Pakistan Day Parade

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By Sajjad Suhail-Sindhu, Copy Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: Every year around this time, here in New Jersey, the Pakistan Day Parade magazine carries an article encouraging readers to undertake participation in local activities of a voluntary nature and enhance the building of an inclusive society. And if elections happen to coincide with the Pakistan Day parade, particularly Presidential elections, which happen every four years, the message carried consists of encouragement for voting in the elections as, “one’s vote is one’s voice” and, “together, we can help foster a movement for change for our people,” changes that accommodate our needs in “building a society rooted in principles of Islam,” a mouthful of a comment if ever there was one to be spoken or written.

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In this article, I endeavor to address these two issues:
1) Choice of a President
2) Building a society rooted in principles of Islam.

Choice of a President

I’ll start with the first one. The choice of a President is intrinsically linked to the social and economic policies of the party that President belongs to, and to all intents and purposes, to anyone who has paid any level of attention to the politics of the hour, that the things that truly matter are rarely discussed in favor of the deliberate distraction served us on a wall-to-wall basis – that’s 24/7 in American speak.

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One’s support for a specific political party ought to depend on the details of the policies of the two parties that interchangeably rule us, having supposedly been put into office by the circus that is the election process that runs for two whole years. And yet, if one was to stand at the gates of the White House, and take notice of the who’s who of those that come and go, and ostensibly bring influence to bear on the President and part constituents of the administration, one might be alarmed at not seeing the Principals of the schools our children go to, or the heads of our local housing authorities, or leaders of those very important people, EPA, those that provide us with clean water or the clean air we breathe.

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No, it is more likely to be the heads or representatives of corporations that are destroying the world we live in, and making us sick as part of these corporations being successful. Think, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, and Burger King or McDonald’s and Northrop, and Raytheon. And as of late, Elon Musk of Tesla, who it is whispered may soon be one of the secretaries in a future Trump administration. The policies these corporations bring to bear on the administration are never debated publicly in the two-year-long circuses of electioneering, a political process that is meant to show us, the electorate, the faces and more importantly allow us to become familiar with the candidates and the issues that matter to them, issues they are supposed to win over our votes with.

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We get to hear and debate the policies and issues of the parties that both hinder and or facilitate our lives, issues central to the selection of our leaders. It is my intention in this effort to consider the reasons for the choice of a candidate belonging to a party that manifestly espouses and practices policies that are in line with our value systems.

Traditionally, we vote for one of the two established parties, the Democrats and or, the Republicans. And if one was to ask a member of the public to name a specific policy that either of the two parties is responsible for, if we are lucky, and the person asked has kept his ear to the ground, he or she will voice something rather disturbing that is underway at the present time – something that has surreptitiously made itself into the operational policies of the Democrats running this country, without much opposition from the Republicans. This very disturbing practice that I mention is to do with children, who are allegedly, being offered gender change operations without the parents being involved.

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In fact, allegedly, if a child was being coerced at home to alter his thoughts, he would be taken away from the parents. This is so against our values that this subject absolutely NEEDS our attention. Who amongst you remembers this aspect of our children’s lives being discussed as part of the Democratic party politics? And was it to have been an issue for consideration upon which Joe Biden was to have been selected, would we have selected him? This issue is so jarring to our values that instinctively we would think long and hard about voting Democrat.

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At the same time, the Republican’s candidate, former President Donald J. Trump, thinks nothing of voicing anti-Muslim tropes. If these issues are the norm, emanating from the two main parties, where then do we look for someone more agreeable to us? Neither R.F. Kennedy Jr., nor Dr. Jill Stein was invited to the solitary debate, that effectively ended Joe Biden’s run at a second term and brought us Kamala Harris, who one must know, could never, on her own, have won a single primary, let alone have been nominated for the Democrats’ candidate. Those who remember the 1968 elections will clearly see the similarities being played out here, and elaboration of which is a topic for discussion in another article, where there to be any interest shown.

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The absence of JFK Jr. and Dr. Stein from that debate meant that the viewers were not served well as they were not exposed to the new ideas and policies that Dr. Stein and JFK Jr. would inevitably have elaborated upon, and the tired and failed policies of the past are being forced upon the American people, the two candidates whose reach into the past is longer than the vision of a future that we want for ourselves and our children, a vision far removed, from the ongoing wars that are tied to a past so far in the past that the soon-to-be-elected, or selected Presidents will be placed in office to deal with issues of long ago, a time and a place our children were neither born of, nor have any vested interest for their futures.

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So, in searching out the newer candidates, with visions that look to the future as opposed to continuing to serve and support the same old vested interests, we must recognize that a need for new ideas, and support of those who carry those ideas, is an investment in our futures, and that of our children’s. With effort, we will develop tactical acumen and mental fortitude; to stay the course with those fledgling candidates, whose values are in line with ours. In fact, we need to take steps to immerse ourselves with the likes of Dr. Jill Stein, and help guide her, become part of what direction she takes, and help steer that direction, in ways that suit us.

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The future we want for ourselves, and our children is there for us to achieve. Just like an adaptive filter in mathematics, we know where we want to go, and see the obstacles in front of us, by continuing to iteratively minimize those obstacles, reducing them to zero, we can get to our destination.

Building a Society Rooted in Principles of Islam

This is subject matter that is often quoted by well-meaning people without much thinking. It is spoken in Pakistan, in Belgium, Germany, or the UK, and the US, wherever Pakistanis live and gather, and discuss topics that, in their minds, “must” include Islam as part of their vernacular.

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Let’s discuss this for a minute and see if we can persuade the readers that perhaps delving into this often-quoted comment is not too long in the tooth. In order to discuss this, let’s consider where we live, and what facilities the land we live in provides for us and our families. And if we live in Pakistan, let’s discuss what we lack by way of facilities and if we are lucky enough to be given those to make up for our own inabilities to create for ourselves – and in the end, ask ourselves, “what does it mean to create a society rooted in principles of Islam?”

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But before we go on, I want to iterate – that there is NOTHING of any blasphemous nature that will be drawn out of this discussion. In fact, I want to beg the reader, to consider, that were our Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, to be here, would he encourage a discussion that highlights our deficiencies in an effort to log them so they could be made into efficiencies? The irrefutable answer to which is a resounding YES!

That said, let’s begin with “what constitutes a society rooted in principles of Islam?”

It is my humble opinion that a society that caters to the basic needs of the downtrodden, the most unfortunate, and most neglected, and the most marginalized, providing opportunities to lift the same and putting the onus on those abundantly enriched with the wisdom of sharing with the less fortunate, being cognizant of one’s neighbor’s needs and coming to their aid are ideas that would be part of “principles of Islam,” ideas that are widespread in societies amongst communities and nations in the West and Europe today. These societies enjoin man to the purity of a search of his soul and to find therein his responsibility to the larger self of which he is a tiny part. This society endeavors to regularly reform each’s life, both individual and collective, and to establish the supremacy of right over might and virtue over vice.

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Islamic values include standing for the middle path with acceptance from both the left and right and putting the onus on all to adopt the best from both as needed, leading to the creation of a moral man in the service of a just society, part of a life that is complete.

All of this has been achieved in the West since the end of the great wars, the tragedies of which were so great that man was forced to think, come together in camaraderie, hitherto unknown and lead henceforth, to where the creation of organizations such as IMF meant that nations unable to catch up were given opportunities to bootstrap themselves to a better existence.

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All of which, if accepted impartially, would suggest that the West has indeed developed a society that is rooted in Islamic principles. And were Muhammad, PBUH, to be here as a witness, he would be very proud of the achievements of the West. What is missing from the West’s daily life is the practice of the 5 pillars of Islam, namely, Shahada, Salah, Zakah, Hajj, and Fasting, participation of which is common only amongst Muslims, who have never actually built a society rooted in principles of Islam, a practice that does nothing but pay lip service to developing a society rooted in principles of Islam.

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I’ll end this article with, again, forcing Muslims to think – as our Prophet would have wanted us to, and look instead, at why we have not matched the West at achieving the same. Discover the root causes and rout them out, by means that our Prophet guided us with – part of the activities of his life as an example.

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Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai

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