SUPER TUESDAY ON SWOOSH0018

I figured we might as well just jump into Super Tuesday. It was an actually relaxing weekend. I found myself learning the culture of Oman....maybe with a princess Rania lol.Anyways Sunday I spent at a beautiful farm on the Vaal.Beautiful Belissima. i came back and saw Juve demolish Milan.

Lets start with the EPL. Liverpool are still on top. No changes there. All the Big Guns drew. But for us though it is seen as points spilled away. In fact we were lucky had it not been for our Captain Fantastic Stevie G.As for Charagher, the debate remains...Is he shite. This in context of some footballers and Pundits rating him as Class. Hull , went two goals clear. I bet the Alis were laughing. Even though we managed a draw, to me it was two points lost again. So far all the points that we dropped we regret. On a positive, I got a call from Mams Wadee whilst he was on his way to Anfield. i eagerly await his feedback. He has got to experience Anfield

The MANCS drew against Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal all drew. So even Stevens. Great to see the MANCS dropping points so often. Something we have rarely seen. I didnt watch the Manc Game so Il let the comments do the talking.

Anelka however seems to be returning to the prolific striker he was for Arsenal

And now

JUVE VS MILAN

SHAKES, CISSE, What can you guys say. A great Juve performance and I was surprised myself to be honest. Alex Del Piero was again clinical from the spot to put Juve 1-0 ahead. Georgio Chielini who was almsot on his way to liverpool and Man Utd believe it or not put Juve 2-0 ahead. I was begining to worry when PATO got one back for Milan. But Amauri whom many Juve pundits dismissed as a Dud Signing put Juve a goal clear with a bullet Header. Amauri has been in riviting form of late. Ambrosini who I dont rate at all pulled one back for Milan. Perhaps Milan were missing the bite of Gatusso in Midfield. Look at momo Sissoko. The man was playing sh#@$ for liverpool now the Juve Forum dsescribes his performances as colossus for Juve. To end the sweet evening Amauri again put the result beyond doubt. So we leapfrog Milan but I must admit, Mourinhos Inter seemed destined for the Scudetto. I watched the highlights. Ibrahimovic was class on the Night. Two brilliant goals

BARCA WIN EL CLASSICO

What a Barcelona performance. Many pundits are touting them as the next European Champions. The Catalans are hailing Pep Guardiola as Senior Pep. Change was needed. This Derby is one of the biggest in Spain. The Merengues hate the Catalans. And the way Barcelona did it. As class as Cassilas is, he couldnt do anything. Barcelona are playing great football. And they have the firepower, Henry, Eto, Messi, Xavi, Borjan......

Even Pep Guardiola, ever the picture of humility, erupted into uninhibited celebration once he realised just what this victory meant for his side. They cruised through their Champions League group, and after an unremarkable start in the league, they began picking up successive wins before bursting into top gear and readily smashing four, five or even six past all comers. Then came tonight, the first game of their season that was not only big, but major, and though without doubt Madrid were under-strength and maybe the little things did go the way of the home side, they still won the day - and did so deservingly - what more can you ask?-goal.com

And when Barca countered with Messi, madrid were buried.

Fat Ronaldo or El Fenomino has quit Europe great stage and went to SA. This signals the end of a great career, perhaps remembered mainly for his World Cup Performances, Injuries and transvestites. I remember when Fat Ronaldo burst onto the scene for Barcelona and the goals he scored. Does the blog want to say something about the FAT MAN, Will he be missed. Was he class. Is it sad for Football

Why The West Craves Materialism & Why The East Sticks To Religion
By Imran Khan

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak.
Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan.Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis.

I read Shakespeare, which was fine, but no Allama Iqbal - the national poet of Pakistan. The class on Islamic studies was not taken seriously, and when I left school I was considered among the elite of the country because I could speak English and wore Western clothes.

Despite periodically shouting 'Pakistan Zindabad' in school functions, I considered my own culture backward and religion outdated. Among our group if any one talked about religion, prayed or kept a beard he was immediately branded a Mullah.

Because of the power of the Western media, our heroes were Western moviestars or pop stars. When I went to Oxford already burdened with this hang up, things didn't get any easier. At Oxford, not just Islam, but all religions were considered anachronism.
Science had replaced religion and if something couldn't be logically proved it did not exist. All supernatural stuff was confined to the movies.
Philosophers like Darwin, who with his half-baked theory of evolution had supposedly disproved the creation of men and hence religion, were read andrevered.

Moreover, European history reflected its awful experience with religion. The horrors committed by the Christian clergy during the Inquisition era had left a powerful impact on the Western mind.

To understand why the West is so keen on secularism, one should go to places like Cordoba in Spain and see the torture apparatus used during the Spanish Inquisition. Also the persecution of scientists as heretics by the clergy had convinced the Europeans that all religions are regressive.

However, the biggest factor that drove people like me away from religion was the selective Islam practiced by most of its preachers. In short, there was a huge difference between what they practiced and what they preached.
Also, rather than explaining the philosophy behind the religion, there was an overemphasis on rituals.

I feel that humans are different to animals. While, the latter can be drilled, humans need to be intellectually convinced. That is why the Qur'an constantly appeals to reason. The worst, of course, was the exploitation of
Islam for political gains by various individuals or groups.
Hence, it was a miracle I did not become an atheist. The only reason why I did not was the powerful religious influence my mother wielded on me since my childhood. It was not so much out of conviction but love for her that
I stayed a Muslim.

However, my Islam was selective. I accepted only parts of the religion that suited me. Prayers were restricted to Eid days and occasionally on Fridays,when my father insisted on taking me to the mosque with him.

All in all I was smoothly moving to becoming a Pukka Brown Sahib. After all I had the right credentials in terms of school, university and, above all,acceptability in the English aristocracy, something that our brown sahibs would give their lives for. So what led me to do a 'lota' on the Brown Sahib culture and instead become a 'desi'?

Well it did not just happen overnight. Firstly, the inferiority complex that my generation had inherited
gradually went as I developed into a world-class athlete. Secondly, I was in the unique position of living between two cultures. I began to see the advantages and the disadvantages of both societies.
In Western societies, institutions were strong while they were collapsing in our country. However, there was an area where we were and still are superior, and that is our family life. I began to realize that this was
the Western society's biggest loss. In trying to free itself from the oppression of the clergy, they had removed both God and religion from their lives. While science, no matter how much it progresses, can answer a lot of
questions - two questions it will never be able to answer: One, what is the purpose of our existence and two, what happens to us when we die?

It is this vacuum that I felt created the materialistic and the hedonistic culture. If this is the only life then one must make hay while the sun shines - and in order to do so one needs money. Such a culture is bound to
cause psychological problems in a human being, as there was going to be an imbalance between the body and the soul.

Consequently, in the US, which has shown the greatest materialistic progress while giving its citizens numerous rights, almost 60 percent of the population consult psychiatrists. Yet, amazingly in modern psychology,
there is no study of the human soul. Sweden and Switzerland, who provide the mostwelfare to their citizens, also have the highest suicide rates. Hence, man is not necessarily content with material well being and needs something more.
Since all morality has it roots in religion, once religion was removed,immorality has progressively grown since the 70s. Its direct impact has beenon family life. In the UK, the divorce rate is 60 percent, while it is estimated that there are over 35 percent single mothers. The crime rate is rising in almost all Western societies, but the most disturbing fact is
the alarming increase in racism. While science always tries to prove the inequality of man (recent survey showing the American Black to be genetically less intelligent than whites) it is only religion that preaches the equality of man.
Between 1991 and 1997, it was estimated that total immigration into Europe was around 520,000, and there were racially motivated attacks all over,especially in Britain, France and Germany. In Pakistan during the Afghan war, we had over four million refugees, and despite the people being so much poorer, there was no racial tension. There was a sequence of events in the 80s that moved me toward God as the Qur'an says: 'There are signs for people of understanding.' One of them was cricket. As I was a student of the game, the more I understood the game, the
more I began to realize that what I considered to be chance was, in fact,the will of Allah. A pattern which became clearer with time. But it was not until Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' that my understanding of Islam
began to develop.

People like me who were living in the Western world bore the brunt of
anti-Islam prejudice that followed the Muslim reaction to the book. We were left with two choices: fight or flight. Since I felt strongly that the attacks on Islam were unfair, I decided to fight. It was then I realized that I was not equipped to do so as my knowledge of Islam was inadequate.
Hence I started my research and for me a period of my greatest enlightenment. I read scholars like Ali Shariati, Muhammad Asad, Iqbal, Gai Eaton, plus of course, a study of Qur'an.

I will try to explain as concisely as is possible, what 'discovering the truth' meant for me. When the believers are addressed in the Qur'an, it always says, 'Those who believe and do good deeds.' In other words, a Muslim
has dual function, one toward God and the other toward fellow human beings.
The greatest impact of believing in God for me, meant that I lost all fear of human beings. The Qur'an liberates man from man when it says that life and death and respect and humiliation are God's jurisdiction, so we do not have to bow before other human beings.
Moreover, since this is a transitory world where we prepare for the eternal one, I broke out of the self-imposed prisons, such as growing old (such a curse in the Western world, as a result of which, plastic surgeons are having a field day), materialism, ego, what people say and so on. It isimportant to note that one does not eliminate earthly desires. But
instead of being controlled by them, one controls them.

By following the second part of believing in Islam, I have become a better human being. Rather than being self-centered and living for the self, I feel that because the Almighty gave so much to me, in turn I must use that blessing to help the less privileged. This I did by following the fundamentals of Islam rather than becoming a Kalashnikov-wielding
fanatic.

I have become a tolerant and a giving human being who feels compassion for the underprivileged. Instead of attributing success to myself, I know it is because of God's will, hence I learned humility instead of arrogance.
Also, instead of the snobbish Brown Sahib attitude toward our masses, I believe in egalitarianism and strongly feel against the injustice done to the weak in our society. According to the Qur'an, 'Oppression is worse than killing.' In fact only now do I understand the true meaning of Islam, if you submit to the will of Allah, you have inner peace.
Through my faith, I have discovered strength within me that I never knew existed and that has released my potential in life. I feel that in Pakistan we have selective Islam. Just believing in God and going through the rituals
is not enough. One also has to be a good human being. I feel there are certain Western countries with far more Islamic traits than us in Pakistan,especially in the way they protect the rights of their citizens, or for
that matter their justice system. In fact some of the finest individuals I know live there.
What I dislike about them is their double standards in the way they protect the rights of their citizens but consider citizens of other countries as being somehow inferior to them as human being, e.g. dumping toxic waste in the Third World, advertising cigarettes that are not allowed in the West and selling drugs that are banned in the West.
One of the problems facing Pakistan is the polarization of two reactionary groups. On the one side is the Westernized group that looks upon Islam through Western eyes and has inadequate knowledge about the subject. It reacts strongly to anyone trying to impose Islam in society and wants only a selective part of the religion. On the other extreme is the group that reacts to this Westernized elite and in trying to become a defender of the faith, takes up such intolerant and self-righteous attitudes that are repugnant to the spirit of Islam. What needs to be done is to somehow start a dialogue between the two extreme. In order for this to happen, the group on whom the greatest
proportion of our educational resources are spent in this country must study
Islam properly.

Whether they become practicing Muslims or believe in God is entirely a personal choice. As the Qur'an tells us there is 'no compulsion in religion.' However, they must arm themselves with knowledge as a weapon to
fight extremism. Just by turning up their noses at extremism the problem
is not going to be solved.
The Qur'an calls Muslims 'the middle nation', not of extremes. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was told to simply give the message and not worry whether people converted or not, therefore, there is no question
in Islam of forcing your opinions on anyone else.Moreover, we are told to respect other religions, their places of
worship and their prophets. It should be noted that no Muslim missionaries or armies
ever went to Malaysia or Indonesia. The people converted to Islam due to the high principles and impeccable character of the Muslim traders. At the moment, the worst advertisements for Islam are the countries with their selective Islam, especially where religion is used to deprive people of their rights. In fact, a society that obeys fundamentals of Islam has to be a liberal one. If Pakistan's Westernized class starts to study Islam, not only will it be able to help society fight sectarianism and extremism, but it will also make them realize what a progressive religion Islam is. They will also be
able to help the Western world by articulating Islamic concepts. Recently, Prince Charles accepted that the Western world can learn from Islam. But how can this happen if the group that is in the best position to project Islam
getsits attitudes from the West and considers Islam backward? Islam is a universal religion and that is why our Prophet (peace be upon him) was called a Mercy for all mankind. (Internews)
If you have comments or questions then email Aslam on
aslamcricket@polka.co.za