Mr Athar Rizvi, a writer from Toronto (Canada), was lately in the city to launch his book "Ubas Badnam Hua" at the Arts Council.

The person who introduced the author at the function said when he first met Mr Rizvi he misjudged the latter's ethnicity. He mistook Mr Rizvi for an 'English lord' because of his plump and pinkish face."Ubas Badnam Hua," a back-bencher was heard saying.

Dr Manzoor Ahmad and Mahmood Sham were the main speakers of the evening, but the longest speech came from the author himself. Mr Rizvi spoke at length on the rise of terrorism and criticized those who held that the Muslims were responsible for bomb blasts and other acts of terror.

Islam, he said, was being unjustly maligned by the West, though as a religion which stands for peace and the brotherhood of man it had contributed richly to the development of civilization.

Of considerable interest to the audience was a little argument that developed between the author and Mr Mahmood Sham who commented that the range of the subjects and themes the book covered was much too wide for easy comprehension.

The author of course disagreed. In his speech he further broadened the scope of the discourse. He traced the present plight of the Muslims back to the time when they abandoned science and rational thought and came to embrace obscurantism, dogmatism and fatalism. It was thus that matters concerning the material world came to be the sole responsibility of Europe. Having abdicated all responsibility for matters temporal, the Muslims should not now blame others for their misfortunes.

Dr Manzoor Ahmad said that using the weapon of terrorism was wholly counter-productive and would not help Muslims overcome the problems they faced; Muslims needed mass education, scientific research, democratization of society and peaceful social and economic development.

Here Dr Manzoor Ahmad drew attention to a significant point. He referred to the Muslims' "proud claim" that they had made glorious contribution to progress by translating Greek and Latin works into Arabic and they were instrumental in promoting the revival of learning in Europe which, in turn, led to the scientific and industrial revolution.

This, he felt, was true only to the extent that the Muslims were honest 'transmitters'. Dr Manzoor Ahmad added that inventions were made by others. He also referred to the Central Asian States which made a great deal of progress in the areas of education, scientific studies, social sciences, industrial output and economic prosperity when they were under Russian rule.

The situation of the former Russian controller states of central Asia, he suggested, should be compared with that of the Muslim states in the vicinity where poverty and ignorance prevailed.

Now a few words about Mr Ather Rizvi. Settled for long in Toronto, he is a poet, founder of his Ghalib Academy and promoter of Mushairas and seminars. Apart from his passion for Urdu, he writes books on current affairs relating to the Muslims.