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My passion- "No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." ~ Confucius Bertrand Russell wrote in his 1967, autobiography, three passions, simple but overwhelming, should govern our lives: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These three passions drive my life, that is what I think. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/boss/detail.aspx?content=107&dt= http://www.ucp.edu.pk/newsReleases.aspx?id=498&faculty=ucp Reason why do I make my 2 cents worth contributions - Iqbal Latif is a contributor on global issues. His primary interest is in treatment of 'minorities' in the Islamic world. He weaves a story in a manner that co-relates freedom of mind with prosperity of people. Freedom from orthodoxy and decadence is the goal of his writings. His slogan is Jean Jacques Rousseau quote ‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles.’ He thinks war on terror has led to 'containment of freedom to operate' for the terrorists to operate hence when there are no infidels to kill, they turn on each other no less bloodier. http://www.persianmirror.com/ Home- I wish, I would be those cranes, homesick from, Paris - Foch I remember walking with my old father along these river banks bewildered and overawed with the majestic and enormity of its expanse in summer. My home town was a hot place as it is now; the walk about the banks of river was the one luxury that we all could easily afford, those memories are so ingrained. As I sit here late in night in one of the nicest places in the world, I remember my old little town, my hearts goes out for my town, what a voluntarily émigré and banishment we endure. I wish, I had wings to fly there and bring those memories back, the memories that fill my heart brim with pleasure and eagerness, the first love, the first hatred, the first black eye and the first abuse; what a ‘sanctuary’ a hometown is! Once I almost was drowned in these very flood seasons, the flow of Indus was far superior than the muscles of my two fragile, adolescent meagre hands, but like old man of the sea we ventured out, the Indus taught us aggression and fortitude, to take on power bigger and mightier than us, it could drown us but the Indus taught us to survive the ferocity of the flows, may be what we are today ‘survivors facing adversity’ is the product of our environ. It was in one of these high flood seasons that my father explained me the perennial vagaries of the Indus flow. I feel home sick, I wish, I would be these cranes. I am smitten and besotted, never did I ever realize that the place of birth has such a charisma and what a charm. What a hollow life I have lived! Is attraction to land of birth stronger than luxuries of life, yes, it seems so, the sand is where we all belong too, that is what attracts all of us too.. On why nations and ideologies implode? To adopt a rationalist, humanist and tolerant approach to life and allow all flowers to blossom – the essence of Renaissance and Reformation. In a patent symptom of dismissive generalization, noted clerics make sweeping statements like "Muslims could regain their lost place with the promotion of book reading culture, as distance from knowledge caused downfall of the Muslims in the world." Everyone seems to mourn the lost glory; however the real excruciating causes of decline are rarely argued. Rationalism was an essential inclination amid the Muslim thinkers during the Golden Age of Islam; it was toleration of ideas in which the so-called golden age of Islam flourished. Thinkers then were more led by their own conscience than any provincial dogma, a belief system they might have inherited from their ancestors. http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news/exec/view.cgi/12/6893 These movements were at the threshold when Imam Ghazali wrote his Refutation of Philosophy. Later appearance of Ibn Rushd’s Refutation of Refutation paved the way to rationalism and humanism flourishing into the movements of Renaissance and Reformation. The Muslim world was influenced by Imam Ghazali’s Refutation of Philosophy whereas European thinkers were influenced by Ibn Rushd’s philosophy Refutation of Refutation. The doors of Ijtihad were closed because of Imam Ghazali’s writings. In a patent symptom of dismissive generalization, noted clerics make sweeping statements like "Muslims could regain their lost place with the promotion of book reading culture, as distance from knowledge caused downfall of the Muslims in the world." Everyone seems to mourn the lost glory; however the real excruciating causes of decline are rarely argued. Rationalism was an essential inclination amid the Muslim thinkers during the Golden Age of Islam; it was toleration of ideas in which the so-called golden age of Islam flourished. Thinkers then were more led by their own conscience than any provincial dogma, a belief system they might have inherited from their ancestors. http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news/exec/view.cgi/12/6893 Let’s start calling spade the spade, whenever, tolerance has been overtaken by bigotry, blinkeredness and singularity; nations and empires have just withered away. At heart of hatred, viciousness and venomous intensity lies intolerance, bigotry and inability to ever find the enemy within. Fanaticism is an evil of a society that corrodes the elegance of any culture. It is most amazing that most of the Muslims like to refer to the ‘Golden age of Islam’ but refuse to appreciate its underpinnings! Tolerant rulers –who saw knowledge without ownership of any creed and expand knowledge to new frontiers. The lack of intellectual progress within the Muslim world suggests something is terribly wrong, their inability to point out their own weaknesses and look at history objectively instead of subjectively they have not been able to learn any lessons from their past. Pluralism of Ideas and the prosperity of any land are intertwined. Freedom of minds and skill of intellect to ‘think the unthinkable’ is how humanity has progressed; when minds are incarcerated nothing endures. http://iqballatif.newsvine.com/_news/2008/01/11/1219547-nation-of-islam-and-denial-of-its-killing-fields Ike is one of the few writers who are gifted with lucidity and depth, he has been fortuitously bestowed with objectivity of purpose so munificently, a rare combination. Listening to him is bliss as he goes on to expound his mastery on cleavages of history with details that are mind boggling. This is his class. He is a master story teller and a great one too. His narration of history that embroiders the past with the present and our future makes 'history' less monotonous and dreary, sometime history becomes a fiction. Ike ability to bring history out from the oblivion of 'imaginary tales' ''Mongol ruler Hulagu in Baghdad interned the Caliph of Baghdad among his treasures.He asked him to eat the treasures he had accumulated instead of using them to defend his people''and treats it with the respect of the blood of those of our earlier ancestors who self annihilated to teach us few lessons that we so far have not learned. His is a style of where history becomes part of the news, contemporary politics as characterised by his analogies what he refer as a 'long angle' makes a lot of sense.''History taught in Indian schools still considers Moguls as saviours of India. Not so. Those in the subcontinent who call Moguls saviours of the subcontinent should know their pedigree well.'' Ike true to his colours is controversial and has remained so here in this article too, all great geniuses were persecuted and condemned so will he be. Ike makes historyso interesting by carving a scenario where past is a forerunner of the present. Lucidity, purpose and lack of intellectual gaps underline his submissions on the Newswine, he is definitely one of the top scholar. If he will not write like this, I will never read him, but this is some powerful stuff that has rarely been written like this even in secular India, the guilt of association with the Moguls keep secular intellectuals quite about the invaders from the North. Awesome riposte It needs guts to admit the crimes of our ancestors and rebuke them publicly, until such time the desire of raising the flag on Red Fort never dies in the heart of the faithful. This is the root cause of our tragedies in the subcontinent, the unbridled support of ravagers and looters. Now when we face them in the shape of Mullah Omar and OBLwe don't like them, as they are blowing us now, this was exactly the case of the powerless subjects of the subcontinent who were targets of the worst kind of atrocities in the name of spearheading the message from the desert. Added with colours of rubies and emeralds from the booties from the temples and trampling the right of millions became the cornerstone strategy of 'Mogul democracy.' From Ghazanis to Ghauri to Moguls, the rape of the subcontinent continued rampant and unrestrained. http://iqballatif.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/31/4785234-history-of-wars-and-battles-that-changed-the-course-of-history-why-some-regions-export-death-and-others-dont

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