Sad day for Ummah

September 23, 2010 marks a day that will remain in our memories as the day justice died. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a neuroscientist, MIT graduate, mother of 3, pious and righteous Muslimah, held by US authorities for 5 years until acknowledging her existence in 2008, was sentenced to 86 years in prison.

Her crime: the only one that I can think of is that she is Muslim. She was sold by the Pakistani government to the US agencies on the pretext that she might be an al - Qaeda sympathizer. Her court conviction was based on lies, prejudices and speculative evidence. Her sentencing, therefore, is totally unjust and exposes the true face of the US justice system.

To top it all, she was not the only one who has suffered in this ordeal. There is absolutely no knowledge of what happened to her 3 children since the time of their disappearance till they were either handed-over (as in the case of Ahmed) or dropped off (as in the case of Maryum). Allah SWT only knows the status of the third child, Suleman.

It’s now time to increase the pressure on the Pakistani and US governments to release Dr. Aafia and reunite her with her children and family. She has suffered enough. May Allah SWT ease her sufferings and rescues her from the grave injustices perpetrated against her.

Here it goes!!!

I had been thinking of starting my own blog for sometime now but i think was a bit hesitant. Don't know why but now i think time has come to get passed that. Because there are ideas that I think need to be shared and discussed. Blogs are now such an integral part of the web that it just cannot be ignored. The sort of power and independence it instills in oneself is just an amazing motivation to get on board.

So what are the ideas that need to be shared and discussed? I am a person whose beliefs are firmly based on religious inclinations as well as sensory perceptions. So I base my opinion not only on what I perceive but also on what I believe. In that regard I feel there is a need to open up to discussions and dialogs. The gap between the two parts of our society one that is called "enlightened moderate" and the "extremist fundamentalist" is widening at an alarming rate. What is more alarming that the youth of the nation is the worst affected by this. This has to be bridged. And to me dialog is the only way forward.

The means to achieve a commonality has to be some sort of ideals where the two groups merge. When that is reached we can build on that.

One reason for me to start up this venture is that I got the feeling that the Pakistani community being represented in the blogs are mainly from the moderate side of our society. The other half has either no voice or a very limited one. I think a vast majority of those people are technologically challenged so you can't see much of them here. But a minority has the capacity and that intellectual edge to make their voices heard.

But my intent is not to make this a politico-religious dialog platform only. Instead I'll be writing and posting news and links about science, technology, sports etc that I feel does indeed help us in bridging the gap.

I hope this effort does yield some fruits Insha Allah.