South Asia Citizens Wire - 21 Oct 2012 - No. 2759 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents: 1. Bangladesh: Continuing incidence of [illegal] fatwas (Edit Daily Star) 2. US: Open Letter - Stop Racial Scapegoating + If the FBI Both Planned and Thwarted a Terrorist Attack, Who's the Hero? (Adam Clark Estes) 3. Pakistan: What has Malala Yousafzai done to the Taliban? (Kamila Shamsie) 4. Pakistan: Killing polio workers (Editorial - The Express tribune) 5. Pakistan: Full Text of the Pakistan Supreme Court Order in the Ashgar Khan Case 6. Sri Lanka: Govt. needs to shift economic policy, says citizen group 7. India: Kuldip Nayar on India’s media moguls - the Jain Brothers and contract journalists 8. India: Haryana’s Khap Panchayats are unconstitutional (Vidya Bhushan Rawat) 9. India: Migrants from India’s northeast put focus on the dynamics of urban change (Duncan McDuie-Ra) 10. The secular delusion (Farzana Versey) 11. “We are all Malala” Bandwagon (N. Jayaram) 12. The Grand Old Man (Dadabhai Naoroji) and His Miscellanea" (Dinyar Patel) 13. Madanjeet Singh, a great secular humanist donated one million U.S. dollars to women’s education (Taslima Nasreen) 14. Text of Supreme Court of India order granting bail to Sayed Mohd. Kazmi International: 15. Secular Egyptians protest Islamists’ role in drafting new constitution (Abigail Hauslohner) 16. Afghan senators want 'friendship' axed from France pact [because Muslims and infidels can't be friends] ======================================= 1. BANGLADESH: CONTINUING INCIDENCE OF [ILLEGAL] FATWAS Editorial, Daily Star ======================================= The Daily Star, October 18, 2012 Offences in the name of fatwa continue in the country despite their being declared illegal by the courts is unacceptable. However, the continued proactive role of the High Court on the issue is encouraging. Recently, in response to a petition filed against a fatwa being imposed on a homemaker in Chittagong, the HC ordered a case to be filed and for those responsible to be arrested. The victim, who had filed a case of sexual harassment against a local political leader and his associates, was sentenced by him and his cronies at a village arbitration to be buried chest-deep into the ground and stoned. The problem here is manifold. Not only were the woman's grievances not addressed by the local authorities, but the accused took upon themselves the responsibility of punishing her for speaking out against them, with apparently no action being taken by the local police. Such gross transgressions of justice by the law enforcing agencies will discourage victims of crime from coming forward and reporting them. Not only is justice not served but in addition, the victims are re-victimised for reporting their perpetrators. The cycle of violence against the most vulnerable in society -- rural, poor women -- continues. In such scenarios, the local community has a vital role to play in preventing such crimes from happening and reporting them when they do. In the above case, too, the matter came into public discourse after it was reported in the media, following which a human rights advocate filed the petition and the HC made its ruling -- which we hope will be promptly implemented. While urging the authorities to do the needful in preventing and punishing fatwa related offences, we also appeal to the community at large to take a stand against such barbarism, by protesting it, reporting it and supporting the victims in their fight for justice. =========================================== 2. US: OPEN LETTER - STOP RACIAL SCAPEGOATING =========================================== Fourth, we condemn the racial scapegoating of the entire Bangladeshi community. When a violent incident targeting a public institution is carried out by a white male, such as James Eagan Holmes, Anders Behring Breivik, Timothy McVeigh, Jared Loughner, Andrew Joseph Stack, John Patrick Bedell, David Adkisson, Eric Robert Rudolph, or James Von Brunn, the media calls him a “lone gunman,” explaining the incident as individual pathology and “aberration,” not the product of any particular culture. But when the alleged perpetrator is of non-white origin, especially Arab or Muslim, then the analysis is framed solely in terms of cultural or religious backwardness and lack of tolerance, and used as a rationale for stereotyping, scapegoating, surveillance, racial profiling, and discrimination against entire communities. Such scapegoating neither helps to solve the problem of violence, nor do they move us toward a peaceful society. Instead, they create a scenario of collective, racialized punishment for individual crimes. Read & Sign The Open Letter https://www.change.org/petitions/world-media-stop-scaremongering-and-racial-scapegoating o o o SEE ALSO IF THE FBI BOTH PLANNED AND THWARTED A TERRORIST ATTACK, WHO'S THE HERO? by Adam Clark Estes A 21-year-old Bangladeshi man tried and failed to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, largely thanks to the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That "thanks" ought to be attached both to the "tried" and the "failed" parts of that sentence, since it was the FBI that not only coaxed the suspect, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, into moving forward with the bombing but also supplied him with the means to do so. Don't worry. The Feds know what they're doing. They do this all the time. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/10/if-fbi-both-planned-and-thwarted-terrorist-attack-whos-hero/58077/ ======================================= 3. PAKISTAN: WHAT HAS MALALA YOUSAFZAI DONE TO THE TALIBAN? by Kamila Shamsie ======================================= The attempted assassination of a 14-year-old girl was driven by pathological hatred of women – not politics, as the Taliban claim http://www.sacw.net/article3177.html ======================================= 4. PAKISTAN: KILLING POLIO WORKERS Editorial - The Express tribune ======================================= (The Express Tribune, October 17, 2012) Polio eradication has come a long way, according to President Asif Ali Zardari. However, on October 16, a worker from a team of polio vaccinators was killed in Quetta, after the team came under attack by motorcyclists armed with guns. The attack came one day after the president launched a three-day polio vaccination campaign on October 15. While expressing his contentment with progress on the issue, the president said he regretted the fact that the disease is still prevalent in Pakistan, while neighbouring India is now polio free. Though Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in polio vaccine manufacturing, the fight to overcome polio in the country is impeded by other obstacles. In efforts to carry out widespread polio vaccination campaigns, workers remain threatened in areas like Fata and parts of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where militants have warned parents not to allow their children to be vaccinated. Polio has resurfaced in the areas but the fight to eliminate it there still remains difficult. While the president said that we cannot allow extremists from stopping vaccinations, it remains to be seen how this can be achieved. Unless the state provides adequate security to health personnel, we will lose our precious doctors, healthcare workers and volunteers, who the country so desperately needs. Furthermore, people need to be educated about the seriousness of the condition. In one example, a woman working as a maid reported that her only son, out of five children, got a fever after receiving the polio vaccination. Out of fear that the fever was life-threatening, she discontinued his vaccination failing to understand the seriousness of the consequences. Despite recent monetary donations by the Islamic Development Bank and by the World Bank and Japan, unless there is a proper security plan in place, polio will prevail. Now that the gravity of the situation has been recognised by the president, the next step is to implement security measures, perhaps by involving the military. Additionally, we must also spread awareness and educate the public on what the ramifications are if children are left unvaccinated. Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012. ======================================= 5. PAKISTAN: FULL TEXT OF THE PAKISTAN SUPREME COURT ORDER IN THE ASHGAR KHAN CASE ======================================= 19 October 2012 Supreme Court of Pakistan short order in the petition filed by Air Marshal (Retd) Muhammad Asghar Khan in 1996. http://www.sacw.net/article3178.html ======================================= 6. SRI LANKA: GOVT. NEEDS TO SHIFT ECONOMIC POLICY, SAYS CITIZEN GROUP ======================================= (The Island, October 18, 2012) * Too much attention on infrastructure development, urbanisation, tourism * Much more can be done for rural economy, poor A network of citizen groups has sent in its proposals for the 2013 budget to the President, asking the government to give more weight to developing a macroeconomic and political strategy which would uplift the rural economy, marginalised communities and urban poor, instead of pursuing a course favouring infrastructure development, urbanisation, tourism and financialisation. Organised in to the Active Citizenship for Development Network (ACDN) their recommendations cover four sectors of particular concern to their larger communities; agriculture, fisheries, estates, and state education. http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=64044 ======================================= 7. INDIA: KULDIP NAYAR ON INDIA’S MEDIA MOGULS - THE JAIN BROTHERS AND CONTRACT JOURNALISTS ======================================= What the New Yorker, an American fortnightly, has said about the Jain brothers, Samir and Vineet, presiding over the Times of India Group, has been known to most. The contribution by the New Yorker is that it has nailed the doubts and confirmed that the biggest media moguls of the country believe that there is nothing sacrosanct about news columns and can be sold for a price because a newspaper for them is a commodity, like talcum powder or toothpaste. http://www.sacw.net/article2958.html ======================================= 8. INDIA: HARYANA’S KHAP PANCHAYATS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL by Vidya Bhushan Rawat ======================================= Haryana’s injustices are legitimized by the Khaps. When the Dalits were being killed, it asserted its own identity in the name of Gotra as it justified honored killings. It is the state where Honored killing are rampant, Khap as a unified social unit are the backbone of spreading caste hatred and denying justice to the people. If the powerful social mobilization in the name of Khaps were not there, we would have seen the culprits being brought to book after initial protests and media uproar in Delhi. http://www.sacw.net/article2935.html SEE ALSO: Rape State - The Horrible Collusion in Haryana Police indifference, panchayat interference and a regressive mindset ensure that rapes in Haryana will never stop by Sai Manish and Priyanka Dubey ======================================= 9. INDIA: DELHI’S ‘EXOTIC’ MIGRANTS Migrants from India’s northeast put focus on the dynamics of urban change. by Duncan McDuie-Ra ======================================= Neoliberalism takes on a variety of national and subnational forms. In the case of India this has necessitated a shift from the role of the state as provider under Nehruvian socialism, to the role of the state as a champion for private investment and market penetration. The role of the state in this process is varied at the federal and local levels, and in different sectors of the economy and society. Attempts to transform Delhi are driven by the desire to fashion a ‘global city’, set out explicitly in the Delhi Development Authority’s Master plan for Delhi 2021, released in 2007. The global city aspiration has necessitated a shift in urban logic resulting in the privileging of planned and profit making uses of space and the vilification of informality. The poor, including the working poor, are seen as threats to the sanitised spaces of the global city. Urban transformation is certainly creating new exclusions, yet scholars and activists have rarely asked how these transformations can include groups that have been historically marginalised or had little engagement with large cities. Northeast migrants are one such group. http://www.sacw.net/article3179.html ======================================= 10. THE SECULAR DELUSION by Farzana Versey ======================================= Forget about separation of religion and state. Can religion survive without a state? Would it be orphaned without patriotic fervour? I come from a country that is secular. Yet, its largest opposition party has dreams of a Hindu Rashtra. The government offers sops to every faith. There are regional groups that seek special status for language and ethnicity. Tribes and scheduled castes have their own demands and the nation owes it to them, not because the Constitution has failed them but the faith they were born in has. The Constitution, in effect, is keeping belief systems alive. Does India have a right to be called a secular republic? Is this not merely about multiculturalism, the subsuming into an Axe effect that starts wearing off once the pores start emitting sweat again? ‘Iftar’ and ‘pandal’ politics are now so well-entrenched that it would be unthinkable for any political party to upset this neo-status quo, which is quite precious for a status quo is usually an established model. There appears to be only a repackaging of tradition. http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/10/the-secular-delusion-farzana-versey.html ======================================= 11. “WE ARE ALL MALALA” BANDWAGON by N. Jayaram ======================================= The people of Pakistan and other parts of South Asia need to mount a sustained campaign if they are to prevent more Malala Yousafzais from being shot or in other ways ill-treated. Misogynists are hyperactive and not least in Pakistan itself, mounting counter-campaigns following the groundswell of sympathy. South Asians who have been busy exchanging photographs of Malala Yousafzai and feel-good messages as well as articles on social networking sites, will need to do more to counter such tendencies and defeat the Taliban, be they of the Islamic, Hindu or any other variety. N. Jayaram is a journalist now based in Bangalore. He writes a blog: http://walkerjay.wordpress.com/ http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/10/we-are-all-malala-bandwagon-n-jayaram.html ======================================= 12. THE GRAND OLD MAN (DADABHAI NAOROJI) AND HIS MISCELLANEA" by Dinyar Patel ======================================= The paper trail leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji have left behind offers a rich insight into the lives of early Indian nationalists and our understanding of them http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-grand-old-man-his-miscellanea/article4013775.ece ======================================= 13. MADANJEET SINGH, A GREAT SECULAR HUMANIST DONATED ONE MILLION U.S. DOLLARS TO WOMEN’S EDUCATION by Taslima Nasreen ======================================= Madanjeet singh, the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and the Founder of the South Asia Foundation is one of the greatest secular humanists of our time. An attack on Malala Yousafzai prompted him to donate one million U.S. dollars to women's education and empowerment. http://freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/2012/10/18/madanjeet-singh-a-great-secular-humanist-donated-1-million-u-s-dollars-for-womens-education/ ======================================= 14. Text of Supreme Court of India order granting bail to Sayed Mohd. Kazmi ======================================= http://www.sacw.net/article3181.html INTERNATIONAL ======================================= 15. SECULAR EGYPTIANS PROTEST ISLAMISTS’ ROLE IN DRAFTING NEW CONSTITUTION by Abigail Hauslohner ======================================= (Washington Post, October 19) CAIRO — Egyptian liberal and secular groups gathered Friday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to protest what they say is the overreach of the country’s Islamists in drafting a new constitution. The groups, demonstrating for the second consecutive Friday, say the 100-member drafting assembly, which is dominated by Islamists, lacks the legitimacy to write the charter that will define the way Egypt is governed and represent the values of its 85 million people. On Tuesday, a Cairo court is expected to rule on their claim. Previous court hearings on the case were adjourned because the Muslim Brotherhood, which dominates the assembly, requested more information. Experts say the case consolidates at least 43 lawsuits on the assembly’s legal legitimacy. Both Islamists and liberals said rising tensions between the two sides over contentious drafts of the constitution — along with a simmering conflict between the judiciary and President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood — have raised the specter of a verdict Tuesday to dissolve the assembly, rather than another delay. Last week, tensions between Morsi and the country’s largely secular judges spiked when Morsi tried to fire Egypt’s powerful general prosecutor. Like most of the judges, the prosecutor is a holdover from the era of president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February 2011. The conflict exacerbated preexisting strains over the constitution, said Mohamed el-Beltagy, a high-ranking member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the constitution-drafting assembly. “The fallout, without a doubt, gave the court a chance to move, despite the fact that Egyptian popular opinion is not convinced” that the court needs to, he said. But liberal groups, arguing that the Islamist-dominated assembly is pushing constitutional articles that would roll back the rights of women and minorities, said Friday that the assembly’s makeup demands a revision — at the very least — and fast. “What we know is this is not the right path, so we are trying to rectify it,” said Raafat Wagdy, a physician. “The message we want to convey is you [the Brotherhood] are not alone, and we are not just a small minority that can be ignored.” The dispute between the Brotherhood and its opponents escalated into violent clashes last weekend. At Friday’s protest, many liberals and secularists called for the downfall of Morsi’s government and said they want the constitution-drafting process to be restarted. Members of the drafting assembly have said they aim to finalize the constitution and bring it to a national referendum by the end of the year. But experts said a sudden annulment of the assembly would set the clock back on what has already been a turbulent political transition. An earlier assembly was dissolved by court order in April. This time, Morsi would have the power to appoint a new one — a prospect that neither Islamists nor liberals seem to welcome. “We would go back to having the same people and the same problems,” said Kamal Habib, an Islamist scholar and political activist. “You’re not going to bring in angels. You’ll bring in people whom other people object to.” Moreover, he said, the delay would mean the Arab world’s largest country would continue to function without a central governing charter, potentially slowing the pace of badly needed economic and political reforms and fueling popular discontent. Without a constitution in the near future, Egypt would become “an institutional vacuum,” Beltagy said. But liberals said they were willing to pay the price for a more representative body of laws. “Even if the assembly is dissolved, Morsi will form a new one,” said Fatem Wagdy, a university professor. “Our role is to say we want a different new one.” Ingy Hassieb and Amer Shakhatreh contributed to this report. ======================================= 16. AFGHAN SENATORS WANT 'FRIENDSHIP' AXED FROM FRANCE PACT - AFP report ======================================= (AFP) – Oct 2, 2012 KABUL — Afghanistan's senate voted to cut the word "friendship" from a pact with France because Islamic texts say it cannot be used to describe relations between Muslims and infidels, senators said Tuesday. France, which has seen 88 of its troops killed as part of the NATO coalition backing the Afghan government against Taliban insurgents, signed the 20-year "friendship and cooperation treaty" earlier this year. "Some senators said that based on Sharia rulings we cannot use the word friendship with infidels, so after voting the word friendship was replaced with relationship," Senator Zahra Sharifi told AFP. The move, which amounts simply to a recommendation as the senate has the power only to approve or reject the document, not to amend it, apparently embarrassed some senators. "We argued, we said that France has been a close friend of Afghanistan for a very long time," said Mohammad Alam Ezedyar, who chaired the senate session. "Some senators disagreed, but the important thing is that the pact was approved, and will be sent to the foreign ministry." A foreign ministry spokesman, Faramerz Tamana, said that after it received the document from the senate, "we will send the treaty to the government of France, and they will decide whether or not they accept any possible change in the document". The treaty was signed in January by then French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and was ratified by the French parliament on July 25. It was also ratified by the lower house of the Afghan parliament before going to the senate. Afghanistan has signed partnership agreements with several countries, including the United States, but none of the others had included the word "friendship", said Senator Nesar Ahmad Haress. Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ South Asia Citizens Wire Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. 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