noted voice of dissent Ms. Arundhati Roy says…


When the United States invaded Iraq, a New York Times/CBS News survey estimated that 42 percent of the American public believed that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And an ABC News poll said that 55 percent of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein directly supported Al Qaida. None of this opinion is based on evidence (because there isn't any). All of it is based on insinuation, auto-suggestion, and outright lies circulated by the U.S. corporate media, otherwise known as the "Free Press," that hollow pillar on which contemporary American democracy rests. Public support in the U.S. for the war against Iraq was founded on a multi-tiered edifice of falsehood and deceit, coordinated by the U.S. government and faithfully amplified by the corporate media.


Never mind that forty years ago, the CIA, under President John F. Kennedy, orchestrated a regime change in Baghdad. In 1963, after a successful coup, the Ba'ath party came to power in Iraq. Using lists provided by the CIA, the new Ba'ath regime systematically eliminated hundreds of doctors, teachers, lawyers, and political figures known to be leftists. An entire intellectual community was slaughtered. (The same technique was used to massacre hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia and East Timor.) The young Saddam Hussein was said to have had a hand in supervising the bloodbath. In 1979, after factional infighting within the Ba'ath Party, Saddam Hussein became the President of Iraq. In April 1980, while he was massacring Shias, the U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinksi declared, "We see no fundamental incompatibility of interests between the United States and Iraq." Washington and London overtly and covertly supported Saddam Hussein. They financed him, equipped him, armed him, and provided him with dual-use materials to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. They supported his worst excesses financially, materially, and morally. They supported the eight-year war against Iran and the 1988 gassing of Kurdish people in Halabja, crimes which 14 years later were re-heated and served up as reasons to justify invading Iraq. After the first Gulf War, the "Allies" fomented an uprising of Shias in Basra and then looked away while Saddam Hussein crushed the revolt and slaughtered thousands in an act of vengeful reprisal. It was Herman Goering, that old Nazi, who said, "People can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.… All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." He's right. It's dead easy. That's what the Bush regime banks on. The distinction between election campaigns and war, between democracy and oligarchy, seems to be closing fast.


Democracy has become Empire's euphemism for neo-liberal capitalism.

In countries of the first world, too, the machinery of democracy has been effectively subverted. Politicians, media barons, judges, powerful corporate lobbies, and government officials are imbricated in an elaborate underhand configuration that completely undermines the lateral arrangement of checks and balances between the constitution, courts of law, parliament, the administration and, perhaps most important of all, the independent media that form the structural basis of a parliamentary democracy. Increasingly, the imbrication is neither subtle nor elaborate. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for instance, has a controlling interest in major Italian newspapers, magazines, television channels, and publishing houses. The Financial Times reported that he controls about 90 percent of Italy's TV viewership. Recently, during a trial on bribery charges, while insisting he was the only person who could save Italy from the left, he said, "How much longer do I have to keep living this life of sacrifices?" That bodes ill for the remaining 10 percent of Italy's TV viewership. What price Free Speech? Free Speech for whom? In the United States, the arrangement is more complex. Clear Channel Worldwide Incorporated is the largest radio station owner in the country. It runs more than 1,200 channels, which together account for 9 percent of the market. Its CEO contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush's election campaign. When hundreds of thousands of American citizens took to the streets to protest against the war on Iraq, Clear Channel organized pro-war patriotic "Rallies for America" across the country. It used its radio stations to advertise the events and then sent correspondents to cover them as though they were breaking news. The era of manufacturing consent has given way to the era of manufacturing news. Soon media newsrooms will drop the pretense, and start hiring theatre directors instead of journalists.

As America's show business gets more and more violent and war-like, and America's wars get more and more like show business, some interesting cross-overs are taking place. The designer who built the 250,000 dollar set in Qatar from which General Tommy Franks stage-managed news coverage of Operation Shock and Awe also built sets for Disney, MGM, and "Good Morning America." It is a cruel irony that the U.S., which has the most ardent, vociferous defenders of the idea of Free Speech, and (until recently) the most elaborate legislation to protect it, has so circumscribed the space in which that freedom can be expressed. In a strange, convoluted way, the sound and fury that accompanies the legal and conceptual defense of Free Speech in America serves to mask the process of the rapid erosion of the possibilities of actually exercising that freedom. The news and entertainment industry in the U.S. is for the most part controlled by a few major corporations - AOL-Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, News Corporation. Each of these corporations owns and controls TV stations, film studios, record companies, and publishing ventures. Effectively, the exits are sealed. America's media empire is controlled by a tiny coterie of people. Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, has proposed even further deregulation of the communication industry, which will lead to even greater consolidation. So here it is - the World's Greatest Democracy, led by a man who was not legally elected Another urgent challenge is to expose the corporate media for the boardroom bulletin that it really is. {3}


HOW USA BACKED GENERAL ZIAUL HAQ CONTROLLED THE MEDIA:


May 13, 1978, was the blackest day in the history of journalism in the subcontinent, when newsmen were ordered to be flogged by summary military courts of General Ziaul Haq. Those ordered to be whipped were: Masudullah Khan (Pakistan Times), Iqbal Ahmed Jafri (Sun), Nisar Zaidi (Nawa-e-Waqt) Khawar Naseem Hashmi (Musawat, Lahore), Mohammad Ilyas (Pakistan Times, Rawalpindi), Abdul Hameed Chapra (Jang, Karachi), Fateh Mohammad (Dawn, Karachi), Syed Mohammad Sofi (Musawat, Karachi), Rana Nayyar Iqbal (Musawat, Lahore), and Mohammad Ashraf Ali (Sadaqat, Karachi). General Ziaul Haq’s pet dog i.e. General Mujibur Rehamn {Information Secretary and Islamic Paul Josef Goebbles of General Zia} in his order:

“The Press advice system is a blessing in disguise for the newspapers, because it helps save the newsmen from the mischief of Press Laws and Martial Law Regulations…. The system itself is an institution, which helps the Press in its day-to-day work” {4}


Cont/P-2