Hamid Mir has only recently begun to inspire me, thanks to his coverage of Bajaur refugee camps that was a direct result of me and my friends creating The Helpers Foundation (http://blog.momekh.com/helpers/) and raising an odd PKR 150,000 so far. But this post is not about helping people. It is about something else. It is about political weakness - nay - about moral cowardice of our leaders perhaps. Perhaps. It is now too complicated to call. Has been for quite some time, regardless of what your newspapers’ op-eds have us believe.

Hamid Mir in this interview has said more than I would expect any journalist of any cadre to say on air; ‘we have lost the area of Pakistan’. ‘I challenge the president to try to visit the Bajaur areas by road, any minister can not visit these areas, the area is not in Pakistan anymore’. ‘The Pakistani army is not even touching the taliban, it seems that they are just killing the innocent farmers and civilians to get more grants from America.’ ‘Wherever there are talibans - and there are talibans over there - the army is not attacking those areas.’

An open challenge by Hamid Mir. ‘All of them [govt officials, Americans + army] are fooling us. The biggest fraud there ever was, bigger than Eastern Pakistan. I challenge them to show me a single taliban killed by these operations’.

This video is a must, must watch:

hat-tip to Teeth Maestro for this excellent piece of heart-felt commentary.

Javed Ghamidi PhotoSource: Wikipedia

The interview with Mr. Ghamidi has been postponed till sometime this week. So keep those questions coming.

The interview is, God willing, expected to take place this coming Sunday (Sept 14, ‘08), early evening. If any of you have any questions that you want to ask him directly, please either use the comments section to ask, or email me. You could expect to get the answers here God willing, by Monday evening. I will also be asking him about getting the most out of life - hacking life, so to speak - from an Islamic point of view.

The beautiful religion of Islam has left the field quite open in terms of creatively living one’s life (Tim Ferris, take note ), as I always try to be living proof of that. Sometimes, I actually succeed. God’s Grace, all of it. (this God’s Grace is what most of us call ‘luck’; I do not find luck or coincidence or chance in any of God’s scheme of things, but that’s just me)

A bit about Javed A. Ghamidi & the interview

Known to be controversial in his intrepretation of Islam, he has presented a truly unique, modern yet fundamentalist view of the religion of Islam. I am a Muslim (thankfully  ) and have found his methods of inquiry, deduction and importantly, his presentation quite unique, and many a times, on the mark.

This coming Sunday, I and a few of my friends will be visiting Mr. Ghamidi (most probably at his home) with a small list of questions, for a pre-arranged meet up. This is not an interview per se, and I am hoping that it turns out to be a fruitful discussion where we learn the most. The questions we will be asking (althoug not in a written format as of yet) are a result of our (friends) discussions amongst ourselves and our readings into the Holy Qur’an, Hadith literature and the writings of acclaimed Quranic commentators like Moudidi, M Asad and Dr. Israr.

Those who are aware of today’s political Islam will know that Mr. Ghamidi and Dr. Israr are not on the same frequency when it comes to Islam. This inshAllah, should be a learning and an interesting experience. I await your questions as well (quickly now, there is not much time left ).

I will probably be updating on twitter as well, so you can also follow me on twitter.