عصر حاضر میں مسلم معاشروں کو درپیش نظریہ الحاد کا فکری چیلنج اور اسلامی تناظر میں اس کا حل

Ideological Challenges of Atheism to the Muslim Societies and their Solutions from Islamic Perspective It’s a matter of fact that Muslim Societies are facing many socio-political and religious challenges within contemporary dominant waves of thought. One of the serious challenges being faced by the Muslim in the current scenario is Atheism. Although in past era, the Atheism couldn’t become influential with general acceptance of commoners but recently, the ideology of Atheism is spreading fast with statistically reported impact on all religions and civilizations. Atheism is a lack of belief in God, gods or any supernatural being along with the rejection of belief that any deities exist. The philosophy of atheism is nothing new, but it has changed its manifestations over a period. This is obvious that Atheism has now become a serious challenge ideologically and morally for Muslim societies. We are living in a fast-changing society, where preservation of Islamic belief is a challenging task particularly for the new young generation and modern educated lot. Atheists use every possible and available mean and tool for preaching their thoughts and beliefs i.e. Print media, electronic media and above all social media. In this context, this study will explore the questions that; what are the effects of Atheism in Muslim Societies and what is its solution in Islamic perspective? Analytical research methodology will be used in this study. This study perceives that the public and private sector universities are the soft target of Atheism. There is suggested legal, ethical & ideological mechanisms to protect Muslim Societies from threat of Atheism.

Improvement in Drought Tolerance and Biomass of Transgenic Wheat Ectopically Expressing E. Coli Glutamate Dehydrogenase Gdha Gene

Drought stress is the major limiting environmental factor in wheat yield. It is thought to be the most crucial factor that hinders crop productivity and poses problems to meet the increasing food demands. So, need is to develop drought tolerant and high yielding varieties to feed the ever increasing population. Wheat is highly calcitrant and poor responsive to tissue culture like other cereal crops. Recent study was conducted with the aims to establish an efficient regeneration protocol for development of transgenic wheat with improved drought tolerance and increased biomass. gdhA is a multifunctional gene reported to improve nitrogen and carbon metabolism, drought and herbicide tolerance and biomass. Regeneration protocol for wheat commercial cultivar Faisalabad-2008 was optimized using different combinations of 2,4-D, carbon source and age of calli. Better regeneratuion response was observed in 3 weeks old calli using 2 mg/L 2,4-D and maltose as carbon source. gdhA of E. coli was transformed using Agrobacterium mediated transformation method. Drought tolerance of putative transgenics calli was evaluated in vitro using different levels of PEG6000. Molecular analysis for presence and expression of transgene was performed. Transgenics alongwith control plants were subjected to different levels of drought stress. Transgenic plants showed 6.2, 13 and 10.1% more RWC and 5.6, 13.4 and 15.4% less saturation water deficit than control plants at moderate, medium, and high level of drought stress respectively. gdhA transgenic plants also showed 10.8% more excised leaf water retention and quick recovery from drought than non-transgenic controls. About 52.2 and 29.73% and 16.47 % more chlorophyll a, b and X+C contents were estimated in transgenic plants than controls. Effect of different levels of drought stress on plant pigments was also measured. Non-transgenic control plants showed 5.71, 20.39 and 15.89% more decrease in chlorophyll A and B contents at medium, mild and high level of drought stress. In control plants 44.74 and 67.39 % more increase in X+C contents in comparison to transgenics at low and medium level of drought stress while 70.98 % decrease was estimated at high level of drought stress. Regarding biomass related parameters were studied. Transgenic plants showed 10, 8.39, 9.69 and 8.02 % increase in number of fertile tillers, spikelets/spike, grains/spike and 1000 grain weight respectively than non-transgenic control plants. The ectopic expression of gdhA gene in transgenic plants resulted in improved drought tolerance and biomass.