Some Memorable Miscellanies on Social Aspects 

By:  Dr. Maqsood Jafri (New York)

The world is full of poets, priests, artists, play wrights, novelists, story writers, critics, politicians, scientists bureaucrats, and musicians, but the logicians and philosophers are very rare in the human treasure. Brain is the most important and valuable part in the human body. It controls all the other organs of body. It is the supreme power that commands all the limbs to act. But it is very tragic that brain is less used. It is said with heavy heart that most people do not ponder or cogitate. The people have ordinary, customary and traditional thinking. They feel easy and comfortable with rites and rituals. This is the reason that a great poet of Urdu and Persian, Mirza Ghalib, had said that when somebody starts thinking, the faith and ideas of the ancestors do not suit his rational mind. To call a spade a spade is a difficult and dangerous deed.  Sometimes you have to lose your life. The majority of the people do not see things critically. They accept the things on their face value. It is the tragedy with the societies who do not desire rationality and progression.

The people justify their cults and countries. To be impartial and rational is a hectic task. Besides knowledge, it needs a temperament and will to be neutral. Even the politicians do not accept the facts and ground realties. They hoodwink each other and in this dirty trick the common people suffer. On international issues, the countries take sides and fail to provide justice to the oppressed ones. Let us briefly throw light on some issues and see how we are dealing with them at different levels.

(a)  Recently, Israeli bulldozers demolished the houses in Jerusalem, putting the Palestinian families out on the streets. The process of apartheid and pillage is rampant at the hands of some Zionists. It is a state terrorism. It is the moral and human duty of the USA and the West to halt the Israeli aggressors and provide justice to the suffering Palestinians. The blood is blood. Blood is not water. Water has neither color nor smell. But blood has a color and a smell. When water flows, it is absorbed in the dust, but blood does not absorb in the dust; rather it glows and is condensed on the face of the earth. Sahir Ludhyanvi, a great lyrical and revolutionary Urdu poet, had aptly said that blood cannot be hidden under the carpet as it condenses when flows.The blood of any innocent  person, whether a Jew, a Hindu, a Christian or a Muslim, cannot be hidden. Blood speaks and speaks loudly. The blood of the Palestinians and the Kashmiris can be seen in the red tulips. Justice for all must be our slogan. The Middle East issue and the Kashmir dispute must be resolved according to the UN resolutions.

(b)  Misuse of Religion:  In Sohrab Ghot of Karachi, Pakistan, nearly sixty young students have been found in an Islamic seminary. They were chained and tortured by the hardliners. The police raided and released them from the clutches of the fundamentalists. It is reported by different TV channels that these students were registered to impart to them the Islamic teachings but were being brainwashed to be used for terrorists activities. On the release, these students thanked the government and appealed the government to punish the clerics who had imprisoned them in the cells of the mosque and were forcibly preparing them for the bomb blasts. They were being Talibanized. If the Islamic madrassas (mosque schools) are closed in Pakistan and these poor kids are provided secular and scientific education, we can avert religious and sectarian crisis. In my opinion, all religious private seminaries of all religions must be banned. Religion is a private affair. It is the choice of everyone to practice any religion he likes. The rabbis, the priests, the monks, the mullahs, and the pundits are the traders of their faiths, and religion has become a profession. It must be controlled by the states. The other day, a sham spiritualist in Pakistan buried alive a four-year-old kid. He duped the parents of the child and asked them to bury their child alive for some benefit. They agreed, and the boy died in the ditch dug for him. The pseudo spiritualist has been arrested. How inhumane and tragic incident occurred in the name of religion. It shows that these clerics and mystics play foul in the name of religion. They are culprits of humanity. Let the educated people raise a potent voice of protest against these vendors of all faiths and adopt rational and scientific outlook of life. Mind is supreme. Mind is the super power. Let us use mind to make life happy.

(c)  Pakistani Sex Workers in India:  I was stunned to read in an Indian newspaper that recently a group of Pakistani prostitutes visited the red light district in the Indian city of Calcutta to discuss safe sex practices combating HIV/AIDS. This group is from Pakistani city Hyderabad. It visited the brothel of Sonagachi in Calcutta. They were told that earlier the patients of the "touch disease" could be easily treated as syphilis and  gonorrhea and other sex diseases were curable but, hitherto, the AIDS is incurable. They were simply told to ask their clients to use "condoms "while doing sex to avoid the disease. Here, I want to throw some light on the matter of sexual perversion and sexual appeasement. In the Hindu Vedas and Rigs, much has been written on sex. It is with a positive intent to guide the youth about sex. In the poetry of Moulana Rumi, we find interesting stories relating to sexual matters. In the USA and Europe, we find sex education imparted to the youth  in schools and colleges for proper guidance. There is no harm in it. We must not grope in darkness. We must educate our youth about the blessings of sex and its proper use. In Europe, because of free sex, and in the Asian countries, because of prostitution, the sex indulgence requires safety steps. Without safety steps the dangers of fatal sex diseases are imminent. The moralists preach marriage to avoid the fatal sex diseases. There is not a shred of doubt in it that whether it is a proper marriage, a timely marriage or having concubines, the safest way to avoid sexual ailment is the legal use of sex. In the Torah, we find the wives and concubines of great prophets like Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon. To date, in the Muslim countries, we find the concubines of the rich class. In the USA and Europe, the concubine has been named as mistress. These are the ladies you can do sex with them without proper marriage. But we are dealing with the subject of prostitution. It is neither humanly nor morally nor religiously approved or guaranteed. Such obnoxious social evils must be weeded out. But, still the point is valid, that no one should do prostitution without using the condoms. For the safety of life one should stick to sexual scientific instructions.