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Thursday, November 20, 2014

lokol and globol kowboyz


(a litany of trigger happy gun users and “conquerors”)

 

lokol and globol kowboyz



I shewt
bewhere
stay awey
mighty fense
you vermin
its myne
keep aut
don’t nock
you lost
no home
moov on
you ded
the end
 

Monday, November 17, 2014

A Father Would Give an Arm or a Leg

 

A Father Would Give an Arm or a Leg


As in America, the severest punishment is doled out
to those who can’t afford a good lawyer
Dictators stick their noses further up in the air
Around the maligned world, every year
Sentencing a couple dozen poor people
To get their hands chopped off as punishment
For petty theft, but not for corporate crimes
Not for looting millions of home owners
Through faulty loans or inflated gas prices.
Fux news recently reported that some family values preaching
War mongering humanitarian conservative religious
Lawmakers in western countries have now passed laws
To provide political asylum
To the foreigners who had gotten their hands cut.
So to get out of poverty
Millions of poor people have become petty thieves
Turned themselves in, and asked to get a hand chopped off
So they can some day migrate to the West
And make more than two dollars a day
To feed their families back home





by Fazeel Azeez Chauhan,
11-17-14

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Religious versus Non-Religious People


On Religious vs. Non-Religious People

 

Some religious and even non-religious people say: no religion has a monopoly on wisdom. In 1993 by chance I met a Jewish writer who schooled me a lot within a few minutes. He wasn’t getting a clear answer to the question “what are you?” Basically, [about my “roots”] he said,  “don’t discard that part of you”. This set me on a new journey for about three years, delving into the process from a new angle to do some deep self-examination. At that time, it had been 12 years since I had discarded the religion of my childhood, and never imagined that I would ever be a full-time lifer, calling myself a religious man some day. But I still don’t call myself religious, I think that requires high standards. I’m barely hanging on with my nails. Back then and now, if cornered, if I absolutely must answer the question, I say I’d like to be spiritual rather than to be a religious person. The phrase Religious person can evoke an image of a person who is assumed to be isolated, illogical, closed minded, and even stuck in his judgemental ways. In 12-step programs and other places, they provide a good answer to the question: What is the difference between a religious and spiritual person? Answer: A religious person is one who is afraid of going to hell. A spiritual person is one who has been through hell and doesn’t want to go back there.

The three year journey forced me to step out of the box of being a non-religious person and to look at myself and unpack the boxes of my history and my belief systems. Who am I? Where am I from? What is my identity? What are my beliefs? What are my habits? What are the thought patterns and behavior tendencies I’m not aware of? Who have I harmed? What kind of life am I living? What is the meaning of my life? What legacy am I leaving behind, good or bad?

I came to the conclusion that I had been miseducated, mostly by teachers, preachers and parents. At the same time I had been educated by the same folks so I couldn’t throw them all away, like baby with the bath water. In that cloudy, bubbly, dirty, soapy, slippery bathwater there was good stuff and bad stuff. I looked at each piece of the puzzle that was me and evaluated it to see if it was part of my miseducation, then I threw it away. But continuing that self-analysis, I also concluded  that other parts of my history and identity were not trash, but gems which I should hold onto. Some things I enjoyed and found valuable to keep. At the same time I had become a student of a non-religion teacher from whom I learned universal principles. I applied what I learned in practical ways in my life to test the truth of those teachings. If it worked, then it was true for me and I put it in my pocket as a pearl of wisdom.

Gradually, over the three years, the pre-religion universal principles reminded me more and more of the good stuff I was taught in childhood, as part of my upbringing and my family’s culture and religion. The cool thing was, I now had some tools to check the validity of religious beliefs. I now started to evaluate pieces of my childhood indoctrination by using these tools and looking at religious teachings through the prisms of yoga, psychology, science, books and talks by various teachers, and concepts taught by self-help groups. So I began looking at Islam through outside systems to check the validity of what rings true. In the process I was sifting through the clutter and sometimes through the rubble and rubbish to pick out the pearls of wisdom and discard the trash, emotional baggage and miseducation. It was like cutting away the fat and washing away the filth from the meat. It is a way of checking to see if I’m absorbing junk thoughts like junk food, or am I prescribing to healthy beliefs. Am I taking drugs or vitamins? I did understand that for many religious people, education is convoluted by miseducation, thus religion can be an opiate of the masses as Karl Marx said. Opium instead of life enhancing vitamins and spiritual medicine. We must have the courage to do some sort of deep self-examination. For example for Muslims the month of Ramadan can provide a good chance for a vision quest. Like children need to learn how to self-sooth, as adults we need to learn to develop the discipline to take the time to look inside, do self-processing and self-reflection and improve our understanding of our inner self as well as to enhance our relationship to the millions of external factors including people and their ways of being. This is an important part of trying to figure out what it means to be a human being and what are we doing here. As Socrates said 2500 years ago, “An un-examined life is not worth living”.

If a person chooses to follow a religion, he needs to take responsibility and cross check himself on the list of things he believes in, to insure he’s not making stuff up. If he genuinely wants to be a good practitioner, then he must remain open to the possibility that he may be a hypocrite in a hundred ways, so that he can continue to learn and to correct himself. As Noam Chomsky says about what U.S. foreign policy should be, “First, do no harm”. Many of us are on auto-pilot, just going through the motions, hiding behind religious jargon, and not being humble enough to maintain a student’s attitude. A person who takes responsibility of his religious practice should be very concerned about what impact he’s having on the world, and immediately stop if he’s being harmful. Being religious and being a menace to society are not mutually exclusive. Some people are pretending to be religious, and hiding behind their religious garb, title, beard, or status. Some have intentions of being a good religious practitioner, yet regularly do evil things in large and small nasty ways to fellow human beings. He needs to be a good example if he claims to be a religious person. Unfortunately, from an objective point of view, many religious people don’t seem to be examples of good human beings. For example they often fall prey to ailments like becoming arrogant, judgemental, religio-centric, oppressive and self-righteous. A person who does not practice what they preach cannot be respected. A holier-than-thou attitude is not attractive. Religious people need to be mindful that such negative behavior can be very repulsive and you can make other people hate your religion and dislike the things you hold sacred.

In some ways, all humans are the same, yet different in other ways. Similarly, some Muslims may have ideas similar to beliefs held by Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindu, etc. Yet even within each religion there are differences, for example there are sects, and some Evangelists might claim that Catholics are not Christian, and vice versa. According to Pew Research Center, there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Although many of us use the term “Muslim Ummah” to refer to our community as a whole, yet sometimes it seems difficult to find two Pakistani Muslims who agree with each other, making one wonder; are there 1.6 billion sects among Muslims? Suffice it to say Muslims, like other groups, come in various shades, shapes and sizes, from a wide spectrum between conservative / dogmatic to liberal / progressive.

Why did I end up prescribing to a mainstream religion? This affirmation developed and evolved over time. One of the choices is to study a subject like spirituality, from a broad approach versus a deep approach. A person might do some shopping around to check out various belief systems, and pick a little bit of this philosophy and mix it with a little bit of that faith. Or they can end up choosing the study of one school of thought or to specialize in one specific religion.  It is healthy to question things in order to learn. But if I remain skeptical of the other person’s point of view, then I might develop a stereotype about them and just write them off, or to always be looking for ways to prove them wrong. On the other hand, any person you are around, is a teacher in some way. No one has come back from the dead to let us know what happens to religious or un-religious people, so the jury is always out. It is good to entertain the notion, “Maybe I’m wrong”, yet not fall victim to doubt.

In philosophy, the either/or approach is known as a fallacy and also called a false dilemma. Inside each religious person, there is also non-religious behavior. For example, he cannot surgically remove his kafir (non-believer) self from his Muslim self. Therefore it doesn’t make sense to me when Mr. Bush says “you’re either with us or against us”, cause I’m with neither of the idiots. Similarly, I can’t agree with a religious Muslim if he says, “there are only two kinds of people in the world you are either Muslim or kafir (non-Muslim)”. How will you possibly drive a Muslim car on a Muslim road with no Muslim money in your wallet which could be made of pigskin? Similar to the either / or fallacy is the us versus them mindset which is often used in politics to divide and rule. It is even used to incite xenophobia and manipulate people into going to war.

In the meantime, on that dial, I’m tuned in to the left and progressive side. Most preachers, specially the Urdu speaking ones on Peace TV, don’t seem relevant to my day to day life. The teacher I find very useful to help me better understand Islamic teachings is an American convert named Hamza Yusuf. He’s a scholar who is specially popular among younger Muslims. I met a Latino convert once who said “Hamza Yusuf teaches you to think”. That’s what we are all supposed to do, is to pay attention, reflect, learn and grow, instead of having blind faith or being stuck on doing rituals in a superficial way.

Often people who have mastered some aspect of life do so as a result of following a discipline. I mean the kind of discipline which is a daily practice and a tool that helps us to make progress and grow. For example, playing the guitar for 7 hours a day, will usually result in mastering that instrument after a few years. Many doctors say that for better physical health, the patient needs to exercise at least 20 minutes a day. For better mental health, a person might benefit from a support group, therapy, playing on a sports team, or finding a circle of trusted friends. The discipline would be to practice that activity every day or every week. Similarly, many people feel the need to develop their spiritual health, and often they choose to practice a religion for that purpose. But frequently, religious people get a big head and assume they have been guaranteed Heaven after death and have the illusion that they have been rendered infallible in this lifetime. I like the definition by the former nun, Karen Armstrong in her book “A History of God”: The litmus test of a true religious or spiritual practice is: Does it make you a more kind and compassionate human being.

Thus, when a person is not being kind and compassionate, most likely he is practicing something other than religion at that time. Often at such instances we are worshipping our own ego, desires, likes, wants, preferences, subjective views and self-serving agendas.

Another reason why a person picks one religion is, because he doesn’t want to re-invent the wheel. Perhaps it is the easy way out, or maybe it just makes life simpler. On the other hand, we do need pioneers who invent instruments from scratch and find new ways of tuning them. But most people don’t have the time, the IQ, the creativity, the drive to take on such an endeavor. Some brave souls stand on the shoulders of giants and pick an existing instrument like guitar, and invent a hundred ways to modify its look, sound, feel, etc. One person may decide to be a jack of all trades and learn to play various instruments, taking a broad approach. While another person might say they want to specialize in a single instrument like a guitar, and go on a deep exploration journey.  If music is like a religion, then this person has taken a very active role in his practice. They are players engaged in the arena, putting their sweat and tears into their daily discipline. Yet the vast majority of people are like bystanders and fans sitting on the sidelines, watching the game from afar. They sit back and enjoy just listening to the music created by others. Many don’t know or care that most of the music on the radio is junk. They just monkey what the others are doing.

In these modern times, one litmus test of a religious or spiritual practice is: does the practitioner adhere to basic concepts of human rights and civil rights? Or in terms of service: Are you doing some work to make the lives of your fellow human beings a little easier or better? If it is hard for me to find examples of a good religious person, it doesn’t mean I should discard all religions or all religious people. They say that no religion has a monopoly on wisdom. So I engage in the practice of fishing, and cast my net in the oceans of religions and the seas of non-religions, and end up capturing some pearls of wisdom. Later, when my friends and I utilize the value of each pearl, they don’t really care much about which sea it came from, or which religion claims to have a patent on it.

When I specifically want to learn about Islamic teachings, I turn Hamza Yusuf. I am also forever grateful to the many non-Muslim teachers who share their wealth of wisdom. When I’m trying to figure things out in life, my search for answers is not restricted to Muslim teachers, because it that time it often doesn’t matter much what their personal belief system is. It wouldn’t make sense for me to discard their teachings, if I just write them off as “non-Muslim”. I would be a hypocrite, because every day I benefit from products, systems and books created by both religious and non-religious people. Like riding the bus made in Israel, using the gas made in Saudi Arabia, on roads made in America, under the sun made by the Creator, breathing air made by trees, wearing clothes made in China to go to a non-religious school to learn how to make a million dollars and retire early.  Some of my heroes are Cornel West and Chris Hedges from the Christian faith; Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn from a Jewish background; Fela Kuti inspired by African religions; Dalai Lama from Tibetan Buddhism; Robert Bly and Justin Sterling from ageless wisdom; Malcolm X and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made in Islamistan; Arundhati Roy, Hamid Khan and Amy Goodman who seem to not be practicing any specific religion. I think a fruitful approach to life is to start with a basic foundation by subscribing to some time-tested universal principles and adhere to that bedrock without skepticism, and then continue to build upon that bedrock by learning lessons from daily living to derive the pearls of wisdom from those life experiences, which you can then carry in your pockets, to enhance the rest of your journey, and to be of service to others. There is no us versus them. The enemy is me. We’re all in this together.

 

Monday, January 6, 2014

The mickey mouse of the new sect of disneylandish islam

The mickey mouse of the new sect of disneylandish islam:

Amir Liaqat is a scumbag who makes a sham out of religion. He is the mickey mouse of the new Disneylandish sect of Islam. He’s a caricature of a Muslim teacher should be. What makes these paper mache figures seem realistic, or acceptable or palatable to anyone? This phenomena is mind-boggling and incomprehensible. Geo and other TV networks promote such fake gurus and tout them almost as some holy men descended from heaven. How are these people different from those American televangelists who take advantage of simple minded folk who don’t know any better?
This two-faced fraud Amir Liaqat was debunked last year, when he was caught on video, cursing and laughing at his audience. This ill mannered buffoon’s popularity should have gone to the gutter. But instead of cancelling him, the moron gets a promotion on Geo TV, and amazingly expensive sets were given to this religious impersonator, Amir Liaqat to film his clowning and dramatic disguises.
 It is astonishing that the Geo executives who support him and his fans who believe in him are so blind, that they can not tell the difference between a faker and a legit teacher. These disgusting monsters have turned religion into a circus. It’s a show like Disneyland. Amir Liaqat’s charades are intolerable, but Geo TV network should be boycotted also, for making a mockery out of religion.

Geo, you suck! You put this phony religious pundit on TV and turned him into a celebrity so you can milk more money from the suckers in the audience. Lately, Geo TV has been heavily advertising the upcoming show of vulgarian Amir Liaqat, and claiming that he was praised in 150 newspapers. Outright lies! Such a round number you miserable twits? Show me the references to those moron editors who are brown-nosing this pseudo molvi. Most mullah are irritating, but this guy is worse, he’s a counterfeit mullah. Geo you stink!