U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric - By Scott Shane - The New York Times

IS THERE ANY REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A ROGUE ISRAEL AND A ROGUE USA? OBAMA WITH ALL HIS MORALIZING HYPE IS STILL A PRISONER OF THE NEO-CON STRANGLEHOLD ON AMERICAN WAR HYSTERIA. THE WORLD SHOULD CONDEMN HOW ASSASSINATION POLICY INDULGED BY ISRAEL IN DUBAI IS NOW BEING IMPOSED ON THE USA, POSSIBLY JUST TO COVER ISRAEL'S GUILT IN DUBAI MURDER.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07yemen.html?hp

U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: April 6, 2010

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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

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Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and spent years in the United States as an imam, is in hiding inYemen. He has been the focus of intense scrutiny since he was linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, and then to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25.

American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at Americans abroad, the officials said.

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bushsaid he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president.

But the director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told a House hearing in February that such a step was possible. “We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. “If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.” He did not name Mr. Awlaki as a target.

The step taken against Mr. Awlaki, which occurred earlier this year, is a vivid illustration of his rise to prominence in the constellation of terrorist leaders. But his popularity as a cleric, whose lectures on Islamic scripture have a large following among English-speaking Muslims, means any action against him could rebound against the United States in the larger ideological campaign against Al Qaeda.

The possibility that Mr. Awlaki might be added to the target list was reported by The Los Angeles Times in January, and Reuters reported on Tuesday that he was approved for capture or killing.

“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” said an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the condition of anonymity. “He’s gotten involved in plots.”

The official added: “The United States works, exactly as the American people expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual — through his own actions — has become one. Awlaki knows what he’s done, and he knows he won’t be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone.”

As a general principle, international law permits the use of lethal force against individuals and groups that pose an imminent threat to a country, and officials said that was the standard used in adding names to the list of targets. In addition, Congress approved the use of military force against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. People on the target list are considered to be military enemies of the United States and therefore not subject to the ban on political assassination first approved by President Gerald R. Ford.

Both the C.I.A. and the military maintain lists of terrorists linked to Al Qaeda and its affiliates who are approved for capture or killing, former officials said. But because Mr. Awlaki is an American, his inclusion on those lists had to be approved by the National Security Council, the officials said.

At a panel discussion in Washington on Tuesday, Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California and chairwoman of a House subcommittee on homeland security, called Mr. Awlaki “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us.”

How Muslim inventors changed the world

How Muslim inventors changed the world

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we in the West take for granted. Here are 20 of their most influential innovations:

(1) The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry.
 

He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Makkah and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645.

It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic "qahwa" became the Turkish "kahve" then the Italian "caffé" and then English "coffee".

(2) The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham.

He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word "qamara" for a dark or private room).

He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

(3) A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe — where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century — and eastward as far as Japan. The word "rook" comes from the Persian "rukh", which means chariot.

(4) A thousand years before the Wright brothers, a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts.

He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries.

In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing — concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

(5) Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade.

But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash.

Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.
 

(6) Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today — liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration.

As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.

(7) The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation.

His Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206) shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.

(8) Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China.

However, it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation — so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.
 

(9) The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings.

Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's — with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. The architect of Henry V's castle was a Muslim.

(10) Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon.

It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules.

In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslim doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to **** cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.

(11) The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and wasused to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

(12) The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.

(13) The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.

(14) The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825.

Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci.

Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysisrendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.

(15) Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him theconcept of the three-course meal — soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas).

(16) Carpets were regarded as part of paradise by mediaeval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art.

In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.

(17) The modern cheque comes from the Arabic "saqq", a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.

(18) By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo.

The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40, 253.4km — less than 200km out. Al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.

(19) Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders.

By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo — a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.

(20) Mediaeval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip.

source: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/science/a...5/science3.htm

The Budget and the minorities (read Muslims) - The Economic Times, Mumbai, INDIA

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/The-Budget-and-the-minorities/articleshow/5756163.cms?curpg=1

The Budget and the minorities

By M Y KHAN

The minority community in India has, by and large, missed out on the fruits of the economy’s diversified growth, engaged as its members are, for the most part, in petty professions. Their problems - unemployment, under-employment, lack of education compatible with the profile of jobs available in the market - are not dissimilar to those of the majority.

The additional cause of distress in their case is paucity of those, entrenched in the system and able to offer patronage, based on caste, region, political favour, personal contacts, etc, which often determines who gets jobs in this country. Even the meritorious amongst the minorities have had to be disappointed, when they made efforts to get any good position in the government, discouraging subsequent generations to even try for such jobs.

Fortunately, the government has been, of late, trying to address the problem. Budget 2010-11 makes an effort in this regard, allocating Rs 2,600 crore for minority welfare. Some crib this is too little for a population of 18 crore, but that is not entirely justified. This paper draws upon a random survey covering nearly 400 poor and lower middle class Muslim households, staying in slums with poor infrastructure and amenities. About 25% of them send their children to non-Arabic government-aided and private schools and colleges and 35% send their children to Arabic Madrassas and remaining 40% are not interested in education. Many of them said that they send their children to Arabic madrassas only because these are cheap and the parents cannot afford tuition fees, clothes and transport for other schools.

Many students in Muslim schools and colleges come from poor parents working as labourer, carpenter, hawker, house servant, taxi drivers and petty jobbers, very few from middle class families. Minority parents are often unable to pay college fee. Adequate food and proper clothes are distant dreams for them. Freedom is far away for such people, irrespective of their caste and religion.

The Union government has shown concern about the above problems which have been reflected in the Union annual budgets. In the budget for 2010-11, the government has allocated Rs 2,600 crore for minority schemes. The most important are the prematric scholarship for minorities scheme (Rs 400 crore as against Rs 180 crore for 2009-10), post-matric scholarship (Rs 238.5 crore as against Rs.135 crore), multisectoral development (Rs 1,245 crore as against Rs 890 crore) and social security and welfare (Rs 140 crore as against Rs 130 crore).

It would be seen from the above figures that for minority communities with nearly 18 crore of population, a total outlay of Rs 2,600 crore will not be adequate. It can be used only selectively and as such a big portion of them warranting government help will have to be overlooked.

Many minority groups have shown displeasure on small outlay without understanding the far-reaching effects of this amount. This outlay will  work as useful seed money and the minority community should use it effectively. The community has to stand on its own feet and the government help can work as pace-setter. For instance, they should try to get benefits from other general schemes which have been framed by the government for all people. As a matter of fact, people in general and Muslims in particular, have very little awareness and knowledge of application of funds and financial assistance provided under other various schemes designed to help the poor.

It may be noted that minorities cannot solve their problems only by receiving government assistance. They should use it as foundation money and start their own training centres to upgrade skills and competitive capabilities. Nations and communities have progressed faster on their own efforts, hard work and sense of accountability towards their goals and deeds.

Today, India is a global centre and provides a number of opportunities for self-employment in the financial sector as well as in other segments of the economy. Muslims can set up employment bureaus in towns, cities and villages to spread awareness of employment opportunities and financial facilities available from banks, financial institutions and government. Advertisements with regard to vacancies should be available in the employment bureaus. The employment bureaus also should have details of minority unemployed youths and a good library that offers information on new industries and professions coming up. These bureaus need to provide details of various government schemes particularly pertaining to self-employment.

Muslims should not always hold government responsible for their poverty. At the same time, there should be a quantitative assessment and evaluation of implementation of schemes by the government in terms of financial as well as physical achievements.

(The author is former economic advisor to SEBI)

Terrorist fall-out of Israeli rigidity over Jerusalem By Sunanda K. Datta- Ray - Free Press Journal - Mumbai

http://www.freepressjournal.in/FPJ/FPJ/2010/04/03/ArticleHtmls/03_04_2010_005_027.shtml?Mode=1

Terrorist fall-out of Israeli rigidity over Jerusalem

BY SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY

It looks as if Israel will again get away. The Palestinians will again be thwarted, which will mean more recruits for Al-Qaeda and intensification of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Chechnya and in non-Islamic areas where jihadis have struck. The world may have to pay a high price for Israel's recalcitrance


The Moscow metro bombings are a warning of the intensified Islamist terrorist attacks that might be expected partly because of Israel's latest demonstration of rigidity. It bears noting, too, that Israeli forging of British, French and German passports to murder the Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai has incurred greater Western displeasure than the crime itself did. As long as such double standards prevail, Israel knows it can get away with literally and metaphorically murder.

Murder is not only of individuals. It is the murder of the Palestinian dream of a sovereign homeland, small and drained of all resources though it be, in the West Bank and Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem. Above all, it is the murder of the belief that Jews had drawn some worthwhile lessons from their centuries of wandering and terrible suffering at Hitler's hands. All that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears to have learnt is that the successful victim emulates his oppressor.


Though now basking in the uncritical support of the US Congress, he must know that Congressional endorsement owes much to the persuasive funding power of American Zionists. The AntiDefamation League of Bnai B'rith constantly lobbies members of both Houses; and Fortune magazine once described the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as Washington's second most influential lobby. But the means probably interest Netanyahu less than the end, and the expectation is that no matter what President Barack Obama might have said at their recent one-on-one meeting in Washington, he will sooner or later quieten down and toe the line like his predecessors.


By all accounts the protracted discussion was a disaster. The usual trimmings of a state visit were cut out. No joint statement was issued. The two leaders were not photographed together, grinning or scowling. Even the public handshake that often goes on and on was omitted. Netanyahu's departure from America's shores was twice postponed, presumably because of hopes that extra time would allow something to be salvaged.


Next came Britain's decision to expel though couched more politely than that the head of the Intelligence services at Israel's embassy in London. This was retaliation for the 12 members of the Israeli hit team that murdered Mahmoud al-Mabhouh using forged (the preferred term is "cloned" because they were copies of genuine originals) British passports. Other Israeli assassins used similarly cloned French and German passports. They were all copied from the genuine passports of travellers at Israel's Ben Gurion airport. "Such misuse of British passports is intolerable" says Mr David Miliband, Britain's Foreign Secretary, warning that any British subject who visits Israel runs the risk of similar abuse. "The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury." The wording of that not particularly harsh censure bears analysis. There is no condemnation of the murder. There is no reference to the heart of the matter Israel's refusal, despite the show of prolonged negotiations, to hand back conquered land that it has occupied for 43 years.


Miliband didn't even denounce the criminal act of forgery. All he asked in anguish was in effect "How can they do this to us?" Presumably, there would have been no cause for surprise or pain if Iran or Zambia or some other unfriendly country had cloned British passports. Presumably, too, there would have been no cause for complaint if Israel had cloned Iranian or Zambian passports.
Indignation arose because Miliband believed Israel had betrayed its special bond with Britain. That is not likely to worry Israel too much. Its operations to rescue Ethiopian Jews, kidnap former Nazis or destroy Iraq's nuclear capability demonstrate indifference to considerations of legality. It is convinced that survival justifies every action and that the European Union is hypocritical.


Also, the Israeli attitude to the surrounding Arabs is condescendingly European. Europe may have treated its Jews like vermin but that does not stop those Jews and their descendants from identifying with Europeans when it comes to Asians and Africans. There must also have been a special satisfaction for Israeli operatives in cloning German passports and masquerading as Germans.


The present controversy centres on Jerusalem. It makes sense for the ancient city, sacred to three of the world's great religions, to be joint capital of Israel and Palestine. But Israel wants all of Jerusalem, which reinforces the suspicion that it does not want an independent Palestine at all.
Even the moderate President Shimon Peres always wrote of a "Palestinian entity", never a "Palestinian state". The most Israel seems willing to concede is something like the "Bantustans" that apartheid South Africa created to cordon off its black population.


That view was further strengthened when Israel announced, while American Vice-President Biden was visiting the country, that it would build 1,600 more homes for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton called the decision an "insult to the US" that deliberately sabotaged American efforts to restart the stalled peace negotiations. Mrs Clinton had not forgotten that during his previous tenure as prime minister, Netanyahu did everything possible to extend Jewish settlements in the West Bank, consolidate Israel's military control and obstruct the peace process. The question now is not whether Britain is piqued but whether Israel can afford to antagonize the US which is its main diplomatic and financial supporter and arms supplier. Israel would not exist without heavy US backing. But a strategist like Netanyahu also knows that Israel's strongest card is the American Zionist lobby. Going back in history, Fraklin Delano Roosevelt promised King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia an independent Palestinian homeland. But when he died suddenly, the new president, Harry S. Truman, bluntly told State Department officials that he had to answer to hundreds of thousands of people who were anxious for the success of Zionism but did not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among his constituents.
Netanyahu's far-right ruling coalition would collapse if he yields to American pressure. He might be able to put together another coalition with the centrist Kadina Party, but that would not be to his liking. Moreover, he knows that with the mid-term Congressional elections due in November, Obama might find his hand forced by his Democratic supporters who fear that the powerful Zionist lobby mentioned earlier will finance their Republican opponents. 


Netanyahu has an external card too: he can attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The Americans have built up the Iranian bogey and whatever Mr Obama's feelings, he can hardly criticize an attack too much in public.


So it looks as if Israel will again get away with its gamble. The Palestinians will again be thwarted, which will mean more recruits for Al-Qaeda and further intensification of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Chechnya and in non-Islamic areas (New York, London, Madrid, Moscow) where jihadis have struck. The world may have to pay a high price for Israel's recalcitrance.

A PAKISTANI GIRL WRITES ABOUT HER FRIENDSHIP WITH AN INDIAN GIRL: MARIA'S BLOG: 'BEING BEST FRIENDS WITH THE ENEMY'

A PAKISTANI GIRL WRITES ABOUT HER FRIENDSHIP WITH AN INDIAN GIRL:

MARIA'S BLOG: 'BEING BEST FRIENDS WITH THE ENEMY'


"The souls are (like) an army joined (in the world of spirits) whichever souls knew each other (in that world) are attracted towards each other (in this world) and whichever remained distant and indifferent (there) are disinterested to each other (in this world)."


A friend emailed me this saying by Prophet Mohammad which absolutely fascinated me. I have always wondered why one feels an almost instantaneous attraction to certain strangers in the madding throng of human beings. How people find their "soul-mates" unexpectedly through the most random coincidences.
What would the pre-existence world to be like? Kant rejects the possibility of knowledge regarding metaphysics, asserting that without both understanding and sensibility you cannot have knowledge of the Transcendent. I admit that without sensibility, I find it very difficult to conceive of a metaphysical realm of wandering souls. Even my wildest imagination (read: understanding in Kantian terms) betrays me as my mind, effectively regimented by images from Hollywood ghost flicks, does a hackneyed job of picturing a world that possibly existed before time.
This place was a bleak expanse of space where souls drifted towards and away from each other. These peripatetic "entities" searched for similar souls, in order to communicate, to commune, to find missing parts of themselves in other spirits. And it was in this space- bereft of borders and demarcations that my lost soul met Sushmita Bose. Her liberal dispensation was reflected in her amorphous shape. Unfettered by a rigid "form", she appeared a tad more ethereal than the rest of the souls. She looked at me. My capricious spirit was drawn to her. I guess I figured she was a bit crazy like me....
However, I met Ms. Bose on this planet under radically different circumstances. I was introduced to her by my line manager (LM) on her first day at work in Khaleej Times (KT), which was roughly three days after I had started working there. She was a petite Indian, dressed in black capri pants and a casual oversized t-shirt. "Hi, I am Sushmita. I just came from the airport!" she said confidently, as she shook my hand.
A couple of days later, I found her chatting with my LM in the pantry.  As I poured water in a Styrofoam cup, I noticed her smiling at me. I responded with a courteous smile but soon observed that she was checking me out. Discomfited by her scrutiny, I awkwardly gulped down the water in one sip and scurried away from the pantry. I jumped to the conclusion that the new Features Editor of KT had a serious staring problem.
A day or two later, I found Ms. Bose in the pantry again. She appeared comfortable and garrulous in the company of old-time Indian employees of Khaleej Times. Wow, these Indians seem to flock together... she just came and look she has fitted in with them, I thought. I was hit by an odd pang of loneliness. Although there were many Pakistanis in the office, I could not imagine hanging out with even one of them. They were just not my type.
A few weeks passed and I capitulated to my innate laziness by deciding to come to office by noon instead of coming early in the morning as I initially did. The company car would pick me up from my apartment in Bur Dubai by 11 a.m. along with Ms. Bose, who was temporarily lodging at Ramada Hotel in the vicinity. During our daily journey through the traffic-clogged Sheikh Zayed Road to our office in the dusty locale of Al-Quoz, we chatted about various topics: politics, Indo-Pak rivalry, Dubai, UAE, work, past professions, our lives back home etc. Yet I always hesitated in expressing myself with candour. Convinced that Sushmita had much more in common with her fellow countrymen/women, I was sure that she did not want to genuinely befriend me. I thought that for her, an Indian, I would always be the "other" -- a girl from the wrong neighbourhood, who was good for random chit-chat but not worth getting close to.
But my perception soon changed. One day, during our routine car journey to work, we happened to talk about India's development. "Well at least your country has done better than mine! It is developing quite fast," I commented cautiously. But to my surprise, she completely bulldozed over the premature pillar of political correctness that I had just erected in our nascent friendship. "What nonsense! This India Shining is such a myth. India's development has benefited only a minority," she strongly asserted. She went on to passionately speak about the contradictions of economic development in her country while I listened intently. So she was not the I-love-my-Incredible-India, Pakistan-is-my-personal-enemy and Kashmir-is-ours-Jai-Hind sort, I thought with relief. In fact, she was the antithesis of it. She was perspicacious and intelligent; with an incisive wit and a great capacity for critical self-reflection.
Later on, I realized that Ms. Bose was as further away from political correctness as one could be. One day after failing to communicate properly with a Malayali designer at work, I turned to her to vent my frustration. "They don't know English and their language is so strange!" I whined. But I regretted saying those words the second I blurted them out. After all Sushmita, too, was an Indian. I feared that she would dislike the failure to culturally cope up with her compatriots. But again, she surprised me. "Yes their language is quite a tongue twister!" she remarked and then babbled some gibberish to mimic the Malayalam language. I laughed, relieved to find out that she was actually a cool person without any hang-ups.
So this was how a strong camaraderie, which barely witnessed a day's break in nine months, was established between a girl from Lahore and a chick from Delhi. This is how two women from opposite sides of the Indo-Pak border, stuck in the lonely city of Dubai without their better halves, mutually sought comfort in gossip, conversation and cinema.
One reason why we clicked so well was because we hated and liked the same people, regardless of their nationality. And we both were indifferent to attempts by fellow countrymen/women to befriend us by using the trite nationality card. She was warned by a certain Indian at our workplace not to "trust Pakis" while a Bangladeshi photographer tried to find common ground with her on the basis of their common Bengali heritage. Similarly, lecherous Pakistani men at work often approached me with the not-so tempting proposition of a ‘friendship'.
As we eschewed membership in ad-hoc national and ethnic fraternities/sororities at work, we both realized something deeply important: nationality is irrelevant in determining the potential for a meaningful friendship. The horizon of genuine friendship lies far beyond a few common denominators of nationality, skin colour, language and ethnicity.
Nevertheless, I am utterly averse to the rather contrived notion that Indians and Pakistanis "are the same people" who were separated by evil ploys of native politicians in collusion with the British decades ago. I and Sushmita are not the same people; we are in fact radically different individuals coming from distinct worlds. But the disparity between our backgrounds has given us the opportunity to learn, adopt and adapt to each other's cultural baggage. She introduced me to Bengali cinema and I got her hooked onto Pakistani food. She educated me on journalism in Delhi and I enlightened her on political Islam in Pakistan.
Plus, the institution of friendship -- which is supposed to make us evolve into more open, tolerant individuals -- would be quite meaningless if it was bereft of debate and discussion. Hence, I feel that the repartee of arguments and counter-arguments that we engage in while shopping for groceries at Spinneys, dodging fast cars on Mankhool road and "chilling out" over weekends have helped us evolve into more considerate human beings. Ms Bose in many ways is like Nietzsche's dream-child; she is liberal, agnostic and westernized. I, on the other hand, have a bit of everything - liberalism, conservatism, religiosity -- in me. Our ideas clash, ever so often, but our minds have always been receptive to divergent views. And therefore we have found a middle-ground of sorts; she often, albeit sheepishly, asks me pray for her while I have become far less judgmental than I used to be.
Back at home in Pakistan, India possesses the paradoxical status of the enemy state as well as the culturally similar neighbour.  Ironically enough, in the neutral multi-cultural setting of Dubai, Sushmita, my purported Indian "enemy" lives only two buildings away from me! And yet, my "neighbor-foe" is also my best friend.  The contradiction inherent in these multiple categories -- this simultaneous dynamic of negative and positive, of repulsion and attraction -- shows that national and religious classifications based on difference fail to capture the complexity of human relationships.
So now I feel the need to actively assert my character as an individual in a global environment, instead of merely relying on religious and national denominations to define myself. Yes, I am a Pakistan and a Muslim. But I am also an avid cheese-cake lover; I believe that my obsession with soft mounds of cream cheese layered on crisp biscuit crust constitutes an integral part of my personality. And for me, Sushmita is an Indian, an agnostic and a Woody Allen movie fan. Our views on religion collide head-on, and our national identities seemingly contradict. Nevertheless, my cheese-cake mania and her love for Woody Allen movies gel seamlessly together. (Toss in two cups of Darjeeling tea and the combination is surely a sinful treat!)
And this is how I and Sushmita connect as individuals; as people who like Hollywood classics and calorific sweets. And as people who miss home and try to recreate it together in Dubai. And although it seems too soon for our friendship to be relegated to the virtual world of e-mail and chat messages, I have a strange gut feeling that we will soon meet again...
She prepared to exit the world of souls.  I asked her where she was going.
"To the other place," she replied.
"Will I ever see you again?" I asked her in a dejected tone.
She smiled mysteriously.
"We will meet again in the other world. But it will be different from this one; it will be a fragmented world. There will be territories, borders and partitions. And other people will try to determine who we are and where we go..but you and I will still find each other just like we did in this place.."
After uttering those words, she vanished.

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