Ramadan 'police' target Pakistan's cafe society

[SamranAli]

those who eat in public during Ramzan should be fined and punished.

 

[Liquidmetal]

My personal take on this thread is that it is now running on ego rather than any sensible argument concerning faith.

Many of my fellow Muslims have not even mentioned the point of certain things in Islam. What is fasting, why did God ask for fasting to happen? Why is it so hard. Fasting for a month without food and water is hard. There is no doubt about it. The point of something so hard is to build your own spiritual well being, understand the pain of hunger and hence poverty, so that you look at your fellow humans with humane eyes and to show charity and decency to each other throughout your lives. It is also an antidote to gluttony and consumerism and keeps a person grounded to the real values of one life. Finally fasting also has health benefits if done properly, lowers cholesterol, helps reduce weight and stops aging. Many benefits for the person fasting. However it is a test of self control, tolerance and love.

This is all personal. However, in PK and many of our Muslim colleagues now believe that it must be a public show of faith and they must advert to show how Muslim they are, how prious, hence the long beards, and those so calledd namazi that use a stone on the pray matter to bruise their forehead to mark their heads so people can see they pray. Those that ask for non faster to be punished for eating in a a restuarant. Look at my faith I am a man of God I impose my values on others and punish them because my faith is so strong.

Wrong your faith is weak, you are just a lemming, casting the 1st stone though you are covered in sin. Hypocrites.

Just like Zia, a farce of a man, one that has destroyed Pakistan, a man as corrupt as any leader, ask his family where does their wealth come from, a reported 100 million dollars. He regressed Pakistan by many decades and the current load sheddings, extremism, suicide bombings, failure of the education systems, rampant corruption are all his doings. He was a munafiq and a liar.

Pakistan was respected? no Pakistan was used and dumped and then everyone ran to India and embraced them.

If Zia was so respected ask how much investment did the west put in Pakistan during his time? How many jobs created, how many schools opened? Why did he put his buddies in charge of civilian institutions such PIA, WAPDA, CAA, Foreign Office, the list is so long. He destroyed them. What about the Hydra called MQM, what about his hanging of a civilian PM elected by the people on trumped up charges, an executive murder. Where was the rule of law then that you are now espousing so much.

Hypocrites my friend, you are all for show and not for Islam or humanity.

 

[revojam]

those who eat in public during Ramzan should be fined and punished.

those who practise islam should be arrested and deported.

 

[hussain0216]

****** neo liberal haraami scum, thats all these people are

 

[Liquidmetal]

****** neo liberal haraami scum, thats all these people are

So much for your fasting and Iman you hypocrite.

 

[Mercenary]

I am confused though you live in Pakistan or Toronto? Are you of Pakistani descent?

I live in Toronto, Canada.

But my parents are from Pakistan.

Buddy i dont beleive in 9/11.
That doesnt mean i can shout it on american faces..
Despite not beleiving you still have to compensate for the majority..

Not believing in 9/11 gives you street cred on Islamic Issues? Interesting.

 

[KingMamba]

those who practise islam should be arrested and deported.

To where exactly are you planning on deporting them?

You far left liberals are just as bad as your far right twins.

So much for your fasting and Iman you hypocrite.

He broke his fast in his rage.

I live in Toronto, Canada.

But my parents are from Pakistan.



Not believing in 9/11 gives you street cred on Islamic Issues? Interesting.

Oh, okay just wondering.

 

[Zarvan]

Ramadan 'police' target Pakistan's cafe society | World news | guardian.co.uk

With its wooden floors, leather sofas
and customers peering at their Apple
laptops as they sip their coffees, Mocca
Cafe is the not the den of iniquity that
might normally attract a police raid.

But Islamabad's police have suddenly
found cause to turn their attention to
the capital's poshest eateries in an
effort to enforce a patchily applied,
decades-old law forbidding people
from eating or drinking in public during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Customers and proprietors were
shocked on Saturday when, nearly
halfway through the holy month,
Mocca and at least two other popular
eating spots in the well-heeled Kohsar
market were visited by police officers cracking down on the illicit
consumption of muffins and brownies,
not to mention smoothies and skinny
lattes.

Members of what pass for Islamabad's
cafe society said they could not
remember anything like it. The
manager of Gloria Jeans, a nearby
restaurant, said he had never even
read the Ramadan law until the police arrived.
He has now placed a sign in
the restaurant saying it is only "open
to the communities not observing the
fast of Ramadan".

A message circulated on an expatriate
email list by a customer who had been
in the Gloria Jeans coffee shop at the
time reported a "large commotion". "

There was a lot of hostility in the air
because foreigners were being served
while others (Pakistanis) were being
told to leave," the email said, before
going on to advise expats to give
restaurants a wide berth until the end of Ramadan. "

Personally, I wouldn't take the
chance after the anger I felt while in
the coffee shop.
" The raids, which police say were
prompted by a complaint from a
member of the public, followed last
month's police assault of a journalist
who had the temerity to consume a
soft drink in his car at a secluded hilltop beauty spot overlooking
Islamabad.

He said he was beaten with belts by
the officers, who threatened to charge
him under the Ramadan Ordinance, a
law passed in 1981 by General Zia-ul-
Haq, the then military ruler who did
much to make Pakistani society more Islamic.

Prior to the law, which allows for
transgressors to be jailed almost on
the spot for up to three months,
restaurants simply covered their
windows to conceal diners from public
view.

The heavy-handed policing of eating
raises fears among some critics of a
rising tide of Islamic conservatism
within the state and society at large.
"This sort of behaviour is totally
unwarranted, and a sign of the
extremism that has infiltrated into the
police,"
said Raza Rumi, a newspaper
columnist. "We have this double standard where
the police take no action on the
important things but when it comes to
enforcing these Islamist positions they
are more efficient than ever," he said.
The police involved in last week's raids
say they were simply enforcing the
law. One senior officer, who did not
wish to be named, said he was actually
trying to discourage extremists. "Personally I have no problem with
people eating, but if the restaurants
and hotels in the less privileged parts
of the city are not serving food then it
gives us an image problem with
militants and religious people.
They say the common people abide by the
law, why don't you take action against
the posh areas?" The sensitivities of Pakistani liberals
are all the more acute in Kohsar
market.
The small collection of shops
and restaurants located between a
mosque and a children's play area was
the place where Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was
gunned down by one of his
government bodyguards in January
2011.
He was walking past Mocca Cafe when
his guard, furious at Taseer's public
defence of a Christian woman
sentenced to death under the
country's much-criticised blasphemy
laws for allegedly insulting Islam, shot him dead.

Muslim country can't allow eating in public by any one Hotels and Restaurants have to remain closed during Ramdan or during the time of fast

 

[WAR-rior]

First someone tell me, is it a law in pakistan that no eating joints can run during daytime if ramzan ? if it is then things can be justified in a way otherwise we guyz r wasting tym defending this act. Period.

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Everybody have right to eat in Ramadan. This is their personal right. Nobody can enforce law and ban on eating.

 

[JonAsad]

those who practise islam should be arrested and deported.

we talking about a muslim country- so dont interfere-

All we should ask is to refrain for eating and drinking in Ramzan-
Maybe all you are not familiar with the struggles and confinements while in a fast-
it felt like torture-

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

I have an question for my brothers ,
Jinnah was Liberal or not ???

He was good man. He was open minded and alcohol drinker. But it is banned after 1970s.

 

[JonAsad]

I have an question for my brothers ,
Jinnah was Liberal or not ???

in context with the thread-
you would not see him eating drinking in front of the fasting-

 

[Juice]

Lol, I was just imagining if the US had "Christmas Police," what fun that would be!

 

[truthseer]

those who eat in public during Ramzan should be fined and punished.

Why? We're fasting, not them. Personally, I think the restriction itself is absurd. Give me one Hadith where the Prophet asked the Jews living in Madinah to not eat during Ramadan. I don't know which version of Islam you're following but it isn't the real one if you think this!