Friday, December 26, 2014

@Khawer_Khan on #Peshawar, #Oakland, and Beyond

History IS the haunting of our nightmares. Lets not forget who created these monsters. Various imperialist powers representing global Capital and the comprador Pakistani state. These monsters are not some organic expression of our people struggling in some distorted way for freedom. This is literally a Frankenstein's monster gone amok. Arms from the Pakistani state, a heart and brain from Capital, legs from various global and regional hegemonic powers, a torso from the remnants of a tribal society confronted with modernity, and blood from it's countless victims.
We cannot begin to slay the beast without naming it.
Today Capitalism in an advanced state of decay delivers dead bodies of our youth in Mexico, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan and even the USA. We wake up and everyday and find corpses at our door; an offering from soulless, lifeless, neither living nor undead monsters. Their logic dictated by the very history of blood and carnage that is Capitalism.
Its too late for reformism or cosmetic changes and bandages or behavioral changes. We must slay the beast.
As they say in Oakland... Rest In Power.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

@ARRrafiq on Fighting Back in Pakistan

Ideology of #Pakistan in Four Quotations

"Democracy is not just a new thing we are learning," said Jinnah Saahab to American journalist Margaret Bourke-White, "[o]ur Islamic ideas have been based on democracy and social justice since the thirteenth century."

"... we have proved it to the world more than once. We established Pakistan because of our passion for what we call the Islamic way of life. This is no narrow sectarian, or medieval, or theocratic or intolerant conception. It means no more and no less than this: that we believe in God and atheistic doctrines cannot flourish amongst us. That we believe in the equality of men and the equality of civic rights and opportunities for all, irrespective of their religious belief. That we believe in social justice, ... that we believe in democracy, not as a political creed; but as a part of our religious faith ... the way of life that we have chosen for ourselves, [is] not a new concoction, but one that is based on a body of belief and tradition that have been handed down to us by our forefathers"
—Liaquat Ali Khan, First Prime Minister of Pakistan, gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California on May 16, 1950. See, for example, http://archive.org/stream/pakistantheheart027153mbp/pakistantheheart027153mbp_djvu.txt

Maududi on Jinnah & Co.:

“It is worth mentioning that not a single political leader from Muslim League or any resolution from the party have ever clarified that their ultimate goal is to create Islamic type of Government in Pakistan. Rather what they have said and repeated is that they want to establish a democracy with equal rights for the minorities”
—Maududi, Musalman aur Jadeed Siasi Kashmakash; Published in 1941; Volume 3; page 130 via http://abdulmajeedabid.blogspot.com/2012/04/secular-dilemma.html?showComment=1335378510930#c5306260525138779089
"You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of democracy, social justice and the equality of manhood in your own native soil."
—Jinnah - February, 1948

Saturday, December 20, 2014

#Christmas Carols in #Karachi for #Peshawar

This is the Pakistan we all want; it takes a tragedy to bring it together. But don't be fooled it exists and has existed all along in our hearts.
Here's the video: