The Slaves of Arabia

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well before we all jump the bandwagon , of accusations and come to conclusions that Arabs hate

Pakistanis

Let us analyse the statement

"Arabs Hate Pakistanis" actually arabs don't even like other arabs just research on Egypt and Algerian anger or KSA or Qater royals problems etc or Yamen / Saudi issue etc , Libiyan dictator said he hates arab monarchs etc ... so there so go ...

Well the whole notion of Arabness was used by british to break the ottoman empire once the Turkish empire was broken - they divided them up and gave them as gifts (barren desert) to horse riding warrior clans - well too bad it had oil later as we discovered

Arabs hate Pakistani - not true but would they marry Pakistani well that is social issue ,
even pakistani families don't marry outside of their own province sadly

I don't think that that is true , but then why do we hear the stries of such neglect

a) Average Arab stands in prayer next to Pakistani worker any class
or creed and they all pray , in makkah or any mosque in any arab
country

So a question arises then who is it that is really abusing the Pakistani Nationals overseas ?

Before we jump the boat we must catagorize the Pakistanis who migrate to Middle east

a) Skilled workers (Doctors, Engineers , Chemist , Electrical workers)
b) Business man , independent business operators
c) Manual Labourers (Road builders, cleaners , watch guards)

Why Pakistanis Migrate:
My question to you is , friends - so why are all Pakistanis going to Middle east in frist place ? Why not they all stay in Pakistan and live in Pakistan ? Answer : Lack of Jobs , and Job creation which is state responsibility and high population

@ least when Educated Pakistanis they apply for jobs they get jobs
in middle east , they can build a home support their families

(Is there discrimination in pay - Yes but so why is Pakistani Consulate not educating workers on pay scale ?)

Then comes the issue of Manual Labourers - the uneducated class that comes for Umra and they stay behind etc or they come on visit visa and they break country law and they illegally stay behind

a) They lose their legal rights when they break law
b) They can't sue any employers who abuse their rights

So again , is it Middle eastern problem that Pakistani citizens are illegally staying in Middle east and doing manual labourer jobs (Waiters, car washers, watch guards, drivers, taxi drivers)


NO THE PROBLEM IS ALWAYS AND WILL ALWAYS BE
"OUR OWNSELF"

Unless we can stand on our feet - as a nation and create 100 Million jobs annually in country , we can't expect to be looked nicely in world

Our Fedral System , school systems creates work force and then they move abroad - so country does not benefits from anyof it ?

Why ? Lack of Job & Bad Economy ?

So Slavery is with in our own self we are tied to our own limitation we impose on our ownselves when we say NOTHING CAN BE DONE in Pakistan


Now back to the question of Arabs Hating Pakistanis

Flase - sure there may be rich class guys who would not want to sit down with a sweety manual labouror but that is also true in our own society , would Nawaz Sharif or Zardari the ultra rich sit down in hotel and eat daal and rooti with a rickshaw drivers

On our own form , we had a post "An American girl marries a Ricksaw driver" and people were making fun

In all social gatherings - The rich always look down on poor

We should not bother with - "Slaves of Arabia" but we should be concerned by failiure of our economy since 70's

We went from Asian Tigers to Asian Terrorist zone

While all other countries

South Korea
Malasia
Tiwan
Singapore they all prospered


Do you see any South Koreans or Malasians working in Middle east cleaning cars ?

No ...

We are SLAVES because we oursleve have choosen that destiny for our own selves and only way to break these shackles is that 1-2 generations must return back 100% from other countries and help revive the job creation process and Gov must give security 100%
and justice should be there


And normally the abusive companies , have 1-2 owners who want to make profit so they will do what they will to make $$$ so instead of us branding all society an evil focus must be on companies that have bad reputation of employment practices and they must be banned by Pakistani Consulate and Pakistan should not send Pakistanis to work for them

But our gov is a joke when it comes to helping Pakistani's abroad as long as they are not strip searched under gov immunities they don't care if average pakistani is humiliated on every single airport or else where...


Its not arabs - its our own self


As for our forigne policy we should strive to move towards goals of 70's when King Faisal was trying to unite muslims into regional force similar term as European Union (which is a muslim concept by the way)

Middle East/Turkey/Iran/Pakistan/China ned to form a regional economic zone

When there are no jobs being created in Pakistan - and you need to pay bills inflation and high costs - sometimes a person takes a job even if it pays less ......

"Are Arabs to blame for lack of jobs in our own countries or dictators that we had , or wars we wage that are not ours "

Untill we get leaders like Imran Khan - who are DIRECT AND DEADLY TRUTHFULL we as nation will keep going the same path , what we need is a leader like Bhutto (his qualities) not his family line heritage etc I want someone outspoken and can do attitude person and for now Imran Khan is the best choice

I swear if I was in power and I heard any Pakistani was abused or profiled diplomatic bycott of that nation - we have a timid forigne police , our leaders are spineless gutless leaders they have no leadership skills

They waste 1 Lakh rupees on personal expenses / day what can you expect from these people ? A real leader would take 10 rupee bus ride , and give the money to poor so they sleep well

But we as nation don't create jobs and we don't value our national leaders just look at Abdul Qadir(Qadeer) Khan

We have become a nation , where deadsouls are born daily and we sit and hope for miracle but when elections come and go , we blindly accept incompetent politicians because they are from specific province or region ...we don't have the skills to see past the regional politics -

Untill then we will be slaves - slaves to our own incompetence

 

[sparklingway]

Wrong i have not seen any cleric atleast in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Balochistan or even other regions who is calling Arab head gear as primary for being a Muslims.

2. Why are you feeding lies by claiming that Ulema are linking Arab gowns with religious significance ?

The "imama" has grounds in Arab culture. Why not the various pagris for our imams? Seems appropriate to associate this with the religious significance they have attached to arab culture.

I'll not mingle in pointless self observations but it is widely known that the Tableeghi Jamaat specifically propagates these things. You might have been disconnected with the traditional religious right for various reasons, but the reality is known to all and sundry.

The use of fancy thobes as a gown on Fridays and sometimes daily by clergymen is widespread especially in urban middle class areas (which are more Saudi-ized and Wahabi-ized than our rural population). Thobe has no cultural history in our region. It has been imported as arab-religious in the previous half century. Similarly use of Keffiyeh (especially the red and white Saudi version and off white Kuwaiti version) are popular among clergymen. These weren't common before the rebirth of Wahabist ideology in our region.

I have given vague examples but I can indulge in definite and procedural debate if you want including the reasons for far less prevalence of female facial coverings in our rural areas than our middle and lower middle class urban areas. You are free to hold a dissenting opinion.

3. Allah hafiz has nothing to do with Arabization. Its s wrong notion and pure lie by those who hate Saudi Arabia for many reasons.

And NO ONE Is forcing in Pakistani anyone to use the word Allah Hafiz instead of Khuda Hafiz.

It was enforced under Zia. PTV spread the message through telecasts asking the use of Allah Hafiz, pamphlets were distributed and Khuda Hafiz was deemed unacceptable in government offices. So, it was enforced.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I kinda saw this first hand during a visit to Qatar. Frankly, coming from North America where South Asians tend to be wealthy professionals and seeing how the locals who haven't really worked a day in their lives treat them was quite a disconnect. It was just blatant racism coupled with sadism. Besides, from my cursory look at Islamic history most of the richest contributions to what is considered today as Islamic culture came from Persia and the Indian Subcontinent.

FWIW, once the oil runs out, it will all come crashing down.

Things are different in Middle east remember there is no court of law just police put you prison and asks questions later but as long as they pump out oil no one seems to care there is a piece of pie for every one racism is not that important when profits are to be made , just ask BP drilling oil and polluting the seas in South US greeed and profits its all about greed and profits

 

[zagahaga]

I have been saying this for a long time that Pakistan should create unrest in Middle East and then Invade them on the pretenses of safeguarding the Holy Sites.

We get the oil and the holy sites to save from the wrath of the satanic House of Saud sitting in there and plotting their games with the elites of western countries.

if i knew who are you i would spit in ur face

 

[EyelessInGaza]

i have said before & i will say again that in our land of pure....

• we are more kashmiri than kashmiris
• we more Arab than Arabs
• We are more Palestinians than Palestinians
• We are more Chechen Than Chechens
• We are more Afghans than Afghanis
• we are more Iraqi than Iraqis
• We are more Turkish than Turks
• we are more Iranian than Iranians
• in the end we are more Muslim than all other Muslims & self righteous delusional flag bearers of Islam declaring ourselves 'Fort of Islam'

the only thing we are NOT, is Pakistani



if religion would have been defining the nationalism of Pakistan then going by that definition every Muslim on the planet must be a Pakistani, we need to produce of amalgam of Pakistanniat in ourselves n

But this is brilliant satire, EmO GiRl. You write it yourself?

Reminds me of Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics, in which he parodied Iqbal to satirize India. It went something like this:

Saarey jaahan se acha Hindustan hamara
Rehne ko ghar nahin hai, saara jahaan hamara
Cheeno arab hamara, hindustaan hamara
Rehne ko ghar nahi hai, saara jahaan hamara

 

[T-Faz]

Wahabi is threatening me over the Internet.

 

[EjazR]

The "imama" has grounds in Arab culture. Why not the various pagris for our imams? Seems appropriate to associate this with the religious significance they have attached to arab culture.

The imama or the turban is sunnah and it is not specifically Arab. It was and still is quite popular in India. Particularly in the North. Wearing a turban is the point here and the local influence will be there. Hence the way the turban is worn in India is slightly different from how its worn in Turkey or say in Yemen. This is all part of the diversity of muslims.

Similarly loose fitting clothes is part of sunnah and that means kurta pyjama or salwar kameez in the sub-continent the thobe in the gulf and similar variations for say dresses in Algeria or Turkey. Again the local cultures come out with their own versions and enforce the diverse nature of muslims.

The arab head gear that is common in the gulf is the keffiyah and if someone wats to wear it thats fine, but it has no sanction in sunnah and it should not be taken as something to do with sunnah. But it is not somthing that should be "banned" either. The keffiyah or the ghutrah is NOT the Imamah or turban

 

[EjazR]

I am surprised at the level of one-dimensional stereotyping of communities these days. Muslims are terrorists, Arabs are racists, Jews are cunning and evil, Hindus are backstabbers and the list goes on. Just one label and the entire community is painted with the same brush. No effort to realise the diversity within these communities. Or to highlight the various trends in these communities, the different thoughts, the dominant thoughts the changes taking place, their historical contexts, all goes out the window.

Sure some crazy arabs have been at the forefront of causing problems, particularly SA. Infact, by some estimates, 90% of Al Qaeda consisted of Saudis. But the last 10 years have seen massive changes. Right from the official level to the grassroots. The main reason being that they tackled the ideology headon and then went about tackling the people. No conspiracy theories were displayed on Saudi TV when AQ in Saudi Arabia started its bombing campaign there, targeting mostly foreigners and security forces.

And just like there are Arabs who treat south asians like "slaves", there are many also who go out of there way to do charity work, provide good food in labour camps, pay for medical treatment out of their pocket and do other works.
You have good and bad people in every society and applying blanket labels to an entire communities is just prejudiced and bigoted.

 

[Quaid-i-Azam]

Lol we now have a new problem. Pakistanis kissing Iranian butt, and following/supporting their political agendas.

 

[Quaid-i-Azam]

if i knew who are you i would spit in ur face

Why, they are your "Muslim brothers" and you are ready and willing to do anything for them? Typical response from an insecure Pakistani.....

 

[Gin ka Pakistan]

Lol we now have a new problem. Pakistanis kissing Iranian butt, and following/supporting their political agendas.

Who make their blood line link with Arabs kiss their and who link with Iranians kiss their.
They marry in their blood line only and this thing will go on from generation to generation. They think just by blood line they will all go into heaven even what ever their sins be.

“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has Taqwa. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” [Qur’an 49:13]

 

[sonicboom]

Amidst KAUST Progress, Bigotry Against Migrant Workers Persists

Rafia Zakaria
Posted May 6th, 2010

When the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was inaugurated late last year, it was heralded by the world as the first step towards a new era of intellectual inquiry in Saudi Arabia.

Washington Post, quoting King Abdullah, described the new university as a “beacon of tolerance” on the banks of the Red Sea and reported many of its features.

The initial controversy that surrounded the inauguration of the university focused on its policy of allowing women to study alongside men without wearing a face covering and even drive on campus. Nasser Al Shithri, a member of the Supreme Council of Islamic Scholars in Saudi Arabia, condemned the university, saying it was “mixing a great sin and a great evil” and “when men mix with women their hearts will burn and this will divert them from their main goal — education”.

His comments, published in the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, led to a royal decree removing Shithri from his post. The king also issued a statement that “faith and science cannot compete except in unhealthy souls” and “science is the first line of defence against extremists”. These were indeed heartening words, and resounded with hope both within Saudi Arabia and in other parts of the Muslim world.

Migrant Workers Still Face HardshipYet, while Saudi women may have won a coveted measure of freedom to pursue their academic goals on the KAUST campus, a recent controversy illustrates that not all disenfranchised factions of Saudi society may have been so fortunate. A blog post by an American student studying at KAUST reveals how the bigotry and discrimination faced by migrant workers in the rest of Saudi Arabia is present at the university too.

The reported incident was confirmed by sources who wished to remain anonymous. However, the KAUST administration has not confirmed or denied the incident.

According to the post, KAUST students and staff had weekly basketball games on the university grounds, which allowed campus workers, brought in on buses from Thuwal or Jeddah, to get some physical activity not specifically meant for the students.

During spring break this year, while there were no students on campus, the workers showed up to play the game. The blogger writes that when the university administration heard that the workers had used the university’s sports and recreation facilities without the students being present, it was furious.

Most of the workers were Filipinos or Bangladeshis and there was talk of firing and deporting all of them after docking their pay. However, because a single Lebanese was amongst them, and because Arabs, unlike South Asians, cannot be deported summarily, this did not happen. Eventually, the workers were suspended for three to five days without pay and a ban was imposed on any worker ever using the university’s sports or recreation facilities.

The workers, one student was apparently told, “are dangerous people” who “will lie, cheat and steal at the slightest opportunity” and hence must be kept away from the facilities.

Transferring RightsKAUST employs some 4,000 migrant workers for its 1,000 students. Like migrant workers across Saudi Arabia they wait on the students, washing their dirty clothes, cleaning their toilets, cooking their food, sweeping their floors and making sure the marble floors continue to gleam.

KAUST may have made headway by shaking up the clerical hierarchy and providing a modicum of gender parity, but there is little reflection on the situation of those hapless souls who have been hired to serve the higher minds that will supposedly usher Saudi Arabia into the age of innovation.

While in the words of King Abdullah, science and faith cannot mix, it also seems that intellectual exploration cannot enter the realm of outmoded and blatantly discriminatory systems that exploit the poor and powerless.

Moreover, the juxtaposition of women’s rights and those of migrant workers at the university reveals a complex phenomenon emerging in the Middle East. Countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, beset with demographic insecurity in the face of increasing numbers of migrant workers, see the extension of citizenship rights and educational opportunities to native-born women as a convenient way out of the problem of acknowledging the equality of migrant workers.

Kuwait’s extension of the vote to women in 2006 was one exercise in this effort to bolster the dwindling ranks of native-born citizens against the constant incursion of migrants, who make up nearly 80 per cent of the Kuwaiti labour force.

The KAUST campus similarly appears a phenomenon where Saudi women’s intellectual capital is being harnessed in the hope of ensuring a better future for a post-oil Saudi Arabia — but not out of a true reconsideration of the ignominy of discrimination based on gender, nationality or race. Despite all of Saudi Arabia’s seemingly liberal advances, the discrimination seen at KAUST suggests at best only a superficial commitment to intellectual inquiry and at worst a campaign to restrict learning to those who can afford it.

To Escape Their Lives, TragedyThe issue of the abuse of migrant labour in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states is not new. A report by Human Rights Watch released last week decried the pitiable condition of female migrant workers who are routinely raped, beaten and abused by employers. A migrant rights monitoring website reported that every two days a migrant worker in Kuwait either attempts to or is successful in committing suicide. These reports, which rarely merit more than a line or two in Gulf newspapers, include cases of maids jumping from the balconies of high-rises, labourers hanging themselves in crowded camps and others taking pills or even drinking paint to escape their thankless lives.

Around the world, university campuses are supposed to foster inquiry, not simply about super computers and fast cars but also about the nature of humanity and the brute inequity of discrimination. At KAUST, in spite of its sleek research labs designed to foster progress, this message seems to have been lost.


Amidst KAUST Progress, Bigotry Against Migrant Workers Persists

 

[zagahaga]

Wahabi is threatening me over the Internet.

your baically saying that blow off the soo called satanic people so we can safe gaurd the holy site????????? one thing after the prophet passed the kalif was abu bakar from there his blood line come thru the kings ... so think before you speak .... seconed we as pakistanis cant take care of our own country so HTF can you say that we should take care of another country? and as for history king Abraha wanted to take mecca by force you probly know what happend to him birds killed him! but iam soo glad that we do not have people like you incharge of the army beacuse i would defenately shout slogans ( NA PAK ARMY)

 

[sunil99]

I kinda saw this first hand during a visit to Qatar. Frankly, coming from North America where South Asians tend to be wealthy professionals and seeing how the locals who haven't really worked a day in their lives treat them was quite a disconnect. It was just blatant racism coupled with sadism. Besides, from my cursory look at Islamic history most of the richest contributions to what is considered today as Islamic culture came from Persia and the Indian Subcontinent.

FWIW, once the oil runs out, it will all come crashing down.

NO....they won't be crushed..this is an immature comment i heard since ages..the ME oil gonna dry up soon etc...have u heard about foriegn investment in ME other than in petroleum sectre ??? see yourself in Dubai...thy've developing models like Singapore..ie a huge market place, like world trade centres they've already invested their petro$$$ in thirdworld & other markets..so even if Oil gets dried up..they will certainly multiplied their wealth to live comfortably for generations to come and meanwhile the poor work forces will be eventually kicked out..thats the sceanrio that we should take into account in future..the return of unskilled workers from ME..creating social ills, will be more severe in countries in Pakistan, unless the local economic conditions improve drastically,but looking bleak at the moment..Locals in ME consider these unskilled workers as nuisance, unhygenic and unwanted, they create all sorts of social ills, walk down thru some clusters in daira in dubai..will find crowds of people from subcontinent in crowds doing illegal activities, pickpocketing, selling **** CD's just like we see in our countries,road side hacking, these r enough to provoke any decent arabs to go anti expats

 

[FireFighter]

The imama or the turban is sunnah and it is not specifically Arab. It was and still is quite popular in India. Particularly in the North. Wearing a turban is the point here and the local influence will be there. Hence the way the turban is worn in India is slightly different from how its worn in Turkey or say in Yemen. This is all part of the diversity of muslims.

Similarly loose fitting clothes is part of sunnah and that means kurta pyjama or salwar kameez in the sub-continent the thobe in the gulf and similar variations for say dresses in Algeria or Turkey. Again the local cultures come out with their own versions and enforce the diverse nature of muslims.

The arab head gear that is common in the gulf is the keffiyah and if someone wats to wear it thats fine, but it has no sanction in sunnah and it should not be taken as something to do with sunnah. But it is not somthing that should be "banned" either. The keffiyah or the ghutrah is NOT the Imamah or turban

Thanks for this educational post.

But unfortunately its gonna fall on deaf ears, because Pakistani educated elite is more concerned about knowing English proverbs and Greek Philosophy than noble character and features of the Prophet SAW as described in Shamail Tirmidhi, which was a must read for all muslims once.

Also wahhabis are such a tiny minority even in Saudi Arabia's over whelming traditional sunni population (they're mostly aligned with the ruling house of Saud, and the House of Saud are infact not true traditional Arabs, they're descendents of random bedioun tribals), but then again facts matter not, anything that resembles the Arabs is going to be classified as Wahabi and therefore summarily dismissed.


And then they add a few more Zia did this, Zia did that, condemnations, to make up for lack of religious knowledge...