TTP considering Ansar Abbasi, Orya Maqbool Jan as negotiators February 03, 2014 PESHAWAR: Spokesman of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Monday said two more names are likely to be finalized soon for its committee tasked to hold talks with the four-member government-appointed panel. He said the names of senior journalist Orya Maqbool Jan and Investigation Editor, The News International, Ansar Abbasi which were being considered for the Taliban committee in the past are still being reviewed for nomination. The TTP spokesman regretted the decision of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) of choosing not to be a part of the dialogue process, saying Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman does not even have confidence in his own self. Reacting to the Taliban’s claim, Ansar Abbasi talking to Geo News said he had never had any contact with the Taliban over his becoming part of the talks process. However, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sought his advice in connection with the dialogue and also offered him to join the government-appointed panel. “I expressed my willingness to offer my cooperation as a journalist but I don’t want to join in as committee member,” said Abbasi, adding, he can be part of such a committee that points out mistakes on the part of the government and the Taliban. He said if the Taliban and government accept an impartial committee he could join the same. REFERENCE: TTP considering Ansar Abbasi, Orya Maqbool Jan as negotiators February 03, 2014 - Updated 2115 PKT http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-136547-TTP-considering-Ansar-Abbasi,-Orya-Maqbool-Jan-as-negotiators
ISLAMABAD, July 8: Eminent historian and thinker Dr Mubarak Ali says the history written in Pakistan had been “dictated” by the ruling Establishment and represents its wilful perversion of facts “to accord with a fabricated ideology”.
“No authentic history has yet been written about Pakistan and its independence. There is a lot of confusion among the so-called pro-Establishment historians and educationists. Whatever has been written so far is distortion of history and entirely unbalanced,” Unless the distortions were removed and facts told as they existed, the nation could not hope to make any real progress, he said, adding: “This is the lesson history has taught us”. Dr Ali, who was interviewed over the weekend after he gave a lecture on the subject at Safma Media Centre the other day, said writing history in an ideological state was a problem.
“We project the deeds of our leaders out of proportion and ignore their crimes and blunders. Our modern history is also in a quagmire of confusion as our historians do not know the direction their work should take. They were unmindful of society’s need for truth and confused whether Pakistan’s history begins from the Indus civilization, or from Mohammad bin Qasim’s attack on Sindh or from 1947 the year it was born. “Historians like Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, S.M. Ikram and Moinul Haq wrote history, as dictated by dictators like Gen Ayub Khan, on two premises: the two-nation theory and greater national unity. There writings are more anti-Hindu than about British colonialism. “Some historians negated our ancient Indian and South Asian roots and tried to establish our links with Central Asia or with the Middle East which was historical and intellectual dishonesty,” said Dr Ali. Fanciful novels written by Maulana Abdul Haleem Sharar, Naseem Hijazi and the likes were taken for history. REFERENCE: History is different from farce: Dr Mubarak 2008-07-09 00:00:00 http://www.dawn.com/news/310892/history-is-different-from-farce-dr-mubarak
Importance of Sex Education, Orya Maqbool Jan... by SalimJanMazari
On the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, I was asked by some of our rationalist society friends to do a gentle surgery of the claims made by Orya Maqbool Jan in one of his Urdu writings. The rebuttal from our respected friend came swiftly with a tinge of venom. I was declared "Jahalat ki faseel mein qaid daanishwar" (an intellectual imprisoned in the fortress of ignorance). I have no qualms about accepting the charge up to "imprisonment in ignorance" bit but the burden of being a "daanishwar" is too heavy and better be left in the exclusive domain of Jan and his tribe. Like my fellow rationalist members, from Socrates I have learnt to ask questions of the knowledgeable ones, and from Julius Fuchik acquired an inspiration to paint life on the walls of the gallows. We never claim to know it all but we are never afraid of asking questions when they crop up in our minds. It is our belief that stating a half-truth is more dangerous than a blatant lie and hence must be properly scrutinised. Jan repeated the same references that due to obscurity are not readily available to a common reader. While extolling the virtues of the Mughal rulers, especially Aurangzeb and the rulers of Bengal, he conveniently ignores well-researched and highly respected works, e.g. of Sheikh Muhammad Ikram on the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire. I do not want to become an advocate for the British colonists. The East India Company (EIC) was a business venture of London-based merchants and the British traders had come to the East Indies in search of corporate profits and not for charity. Just like any other nation, they had many self-enriching crooks and some thrill-seeking adventurists. My problem, however, is viewing history as pure black and white, as we need to be objective in our reading of past events. An important fact must not be missed that the European nations were then often at war in Europe, which had a spillover effect in the Indian subcontinent as well. They, therefore, fortified their trading positions and gradually got involved in the local wars of succession that were frequently happening among Indian rulers and were supported by rival European traders. A dispassionate analysis of history would help us learn why the British were able to conquer the whole of India with just a few thousand soldiers. Jan fondly uses some references to build a thesis that prior to the arrival of the EIC, India was teeming with knowledge and that there were thousands of educational institutions. The chief references that Jan relies upon for this bold assertion are quotes from Will Durant's Story of Civilisation and Major Basu's use of Max Muller's quotation in his book on Indian history. Using Durant and Muller for establishing the claim of a highly developed educational system in medieval India is just like using a quote from Charles Darwin to support the Intelligent Design theory of creationists. While Durant views Muslim rulers as a bunch of barbarians who did not miss a chance of looting the treasures of an advanced civilisation of those times, Muller, a German philologist, was a popular critic of the Hindu belief system and advocated its cleansing by Christian reformers. When they mention village schools, they refer to the elaborate system of Brahmin-led theology teaching in ancient India. Alexander Hamilton is also quoted as a main reference by Jan. Hamilton, a merchant and a ship's captain in the Far East, covers the period of 1688-1723 in his travelogue A New Account of the East Indies. He mainly narrates the local weather and other cultural traits of various inhabitants. There is only one mention of educational institutions when he discusses Hindu theology and its teaching in village schools of Thatta. Hamilton mentions meeting a professor of Indian history who tells him that Alexander the Great had attacked India with magical beasts due to which Porus was unable to defeat him. Perhaps Jan has taken too much inspiration from this type of interpretation of history, and hence, has translated Hamilton's account as an elaborate arrangement for teaching of 'uloom-o-funoon' in India. Perhaps the readers can judge for themselves if half-baked truths should be taken as accounts of history. REFERENCE: OVER A COFFEE : History telling the Nasim Hijazi way by— Dr Haider Shah December 01, 2012 http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/01-Dec-2012/over-a-coffee-history-telling-the-nasim-hijazi-way-dr-haider-shah
Conniving Jihadi Mullahs of the Sub-Continent http://www.scribd.com/doc/204165831/Conniving-Jihadi-Mullahs-of-the-Sub-Continent
Taliban Journalists of Bolta Pakistan (10 January 2011)
Taliban Journalists of Bolta Pakistan (10... by SalimJanMazari
The conclusion of our analysis is that OMJ cites various historical sources in a sweeping way to substantiate his argument. Known as what is called 'cherry picking' in research, he selectively picked up sentences from a number of sources to create an impression for an unwary reader that India had an elaborate scheme of education under the Muslim rulers and that the British in a very cunning way destroyed all institutions as part of some deep-rooted conspiracy. Due to paucity of space, it is not possible to discuss all the references OMJ quoted in his piece. I would restrict it to only one main source to illustrate that intellectual honesty was wanting in his piece of writing. For sake of clarity a full paragraph from Will Durant's voluminous Story of Civilization is reproduced here from which OMJ picked up a quotation: "Writing continued, even to the nineteenth century, to play a very small part in Indian education. Perhaps it was not to the interest of the priests that the sacred or scholastic texts should become an open secret to all. As far as we can trace Indian history, we find a system of education, always in the hands of the clergy, open at first only to the sons of Brahmans, then spreading its privileges from caste to caste until in our time it excludes only the Untouchables. Every Hindu village had its schoolmaster, supported out of the public funds; in Bengal alone, before the coming of the British, there were some 80,000 native schools — one to every four hundred population. The percentage of literacy under Ashoka was apparently higher than in India today." Will Durant in this section was discussing the education system in ancient India but OMJ picked up a Bengal-related sentence and forcibly linked it with the Mughal period to create a misleading impression. Intellectual honesty demanded that OMJ should have also told his readers what Will Durant wrote in the same book about the Muslim rulers in India. For instance, Durant writes about our hero idol-smasher: "Each winter Mahmud descended into India, filled his treasure chest with spoils, and amused his men with full freedom to pillage and kill; each spring he returned to his capital richer than before." We are told that the idol breaker would sometimes spare the population of the ravaged cities and "took them home to be sold as slaves; but so great was the number of such captives that after some years no one could be found to offer more than a few shillings for a slave." Similarly referring to other rulers of the pre-Mughal era, Durant writes, "There was constantly in front of his royal pavilion and his Civil Court a mound of dead bodies and a heap of corpses, while the sweepers and executioners were wearied out by their work of dragging the victims and putting them to death in crowds." OMJ fondly mentions Firoz Shah about whom Durant writes, "Firoz Shah invaded Bengal, offered a reward for every Hindu head, paid for 180,000 of them, raided Hindu villages for slaves." Similarly, Sultan Ahmad Shah is said to have feasted for three days whenever the number of defenceless Hindus slain in his territories in one day reached 20,000. Based on such numerous examples, Durant says, "The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilisation is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within." Durant in his work appreciates the art and sculpture of India. However, he laments, "We shall never be able to do justice to Indian art, for ignorance and fanaticism have destroyed its greatest achievements, and have half ruined the rest." OMJ in his concluding lines makes a passing reference to Lord Cornwallis, accusing him of establishing a religious seminary in 1781 to destroy educational system of Muslim rulers. Interestingly, in 1781, Major General Cornwallis was in America with a mixed record against rebel colonists culminating in the capitulation of his force at Yorktown and came to India in 1786. Cornwallis, however, is credited with establishing an institution that OMJ never found detestable: the Indian Civil Service. Hope our former deputy commissioner would be more careful with both dates and facts of history. REFERENCE: OVER A COFFEE : Postcard for Orya Maqbool Jan BY— Dr Haider Shah October 27, 2012 http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/27-Oct-2012/over-a-coffee-postcard-for-orya-maqbool-jan-dr-haider-shah
Meher Bukhari, Orya Maqbool Jan & Saleem... by SalimJanMazari
The Jihad Under East India Company http://www.scribd.com/doc/184920698/The-Jihad-Under-East-India-Company
2009 Islam does not allow democracy or elections MINGORA: Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad has warned the government to wind up its judicial system within four days and establish the appellate court of Darul Qaza for the Malakand division, or he will re-launch his protest campaign. Addressing a mammoth public meeting at Grassy Ground here on Sunday, he made it clear that the government must set up Darul Qaza before lower Qazi courts, which, he said, was the first step towards the implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in letter and spirit. TNSM’s Nazim-e-Aala Maulana Safiullah, Sheikh Waliullah Kabalgrami, Maulana Salar Khan, Maulana Samiullah, Maulana Abdul Haq, Maulana Badshah Zeb and Maulana Fayyaz also addressed the meeting. Unprecedented security arrangements were made for the rally as 300 armed volunteers guarded the venue. In Mingora city, all shops, markets and business centres remained closed, as the TNSM had earlier made an appeal to traders and shopkeepers to keep their business shut to facilitate the participants during the rally. Maulana Sufi Muhammad urged the government to appoint Tehsil and district Qazis in the seven districts of the Malakand division and Kohistan district of Hazara division within a month. Failure to do so, he warned, would bring his followers on the streets. He said a system of justice based on Shariah was the only way out of the present unrest. “If our demands were not met within the set deadline, then we will not be held responsible for any violence in the area,” the TNSM chief warned. He said all the criminal and civil cases would be heard and decided in the Qazi courts. He added that the judgment given by the Qazi courts could not be challenged in the provincial high courts or the Supreme Court. “I consider Western democracy as a system imposed on us by the infidels. Islam does not allow democracy or elections,” he opined, adding that he would never accept the system of justice of the non-Muslims. Sufi Mohammad said the implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation would restore peace in the Malakand division, particularly Swat. He said the Taliban militants had promised to lay down arms after the enforcement of the Nizam-e-Adl. REFERENCE: End judicial system by April 23, demands Sufi Claims Islam does not allow democracy or elections BY Essa Khankhel Monday, April 20, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=21615&Cat=13&dt=4/20/2009
Sufi’s public meeting lifts climate of fear in Swat BY Rahimullah Yusufzai Monday, April 20, 2009 PESHAWAR: By holding a big public meeting in Mingora in the restive Swat district on Sunday, Maulana Sufi Muhammad contributed to overcoming the climate of fear still prevailing among the people and inspiring them with hope. However, he added to the uncertainty by reverting to his familiar tactic of setting deadlines for his demands to be met. Two deadlines were set, April 23 for doing away with the existing courts manned by civil judges and May 19 for setting up Qazi courts under the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in all seven districts of Malakand division and Kohistan district of Hazara region. In addition, May 19 would also serve as the one-month deadline for establishing Darul Qaza, or appellate court, for Swat and rest of Malakand division. Having brought peace to Swat and obliged the government, Sufi Muhammad now feels justified in demanding Shariah-based system of justice. This has been his goal for almost three decades and he is convinced that there can be no better opportunity for pushing his agenda. The government once again has little choice but to accept his demands and that too within the stipulated time. Journalists at the Grassy Ground, the venue for the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) public meeting, estimated the crowd at 20,000 to 25,000. The TNSM members and supporters claimed a much higher attendance. But all agreed that it was an impressive show of strength by Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who returned to the central town of Mingora after having packed up his “peace camp” there and left Swat along with hundreds of his followers on April 9 in protest against the delay by President Asif Ali Zardari and the federal government in signing the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. It was a triumphant return for the maverick Maulana who eventually forced the president to sign the law. Maulana Sufi Muhammad has held bigger gatherings at the Grassy Ground, which is used by young men from the twin towns of Mingora and Saidu Sharif for sports activities. His 1994 public meeting, held prior to an armed uprising for enforcement of Shariah in Swat and other parts of Malakand division, at the Grassy Ground was much bigger. But the one held on Sunday had greater importance as it was organized at a time when Swat is slowly recovering from two years’ of violence and bloodshed. For so many Swatis and participants from other adjoining districts, particularly from Upper Dir and Lower Dir, to gather at one place despite the fear of suicide bombing was truly remarkable. Political parties, which due to insecurity in the NWFP now hold gatherings in closed premises, would surely envy Sufi Muhammad’s fearlessness and his crowd-pulling capability. Sufi Muhammad, ageing and in poor health, spoke inarticulately for about 45 minutes in Pashto and reporters faced difficulty in understanding his words. As expected, he repeated his assertions about democracy and existing courts in Pakistan being un-Islamic. It wasn’t the first time that the cleric from Maidan in Lower Dir district generated controversy. He manages to do so whenever he speaks. Maulana Sufi Muhammad has his own simplistic vision of Shariah. If he had his way, he would force the judges, or Qazis as they are known in Malakand division, to sit on the floor and hear cases brought to them by litigants. Lawyers have no business in his scheme of things and Qazis ought to be made accountable if they delay judgements in cases pending in their courts. Shariah for him revolves round dispensation of justice. Education, health, socio-economic issues hold secondary importance for him. The Qazi courts that are being set up under the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation might start delivering speedy justice but this isn’t the only demand and expectation of the people of Swat and elsewhere in Malakand division. They expect a lot more from the Shariah that Sufi Muhammad is insisting would henceforth be the supreme law in the area. REFERENCE: Sufi’s public meeting lifts climate of fear in Swat BY Rahimullah Yusufzai Monday, April 20, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=21616&Cat=13&dt=4/20/2009
Jihad Movement of Maulvi Ismail & Maulvi Syed Ahmed in NWFP http://www.scribd.com/doc/187741825/Jihad-Movement-of-Maulvi-Ismail-Maulvi-Syed-Ahmed-in-NWFP
Jang Group on the Death of Osama Bin Laden (Capital Talk 02 May 2011)
Jang Group on the Death of Osama Bin Laden... by SalimJanMazari
Paid Mullahs in British India http://www.scribd.com/doc/184671101/Paid-Mullahs-in-British-India
‘Swat Taliban to welcome Osama’ Wednesday, April 22, 2009 MINGORA: The spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which controls the valley, told The Associated Press he would welcome militants bent on battling the US troops and their Arab allies if they want to settle there. “Osama bin Laden can come here. Sure, like a brother they can stay anywhere they want,” TTP spokesman Muslim Khan said in a two-hour interview on Friday, his first with a foreign journalist since the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was imposed. “Yes, we will help them and protect them,” he added. The Taliban spokesman counted among his allies several groups on the UN and the US terrorist lists. “If we need, we can call them and if they need, they can call us,” Muslim Khan said. He said his forces would go to help the Taliban in Afghanistan if the United States and Nato continued to fight there. “You must tell (the Americans) if they want peace ... to withdraw their forces, keep them on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,” he added. Pakistan reacted with alarm to his comments, saying it would never let him shelter the likes of bin Laden. “We would have to go for the military operation. We would have to apply force again,” said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. “We simply condemn this. We are fighting this war against al-Qaida and the Taliban,” he added. Meanwhile, Afrasiab Khattak, a leader of the Awami National Party, conceded: “We lost the war. We negotiated from a position of weakness.î He said the region’s police force was too underpaid, under trained and under equipped to take on the militants. US officials said they would work with Pakistan to make sure militants were not safe anywhere. “With regard to Mulla Omar and Osama bin Laden, this is not a place where they should be welcome. We believe ... that violent extremists need to be confronted,î State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. Reiterating America’s viewpoint on this, Wood said, “Violent extremism needs to be confronted not just by Pakistan, but the entire international community.” Asserting that the US would continue to work with the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to try to help root out these violent extremists, Wood said they were a threat to democracy and stability in the region. “We call on all those who are interested in bringing about stability to that region to work with us to root out violent extremism,” Wood said. REFERENCE: ‘Swat Taliban to welcome Osama’ Wednesday, April 22, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=21662&Cat=13&dt=4/22/2009
