Book Review: Islam, Democracy and the West by Benazir Bhutto

The author has two aims to write this book: first, she wants an understanding whether the democrattic and autonomous institutions can grow in the Muslim world, and whether Islam and democracy are equally exclusive or not; second, she wants to analyse the existence of clash of ideals and values in different groups within Islam. The book is divided into six chapters. First chapter, the Path Back, starts with an emotional arrival of Benazir Bhutto at Quaid-i-Azam International Airport, Karachi, on October 18, 2007, after eight years exile. While putting her foot on the land of pure people-Pakistan-after a long time, tears started pouring from her eyes and she was unable to stop them. By lifting her hands in prayer, she thanked Allah Almighty in reverence. Her argument is that dictatorship breeds extremism. Bhutto is of the view that war against international terrorism coincided with the suspension of democracy in Pakistan. She points out that Islamic democracy consits of notion of consultation. Similarly, in the Western democracy consultation is the main essential in any political system. There is no any kind of negation of democracy in Islam. Thus, Islamic and Western democratic systems are compatible. In the second chapter, the Battle within Islam: Democracy versus Dictatorship, moderation versus Extremism, Bhutto emphasises that Islam is a universal religion. According to her, majority of Muslims in the world embrace a forbearing and loving raligion. However, today this religion has been misinterpreted and misrepresented by the extremists. After that, she throws light on Jihad and its kinds with the help of Quranic injuctions. She tells that Jihad is not among five pillars of Islam (except in Khariji theory). She quotes, “Jihad is a collective obligation of the whole Muslim community (fard kifaya).” According to Bhutto, imposition of the obligation duty on the community rather than on individual is very significant and involves at least two important implications. In the first place, it means that the duty need not necessarily be fulfiled by all the believers. In the second place, the imposition of the obligation on the community rahter than on the individual made possible the employment of Jihad as a community and, consequently, a state instrument. Third chapter, Islam and Democracy: History and Practice, deals with democratic norms and values in Islamic context. She justifies her stand by qouting the Quranic injunction that suicide bombing is by no means acceptable in Islam and in the eyes of God. Bhutto argues that along with preaching tolerance of other religions, the Quran also acknowledges that salvation can be achieved in all monotheistic religions. Through out in the book, she elucidates things both from Quran and her experiences from Pakistan. The author feels pity that with the passage of time, many Muslim societies have turned intolerant while the Western nations have become more accommodating and tolerant. However, Islam itself is a religion of tolerance and pluralism. She also discuses about sects, women rights and dress code revealed by Islam. She explores that the equality of women does not only apply in terms of political and cocial rights but also in religious terms. She is against the idea that Muslim society should be ruled in the way Medina was governed in the first century of Hijri. Indeed the author wants to convey that democracy is the heart of Islam and dictatorship is contrary to it. Thus, Islam and democracy are not contrary to eachother. She has proposed a model for the Countries of the Third World. In the fourth chapter, The case of Pakistan, she thinks that the real picture of Islam has been distorted and exploited by the extremists. The author traces back the roots of international terrorism, and how America had been supporting Pakistani General Zia-ul-Haq. She further points out that Zia-ul-Haq was the man who deteriorated the political system in the country. He done away with an independent judiciary and suspended human rights. It was during this period that Pakistani ISI got involved in supporting Afghan Mujahideen. According to the author, all the Muslims across the globe are at the crosroads between past and future, between education and ignorance, between peace and terrorism, and between democracy and dictatorship. In the fifth chapter, Is the clash of civilization inevitable?, Bhutto takes into account Samuel P. Huntington and other propagators of the Clash of Civilizations for their stance that the confrontation between the West and militant Islam, after the cold war, was inevitable. She criticizes them and argues that this clash was resolved. However, she wants these clashes and conflicts to be resolved through the Islamic world itself. Moreover, she has spelled out by quoting few examples that clash of civilizations do not exist between Islam and West, rather it is within Islam itself: modernism vs. regression, reformist vs. traditionalist, freedom and education vs. oppression and ignorance. Bhutto is ambitious and aspired to resolve the crises within the Muslim world and the problems between the Muslim world and the West. For this, she proposes that the potential solutions to these crises lie in tracing their root causes. The author portrays a reflection of modern Islam that confronts the harmful caricatures often perceived in the West. She has explained how West had been engaged in the countries of Middle East. As a result, corruption and dictatorship dominated the whole region. The last chapter, Reconciliation, deals with the internal clash within Islam. She talks about sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shias and the failures of the leaders of the Muslim countries to face down the misrepresentation of Osama Bin Laden. Bhutto argues that it is the al-Qaeda which has distorted the image of Islam. Moreover, she emphasizes to have a reformist, pluralistic and modern Islamic society. Then she presents the examination of various countries like Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Mali, Kazakhstan and India. She goes across the most contentious and hot debates both within the Muslim world itself and its relationship with West. On the whole, I found, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West by Benazir, Bhutto a worthwhile and informative Book. Bhutto is correct in her over all thesis that dictatorship and western interference in Muslim countries have retarded the development of democratic norms and values. This has helped in generating the Islamic extremist threat to Islam itself and the West. Bhutto’s analysis of democratic growth across the Muslim world and the history of interference in of the West in Muslim affairs is very good. She provides firsthand account of Pakistan’s democratic political development, and the forces that have worked for and against democracy there. She is also clear about the goals of Islamic extremists, militants and fanatics and their supporters within the Pakistan military intelligence services. The good thing about the book is that she has discussed beautifully how the democracy can be created in the Islamic world. According to the author, economic development can be made by investing income of major oil producing countries. The book ends with a recommendation for a better-off world as she foresees a Marshall Plan for the Muslim World which could be applied to the poor Muslim nations

Consumer resistance to innovation among public universities' students in Pakistan

Implementations of technological innovations have been playing key roles for firms to grow and survive in the long run particularly in a dynamic and complex market and unstable economic conditions. The success of any innovation in the market which highly depends on consumers could be one of the potential factors behind the failure of the innovation. Research on innovation resistance is still in infancy and effort to describe the resistance as well as understanding the consumers’ resistance to innovation still require in-depth investigations including the context of resistance to innovation. As a response to this problem, this study examines the consumers’ resistance to innovation through measuring the resistance to smartphones. This study is grounded by the resistance to innovation and appraisal theories. In the research framework, this study includes consumers’ characteristics (motivation, self-efficacy, emotion (negative), and attitude towards existing product) and innovation characteristics (relative advantage, perceived risk, complexity, social influence, and price). A cross sectional, survey data was gathered from 307 university students of four public universities in Pakistan via self-administered survey questionnaires. They were statistically tested using PLS (SEM) path modeling. The results demonstrate the concept of consumers’ resistance to innovation in the context of Pakistan. The results also reveal that majority of the main consumers’ and innovation characteristics (complexity, emotion (negative), motivation, price, self-efficacy, social influence, and consumers’ innovativeness (moderator) have significant influence on consumers’ resistance to smartphone. However, three consumers’ and innovation characteristics (relative advantage, perceived risk, and attitude towards existing product) are insignificant with consumers’ resistance to innovation. The significant factors are good predictors of consumers’ resistance to innovation. Based on the findings of the study, the theoretical and practical contributions are described. The limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for future studies are also deliberately addressed

Social influence and price, influence on consumer resistance to innovation

The basic purpose of this study is to investigate the consumer buying behavior.In this study smartphone used as innovation.In the technological advancement smartphone is best communication tool and playing significant role in the society. In this study researcher identified some factor that influence the consumer buying behavior and consumer always buy new product through focusing all these factors.Data were collected from 250 respondents through self administered questionnaires and SmartPLS 2.0 M3 was used to analyze the data

Psychiatric Co-morbidity in Medical and Surgical In-patients, Referred for Psychiatric Consultation

Background: To assess by Liaison Psychiatry the pattern of psychiatric co-morbidity in referred medical and surgical in-patients in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This was a descriptive study, conducted at Department of Psychiatry, out-patient services in Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi. One hundred consecutive hospitalized patients referred to Department of Psychiatry from Medical and Surgical Units of Fauji Foundation Hospital were enrolled in the study during a period of seven months. A semi structured proforma was used for collection of demographic data and detailed information regarding reasons of psychiatric referral along with current medical and surgical complaints. Results: Mean age of the sample was 39.9 years, 77% of the patients were female and majority of the patients, 62% were married. All the patients belonged to either poor class (61%) or lower middle class (39%). Professional categories showed house wives (54%) comprising the major group and 25% were students. Majority of the patients, 56% were referred from medical departments and the main reason for referral was medically unexplained physical symptoms (36%) of one hundred consultations. General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) screened 89% of cases with psychiatric co-morbidity as compared to 11% non cases without psychiatric symptomatology. Majority (51%) of the patients had diagnosis of depressive episode, mild moderate or severe and 19% of the patients had dissociative (conversion) disorder as the second commonest diagnosis. Conclusions: There is generally a low referral rate despite significant psychiatric morbidity among medical and surgical in-patients. Further studies should be conducted in the field of liaison psychiatry to address other variables such as length of hospital stay, use of laboratory investigations and pattern of prescription medicines

Renal arteriovenous malformation: An unusual cause of recurrent haematuria

A 54-year-old woman presented with gross painless haematuria. Initial workup showed no abnormality except mild hydronephrosis on CT scan. Cystoscopy and retrograde pyelography did not find any gross lesion and her urine cytology was also negative. She had recurrent haematuria so her CT was reviewed with the radiologist with clinical suspicion of arteriovenous malformation (AVM) which was suggested by relatively increased contrast density in the hemiazygous vein and renal vein in the arterial phase. She underwent angioembiolisation of left renal AVM after which her haematuria settled

Surgical management of pheochromocytoma in a 13-week pregnant woman

A 34-year-old 13-week pregnant woman presented with hypertension refractory to medical therapy and on workup was found to have a right adrenal mass. Due to her persistent increased blood pressure she was advised urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and its level was raised. MRI of the abdomen showed a well-circumcised lesion in the right adrenal of 3.0×2.5 cm suggestive of pheochromocytoma. The patient was started on antihypertensives including α-blockers and β-blockers and planned for right open adrenalectomy. Intraoperatively, blood pressure was raised up to 180/110 mm Hg on slight manipulation of adrenal gland which was controlled with glyceryl-trinitrate and volatile agents. Postoperatively urinary VMA decreased to normal range and all antihypertensives were gradually stopped. She had uneventful pregnancy and delivered vaginally. This case report highlights the importance of surgical management of pheochromocytoma in second trimester of pregnancy to avoid catastrophic complications later in pregnancy

Existe qualquer lugar ideal para mulheres trabalhadores? mulheres e teto de vidro: uma visão multi-cultural

The restrictions that keep women from climbing the corporate ladder are the main theme of this research paper. Glass ceiling is identified and highlighted as an important and global issue not only by different women around the world but also from the different researchers and scholars and may have very negative impact on business and societies. This research focuses the glass ceiling which may restrict women especially from the top positions. This research paper will try to reflect multicultural view of glass ceiling and scale of its existence in different regions of the globe. The nature of this paper is empirical whereas in order to perform multicultural empirical analysis we selected three companies from different parts of the world, and studied their cases. With the help of carefully designed questionnaire the company officials are contacted, and their responses are analyzed in the light available literature and theoretical perspectives. On the basis of careful analysis conclusion has been drawn which lead to valuable suggestions which are presented at the end. The underlying suggestions would help to cope with the issue in better way.Las restricciones que evitan que las mujeres suban en la escala corporativa son el tema principal de este trabajo de investigación. El techo de cristal se identifica y destaca como un problema importante y global, no solo por diferentes mujeres de todo el mundo, sino también por parte de los diferentes investigadores y académicos, y puede tener un impacto muy negativo en los negocios y las sociedades. Esta investigación enfoca el techo de cristal que puede restringir a las mujeres, especialmente desde las primeras posiciones. Este trabajo de investigación tratará de reflejar la visión multicultural del techo de cristal y la escala de su existencia en diferentes regiones del mundo. La naturaleza de este documento es empírica, mientras que para realizar un análisis empírico multicultural, seleccionamos tres empresas de diferentes partes del mundo y estudiamos sus casos. Con la ayuda de un cuestionario cuidadosamente diseñado, se contactó a los funcionarios de la compañía, y sus respuestas se analizaron en la literatura disponible y las perspectivas teóricas disponibles. Sobre la base de un análisis cuidadoso, se ha sacado una conclusión que lleva a sugerencias valiosas que se presentan al final. Las sugerencias subyacentes ayudarían a enfrentar el problema de una mejor manera.As restrições que impedem as mulheres de subir na escada corporativa são o tema principal deste trabalho de pesquisa. O teto de vidro é identificado e destacado como uma questão importante e global, não só por diferentes mulheres em todo o mundo, mas também por diferentes pesquisadores e acadêmicos, e pode ter um impacto muito negativo sobre os negócios e as sociedades. Esta pesquisa enfoca o teto de vidro que pode restringir as mulheres, especialmente a partir das posições de topo. Este trabalho de pesquisa tentará refletir a visão multicultural do teto de vidro e escala de sua existência em diferentes regiões do globo. A natureza deste artigo é empírica, ao passo que, para realizar análises empíricas multiculturais, selecionamos três empresas de diferentes partes do mundo e estudamos seus casos. Com a ajuda de um questionário cuidadosamente elaborado, os funcionários da empresa são contatados, e suas respostas são analisadas sob a luz da literatura disponível e perspectivas teóricas. Com base numa análise cuidadosa, foi tirada uma conclusão que leva a sugestões valiosas que são apresentadas no final. As sugestões subjacentes ajudariam a lidar com a questão de uma maneira melhor

Late Marriages and Moral Conduct: Ethnography of Males of District Khanewal

Delayed marriage is particularly an ingrained socio-cultural trend among the masses, which is widely prevalent in the Middle East, West Asia, United States and North Africa. The escalating concern about the prevention of health issues, challenged physical condition and psychological disorders among the offspring have led majority of the couples to seek counselling, considering it an imperative aspect of their marital relationship. Despite its advantage, such an approach has caused social confusion and disorder in the society too resulting in delayed marriages. In this regard, the delayed marriage is an interesting anthro-biological problem widespread among the people of Khanewal city. In the face of such challenged physiological functioning of the individuals and the unreliableexisting multi-layered treatment mechanism; masses customarilyobserve and practice this phenomenon

Intellectual capital and its major components

The purpose of this paper is to examine a number of major theoretical and empirical contributions in the field if intellectual capital with an attempt to identify the major components of intellectual capital.Today the concept of intellectual capital is increasingly recognized as one of the most important strategic assets of organizations in knowledge-based economy.In knowledge-based economy, modern and high tech enterprises not only focus on innovation of new products, services, and marketing, research and development activities but also pay particular attention to the development and management of organization intellectual capital