The Daily Times, one of Pakistan’s fastest growing English dailies, has run a story today giving us the bare bones of the truth of the extremist call.

Back in April 2006, four members of the the Centre for High Energy Physics at Punjab University in Lahore were charged with copying excerpts of an article by the renowned physicist Prof. Chris Llewellyn Smith and got it published by their names in a foreign science journal titled, Science in Africa, an international South African publication without giving any reference to the original author.

Dr. Atta ur Rehman, Federal Minister and Chairman of the Higher Education Commission, took serious exception to the incident and directed the Vice Chancellor of the university to take strict disciplinary action against the four teachers.

After a meeting of the Board at Punjab University, the Director, a Professor Dr. Fazl-e-Aleem, was released from his employment at the University for being careless as head and supervisor. They also deemed that the director had failed to exercise due diligence and supervision even though he was not involved in the plagiarism. They state in their press release that “the issue of plagiarism has brought bad name to the University and resolved that whoever was found involved would be taken to task.”

Taken to task… interesting….

The 4 professors were warned and censured with 2 annual increments in salary stopped. The reason…”the syndicate observed that since there young researchers had no clear cut distinction between permissible copying and plagiarism and no awareness on the issue.” They also took into account that they have published 173 articles in international journals and had no plagiarized articles from 2002 to 2007. The syndicate (board) decided that it was better not to “deprive the students of Punjab University of these talented young faculty and budding physicists of the future.”

What? They didn’t know that copying something and publishing it as your own work was illegal??!!?!?! They what the hell are they doing teaching in a university. Is education in Pakistan so weak that our students don’t know it’s wrong to pass someone else’s work off as their own? Give me a break!

This was not received well at the Higher Education Commission, who immediately blocked funding to the University until the teachers are fired. “The HEC will not provide any funding to the university until it takes required action against the plagiarists which, by simple international standards, is removal from service,” Dr Atta said. “If teachers would start doing cheating, how can they ask their students to follow principles of learning,” he added. The HEC is considering the same sanctions on the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, if they don’t start proceedings against Associate Professor and PhD research scholar Asad Shaikh regarding plagiarism of a research article originally published by Professor Zhi Wang.

But the plot sickens….

With all the controversy floating around with the Lal Majid hostage situation, the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) has invaded the Punjab University campus and told the administration to “go easy” on the cheaters because their affiliation with the extremists in their student days. Apparently the fired director and his successor had strong ties to the group while in university, while the other 4 cheaters, I mean professors, were IJT sympathisers.

IJT “workers” have invaded the Punjab University campus and started roughing up students so that the punishment to the professors would be lenient.

So the question becomes: in the name of religion there are no laws or restrictions. You can grab land illegally, you can kidnap people, you can threaten business owners, you can cheat, you can riot, you can destroy other people’s livelihood, and NO ONE has the right to demand justice against you. But God forbid if a normal citizen were to do something that the extremists don’t agree with…

What form of Islam is this? Because its not the one that is taught in the Holy Quran.

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10 Comments

• 

  By ittaskforce, 13 April, 2007 @ 8:38 pm

  Our institutions of learning are graveyards of Knowledge. A great number of our so-called scholars are sitting on secrets and scandals. Including Vice-chancellor himself most of teaching staff of Gomal Universty at Dera Ismail Khan hate spread of internet among students. Our political leadership doesn’t use it and childern of our bureaucrats play video games on office computers. Banks and intelligence agencies don’t have laptops. Worldbank can request our leaders to start using interactive facility to promote its good side to the followers.
• 

  By Michael Pyshnov, 15 April, 2007 @ 8:21 am

  Dear Mr. Khalid,
  Before you start criticising your academia, please, you should see what Canadian Godless academia did to me.

  The supervisor of my PhD research fraudulently removed me from the university and stole my research. My complaints were understood so seriously (she and the other officials in Canadian academia had to go to jail for fraud) that the University of Toronto not only covered up the fraud, but a conspiracy was formed to prevent any reporting of this fraud in the media. I have over 50 documents (including the letters of expertise) on my web site “University of Toronto Fraud” at http://ca.geocities.com/uoftfraud/

  Previously, Canadian academia performed similar trick with Prof. V. Fabrikant who then shot four people.

  In my case, the provocation is continuing for 21 years.
• 

  By Khalid, 15 April, 2007 @ 1:28 pm

  Michael,

  “Before you start criticising your academia, please, you should see what Canadian Godless academia did to me.”

  While I fully respect the position that you have, I think that before you equate your situation to this one, you need to know the facts. Having gone to school, university and grad school in the United States, I can show you a marked difference in the quality of education. In Pakistan, our academia will give grades based on personal and political relationships and financial gain, rather than quality of work.

  Also, having a father that is an highly respected professor in the United States, who has published over 600 papers and 10 books, I have an intimate knowledge of the work that is required publish or present a paper in international journals. I know that if someone had plagiarized my father’s work, he would not rest until they were thrown out of the teaching profession, because that is not acceptable by any standard.

  Additionally, your supervisor STEALING your research and Punjab University professors PLAGIARIZING someone else’s work is drastically different. In your case, you have proof that your research was stolen, as evidenced by your website, regardless of whether the University of Toronto chooses to accept that or not; whereas these professors have no proof of doing the research themselves.

  Also, the point of the post is not just to highlight the details of the story, but to show how extremists are using “undue pressure and threats” to force a university to set aside standards of professional practice.

  Again, while, I respect your position, I think you completely missed the point of the post and assumed that I was criticizing the academia. I don’t criticize the academia of Pakistan… I vilify them because of the poor standard of education in our primary, secondary and collegiate programs. They ALONE are responsible for the lack of professionalism they show in imparting knowledge to our future leaders of corporate and civil society. Take a moment to read the post “Education = Business” and tell me if that is acceptable to you for your children.

  We only have a few professors in Pakistan that can honestly be held up as pillars of excellence in education, while others are just collecting a paycheck.

  To go further, there are reported cases in the media of sitting members of the Provincial and National Assemblies, leaders of corporate Pakistan, and civil servants paying smarter students to go and take exams for their children so they will get degrees that are not due to them. Would you also consider this to be an unfair criticism of academia?

  Why do they get away with it? Because in Pakistan, money talks.

  The academia of Pakistan is not academics, it’s business.
• 

  By Pakistani to the core, 10 May, 2007 @ 5:29 pm

  I believe there is a very strong phobeia that is affecting those in our society who have stopped gaining knowledge about their religion and have only worldly education to show. They detest those who have religious knowledge, and the zeal to follow the laws of Islam as contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

  It is very easy to highlight faults in some and link them to a religious group, and call them extremists.

  First of all, please define what you understand by the word extremists, and tell us why you believe JIT are extremists.

  Second, look around you and see who is actually bringing a bad name and is acting like the termites in Pakistan. I believe that the worst are the feudal lords. They are extremists in the real sense. Go to any village in the interior and see slavery at its worst practiced by these people. They are the ones sitting in our Parliaments and talking about democracy and framing our laws. Yet they are criminals. None of them is connected to any religious party.

  Third, look at our leaders who took office in the last 57 years. They were all corrupt. All they wanted was their Presidency or Prime Ministership so that they could rule the country as their own realmdom. Most of them have stolen millions from the exchequer. None of them was connected to any religious party.

  Fourth, look at the bureacracy. They have always been corrupt. Most of them are people inducted because of their affiliations to the feudals and are totally incompetent.

  Fifth, is the police. Corrupt from the day they are born. Underpaid, with maximum authority. A combination that suits the feudals who reward them to do their ‘work’, while they harass and steal from the poor and unconnected. Dacoity in Karachi is a normal incident. Is the police so incompetent, or is it involved? The answer in both cases demands revamping of the police force.

  I think that is enough of a list. Open your eyes and see the reality. Don’t use words coined by those who are against Islam.
• 

  By Khalid, 10 May, 2007 @ 11:25 pm

  First, if you would have taken the time to read some of the other posts on this blog, you would find that everything that you have listed as a problem with Pakistan, I have already discussed and laid blame where it is deserved. Secondly, you will also find a link in the blogroll to this site for a blog called “Behind the Chairman’s Door,” where you will find these things discussed again in detail.

  I guess what I am trying to say is that my eyes are open and I do see reality, whereas in your entire list, you have not once mentioned the people that subvert the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad . You have taken great pains to point out that the problem with Pakistan is everything except religious. So let me ask you a few questions:

  Do you consider suicide bombing an extremist act?
  Do you consider seizing government buildings and public land in the name of religion an extremist act?
  Do you consider destroying other people’s business justifiable because it doesn’t fit within a carefully drawn meaning of Islam?

  See while the religious parties and their followers see everything else wrong with Pakistan, they never see themselves as part of the problem. What JIT did on the Punjab University campus is not acceptable anywhere for any reason. I don’t agree with your argument that people have stopped gaining knowledge about their religion, as a matter of fact, more people are learning about Islam to counter the radical point of view that is espoused in Pakistan.

  I have yet to hear an Islamic scholar in Pakistan condemn suicide bombing; I have yet to hear that killing a woman in the name of family honor is not condoned in Islam; I have yet to hear any of the Islamic leaders of Pakistan step forward to condemn the Lal Masjid situation and broker a peaceful end with the clerics that hold it hostage. When you speak of worldly education, I think you need to recall that Islam does not teach that people should stop learning mathematics, science and other subjects, but it says to learn them with Islamic teachings.

  The reason that our country is imploding is because of the numerous forces that pull it in different directions… not one of us is without guilt in this country. How?

  Every person that is in the government, police, and politics is born of this soil, taught in our schools and brought up in the environment around them. Their values came from our country; their beliefs were espoused in our culture; and their corruption was encouraged by everyone who needed “a favor.”

  Maybe one day, we can stop pointing the finger at everyone else and start doing something for the country.
• 

  By Waqar, 11 May, 2007 @ 2:54 am

  I am in Canada at University of Toronto. I would say that JIT must have shown their disapproval for the Punjab University teachers who commited a dirty crime.
  Any one claiming to have any association with Islam must exercise true spirit of Islam, which Holy Prophet SAW presented before the world, If his daughter Fatima happen to commit the crime, he must have given sentense for her crime, and that earlier nations were destroyed because of unjustice…..
• 

  By Pakistani to the core, 11 May, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

  I was responding to this post, hence, what the other posts say is besides the point, and irrelevant. So, if you have laid blame on the real culprits, thank you.

  Subversion of teachings is an oft misquoted phrase used by the presnt government in trying to mislead the public into believing that whoever talks about Islam is subverting Islamic teachings. Show me one statement by a scholar which subverts Islamic teachings. When I say scholar, I include only genuine scholars, who follow the Qur’an and Sunnah according to the understanding of the salaf-as-saleh and not those who follow their own understanding of the deen, or that of someone several hundred years after.

  Yes, religion is not the issue with Pakistan being what it is today. Admittedly, the various sects created are damaging our following in the right way, but they have absolutely no impact on the economy or well-being of Pakistan. They are two different issues altogether.

  I asked you what extermism is? To which you have not replied.

  I am sure you will agree that the word has no definite meaning. It is a word coined by the west which our secularists fiind very enchanting. Do you know that the US visit visa interview asked people how many times they go to the mosque ever day to pray. What is the meaning and implication of that question, may I ask? Does that determine how extremist you are? La hawla wila quwwata illa billah.

  Suicide is condemned in Islam. No scholar will say otherwise. But, you have to find out why the person who committed suicide bombing committed it. It is totally unfair to say that it is from extremism and is in any way linked to Islam. Do you know the number of Tamil Tigers who have committed suicide bombing and relate that as a percentage of their population, then compare it to Muslims. It is done by somebody who has either reached a stage where he/she finds no solace in living. In Palestine, every young man and woman knows that he/she may be picked up one day and killed. If he/she dies while killing Jews, he/she believes that she has done something for her people. It has nothing to do with Islam. The incidents in Paksitan are not evidenced. So far the authorities have not found the identities of the person/s who committed suicide, and who was behind it. Thus, to lay blame on Islamic extremism is totally wrong. It is a matter between the person and Allah , we have no right to judge his/her intentions.

  Seizing government buildings and public land is one incident which, I am sorry, has a background. To ignore the background and start from the middle, is a fallacious way of starting an argument. A mosque is required wherever there are sufficient Muslims. It is the duty of the state to provide such places. If it does not, people will build a mosque to make up for the state’s failure. If you believe that it is an incorrect act, then I am sorry, we are speaking from two different wavelenghts.

  What business are you talking about? The business of prostitution, or the business of selling pirated video films whose conetnet is against the teachings of Islam. Once I know which one you support, we can discuss further.

  The problem with Pakistan is corruption, nepotism, abuse of human rights. Tell me which religious party is guilty of these problems. Painting everything with a wide brush can be done even by a novice.

  Alhumdo Lillah. If people study Islam for any cause, Insha Allah , the result will be good. I pray that they learn from their study and implement the teachings in their lives. If the purpose is anything other than implementing, then only Allah knows how to reward/punish them.

  Why do you expect them to say something that is not needed to be said. As I have stated above, suicide is haram and there is no dispute on this. What is being disagreed is the circumstances and the intentions.

  Tell me which woman was killed in the name of Islam. Honour killing has nothing to do with Islam. To combine the two is ill-intentioned, to say the least.

  What is there to say against the Lal Masjid? Even the leader of the ruling party has been to the mosque and has agreed to their demands. Their main demand is the implementation of shariah in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. All Muslims unanimously agree with that. Don’t you?

  LOL. Again you take a problem and start discussing from the middle. The need for madrassah arose because the government failed to provide education to the majority of Pakistanis. And, the feudals prevented the opening of schools in their area because they felt threatened by educated people in their midst. To meet the need, the local Imam started a madrassah and started teaching what he could. In the cities, on the other hand, secular/worldly knowledge was imparted, resulting in a generation of people who did not know the real purpose of life. They only knew the worldly, which was momentary. The need of the hour is for the philanthropists and the government to set up schools where religious education and worldly education are immparted side-by-side.

  Yes, it is imploding because of the forces that are eating at its very beams and bannisters due to corruption and personal greed. My previous post lists them in no particular order. Alhumdo Lillah, I do not consider myself guilty as I have not done anything to damage the country. May Allah (subhanaho wa ta’ala) forgive me if I have. Ameen.

  Thank you for your penultimate para. I totally agree. But the criminal is a criminal and he/she does not share his/her responsibilty with you or I.

  WIthout pointing fingers, you can never point out the faults, and without finding the faults, you can never rectify the situation.
• 

  By smuhammad, 12 May, 2007 @ 12:49 am

  You asked where any scholar may have subverted Islam to their own benefit? Unfortunately, what they don’t say is as relevant here as what they do say. But here are some ‘truths’ spread by our religious parties that have no relevance in Islam:

  “Building a mosque or going for Hajj will absolve you of your sins.” Because, Islam, after all, is a religion that favors the rich and powerful. If you don’t have the money to donate towards a mosque, you have to find other sources of absolution, like good deeds. The rich, who can afford to go to Hajj every year, have no need to be good, or kind. On the other hand, the very poor have no need to be religious, because they are already suffering on earth, and will definitely not be made to suffer in the afterlife. So, basically, the tenets of Islam were meant ONLY for the Middle Class - this is such a balanced and fair Islam they preach!

  “The mark of a true muslim is a beard and a short shalwar.” The morals of a man may be highly questionable, but the beard endorses his entry to heaven… Does it matter at all that the style of beard was solely to differentiate Muslims from Jews during the Prophet’s time? In Pakistan, where 98% of the country is Muslim, how is this even relevant?

  Are you married? Do you know that in Islam, a woman automatically has the right to divorce, something Imams routinely strike from the nikahnama? How about this for not saying anything: What Imam counsels a new bride with her rights as a wife? What Imam tells her she has the right to stipulate, in the nikahnama, that she will not do housework, or care for her husband’s parents, or that her finances are independent from the husband’s and that he may not touch her earnings? The woman who works for my mother came to her in tears because a local Mullah told her that she may not yell at her husband for not earning - apparently, if she wants to feed her 5 children, either she must beg (which is STRICTLY forbidden in Islam - what Mullah rages about the umpteen beggars on our streets?), or work herself. The Mullah told her that her duties as a wife meant that if in sleep, a husband wakes up and asks for a glass of water, and if, while she is getting the water, he falls asleep, she must wait at his side with the glass of water until he wakes up! Women, after all, aren’t human. They don’t need rest as much as men do, right?

  Worst of all, our Mullahs and religious parties are preaching intolerance. Something you are guilty of yourself. Have you forgotten that the Prophet was a peacemaker and arbitrator for all religions, even for Jews? If my neighbour is guilty of a sin, no matter what it may be, IT IS NOT MY PLACE TO CORRECT HIM, nor is it the Mullah’s. Who are you, or anyone else, for that matter, to tell me what is right or wrong, to judge me? Only God can judge me, and the extent to which I am a good muslim, no MAN can do so, and to pretend that we can judge another person’s religion is to consider ourselves God - wait a minute, isn’t that in itself a violation of the very essence of Islam????? Every muslim has a duty to spread Islam, by PEACEFUL MEANS. There is no compulsion in religion, and the only place we can have any say is within our own family.

  Blasphemy… Ah, where do I begin? There is no such law in Islam, yet our wonderful Religious Police use it to hang 9-YEAR-OLDs, and carry out vendettas against their enemies. This is one of the most heinous laws we have, because it relies solely on the testimony of one person to prove. NO law in Islam is that unjust, yet Pakistani Mullahs rejoiced when it was passed, and rioted when it was suggested that it be amended. I don’t recall the Prophet, or his followers hanging the children of Taif for driving him out of the city by pelting him with stones. Who the hell are we to try and create our own laws here, 1400 years later????

  Lal Masjid is the worst example of extremism there is - they prey on the weak (the CD Store owners), but sing praises for a man as corrupt and vile as the government representative who negotiated with them. Their version of Sharia is something I can do without - Sharia requires that the persons implementing the laws and punishing the people be fair and honest, above reproach. The morals of the Lal Masjid brigade leave much to be desired when they cheerfully negotiate with the corrupt, while physically attacking those with less power and influence. On top of that, they have given carte blanche for anyone to police their own neighborhood in search of ‘offenders’. This is an invitation to anarchy, because it will mean that if I think, tomorrow, that you are violating Islam in any way, I have the right to come into your home and physically harm you. I am not an authority on Islam, but I believe anarchy is not one of its philosophies, is it?

  People aren’t turning anti-religion because of Western influences - our own Mullahs are driving us away. My basic education was in Saudi Arabia, and the Islam I learned there is NOTHING like the Islam preached by our ’scholars’. For example, while you valiantly defend suicide bombing, “suicide” is a much bigger crime in Islam than selling CDs. Entertainment is NOT a sin, and the morals of one man are NOT your responsibility. yet our Mullahs cheerfully accept (even use it to threaten) suicide, while burning a man’s livelihood.

  This Islam is Intolerant, bigoted and unjust. This is the Islam of Pakistan’s Mullahs. “Extremism” simply means to use means that are considered “beyond the norm”… When applied to the “mullahs” of Pakistan, this is especially relevant, because the tradition of “priesthood” which has crept into Islam is reminiscent of the Christian Church of the Middle Ages. When a Mullah threatens suicide bombing, no matter who is on the other side, that is extreme.
• 

  By smuhammad, 12 May, 2007 @ 12:57 am

  “Seizing government buildings and public land is one incident which, I am sorry, has a background.”

  This is typical of people justifying their stand - if we were to strictly follow the Sharia, the mosque would have been razed to the ground, and the leaders of the mosque prosecuted for theft.

  Yes, a mosque should be built wherever there is a need. A NEED. Have you been in Karachi lately? There is a mosque every kilometer… Mullahs come along, illegally encroach upon land, and then beg for funds to build the mosque. I’m sorry, Islam doesn’t say that the end justifies the means… Two crimes to build a mosque just means that mosque is tainted. It also means the Imam building the mosque has questionable morals. After all, if he can bend the rules for himself, why should I trust him?

  Even taking an unjust profit on a legal trade is frowned upon in Islam - do you really think stealing public land is allowed, no matter what its for?

  I know a man who is a lifetime member of Jamaat-e-Islami. Before he retired, he worked in a very high position in KDA - he approved building plans. He justified the numerous bribes he took by claiming that he never asked for them himself. And his elder in the party suggested making a large donation to a mosque to wash his sins clean. Another man, a police detective, justifies his bribes by taking ‘gifts’ of kind, never cash. It’s only bribery when you take cash, right? He’s also a lifetime member of Jamaat-e-Islami.

  Please don’t say there is no corruption among the religious parties of Pakistan - you would have to be a 7 year old child and blind in order to believe that. The religious parties have no interests to serve but their own, and the issues they fight about have nothing to do with Islam. It serves their interests to build mosques and keep the nation illiterate, ignorant and intolerant of any view but their own, because that, in Pakistan, is power.
• 

  By smuhammad, 12 May, 2007 @ 1:06 am

  “WIthout pointing fingers, you can never point out the faults, and without finding the faults, you can never rectify the situation.”

  This site wasn’t set up to point fingers (though I admit I have done it liberally in my last comments - apologies!). And while Islam is a complete religion for both the State and the Individual, we have to start working as Individuals before asking for anything from the State. Look to your own house, and all that.

  Unfortunately, you espouse the very reason this nation is imploding - no one person believes their actions will make a difference. So nobody changes, and if someone breaks the law, another person feels totally justified in doing so, after all what difference would it make if I followed the rules, right?

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