Basant, Hunger Games and our religious parties

 

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and Merciful.

This week Lahore is in the grip of Basant fever. Almost every billboard has Basant related promotion on it. Motorcycles are being fitted with protective sticks. Doctors in government medical colleges, even those teaching basic sciences, are being told to come to duty on the weekend, rooftops are being rented for millions of Rupees etc. It got me thinking about a 2012 movie “The Hunger Games”. The movie portrayed a dystopian society where the Capitol maintains power by forcing children from oppressed districts to fight to the death as televised entertainment, turning survival into spectacle. I cannot help but see the parallels in our Basant. The rich will have lavish parties with their friends and families on their rooftops and yell bo-kata after every “payche”. The children of the poor will run after the kites after every bo-kata. While pursuing the kite they may fall in open gutter (which don’t exist in our city) hit a vehicle, fight with each other as to who caught it first. In all of this, just like in the movie, they have a high probability of getting injured or even death. While they are participating in this hunger game the other side will continue enjoying its rooftop parties, completely oblivious to what is happing down below.

I don’t have any expectation from our secular parties to confront this so-called traditional festival but I expected the religious parties and the ulema to forcefully speak against it. But unfortunately, the response is not as strong as it should be. Is it the first result of the Rs 25K that the government of Punjab plans to pay to ulema? Or is there something else behind the scene? I don’t know but would like to know.

Quran and the man Israel tried to kill

 In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

One of the most important targets in the assassination attempt that was conducted on September 9, 2025 by Israel was Khaled Meshaal, but he survived. What many people probably don’t know about him is that this is not the first time Israel tried to assassinate him. In September of 1997 six agents of Mossad went to Amman, Jordan on fake Canadian passports armed with fentanyl, a lethal toxin. On the morning of September 25, they delivered the toxin to Khaled Meshaal via an aerosol device and then tried to escape the crime scene. Fortunately, his body guards caught two of them. Upon investigation they revealed their plan. The then king of Jordan, king Hussain asked Netanyahu (who was the prime minister of Israel at that time also) to send the antidote of the toxin. Bill Clinton, the then president of USA, compelled Netanyahu to comply with king Hussain’s request, which he grudgingly did. Under the deal, Israel not only provided the antidote but released the ailing Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the quadriplegic founder and spiritual leader of Hamas along with 70 other Palestinian prisoners. As mentioned in Quran “And it is not [possible] for one to die except by permission of Allah at a decree determined.” (3:145) Israeli plan failed and Khaled Meshaal left the hospital alive. After his recovery Khaled Meshaal became famous as a living martyr.

Khaled Meshaal in ICU, Jordan Amman

Fast forward 28 years and Israel, again under the leadership of Netanyahu, attempted to kill Khaled Meshaal. Once again Allah demonstrated to the world that “And it is not [possible] for one to die except by permission of Allah at a decree determined.”. Once again, he came out alive and once again Netanyahu is humiliated. These are signs of Allah for believers to not loose hope and have trust in Allah. Unfortunately, majority of the leaders of Muslim countries, especially Arabs, are cowards who think that if they become friends of Israel their lives will be safe. More unfortunate is the role of our religious scholars who do not highlight these things.

Likely destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

The Zionists are losing public opinion fast, especially among young generation. See the unbelievable rise of Zohran Mamdani in NY ( https://www.zohranfornyc.com/ ). This is happening at such a pace and across the board that even mainstream media pundits like Piers Morgan have to change their stand on Gaza. People like Tucker Carlson are now openly challenging Israeli lobby in America ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzejeBP4AY ). This shift in public opinion cannot be reversed easily. The Zionists and their intellectual fathers, the Christian Zionists, now realize that their narrative is fast loosing ground. If they have to fulfil their messianic dream of greater Israel and the building of third temple, they have to do it now or they won’t get another chance any time soon. The part about greater Israel is complete in reality, all the rulers in what constitute greater Israel are basically governors appointed/approved by Israel. If you have any doubt about it just consider who intercepted the missiles launched by Iran towards Israel. The only missing piece is the building of third temple. For that the time is running out. The collation of shameless sunni/arab leaders in and around middle-east that they have made over the last couple of decades might not hold very long. Most people probably don’t remember that in 2019 there was a fire at Al-Aqsa mosque (https://www.newarab.com/news/al-aqsa-mosque-catches-fire-notre-dame-cathedral-burns ) because the rest of world was focused on Notredame fire. We don’t know if it was accidental or deliberate but the lack of concern from our side demonstrated to Isreal that it can be done again. So, it is very likely that Israel will create another “accidental” fire or something to bring down the Al-Aqsa mosque in the next six months to a year.   

AI, Job Opportunities and Ethics

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful 

A couple of days ago I recommended a student of mine to a very dear friend of mine (Dr. Mohammad Zubair, a very dedicated alim) for an entry level IT position in his organization. The feedback I got from Dr. Zubair was far from flattering. The problem was not lack of technical skill, but ethical. My student lied about his projects. The IT members of Dr. Zubair’s team were of the opinion that they can teach and enhance the technical abilities of someone but cannot fix the ethical shortcomings of a person.

You may ask what does this has to do with AI? Plenty. Everyone knows that AI is

Anti Hamas demonstrations and anti-Shia slogans in Gaza

 By now you might have heard or read (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/26/middleeast/why-gazans-are-protesting-hamas-now-intl-latam/index.html) that Anti Hamas demonstrations took place in Gaza. The superficial reason given is that people of Gaza are demoralized and fed-up with the current situation, blame both Hamas & Israel for their misery and want Hamas to leave Gaza. Obviously, Israel will be glad at these supposedly spontaneous demonstrations. But these demonstrations are anything but spontaneous. The actors involved in these demonstrations are not new they are the traitors cultivated by America, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and UAE for decades (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804 ) waiting in shadows for any opportunity to take back control from Hamas. Nothing new so far, the new and really evil aspect is the anti-Shia slogans which were raised by these murderous traitors masquerading as simple demonstrators. These evil people would happily burn the Muslim ummah in sectarian flames to get into power. But despite their nefarious objectives and the genocide unleashed by Israel, overwhelming majority of Palestinians inside and outside of Gaza still support Hamas.

Why Zalmay Khalilzad visited Afghanistan?

 

Combination of two countries China & Israel. China is obvious competitor and is rapidly consolidating her position in Afghanistan, so no surprise there. But what does Israel have to do with it? If it was not for the courageous struggle of Hamas, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan would have recognized Israel by now. The bold action of Hamas threw a spanner in that project. But Israel has not abandoned the project at all and is working at all fronts to achieve her objective. The recent visit of about 10 Pakistanis to Israel is a proof of intention of Pakistani ruling elite ( https://english.aaj.tv/news/330407835/pakistani-delegations-secret-visit-to-israel-claims-israeli-newspaper). For the last several months, our ruling elite links almost every terrorist attack in Pakistan with Afghanistan and claims that American weapons were used in those attacks. The idea is to build the case that American weapons should be taken back from Afghanistan, by force if needed. Senator Irfan Siddiqui of PML-N has been propagating this line of thinking for quite a while now. Our ruling elite thought that this will get them the support of Trump because he wants those weapons back ( https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/26/afghanistan-trump-taliban-military-weapons/). If there is a convergence of objective in this case then the question arises as to why did Zalmay Khalilzad not bother to consult or take any Pakistani official with him when he went to Afghanistan? Afterall Pakistan was deeply involved when Trump was negotiating withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

Imran Khan, the insurance policy of our establishment.

 

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

A while back our establishment probably wanted him to die. But now they want him alive probably more than he himself wants to. What changed? Appointments made by Trump. I am not interested in who he nominated as Attorney general or Secretary of health etc, these are important for ordinary Americans but not for us. For my perspective following three are important.

Secretary of state: Marco Rubio, a hawk when it comes to Afghanistan and China. Wants to maintain military presence in Afghanistan to keep an eye and possibly foment trouble in China.

Secretary of defense: Pete Hegseth, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earned two Bronze stars. 

National security adviser: Michael Waltz served multiple tours in Afghanistan over the course of his military career, which spanned several years, cumulatively amounting to significant time in-country as part of his military service.

Look at this triangle and place it next to the fact that India has largely refused to toe the American line regarding confrontation with Russia and China. The only place left for any adventure regarding China is Afghanistan/Pakistan. The problem, from American point of view, is that Afghanistan is now under Taliban rule. So how to dislodge Taliban? Use Pakistan. Who will oppose that in Pakistan? That is where Imran Khan becomes useful. Our establishment will convince Americans that if we release him, he will throw a spanner in their project and as such it is better to keep him in prison. They don’t want Imran Khan dead either because what other wolf there is to threaten Americans with? NS, FR, BZ?

P.S: In the coming weeks and months you will see how Taliban will be labelled as Khawaraj in religious circles especially in Deobandi ecosystem. This is important for mollifying the Deobandis after all Taliban are their intellectual children. The Baralvis don’t like Taliban anyways and will happily join any effort to dislodge them.