Samurai Zauq Chronicles

Stop funding my failed state

2009-04-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

Fatima Bhutto wrote an article today asking US to stop funding a failed state.

Another offense has been started by the Pakistan Army at the behest of our liberal elites and American ma$ter$. Gunships, tanks, artillery and probably the use of cluster ammunition. Which begs the question, if the Americans could not dislodge the Taliban from Afghanistan with their professional army and technology, how can Pak Army do that with low morale?

This offense will displace more civilians, the Taliban will merge back into civilian population and reemerge after three months with more vicious treatment of all who don't adhere to their puritanical philosophies.

End result, more civilian casualties, and more hatred from the religious Lizards and more dismay by our elitist peacocks.

The reality is that Pakistan will fall to Islamists in the next decade. The nukes might be dismantled but it will remain a pariah state . . . and our elites will be marginalized and end up living abroad dissociating themselves from the Pakistan regime like the Iranian, Vietnamese and Cuban communities.

Citizens ask Pak army to defeat Taliban

2009-04-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

A letter by Salaman Ahmed of Junoon is being presented to the the President of Pakistan. The letter asks the Pakistan Army to defeat the Taliban. The letter is here

http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/appeal-to-the-president-of-pakistan/

This is a bad idea maybe with well meaning intentions. I have already debated this on facebook.

Military action against Taliban will not work. Pakistan Army has fought disastrous campaigns against Baloch insurgency, with MRD in Sindh, with Karachi in MQM and recently in WANA. And lest we forget, a certain insurgency in 1971 in Bangladesh. What koolaid are our concerned citizens drinking? Maybe similar to what israel was drinking when it went to confront Hammas?

Pakistan Army can't stop the Taliban, their ranks don't support the fight. All they can do is create a bigger Humanitarian disaster and more sympathies for the Talib. There are a 1 Million + refugees in Pakistan because of US drone attacks and Pak Army action. Writing letters to one's Army (especially with sordid histroy like ours) is a dangeorusly fascist agenda.

Taliban can only advance into Pashtun backwater areas, there fewer suicide bombs in Peshawar (ANP controlled) and Karachi (MQM controlled). No Army required. Secondly, the US drone attacks have to stop, they cause the attacks on police/Army cantonment in Lahore/Pindi. Third and final, the battle for Pashtun soul is a theological, except our biryani eating mullahs are too scared to confront the Taliban ideology.

South Bay Mobilization had a very good event at De Anza college last Thursday. Coverage here http://karachiphoto blog.blogspot. com/

Insurgencies never die out by force, only by poltical and social will.

Kala Pul North American premiere

2008-11-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

All news out of Karachi is bad

Who: Black Crow Productions and Third I San Francisco South Asian Film Festival

What: Kala Pul – The Black Bridge, a 40-minute narrative by Saqib Mausoof

When and Where: Thursday, November 13^th, 2008, 7:00 pm at Brava Theater

(San Francisco CA) October 23, 2008 -- Witness an authentic representation of three days in the lives the inhabitants of Karachi, a teeming metropolis of over fifteen million and the largest city in Pakistan, a frontline state in the war on terrorism. The film has been reviewed as "Karachi born writer Saqib Mausoof has taken a different route with Kala Pul – The Black Bridge producing results not unlike Satiyajit Ray’s Distant Thunder”

The plot resolves around Arsalan, a fugitive, who returns to his native Karachi, to investigate the violent death of his younger brother, blamed on religious fundamentalists. In the ensuing days he discovers that in a post 9/11 world the gritty megalopolis sits on the fault line of modernity and militancy.

Kala Pul is produced by bay area producer Muder Kothari and was shot in 2006 by Oscar nominated Director of Photography Markus Huersch on location in Karachi, Pakistan. It features the music of Dr Das, founding member of Asian Dub Foundation, Janaka Selekta and various Pakistani ghazal singers. Post production for Kala Pul is done by San Francisco based Zoetrope Aubry productions.

Tickets can be ordered online at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/193281109 or purchased at door for $10.

Additional information at kalapul.com

World Wide food shortage

2008-03-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

Food shortage across South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) are common knowledge these days as rising inflation makes it difficult for the average man to buy two meals for his family. My recent visit to Karachi, in took me to a lower income locality where every corner congregation was complaining about food prices, from onions to ghee, from roti to rice.

The knee jerk reaction in Pakistan is to blame government policies, which might be accountable for the massive power shortage, but rather helpless in lieu of the world wide food shortage which have spread well beyond Africa's sub-Sahara region. Two articles by the London Economist on food shortages in Philippines and Egypt present a much more worrying and almost apocalyptic view of the future.

Israel Gaza Policy (No Child left alive)

2008-03-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

The London economist in their usual "balanced view" after a 125 dead Palestinian including 11 children. However, I found this statement rather interesting, is this an under handed smirk at Israel?

"Certainly the Palestinians’ Qassam rockets took an unusually heavy toll on Israel in February, killing ONE person in Sderot"

Read More

Rushdie's Shelter of the world

2008-02-26T10:49:00.001-08:00

Sir Salman Rushdie's new short published in New Yorker. Read

The story started with brilliance but then he shrink wrapped anecdotes from our part of the world into flowery English prose. Add a dash of orientalism, a pinch of eroticism, and his Hobson Jobson of a vocabulary and Rushdie himself becomes Jahanpanna to literature. The compression of the lead character, Akbar, was well represented with the royal 'we', the barbarian ancestors and the mythical Jodha (the perfect wife exists in fantasy?) but the arc of the story vanishes into an oblivion of scrotum scratches.

I still think he is a great writer, a master of his craft, but here he became too lazy to even complete his own fantasy. A disappointing finale, maybe he was impressed by the Sopranos, or maybe he is holding out for a novel.

The Politics of Martyrdom

2008-01-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

This has been a bhari (heavy) year for Pakistan. It started with the arrogance of power of General Pervaiz Musharraf when he dismissed Iftikhar Chaudry as the Supreme Court judge. He was already on a losing streak after the embarrassing death of the former chief minister of Baluchistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti. This 79 year old scion of the Bugti tribe was leading an insurgency against the Pakistan army and was martyred when the cave he was hiding in collapsed during an aerial bombardment. In hindsight, the good General should have retired after publishing his memoir, In the line of fire. He could have settled in California where is son goes to school at Stanford, joined the Hoover institute or be initiated into a Sufi Tariqa. But like Inzimam -- who led an ignominious exit out of the 2007 cricket world cup after the suspicious murder of the national coach Bob Woolmer – for Pakistanis the only graceful exit from power is martyrdom.

This Supreme Court judge (may God save him from martyrdom) first challenged the hold of the Pak military by blocking the sale of the strategic Pakistan Steel Mill to the cronies of the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. His second act was to listen to the cases of the missing persons of Pakistan filed by the Human rights commission of Pakistan. Since 2001, hundred of Pakistanis have been allegedly abducted by ISI and/or CIA. Chaudry Sahab directed the Ministry of interior to answer some of these allegations in court. The fact that Musharraf’s regime was kidnapping Pakistani nationals and selling them as Al Qaida operatives to CIA could have further tarnished the image of the former SSG (Special service group) commando as a lota (sycophant) to the Bush regime.

However, support for reinstating the Chief justice among the Pakistani intellectuals was strong resulting in nation wide protests. In May, the lawyers took their campaign for restoration of the “Rule of Law” to the port city of Karachi. The General had been kind to the city and it was controlled by his political allies, the MQM, a party made up of ethnic Indian migrates. In another hasty move, he gave MQM carte blanche to stop the peaceful protest rally. With permission from their drunken master in London, MQM activist indulged in a chaotic orgy that bought the commerce of the city to a grinding halt. Fortunately, the burgeoning media outlets captured this mayhem on 24x7 news channels and it ended up as another embarrassing episode. In November, undeterred by the three strikes against him, the general imposed an “Emergency”. Journalists were beaten, lawyers were harassed, political activists jailed, human right leaders abused and print and media outlets were banned from reporting. Any remaining fans of the general were dumb founded by this new ruling that made Pakistan appear as a 21^st century banana republic. The General squarely blamed this farce on the rising militancy in the NWFP province and promised to take off his uniform before the end of the year.

To be fair, the war against Pakistan’s Taliban had intensified since the martyrdom of Nek Muhammad by a US Predator in 2004. The Pakistan’s army operation against its own population at the behest of their colonial master had created a monster that had now spread from Waziristan to the idyllic valley of Swat, once considered an extreme golf destination. Qazi Fazlullah's Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM - the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law) is actively engaged in fighting for imposing of sharia, defacing of Buddhist artifacts and beheading of police and army officials. The siege of Red Mosque in Islamabad, where chicks with sticks horrified the whiskey swelling crowd with their religious zeal, was an insight into the new urban female Taliban. Eventually, the mosque was stormed which resulted in the, guess what, martyrdom of its leader, Abdullah Rashid Ghazi. This trend continued in October with a bomb blast in Karachi that claimed the lives of 136 people during Benazir election campaign, and in December at Char Sadda near Peshawar, where a bomb blast during the auspicious Eid-ul-Azha prayers killed 30 people. In the last 40 days of 2007, the frontier province alone has had 28 suicide bomb attacks and it is becoming increasingly difficult to blame “agencies” for these suicide attacks when its own ministers and corps commanders are the main target.

The last bomb blast of 2007 resulted in the death of Benazir Bhutto. Pinki, BiBi, Madam, Martyr had controlled the emotions of my generation with her hairstyles and political gerrymandering. This oxford educated feudal princess from the landed gentry of Sindh was beloved by the nation as a sister and a savior. Her catchy songs, festive campaigning and washmallay dancers send an arrow through the heart of Pakistan. We received her at Karachi airport when she returned from exile in 1987, attended her wedding festivities in Lyari and campaigned for her as she became the first female leader of the Muslim world and the only Pakistani entry in the People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people. Benazir was then, the one leader who could modernize Pakistan as a secular state that was envisioned by its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Her unfortunate death twenty years later is being eulogized across the world as the biggest blow to Pakistan’s democracy. This is an overstated hype at best. In the last twenty years, out of power and in self exile, Benazir became a Machiavellian politician. Her regular press statements from her mansions in Surrey and Dubai alienated her from Pakistani middle class while making her as the darling of the western media. Calling her legacy complex is apologetic at best. Although during her tenure, private media channels were allowed and the telecommunication infrastructure was upgraded, she did precious little for the country in her two dishonorable terms. She betrayed the progressives on social justice agenda, her husband Zardari aka Mr. 10% amassed a fortune, she empowered General Nasurrullah Babar to fund the nascent Taliban movement and then embarked on a dirty turf war in her power base of Karachi that resulted in months of curfew and thousands of activist been killed in “fake police encounters”. Finally, she lost support of her own mother, Nusrat, and niece Fatima, who continued to blame her for the martyrdom of her own brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto, shot by her trigger happy police during the infamous operation cleanup in 1996.

The cause of her death is being blamed by her husband Zardari on the Pakistan’s covert agency Inter services intelligence (ISI) and lax security. Further fanning the flames of emotional chaos, the People’s Party activist have gone on a frenzy of violence that has not been seen in Pakistan for decades. Trains, hospitals, petrol stations, schools, buses and people have been burned. Hundreds have been killed. Thousands of burned vehicles line the roads in Karachi, the stock exchange has taken a plunge and the damage to infrastructure is in billions. Most Pakistanis are in shock, rumors run rampant through cell phone SMS messages and political leaders are afraid of being targeted. The crisis in Pakistan is exasperated by the fact that there is a power vacuum with Benazir dead, Nawaz scared for his own life, Musharraf without a uniform and Imran khan without a strategy. Nineteen year old Bilawal, who named has just been changed to include Bhutto is a kid, and no where as astute as his 24 year old cousin Fatima Bhutto who reminds many the Benazir of the seventies. Her husband Zardari, the self appointed co-chairman of the party is probably the most despised man in Pakistan.

For all her faults, Benazir remained to her death a remarkably brave woman and a role model to all Muslim women. The fact remains that she was openly threatened by extremists including the top suspect Waziristan warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who called her “an American agent” and boasted of having 50+ suicide bombers in the waiting. Her death on December 27, 2007 at Liaqat bagh in Rawalpindi was probably the result of one such vagrant. It was at this park where the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaqat Ali Khan(Shaheed) was assassinated in 1951, and not far from the jail where her own father Zulfiqar Bhutto (Shaheed) was hanged in 1979 by another martyr of Islam, Zia-ul-Haq (Shaheed), blown to smithereens while flying with the sitting American ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphael (unfortunately just collateral damage) in 1988. Apparently, BB was also fired upon twice before the assassin, blew himself up killing 20 people. Although history might judge her as a failed leader, she will remain in our heart as a martyr to the nation. The challenge to all Pakistanis (and Muslims) is to make sure that the waste of human flesh who blew himself up in this suicide attack is not treated as one.

Oil Spill in SF Bay

2007-11-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

After emergency in Pakistan, it is time to look around where we live. A massive oil spill has hit San Francisco Bay area. Apparently, a tanker named Cosco Busan stuck bay bridge. The coast guard first said that it spilled 140 gallons and later revised to 58,000 gallons. Emergency workers are helping the cleanup around the bay area.

This is not as serious as the Exxon Valden oil spill, or the Karachi oil spill.

The November Plan

2007-11-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

President Musharraf has declared an emergency in Pakistan. I have made a 2 minute video summarizing the situation have a look,

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave

All cable operators & media outlets have been curtailed severely. Satellite and Internet are still open. A record number of mobile messages were sent yesterday. 10/phone.

Supreme court judges have been replaced. CJ Iftikhar is under house arrest.

Lawyers revolt is well under way, but they have faced baton charges.

Thousands of human right activists, politicos have been rounded up (including HR activist Asma Jehangir, Imran Khan and Aitizaz Ahsan)

Constitution has been dumped unceremoniously

US foreign policy is still backing Musharraf

Protests from Benazir Bhutto(PPP) and Altaf Hussein (MQM) are muted

Karachi stock exchange dropped 700 points. Rumors afloat of certain parties were informed of the plan before hand

Rumors of a pro-Islamist army coup that started this are abound ex-ISI head Hameed Gul has been arrested.

The Indians did it - Pak and conspiracy theories

2007-08-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

The economist correspondent writes about Islamabad and Pakistan politics in his post, The Indians did it.

What would we do without this kind of patronizing analysis from globe trotting saviors of the empire? I guess the Brits are still waiting for us to come crawling back to them so that they can save us from the maneaters, Jim Corbett style. I am jealous that he gets to make statements like

- Islamabad is boring (duh, its made for you)
- Pakistanis are conspiracy theorists (maybe he needs to come to American to see Elvis and Roswell)

Still, it is poignant, well crafted and somewhat funny, especially if it is read like Dave Chappell would when he impersonates an older white man.

Sheikh Goma - Muslims can change religion

2007-07-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know Sheikh Goma sounds like a Samurai Lord, but he is truly a wonderful emancipated Sheikh. First he bans female mutilation (which has little to do with islam), now he says, it is ok for Muslims to change their religion, as it is between God and man (also woman).

"The essential question before us is can a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam? The answer is yes, they can," Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa said in a posting on a Washington Post-Newsweek forum picked up by the Egyptian press.

"The act of abandoning one's religion is a sin punishable by God on the Day of Judgment. If the case in question is one of merely rejecting faith, then there is no worldly punishment," he wrote."

More here . Now I am hoping he can make pork halal.

Ninjabans last address

2007-07-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

After the storming of the Lal Masjid, take a listen to this video

It is actually kind of sad . . . . I can imagine the effect this will have on the Army jawans. This is propaganda and myth making at its best. Still, I cannot advocate storming of a religious place, whether it is the Golden Temple or the Lal Masjid by military personnel. My take on this is is that all this is highly convenient for Prez Musharraf, he is back in the good books of his Aqa USA.

An insight view of before this debacle by the Fawzia Afzal Khan, Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Burqa Brigade. A delightful read.

Jadugaran - Persian hip hop

2007-07-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Inspirational hip-hop with the right intentions. Especially for artists who are interested in using calligraphy. Check it out

Shameless personal attacks of the third kind

2007-07-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

The MNA from MQM Babur Ghair tore Imran to bits about his alleged affair to Sita White and his illegitimate daughter. Watch it on youtube.

He was supported in this shameless act by Ejaz-ul-Haq son of Zia-ul-Haq. All this because Imran khan wanted to ask Altaf Hussein to come to Pakistan and face charges. This is the second such incidence, "after the long arm of the law" of our glorious federal minister of Law.

Here is a write-up. It is very sad . . . personal attacks like this are very disheartening and as Imran said"Ghatiya"

Hinglaj - Pakistan's Hindu pilgrimage

2007-06-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

As the devastating cyclone Yemyin batters the Makran coast and wreaks havoc on Karachi, I found this amazing photo-journey to an important Hindu shrine (Hinglaj is supposedly where the head/sindhur of Sati fell after being dismembered) about 80 miles from Karachi along the Makran coast. It was a reminder to me of the improvised coast of Baluchistan and the strange beauty it still holds . . . .

Karachi violence and the ugly mqm wallahs

2007-05-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

my thoughts and various other have been captured on my friend's ifaqeer, blog

In short, without defending the violence, I would say that treating mqm like 'enemy combatants' flies in the face of all progressive shouting themselves hoarse over Gauntanomo.

The fact that they have hoodlums and are lead by a crazy and vain meglomaniac, does not detract the fact that they are representing Karachi. They have the votes, and are a legitimate Pakistani party. Deal with it . . . politically.

Profiles in Courage

2007-04-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

It is my guilty pleasure to see neo-cons being grilled by a totally awesome lady, in this case Cynthia McKinney, a lowly representative from Georgia.

More in Dynacorp and sex slave scandal.

Cricket at rest!

2007-03-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Pakistan cricket is always controvertial, its like a non-stop befundling bhangra. The murder of Bob Woolmer after Pakistan's humiliating loss to Ireland has caused a media frenzy in Pakistan, but Mike Marquesee says that the innuendos against the team are in bad taste.

Coach Woolmer might have been a better man then Greg Chappel, but still a bad coach. ICC rankings be damned, Pakistan has always seen its ups and downs, the most important barometer of the cricketing world is the wrold cup and this has been Pakistan's most humiliating exit. Nobody can argue that they have raw talent, and that the coach is mainly responsible for strategy and the team's psyche . . . and in that Bob Woolmer was a failure, as was Greg Chappel.

I think India and Pakistan should eat their humble pie and try to escape the mental depravity that is part of the previous generation that only the Gora Mai Bap can discipline us. I don't know how many Miadad's, Imran's, Kapil's and Jayasurai need to be born for the South Asians to break out from their shared colonial past of insecurities.

So yes, please let Aqib Javed coach Pakistan and maybe take his winning under 19 team to West Indies, maybe they can win us a 20/20. As for my cricket bets, they are on West indies and Sri lanka, becuase they have already overcome some worthy rivals.

No Justice No Peace - SF Anti war rally

2007-01-28T13:02:00.000-08:00

I don't really take my camera to these . . but this time I did. A few picture, more at Flickr.

Big Brother racism

2007-01-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

Some of you might know about the controversy generated by Bollywood Diva Shilpa Shetty's racist treatment on the UK Channel 4 TV Show 'Big Brother'. Apparently she was called a dog, her accent was made fun of, and various other cute little things that bimbos try to do to disguise their racism. Whose fault is it, I believe Shipla's because if you can't take the heat on a reality show, why bother?

But more interesting are the flirts between Shilpa and Dirk Benedict (He played Faceman on A-Team and Starbucks on the original Battlestar Galactica). Aw Shucks . . . so cute ;)

History of Jihad

2006-11-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

An interesting website that is scholarly information for the blatantly biased, History of Jihad. Although these days I unfortunately do not have the time and the energy to devote to this dillusional lunacy which showers us with such quotes as

President Bush with Mongol horsemen. President Bush can as well learn a lot from the Mongols who were the only ones in History to have come nearest to destroy Islam. The failure of the Mongols to do so was due to the fact that although they hated the Muslims, they did not realize that the brutality of the Muslims originated from Islam and eventually the Mongols themselves embraced Islam to become part of the Muslim psyche they so hated to begin with.

Any one who wants to fight the Muslims, needs to understand Islam, and he needs to fight Islam and not just its practitioners Â the Muslims. Or else, like the Mongols, after defeating the Muslims on the battlefield, that leader would end up embracing Islam, and become a part of the problem he started out to unravel.

Key Message, "Don't talk to Muslims, they might convert you . . . meaning Muslims are super cool beings sort of like Vulcans and can do a Jedi Mind Trick on your Christian, Hindu, Jewish,Buddhistt ass to convert you, like they did to the Mongols, and pretty soon YOU would be fighting against the people who have destroyed the world as we know it.

Rushdie is right . . the veil does suck

2006-10-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

An Afghan woman was shot yesterday in broad daylight in Fremont, California. She was 37 years old, mother of six walking her three year old to school after her mini van had broken. She was wearing a Hijab.

I wonder if the guy (yes it was a guy) was inspired by oreoable Salman Rushdie saying 'the veil sucks' or by honorable Gordon Brown saying that covered women makes him 'uncomfortable'.

Police are deciding if it was hatecrime.

My only question is, if you want to 'shoot' someonewould you rather not shoot Foley then a Hijaban?

Schadenfreude for Mighty Heart

2006-10-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Michael Winterbottom’s shoot of A Mighty heart – The Daniel Pearl story starring Angelina Jolie got shut down in Karachi for not having the right permits. Apparently, the crew members,

“ … ran into trouble in July while filming without permission near Karachi's Village restaurant, where Pearl had planned to meet a contact shortly before his abduction. Officials halted the filming and police and federal agents arrested three Pakistani men - who were wearing police uniforms and carrying guns - for impersonating policemen."

Now the shoot is being held in Pune in India, where the locals have been going ape shit over Ms Jolie’s appearance.

Call me a cynic, but one has to think that westerners have learned nothing about Karachi. Would Michael Winterbottom dare shoot a major production without getting the right permits beforehand in any other city? Seems like he did exactly what Daniel Pearl did, walk into a dangerous and volatile situation expecting everything to be fine and dandy. Mr. Winterbottom is a master film maker with a liberal tendencies, after all he made Road to Guantanamo and given the opportunity he would have made a visually stunning film shot in Karachi.

However, as an aspiring film maker and a native son I would like Karachi to be exposed by us rather then be patronized by Hollywood. So all I can say is Schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\ malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

How to kill Americans (a short film)

2006-10-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

My friend and mentor (Cemendtaur) has done an inspirational piece of work on the Lodi arrests. Please see this very important short documentary. On one hand it shows how the FBI forges ahead with their bullshit and on the other hand, it shows the power of one man's personal Jihad to know the truth.

----The Preemptive War Within; The FBI's Jihad

Reports suggest that after the terrorist attacks on September 11,2001, Attorney General Ashcroft summoned his intelligence people andtold them to do everything possible to prevent further acts of terrorism.

The government started pouring money into anti-terrorism operations,and amongst other efforts, informants were recruited and sent toMuslim communities around the country. These undercover FBI agentswere paid handsomely to produce results.

One such spy went to Lodi, California, and made friends with theinsular, agricultural and working-class Pakistani community in thatrural town. Most of the members of the Lodi Pakistani community were alarmed by the anti-American rhetoric of the newcomer...23- year oldHamid Hayat was not one of them.

The short film being introduced tries to shine some new light on theground realities of the Hamid Hayat case, including a visit toBehboudi, the small village in Northern Pakistan that is Hamid'sancestral home and where, the FBI says, he went to learn...

How to Kill Americans
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=jq9GyvDN6QI

----Cemendtaur, the artist behind this project and himself born inPakistan, is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Other work from hispen and camera can be seen at http://KarachiPhoto Blog.blogspot. com; hecan be reached at Cemendtaur@yahoo. com

Has the West been silenced by Islam?

2006-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

The current over Mozart's King Idomeneo presenting the chopped off heads of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha (love the equality) is a bunch of nonsense. On one hand, I really don't give a damn, the artist is using them as a metaphor, BUT, if the Europeans are shouting themselves hoarse over the Islamic black mailing, why is it not ok to have a restaurant in Bombay named Hitler's Cross? Is Jewish black mailing on the holocaust different from Islamist feeling offended by the severed head of their prophet? They are both offensive and in bad taste.

Has the West been silenced by Islam?
In an age scarred by flashpoints between cultures and religions, it is easy to make accusations of prejudice or bigotry. But, argues Paul Vallely, we have all got something to gain from developing new sensitivities (more)