Arm yourself, intellectually!

The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

Author: Gad Saad

When the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, the world thought the leftists and their ideas were buried in the rubble of what was once considered the panacea of all of Man's woes. They were wrong. The concept of unhappy people blaming all their woes on the system continued. The leftists just went into universities and infiltrated the world media. With neologisms and complicated, contradictory coined phrases, they managed to create a world of similar thinking individuals.

It would have been fine if these new ideas were just another armamentarium to research for the ultimate truth. It instead was meant to create a herd of an unthinking population whose way of thinking permeated all layers of society. Radical militant feminists insist that being born male means toxicity oozing from all his orifices. The cancel culture practitioners literally shoot down people if their narratives do not concur with the leftists' agenda. Transgender people think gender is fluid and press for society to assign gender to young children at a tender age.

Playing victimhood is the newest game in town. The victims are actually perpetrators of mayhem but cry a river when their assault is retaliated. And they use the power of media and academic pseudo-intellectuals to justify their course. Identity politics divide and sub-divide people into combative camps.

A particular way of thinking labelled 'ostrich parasitic syndrome' by the author has emerged. Scientific thinking developed over generations of discovery has been annihilated by science deniers and denial-discarded ways of thinking. These people are cocksure about their convictions and, like wailing babies, just would not accept others' arguments, no matter how rational or scientific it is.

Prof Gad Saad is a sane voice in these insane times who encourages his readers to arm themselves with knowledge and defend the world against the attack on common sense. Saad himself was a victim of such infectious barbarity. He grew up as a Jew in the only country in the Middle East with a Christian majority around 1948 at the creation of Israel, Lebanon. The wars that flared after its inception created waves of refugees. In the spirit of humanitarianism, Lebanon took in refugees from its Muslim neighbours. Saad was born in 1964. By the late 1960s, due to disparities in population growth, Lebanon was no longer a Christian majority country. It instead had to deal with terrorist groups like Fatah, Hizballah, Hamas and many more and found itself embroiled in a Civil War by 1973. Saad's family, living as closet Jews, had to flee their motherland after being doublecrossed by the very close Muslim worker who had serviced their house for years. 

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Crookery at Crockett Island!

Midnight Mass (Netflix miniseries; 2021)
Creator, Director: Mike Flanagan

This miniseries is specifically relevant to the many unthinking keyboard warriors who spew venom freely over social media with their ill-thought seventh-century ideologies to spread ridiculous so-called divine decrees. Just because outsourcing labour is a legitimate way to ease physical burdens, it does mean it applies to rational thinking. 

As the joke goes, the top students in the class will become scientists who will change the course of mankind. The following best will be professionals, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. The professionals will control the scientists. The truant skivers will become lawyers who will take charge of the first two groups. The playful mavericks who frequently dodge their assignments will end up as politicians and will dictate terms at the end. But it is the boys sitting at the back of the class who fail all exams who will end up as holy men who would eventually control everybody else, from politicians all through to the scientists. 

This is precisely what is happening here in Malaysia today. Sixty years of lulled intellectual development and lack of competitive edge to excel have elevated the godmen clan to such a level that defies logic. Every little day-to-day problem demands men of theology to have the final say, not science or intellectual discourse. Whilst the country is let wayward by corrupt politicians and left to rot as its neighbours reach for newer frontier, the masses are left inebriated in the opium of religion.

The uncertainty of the purpose of life and the fear of the unknown draws more inhabitants of a small remote island, Crockett Island, to flock to its only Church, a Catholic Church. It revolves around many of its inhabitants. A disillusioned young man returns home to the island after serving time for drunk driving and killing a pedestrian. He is trying to fit into his disappointed family and judging community. The Sheriff, a Muslim widower, finds it hard to fit into the exclusively Christian society. After losing his wife to cancer, his duty as a father to a teenage boy is challenging as the son seems curious about Christianity. 

Then, the resident Preacher, who is supposed to return from the mainland, fails to turn up. In his place is a young pastor turns up. He seems more dynamic and draws the crowd to the parish. The congregation at the Church grows phenomenally more significant as a miracle takes place on its premises. A wheelchair girl starts walking!

Slowly, people go missing. The last straw comes when an ultrasound-proven pregnancy goes missing. Meanwhile, there is a kind of caretaker lady of the Church who has a firm hold on running the house of worship. She indeed has planned for the Easter weekend, as the islanders stay vigil for Easter Sunday!

This miniseries, Midnight Mass, is a set-piece that discusses how faith can be contagious and fuel cruelty and violence. It justifies people's actions and inactions. The name of the Divine is invoked to absolve them of the moral culpabilities of their acts. A divine decree, however bitter, needs to be enforced. Organised religion seems to give a sense of superiority as if they have complete knowledge of the secrets of the Universe and a feeling of exclusivity, giving titles like heathens, pagans, kuffars and non-believers to others.

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Beyond doing the right things!

I'll meet you there (2021)
Story, Direction: Iram Parveen Bilal

The movie's title has its origin from one of Rumi's sayings. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. 

It sounds about right. It is easy for a third person to look at our every action and pass judgement, just as easy for us to judge others. There must be a justification for everyone's actions. He must have given a lot of thought before embarking on its execution. If the measures are just by their intentions, pure at heart and are sure to accept the consequences, who are we to pass comments?

This movie created a buzz on my antenna when it was reported to be banned in Pakistan. Its Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) found the film unsuitable for public exhibition as it did not reflect true Pakistani culture, portrayed a negative image of Muslims, and was against Pakistan's social and cultural values.

All the film did was depict brown people and Muslims in a non-stereotypical fashion, often not shown in Hollywood and Tinseltown. It narrates the tale of an American-Pakistani police officer, Majeed, in Chicago. He has a heavy cloud hanging over him. His wife, a Kathak dancer, had to give up her passion (and her life) due to pressures from her father in law. Now he leads a quiet life with his daughter, Dua, a college-going student. Like her mother, she is passionate about dancing, especially Kathak, a traditional Indian dance. Dua is nicely snuggled into the American way of carefree life until her grandfather, i.e. Majeed's father, arrives unannounced at their doorstep after 12 long years. 

That is when Dua and Majeed's lives hit stormy waters.

Dua's unrestricted American lifestyle is scorned upon. Her involvement in an unIslamic artform is criticised, and Dua is pushed to stick to tenets of the religion. Meanwhile, Majeed is compelled to investigate the local mosque for possible funding of terrorist activities. During an FBI raid in that Majeed acted as an informant, his father was apprehended.

In essence, the movie deals with how members of three generations keep religion in their daily lives. With the challenge of exposure to newer communities and the demand of different environments, the newer generation amalgamates religion into their lives as and how they feel appropriate. Pressures from the elders and to need to conform to society put them in a difficult place.

An entertaining watch.

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A cruel unabashed bashing.

Biriyani, Flavours of Flesh (Malayalam, 2021)

Story & Direction: Sajin Baabu

At the outset, it must be mentioned that this film is not for the faint-hearted or squirm at the sight of animal slaughter or of plain view of a surgical operating field. The scenes, however, are essential to driving home the message embedded behind the story. As the title suggests, the selling point of a biriyani dish is the flavour derived from the juices of the meat (flesh). Vegetarian biriyani is no biriyani at all. This kind of movie is not suitable for family viewing as some scenes are obviously of adult content.

Biriyani is quintessentially a Muslim dish popularised by the invading Muslim marauders. Some say it originated from Persia. The cooks found a novel way to feed a large army - slow cook meat, rice, vegetables and spices buried in the hot desert sands. 

In the 7th century, when Islam was revealed to Beduin herders, the religion boasted of features way ahead of its time. Putting an end to female infanticide, the liberation of slaves and empowerment of women were considered revolutionary. Somewhere along the way, the rest of the world thinks that they had lost the plot. What gave? Its practitioners tend to imagine that it is patriarchal and discriminatory against its female members and put them behind as second-class citizens. At least, this is the message that the movie seems to convey.

The flesh that the title alludes to is the flesh that Man cannot live without. It refers to the pleasures of the flesh that Man would die for. The piece of flesh that an adolescent boy loses reinforces his entry into the toxic male-dominated society. 

The story starts with Khateeja, who is stuck in a loveless marriage. She views herself just as a piece of vessel for her husband release of carnal desires. That is all. She holds no say in the extended family (her husband's family). Her mother-in-law hates her and already has plans for her son's re-marriage, even though they have an adolescent son.  

Khateeja is summoned to her mother's home to attend to her mother, who, according to the caretaker, is becoming increasingly difficult to handle. Khateeja's mother is down with depression after her fisherman husband went missing at sea and her son, who went to the Middle East, never contacted her. It is soon realised that Khateeja's brother is involved in Islamic militant activities and is hunted down by the police. Things become bad afterwards. The mother is ostracised, ousted from her home and is excommunicated from the local Muslim community for bringing shame to the fold. Khateeja's mother-in-law uses that opportunity to persuade her son to send Khateeja a triple talaq text message. With the hit of the 'send' button, Khateeja loses everything: her son, husband, belongings, and self-respect. Furthermore, she and her mother have to endure constant harassment and sexual advances from the police. 

Khateeja and her mother later end up finding a safe place in a madrasah in Tamil Nadu. Even though the place was divine-sanctioned and all, many unsavoury things were happening under everybody's nose. Asylum seekers were working part-time as call girls. She becomes friendly with a timid but kind imam. Long story short, Khateeja joins the flesh business, ends up pregnant, has a miscarriage, and for the last hurrah, she gets back at all the people that wronged her one way or another throughout her life in her own cruel and disgusting way.

Interspersed through the film are TV talk show snippets of politicians and social workers dissecting the problems plaguing the Muslim community in India and suggesting solutions to repair their image and probably fit back into India's plural society. For example, they pinpoint the lack of educational opportunities for girls and their early marriage as needing mending. Yet, they actually have the capacity and self-confidence to do things independently, as shown by many of the characters. It is just that the social mores expect them to play second fiddle to the preset hierarchical order.

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It is bullying!

The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009, Iranian)

Everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty. Not so, according to this controversial film which is an adaptation from a book (La Femme Lapidée) of a French journalist's experience as he, Freiduone Sahebjam, was travelling through Iran. He stopped in a small village at the edge of the country to be narrated of a recent stoning of an alleged adulterous villager, Soraya Monitchehri. The authenticity of the story was always disputed by the Iranian authorities. Still, by a twist of fate, the book's release coincided with the trial of another accused awaiting sentencing by stoning for adultery. About 190 persons were stoned to death in Iran in 2010.

The world kind of accepted the fact that the one who had sinned should cast the first stone, but apparently, the memo did not reach everyone in the world. Stone-throwing is still practised as a form of punishment in many traditional Muslim societies. 

Do not, for a moment, imagine that our modern society is immune to this type of harsh punishments to something which happens in the confines of the four walls within the ambit of personal choice. Snoop squats are freely available at the drop of a hat. Remember the number of volunteer orthopaedic surgeons who were willing to perform amputations if Kelantan expressed its wish to carry hudud law? All they need is a dog whistle.

Soraya, a mother of four, two boys and two girls, was trapped in an abusive marriage. Her husband, Ali, a jailer, had intentions of marrying a 14-year-old girl. He did not, however, wanted to pay child support or return the dowry money. He did not even provide for the day to day running of the household and did not want to utter talaq to free her misery. He concocted a tale of a clandestine affair with an old widower of a home where she worked as a helper to supplement her income. 

An ulama with a shady past, whose secret is known to Ali, influenced the local chieftain to begin sharia proceedings. Even though the husband was accusing his wife, the wife needed to prove her innocence rather than the accuser providing proof of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused is no longer innocent before proven guilty. Why? Because she is a female, and the fairer sex is easily confused, their evidence is suspect. In this patriarchal society, women have no rights.

Ali managed to arm-twist the widower and his son to admit to inappropriate conduct with Soraya. On top of that, the women in the village have no voice. They cannot stand as witnesses. It is herd mentality at its heights. He says, she says, hearsay and then everybody agrees. Even Soraya's father curses his daughter as a whore to cast the first stone.

The most excruciating part of the movie is the graphic 7-minute graphic depiction of the brutal stoning as the family members, one by one, even her sons, take turns to do their bit to ensure God Law on Earth. (I fast-forwarded the scene.)

Every law is manipulated to suit the convenience of the affluent, the rulers, the influenced, the elite and those at rubbing shoulders distance with the above. For the rest, the whole wheel of justice will roll not to mete justice but to guarantee that the law is upheld. That is it. 

With the adultress buried in the sand to her waist and her hands tied to her back, she is target 

practice for village folks. It becomes their battleground to showcase their piety to Almighty. 

It is an arena to display their assertation that God's Law is carried out on Earth. 

''She is drenched in blood and crumpled on the ground, mutilated face partially obscured by a mass of dark hair. Over an excruciating seven-and-a-half minute, she has been disowned by her family, buried to her waist in a hole at the centre of the village square and finally reduced to tattered rags of flesh by a baying mob hurling stones. Now, tentative, her husband bends to examine her face. The filmy eye blinks. He recoils. 'The bitch is still alive,' he shouts. There is a roar of fury and the crowd close in.''

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1320989/The-Stoning-Soraya-M-The-horrific-execution-scene-got-film-banned.html

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Affairs of heart are irrational

Sufiyum Sujathayum (Sufi and Sujatha, Malayalam; 2020)

It started with a slow but discernable sporadic increase in reported cases of Hindu girls eloping with Muslim boys. Then came in the honour killings. The media picked it up. Everyone else then came out with their experiences of so-and-so female members of their families ex-communicating from the rest in pursuit of true love. To these girls, it finally meant embracing a new religion, new name, erasing themselves of their past lives and age-old traditions.

People started calling this phenomenon as 'love jihad' - a supposed form of religious warfare by Muslim boys to entice Hindu girls into conversion through marriage. It was a numbers game. They allege that that was another modality to increase their representation in the community. In 2009, it garnered national attention with claims of widespread conversions in Kerala and Karnataka. There were also similar accusations by British Sikhs and minorities in Pakistan. Even though the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in India found common instigators in 'love jihad' cases, the police and the court dismissed them as pure fabrications with no substance. As there was a hypothesis that these brides were prepared to be made ISIS bride, it became a terror issue, hence, NIA came to the picture. 

Another point not mentioned in any of these arguments is the lack of young boys in many of the places where 'love jihad' takes place. There were no economic opportunities in these states and the young men had to go off to work in the Gulf States or Singapore. Young girls with raging hormones and Muslim boys, in the spring of youth, left behind to mind religious and theological duties were the best ingredients for a perfect storm. And suave hunks with Bollywood movie-star look as many of these Sufi practitioners have, as some are from the Middle East, sparks are bound to fly.

As these girls who are alleged victims of forced conversion were major in the legal sense and were intelligent and educated, the courts could not nullify such unions. Anyway, affairs of the heart are never logical and cannot be argued in a sensible manner. Blinded by romance, the world is a wonderful place and pigs can fly.

Even though movie pundits on the social media hailed it as another must-see movie of 2020, I seriously think one can give this one a miss. It tells the story of a vocally-challenged Hindu Karthak dancer whose only job seems to be to cycle around the village and play with children in the madrassah. In the small town where the only member of the male gender is an uncle or from the geriatric population, a tall bearded young man is a sight for sore eyes. She is fascinated with him and his way of life - his mystical dances and songs. She falls flat for him despite the arrangements made by her parents for her to be married to a groom working in Dubai.

Long story short, she is emotionally blackmailed by the parents to get married.

Ten years on, she returns to India with her husband, after the Sufi lover dies. The rest of the story is about her letting go of her boyfriend and coming in terms with her status as a wife and mother, leaving her juvenile puppy love behind.

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All you need is introspection, not love.

Material (South Africa, 2012)
Netflix

Now that there is much discussion on racism and plenty of accusations of one group of people showing superiority over the other based on the colour of their skin, the time is ripe to look at ourselves and ask, "who amongst us is not racist?" 

Generally, we would admit that we are all inherently racists. From our time as cavemen and hunters, we had always found comfort in those who looked like us and practise our way of life. Life was hard, food was scarce, and the weather was gruelling, to say the least. We had always been suspicious of other tribesmen. They could take away the food that we had kept for the winter or a rainy day.

Fast forward, many many generations later, we had been indoctrinated of a particular way of doing things. We have been taught that daily tasks must be done in a certain way. All these were thought by our elders to ensure law and order and to provide a place for all in the community. Pretty soon, we thought we were doing quite well. Maybe needing to have the assurance that we were doing the right thing, we started looking down at others and mocking. We laughed at the way they were doing something. We called them ignorant fools. When we were the majority, we impose our so-called superior culture upon them and abhor their language and way of life.

That is when racism started. It happened when we walked with our noses high up in the air with a chip on our shoulders. We expect the 'other' - the one who should serve, who deserves no respect, the one beneath us - to bow down to our beliefs. There is no reason for us to respect theirs because they are the lost ones.

The feeling is, unfortunately, mutual. The 'other' also thinks that the exact way that we do. 

Every now and then, in the course of day-to-day interaction, differences and frictions are bound to happen. With both parties holding their convictions close to their hearts, sparks are bound to fly. If only one could introspect or be mindful, clashes can be averted. We can meet halfway.

If you thought you have not heard of films coming from South Africans, think again. Who can forget the rib-tickling super blockbuster of 1980, 'The Gods must be crazy' about a Coke bottle and a Kalahari bushman.

This time around, this movie centres around an orthodox South African Indian Muslim family from Johannesburg.  The family is led by a domineering father who believes that he has a God-sent duty to protect his family from the evil charms of modernity. A crisis looms when his son, whom he placed all hopes to take over his cloth merchant business, takes up to performing stand-up comedy in places he considers sinful. At the same time, this hard-headed patriarchial figure has relationship issues with his close relatives. Unlike him, they had learnt to embrace the modernity of post-apartheid South Africa. 

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To relook, recreate and remind

Panipat, The Great Betrayal (Hindi; 2019)

Many post-colonial nations are eager to re-write their histories. Previously their colonial masters painted a story of their land as seen from their jaundiced eyes, in keeping with their narration as being the saviour and liberators. Now, after years of accepting the past history as the gospel truth, the natives have arisen from long slumbers. They want to re-write the baloney. There is an urgent need to re-look at our history books.

Indians complain that their history books are only filled with a dramatic depiction of impoverished India where the liberators from the West, rose to their occasion to illuminate wisdom and a sense of purpose. Their glorious pasts are conveniently whitewashed. It seems that even the narration about India's most prominent kingdoms like Vijayanagara, Paalavi and the Pandava Dynasties are conspicuously absent from the history textbooks.

Bollywood is trying to patch the gap conveniently blanked out of history. Of course, it is not going to be easy on all parties, as many have been mired in one kind of truth. To re-educate or re-wire their understanding of the original script may actually question their own existence. Loyalists, traitors, conspirators, villains and double-crossers may all be re-casted, depending on the scriptwriters.

Panipat, a site in modern-day Haryana, had witnessed three brutal wars. This film showcases the last of the Panipat Wars at the zenith of the once-great Maratha Empire which is famed by India's iconic hero, Shivaji Chhatrapati.

After defeating the Nizam of Hyderabad, Sadashiv Bhao Rao and cousins march towards Delhi to fight a Pashtun speaking chieftain, Najib-ad-Daulad of Rohilkhand who refuses to pay taxes and has form allegiance with the Afghan King, Ahmad Shah Abdali @ Ahmad Shah Durrani. Nawab of Oudh also supported Durrani.

It is not a showcase of the clash between the Muslims and the Hindus. The Maratha warrior had a Muslim warrior, Ibrahim Gardi, the artillery expert. In fact, the Maratha army had always had a regiment of mixed ethnicities and religiosities. The betrayal, as mentioned in the title, does not refer to Muslims acting as turncoats. The traitors here are the Rajputs and Jhats who decided to support the invaders due to high taxes.

King Ahmad Shah Abdali @ Durrani

The war is said to be the most brutal one with the dubious record of having the highest number of dead warriors in a single day. The Maratha's mistake was to bring in too many civilians. Their public relations with the local chieftains and strategical outlay was poor. Even though the Marathas lost the battle, its army was apparently praised by Durrani, in a message sent later, for the bravery and tenacity. King Durrani gave up his wish to conquer India after that.

This film is not without controversies. Effigy of the director and cinemas were torched to show peoples' displeasure. The Afghani embassy stated their objection for the depiction of the founder of Afghanistan like an Arab prince, with the crew's wardrobe choice and makeup (application of kohl).

Verdict: 3.5/5. The filmmakers have spent a lot of time to make the film believable. They have employed younger actors with the appropriate physique to pass off of warriors. Time and effort had been spent on war tactics and strategies. Though there can be room for improvement in the CGI department, the director managed to create the grandiosity of an army in full regalia and the aura of an ancient battlefield.

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