General Lack-of-Vision

I wonder who is wearing the pants in bangladesh. The international community still supports the caretaker arrangement, but the critical imprint on the caretaker's head I feel is from the NGO and daily star group. These have been empowered into incompetence by the populations stupidity and development dollars. They are a function of "Liberation Misogyny".

The only cool thing about having military punctuation is that some interesting work can be pushed through, with longer vision that the usual forces of moronarchy. Only, I'm getting wishy washy vibes of the general. Its good that he has a dialogical habit, but i think he is getting taken advantage of. A strong person would not have ceased vocalising about different forms of democracy. He shut up as soon as the development whore uncivilised society kicked up a fuss at his political imaginings.

Thing is, with the AL-Jamat-BNP triad as retarded as ever, new voices are much needed. Too many people are stuck in the same rut repeating platitudes.

In post 47 history, several prominent figures have worked with military types.  Allowing themselves to be interacting instruments with the power holder. Its not haram, even in buddhijibi madhab. Akhtar Hameed Khan (Development) and Fazlur Rahman (Islamic Modernism) tried their bit in the time of Ayub Khan. Our Zia brought a lot of talents to the problems at hand, while several other scholars tried their bit in the time of Ershad. 

I still remember a lot of talented people in roles they deserved, placed there by the CTG. Power to them. We have them to thank, in part, for the low death count during the cyclone and improvements in the university sector.

Power coupling to talent is key here and has been too low in the Bangladesh Era. Military punctuation temporarily alters this coupling. But for better or worse? This time i worry that donor trained actors who only know buzzwords and danda are in the ascendancy. 

There is no political imagination on show. This cannot be expected from political parties/cults. Come on General Saab, we want to hear... or maybe you should just move aside.

MCB Mojo

In an open and kindly letter to the MCB, Yahya Birt conveys worrys about its design and performance. I hope the people who can make changes will read it and understand it...

Points include:

• the election process doesn't allow much in the way of manifesto building and campaigning.
• prominent affiliates are too politically partisan and that this reflects badly on the whole MCB as there is guilt by ideological association. (Bear in mind that the conservatives are due back in power and an alliance with the hard left has passed its sell by date.)
• we need to frame a proactive narrative on terrorism.
• the MCB Umbrella has less organisational mojo than some of its affiliates, so we need to unlock the floodgates of private funding.

To encourage more ideas and money to float around is definately the way to go. It's accepting the guilt by ideological association thing that confuses me and the primacy of the terrorism issue.

Guilt by ideological association is an unfair reality, but its an unfair reality I feel proud to stick two fingers up at. I killed no-one.

Who chooses the issues of out time anyway? Terrorism is a government priority and the government is trying to make it a priority for the muslim organisations by wasting their time and our money. It would be sad if too many folks got distracted from what their own priorities are. I dont think they will, because theres too many people with integrity. Its usually the deislamised, skin deep and secularised muslims (God dont make me one of them) who find themselves doing the governments bidding, we all know it.

That said, we should frame and improve our own narrative in the matter and draw from it when given the chance. The priority is the discovery of Our Mojo. Such violent crime and extreme behaviour exists because we lost our collective mojo. There are plenty of other symptoms of mojo loss.

Ummahtic Mediation:

Just a heads up on some hopeful activity from Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. Senegal is presently chair of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference.. basically the family Muslim nation states). He has made efforts to reconcile Ivory Coast, and more recently Hamas and Fatah in Palestine. He is trying to do something about President Mugabe and Opposition leader Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe.

Check out this cunning piece of damage created by the Voice of America. The coded message is, that leaders of the global south should not engage in international relations... they must focus on their 'poor' problems, 'democracy' at home and leave the hegemon to sculpt the world in its own image, to its own taste and benefit. President Wade's negotiating power has got his own country benefit. The Voice of America would rather its listeners didnt know of course.

Screw that I say, as chair of the OIC he has MY authority. It should always be understood that there will be powerful, almost irrestistable forces constantly discrediting the development of this reconcilability faculty in our societies. We should stick to 'woman empowerment' and university courses in 'conflict resolution'. We should stay in the periphery.

Bollocks. You can only develop mojo by having a go. In the 1980s Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran tried to mediate between Iran and Iraq, at the OIC's behest. At what point does the fact that Ershad wasnt a democrat even become an issue? That goal was one to strive for, its failure is something to lament and problemmatize.... not ridicule. Unless you subscribe to No-Such-Thing-As-Ummah theory, or just honestly want to keep the Muslims disintegrated.

Anyway, Zimbabwe's got even worse recently with opposition people being killed, even their wives. Desperate oppositions make desperate alliance in desperate times, which consequently make their state tyrants go even more ape at them. Its a feedback cycle of Satanism. Could this situation have been avoided? Did Presdient Mugabe ever dream that a bodged up land reform would end with this? Can it be 'saved'?

Tsvangarai went the Britain for support, the old imperial arse. Ironic really given that Sir Robert Mugabe was given a knighthood in the 1990s. This 'fleeing into the arms of your old enemy' stuff only makes sense in desperation. Its like some of the Shia or Kurds of Iraq wanting US invasion to topple Saddam. In my view it is also like the successionist movement that created Bangladesh, going to India for support. 

Such options bring about a lot of death and/or the political reality that is aimed for. They need not be the only options. This practical logic of nationalism which turns one into a traitor and needs to be buggered up, big time. Once these moves are made, although some may feel temporary success... the vampire never leaves and their biting and bloodsucking affects you at the most fundamental level. Look at how Americanised Kuwait has become. This argument is hard to hear when you are getting your head kicked in, but its the inescapable truth.

South-to-South mediation is key for the future I feel. Its fate rests on the nurturement of statescraft in the south. But who does it need in this case? South African leadership is too in awe of Sir Mugger's war hero kudos. Nigeria could step up to the plate., the African union? the Non Aligned Movement?... any number of actors could make themselves useful. However its only a certain kind of crazy who would take a chance on such a high risk adventure.

For sure the candidate needs to have kudos in the view of Sir Muggers and the opposition. It really appears like Sir Muggers has lost it though. He probably also needs kudos amongst the white boys, which in this day and age means 'electedness', well President Wade was elected by 55.9% so at least that box is ticked. Crucially, he is no 'Islamist'. Have a look at his website. His own symbolic capital is important too. A political leader is better suited to the challenge than a UN technocrat. Political imaginations create options, technocrats try to fit the world into pre-existing options. And lets not forget that he is also an academician.

An interview with Dr Kamal

As much as the dude infuriates me, he does carry himself with grace on the few time i have been with him.

Probe News Magazine feature his interview this week. They have in the past done similar features with Maulana Nizami and Tareq Rahman (cant find link but it does exist). They ask peculiar questions, which im all for, but do sometimes blow smoke up people's arses.

my favourite bit.

Question: You say that the law is equal for all. Hasina has been released; perhaps Khaleda will be too. So demands now may be made for the release of all those who have been detained by the government on corruption charges. Or are things different for Hasina and Khaleda?

Answer: That is a question. Perhaps then it will have to be said that there has been an outbreak of a serious disease in all the jails and there is no treatment for this disease anywhere in the country.

I do wonder what going on in the Jails of Bangladesh..istighfar perchance?

"We're Going Under... Drowning in yooooooo"

Bangladesh could disappear entirely by end of century: NASA
Source: NewAgeBD, Mahtab Haider
Monday 23rd June 2008

The physicist suggesting it was James Hansen. The idea he was exploring is of fast feedback. And the news was out in July of last year.

The journalist Johann Hari published his Independent [London] article on it last Friday, including above factoid. The darling deshi merely read the article and imitated away. Its sad because NewAge's coverage during the last CoP[International Climate Change meeting) in Bali was worth following [gossip value, snooped on emails from within the delegation]. Its painful to witness these kinds of people scaring, confusing and pissing on Bangladesh, demonstrating 'freedom' no doubt.

Johann Hari is a nonce of the first degree, the imprint of his poisonous opportunist idiocy can be found in this telling paragraph,

This time, there will be no need for imaginary scapegoats. The people responsible are on every TV screen, revving up their engines. Will jihadism swell with the rising seas? Bangladesh's religion seems to be low-key and local. In the countryside, Muslims – who make up 95 per cent of the nation – still worship Hindu saints and mix in a few Buddhist ideas, too. In the Arab world, people bring up God in almost every sentence. In Bangladesh, nobody does.

Interesting huh? Good 'news' for some forces in Bangladesh i guess. He develops his climate jihad thing later on. Its interesting how Hari grinds his axes one by one in this article on Bangladesh, which he feels characteristically obliged to 'represent'. The Captive Minds, White Masked and Foolish of the east provide willing assistance. Do read the article and wonder at the symbolic violence being done. Then tell me that journalists are not the scum of the earth. Hari's axes are shared with the embarrassingly suicidal semi-intelligensia with whom he socialised on his all revealing visit. A visit to educate us all on how we are climatically killing Bangladesh [puke].

Get this. To adapt successfully to whatever is thrown at it, Bangladesh needs to discover and realise its mojo. The self servingl beggar twaddle attitude of the crimelords must, in the words of Bob, be

..finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned

Protection of deen is the first maqasid, so it is this which I will dwell on. I think I have made the point about axemanship, apemanship and 'science' journalism in the UK and in Bangladesh. The comment that nobody in Bangladesh mentions Allah probably deserves some kind of [virtual] effigy burning in of itself, but really is an interesting social construction.

Several years ago I was shamed by an Indian Muslim lady who had visited Bangladesh in ramadhan for a conference on something cool to find nobody fasting and no arrangements for iftari. I was gobsmacked, and rationalised it through the usual secularist-intelligensia thing. It is true that when certain white characters are taken around a strange country by certain brown characters there is a process of snowballing self selection. Aaaagh, the 'staged' 'field' 'visit'. They really do serve eachother an unholy meal of half-truths, they gorge themselves... everything is for sale.

Observers are best advised not to touch them with a bargepole. If you are compelled to by circumstances, try to avoid believing everything they say. Desperate people say desperate things and waste your time.

The secularist poison has spread further than I had thought in the Millat of Bangladesh. 'Islamic workers' really need to reflect on this and figure out their own responsibility. The people at Pew do a lot of research on faith variables in global society. I think its time to get a whole lot more ummahtic about it. Starting from analysis of what goes on in the 'elite' english medium schools. I dont think peculiar materialist studies of 'Bengali identity vs Islamic identity' are useful for anything other than self promotion.

After spending time in desh, there is a 'posh' dhaka centricity to the disease, but its broader than that and trends amongst the youth are worrying. Parents are aware of it. Yet its not fair to say there is a dhaka centricity to it. A youth cricket coach described the character of the Batsman Ashraful to me once... "He's a good boy of dhaka, he prays."

But still, workers at 'prestigious' newspapers in Bangladesh are disciplined and controlled by the habitus at their employer's offices. 'Dont let them know that you went to the mosque.' Other 'prestigious' journalists reward young writers for expressing a faithlessness in their articles. Workers at the Daily Ondokar ensure that only 'secularism' is reproduced [They dont explicitly publish that]. A hijab crowned lady at a 'prestigious' NGO is hassled over her observances.

The deIslamisation of the bengali musalman was planned and hardwired. Haphazardness has also featured, as well as the idiocy of islamic workers. It is embedded in the education systems and the peculiar social memory loss engineered by the contemporary form of nationalism. Thankfully however, the fitra is inate, and cannot be alienated for long, despite poorly disguised hate campaigns.

One elderly and deeni rickshaw rider I spoke with, whose livelihood and survivability depends on his strength had tried fasting and riding, but collapsed. An Alim had since explained to him that the fast was not mandatory for him. The doctrine of durura, necessity, is well known in sharia, but this particular dispensation had never occured to me, silverspoon boy that I am.

But generally around jumma times, in the capital, there are a lot of riders who do not join in. Apparently there is no safe place to park their vehicle for the half an hour or so they need. Surely there is a quick social technique to fix that one? One that a mosque committee can institute as a nobrainer? or... maybe...

Back to Climate-Extremism
I was wondering when someone some scumbag would link the two tragic buzzwords of 'global society' together. My personal evil imagination was inclined in a different way.

In an appeal to the Tory and the Green, I propose Carbon offsetting Muslims. I will obtain funding from either green or blue establishments in the west, or maybe even use the Clean Development Mechanism. Here's the pitch,

Look around you, you cant have Muslims travelling the world and realising that something is fundamentally wrong with it. I mean, they might try to fix things. Let us render them spatially immobile. No passports for our immigrant stock, no visas or 'scholarships' for the one in the East. I propose you give me a million bucks per hundred muslims immobilised.

Cute and furry lions

The lions roared
one of their pride had returned to their Lord
The kittens in awe
of their timeless imanfueled core.
The stories ran deep
through a millat resisting sleep.
Yet the lions mucked in
with no care for prestige or bidding.

National Character Erosion

Was what the murrabi told me what had occured in recent decades in Bangladesh. Kudos to those who remain fortresses, Lord help me. There is NO development speak, NO human rights bitching, there are NO poverty reduction strategy papers and there are NO annual development plans addressing this. I think this is where the deen and dunya meet most obviously.

There is only political abdication, and intellectual abdication by harmful athiests in an essentially christian civilisational clothing of secularism. No Akhlaqi - Nasiri tome of practical ethics for our times then ey? Give us a glossy manual of HIV/AIDs instead please, Give me some trees to plant while you industrialise, continue to suck my blood like a leech while i fight with myself.

Yet character/behaviour are the most identified signs of individual quality by the Bangladeshi. It is the latent objective of parents and grandparents, but its hard and the collective chops arent working as well as they could. This is no rose tinted view of a golden past, I need no social scientific methodological mojo. This is known.

"Since [the liberation of] Bangladesh, there has been lots of development, but people’s character has become ruined” Aged 60, ex- Freedom fighter

“From the 50s to the 70s people wouldn’t give short weight. In the 60s corrupt families would be shamed and society would be ashamed of them. Now the values are inverted.” Aged 70, Retired engineer

“College kids are 'faster' than during my [student] time. [They are] not obeying manners of bangali culture. Maybe their family attachment is less.” Aged 28, Junior engineer (female)

The most clearly identified social quality that I find is of a 'conflict free environment', which makes Javed Ahmad Ghamidi's understanding of adab (manners) leading to greater adl (justice) in society clear. That Our Nabi was sent only to perfect good manners is the key.

With bucket loads of people in the same space competing for finites resources and positions, the adab thing is possibly the most crucial pillar of Our Futures. However when your knowledge culture is so fragmented, alienated from its fitra and immobile, there is no public sphere for this clear realisation to refine.

Leadership, which I accord to the man or woman who is able to solve problems, should have a look. Perhaps this kind of stuff is too obvious to write down, but it is the essence of civilisation. When in the company of someone of great quality, you wonder how this persons technique was cultivated. Looking at the differences in behaviours, 'moves' and traditions in families... who sculpted what and when? How do people improve and others get worse? This beautiful gesture that you made.... how much was inspiration of the moment... and how much was built generations ago?

One does not ramdomly shake some sand and create a Rolex. Craftsmanship.

A Human's Development Goals [Grave Edition]

• To have gained and imparted beneficial knowledge
• To have performed actions of on going benefit
• To have pious children who pray for you

Its quite intergenerational, with the target being the highest point in the hereafter, and the zone of translation this life. Through knowledge, action and progeny, a continuity of wisdom, discovery and social uplift is hardwired and softwired into the socio-spiritual life.
What simplicity.

To turn it the other way, it would be the ultimate in misguidance,

• To have spread malicious poison, gossip and slander
• To have caused and enabled cascading harm
• To have children who curse you

David Davis shows some mojo

After the Labour party bribed itself to increase the detention without charge period from 28 days to 42, cheapening the habeus corpus tradition and wounding the British civilisational psyche, one politician did something interesting. David Davis, who came second in the last Tory leadership contest, resigned as Shadow Home secretary and MP to trigger a by-election in a safe Tory seat. The ex-editor of The Scum seems to be putting himself forward to stand against him, regarding the British public as scaredy-cat morons who don't care whether its 42 or 420 days.

Empirical analysis of the cases of people held for the 28 day maximum doesn't suggest that more time is needed. Rather than putting some brains into the investigatory effort, The Man prefers to give them more time. A very sad state of affairs for the innocent people messed up by the rule change, if not the general population who still face the AQ type political violence hazard.

Critics have poured scorn on Davis. 'Vain, self indulgent stunt' blah blah blah they say. Labour may not even bother to field a candidate against him, bless their evil unprincipled socks. Still, its sweet when politics moves beyond the follow-thy-leader practice. That Queen Shami of Liberty worries that he may have made a bum move doesn't really bother me. For me, the act was both symbolic and real, it means a lot. conservatism, of the good stuff, certainly helps at times like these. The chap's actions have stuck a barb in Labour, and highlighted the issue of our time to the public conscience. Many polls still show Brits not being bothered too much, quantitatively speaking, about the 42 day thing. Practically, the House of Lords would probably have blocked it anyway.

Its just heart-warming to know that there was a politician for whom this democratically laced corruption was too much. Labour MPs were being whipped silly and bribed with all they could have(honours, Cuba etc) .... just to bolster Brown's illusion of control. Davis has earned some political currency, trust and kudos through this. An unjust government action should be resisted, however pathetically, just to prove that truth is not dead. I do not deify Davis Davis, but want to give him a big bro hug right now. Muslims would do well to flock to help his re-election campaign for Haltemprice and Howden as citizens... though that would probably guarantee he loses...

Termites ate my spine

Termites have eaten important documents in a high profile corruption case against former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, lawyers say.


And Shaytan laughs at the poetry of it all. His mission to misguide humankind would seem to be doing rather well. Strangely, as 'Sheikha' flies 'off sick' to America, so many people are overjoyed.. and its hard not to feel overjoyed by proxy... because they are overjoyed and relieved of tension. I mean, pissed off, rather busting, Awami Leaguers are a severe public nuisance, guaranteed to blow your mind to get whatever they think their way is.

TERMITES..... after all that they turn around and say TERMITES have come to protect a defendant in a corruption case. I understand how hard it is to keep books and paper records in Bangladesh.... but TERMITES.

I remember when the Late Mrs Bhutto had a forensic style investigation done on her possessions, revealing cast iron data showing dodjyness. Mushybaby brushed it aside. Who really knows the real presence, nature, mechanics and dynamics of Sheikha's illegal behaviour.. but this TERMITE issue is terrific.

Why cant Bangladeshi society evolve past this stage? Why does it appear that this democratic punctuation wasn't the success that it should have been?

1. No crystalline vision for the society.
2. No community of kind thinkers and doers to craft, refine and translate such a vision.
3. no genuine public sphere, just a superficial civil society that convinces nobody.
   
4. Limited cognition of the voters and activists, who believe their leaders are of any essential benefit.

The four are nested in negative disastrous feedback loop.

Guardening

The changing of the guard took place
at a differential kind of pace...
through hostile takeovers of charity
and bizarre coalitions of opportunity.

I hope we keep the memory

of those who deserved authority

lest we become so buzzword spun

for then who's work is being done?

Our millat grows more crystalline
It takes a while for ribs from spine
I'm waiting for the nervous system
For synchrony with every piston


Ancestral ties, what a can of worms
makes me shrug and go quite taciturn
"They just got worse" is all i'll say
horizons narrow day by day

Tariq bin Ziad, he burnt his boats,
but we aren't on conquest you silly goats,
Some inbetweeny agnostic hope,
or crown is needed, not hangman's rope.

But what about those carried through errors?
we've theologised some rank blinking howlers.
who's man enough to call them out
improve, move on and banish all doubt?

Its clear who cant; rent-boys and the bayah'd,
The former are foul, the latter have soured.
The aloof and white-masked, were never real factors,
what qualities then define my imagined actors?

Tablighi networked and mannered will do,
An A-team-Suffragette-Royal Society stew.
this could be a stretched and elitist bright future
we might just end up wielding flagon and pitcher

Annual Development Ponce-around 2008-9

In the land of Vang, the wazir made a budget
it was full of numbers, and various widgets.
Large amounts were committed to good causes
to be prosecuted by officers and political orphans.

The budget was small, but thats no matter.
Its June, and you cant build for the water.
The determining factor, and this is the key
is to implement governance unfoolishly.

The officers mess, was a complex arena
vested interests galore, little hope for enema.
But honestly one must feel sad for ECNEC*
no paradigm to translate, just technocratic rednecks.

With politicals in jail, the officers roam free,
they're clever but designed for coloniality.
Politicians were thick, unable to guide
region and faction and interest denied...

Nobody even seemed to have any answer
"democracy-election" was the principle mantra
No vision cohered, no gandalf stood up
Perhaps what was needed was a kick up the butt

Meanwhile in the court of the Imperial master
Mandarins planned a conference for the pending disaster
they invited the Press Lord, his minions and a General
the programme i tell you, it looks rather terrible.

The story goes on and with each passing day,
more people are born and more people pray,
for openings to be taken by the salehin**
not rentboys who dwell in the doomed mezzanine

*ECNEC makes decisions on interesting big funding projects.
**Righteous

Zak Goldsmith for Richmond Park MP

Take a recent editor of The Ecologist, stick him in the Tory party and set it in the time between the decline and the death of the New Labour movement in 21st century great britain. Remind all the Paks that he is Jemima Apas little bro. Assign the chap the Richmond Park constituency and what do you get?

A ray of hope?

Headline of the century "[Bangladeshi] Politicians resent budget-making sidestepping them"

Source NewAgeBD 6.6.08.

possibly the funniest, truest statement ever made.

Important Scholar Alert: Shayk Javed Ahmad Ghamidi

Over in West Bangladesh there is a scholar with precious guidance. He is a theo-centred teacher who joined then left Jamat-e-Islami, came out the other end better and does his own significant thing. Qualitively I understand that he shares certain understandings with other Asian greats like the Malaysian Syed Naquib Al Attas (Its all about the adab) and Indonesian Nurcholish Madjid (Islamic parties are a dumb idea).

Its great to hear about another great thought leader in the Ummah, for who the be all and end all isn't politics and state power.

Wiki on him

Wiki on the constellation of linked institutions

Boston Globe Article

Muslim states, he says, cannot be theocracies, yet they cannot be divorced from Islam either. Islam cannot simply be one competing ideology or interest group that reigns supreme one moment and is gone the next. He instead argues for the active investment of the state in building institutions that will help create a truly "Islamic democracy."

"I challenge liberal and conservative thought at the same time," he told me recently at his home in Lahore. "The liberals in Pakistan are confused by me. The religionists are fuming and have called me everything short of an infidel."

Journal, unambitiously called 'Renaissance'

New party formation and progress issues

Is it time for Anwar? ie. will he be elected Prime Minister when he is allowed to run in Malaysian elections next time? If so, what symbolic ripples would that send throughout the world?

Malaysia IS a small country, blessed with many natural resources as well as ethnic characters and temperaments that have enabled its uplift since it Independence. But it was interesting to see how in their last election a new party was able to make a mark and exploit even Malay confidence in the UMNO. In Turkey too, new parties, or reconfigured ones, are able to form, do well, get squashed and reform within a short time scale. There's a sociopolitical elastic that forms between people and political parties as the latter perform well. This is the fruit of the confidence that Erdogan honoured as Mayor of Istanbul, and the intention of Anwar Ibrahim and co as they compete to perform at the regional level.

In Bangladesh however something else is going on, the elastic broke sometime in the past and it is hard to re-attach. The political field is devoid of ideas and the receiver dishes resistant to incoming transmissions. Not here a new-wave multiracial or Islamic politics 2.0, here there is the politics of revenge and the revolution of the fools. Maybe there wasn't even any elastic before, the oft-repeatednational elastic might just have been an accident. Whats for sure is that its hard to start new parties and get anywhere. Emergent splinters, splinter furthe, while voting folks are too fixed to the tribes that they know. There is an upstream problem too, in thought leadership.

The 'intelligentsia' is dishonestly drunk on unearnt, unlawful earnings and not competitive in a good way. Years of providing substandard services for the people have taken their toll on their integrity and vitality. This reminds me of how vibrant women dumb down a lot and become boring upon wedding the wrong person. nuff said really. Though maybe some interesting teenager will come by in the next few years. Unfortunately Aid Baby was reared on rehydrated yak milk.

So small parties and new parties of the elections of 2008/9. Good luck with crafting a New Agenda and translating it.

Islamic Finance in service of what?

I went to a lecture the other day that explored the question of how islamic, islamic finance is. It was by Dr. Mehmet Asutay, and kinda jammed around this paper. I was heartened by what he had to say, not depressed. He had something nuanced to say about maqasid al sharia. It was that the ibn al quayyum rendering(infitnite list) may be a better point of reference than imam ghazalis(five) and that the goals of Islam, rather than the goals of Islamic Law are more collectivisable.

Translation of islamic mojo isnt about how oil wealth is stored and protected, but how muslim money culture evolves and allows brians, sweat and money to lead to GUD. Gross Ummahtic Dignification. Maqasidi investment has as much to do with how a finance minister may prioritise and allocate state funds, how a venture capitalist might choose what bright ideas to enable, how communities enable GUD and how individuals invest with their resources.


Pure profit making motivation, purifying profit.

Which is why i reckon that we should just wipe jungly Islamic finance out as as, to be invisible. Just like a coke can on a table actually doesnt exist, we shouldnt accord things value on the sole basis of money and figures. (property is the 5th maqasid out of five, behind deen, life, dignity and intellect).



Practicioners of the dark arts dont please me because they seldom talk to the conceptual universe that I inhabit or that the ambitions I have, i find there answers tend to be 'no' and their stances over analytical and lacking vision. Habibie managed to dislodge a lot of such people and get some creative non linear mojo in Indonesia. It is sad that a lot of smart Muslim people seldom take islamic concepts and think with them practical and empirically to check out how they interact with the world.

But Doc Asutay was cool, could communicate with the mixed up millat without confusing, and the QnA was eclectic to say the least. He hat tipped and built on the works of the founders of Islamic Economics, which is something that marks wheat from chaff. He qualified that the foundational stuff came from the islamic resurgence of the 60s and 70s that kinda flopped, so we needed to think about things a bit more. The next generation must look at whats going on now and take the real thing further, not go with the fashion of islamically attracting gulf money like the british government.

He made an interesting couple of points. Some survey of Islamic Finance used in Malaysia in the recent past showed that 88% of it was just use to finance consumption... just buying stuff. whereas something like 2% (musharaka and mudaraba) actually did anything interesting. Interesting means creating essential value not plinging things around. Whether this says more about the dear malay's lack of entrepreneurial mojo than failings in the structure who knows?

But the point is that lots of dosh plinging around isnt the key here, its the benefitial work done by it thats crucial. ok we can understant sharia compliancy like halal meat, as a technocratic permissability factor. But a monstrous building for the opulent erected with islamic finance next to the Kaba? Come on! Allah mentions good(tayeb) whenever he speaks of lawful (halal). The dirty halal fried chicken might be lawful, but is it good?


Maqasidi venture capitalism is what I would like to see work, and a gradual awakening to the point that Allah will judge us well on how we spent our wealth health and time. It's not just about reducing the harm, its about increasing the good. The maqasid conversation, if nothing else, can makes it clear in the Muslim moral vernacular. Its inately vision broadening.

In a sense the states and corporates matter less than communities, families and individuals. Its a bad bad outcome when the faith is only played back but with certain frequencies missing. Taking out the bum notes from the scale is great but you really have to play a good tune. If bad 'Islamic' Financing is a greedy pig in scholastic clothing, it is time for the real murrabi's to distinguish themselves.


Another observation was that it was the Islamic Banks in Sudan (who enable a lot of agriculture) and Bangladesh were fulfilling more than anywhere else. Theres a trust in desh where even the most secular hardcore will bank with them. This mirrors 'secular' parents who want their daughters to marry a jamati boy because he prays and behaves. On social and economic levels things seem ok, its just when political power becomes part of the equation that things go ape.

There was a piece in todays newage paper, carried from bdnews24 about Islamic banks in desh. they repeated some of the same information twice though. Anyway so i was wondering....

(naive)Femenist analysis of islamic banking -> how many females employees do they have>

Economistic analysis of islamic banking -> bunch of numbers, no social context or resemblance of heart.

Anu muhammad (lefti bdeshi uni prof) analysis -> they charge more 'interest' so can profit more. religious command over capitalist economy must be resisted. Democracy please. look this is linked to the defilement of our pure secularism, we have always been secular... look at me, i am everybody.


Nationalist analysis of Islamic banking -> why are you buying them machineries from india?

Muslim students view of Islamic finance -> how can i get a job in it?

degraded Tablighi's view of Islamic banking -> oooh this means i can take a 2 hour break every namaz time.

British view of Islamic Finance -> how can we make some money out of these stupid arabs who seem to be the only ones with welath at the moment. Ah, london as an Islamic hub. badass!

dafter 'Paki' islamist view of Islamic Finance. -> how can i grow my status in this environment? I know, i will mirror the british view.

Malaysian view of Islamic Finance -> ok-la. what ever you like

Islamic Development Bank view of Islamic Finance -> dudes, over here, we do good work we have limited funds and a helluva lot of work to do... look. oh you just want to make money... i see... We'll still be over here when you figure out what a stupid bunch of stupids you are. Anybody want to work in jeddah?