Here Come the Bias ~ Abis Bishara :: Riyadh ~
# Response to the Tehelka cover story “Here Come the Pious” dated Oct 09 2010 http://www.countermedia.in/?p=228 ———– The Kerala Government has also come up with a curious nugget on land purchases. In several districts nearly 70 percent land ownership is held by Muslims, of which a considerable chunk is held by Muslim religious institutions and organizations through proxies. There are 25 lakh Malayali expatriates in the Gulf. More than half are Muslims. A significant amount of funding to fundamentalist and religious organisation is through their donation.-(Shashi Kumar – Here Come the Pious, Tehelka Magazine October 09) If you are a sensitive Gulf Malayali and have a Muslim name you will not miss the knockouts in the October 09 Tehelka cover story Here Come the Pious. For me at least, it stung. I am based in Riyadh, the Capital of a Kingdom where the reporter will have it – is trying to thrust Islamic Banking down my throat and is the hub of all anti-India activities. My vacation is due in November and I am eager to go home -to see my new born and the persisting rainfall. But that’s not all I’m thinking of now. Although my name doesn’t show who I am – my passport will expose me as a Muslim. One year back I took off from Calicut Airport with a heavy heart seeking a job in Riyadh, and now am I to land back in the same airport as a security threat – as someone who funds terror outfits, as someone who has nearly 70% land ownership in several districts of Kerala”? Will I be classified as “Rich Muslim” – a potential threat? Is Rich Muslim such a bad thing? Is s/he not covered in “the right to property” part of the Indian constitution? I am figuring out the answers I shall probably be answering in a society that is visibly polarized. It isn’t easy in God’s Own Country anymore. The media didn’t make it easy. Now, every upstart journalist prankster can launch himself by taking a free hit at Muslims. He can define Muslims collectively as prone to violence. He can generalize them to be generous in funding hate. Now thinking of my home-coming, will there be pokey journalists with flashes at the airport standing side-by-side anxious relatives hunting for sound bites? Will they ask me how much land I own? Will they accept my answer that 21 cents is what I have and it came as inheritance? And that being a Muslim expatriate and Terrorism network had nothing to do with it – pardon me. Will they ask me what books I read? Will they approve of John Steinbeck and Ziauddin Zardar? What category does Dr. Ali Shariati’s and Naomi Klein’s book fall? Is there a sell by date for the proposed conversion of Kerala into a Muslim State? Do they teach you to chop hands? Is it Ray-Ban you are wearing? Are they building nuclear reactors in Makkah – is it true? Pardon me the sarcasm. Or how would something like “In several districts nearly 70 percent land ownership is held by Muslims, of which a considerable chunk is held by Muslim religious institutions and organizations through proxies” be printed in a “progressive” magazine with total disregard for sentiments (forget facts). I beg to ask, do you know the pain and suffering of Gulf expatriates (according to the cover story the bulk of who are “Muslims”)? Do you know the hardship, the longing? I think not. If you find the gulf expatriate building huge abodes in Kerala (the yardstick to decide wealth) it is because (s)he is trying to make up for the days (s)he lived in tiny rooms sharing with 6 others. If you find him/her sending more money home rather than afford minimum luxury in his/her host country, its because (s)he wants her/his kids to have better education, so that they have a better chance. When Kerela CM wanted to know and investigate why more Muslim students cleared SSLC examinations with good marks, did he ever consider the fact that there might (might, might) be a possibility that they just started trying harder so that they can compete in the local job market than be flying to Gulf countries (and be branded traitor and terrorist by every Tom,Dick & Harry) for a life of struggle and loneliness. Maybe they get a good chance in India, maybe their father/mother can return from Gulf and be with them…. No, Mr.Chief Minister, these kids are not part of any grandiose plan for world domination. Coming back to Shashikumar’s Tehelka tale, it was all too easy for someone to generalize Gulf Muslim expatriates. Ask someone who has been here, seen it-the longing & struggle. And the heat for God’s sake! For him we are the ones who “own” over 70 % of the new purchased land, the ones who fund terror and the ones who make “Hindus and Christians of Kerala anxious.” What’s so disturbing? Oh me. Maybe someone will bring out a brochure titled “Things not to do if you are a Muslim” What would it say? Let me take a guess. You cannot be Muslim and be rich- you could end up financing Al Qaeda. You cannot have a PhD and wear headscarf- you might be inspired to blow up something. You should resist admiring fighters (oops! terrorists) like members of Hamas who have nothing else to do except resist an occupying force that systematically humiliates and kills a besieged population. A state that unleashes white phosphorus on marked UN shelters. Leave that job to Arundhatis and non-Muslim liberals of the world- not You. Never be agitated by cover stories (even if Tehelka carries it) that stereotypes you as being highly susceptible to acquire the kill somebody syndrome. Never doubt the integrity or ethics of someone who writes a cover story without doing his homework. Do not rush to correct if he makes factual errors. And don’t you wonder who is polarizing the society – writers like these or the organizations he blames. What’s the difference? Be careful not to be hurt when someone writes “Mainstream Muslims in Kerala may not come out and applaud them when they do things like cutting the professor’s hand but they support them inwardly.” Pretend you did not read it. Pray be silent. Because you are Muslim and these are times when the most visible thing you see in media is either debate over Ground Zero mosque or Tara Reid’s new boob job exclusives. Or if you cannot resist it I recommend be courteous, shave off facial hair (it only looks good on Kenny Rogers and Amitabh Bachchan) ask in hushed tones with your back bent and your trousers rolled “shall I presume, may I? Shall I ask for proof? Shall I beg to differ?” And please look the other way, lest we fall prey to LeT trap. (Another response that Tehelka did not publish) -- "[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
