Comments on: Islamic Religious and Gender Apartheid: The Murder of a Christian Woman in Kabul. http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/ Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:06:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: G Thind http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7722 G Thind Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:02:31 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7722 Following letter was sent to The Editor, The Dawn. As expected, The Dawn did not print it. Problem is that the Muslim world wants stay in a cocoon woven by ancient Saudis sitting in caves. ‘Worried-Pakistani’ (letter to the editor dated October 8) in Karachi has awakened my memories of March, 2004 when I visited Pakistan. Being from Canada it was hard to understand why unlike any country in the world, be it communist, secular or in between every sentence started with Allah and ended with Allah. In Pakistan Airways all one could hear were prayers at takeoffs and landings; no one cared about relaying emergency procedures to passengers before takeoffs and necessary instructions to them before landings; crew absolved themselves by leaving safety of passenger to prayers. With the exception of Africa and Middle East I have traveled all over the world and I did not have to divulge my religion but while visiting Moenjodaro (in Sindh) I had to mention it on a form. In western countries where ‘one wife is one too many,’ many Pakistanis have multiple wives resulting in over population, poverty, and disgust resulting in diminished value for human life. It’s not out of place to mention of a typical example of my 35 year old guide at Moenjodaro who had three wives and six children whereas my wife and I have three children out of whom eldest was a boy and then came a set of twins, a boy and a girl. With my pay cheque which was better than 80% Canadians and wife working as cook in a cafeteria we had a hell of time sending them through university to enable them to be professionals. Pens, pencils, screwdrivers, and spanners dropped five minutes before Nimaz time and were not picked up for 30-40 minutes. In a whooping population of over 160 million, over five times more than with which Pakistan came into being only 60 years ago, there must have been 40% i.e. about 64,000,000 wage earners resulting in total loss of at least 32, 000,000 man-hours and that only for one Namaz; multiplying this by 5 Nimazes a whooping figure of a loss of 160,000,000 man-hours is nothing but shocking to a western. For me, I can never afford a worker who will work no more than 6 hrs. 30 minutes and expect to be paid for 8 hours in the dayshift. Add another few prayers on the afternoon shift; in addition to two which are part of five regular ones - add Maghrib prayers at 8.30pm and then, after dinner Isha prayers by 10.30pm and Taravee ending by 11.30 p.m. Yet, Hundreds of people staged a public rally on the occasion of the 20th death anniversary of former military ruler Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. They marched from Rawalpindi to his grave and demanded that Islamic system be enforced in Pakistan as visualised by Zia. His son Ejaz-ul-Haq led the rally that was attended by delegates from across Pakistan. Ejaz-ul-Haq is clamoring for political power; if successful he will add few more prayers and rituals. When hundreds of millions of hours a day are wasted in prayers and mind boggling marches how could Pakistan afford to help the earthquake stricken poor Kashmiris? Check the bank accounts of army generals and colonels; check their lavish Kothis (palaces) and farm lands; that is where American’s 10 billion dollars disappeared. On top of everything else do not forget to check the flight of funds to the safety of the Gulf oil states. It’s disgusting to observe that Pakistan’s president has to go out of his way to beg the world for a dole. In the Western world woman are the backbones of economy; to my surprise I saw no woman shopping in the open and the ones I noticed were clad in burqas. Having been born in India in 1923 and now a resident of Canada since 1953 it shocked me to observe that the same Muslim women who like any Hindu or Sikh women folks lived a free life in Punjab of India were now clad in Burkas in the Punjab of Pakistan. It surprised me, rather, upset me to experience that when I visited my so called friends in Karachi and Lahore not even one of them introduced me to their families whereas they had stayed in my home for two days while going through training in Aeronautics in Boeing at Seattle with me and paying visit to Vancouver. My wife and teen aged children (two sons and a daughter) had gone out of their ways to make all of them (supposed to be my friends) feel at home; my wife even prepared some Indian sweets and packed full dinner for them to eat on the evening of Sunday at Seattle. They never felt a ting of shame for treating me Persona-non-grata as if introducing me to their families was below their dignities whereas they considered themselves to be worthy of staying in my home. All of a sudden they turned into Saudis who treat their women folks as nothing but slaves and baby producing machines probably in accordance with: SURA XXIV: 31 (LIGHT) – “The Koran’ ISBN 0-8041-1125-1.” “And speak to the believing women that they refrain their eyes, and observe continence; and that they display not their ornaments, except those which are external; and that they throw their veil over their bosoms, and display not their ornaments, except to their husbands or their fathers, or their husbands’ fathers, or their sons, or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male domestics who have no natural force, or to children who note not women’s nakedness. And let them not strike their feet together, so as to discover their hidden ornaments. And be ye all turned to God, O ye Believers! That it may be well with you.” In reply to a letter to the editor: “Causes of Muslim militancy” by Mr. M. P. Chishti of Karachi I request him to ponder upon his analysis of the world afresh, not irrationally, but with cool mind, stop suckling the thumb and read the following with an open mind. Dr. Pervez Amir Ali Hoodbhoy in The Washington Post, December 30, 2001 (washingtonpost.com) said, “Today, Muslims number 1 billion. Of the 48 countries with a full or near Muslim majority, none has yet evolved a stable democratic political system. In fact, all Muslim countries are dominated by self-serving corrupt elites who cynically advance their personal interests and steal resources from their people. None of these countries has a viable educational system or a university of international stature. You will seldom see a Muslim name as you flip through scientific journals, and if you do, the chances are that this person lives in the West. There are a few exceptions: Pakistani Abdus Salam, together with Americans Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. I knew Salam reasonably well; we even wrote a book preface together. He was a remarkable man, terribly in love with his country and his religion. And yet he died deeply unhappy, scorned by Pakistan, declared a non-Muslim by an act of the Pakistani parliament in 1974. Today the Ahmadi sect, to which Salam belonged, is considered heretical and harshly persecuted. (My next-door neighbour, an Ahmadi physicist, was shot in the neck and heart and died in my car as I drove him to the hospital seven years ago. His only fault was to have been born into the wrong sect.) Though genuine scientific achievement is rare in the contemporary Muslim world, pseudo-science is in generous supply. A former chairman of my department has calculated the speed of heaven: He maintains it is receding from Earth at one centimetre per second less than the speed of light. His ingenious method relies upon a verse in the Islamic holy book, which says that worship on the night on which the book was revealed is worth a thousand nights of ordinary worship. He states that this amounts to a time-dilation factor of 1,000, which he puts into a formula of Einstein’s theory of special relativity. A more public example: One of two Pakistani nuclear engineers recently arrested on suspicion of passing nuclear secrets to the Taliban had earlier proposed to solve Pakistan’s energy problems by harnessing the power of genie. He relied on the Islamic belief that God created man from clay, and angels and genie from fire; so this highly placed engineer proposed to capture the genies and extract their energy.” Sincerely, G. Thind Following letter was sent to The Editor, The Dawn. As expected, The Dawn did not print it. Problem is that the Muslim world wants stay in a cocoon woven by ancient Saudis sitting in caves.
‘Worried-Pakistani’ (letter to the editor dated October 8) in Karachi has awakened my memories of March, 2004 when I visited Pakistan. Being from Canada it was hard to understand why unlike any country in the world, be it communist, secular or in between every sentence started with Allah and ended with Allah. In Pakistan Airways all one could hear were prayers at takeoffs and landings; no one cared about relaying emergency procedures to passengers before takeoffs and necessary instructions to them before landings; crew absolved themselves by leaving safety of passenger to prayers. With the exception of Africa and Middle East I have traveled all over the world and I did not have to divulge my religion but while visiting Moenjodaro (in Sindh) I had to mention it on a form.
In western countries where ‘one wife is one too many,’ many Pakistanis have multiple wives resulting in over population, poverty, and disgust resulting in diminished value for human life. It’s not out of place to mention of a typical example of my 35 year old guide at Moenjodaro who had three wives and six children whereas my wife and I have three children out of whom eldest was a boy and then came a set of twins, a boy and a girl. With my pay cheque which was better than 80% Canadians and wife working as cook in a cafeteria we had a hell of time sending them through university to enable them to be professionals.
Pens, pencils, screwdrivers, and spanners dropped five minutes before Nimaz time and were not picked up for 30-40 minutes. In a whooping population of over 160 million, over five times more than with which Pakistan came into being only 60 years ago, there must have been 40% i.e. about 64,000,000 wage earners resulting in total loss of at least 32, 000,000 man-hours and that only for one Namaz; multiplying this by 5 Nimazes a whooping figure of a loss of 160,000,000 man-hours is nothing but shocking to a western. For me, I can never afford a worker who will work no more than 6 hrs. 30 minutes and expect to be paid for 8 hours in the dayshift. Add another few prayers on the afternoon shift; in addition to two which are part of five regular ones – add Maghrib prayers at 8.30pm and then, after dinner Isha prayers by 10.30pm and Taravee ending by 11.30 p.m. Yet, Hundreds of people staged a public rally on the occasion of the 20th death anniversary of former military ruler Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. They marched from Rawalpindi to his grave and demanded that Islamic system be enforced in Pakistan as visualised by Zia. His son Ejaz-ul-Haq led the rally that was attended by delegates from across Pakistan. Ejaz-ul-Haq is clamoring for political power; if successful he will add few more prayers and rituals.
When hundreds of millions of hours a day are wasted in prayers and mind boggling marches how could Pakistan afford to help the earthquake stricken poor Kashmiris? Check the bank accounts of army generals and colonels; check their lavish Kothis (palaces) and farm lands; that is where American’s 10 billion dollars disappeared. On top of everything else do not forget to check the flight of funds to the safety of the Gulf oil states. It’s disgusting to observe that Pakistan’s president has to go out of his way to beg the world for a dole.
In the Western world woman are the backbones of economy; to my surprise I saw no woman shopping in the open and the ones I noticed were clad in burqas. Having been born in India in 1923 and now a resident of Canada since 1953 it shocked me to observe that the same Muslim women who like any Hindu or Sikh women folks lived a free life in Punjab of India were now clad in Burkas in the Punjab of Pakistan.
It surprised me, rather, upset me to experience that when I visited my so called friends in Karachi and Lahore not even one of them introduced me to their families whereas they had stayed in my home for two days while going through training in Aeronautics in Boeing at Seattle with me and paying visit to Vancouver. My wife and teen aged children (two sons and a daughter) had gone out of their ways to make all of them (supposed to be my friends) feel at home; my wife even prepared some Indian sweets and packed full dinner for them to eat on the evening of Sunday at Seattle. They never felt a ting of shame for treating me Persona-non-grata as if introducing me to their families was below their dignities whereas they considered themselves to be worthy of staying in my home. All of a sudden they turned into Saudis who treat their women folks as nothing but slaves and baby producing machines probably in accordance with:
SURA XXIV: 31 (LIGHT) – “The Koran’ ISBN 0-8041-1125-1.”
“And speak to the believing women that they refrain their eyes, and observe continence; and that they display not their ornaments, except those which are external; and that they throw their veil over their bosoms, and display not their ornaments, except to their husbands or their fathers, or their husbands’ fathers, or their sons, or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male domestics who have no natural force, or to children who note not women’s nakedness. And let them not strike their feet together, so as to discover their hidden ornaments. And be ye all turned to God, O ye Believers! That it may be well with you.”
In reply to a letter to the editor: “Causes of Muslim militancy” by Mr. M. P. Chishti of Karachi I request him to ponder upon his analysis of the world afresh, not irrationally, but with cool mind, stop suckling the thumb and read the following with an open mind.
Dr. Pervez Amir Ali Hoodbhoy in The Washington Post, December 30, 2001 (washingtonpost.com) said,
“Today, Muslims number 1 billion. Of the 48 countries with a full or near Muslim majority, none has yet evolved a stable democratic political system. In fact, all Muslim countries are dominated by self-serving corrupt elites who cynically advance their personal interests and steal resources from their people. None of these countries has a viable educational system or a university of international stature. You will seldom see a Muslim name as you flip through scientific journals, and if you do, the chances are that this person lives in the West. There are a few exceptions: Pakistani Abdus Salam, together with Americans Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. I knew Salam reasonably well; we even wrote a book preface together. He was a remarkable man, terribly in love with his country and his religion. And yet he died deeply unhappy, scorned by Pakistan, declared a non-Muslim by an act of the Pakistani parliament in 1974. Today the Ahmadi sect, to which Salam belonged, is considered heretical and harshly persecuted. (My next-door neighbour, an Ahmadi physicist, was shot in the neck and heart and died in my car as I drove him to the hospital seven years ago. His only fault was to have been born into the wrong sect.)
Though genuine scientific achievement is rare in the contemporary Muslim world, pseudo-science is in generous supply. A former chairman of my department has calculated the speed of heaven: He maintains it is receding from Earth at one centimetre per second less than the speed of light. His ingenious method relies upon a verse in the Islamic holy book, which says that worship on the night on which the book was revealed is worth a thousand nights of ordinary worship. He states that this amounts to a time-dilation factor of 1,000, which he puts into a formula of Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
A more public example: One of two Pakistani nuclear engineers recently arrested on suspicion of passing nuclear secrets to the Taliban had earlier proposed to solve Pakistan’s energy problems by harnessing the power of genie. He relied on the Islamic belief that God created man from clay, and angels and genie from fire; so this highly placed engineer proposed to capture the genies and extract their energy.”
Sincerely,
G. Thind

]]> By: Kenny http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7588 Kenny Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:36:56 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7588 Thank you very much such useful information, however, I regret to inform you that I am facing a lot of problems due to my conversion.can you you help me, so that I amy forward my further details. Have nice weekend!! Kenny Thank you very much such useful information, however, I regret to inform you that I am facing a lot of problems due to my conversion.can you you help me, so that I amy forward my further details.

Have nice weekend!!

Kenny

]]> By: Artikel af Phyllis Chesler « Veritas Universalis http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7246 Artikel af Phyllis Chesler « Veritas Universalis Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:22:00 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7246 [...] det hele her på bloggen Chesler [...] [...] det hele her på bloggen Chesler [...]

]]> By: Gianni http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7242 Gianni Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:12:51 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7242 Thank you very much George, kind as usual. I am a progressive feminist judeophile, and I am aware unfortunately I am of the rarest breed, sort of member of an endangered specie. Thank you very much George, kind as usual.
I am a progressive feminist judeophile, and I am aware unfortunately I am of the rarest breed, sort of member of an endangered specie.

]]> By: George Jochnowitz http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7239 George Jochnowitz Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:38:24 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7239 Caro Gianni, Since you are an Italian Judeophile, you might be interested in my http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/PrimoLevi.html Cordiali saluti, George Caro Gianni,

Since you are an Italian Judeophile, you might be interested in my http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/PrimoLevi.html
Cordiali saluti,
George

]]> By: Gianni http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7238 Gianni Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:47:31 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7238 Contrary to what conservative evangelicals tell people not all mainline protestants are mute on the issue (although I admit many are, to their shame). For you all here is this press release from german lutherans: http://www.ekd.de/english/ekd_press_releases-080925_iranian_law_on_apostasy_unacceptable.html By the way WHY noone is mentioning oil? If we don't switch SOON to renewable energy nothing will change. Petrodollars are fuelling islamic indoctrination and terrorism, and yet getting rid of oil dependency seems not a hight priority for christian conservatives. It is indeed a high priority for the jewish people. Jewish are the most environmental consciuos group, and the do the talk, not just lip service. They do wonderful things for the environment. Just finished a research on green jews for an upcoming article and I can't tell how I admire them for what they do. That's one of the reason I LOVE AND SUPPORT jewish people (but not haredim). Contrary to what conservative evangelicals tell people not all mainline protestants are mute on the issue (although I admit many are, to their shame).
For you all here is this press release from german lutherans:

http://www.ekd.de/english/ekd_press_releases-080925_iranian_law_on_apostasy_unacceptable.html

By the way WHY noone is mentioning oil? If we don’t switch SOON to renewable energy nothing will change. Petrodollars are fuelling islamic indoctrination and terrorism, and yet getting rid of oil dependency seems not a hight priority for christian conservatives.
It is indeed a high priority for the jewish people. Jewish are the most environmental consciuos group, and the do the talk, not just lip service. They do wonderful things for the environment.
Just finished a research on green jews for an upcoming article and I can’t tell how I admire them for what they do.
That’s one of the reason I LOVE AND SUPPORT jewish people (but not haredim).

]]> By: Dave http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7237 Dave Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:15:39 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7237 In the meantime George, we need to look for a few good crusades just to move the process along. In the USA, some mosques and orgainizations need to be put under a peace bond. If----make that when---- the bond(s) are forfeited, the proceeds should go to benefit non-muslims in muslim countries. That might get their attention. In addition to which, CIA-like organizations need to extend helping hands to those who proselyte where illegal to do so and visit retaliation upon those who persecute the apostate. Yes, this is suppressing a religion. Suppression is legit when practiced upon those who repress. This is going to require some out-of-the-box thinking. Want to call Charlie Wilson out of retirement to get things started? In the meantime George, we need to look for a few good crusades just to move the process along.

In the USA, some mosques and orgainizations need to be put under a peace bond. If—-make that when—- the bond(s) are forfeited,
the proceeds should go to benefit non-muslims
in muslim countries. That might get their attention.

In addition to which, CIA-like organizations need to extend helping hands to those who
proselyte where illegal to do so and visit
retaliation upon those who persecute the apostate.

Yes, this is suppressing a religion. Suppression is legit when practiced upon those who repress.

This is going to require some out-of-the-box thinking. Want to call Charlie Wilson out of retirement to get things started?

]]> By: Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » If you’re John Murtha’s constituent, http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7236 Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » If you’re John Murtha’s constituent, Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:17:08 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7236 [...] Islamic Religious and Gender Apartheid: The Murder of a Christian Woman in Kabul. [...] [...] Islamic Religious and Gender Apartheid: The Murder of a Christian Woman in Kabul. [...]

]]> By: George Jochnowitz http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7235 George Jochnowitz Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:07:44 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7235 Everything evolves, including religions. Christians no longer execute witches and homosexuals. The wars between Catholics and Protestants that took place in the 16th century—wars that made the struggles between Shia and Sunni look like a game—are over and will never return. One day Muslims will read the words of the Koran and interpret them to be teaching peace, equality, and tolerance. Everything evolves, including religions. Christians no longer execute witches and homosexuals. The wars between Catholics and Protestants that took place in the 16th century—wars that made the struggles between Shia and Sunni look like a game—are over and will never return.

One day Muslims will read the words of the Koran and interpret them to be teaching peace, equality, and tolerance.

]]> By: cfbleachers http://pjmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/10/20/islamic-religious-and-gender-apartheid-the-murder-of-a-christian-woman-in-kabul/#comment-7232 cfbleachers Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:01:29 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/?p=331#comment-7232 A religion that does not celebrate the joyous and full exploration of faith's foundations in order to expand the soul, but rather, commands fealty through duress, thereby shrinking the soul... is no religion at all. A good life ended, but not wasted. Not if other good souls raise their voices in chorus, not to produce an echo, but to produce a promise. "May God keep you safe and warm in His embrace, and on any day He doesn't, we will." Phyllis, your writings and speeches and media appearances are worthy of a place in the front row of that chorus. You are loved and cherished for your brave and worthy work. A religion that does not celebrate the joyous and full exploration of faith’s foundations in order to expand the soul, but rather, commands fealty through duress, thereby shrinking the soul… is no religion at all.

A good life ended, but not wasted. Not if other good souls raise their voices in chorus, not to produce an echo, but to produce a promise. “May God keep you safe and warm in His embrace, and on any day He doesn’t, we will.”

Phyllis, your writings and speeches and media appearances are worthy of a place in the front row of that chorus. You are loved and cherished for your brave and worthy work.

]]>