Consistent battle for information has unravelled several intriguing truth in the past five years when the RTI Act was passed. The young RTI ‘Maverick’ Afroz Alam Sahil, who has to his credit the post-mortem report of the deceased in the Batla House Encounter, has got another piece of information which is both surprising and reveals the sorry state of affairs of the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC).
Afroz had filed a petition under RTI Act 2005 to enquire about the ‘Fact Finding’ team that was supposedly constituted to ‘assess and analyse facts of the Police action’ inside Flat No L-18 of the Batla House, where the encounter took place. Many locals and human rights activists have questioned the Police version and believe that the encounter was ‘fake’. The reply that Afroz has got says that no fact finding team ever visited the site or talked to locals and never submitted any report. On the question of who comprised of the ‘fact finding’ team it further gives references tosection 8 (b & h) of the RTI Act, which allows the authority to withhold information if prohibited by a tribunal or court; or the reply may endanger the life of the person(s) concerned, respectively.
Interestingly Afroz has a copy of the document which has names of all the members of the said team. Says Afroz, “The report that I had got from the NHRC has a page which says that a fact Finding team would analyse facts and atmosphere, but the subsequent report was missing”. This prompted him to file a separate RTI, but it seems the endeavour has gone waste.
After repeated denial by the Delhi Police and AIIMS, Afroz had filed a RTI with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) requesting them to supply information based on which the NHRC has formulated its report and concluded that the encounter was not fake, as largely believed. The copy of documents that he had received comprised of reports submitted by the Additional Commissioner of Police (Vigilance), Special Commissioner of Police (Vigilance), Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Deputy Commissioner of police (Vigilance), Joint Commissioner of Police and Deputy Secretary (Home) of the NCT of Delhi. It also had copies of the post-mortem reports of alleged terrorists and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
The same report has the copy of a letter that talks about the said ‘Fact Finding Committee’ and their objective. But it contains no report. According to this document, the team comprised of four members – Maqsood Ahmed, Dr D. K. Panday, Dr Mahender Singh and Rev. Manoj Malaki. The document dated 5 November, 2008 is signed by then Secretary of DMC Sanjay Pratap Singh. When asked if such a team was actually constituted, Kamal Faruqui, who was the Chairman of the DMC at the time refused to comment.
A member of the supposed Committee, on the assurance of anonymity, told this reporter that the “DMC never seemed serious and that we were never provided any resources. Further the Committee was soon dissolved”.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Summer School: Muslims in the West
Mohammad Reyaz, a final year journalism student from Jamia Millia Islamia, is among fifteen students selected from across the world to attend an International Summer School on “Muslims in the West” being organized at Erfurt University, Germany.
Reyaz, a student of final year MA Convergent Journalism course at Anwar Jamal Kidwai-Mass Communication Research Centre, has been selected to participate in the workshop being organized by the Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany from 14 to 29 August 2010.
Mohammad Reyaz would be one of the fifteen young scholars from different countries to participate in this cultural exchange. Mr Reyaz, currently a student of convergent journalism at MCRC has also done his BA (Hons.) in English from Jamia, said JMI media coordinator.
The Summer School will be chaired by Prof. Jamal Malik, Chair of Islamic Studies, University of Erfurt. The University of Erfurt has been engaged in debates on areas of current relevance such as “Islam and the West”. The two week workshop to be held in August on “Muslims in the West” will address contemporary debates related to the subject and the programme will be spread across four different sessions.
Besides the creation and consolidation of a permanent basis for a dialogue, the goal of the workshop is to provide the possibility to directly experience the pluralistic structure of Islam in the European context, not just between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also among Muslims themselves.
The educational component of the Summer School will also be accompanied by a rich cultural programme and excursions to Weimar and Berlin.
Reyaz, a student of final year MA Convergent Journalism course at Anwar Jamal Kidwai-Mass Communication Research Centre, has been selected to participate in the workshop being organized by the Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany from 14 to 29 August 2010.
Mohammad Reyaz would be one of the fifteen young scholars from different countries to participate in this cultural exchange. Mr Reyaz, currently a student of convergent journalism at MCRC has also done his BA (Hons.) in English from Jamia, said JMI media coordinator.
The Summer School will be chaired by Prof. Jamal Malik, Chair of Islamic Studies, University of Erfurt. The University of Erfurt has been engaged in debates on areas of current relevance such as “Islam and the West”. The two week workshop to be held in August on “Muslims in the West” will address contemporary debates related to the subject and the programme will be spread across four different sessions.
Besides the creation and consolidation of a permanent basis for a dialogue, the goal of the workshop is to provide the possibility to directly experience the pluralistic structure of Islam in the European context, not just between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also among Muslims themselves.
The educational component of the Summer School will also be accompanied by a rich cultural programme and excursions to Weimar and Berlin.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
'Stone' Kasab
Tomorrow is the Judgment day for the lone alive 26/11 accused Ajmal Kasab. He might be thinking of the Qamayat- the Final judgment day. What was simple act of terrorism for all Indians and the world at large, for him and his mentors sitting across the border (perhaps also for some in the country) it was an act of martyrdom- Jihad as they call it.
But since his acts were motivated by his interpretation of Islam, he should be punished in the classic way as preached in Islam. It is wrong for the media or citizens to influence the Judgment, I would like to advice Judge M L Tahaliyani to order to 'stone him to death' by general public, especially by the relatives of those killed in the terror attacks.
I wish and pray that good sense and Islam prevails in this case, and the court is willing to deviate from the Constitution to follow classic Islamic method of prosecution.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
RTI Crusader reluctant to provide information
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself” (Leo Tolstoy).
This appears to be the story of Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), the organisation that claims to work for ‘just, transparent, accountable and participatory governance’. Afroz Alam Sahil, an RTI activist had filed an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 seeking information from the PCRF relating to funding and other details of the RTI Awards 2009, organised by PCRF.
Magsaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal, the moving force behind the organisation, had said in the media that PCRF does not come under RTI purview, but he would still furnish information for transparency. However, the one month period within which an authority needs to reply has long passed. An aggrieved Afroz has accordingly filed the first application after waiting for few extra days. In the application, a copy of which is available with this reporter, the appellant has explained, that although not for profit organisations like PCRF does not come under RTI, but as torchbearer of the information revolution, they should come clear on their accounts too.
“I have nothing personal either against PCRF, Arvind Kejriwal, or Parivartan (the NGO that he runs). In fact I have great respect for him... But I have made a list of prominent organisations and activists, including Aruna Roy, that work for RTI revolution across country and have filed applications to them all to set examples to government authorities,” said Afroz.
National RTI Awards 2009, the first of its kind, was in controversy right from the day it was announced. Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah had called it “shamelessly demeaning” and said that information commissioners would not accept awards as they “are not school children” (IE-Nov 20).
Several activists have also accused Arvind Kejriwal of handpicking nominees and in many cases awarding incompetent persons. It is like an ‘eyewash...deliberately promoting some at the cost of others’.
Interestingly the website of the PCRF has copies of audit returns filed for the past two financial years, but it has no details of funds that it receives. It however, does mention that in partnership with other activists, that include former Journalist Manish Sisodia and TV producer and writer Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal started the foundation with the with the Magsaysay award money as ‘corpus fund’.
Friday, February 12, 2010
The question of 'Identity'¿
“I have grown certain that the root of all fear is that we’ve been forced to deny who we are”.
Frances Moore Lappe, the American activist, could not give a more succinct explanation on the question of ‘identity’. An extension to the aforesaid observation though could be ‘or to accept what others are’. “Muslims in the West” or anywhere (including my country-India) also have the same symptoms. So while they are in a state of ‘seige’ and see conspiracy of Judeo-Chrisitan in everything - good or bad, non-Muslims have developed an Islamophobia. They see a threat coming to their culture and civilisation. What Huntington called ‘The Clash of Civilisations’¿
9/11 changed the way the world sees Muslims. The good Mujahedeens of the latter Cold War era were now part of the ‘global jihadi’ militant networks. The changed perception was not restricted to fighters (good or bad¿), but also reached the Muslims on the streets. Muslims too are in many ways responsible for the changed behaviour, for most of them had suddenly become ‘hypersensitive’ about their religion, roots, culture and kinship.
The West today is at a strange juncture, fuelled by labour imports from former colonies and other developing nations, as also refugees from war torn countries, a sizeable number of their population are not ‘Western’, i.e. they are from a different civilisation altogether – from religion to culture to food and dress habits, and often language are all different. Any diaspora tries its best to retain its identity, but the withholding is more with Muslims and has even accelerated in last two decades more so because of ‘global Islamization’, but also owing to ‘perceived’ attacks on their religion or culture.
Thus as the West intends to integrate all its citizens, Muslims are exerting themselves more vehemently in their appearance (veil or beard). The West also has its share of blame – the proposed ban of minarets in Switzerland or of veil in France are recent examples. In fact the cases of ‘honour killing’ of girls who want to marry a non-Muslim boy have also been reported in the last couple of years.
Am I a Muslim first or an Indian first? Often Muslims in India are asked this question. And the most liberal answer that one can give is – ‘I am an Indian Muslim’. In villages and towns, on the surface India seems, to be one nation. But scratch a bit and there are several identities that one is vying for -regional, religious, linguistic, ideological conflict is quite apparent.
Although I am proud to be born in a vibrant secular democratic country, India has its own share of problems, reasons for which are often quite indigenous. So while Muslims in India were virtually immune from global anti-communist struggle during the Cold War, local incidents (demolition of mosque, frequent riots, etc.) have led to radicalisation of a section of Muslims. Of course 9/11 also brought its share of problems to India.
As a person born with several identities, my unvarying endeavour has been that of reconciliation – escaping sometimes, but often trying to integrate one with another.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
50 Recreation Centres for Senior citizens in Delhi
Delhi Government funds 50 recreation centres for senior citizens and are planning to start 50 more. We tried to find out the condition of those centers and if there is need to open more such center. Moreover, isn't recreation a luxury when a large section of poor old people do not even have a place to live or food to eat.
By Mohd. Reyaz and Ranish Hangloo for AJK MCRC
Reconstructive surgery for LAPs
Due to intensive leprosy elimination programme, rate of leprosy is now less than one per thousand people. India still has a long way to go in rehabilitating those already affected. The Government of India introduced reconstructive surgery in 2008.
By Mohd. Reyaz and Karishma Karki for AJK MCRC
Thursday, October 1, 2009
India Social Media Study 2009
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
India Social Media Study 2009
View more documents from Preeti Anand.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
EID Mubarak
The moon has been sighted. As far as my memory goes, this year the announcement for EID on 29th day was very smoothly, and very early. For the first time, it seems all places and all communities will celebrate Eid on same day in India on 21 September.
Happy EID to alllll!!!!!
Happy EID to alllll!!!!!
On encounter anniversary: doubts and gloom
September 19 brought back gloom in the minds of residents of the Batla House locality in Delhi. One year has passed since the infamous Delhi encounter that was conducted days after serial blasts in the capital.
Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group, a lose association of teachers of the University formed in the backdrop of the last year encounter, brought a mashal march (torchlight rally) on the eve of the encounter anniversary along with other students organizations. Academicians, students and several civil right activists participated in the march. Newly elected MLA of the Okhla Assembly Aisf Mohammad Khan, who was also present, said that he has been raising the issue of independent enquiry and will continue to do so on all platforms.
The demand for independent judicial enquiry again reverberated and many compared it to the Ishrat Jahan case of Gujarat, where judicial probe has now questioned the role of the police involved in the 2004 encounter.
Other than the march organized by Jamia teachers, the locality at large seemed to have put the issue aside and move ahead though suspicion against police still looms high The market in the Batla House is gushing with crowd and locals are busy shopping for Eid. In the last Assembly elections the issue of encounter was high on the agenda. But in the last week concluded by election, it was not as prominent.
Meanwhile, several other groups, including main Opposition BJP, has put up posters of “Martyr” Mohan Chand Sharma, the Police officer who lost his life in the operation, at several places in the city glorifying the ‘fight against terrorism’ and his ‘sacrifice’.
There is no real progress in the case yet. Those who have been arrested in connection are still languishing in several jails. A report by National Human Right Commission (NHRC) has already given a clean chit to the operation and remarked that ‘there is no need of further enquiry’. The Delhi High Court has accordingly denied any further enquiry in the matter. Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), a NGO led Shabnam Hashmi, has filed a petition in the Apex Court against HC order requesting for judicial enquiry.
“People raise questions because they have doubts. If the government and the police has nothing to hide, why are they shying away from enquiry”, asks Afroz Alam Sahil who sought information’s under Right to Information (RTI) Act from several bodies including Delhi Police, NHRC and the hospital where postmortem of the deceased were conducted. He has been “denied” information in a “clear mockery of the RTI”, he adds.
Protest march was also organized in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, the alleged ‘hub’ of terrorism. Atif and Sajid, killed in the conspirators killed in the operation, were also from the same place. Magsay award winner Sandeep Pandey, who too reiterated the demand for an enquiry, led the protest.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Social and political and choices based on religion and ethnicity?
The idealist in me says that the race and religion one is born in is not in his control. Moreover, faith is personal and one must not judge a person based on his faith and ideology. But the bitter truth of life is that a child, in most cases, is born with many identities and no matter what he thinks or does, it becomes very difficult for him to come out of that closet. You are born as Bihari/Mallu/Bong, and as Hindu/Muslim/Jew, and as Chinki/ Parsee/Pashtun/Baluch/Kashmiri (apologies for some unparliamentary terms). You may stop speaking a language, settle in an alien country, but your identities remain with you.
The situation in most cases is not very simple as more often than seldom one has several loyalties. Thus a Kashmiri can be Muslim or Pandit. Muslims in Pakistan (and many other countries) can be Shia or Sunni. They can again be Punjabi, the dominating class in that country, or Baluch minority. Thus not one but many characteristics define us. Which one loyalty is dominant, taking over others again depend on a variety of factors- situations on the ground, causes and aims. ‘Religion was effectively manipulated as a cultural marker and mobilized as a standard for ethnic exclusion of other groups with little regard to the fragile multi-ethnic tapestry’. (Alexander Mirescu of New York University).
Even in India’s struggle for freedom, scholars played on religious sentiments urging them towards extreme nationalism. Thus while Bankim Chandra Chatterjee hailed his countrymen to stand up against ‘demons’ to save Mother India, many Muslim scholars went to the extent of declaring Jihad for the cause. The ethnic cleansing by Nazis that led to Holocaust was also an extreme for of ethnic nationalism.
Ethnicity, religion, ideologies bind one into a ‘social group’ and inculcates ‘we’ feeling. It’s what Durkheim would call “collective conscience” or Marx’s “class consciousness”.
So rooted, the notion addresses the “we ness” of a group, stressing the similarities or shared attributes around which group members coalesce. People on street may deny all such studies and believe in what Mary Waters (American sociologist) calls individual’s willingness to remain closed in an identity or move out of it.
Our politicians understand the meaning of “we” factor and they exploit it to the best of their greed. Thus for years politics in north India has been dominated by Mandal and Kamandal.
I won’t pass value judgment and declare one as ‘backward thinking’ (that I am sure many in hush hush do) whose political and social identity is moulded by his ethnic, religious or cultural identity. This is something that I might not like to be, but sadly that’s how it is. And that’s how I am.
The situation in most cases is not very simple as more often than seldom one has several loyalties. Thus a Kashmiri can be Muslim or Pandit. Muslims in Pakistan (and many other countries) can be Shia or Sunni. They can again be Punjabi, the dominating class in that country, or Baluch minority. Thus not one but many characteristics define us. Which one loyalty is dominant, taking over others again depend on a variety of factors- situations on the ground, causes and aims. ‘Religion was effectively manipulated as a cultural marker and mobilized as a standard for ethnic exclusion of other groups with little regard to the fragile multi-ethnic tapestry’. (Alexander Mirescu of New York University).
Even in India’s struggle for freedom, scholars played on religious sentiments urging them towards extreme nationalism. Thus while Bankim Chandra Chatterjee hailed his countrymen to stand up against ‘demons’ to save Mother India, many Muslim scholars went to the extent of declaring Jihad for the cause. The ethnic cleansing by Nazis that led to Holocaust was also an extreme for of ethnic nationalism.
Ethnicity, religion, ideologies bind one into a ‘social group’ and inculcates ‘we’ feeling. It’s what Durkheim would call “collective conscience” or Marx’s “class consciousness”.
So rooted, the notion addresses the “we ness” of a group, stressing the similarities or shared attributes around which group members coalesce. People on street may deny all such studies and believe in what Mary Waters (American sociologist) calls individual’s willingness to remain closed in an identity or move out of it.
Our politicians understand the meaning of “we” factor and they exploit it to the best of their greed. Thus for years politics in north India has been dominated by Mandal and Kamandal.
I won’t pass value judgment and declare one as ‘backward thinking’ (that I am sure many in hush hush do) whose political and social identity is moulded by his ethnic, religious or cultural identity. This is something that I might not like to be, but sadly that’s how it is. And that’s how I am.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Think before thou speak you holy masters
Do you know who this couple is??? Well they are, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and his wife Princess Amira al-Tawee on their recent visit to Bulgaria. (Picture courtesy: Reuters)
Nothing wrong with the picture! But if mullahs or Islamic scholars (pardon me for the disrespect) did not know that are from teh royal family, they are sure to issue fatwas. Prince, without beared but moustache and no veil for the beautiful princess.
I am not against veil or keeping beared. But I only beleive that these are personal choices and one may be groomed into it, but should never be forced into it.
My problem is only with those religious leaders, who would give fatwa when it suits them.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Obama to Netanyahu – Only rhetoric
Much was being talked and written about the 'historic' speeches of the two leaders. Both failed to live up to their expectations
Mohammad Reyaz Hardnews Delhi
The world and Muslims in particular, were expecting to hear of some policy change on American relations to the Muslim world when US President Barack Hussein Obama delivered his 'historic' speech at Cairo. His intentions appear to be good, clearly much ahead of his predecessors. But, he doesn't seem to have pleased even 'liberals' very much, except maybe close US allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Keeping his audience in mind, Obama quoted from the Quran on more than three occasions and gave references to the 'good times' when Muslims and Christians lived together peacefully. He recognised the mistrust that exists in both camps and seemed resolved to draw up a sustaining armistice between the West and the Muslim world.
He did not directly condemn the US attack on Iraq, but spoke of the indifference, unlike the attack on Afghanistan where his country and the world were united against State-sponsored terrorism. He believed though that the world and "Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein". But, he smartly seemed to gloss over the fact that there have been thousands of civilian casualties and deaths of innocents still continue in Iraq. He, however, remembered that those expeditions were at the cost of able US "soldiers".
His condemnation of western 'liberal' governments, who prohibit Muslim men and women from wearing clothes of their choice and practise religion freely, in the name of equality and freedom, is commendable. He promised to make necessary amendments in the US law to allow American Muslims to donate in charity (zakat) freely.
The high point of the speech was Obama's resolve to solve the Middle East crisis by making Israel and Palestine coexist amicably. He declared, "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements... And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society."
After Obama's June 4 speech and continuous pressure on the Israeli government, peace brokers in the region were expecting some change in Israel's policy against Palestine. Israel seemed to have softened its stance as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began his foreign policy address at Bar Ilan University on June 14, 2009. "Peace has always been our objective," he said. He declared that he was willing to talk to Arab leaders and was ready to go to "Damascus, Riyadh, Beirut - to meet anytime and anywhere".
But he put forth three preconditions - "recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a demilitarised Palestinian State" and an undivided Jerusalem to remain with Israel.
Although Israel seems to have flinched a bit, no one actually seemed very pleased with the much-anticipated speech. Netanyahu is being chided from both sides of the political spectrum. Almost entire Europe has said that it is just one small step forward and a lot more needs to be done. Not only are Israeli opposition parties criticising him, his ally, Habayit Hayehudi Party, told the media that it would "reconsider its future" in the coalition. The Palestinian Authority (PA), on the other hand, is aghast at the "prerequisites".
A spokesperson of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told the media: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions." Although all praise for the American efforts, PA is accusing Netanyahu of "sabotaging" the peace process.
Much is being talked and written about the two 'historic' speeches, both of which were given at universities. But they have failed to live up to expectations, at least as of now. Efforts by Obama's government is appreciable though. It's almost like a Shakespearean 'much ado about nothing', or just a few things.
Mohammad Reyaz Hardnews Delhi
The world and Muslims in particular, were expecting to hear of some policy change on American relations to the Muslim world when US President Barack Hussein Obama delivered his 'historic' speech at Cairo. His intentions appear to be good, clearly much ahead of his predecessors. But, he doesn't seem to have pleased even 'liberals' very much, except maybe close US allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Keeping his audience in mind, Obama quoted from the Quran on more than three occasions and gave references to the 'good times' when Muslims and Christians lived together peacefully. He recognised the mistrust that exists in both camps and seemed resolved to draw up a sustaining armistice between the West and the Muslim world.
He did not directly condemn the US attack on Iraq, but spoke of the indifference, unlike the attack on Afghanistan where his country and the world were united against State-sponsored terrorism. He believed though that the world and "Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein". But, he smartly seemed to gloss over the fact that there have been thousands of civilian casualties and deaths of innocents still continue in Iraq. He, however, remembered that those expeditions were at the cost of able US "soldiers".
His condemnation of western 'liberal' governments, who prohibit Muslim men and women from wearing clothes of their choice and practise religion freely, in the name of equality and freedom, is commendable. He promised to make necessary amendments in the US law to allow American Muslims to donate in charity (zakat) freely.
The high point of the speech was Obama's resolve to solve the Middle East crisis by making Israel and Palestine coexist amicably. He declared, "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements... And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society."
After Obama's June 4 speech and continuous pressure on the Israeli government, peace brokers in the region were expecting some change in Israel's policy against Palestine. Israel seemed to have softened its stance as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began his foreign policy address at Bar Ilan University on June 14, 2009. "Peace has always been our objective," he said. He declared that he was willing to talk to Arab leaders and was ready to go to "Damascus, Riyadh, Beirut - to meet anytime and anywhere".
But he put forth three preconditions - "recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a demilitarised Palestinian State" and an undivided Jerusalem to remain with Israel.
Although Israel seems to have flinched a bit, no one actually seemed very pleased with the much-anticipated speech. Netanyahu is being chided from both sides of the political spectrum. Almost entire Europe has said that it is just one small step forward and a lot more needs to be done. Not only are Israeli opposition parties criticising him, his ally, Habayit Hayehudi Party, told the media that it would "reconsider its future" in the coalition. The Palestinian Authority (PA), on the other hand, is aghast at the "prerequisites".
A spokesperson of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told the media: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions." Although all praise for the American efforts, PA is accusing Netanyahu of "sabotaging" the peace process.
Much is being talked and written about the two 'historic' speeches, both of which were given at universities. But they have failed to live up to expectations, at least as of now. Efforts by Obama's government is appreciable though. It's almost like a Shakespearean 'much ado about nothing', or just a few things.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces defeat if election not rigged, say Iranian experts
Ian Black in Tehran
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 June 2009
Iranians go to the polls tomorrow to elect a president after an acrimonious and volatile election campaign that has polarised the country and unleashed mass opposition to the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the absence of reliable independent opinion polls, experts predicted today that Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate "green" candidate, would probably beat the controversial incumbent so long as the result was not rigged.
Saeed Lalyaz, a respected political commentator, said he believed Mousavi now commanded the support of 55-60% across the country and warned of a possible crackdown on the opposition if Ahmadinejad were re-elected.
"I worry about the impact of any announcement that Ahmadinejad wins in the first round," said Lalyaz. "Whoever wins, these people on the streets will not go home easily. If Ahmadinejad is president for a second time I worry about another Tiananmen Square experience."
Ominously, as three weeks of often passionate campaigning drew to a close, the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRG) warned that any attempt at a popular "revolution" would be crushed.
Underlining the unprecedented scale of public interest in the election, it was reported that more than 10m text messages had been sent on Tuesday alone, apparently reflecting intense efforts to get the vote out and avoid the risk of mass abstentions.
The regime is also encouraging mass participation. "The people of Iran will choose someone who will resist the bullying of those who are arrogant and defend Iran's interest in the world," said a statement from the Basij militia.
The candidate who takes more than 50% becomes president automatically. If none does tomorrow, a second run-off round will be held next Friday. Two other candidates, reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi and Mohsen Rezaei, another conservative, would drop out if that happened.
Ahmadinejad was reportedly losing support to Rezaei, a former IRG commander, and elements of the military were said to be backing Mousavi, who has pledged to increase personal freedoms. A victory for the former prime minister could improve relations with the west, though big policy changes are unlikely.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/11/iran-president-election-mahmoud-ahmadinejad
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 June 2009
Iranians go to the polls tomorrow to elect a president after an acrimonious and volatile election campaign that has polarised the country and unleashed mass opposition to the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the absence of reliable independent opinion polls, experts predicted today that Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate "green" candidate, would probably beat the controversial incumbent so long as the result was not rigged.
Saeed Lalyaz, a respected political commentator, said he believed Mousavi now commanded the support of 55-60% across the country and warned of a possible crackdown on the opposition if Ahmadinejad were re-elected.
"I worry about the impact of any announcement that Ahmadinejad wins in the first round," said Lalyaz. "Whoever wins, these people on the streets will not go home easily. If Ahmadinejad is president for a second time I worry about another Tiananmen Square experience."
Ominously, as three weeks of often passionate campaigning drew to a close, the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRG) warned that any attempt at a popular "revolution" would be crushed.
Underlining the unprecedented scale of public interest in the election, it was reported that more than 10m text messages had been sent on Tuesday alone, apparently reflecting intense efforts to get the vote out and avoid the risk of mass abstentions.
The regime is also encouraging mass participation. "The people of Iran will choose someone who will resist the bullying of those who are arrogant and defend Iran's interest in the world," said a statement from the Basij militia.
The candidate who takes more than 50% becomes president automatically. If none does tomorrow, a second run-off round will be held next Friday. Two other candidates, reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi and Mohsen Rezaei, another conservative, would drop out if that happened.
Ahmadinejad was reportedly losing support to Rezaei, a former IRG commander, and elements of the military were said to be backing Mousavi, who has pledged to increase personal freedoms. A victory for the former prime minister could improve relations with the west, though big policy changes are unlikely.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/11/iran-president-election-mahmoud-ahmadinejad
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
In love? Think before you let him keep your picture
Laura Bashraheel, Arab News
While cases of women being blackmailed by men are still on the rise in Saudi Arabia, opinions vary as to whether women should be punished for giving personal or explicit images of themselves to men.
The police and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice often arrest men who blackmail women into giving them money or sex by threatening to publish their images on the Internet. The occurrence of women blackmailing men is, however, very rare.
The organization that is oft contacted by blackmail victims is the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Although Saudi culture forbids relationships between the sexes, men and women still secretly form relations. It is the clandestine nature of such relations that some men take advantage of. Fearing a scandal, women allow themselves to be manipulated and blackmailed.
In some cases, victims were in relationships with their blackmailers and willingly parted with images. In other cases, women were not in relationships and were targeted. The question arises whether women who willingly part with their pictures should also be punished. Some feel they should, others disagree.
“It depends on the case. But it all goes back to the man’s sleaziness. The man should be punished and the woman shouldn’t,” said Mohammed Essam, 27, who works for a private company in Jeddah.
Mohannad Ibrahim, however, said that women should be punished slightly, as they give men the opportunity to blackmail them. “Girls have to wake up. They should never give their photos or any material that would lead to them getting blackmailed,” Ibrahim said.
He also believes such relationships bring disgrace to women and their families. “If the girl did not give the photo in the first place, nothing would have happened,” he added. “She has to bear some of the responsibility because she is part of the mistake,” he said, adding that the punishment should not be harsh, perhaps memorizing parts of the Holy Qur’an or some type of community work.
Hadeel Al-Ahmed mentioned how Islam is lenient and how it protected the rights of men and women in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Al-Ahmed told the story of a young man who asked permission from the Prophet to commit adultery at which the Prophet responded: “Do you accept it for your mother or your sister?” The young man replied no and the Prophet responded saying that others also do not accept it for their mothers and sisters.
Bank worker Mai Al-Hilabi, 26, said a woman should not be punished, as the experience is a bad enough punishment. “The man is the villain here and even if she gave him her photos it was just because she trusted him and loved him,” she said.
Ibrahim Al-Zamzami, a Makkah-based lawyer, has handled several cases of women being blackmailed. “I had a case in which a man promised to marry a woman. He told her that he wanted her picture because he wanted to show it to his mother,” Al-Zamzami said.
He added that then the man began blackmailing the woman and demanded SR5,000. “The woman reported the man to the police and he is now in prison,” he said.
Al-Zamzami said that women are victims in 95 percent of cases and that they are rarely the blackmailers.
He also told a story of a driver who took a passenger’s pictures from a mobile camera while she went into a shop. “He then started blackmailing her. After a while she complained to the police. The man was arrested and is now in prison,” he added.
Al-Zamzami explained that women’s photos are private. “Women are emotional and men know that this is what they need to manipulate to get what they want,” he said, advising women to guard their photos.
“Women have to be aware. Parents also need to keep a watch on their daughters. There should be trust, but this should go hand in hand with some sort of monitoring,” he added.
Speaking about the punishment blackmailers receive, Al-Zamzami said, “In most cases, as a personal right, men are sentenced to pay back the money they took from their victims. As for the judicial right, the offender is usually sentenced to a couple of months or years in prison and lashes. It depends on the case,” he added.
“Women should not trust men,” said Hanaa Abdul Aziz, 30. “If he really wanted her, he would approach her parents and ask for her hand in marriage,” she said, adding that Saudi society is “a male dominated society.”
“A mother should always speak to her daughter and advise her on what’s appropriate and what’s not,” she said.
In a recent case, commission members in the Eastern Province arrested a 23-year-old man for trying to blackmail a 20-year-old woman by threatening to publish her pictures on the Net. The woman contacted the commission after the man demanded SR200,000 from her. She had already given him SR60,000.
In another case, commission members in Makkah came to the aid of a 40-year-old woman who was being blackmailed by a young man. The woman complained to the commission saying the man threatened to post her pictures on the Internet unless she paid him large sums of money.
The commission set up a sting operation whereby the woman agreed to pay whatever the youth demanded. When he showed up, commission members arrested him.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=123441&d=10&m=6&y=2009
While cases of women being blackmailed by men are still on the rise in Saudi Arabia, opinions vary as to whether women should be punished for giving personal or explicit images of themselves to men.
The police and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice often arrest men who blackmail women into giving them money or sex by threatening to publish their images on the Internet. The occurrence of women blackmailing men is, however, very rare.
The organization that is oft contacted by blackmail victims is the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Although Saudi culture forbids relationships between the sexes, men and women still secretly form relations. It is the clandestine nature of such relations that some men take advantage of. Fearing a scandal, women allow themselves to be manipulated and blackmailed.
In some cases, victims were in relationships with their blackmailers and willingly parted with images. In other cases, women were not in relationships and were targeted. The question arises whether women who willingly part with their pictures should also be punished. Some feel they should, others disagree.
“It depends on the case. But it all goes back to the man’s sleaziness. The man should be punished and the woman shouldn’t,” said Mohammed Essam, 27, who works for a private company in Jeddah.
Mohannad Ibrahim, however, said that women should be punished slightly, as they give men the opportunity to blackmail them. “Girls have to wake up. They should never give their photos or any material that would lead to them getting blackmailed,” Ibrahim said.
He also believes such relationships bring disgrace to women and their families. “If the girl did not give the photo in the first place, nothing would have happened,” he added. “She has to bear some of the responsibility because she is part of the mistake,” he said, adding that the punishment should not be harsh, perhaps memorizing parts of the Holy Qur’an or some type of community work.
Hadeel Al-Ahmed mentioned how Islam is lenient and how it protected the rights of men and women in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Al-Ahmed told the story of a young man who asked permission from the Prophet to commit adultery at which the Prophet responded: “Do you accept it for your mother or your sister?” The young man replied no and the Prophet responded saying that others also do not accept it for their mothers and sisters.
Bank worker Mai Al-Hilabi, 26, said a woman should not be punished, as the experience is a bad enough punishment. “The man is the villain here and even if she gave him her photos it was just because she trusted him and loved him,” she said.
Ibrahim Al-Zamzami, a Makkah-based lawyer, has handled several cases of women being blackmailed. “I had a case in which a man promised to marry a woman. He told her that he wanted her picture because he wanted to show it to his mother,” Al-Zamzami said.
He added that then the man began blackmailing the woman and demanded SR5,000. “The woman reported the man to the police and he is now in prison,” he said.
Al-Zamzami said that women are victims in 95 percent of cases and that they are rarely the blackmailers.
He also told a story of a driver who took a passenger’s pictures from a mobile camera while she went into a shop. “He then started blackmailing her. After a while she complained to the police. The man was arrested and is now in prison,” he added.
Al-Zamzami explained that women’s photos are private. “Women are emotional and men know that this is what they need to manipulate to get what they want,” he said, advising women to guard their photos.
“Women have to be aware. Parents also need to keep a watch on their daughters. There should be trust, but this should go hand in hand with some sort of monitoring,” he added.
Speaking about the punishment blackmailers receive, Al-Zamzami said, “In most cases, as a personal right, men are sentenced to pay back the money they took from their victims. As for the judicial right, the offender is usually sentenced to a couple of months or years in prison and lashes. It depends on the case,” he added.
“Women should not trust men,” said Hanaa Abdul Aziz, 30. “If he really wanted her, he would approach her parents and ask for her hand in marriage,” she said, adding that Saudi society is “a male dominated society.”
“A mother should always speak to her daughter and advise her on what’s appropriate and what’s not,” she said.
In a recent case, commission members in the Eastern Province arrested a 23-year-old man for trying to blackmail a 20-year-old woman by threatening to publish her pictures on the Net. The woman contacted the commission after the man demanded SR200,000 from her. She had already given him SR60,000.
In another case, commission members in Makkah came to the aid of a 40-year-old woman who was being blackmailed by a young man. The woman complained to the commission saying the man threatened to post her pictures on the Internet unless she paid him large sums of money.
The commission set up a sting operation whereby the woman agreed to pay whatever the youth demanded. When he showed up, commission members arrested him.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=123441&d=10&m=6&y=2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The difficulty of being Mushirul Hasan
(photograph from The Hindu Archeive)Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times, 7 June
The first time most of us heard of Mushirul Hasan was in 1992. Asked whether he supported the ban on The Satanic Verses, Hasan said that while he found the book deeply offensive, he did not believe in banning books.
So, despite his own response to The Satanic Verses, he could not support the ban. To most of us, this might have seemed like the perfect liberal Muslim response. He had registered his own sense of outrage as a Muslim but had argued that the principle of freedom of speech was more important.
But a large section of the Muslim community took violent exception to his statements. Students at Jamia Millia Islamia University declared that he was a traitor to Islam. Politicians got in on the act. Mushir was assaulted. He received threatening phone calls. And Jamia said that it could not guarantee his safety.
So, for the next five years he sat at home, shunned by elements in his own community, largely ignored by liberals, and still the object of derision and hatred from fundamentalists.
Hasan had options. He could have recanted. He could have apologised. But he stubbornly refused to do either. I asked him last week, when we met for a light lunch, whether he had ever been tempted to take the easy way out. After all, what did it matter what he thought? The ban on The Satanic Verses had been in place for years before he made his statement and has remained ever since. Even the BJP government did not withdraw it. So did it really matter what a history professor at Jamia thought? Surely, it would have been easy enough to make some conciliatory noises and to get back to work?
He looked at me in astonishment. Recant? Apologise? But why? There were his views and he had always lived by them.
It would be tempting to see Mushirul Hasan as a poster boy for liberal Islam, as the sort of Muslim that the BJP loves, as a sort of Arif Mohammad Khan-like figure. But the reality is far more complex. Eventually, Hasan did resume his old life as The Satanic Verses controversy faded. For the last five years he has been Vice Chancellor of Jamia. And in that role, he has frequently been criticised by the BJP. He has been attacked for being too nice to Arjun Singh. He has been vilified for offering to pay the legal fees of those students involved in the Batla House encounter. And BJP spokesmen have painted him as a stooge of the fundamentalists, a man who believes in the ghettoisation of Muslims.
Now, as his term at Jamia ends and there is talk of a second term given the terrific job he’s done, some of his old fundamentalist enemies are back in action. Why is he opposing moves to turn Jamia into a minority institution? Why has he appointed so many Hindus? Why is a building named after his father? Why has he opened a college of dentistry? And even, why is Hasan, a Shia, in charge of an institution that should be run by Sunnis?
I told Hasan, as he picked at his Thai prawn curry, that I thought that his current situation captured some of the complexity of the position that liberal Muslims find themselves in these days. Many in their community regard them as not being Muslim enough. And others regard them as being too Muslim.
And Hasan is your classic old-style, liberal Muslim intellectual. His father, a noted historian (the proposal to name the building after him, by the way, predated Mushir’s term as Vice Chancellor and was part of the Jamia tradition of naming buildings after distinguished faculty members), was a card-carrying member of the Communist party.
Mushir was brought up in a largely secular environment, went up to Cambridge and researched Indian nationalism. His reading led him to the conclusion that the Two Nation theory had very little to do with the welfare of sub-continental Muslims, and much more to do with the belief of a Muslim elite that it would lose in influence to the Congress elite. As a consequence of his research, he moved away from his father’s politics and embraced the views of Nehru and Gandhi. He began to believe that the best hope for India lay in a secular polity with a strong bias towards the poor and disadvantaged. Unlike many others who had made the shift towards the Nehruvian consensus — and unlike the Communists, certainly — Mushir developed a strong liberal streak with a suspicion of arbitrary government action and a belief in personal freedom.
Of how many of us can it be said that almost everything that has happened in our lives stems directly from our beliefs? And yet, this is precisely what seems to have happened in Hasan’s case. The Satanic Verses controversy — perhaps the turning point in his life — was a result of his beliefs. So was his attitude to Jamia — which famously, had opposed the Two Nation theory in the 1940s — which he treated as an open institution not a communal ghetto. And so, I suppose, are the recent controversies that the BJP focuses on.
I asked him about the Batla House encounter. He says he really has no idea what happened. He wasn’t there and even later, when politicians visited the area, he refused to accompany them. But he will say that he is distressed by the conditions in the Batla House area. There are no milk booths, there is no Modern Bazaar; it is almost as though the institutions and facilities of the local government do not exist. He says that when Sheila Dikshit visited Jamia, he told her that the area was bound to be infested with criminals if the state regarded it as outside of its purview. To her credit, he says, Dikshit saw the point immediately and offered a healing touch.
What about the charge that he took an aggressive anti-police stand and hired lawyers for those students arrested in that case?
Nonsense, he says. Jamia has a fund that can be used to pay for students’ expenses in cases of crisis or emergency, for example, medical problems or legal hassles. What he said was that students could claim legal expenses from this fund just as they claim doctors’ fees. To allow students the funds required for legal representation is hardly the same as organising their defence or finding lawyers for them. It is a position that is entirely in keeping with his own belief in individual freedom versus the might of the state or the mob.
His critics argue that this is too black and white an explanation, that Mushir’s position was much greyer than he now makes it out to be. But he responds by saying that if he had come out openly against the police, and said that the encounter was false, he would have been a hero to the fundamentalists. So his position was actually reasonable and moderate.
Does Mushir find himself in a strange place, reviled by Islamic fundamentalists and Hindutva advocates alike?
He says it is not so simple. It is possible, he thinks, to overstate the influence of fundamentalists in his community. The trouble is that the political establishment listens too much to the extremists and too little to be moderates.
He gives the example of the Shah Bano case in the 1980s when Rajiv Gandhi was told that he had to listen to the fundamentalists because they were the ones who really represented India’s Muslims. In fact, he says, these fundamentalists have all faded and their influence has been shown to be illusory. Who cares about the Shahi Imam these days? Muslims have been seen beyond the fundamentalists and the extremists.
He reckons that politicians make a huge mistake by approaching the Muslim community through social and religious issues. In the end, he argues, Muslims want the same thing as all other Indians: jobs, security, prosperity, better living standards, low prices, access to health and sanitation etc.
He concedes that there was a danger of radicalisation when Muslims all over the world took extreme stands but argues that the threat has largely passed with the election of President Barack Obama who Muslims do not perceive as being hostile to Islam.
History, he suggests, is on the side of the liberal Muslims who opposed the Two Nation theory. Look at India’s progress since Independence. And look at Pakistan today.
What about the fundamentalists who oppose his continuance at Jamia, then? Well yes, he says, it is not in his case that the fundamentalists have vanished; only that they do not represent the vast majority of India’s Muslims. They make a lot of noise. They know how to get into the papers and how to manipulate the media. But they remain a tiny minority.
As we drank our coffees, I asked him the key question. Is he offering all these opinions because he thinks that fundamentalist opposition will cost him the second term at Jamia that he clearly deserves?
No, he responded at once. Vice Chancellors will come and go. But there’s been something disturbing about the sudden flurry of stories against him in the media of late. So many of them are without any foundation at all, and some are clearly libellous.
It’s not the job that’s really important. It’s his reputation.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=cacabfe9-6d01-49d8-a5b6-e3c496986dbf
Monday, June 8, 2009
Villagers angered by mosque blast attack Taliban
Monday, 08 Jun, 2009, The Dawn
Two Taliban commanders and their four fighters were killed in an armed action taken by a tribal Lashkar in the Doog Darra area of Upper Dir district in Paksitan on Sunday.
(According to AP news agency 11 militants were killed in the attack.)
The Lashkar was formed in Hayagay Sharqi, and was supported by people of Hayagay Gharbi, Doon, Kilot and Miana Doog villages, after the suicide attack on a local mosque during Friday prayers that killed over 30 people, including several children.
The Lashkar stormed Taliban bunkers in Doog Darra, Salam Bekay, Ghazigay, Shatkas, Panaghar and Maluk Khwar and torched about 20 houses of people who harboured militants.
People from several other villages joined the Lashkar to expel Taliban from their area.
According to local people, both sides were using heavy weapons in fierce clashes between the Lashkar and the Taliban.
Sources said the village force was attacking Taliban positions in Shatkas, Miana and Doog Bala.
Meanwhile, people of Maluk Khwar and Panaghar villages, who were active supporters
of the militants, also parted ways with them after the mosque blast and announced support for the tribal Lashkar and vowed to evict militants from the area.
Doog Darra area, it may be mentioned, was attacked by planes in the third week of May.
Two men of the Lashkar identified as Shah Khalid and Mohammad Ayaz were injured in Sunday’s clash.
The militants, holed up in their stronghold of Shatkas and Gazigay, were putting up stiff resistance, the sources said.
Agencies add: The incident underscored a swing in the national mood towards a more anti-Taliban stance, a shift that comes as suicide attacks have surged and the military wages an offensive in the Swat valley.
DCO Atif-ur-Rehman said some 400 villagers formed a Lashkar and attacked five villages in Doog Darra area.
The militia has occupied three of the villages since Saturday and is trying to push the Taliban out of the other two.
The government has encouraged local people to set up militias to oust Taliban fighters.
‘It is something very positive that tribesmen are standing against the militants. It will discourage the miscreants,’ Mr Rehman said.
He said around 200 militants were putting up stiff resistance in their strongholds surrounded by the villagers.
‘We will send security forces, maybe artillery too, if the villagers ask for reinforcement,’ he said.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/12-tribesmen-avenge-mosque-blast-attack-taliban--bi-01
Former militant renounces extremism
Sunday, 07 Jun, 2009, The Dawn
Ten years ago, Maajid Nawaz came to Pakistan to recruit for an extremist group intent on a global Islamic state. Now he's on a different mission — to steer youth away from militancy.
Nawaz's message is one rarely heard in Pakistan, where the response to extremism has been overwhelmingly military, with little attempt to try to rehabilitate insurgents or keep young people from turning to militancy in the first place.
In speeches to thousands of university students across the country, Nawaz emphasized the urgent need to renounce radicalism.
‘We must reclaim Islam,’ the British citizen of Pakistani descent told some 100 students on a campus close to the capital last month. ‘We must reclaim Pakistan.’
While Pakistan has poured troops and weaponry into its fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups, it has adopted few of the softer measures aimed at dissuading militancy. And critics say that is a major weakness in Pakistan's strategy against terrorism.
‘There is no country where such a program is more important than in Pakistan,’ said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert who chaired the first international conference on militant rehabilitation in Singapore in February.
‘In parallel with the kinetic fight to catch and kill terrorists, there needs to be a parallel policy to fight the ideology.’
There are signs Pakistan is considering such a program. Senior officials recently went to Saudi Arabia to study the effort there, considered the world's most comprehensive. Egypt pioneered the idea of militant rehabilitation in the 1990s, and Yemen, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have also followed suit.
The programs involve counseling by moderate clerics and former extremists. Militants who renounce their old ways can receive financial support or help finding a job. Parallel programs in schools and mosques are aimed at young people.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Saad Iqbal Madni, said he would welcome such a program in Pakistan.
‘If I had a little support, I could tell them that killing innocent people is not from Islam,’ said Madni, who was freed last year. Madni, who was never charged, denied engaging in violence, but said he would have credibility with fellow Pakistanis.
The results from such soft tactics have varied, said Christopher Boucek, who recently published a report on the Saudi program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Indonesia has persuaded prominent terrorists to disavow violence and counsel others to do the same. But 23 of 117 Saudis who returned from Guantanamo and passed through the Saudi system have been re-arrested or are on the government's most-wanted terrorist list, said Boucek.
Shazadi Beg, a London-based human rights lawyer who has studied the need for such programs in Pakistan, said they are important because most militant recruits are young men with a limited understanding of Islam and no other way to earn a living.
A further complication is that for years the Pakistani government actively sponsored extremists to use as proxies in Afghanistan and Kashmir, a territory claimed by both Pakistan and India.
‘In Saudi, you're dealing with relatively small groups, but in Pakistan the jails are full with these sorts of detainees,’ said Mohammed Amir Rana, a terrorism expert at the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. ‘The problem is the number of people the government wants to be rehabilitated.’
Most of Pakistan's 180 million people follow a moderate form of Islam influenced by local traditions, but hard-liners have made significant inroads since the 1980s. Anger at the US invasion of Afghanistan and support for a succession of Pakistani leaders seen as corrupt and illegitimate have swelled their ranks.
Another problem, said Pakistani lawmaker Mushahid Hussain, is that Pakistan is late to realize how serious a threat militants pose. Bureaucratic inertia is strong, he says, along with an aversion to new ideas and a state of denial.
‘Unless (the programs) start, we don't know how successful they will be,’ Hussain said. ‘It is not a battle of bombs and bullets. It is a battle of ideas.’
Nazar, the extremist turned inspirational speaker, used to belong to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which claims to have hundreds of thousands of members around the world working on establishing an Islamic caliphate. The group pledges nonviolence, but Nawaz alleges that in some countries — including nuclear-armed Pakistan — a key strategy was to foment a military coup.
Pakistan has formally banned the group, as have several other Muslim countries, but authorities are not really enforcing the ban. Its members take part in demonstrations, hold public meetings and hand out leaflets largely unobstructed.
In 1999, Hizb ut-Tahrir paid for Nawaz to go to Pakistan, ostensibly as a student, to recruit members. He traveled all over the country doing so.
Later, he went to Egypt, where he was imprisoned for four years for recruiting for the group. He met other radicals, studied Islamic texts in jail and gradually changed his opinions, he said. He now believes that Islam calls for the separation of the faith and politics.
Imran Yousafzai, deputy spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan, said he was aware of Nawaz's activities in Pakistan.
‘I heard he was once an active member in Pakistan,’ he said. ‘I am sad to say that he is now working against Islam.’
During his recent appearances on college campuses, some students questioned why Nawaz was ‘attacking’ Islam and not US foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One hard-liner, whom Nawaz accuses of being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, punched him in the face after a talk in the eastern city of Lahore.
Nawaz said he hopes to start a network of moderate Pakistani Muslims to speak out against extremism. He gets a salary as director of the Quilliam Foundation, a mainstream think tank that challenges extremism and promotes pluralism, and is partly funded by the British government.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a university lecturer and vocal critic of militancy, said students responded positively to Nawaz but that he did not expect to see ‘any movement building up behind him.’
‘It is a great job he is doing and it's important that people hear him, he said. ‘But it wasn't a life-changing experience.’
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/08-We-must-reclaim-Islam-ts-01
Ten years ago, Maajid Nawaz came to Pakistan to recruit for an extremist group intent on a global Islamic state. Now he's on a different mission — to steer youth away from militancy.
Nawaz's message is one rarely heard in Pakistan, where the response to extremism has been overwhelmingly military, with little attempt to try to rehabilitate insurgents or keep young people from turning to militancy in the first place.
In speeches to thousands of university students across the country, Nawaz emphasized the urgent need to renounce radicalism.
‘We must reclaim Islam,’ the British citizen of Pakistani descent told some 100 students on a campus close to the capital last month. ‘We must reclaim Pakistan.’
While Pakistan has poured troops and weaponry into its fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups, it has adopted few of the softer measures aimed at dissuading militancy. And critics say that is a major weakness in Pakistan's strategy against terrorism.
‘There is no country where such a program is more important than in Pakistan,’ said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert who chaired the first international conference on militant rehabilitation in Singapore in February.
‘In parallel with the kinetic fight to catch and kill terrorists, there needs to be a parallel policy to fight the ideology.’
There are signs Pakistan is considering such a program. Senior officials recently went to Saudi Arabia to study the effort there, considered the world's most comprehensive. Egypt pioneered the idea of militant rehabilitation in the 1990s, and Yemen, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have also followed suit.
The programs involve counseling by moderate clerics and former extremists. Militants who renounce their old ways can receive financial support or help finding a job. Parallel programs in schools and mosques are aimed at young people.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Saad Iqbal Madni, said he would welcome such a program in Pakistan.
‘If I had a little support, I could tell them that killing innocent people is not from Islam,’ said Madni, who was freed last year. Madni, who was never charged, denied engaging in violence, but said he would have credibility with fellow Pakistanis.
The results from such soft tactics have varied, said Christopher Boucek, who recently published a report on the Saudi program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Indonesia has persuaded prominent terrorists to disavow violence and counsel others to do the same. But 23 of 117 Saudis who returned from Guantanamo and passed through the Saudi system have been re-arrested or are on the government's most-wanted terrorist list, said Boucek.
Shazadi Beg, a London-based human rights lawyer who has studied the need for such programs in Pakistan, said they are important because most militant recruits are young men with a limited understanding of Islam and no other way to earn a living.
A further complication is that for years the Pakistani government actively sponsored extremists to use as proxies in Afghanistan and Kashmir, a territory claimed by both Pakistan and India.
‘In Saudi, you're dealing with relatively small groups, but in Pakistan the jails are full with these sorts of detainees,’ said Mohammed Amir Rana, a terrorism expert at the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. ‘The problem is the number of people the government wants to be rehabilitated.’
Most of Pakistan's 180 million people follow a moderate form of Islam influenced by local traditions, but hard-liners have made significant inroads since the 1980s. Anger at the US invasion of Afghanistan and support for a succession of Pakistani leaders seen as corrupt and illegitimate have swelled their ranks.
Another problem, said Pakistani lawmaker Mushahid Hussain, is that Pakistan is late to realize how serious a threat militants pose. Bureaucratic inertia is strong, he says, along with an aversion to new ideas and a state of denial.
‘Unless (the programs) start, we don't know how successful they will be,’ Hussain said. ‘It is not a battle of bombs and bullets. It is a battle of ideas.’
Nazar, the extremist turned inspirational speaker, used to belong to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which claims to have hundreds of thousands of members around the world working on establishing an Islamic caliphate. The group pledges nonviolence, but Nawaz alleges that in some countries — including nuclear-armed Pakistan — a key strategy was to foment a military coup.
Pakistan has formally banned the group, as have several other Muslim countries, but authorities are not really enforcing the ban. Its members take part in demonstrations, hold public meetings and hand out leaflets largely unobstructed.
In 1999, Hizb ut-Tahrir paid for Nawaz to go to Pakistan, ostensibly as a student, to recruit members. He traveled all over the country doing so.
Later, he went to Egypt, where he was imprisoned for four years for recruiting for the group. He met other radicals, studied Islamic texts in jail and gradually changed his opinions, he said. He now believes that Islam calls for the separation of the faith and politics.
Imran Yousafzai, deputy spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan, said he was aware of Nawaz's activities in Pakistan.
‘I heard he was once an active member in Pakistan,’ he said. ‘I am sad to say that he is now working against Islam.’
During his recent appearances on college campuses, some students questioned why Nawaz was ‘attacking’ Islam and not US foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One hard-liner, whom Nawaz accuses of being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, punched him in the face after a talk in the eastern city of Lahore.
Nawaz said he hopes to start a network of moderate Pakistani Muslims to speak out against extremism. He gets a salary as director of the Quilliam Foundation, a mainstream think tank that challenges extremism and promotes pluralism, and is partly funded by the British government.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a university lecturer and vocal critic of militancy, said students responded positively to Nawaz but that he did not expect to see ‘any movement building up behind him.’
‘It is a great job he is doing and it's important that people hear him, he said. ‘But it wasn't a life-changing experience.’
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/08-We-must-reclaim-Islam-ts-01
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Indian bureaucracy ranked worst in Asia: Survey
TOI, 3 Jun
Singapore's civil servants are the most efficient among their Asian peers, a business survey on 12 economies released on Wednesday
showed, but they tend to clam up unhelpfully when things go wrong.
India's "suffocating bureaucracy" was ranked the least-efficient by the survey, which said working with the country's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.
"They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties," the report said.
Singapore was ranked first for a third time in a poll of 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations on the efficiency of bureaucrats in those countries. The poll was last held in 2007.
"During normal times, when the system is not stress-tested, it operates very well," Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy said in a 12-page report of Singapore's bureaucracy.
"However, during difficult times - or when mistakes are made that reflect badly on the system - there is a tendency among bureaucrats to circle the wagons in ways that lack transparency and make accountability difficult," the report said.
Thailand, despite four years of on-off street protests and a year of dysfunctional government was ranked third.
"For all the country's troubles -- or perhaps because of them -- respondents to our survey were impressed with the way Thai civil servants have been carrying out their duties," PERC said.
It said state offices associated with corruption presented the most difficulties for Thai citizens and foreigners.
PERC managing director Bob Broadfoot told Reuters that the controversy around huge investment losses by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek was a good example of how things could become less transparent in the island-state.
The Singapore government has come under fire from lawmakers and its citizens over several investment losses, particular its exit from Bank of America which resulted in a loss of over $3 billion, according to Reuters calculation.
The survey ranked Hong Kong second. China, which has been campaigning to fight corruption in its bureaucracy and improve efficiency in the civil service, was ranked 9th in the 2009 poll, two places down from 2007.
Ranking by most efficient to least efficient economies: Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indian-bureaucracy-worst-in-Asia-Survey/articleshow/4612918.cms
Singapore's civil servants are the most efficient among their Asian peers, a business survey on 12 economies released on Wednesday
showed, but they tend to clam up unhelpfully when things go wrong.
India's "suffocating bureaucracy" was ranked the least-efficient by the survey, which said working with the country's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.
"They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties," the report said.
Singapore was ranked first for a third time in a poll of 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations on the efficiency of bureaucrats in those countries. The poll was last held in 2007.
"During normal times, when the system is not stress-tested, it operates very well," Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy said in a 12-page report of Singapore's bureaucracy.
"However, during difficult times - or when mistakes are made that reflect badly on the system - there is a tendency among bureaucrats to circle the wagons in ways that lack transparency and make accountability difficult," the report said.
Thailand, despite four years of on-off street protests and a year of dysfunctional government was ranked third.
"For all the country's troubles -- or perhaps because of them -- respondents to our survey were impressed with the way Thai civil servants have been carrying out their duties," PERC said.
It said state offices associated with corruption presented the most difficulties for Thai citizens and foreigners.
PERC managing director Bob Broadfoot told Reuters that the controversy around huge investment losses by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek was a good example of how things could become less transparent in the island-state.
The Singapore government has come under fire from lawmakers and its citizens over several investment losses, particular its exit from Bank of America which resulted in a loss of over $3 billion, according to Reuters calculation.
The survey ranked Hong Kong second. China, which has been campaigning to fight corruption in its bureaucracy and improve efficiency in the civil service, was ranked 9th in the 2009 poll, two places down from 2007.
Ranking by most efficient to least efficient economies: Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indian-bureaucracy-worst-in-Asia-Survey/articleshow/4612918.cms
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