Honour killings
SHAKIR LAKHANI (KARACHI)
LETTER (July 25 2010): Three recent news items prove that as far as women are concerned, we're still living in the Stone Age. The first, about a woman being gang-raped, should not shock us anymore. This is the kind of incident that happens regularly, so much so that it would be shocking if it didn't occur on any given day. Yet it proves that the poor women in rural areas are treated worse than animals. At least the females of other species are not raped by males!
The second item describes how a pregnant mother of six was first shot and then thrown into a canal by her brother because he suspected her of having an illicit affair with a relative. It wouldn't make any sense to tell these primitive men that there is a legal way to deal with adulterous women. In any case, who gave the man the right to kill his sister for any reason at all?
The third news item is heart-breaking. A woman of 50, the mother of eight, was gang-raped by five men against whom she complained to the police. Instead of giving comfort and sympathy to the woman, her son-in-law (whom she had brought up as her own son) killed her because "he could not stand peoples' taunts". So this is the kind of treatment our women get in this Islamic Republic! And some deeply religious Pakistanis I know have the gall to say that women have more rights than men in our country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2010
Real from fake!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
So now it turns out that the law minister himself has a forged degree! This is, of course, like the ultimate straw which breaks the camel's back. One could understand the virtually illiterate assembly members to stoop so low, but not the federal law minister. No wonder he's so adept at distributing the taxpayers' money to buy the loyalties of lawyers!
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
The NEWS, July 14, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Terrorists and security
Sir: As usually happens, within 48 hours of the Data Darbar carnage, the police arrested a number of suspects, some of whom are supposed to have been involved in previous terrorist attacks. Why could the police not have nabbed these persons earlier? Probably we will hear nothing more about those arrested, since it is highly probable that most of them are innocent, while others are drug addicts or petty criminals on whom the police depend for supplementary income. Apart from this, one wonders why the government spends so little on security and so much on other things like buying the loyalties of lawyers or on the houses of the prime minister and the president. While it may be true that terrorists have no religion, it is equally true that the religion of those in power is money, the taxpayers’ money.
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
Daily Times, July 10, 2010
Fatwa on music results in hacking of website
July 2nd, 2010 by Shakir Lakhani
Sheikh Adil Al-Kalbani was the first black man appointed as the imam of the Grand Mosque (the holy Kaaba) in Makkah. He was very popular for his unique recitation style and had millions of admirers round the world. However, after he declared that music is not “haraam” (forbidden), he was sacked by the government and his website was hacked.
Of course, the reaction was to be expected. Most Muslims have been told by illiterate mullahs that listening to music is a great sin, although there is nothing in the Holy Koran to prove it. Sheikh Adil Al-Kalbani merely said what is self-evident.
All modern research shows that music is beneficial for the human mind and is used to help people suffering from depression, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. I hope that all Muslims will one day accept this fact.
www.chowrangi.com
