To the Men in Green - with Love.

I made the mistake of posting a couple of Facebook statuses about the match and people went into a tirade about the failures of the team. It felt like it wasn't 11 men playing a sport but our soldiers going into war with India. Give me a freakin' break, guys.

I've often mentioned on my blog how Pakistanis get all worked up when it comes to religion - well, there's one more thing that makes them that emotional - cricket. Cricket is religion in Pakistan. Cricket is also what brings all Pakistanis together. Support for a certain player has nothing to do with what part of the country he's from, but how well he plays his sport. I started waiting for 2011 years ago because that was the year we were going to host the World Cup.

So yes, 180 million hearts were broken when we were denied hosting rights, when two of our top bowlers were banned, when we lost the semi-final. Yes, it would have been easy to console ourselves had our team played like it was actually playing a big game, just the way it had performed all through the tournament. The heartache could've been a little more bearable had we seen our team strategize, field better, not given Umar Gul those overs, taken the powerplay earlier. But in retrospect, there's more reasons to celebrate than to be sad about. It's true I didn't watch the group matches because I wasn't expecting much from this team. But look where we got? We ended Australia's unbeaten run to reach the semis. The young team played some great cricket. Afridi became the highest wicket taker of the tournament. It was after a long time we saw Pakistan playing positive - there was no politics and the team was united under one captain. The stark reality is that lady luck was smiling upon Tendulkar that day and ignoring poor Gul. The stark reality also is that the match gave us many sleepless nights and got us excited and gave us something to look forward to. It is heartening to see that people are praising the team even after the loss. This shows that we are not that fickle after all. This shows our love for this game and our patriotism for this country. This shows we are one nation, after all.

Like I've said before, Afridi need not apologize. We love this team and we are so proud.

Green for life.

The Vitruvian Pathan by Komail Naqvi

Lets burn some tires now.

Religion drives Pakistanis. Pakistan was created because Muslims in British India needed their own country. A place they could call home. Since then, religion is what gets us off the couches and brings us on the streets. It is what makes us really really mad. And what do we do? Burn tires and block traffic and break traffic lights. When that cartoonist in Denmark made caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, we did that. Now when the Governor of Punjab is gunned down by his security guard, we are doing the same.

Don't get me wrong; I was no fan of the man or his politics. But I do give him credit for being an advocate of the rights of minorities and women in Pakistan. On Dec. 24, he had twittered: 

"My observation on minorities: A man/nation is judged by how they support those weaker than them not how they lean on those stronger." 

Taseer's apparent killer cited his boss's stance against a controversial anti-blasphemy law in justifying his actions. As the embattled, pro-U.S. PPP sought in recent days to win back defecting allies that also include a small Islamic party, it had already said it would not support a proposal to change the blasphemy statutes. That left Taseer one of the few vocal champions of the move, which hard-line religious organizations had labeled a Western conspiracy.

For a nation who gets emotional over religion, Taseer's recent outspoken moves cost him his life. His death, to say the least, is ironic - for he spoke against the kind of people who took his life. For the people who are calling his killer a hero, murder is not the answer. Taking someone's life can never be justified.  For the extremists who abuse blasphemy laws, the example to follow is the Prophet himself who practiced great tolerance and forgiveness. For the voices against corrupt politicians, the solution is to fix Pakistan's broken justice system, that lacks expertise, rewards vendettas, and encourages radicalism.

  

"On account of that incident, We ordained for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a person, except as a punishment for murder or mischief in the land, it will be written in his book of deeds as if he had killed all the human beings on the surface of the Earth and whoever will save a life shall be regarded as if he gave life to all the human beings on the surface of the Earth." (Quran 5:32)