Dear Murali, The experience of the north Indian Muslim man trying to settle down in Kerala, is one example of a large problem. Our focus shouldn't be this particular incident, but the daily occurance of branding and violence which muslims face. For example, in India's metero cities in certain pockets you cannot rent a room if you are a muslim. And the spectacular coverage Indian media has given to Muhammad Haneef is another example. The connection was easily made. How many hindu doctors were arrested in this regard? The whole discourse on terrorism is a discourse on 'Muslim terrorism'. Noone is talking of the encounter killings in Gujarath. In Bangalore, the community had to disown 'Muhammed Haneef' saying that he never came to church, that he kept distance from others in the community. Why is it so? I or anyone sensible wouldnt blame the community for disowning him, because the everyday living condition of any average muslim is in constant threat. What caused the community to disown him, that is the real terror, that is the terror which muslims in this country or elsewhere going through. We can differ in the way we understand discrimination, but we should be self reflexive to understand this issue.
Regards Rafeek On 7/31/07, Murali K Warier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Let me try to summarize the points discussed in this thread (as per my > understanding) and give my response to each: > The questions to be considered: > > 1) Are the people and police justified in becoming suspicious of a > stranger (that too from another state) settling in a rural surrounding, and > getting visitors from abroad? Is it a natural response or an indication of a > deeper (cultural?) malaise? > 2) Does the 'Muslim' identity of the gentlemen play any part in fuelling > suspicion or rumour? > 3) Is the police's response justified - in other words, was it an over > reaction, was it prompted by anti-Muslim bias and whether the gentleman's > constitutional rights were violated? > > Here are my responses: > > 1) I think people are justified in becoming suspicious. Mainly because > people are by and large suspicious of strangers. There is nothing wrong in > that - of course, those at the receiving end may feel quite differently. I > personally do not enjoy being looked upon with suspicion, because I know > that I am, well, a law abiding citizen who can't think of harming a fly :) > But how do strangers know about my noble, Gandhi like character? At any > rate, I will not act much differently in similar situations - if anything, I > would be even more paranoid. So is it a natural reaction? Absolutely. Does > it 'look nice'? No, unambiguously. Should we do anything about it? Not on my > corpse - the consequences of criminalizing thought are too frightening even > to think of (didn't Communism teach us anything?) > > 2) It surely did. Is it good? Not really. Is it 'labeling' a whole > community? Not at all - in any village, you will see people not only not > suspicious of Muslims, but living in perfect harmony with them. The fact is > that, some Muslims, misguided and brainwashed no doubt, do indulge in acts > of terrorism, and some Muslims justify those acts based on Islamic > scriptures and aggressively use the Muslim identity to swell the ranks of > the terrorist outfits. The difficulty is that there are no other reliable > means to identify these bad apples - they come in all shapes: from > billionaire scions to doctors to financial analysts. The only identity > perhaps is that most of them are well educated and come from middle to upper > middle class background. The so called 'Islamophobia' is in a large measure > due to this. Is this prejudice? I am not sure - it looks more like > 'post-judice' to me. Now the question: do Tamil Brahmins settling in similar > surroundings invite suspicion to a similar degree - not at the moment, but > surely they will, if Tamil Brahmins start blowing up commuter trains, > justify those acts on some Brahministic scriptures and recruit Brahmin youth > using the Tamil Brahmin identity. By the way, Tamilians acting like the > gentleman in question in early 90's would have invited much more suspicion > then. Do you remember a time when Sikhs were looked upon with suspicion? > These are certainly not good things, but part of the natural scheme of > things. Again, the only way to suppress people's suspicious minds is to > institute thought policing. > > 3) I think this is the crux of the problem. Getting suspicious of somebody > doesn't mean barging into their dwellings at the dead of the night. Feeling > hatred for your neighbor doesn't mean you kidnap his son. But the police's > behavior is symptomatic of a larger problem with law enforcement. If you > become a suspect in some crime, the police's behavior to you would be very > similar - that is, this problem - that of crude and illegal methods of > investigation - is not limited to inquiries about possible terrorist > activities. There is a lot to write about police reforms. There are any > number of non-intrusive methods of investigation that could have been > employed. That they didn't do so, is not indicative of any bias, but of > incompetence, hegemony of authority and all that is wrong with our colonial > style of policing. > > Best regards, > Murali. > > On 7/31/07, Ranjit Ranjit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. > - Joseph Stalin > > To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. > These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a > revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing > machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy > of the paredon (The Wall)! > - Che Guevara > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
