So, it turns out that Faisal Shahzad is just another spoilt brat from the developing world, with a massive sense of entitlement and and absolutely no self-awareness. "Why do you have to follow democracy?" asks Faisal, the well-funded son of a retired Pakistani airforce officer, in a long email to like-minded vipers. (Btw, someone needs to find out if the source of Faisal's father wealth is legit, or -as is common - just the well-known cornering of national resources by a corrupt power elite).
"Why do you have to follow democracy (Human-made laws) if you're already given Laws revealed from Allah, Quran and Sunnah?" asks the moron who went nightclubbing as an undergraduate at the University of Bridgetport, before he turned into the proverbial ungrateful viper. Why indeed, Faisal, why indeed? You answered that question very well, didn't you, you self-entitled jackass (can there be a hybrid viper-jackass)? In fact, if you have any more of such "divinely-revealed" laws for the world, well then, thank you very much, but no thanks. The world definitely does not need any more such laws as articulated by the babalog .
Half a world away, there is another Faisel. Dr. Shah Faisel, a resident of Indian Kashmir, lost his father to terrorism at a young age. An incident that might have broken him and his remaining family turned the young boy into something else. Instead of turning that rage into venom, and becoming a ticking timebomb against innocents, Dr. Faisel used the past seven years to turn himself into somebody worthy of celebration. He first studied to become a physician, then decided to take the extremely hard Indian Civil Services Exam, leaving home to study at the supportive Hamdard Study Circle in New Delhi. To give you an idea of just how hard it is to get through, in 2007 approximately 300,000 people took the exam, of which about 800 were finally selected. About the same numbers and proportions for this year too. And Dr. Shah Faisel was the topper, as in "stood first" in Indian English, the first Kashmiri to top the exam and to add to the pool of Indian Muslims within the ranks of India's policymakers.
Perhaps, it is because Dr. Shah Faisel was not one of the babalog, perhaps because his circumstances were so very different from his namesake buffoon in North America, perhaps because he had no one to give him regular cash infusions, perhaps because he didn't have an inflated sense of entitlement, that he was able to do something positive for himself, for the memory of his murdered father, and for his community. As he described the tragedy that struck him, "I had only two choices - to be bogged down, or to stand up and face the challenge." And unlike the cowardly Faisal of Bridgeport, the Faisel of Kashmir will be held up as a role model for other Indian Kashmiris to follow.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The Bridgeport Bomber
So what the ?*!!*** were you thinking, Mr. Faisal Shahzad? You studied in this country, found a job here, married a resident, your children are Americans, and you still want to harm this country?! Exactly what kind of schmuck are you? Exactly what kind of malevolent d***head would do that? I know, a d***head like you.
So, worldwide terrorism is now just a few towns over from us. And this of course means that the New England life as we know it is not quite the same anymore. What I love about this part of the country is the sheer pleasantness of it. There is my deep-rooted love for the Midwest and especially for Chicago, but southwestern Connecticut with its just-right distance from New York City, its sun-splashed beaches, Trader Joe’s and Stew Leonard’s – is just so darned pleasant! I can imagine hating it for its Stepford Wives-esque little towns, its complete lack of diversity, its high prices and its lack of sidewalks or bicycle paths. I’ve grumbled over all of these things with friends and to myself. But would I try and destroy the place over these flaws? Of course not! If you didn’t like America, dear Shahzad, if you didn’t like whitebread Connecticut (although that hardly applies to Bridgeport), you had the option to leave and go someplace closer to your comfort level.
And is this even the right way to vent your anger or your rage? How many Vietnamese lost their lives in an unjust war in the 1950s and 1960s? Do you see any of their descendants flying planes into skyscrapers or planting bombs among innocents out of a misguided, I would even say a self-entitled, sense of grievance? Two wrongs do not make a right, Mr. Shahzad, no matter how much you may try and stretch the argument that way.
And that brings me to another topic. What if you were the parent of someone like Shahzad? How hard must that be, to see your beloved child turn out to have not just murderous tendencies but a mass-murderer streak? What must that do to you, the parents of said thug? It’s possibly one’s worst nightmare come true.
Should parents bear any responsibility for their grown children’s waywardness? Perhaps not, but I do have one general piece of advice. All these people went nuts because someone from outside the family preached a warped message of hatred to them, in the name of religious instruction. And the parents and family members probably approved of their “good” son spending hours in a religious setting, mixing with other “good boys” and “pious men”. And then they are perplexed about the outcome. “But he was always so good!” is the refrain. Well, the lesson is that religious instructors aren’t always good people. I know, it seems contradictory, but just ask the Catholic Church. In other word, dear parents of international terrorists: don’t get lazy about your parental duties. It’s your job to teach your children the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. Religious instruction and moral instruction start at home. So, don’t outsource morality to your church, mosque, temple or synagogue. And perhaps everyone else can rest a little easier, then.
So, worldwide terrorism is now just a few towns over from us. And this of course means that the New England life as we know it is not quite the same anymore. What I love about this part of the country is the sheer pleasantness of it. There is my deep-rooted love for the Midwest and especially for Chicago, but southwestern Connecticut with its just-right distance from New York City, its sun-splashed beaches, Trader Joe’s and Stew Leonard’s – is just so darned pleasant! I can imagine hating it for its Stepford Wives-esque little towns, its complete lack of diversity, its high prices and its lack of sidewalks or bicycle paths. I’ve grumbled over all of these things with friends and to myself. But would I try and destroy the place over these flaws? Of course not! If you didn’t like America, dear Shahzad, if you didn’t like whitebread Connecticut (although that hardly applies to Bridgeport), you had the option to leave and go someplace closer to your comfort level.
And is this even the right way to vent your anger or your rage? How many Vietnamese lost their lives in an unjust war in the 1950s and 1960s? Do you see any of their descendants flying planes into skyscrapers or planting bombs among innocents out of a misguided, I would even say a self-entitled, sense of grievance? Two wrongs do not make a right, Mr. Shahzad, no matter how much you may try and stretch the argument that way.
And that brings me to another topic. What if you were the parent of someone like Shahzad? How hard must that be, to see your beloved child turn out to have not just murderous tendencies but a mass-murderer streak? What must that do to you, the parents of said thug? It’s possibly one’s worst nightmare come true.
Should parents bear any responsibility for their grown children’s waywardness? Perhaps not, but I do have one general piece of advice. All these people went nuts because someone from outside the family preached a warped message of hatred to them, in the name of religious instruction. And the parents and family members probably approved of their “good” son spending hours in a religious setting, mixing with other “good boys” and “pious men”. And then they are perplexed about the outcome. “But he was always so good!” is the refrain. Well, the lesson is that religious instructors aren’t always good people. I know, it seems contradictory, but just ask the Catholic Church. In other word, dear parents of international terrorists: don’t get lazy about your parental duties. It’s your job to teach your children the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. Religious instruction and moral instruction start at home. So, don’t outsource morality to your church, mosque, temple or synagogue. And perhaps everyone else can rest a little easier, then.