Thanks Dailymail for brightening my days

“Shame of Britain Muslims schools: Secret filming shows pupils being beaten and taught Hindus drink cow p***”

I just opened Dailymail’s website and was shocked to see the first main headline. The story was about Darool Uloom Islamic High School in Birmingham, an independent Islamic school which claimed to teach the lessons of tolerance, humanity and respect for other’s faith to young Muslim boys.

However, the Channel 4 current affairs programme, Dispatches, secretly made a film inside the school and revealed the horrifying fact that children are being taught social segregation and religious apartheid.

All of this was enough material to spoil my next few days. Like always, I started waiting for my husband to share this disturbing news. He’s always surprised why I bother about such things. The funny thing is ,I am not even interested in Dailymail style of journalism, celebrity gossip, nudity, scandals, sensationalism and minority targeting, so it means I deliberately opened its website to spoil my day.

The fact of being in a foreign land has already brought a strange kind of vulnerability in me. It gives me a weird feeling of anxiety as a little part of me is always haunted by the fear of unknown. The transformation of an over-confident Lahori girl to an impassive student on the streets of Glasgow sometimes even surprises my own self. On the top of it, news stories like Darool Uloom Birmingham work like adding insult to injury.

I don’t know if it is my personal dilemma or the story of a whole generation of immigrants from different ethnic minorities. What news, British media is giving about Pakistan or how the crimes committed by British born Pakistani s are projected in local media—– all of this is somehow important to me.

Whether it is the case of two British men of Pakistani origin facing imprisonment on the charges of rape or the statement of Jack Straw related to this case about a “specific problem” in Pakistani community, every new development makes me feel more defensive.

I belong to a Pakistani Muslim family but I am never taught the lessons of hate and violence then why am I embarrassed at the teachings of Darul Uloom School, or at the Muslim origin of hate-mongers like Anjem Choudry.

Anjem Choudry, another name I picked from my Dailymail website’s visit, is a hate-preacher and leader of some banned Islamic organisation. As a Muslim, I am not only appalled at his poisonous ideology but also his irrational arguments.

I don’t understand why only outlaws represent the true face of a community, but I am always ashamed of something I never did.

Although these things have no direct bearing on myself or my family, but every time I read such news, It belittle me in my own eyes and next day I enter into my University newsroom with lesser confidence.

Culture Of Staring

I admire many things of Pakistani culture but unfortunately, staring is not one of them. It is said that the population of male and female in the world is roughly equal but Pakistani men always treat you like a rare species. They will perhaps never be able to overcome the excitement of being in the presence of women. However Pakistani women have now accepted it as their fait accompli that they will incessantly be stared throughout their lives.

Being a female in a male-chauvinistic society, you are always a vulnerable part of the society. From education to entertainment whenever you leave home, staring at you becomes the men’s best time pass. Although they make you feel uncomfortable but one should at least appreciate their sincerity as they never make unjust distinctions between age, looks or appearance of women in staring or passing remarks on them. They can appreciate a woman with headscarf with equal admiration as a woman in jeans and can easily pass remarks on the beauty of a lady hidden in niqab (without knowing her age between 16 to 60yrs). Even education or manners fail to teach them to refrain from sneaking a peek.

The problems of working women in our society can be very serious but staring a woman has just become a cultural norm, no one dares to defy. It is an unwritten law to ignore the dirty looks or vulgar remarks, as confrontation will attract more people with a tinge of gossip.

I always accepted it as a part of any society until I arrived into UK. I came to know that staring is not common in every culture. You can walk into a real world freely without gaze fixed upon you. You can talk freely to a male colleague or even laugh at some silly joke without jeopardising your righteousness or morality. You can sit next to a man in a train or bus without the danger of raising some scandal.

Hence, most of the young generation use to keep their expressionless faces straight with earphones fixed for listening music. I don’t know how they used to manage their disinterested facade before the invention of ipods.

However, the most interesting fact for me is a survey report provided by Kodak Lens Vision Centre in which they claimed that an average British man spends 43 minutes of his day in staring at women. Mark Ireland, spokesman for the centre said that an average man spends a year of their life in staring at fairer sex. If that’s the case then the reason behind my freedom is either their expertise in staring technique or their disinterest in Asian women.

Whatever, I use to enjoy the freedom and independence of my life until I come across some Pakistani or Indian men who are good in making you uncomfortable by staring even in UK. It proves to me that nature never changes and a man is man, whether he’s in Pakistan or UK.

Egypt Riots: A step towards Revolution or Disaster

Majority of people in developing countries spend their entire lives dreaming about revolution that would change their lives. They visualize that a revolution would one day transform their sufferings into joy. Their governments are often the victim of their hatred as they are accused of being the puppets of superpowers. Every opposition leader or person who rhetorically threatens the interests and policies of that superpower becomes the heroic figure in those countries. That’s why in most of the underdeveloped world, anti-US forces have earned enormous public support in recent years.

Egypt has gone through an important transition in last few days. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marched on streets of Cairo, bearing tear gas, rubber bullets, dragging, stoning, water cannons with the only demand of Husni Mubarik‘s departure from the government . According to UN, more than 300 people died during the riots. However, people still believes that “the fight for noble ideals will continue.”
Reportedly Mubarak has bowed to public agitation and has promised not to contest the upcoming election. However, the point is whether social revolution brought the demise of Mubarak or Egyptians became the tools of a superpower to advance its agenda.

The whole situation is chaotic and so many theories and ideas are coming in front of people. Every government and media organisation is supporting its personal or national agenda, preaching the ideals of Western democracy, socialism or religious fundamentalism. Common men are completely at loss whom to believe or not.
Wikileaks released the US cables showing that the American government was aware of this “regime change” plan from the last three years. In a secret diplomatic dispatch on December 30, 2008, The US ambassador, Margaret Scobey, recorded that opposition groups had drawn plans for “regime change” to take place before elections. She further recorded that the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down.”

It is also said in this memo that Egyptian anonymous activist claimed in front of US Ambassador that “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidential and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the schedule 2011 presidential elections.” The documents also claimed that the activist received extensive support for his plan from officials in Washington.

Hence, Egyptian protests are planned and backed by US, is this myth or reality, that’s a question mark. On the other hand, America is also blaming AL Jazeera in promoting these anti-American views through their programmes and angle of world coverage. As Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, in his programme about Egypt, called Al Jazeera an anti-Semitic and anti-American organisation working for its own agenda.

On the contrary, many people in Egypt are blaming America for supporting Mr Mubarik’s regime. Barack Obama is ambiguous in his statements on the issue and not supporting Egyptian people openly. Mohammad ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear weapon inspector who flew Cairo to lead the protestors, criticised the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton when she said that Egypt government is stable and finding legitimate ways to resolve the issue.
“I was stunned to hear Secretary Clinton saying the Egyptian government is stable. And I ask myself: at what price is stability? Is it on the basis of 29 years of martial law? Is it on the basis of 30 years of [an] ossified regime? Is it on the basis of rigged elections? That’s not stability, that’s living on borrowed time,” said ElBaradei.

Husni Mubarik was sitting on the pyramid of power from last 30 yrs but these protests clear one thing for him that it’s time to go. West is offering their support to Egyptians with some hidden fears. David Cameron said: “You can’t watch the scenes in Cairo without finding it incredibly moving, about people wanting to have those aspirations in Egypt as we have them in our country,” while Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “Far from indicating support for extremism, the people on the streets of Egypt are actually demanding some very basic things: jobs, freedom of speech and the right to choose by whom they are governed.” US President Barack Obama has said an orderly political transition “must begin now” in Egypt and lead to free and fair elections. German foreighn minister said: “People want democratic change and they want it now. It must be a change toward democracy.

The future of Egypt will unravel in coming days but there is no doubt that repercussions of these events will be long-lasting. Although west is talking about the people’s right to democracy but yet not ready to accept the likelihood of Brotherhood’s government as the result of post-Mubarik elections. From last many decades, US have supported oppression of Islamist parties in the Middle East by the stooges, like Zine ul Abidine and Husni Mubarik but the ramifications of meddling at this stage can be dangerous.

The people of Egypt are fighting for their rights and wading through all these theories but what will they get in the end, only time will tell.

Wikileaks

A lot of things have been written and discussed about Wikileaks by world renowned journalists, political analysts and media experts.  Obviously, I cannot give any expert opinion on it, but want to raise a few simple questions, that I did not understand.

Who is the real power behind wikileaks, and what’s their real agenda? Is Wikileak helping the global media to expose the truth or destabilising governments?

If Wikileak is the part of any psychological warfare, then who is igniting this war and who is its potential target?

Wikileaks didn’t reveal any new fact, it only confirmed the previously known facts by providing evidence of cables. As it is well known that the governments of Arab world, Pakistan and Afghanistan have always been American puppets——-so what new facts has been revealed by wikileaks except giving credibility to those presumptions.

Pakistani people didn’t know as much about their leaders as was known to Anne Patterson, US ambassador to Pakistan. However, every Pakistani knew that their leaders not only used to discuss country’s internal and foreign affairs with her, but also sought her advice and presumably acted upon it. So again what new facts are revealed by wikileaks?

Wikileaks also confirmed the fact that American government was well aware of Afghan government’s corruption and involvement of Hamid Karzai’s family in drug trade. The ex-UNICOL employee Hamid Karzai is widely known as American stooge in the region.

Wikileaks has offered a true picture of international politics or provided partial truth, it’s still a debateable question. The most discussed revelation of the Wikileak is about the Arab world. Wikileaks told the world through these cables that the Arab world, including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Husani Mubarak of the Eygpt and Jordanian head of state have been pressing America to launch military strikes against Iran. After this revelation the entire international media is focussed on Arab world’s misgivings against Iran’s and how they were putting pressure on Americans to deal with the matter.

As Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that the cables are beneficial for Israel because they offer the world a proof that Iran is real security threat in the area not the Israel. Hillary Clinton also argued on the same level: “I think that it should not be a surprise that Iran is a source of great concern, not only in the US,” she said.

“The comments reported in the cables prove that Iran poses a serious threat in the eyes of its neighbours and beyond the region.”

However, I think while mentioning the Arab world, all the journalists, and government officials forgot to differentiate between the Arab governments and the real Arab world. The Brookings Institute just a few months ago released the results of an extensive poll of what Arabs think about Iran. The results are rather striking. They reveal that 80% Arabs considered Israel a major threat in the area. The second major number was 77% Arabs who considered United States a threat and only 10% Arabs considered Iran a threat. Another shocking result for the world was that 57% Arabs think that another nuclear power like Iran would bring stability in the region.

Everybody is discussing Wikileaks in the light of the statements of Arab leaders. However this angle of looking at the picture is enhancing American policy not exposing the truth.

Chicken Biryani

Ingredients
1kg or 750grm chicken
4 tablespoons cooking oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon Garlic and ginger paste
(you can grind or chopped 3cloves of garlic and a little piece of ginger)
Half cup yogurt
2,3 green chillies
Salt (to taste)
½ teaspoon Red chilli powder
Indian spices like garam masala, coriander poweder etc
Or you can buy readymade ‘biryani masala’ from any Pakistani shop
Use half pack of these mix spices
2 mug rice

Method

1- Wash rice and let it soaked in water, until gravy is ready.

2- In a large skillet, add 4 tablespoons oil and fry onion, garlic and ginger until onion is soft and golden. Add tomatoes, salt, chilli, and other spices. Add a little water, cover and let it cook for 10 minutes. Add yogurt and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until everything is cooked to a pulp. It may be necessary to add a little hot water if the mixture becomes too dry and starts to stick to the pan.

3- When the mixture is thick and smooth, add the chicken pieces and stir well to coat them with the spice mixture. Cover and cook over very low heat until the chicken is tender, approximately 25 minutes. There should only be a little very thick gravy left when chicken is finished cooking. If necessary cook uncovered for a few minutes to reduce the gravy.

4- In a separate utensil, boil the rice.

5- Take the boiled rice and chicken curry and layered it in large skillet and cover it tightly, turn heat to very low and steam for 10-12 minutes.

6- Mix the biryani gently. It is ready to serve now

serve 4-6 people

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