Saleena Karim
is from Nottingham, England. She is a freelance writer, researcher,
editor, and artist. She is the founder of the Jinnah Archive and
a co-founder and admin of the Visionary
Fiction Alliance. She has authored two books on Pakistan's founding
history. The critically
acclaimed Secular Jinnah (2005) recounted her discovery
that a famous quote attributed to MA Jinnah, founding father of
Pakistan, and which is frequently cited by academics as supporting
evidence of his political ideology, was in fact fabricated. Her
second book, Secular Jinnah & Pakistan (2010) is a detailed
treatise on Jinnah's political life as well as the ongoing debate
over the historical significance of the Pakistan movement, containing
independent research and utilising primary sources.
Systems (2012) is Karim's first work of fiction.
The 'Cohesive Ethics Theorem' featured in the novel, which is used
to create a model for an ideal society on a supercomputer, is a
factual concept. It reflects the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal's
statement that an ideal society actively aspires to transform the
three ideals of 'equality, solidarity and freedom
into
space-time forces
to realise them in a definite human organisation'.
Despite having no direct link with Karim's non-fiction,
the core story is also loosely inspired by the original intentions
of Pakistan's early leaders to try new social systems in line with
the philosophy of Iqbal, the 'spiritual father' of Pakistan. In
July 2012 Systems became part of a series of education courses
on Iqbal, at the Marghdeen
Learning Centre (an associative body of Iqbal Academy, Pakistan).
Aside from writing books, Karim has worked as a webmaster,
a translator and as an editor. She has translated a number of Urdu
works into English, and she has also been a co-writer for a UK television
show (Deliver!). She has composed soundtracks and themes
for the independent TV/film production company, Deliverance Films
(Deliver! and Curse of the Bands). She has also edited
and published titles for OurBeacon Books. Her own publishing imprint,
Libredux Publishing, has published 2017: The Battle for Marghdeen
(14 August 2012), by historian and thinker Khurram Ali Shafique.
Karim can be contacted via her blog: libredux.com/blog
or her non-fiction website: secularjinnah.co.uk
or at the VFA: visionaryfictionalliance.wordpress.com
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