[May look up <http://www.malala.org/> for Malala's speeh in the wake of the announcement of the award.
Pervez Hoodbhoy is, of course, an eminent physicist but also a leading peace campaigner and social-political commentator promoting that cause.] I/II. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Why-does-Malala-Yusufzais-Nobel-Bother-so-Many-on-the-Left-20141106-0023.html Why does Malala Yusufzai's Nobel Bother so Many on the Left? Western agendas and interests can sometimes be intelligently leveraged for furthering what is important for peoples everywhere. Pervez Hoodbhoy Published 5 November 2014 Arundhati Roy's charm and lucidity have iconized her in the world of left-wing politics. But, asked by Laura Flanders what she made of the 2014 Nobel Prize, she appeared to be swallowing a live frog: "Well, look, it is a difficult thing to talk about because Malala is a brave girl and I think she has even recently started speaking out against the US invasions and bombings...but she's only a kid you know and she cannot be faulted for what she did....the great game is going on...they pick out people [for the Nobel Prize]." For one who has championed peoples causes everywhere so wonderfully well these shallow, patronizing remarks were disappointing. Farzana Versey, Mumbai based left-wing author and activist, was still less generous. Describing Malala as "a cocooned marionette" hoisted upon the well-meaning but unwary, Versey lashes out at her for, among other things, raising the problem of child labor at her speech at the United Nations: "it did not strike her that she is now even more a victim of it, albeit in the sanitized environs of an acceptable intellectual striptease." But hang on a bit! This "kid" and "cocooned marionette" did not achieve world-wide admiration for opposing US-led wars or child labor or for a thousand and one other such good-and-great things. The bullet that smashed through her skull came because she opposed the Pakistani Taliban's edict that all education for girls must end forever in the Swat valley after 15 September 2009, and her vigorous campaign for every girl child's right to education. It is perfectly clear why Malala has had to be damned to eternity by her left-wing critics: she has been photographed in the company of men judged to be villains: Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Ban Ki Moon, Richard Holbrooke, and others. It is also obvious that she could not have won the Nobel peace prize - which is always an intensely political affair - but for support from the highest quarters in the western world. ***Consequently many on the left have easily dismissed her condemnation of drone strikes in Pakistan, as well as the $50,000 from her Nobel Prize money which she gave for rebuilding Gaza schools, as thin ploys aimed at image building.*** [Emphasis added.] ***Unsurprisingly leftist critiques of Malala's Nobel have been eagerly seized upon by right-wingers in Pakistan, helping seal the narrative for many of my countrymen and women*** [emphasis added.]. For cultural and religious reasons, as much as for political ones, they have already come to loathe the West even more than arch-enemy India. In the weeks after she was shot, several students at my university told me they see Malala Yousafzai as Malala 'Dramazai', an 'Illuminati Psy Op', and a willing tool of the West who is out to badmouth Pakistan and make it appear unreasonably dangerous. Many doubted that she had been shot at all - the Taliban know how to kill. Pakistan's officialdom also harbors a hidden, but deep, hostility to her. Although the government officially acclaimed the Prize, a resolution to honor Malala was unsuccessfully moved last week by the opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial assembly. Instead the KPK assembly passed another resolution to press the US government to free the "daughter of Pakistan", Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted Al-Qaida affiliate who is now serving out her 86-year sentence at Fort Worth, Texas. ***Mainstream Urdu newspapers describe Malala as a poster girl of the West, and a Trojan horse for introducing secularism in Pakistan.*** [Emphasis added. What holy horror!] I have no expectations from the millions of my conspiracy obsessed fellow Pakistanis. But have Malala's left-wing detractors - including those who I have long respected for their outspokenness in opposing multiple forms of oppression and imperialist wars - ever really bothered to know why she was shot? In the following, I have translated and condensed a 9-page pamphlet entitled Aqeedon ka Tasadum explaining why Malala had to be killed. Written in Urdu and signed by the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, it was circulated shortly after the shooting: Preamble: This is a war of two faiths, Islam versus kufr (unbelief). On the one side there is true education and modesty; on the other is nudity, music, dancing, and disgraceful gyrations. On the one side there is respect for the veil; on the other are those females who appear on TV and give interviews to men who are not relatives. In fact they dare to mock the Taliban and mujahideen who seek to prevent nudity, lewdness, and Westernization. So here is why this so-called Malala, a pawn of Western interests and secular forces, had to be brought to justice: First, is Malala a child? No! She was born on 18 July 1998, which makes her 15 years and 4 months old. She had crossed puberty and shown the signs. Thus she had to be treated as an adult woman responsible for her deeds. Second, is the killing of women allowed in Islam? Yes! After the conquest of Mecca, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had personally ordered several women to be killed, including by stoning to death. Hazrat Ali too had declared as correct and justified the strangling of a Jewish woman who had verbally abused the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Third, what does Pakhtun culture say? Although some media commentators claim that killing girls is against our culture, this is nonsense. If a boy and girl are even suspected of doing something together, it is common to kill both. Fourth, was Malala guilty? Yes! This so-called innocent "child" actually wrote a diary under the false name of Gul Makai, and daily criticized us in it. She called Obama her ideal, and preferred the secular education of Lord Macaulay to Islamic education. Fifth, was Malala unarmed? No! She was armed with the pen, a weapon sharper than the sword, with which she daily defamed Islam and Muslims. She portrayed the Taliban as beastly savages. This is why we rightly punished her. Conclusion: By focusing on Malala this filthy (Pakistani) media shows it is prostituted to the Americans. It says no words of protest against the strip-searching and incarceration of the daughter of Islam (Dr Aafia Siddiqui). It makes a false hero out of one who deserved what she got. ---------[end of translation] A puzzle: why does such savage bestiality often find no, or only cursory, reference in today's left-wing discourses? Boko Haram's sex captives, ISIL's beheadings, Taliban suicide attacksagainst civilians, and scores of atrocities by multiple Islamic groups should appall and disgust all those who believe in human equality, decency, and freedom. The Left is most certainly built upon these strong moral foundations, so why the near silence? The explanation has two parts. First, a portion of the Left has a wholly negative view of western agendas, uncritically rejecting everything as self-serving and hypocritical. Second, many progressives today do not wish to leave a comfort zone where all global problems can be safely blamed on to the West. Having two baddies - America and Islamism - threatens to muddy up the waters. They would prefer to keep life simple. But shouldn't one be a little cleverer, more discerning? It is doubtlessly true that the pursuit by the United States of its strategic and economic interests fed and fueled the rise of violent Islamism through its multiple wars and interventions, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US continues to be the principal protector and ally of Saudi Arabia - which has long funded jihadists across the globe. It stokes anger through its unconditional support for aggressive Israeli expansionism. In such situations it is right and proper to condemn the US and fight back. At the same time, one must recognize that western culture and politics have changed in important ways. This is not because of the Obamas, Bushes, or Blairs but owes instead to a protracted, centuries-long struggle by the working class and activists. No longer can any western country afford to be seen as a merciless colonizer, or to freely militarily ravage and economically plunder as in past centuries. Constraints on their still callous corporate and political elites have steadily grown. Therefore western agendas and interests can sometimes be intelligently leveraged for furthering what is important for peoples everywhere: education, peace, female emancipation, freedom of thought and action, labor rights, and all that the Left holds important. Malala has played this game with the West well, giving us hope that in these bleak times there are still some among us who have their heads screwed on right. A young Pakistani progressive, Ghausia Rashid Salam, departs from common opinion by paying her this tribute: "We should be honored that Malala emerged from our country, because we know better than any white man, better than any South Asian, what Pakistan is, and what life here is like. We know, better than anyone else in the world, how resilient you have to be to emerge from a life under the Taliban and not give up fighting for your rights, or the rights of others. We should be happy that the Western world can see for itself the brutal conditions we, and other parts of the world, live in, because the more fortunate parts of the world need to check their damned privilege and start making genuine efforts to bring change." It is surely time for one-track leftists to learn that we live in a multiple-tracked world, to recognize that there can be more than one baddie, and to resist from simplifying at the cost of accuracy. Else they do grievous wrong to all. --------------------- The author teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad. http://www.dawn.com/news/1142961/the-rise-of-unreason Dawn, November 8th, 2014 The rise of unreason Pervez Hoodbhoy The author teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad. Some 300 years ago the age of reason lifted Europe from darkness, ushering in modern science together with modern scientific attitudes. These soon spread across the world. But now, running hot on its heels is the age of unreason. Reliance upon evidence, patient investigation, and careful logic is giving way to bald assertions, hyperbole, and blind faith. Listen to India's superstar prime minister, the man who recently enthralled 20,000 of his countrymen in New York City with his promises to change India's future using science and technology. Inaugurating the Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai two Saturdays ago, he proclaimed that the people of ancient India had known all about cosmetic surgery and reproductive genetics for thousands of years. Here's his proof: "We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother's womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother's womb." Referring to the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, Modi asserted that, "there must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who put an elephant's head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery". Whether or not he actually believed his words, Modi knew it would go down well. In 1995, parts of India had gone hysterical after someone found Lord Ganesha would drink the milk if a spoon was held to his trunk. Until the cause was discovered to be straightforward capillary action (the natural tendency of liquids to buck gravity), the rush towards temples was so great that a traffic gridlock resulted in New Delhi and sales of milk jumped up by 30pc. Closer to home: a staggering number of Pakistanis -- university science students included -- believe that everything from quantum mechanics to black holes and genes were anticipated 1,400 years ago. Darwin's theory of evolution is roundly rejected even by students and teachers in biology departments. Instead, the common belief is that all of modern science can be extracted by mastering Arabic and interpreting holy texts expertly enough. Forty years ago, when I joined Islamabad University, the chairman of the physics department, a pious man from the Tableeghi Jamaat, had just calculated the speed at which heaven is running away from earth -- and found it to be one centimetre per second less than the speed of light. Today TV channels broadcast even more bizarre theories. Once evidence becomes irrelevant, everything becomes possible. With only preformed notions as guide, outlandish conclusions, offensive to common sense, are frequent. The progress of science may suffer, but society and individuals take the brunt. Take, for example, the question of whether Ram Janmabhoomi is actually the birthplace of Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu. Is this located precisely where Emperor Babar built the now-demolished Babri mosque? No conceivable archaeological evidence can adjudicate the matter. In fact it is impossible to establish on physical grounds the existence of Rama, much less the coordinates of his birthplace. But, the tragic events of Dec 6, 1992, owed to this belief. The scars of that terrible carnage have yet to heal. Deliberately inflicted psychological scars may be even more unhealable. Terrifying life-after-death experiences are invented to create a passively accepting frame of mind. For decades, one of the most widely read books in Pakistan has been Maut ka manzar -- marnay kay baad kya hoga (Scenes of life after death) with horrific episodes created by the author's fertile imagination. Once considered as creative fiction, such life-after-death works are now becoming part of Pakistan's mainstream education. Backed by university administrators, teachers and preachers are targeting the youth on campuses across the country. On Oct 27, the Institute of Business Management in Karachi organised a major event, 'The last moments -- an exclusive insight on the death of a man'. The event's black-and-white poster seems to be right out of some 1960s' Hollywood horror movie with hooded, shrouded ghouls slouching across a graveyard. IoBM's administration sent out official emails asking students to attend. A Saudi-certified professor would answer questions like: "Is life a mere game? Are you prepared for your death? Do you know what it feels at the moment you die? Is Allah pleased with your life?" Such profound questions are surely best left up to God. A living, breathing, walking, talking professor cannot possibly adduce physical evidence about one's dying moments. Nor claim to know whether Allah is pleased or angry with an individual. At best he can give his opinion. I do not know what effect this particular professor had on his audience. But recently a colleague in Islamabad told me that his physics PhD student Mujeeb (not his real name) is behaving very strangely after viewing an after-death movie downloaded from some proselytizing website. Mujeeb now broods incessantly, worries more about death than life, and has almost stopped working. It is not just South Asia where unreason is on the rise. The United States, the centre of high science, is now struggling with various crackpot anti-science movements. However, determined opposition has kept astrology, creationism, UFOs, magnetic therapy, etc. away from the mainstream. In India, the battle against Vishwa Hindu Parishad and BJP ideology will be harder. But India has a strong Nehruvian past and Indian rationalists have strongly opposed so-called Vedic mathematics and cosmology, and revamping school curricula. The price has not been small. For example, Dr Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was murdered in Pune almost a year ago. He had helped draft the Anti-Jadu Tona Bill (Anti-Black Magic Bill) which political parties like the BJP and Shiv Sena opposed, claiming it would adversely affect Hindu culture, customs and traditions. But nowhere in the world has unreason grown faster, and become more dangerous, than in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio workers here have shorter lives than soldiers in battle. More importantly, with schools, colleges, and universities actively working to crush young minds rather than enlighten them, this fight against unreason is surely going to be a much tougher one. The author teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
