South Asia Citizens Wire - 8 April 2016 - No. 2890 [since 1996] Contents: 1. Bangladesh: UN and EU officials condemn the murder of the blogger Nizamuddin Samad / Fellow Students protest after killing 2. The Politics of Bangladesh’s Genocide Debate | David Bergman 3. Pakistan: the lynch mob .. textbooks, the law and deep patriarchy 4. India: Nationalism as Stick To Discipline and Punish 5. Human Rights Watch Letter Concerning India to the European Union (EU) at the time of EU-India Summit of 30 March 2016 6. India: Open Letter to Chief Justice Chattisgarh High Court shocking handcuffing Dr. Saibal Jena | Rakesh Shukla 7. India: 5000 slum residents hit South Mumbai’s streets demanding housing right, basic amenities . . . 8. India: Substandard Medicines, Low Oversight and Health
9. Recent On Communalism Watch: - India: Court lifts barriers to women’s entry to temples, now ban triple talaq too (Edit, The Times of India, 4 april 2016) - Bar the dance - Bharat Mata ki Jai -- so goes the going in Maharashtra - Announcement: Dr Ambedkar and Democracy by Christophe Jaffrelot - Sixth Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture (28 April 2016, New Delhi) - India: Stop BJP in Assam - Appeal on 2016 Assembly elections - India: Key witness statements in Malegaon blasts case missing from NIA court - Bangladesh: Another free-thinker hacked to death in Dhaka - 6 April 2016 - India: Women, you can worship anywhere (Editorial, Deccan Herald, 7 April 2016) - India: Another campus in turmoil - Tunnel-vision nationalists risk a blowback in Kashmir (Editorial, The Tribune, 7 April 2016) - India: the 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' debate - The language of violence (Editorial, The Hindu) - Bangladesh: Was secularism ever part of Sheikh Mujib's political agenda? - Is India For Hindus Only, Judges Ask Nagpur Corporation, Run By BJP (Sanjay Ramakant Tiwari) - India: Temple Tantrums (Neeta Lal) - India - Maharashtra: Joint human chain by women’s wing of the Shiv Sena, the Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu Janajagruti Manch and its Ran Ragini Shakha - Vice President Hamid Ansari’s secularism remarks: Say it again (Fali S Nariman) - Baba Ramdev, The Daesh Bhakt - Cartoon by Morparia - India Latehar confessions: Gau Rakshaks give chilling details of 18 March hangings (Vikas Kumar & Aditya Menon / Catch News) ::: URLs & FULL TEXT ::: 10. Sri Lanka: Halt prefab steel houses project for war-affected | Ahilan Kadirgamar, Suriya Wickremasinghe, Dr. G. Usvatte- Aratchi [and Others] 11. Bangladeshi surfer girls go against the cultural tide | Shashank Bengali 12. Nepal’s Divisive New Constitution: An Existential Crisis | International Crisis Group 13. A bomb in Lahore: The hard choice for Pakistan | The Economist 14. Charlie Hebdo's latest editorial identifies Muslims as the solution, not the problem - how is that Islamophobic? | Julia Ebner 15. UK: Mullah Mafias: Another Dead Blasphemer—in Scotland | Maajid Nawaz 16. Open Letter to the International Community about the political situation in Brazil | Professors and researchers from Brazilian universities 17. Thailand is turning into Juntaland – and we are resisting | Pravit Rojanaphruk ======================================== 1. BANGLADESH: UN AND EU OFFICIALS CONDEMN THE MURDER OF THE BLOGGER NIZAMUDDIN SAMAD / FELLOW STUDENTS PROTEST AFTER KILLING ======================================== Nizamuddin Samad, a master’s degree student of Jagannath University in Dhaka who had expressed secular views online, was killed in the capital on Wednesday. The 28-year-old was reported to have been an organiser of the Ganajagran Manch, a secular campaigning group. UN and Eu reps in Bangladesh have reacted to the killing and fellow students have protested. http://www.sacw.net/article12577.html ======================================== 2. THE POLITICS OF BANGLADESH’S GENOCIDE DEBATE | David Bergman ======================================== In the decades since the war, there have been efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. The most recent attempt started in 2010, when the current government established two International Crimes Tribunals that together have convicted 26 people on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. International human rights organizations have criticized the tribunals as falling far short of proper due process, but the trials appear popular within Bangladesh. http://www.sacw.net/article12569.html ======================================== 3. PAKISTAN: THE LYNCHING AND RIOTING .. TEXTBOOKS, THE LAW AND DEEP PATRIARCHY ======================================== (i) PAKISTAN: DETOXIFYING THE BODY POLITIC by Nazish Brohi Reams have been written on the state’s role. The radicalism cultivated during the 1980s; the Afghan jihad; patronage of sectarian groups and madressahs; re-promulgation of the blasphemy law during Zia’s regime; the Federal Shariat Court ordering compulsory execution for blasphemy, which triggered a deluge of allegations. But does the law’s existence sufficiently explain lynching and rioting? Is it a simple linear connection that the law spurs vigilantism? Or does the state’s inaction reflect a deeper problem? http://www.sacw.net/article12567.html (ii) PAKISTAN: NCJP / PILER CONFERENCE CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF HATE MATERIAL FROM CURRICULUM - NEW REPORTS reports and news clippings of PILER/NCJP conference in Karachi on ’Uprooting religious intolerance through formal education in Pakistan’ http://www.sacw.net/article12553.html (iii) PAKISTAN: TEXTBOOKS OF HATE by Zubeida Mustafa ... The fact is that there is a nexus between the militant, extremist and jihadist elements in the education sector, not just in KP but to an extent all over Pakistan. http://www.sacw.net/article12563.html (iv) PAKISTAN: THE CHALLENGE POSED BY WOMEN / THE DIRTY OLD MEN OF PAKISTAN articles by Harris Khalique and Mohammed Hanif http://www.sacw.net/article12576.html ======================================== 4. INDIA: NATIONALISM AS STICK TO DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH ======================================== (i) NATIONALISM IS THE BEDROCK UPON WHICH ALL FASCIST MOVEMENTS HAVE BUILT THEMSELVES by Jairus Banaji ‘Make in India’ has failed to resonate with businesses internationally because the accumulation of capital, worldwide, is driven by more than just propaganda and a fading charisma. But this hasn’t stopped the ruling party and government machinery from ‘making’ at a furious pace. It has manufactured the crisis at JNU as part of a wide-ranging assault on the control of higher education in the country. http://www.sacw.net/article12523.html (II) INDIA: ‘ANTI-NATIONAL’ HAS BECOME THE HANDLE TO SNUFF OUT ALL CRITICISM by Salil Tripathi Unthinking nationalism is immature because it is bereft of reflection and perilous because it can lead to erosion of liberties http://www.sacw.net/article12573.html ======================================== 5. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LETTER CONCERNING INDIA TO THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) AT THE TIME OF EU-INDIA SUMMIT OF 30 MARCH 2016 ======================================== We urge that you use the summit to encourage the Indian government to: - Repeal the sedition law, and in the interim instruct state governments to follow Supreme Court strictures when applying the law. - Amend the FCRA so that it does not interfere with the rights to freedom of expression and association and cannot be misused to choke the protected peaceful activities of civil society organizations. http://www.sacw.net/article12555.html ======================================== 6. INDIA: OPEN LETTER TO CHIEF JUSTICE CHATTISGARH HIGH COURT SHOCKING HANDCUFFING DR. SAIBAL JENA | Rakesh Shukla ======================================== Letter by a committed lawyer regarding the illegal practice of handcuffing by Chattisgarh Police . .. http://www.sacw.net/article12562.html ======================================== 7. INDIA: 5000 SLUM RESIDENTS HIT SOUTH MUMBAI’S STREETS DEMANDING HOUSING RIGHT, BASIC AMENITIES AND SCIENTIFIC WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE CITY ======================================== Mumbai | 6th April, 2016: Slum residents from all over Mumbai threatened by illegal forcible eviction and annoyed by lack of basic amenities in slums, marched from Carnac Bunder to Azad Maidan, Mumbai on 5th April, 2016 in a huge rally demanding housing right to be ensured with all the basic amenities. http://www.sacw.net/article12571.html ======================================== 8. INDIA: SUBSTANDARD MEDICINES, LOW OVERSIGHT AND HEALTH ======================================== There has been little done by either the influential pharmaceutical industry or the government to improve the quality of medicines sold in less-regulated markets like India http://www.sacw.net/article12570.html ======================================== 9. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH: ======================================== - India: How Hinduism was nationalized (Suhrith Parthasarathy) - India: Court lifts barriers to women’s entry to temples, now ban triple talaq too (Edit, The Times of India, 4 april 2016) - Bar the dance - Bharat Mata ki Jai -- so goes the going in Maharashtra - Announcement: Dr Ambedkar and Democracy by Christophe Jaffrelot - Sixth Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture (28 April 2016, New Delhi) - India: Stop BJP in Assam - Appeal on 2016 Assembly elections - India: Key witness statements in Malegaon blasts case missing from NIA court - Bangladesh: Another free-thinker hacked to death in Dhaka - 6 April 2016 - India: Women, you can worship anywhere (Editorial, Deccan Herald, 7 April 2016) - India: Another campus in turmoil - Tunnel-vision nationalists risk a blowback in Kashmir (Editorial, The Tribune, 7 April 2016) - India: the 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' debate - The language of violence (Editorial, The Hindu) - Bangladesh: Was secularism ever part of Sheikh Mujib's political agenda? - Is India For Hindus Only, Judges Ask Nagpur Corporation, Run By BJP (Sanjay Ramakant Tiwari) - India: Temple Tantrums (Neeta Lal) - India - Maharashtra: Joint human chain by women’s wing of the Shiv Sena, the Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu Janajagruti Manch and its Ran Ragini Shakha - Vice President Hamid Ansari’s secularism remarks: Say it again (Fali S Nariman) - Baba Ramdev, The Daesh Bhakt - Cartoon by Morparia - India Latehar confessions: Gau Rakshaks give chilling details of 18 March hangings (Vikas Kumar & Aditya Menon / Catch News) - India: Far from being eternal, Bharat Mata is only a little more than 100 years old (DN Jha on scroll.in) -> available at: http://communalism.blogspot.com/ ::: URLs & FULL TEXT ::: ======================================== 10. SRI LANKA: HALT PREFAB STEEL HOUSES PROJECT FOR WAR-AFFECTED by Ahilan Kadirgamar, Suriya Wickremasinghe, Dr. G. Usvatte- Aratchi [and Others] ======================================== (The Island - April 6, 2016) The Cabinet Decision in September 2015 that 65,000 houses be built by the government for war- affected people was commendable. However, both the manner and the consequences of the awarding of the contract to Arcelor Mittal, a multinational company building prefabricated steel houses, have rightly attracted public concern and serious criticism. Rising local and national opposition to this housing project has raised the following issues: Transparency and haste in tendering process; manipulation by vested interests in decision-making; significantly greater cost of steel housing over conventional alternatives; colossal 1 billion USD national debt to be incurred; denial of the secondary benefits to local construction industry and local labour that would accompany a more customary scheme; culturally and practically inappropriate design that does not match community lifestyle and preferences; unknown durability of steel housing under Sri Lankan conditions, challenges for locally-sourced maintenance by residents, and over-hasty and confusing applications processes for this scheme being implemented at district level. The 65,000 house construction project is one of the few substantial development projects put forward by the current Government for the war-affected Northern and Eastern provinces. This project will also be seen as a litmus test for the Government’s commitment towards reconciliation. Imposing a deeply questionable scheme for prefabricated steel houses on some of the most vulnerable in Sri Lanka’s minority communities, risks alienating the very people it is meant to benefit, and jeopardising the Government's reconciliation efforts. The Friday Forum calls on the Government to immediately halt this project; consult the communities concerned and systematically review the options available for suitable housing and a process of construction most beneficial to the affected communities and the public interest. Ahilan Kadirgamar Suriya Wickremasinghe Dr. G. Usvatte- Aratchi For and on behalf of: Ananda Galappatti, Priyantha Gamage, Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran, Damaris Wickremesekera, Prof. Arjuna Aluwihare, Prof. Camena Guneratne, Bishop Duleep de Chickera, Dr. Upatissa Pethiyagoda, Shanthi Dias, Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere, Prof. Gameela Samarasinghe, Faiz-ur Rahman, Danesh Casie-Chetty, Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, Professor Savitri Goonesekere, Dr A.C.Visvalingam, Javid Yusuf, Mr. S.C.C. Elankovan, Tissa Jayatilaka and Chandra Jayaratne. ======================================== 11. BANGLADESHI SURFER GIRLS GO AGAINST THE CULTURAL TIDE | Shashank Bengali ======================================== (Los Angeles Times - 4 April 2016) The girls ply this endless stretch of beach every morning, weaving through flocks of tourists to sell snacks, the ocean breeze whipping the gossamer scarves of their traditional shalwar kameez. They rarely went into the water. In their conservative world of southern Bangladesh, it was said, decent girls didn't swim. Three years ago, one of the girls noticed a lifeguard gliding across the waves on a surfboard. It seemed to her almost like magic. Shoma Akthar, the youngest of six sisters, did not lack confidence. When the surfer, Rashed Alam, came ashore, she told him, "I want to do that." Bangladeshi surfer girls Friends Aisha, 11, Sumi, 13, and Shoma Akthar, 14, are some of the girls surfing together in Cox's Bazar. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) "Meet me tomorrow morning," Alam responded. It was several weeks before Shoma worked up the courage. She knew her mother wouldn't approve of anything that took her away from working on the beach. "If I can't make money, my mom yells," Shoma said. "I'm scared of her." Surfing offered a perfect rebellion. She began stealing an hour or two late in the morning to get in the water. Within days, others followed. For these eight girls ages 11 to 14, surfing has helped them reclaim a piece of their childhood. It is a sport that conjures up freedom, verve and sunlit horizons — attributes not usually associated with the life of a young girl in Bangladesh, an overwhelmingly Muslim country of 160 million with one of the world's highest rates of child marriage. Now they are a daily sight in the rolling gray waters: Alam, 26, and a gaggle of girls atop battered boards, sliding across the surf and defying customs as old as the Bay of Bengal. "I was scared of the waves," said Shoma, a chatty 14-year-old wearing waterproof lipstick, her hair tied in a ponytail. "But not anymore." The young surfers kept their new pastime a secret for weeks before telling their families. "The girls' parents want them to work," Alam said. "We have to convince them that they can have a future outside the house." Johanara cooks at home. American photographer Allison Joyce learned of the girls and began visiting regularly to document their stories. Last year she helped set up an online crowd-funding project to support the girls’ families. (Allison Joyce / Redux) In Cox's Bazar, a shabby coastal town near the border with Myanmar, adulthood often begins early. Poor children are yanked from school to sell food and homemade trinkets so that their families can eat. This was how Alam found the eight girls: hustling to earn a dollar or two a day, the weight of their families on their slim shoulders, their futures preordained. "My life before was making jewelry at home, work, sleep, making jewelry, work, sleep," said Mayasha, 14. Like many girls in Bangladesh, she has only one name. "When I started surfing, I began thinking about my dreams," she said. "Now I think there are lots of things I want to do." The girls might never have had the chance if an Australian hadn't left his surfboard behind when he passed through Cox's Bazar in the 1990s. The boys who found it became Bangladesh's first surfers, learning to ride the gentle swells along what tourist brochures describe as the world's longest uninterrupted beach. Alam grew up working on the beach too, hawking horseback rides and lounge chairs to tourists. He taught himself to surf on a borrowed board and helped start the Cox's Bazar surf club in 2008. It now boasts 55 members and a small collection of secondhand boards and equipment, most of it donated. He got a job as a municipal lifeguard and adopted the surfer chic — board shorts, carefree stubble, Quiksilver cap pulled low. When he started teaching the girls, it was as if he had found his calling. Bangladeshi surfer girls Johanara is one of the youngest Bangladeshi female surfers. (Allison Joyce / Redux) One of the youngest, 11-year-old Johanara, was terrified and struggled for months to balance herself on the board as it zoomed across the water. When she finally stood up, Alam gave her a long ovation. "It was the best moment of my life," said Johanara, the oldest of five. One recent evening at Johanara's house, a Bangla movie played on a tiny television as children sat watching at the edge of a bed. A surfboard from Alam stood in a corner, obscured in the dim light of a lone bulb overhead. Johanara's father, Mohammed Gulab Hussein, was a struggling house painter who hadn't had steady work in months. Her mother often ordered Johanara and her 8-year-old brother to work on the beach until dark, dragging a barrel filled with water bottles, chips and cigarettes. "I try to encourage my daughter," Hussein said. "But she's our oldest and we need her to support the family." None of the parents reacted well to hearing their daughters were surfing. Besides the danger, they worried about the girls' reputations in a profoundly male-dominated society. Neighbors gossiped. Some of the girls were harassed on the street or riding in auto-rickshaws. A few parents said young men came to their houses accusing the girls of behaving improperly. "Men assume they're coming to the beach to do bad stuff," said Venessa Rude, Alam's Bakersfield-born wife, who first came to Cox's Bazar four years ago to volunteer for a charity. "No one is used to seeing confident girls like this." Bangladeshi surfer girls Johanara surfs in Cox’s Bazar last year. When she’s not surfing, Johanara, now 11, helps her family make ends meet by selling water, chips and cigarettes on the beach, often working until dark. (Allison Joyce / Redux) The parents of two sisters, 13-year-old Rifa and 11-year-old Aisha, registered their displeasure with open palms, leaving Aisha with a bruise under one eye. The girls had grown so afraid of their father that when they saw him in town — usually frying parathas, or flatbread, at a scruffy roadside canteen — they would duck into a shop or dive into the back of a rickshaw. But in the water, they were fearless. One night, Rifa lunged into the ocean to chase a soccer ball after a boy challenged her. Alam, aware that any mishap involving the girls could end his surfing project, was mortified. "I know you're a good swimmer," he scolded her afterward, "but you can't do that!" Several times, Shoma's mother, Maryam Katho, came down to the beach to drag her daughter back to work. The two live by themselves in a one-room house made of sand on a steep hillside a mile from the beach. Shoma's father had gone to live with his second wife; her sisters all had been married as teenagers. Her mother woke before dawn to boil eggs over a small fire. Soon after sunrise it was time for Shoma to head down to the beach to sell the eggs — their only source of income. At one point last year, Shoma disappeared from the beach for a week. Fellow surfer Sumi learned she had been sent to work as a housekeeper for a nearby family, and marched there to confront Shoma's boss. "I'm looking for my friend," said Sumi, 13. "I'm going to take her home." The woman shooed Sumi away with a volley of curses. Alam paid house calls to win the trust of each parent. He persuaded Shoma's mother that her daughter shouldn't work as a maid because she was becoming a talented surfer. A few months later, Shoma placed third in a local competition and won $40, the equivalent of two months' salary as a housekeeper. To celebrate, she and her mother rode a bus to the nearby city of Chittagong for a day, the first family trip she could remember. Katho has warmed to her daughter's hobby. One evening in her home, she laughed when asked whether she wanted Shoma to be married soon, like her sisters. "She'll get married when she wants," Katho replied. "She might be going surfing in Hawaii one day." Shoma grinned. Rashed Alam trains some of the girls in CPR and rescue, hoping to show their parents that the surfers could have a career as lifeguards. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times) To show that surfing could lead to a career, Alam began training some of the girls in CPR and rescue, hoping that some could become lifeguards when they turn 18. In the afternoons, Rude tutors the girls in English to prepare them for tourism or office jobs. An American photographer in Bangladesh, Allison Joyce, learned of the girls and began visiting regularly to document their stories. Last year Joyce helped set up an online crowd-funding project to support the girls' families. Every month, each family receives about $50 worth of rice, dal, cooking oil and other essentials — enough to lift some of the financial burden from the girls. "Without that help," Johanara said, "my mom would make me stop surfing." Under gray skies one recent morning, the girls gathered for lifeguard training. The day's lesson: ocean rescues. Johanara, wearing a tomato-colored tunic, waited her turn at the edge of the beach. Sand caked the bottoms of her tights. Alam blew his whistle and she raced into the water. Johanara's mother had come down to the beach with a basket of trinkets and two younger children in tow. She pulled up one end of her green sari to shield her face from the wind as she scanned the crowd for her eldest daughter. Johanara finally appeared as a distant speck of red, beaming as she emerged from the water. She was too far away to see her mother smiling. ======================================== 12. NEPAL’S DIVISIVE NEW CONSTITUTION: AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS International Crisis Group ======================================== International Crisis Group - Asia Report N°276 4 Apr 2016 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS On 20 September 2015, Nepal’s new constitution passed amid deadly protests by Madhesi and Tharu groups across the southern Tarai plains that continued for months, leaving 57 dead. Protesting groups said the statute backtracked on addressing structural discrimination. The protests had deep support in ethnic Madhesi Tarai communities, reflecting a profound, increasing sense of alienation from the state. A 135-day blockade of vital supplies by Madhesi civic and political groups, partially supported by India, has ended, but as no political solution is on the table, the protests are almost certain to resume. To stop violent polarisation and a breakdown of social relations, national parties and protesting groups must urgently agree on how to manage contentious issues, with timelines, guarantees, and a role for civic participation. A sustainable, equitable social contract is necessary for lasting peace and reconciliation. After the devastating earthquakes in spring 2015, the largest parties in the Constituent Assembly decided, amid controversy, to fast-track a new constitution so as to fulfil a longstanding peace process commitment and enable them to focus on reconstruction. Some administrative and structural reforms mandated by the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 2007 Interim Constitution and other political agreements are enshrined in the new constitution. But Madhesi, Tharu, janajati, Dalit, religious minorities and women’s groups – all considered historically marginalised – believe the new statute and the process by which it was rushed through diluted commitments to meaningful federalism, redress for historical, structural discrimination based on ethnic and religious identity and gender, and democratic consultation. There is disagreement over boundaries of new states, electoral representation and affirmative action, constituency delineation and citizenship-related clauses. Supporters of the new constitution feel much has already been achieved and say an excessive focus on identity-based grievances threatens Nepal’s unity, integrity, even sovereignty. The objections of those who demonstrated against it have their roots in long-running social disagreements on what it means to be Nepali and whether a homogenous conception of Nepaliness has led to structural discrimination against groups that do not conform to the behaviour and values of hill-origin, Nepali-speaking, upper caste Hindu communities. The blockade was an extreme form of protest with complex consequences, including grievous harm to the weakest and poorest sections of Nepali society and alienating communities the protestors should have been making common cause with. Yet, judging it a failure as a tactic should not substitute for a careful assessment of what is in effect a social movement in the Tarai. All political parties and most protesters agree that the way forward is to amend the new constitution, not scrap it. In January 2016, the major parties passed two amendments related to more inclusive representation in state organs and delineation of constituencies. Madhesi parties and protestors say these do not adequately address their grievances. Like the constitution, they were adopted unilaterally by the largest parties, losing the legitimacy they would have had as the outcome of a political negotiation. Positions are not irreconcilable, but the prerequisites for any solution – respect, trust, political will, a degree of selflessness – are in short supply. The deficit is fuelled by ideological struggles to maintain a status quo that challengers say cements discrimination and supporters say protects the country, and by the behaviour of political parties, their lack of internal democracy, factionalism and opportunism. There is clear risk of escalating violence in the Tarai. The depth of social discontent, lack of fruitful negotiations and disillusion with Madhesi parties is creating room for radical positions. Mainstream national parties are also in the Tarai, and some are inclined to launch counter protests, which likewise lead to clashes. The security forces are seen as discriminating against Madhesis and using excessive force. Employing them repeatedly to quell local protests fuels anger and radicalisation, could encourage armed Madhesi groups, of which the region has a history, and might also allow a fringe Madhesi secessionist movement to gain traction. While unlikely to be successful or widespread, it would increase the volatility of a complex region. If implementation begins before these issues are addressed, the mainstream parties risk wholesale rejection of the constitution by a large section of the population. Discussions are ongoing in government about conducting local elections; these too carry grave risks of violence, boycotts, intimidation and, in some areas, rejection of the state and its political system. The vision of Nepal as a functioning, tolerant, forward-looking, multi-ethnic society presented in the agreements that were reached after the armed conflict between the Maoist movement and the state ended is in crisis. Those documents are the basis of today’s polity and cannot be replaced unilaterally. Forcing acceptance of a flawed constitution could end the political transition and trigger unmanageable new conflict. RECOMMENDATIONS To manage tensions To the Government of Nepal and the ruling coalition: 1. Restore trust with Madhesi and Tharu populations by forming an independent mechanism to investigate the protest-related deaths and avoid a heavy-handed security response during protests. 2. Refrain from ultimatums and provocative comments. 3. Address the economic and humanitarian consequences of the earthquakes and blockade. To the Madhesi political parties: 4. Rebuild trust with all social groups which live in the plains. 5. Refrain from arbitrary protest strategies, provocative speech and violence. To all Nepali political parties: 6. Agree urgently on terms of reference for a mechanism on state boundaries. 7. Postpone local elections if there is no roadmap to address constitutional disagreements. 8. Monitor conflict risks and potential mitigation measures in contested plains and hills areas regularly. To promote reconciliation and reduce the risk of violence if implementation of the constitution begins To Madhesi and other civil society: 9. Lead the way in social dialogue efforts in the Tarai between all social groups. 10. Create a group of respected, credible national and local figures to explain constitutional issues and coordinate messaging when tensions rise. To the Government of India: 11. Maintain an open approach to all sides. To development partners, including India and China: 12. Assess performance of the security forces and the National Human Rights Commission and calibrate support and training accordingly. 13. Refuse support for local elections if a roadmap agreed with agitating groups is not in place. 14. Ensure conflict sensitivity in reconstruction and development projects. Kathmandu/New Delhi/Brussels, 4 April 2016 ======================================== 13. A BOMB IN LAHORE: THE HARD CHOICE FOR PAKISTAN The country is threatened not just by terrorism, but by widespread religious extremism |The Economist ======================================== (The Economist - 2 April 2016) THE suicide-bombing of a busy park in Lahore on Easter Sunday, which killed more than 70 people, most of them women and children, was not only more lethal than the terrorist attack in Brussels a few days earlier. It also represented a different order of threat to the country in which it happened. Pakistan is engaged in a belated struggle against religious extremism that will determine what sort of country it becomes. That threat is plain in the bomber’s choice of location and timing (see article). Lahore is the capital of Punjab, the provincial power base of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Although most of the victims in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park were Muslim, one aim was to kill Christians. The attack happened to come just a few weeks after the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a police bodyguard who in 2011 murdered Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, for his criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Over 100,000 people attended Qadri’s funeral in Rawalpindi on March 1st. On the same day that the Lahore bomber struck, riot police in the capital, Islamabad, were trying to control a 10,000-strong demonstration against Qadri’s execution. The bombing in Lahore was carried out by Jammat-ul-Ahrar, which splintered from the Pakistani Taliban. The religious hatred it represents has been assiduously cultivated in Pakistan for many years. Saudi money for the building of madrassas (religious seminaries) began to flood into Pakistan during the 1980s with the encouragement of the president at that time, General Zia ul Haq, who saw the country’s Islamisation as his main mission. There are now some 24,000 madrassas in Pakistan, attended by at least 2m boys. Nearly all adhere to the highly conservative Deobandi sect, whose beliefs are similar to Saudi Wahhabism. Tahir Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group, reckons that 60% of the pupils at madrassas were “not involved in any training or terrorist activities”. He declines to expand on what the other 40% might be up to. At least some members of Pakistan’s intelligence service and other parts of the “deep state” still regard certain violent and intolerant jihadist groups as useful weapons against India and Afghanistan. But the distinction they attempt to draw between outfits such as the Haqqani network in North Waziristan and the mainly Kashmir-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carry out their atrocities abroad, and those, such as the Pakistani Taliban, which concentrate on the homeland, fatally undermines Pakistan’s fight against terrorism. To do justice to Mr Sharif’s government and the army’s powerful chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif (no relation), they seem to understand the scale of the problem and are trying to tackle it. A turning-point was the massacre by the Pakistani Taliban of 148 children and teachers at an army school in Peshawar at the end of 2014. It was followed quickly by a national action plan to combat domestic terrorism, which is being implemented with some success. The army claims that its anti-terrorist operations have killed 3,400 terrorists and destroyed 837 of their hideouts and much of their infrastructure. A start, at least The ultra-violence that saw the deaths of 60,000 civilians over the past decade has abated somewhat. There have been attempts to clamp down on hate speech. The execution of Qadri required political backbone. But there is little to show for the action plan’s commitment to “stop religious extremism” and “regularise and reform” madrassas. Moreover, many state-run schools are hardly less toxic. The long-standing addiction to using militant groups as proxies in Pakistan’s disputes with its neighbours is far from broken. And the country should repeal its vicious blasphemy laws, which are used to attack religious minorities. The horror of Lahore shows that the road ahead is long and hard. But only if Pakistan chooses to follow it will the future hold much promise. ======================================== 14. CHARLIE HEBDO'S LATEST EDITORIAL IDENTIFIES MUSLIMS AS THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM - HOW IS THAT ISLAMOPHOBIC? | Julia Ebner ======================================== (The Independent (UK) - 4 April 2016) Since it was awarded the PEN Freedom of Expression Courage Award last year, the satirical magazine has bashed by critics who have cherry-picked and misinterpreted cartoons and editorials for the sake of their argument Charlie Hebdo’s latest editorial has given rise to a new wave of public outrage, with esteemed writer Teju Cole comparing the magazine’s satire to Trump’s rhetoric and Nazi logic. Whether one agrees with the latest editorial or not, drawing this historical parallel is far-fetched. The difference is threefold: first, Charlie Hebdo’s mockery is targeting abstract concepts, ideologies and powerful elites rather than vulnerable individuals. Second, the goal of the journalists is to incite laughter, not hatred or fear. Third – and most importantly – the satirists are not abusing freedom of expression for the sake of politics; they are abusing politics for the sake of free expression. “It is worthwhile to die for things without which it’s not worthwhile to live,” the Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano said once. Charlie Hebdo cartoonists died in defence of secularism and the freedom to draw and to laugh. Since Charlie Hebdo was awarded the PEN ‘Freedom of Expression Courage Award’ last year, the satirical magazine has bashed by critics who have cherry-picked and misinterpreted cartoons and editorials for the sake of their argument. Some of its most vocal critics have labelled the satirical magazine as racist, Islamophobic and blasphemic, ignoring the fact that Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump are at least as often featured in Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons as Jesus, the Pope and the Prophet Mohammed. Terrorists have succeeded in creating an atmosphere of fear across continental Europe. Both far right movements and Islamist extremist recruiters thrive in this environment, the ‘new norm’, where anxiety reigns over people’s political decisions and everyday choices. What Charlie Hebdo – in, I admit, a clumsy way – was saying in its editorial this week is that we must foster an environment of open discussion, courage and free expression to overcome these fears and taboos, which are easily exploited by extremists. Charlie Hebdo’s latest editorial does therefore not depict Muslims as enemies, but as necessary partners; it does not view them as the problem, but as the solution. In contrast to political figures like Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump and Anne Marie Waters, Charlie Hebdo does not use freedom of expression as a means but as an end. The cartoonists’ aim is to peacefully keep drawing and asking questions. Even within Charlie Hebdo there is a range of political views and ideological convictions – they only agree on one thing, and that is that no idea should be beyond scrutiny. They want more debate, rather than less, and more tolerance, rather than less – by using pens instead of guns and laughter instead of tears. So no, I do not see the parallel to Hitler, Trump or Marine Le Pen, who all tried to monopolise or shut down the debate, and exploit or create divisions and tensions. Charlie Hebdo’s mission statement reads more like a 21st century version of Voltaire than an Islamophobic version of ‘Mein Kampf’. In the long French tradition of absurdist satire, they can achieve what conventional journalists cannot: expose the grotesque absurdity of ideas that shape our society. This being said, Charlie Hebdo cartoons have become cruder, more vulgar and less trenchant in the last year, probably owing to the fact that most of its leading cartoonists were shot dead. According to a ComRes poll, 27 per cent of 1,000 Muslims polled admitted that they had sympathy with the Charlie Hebdo attacks. While we can disagree with their drawings and words, it is their right to ask the question: “How did we end up here?” And demanding their silence is far more dangerous than pondering that question. ======================================== 15. UK: MULLAH MAFIAS: ANOTHER DEAD BLASPHEMER—IN SCOTLAND by Maajid Nawaz ======================================== (The Daily Beast - 6 April 2016) The stench of Islamic extremism has become all too common among the religious and community leaders of the U.K. LONDON — Asad Shah was a much-loved Muslim shopkeeper in Scotland’s first city of Glasgow. Embodying the slogan of his mosque: Love for All and Hatred for None, he would post inclusive social media messages such as “a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation,” and the locals loved him for it. Yet, on the eve of Good Friday this year, Tanveer Ahmed, a fellow Muslim, appears to have driven 200 miles from Bradford to Glasgow in his licensed Uber car in order to stab Asad 30 times all over his body, stamp on his head and then sit laughing on his chest. Asad, tragically, died from his wounds later that night. With her nation in shock, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attended a vigil in Asad’s memory, and he was buried just over a week later. The truth behind why Asad was killed makes for uncomfortable and ugly reading. Mohammad Faisal, a friend of the Shah family, described the murderer as “bearded,” wearing a long Muslim “religious robe” and addressing Asad in his native language before killing him. Police have in fact charged the suspect Tanveer Ahmed with “religiously prejudiced” murder. For Asad was an Ahmedi Muslim, a minority sect persecuted as “heretical” by much of Pakistan’s Sunni Muslim majority. With these facts in mind, Asad Shah has probably become Britain’s first spillover case of Pakistan’s ongoing and vicious blasphemy inquisition being waged by that country’s increasingly belligerent mullah mafia. The Ahmedis emerged in North India under the British Raj in the 1800s, and their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmed from Qadian claimed to be the embodiment of Jesus the Messiah, returned. Such a claim has certainly caused controversy among the Sunni Muslim majority within the Indian Subcontinent. Regardless, only the stone-cold and heartless could ignore the campaign of persecution that has been unleashed since upon Ahmadis by my fellow Sunni Muslims, especially those of the Barelwi denomination. Many would expect extremists, such as the Khatme Nubuwwat group that enforces the Finality of the Prophet, to celebrate Asad’s murder online. Beyond that, we would prefer to assume the best in Muslims, and insist that the extremists are but a “tiny minority.” A closer look reveals a dispiriting and disturbing truth. Just how widespread and institutionalized this persecution is, are questions that few want to ask. This is because, as the previous case of Salmaan Taseer highlighted, to defend “blasphemers” in Pakistan is likely to get you killed even if you’re the powerful governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s richest province. Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri, was recently executed by the Pakistani state, but nevertheless glorified and anointed by the inquisitor mullahs as a “ghazi” (warrior), who died a “shaheed” (a holy martyr), while defending namoos-e-Rasool (the honour of the Prophet). After Qadri’s execution, the Barelwi Muslim leadership held widespread street protests in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, demanding that the government accept a list of their demands. These included imposing their version of Sharia as law, to immediately execute all blasphemers including Aasia Bibi (the allegedly “blasphemous” Christian woman Salmaan Taseer died defending), the immediate release of all those convicted for killing to defend the “honor of the Prophet,” for the state to officially declare Mumtaz Qadri a “shaheed” on national media, to expel all members of the Ahmedi community from Pakistan (that’s 2 percent of the population), and to terminate immediately the positions of Ahmedis working in government departments. Most devout Barelwi Sunni Muslims in the West take their religious instruction directly from Pakistan, and there remains a powerful flow of ideas coming from their leaders in the Punjab. Nearly a week before Asad’s murder the imam of Scotland’s largest mosque, also in Glasgow, Maulana Habib Ur Rehman, used the messaging platform WhatsApp to show his support for the now-executed Mumtaz Qadri. In messages seen by the BBC, the Imam said that he was “disturbed” and “upset” at Qadri’s execution. He then added the epithet “rahmatullahi alaih” after mentioning Qadri’s name. This is a religious blessing usually given to devout Muslims and meaning “may God’s mercy be upon him.” In another message, he says: “I cannot hide my pain today. A true Muslim was punished for doing which [sic] the collective will of the nation failed to carry out.” This, from the most senior imam at Glasgow Central Mosque, a role which involves leading prayers and giving religious guidance to an entire community. Police are also investigating links between Sabir Ali, head of religious events at Glasgow Central Mosque, with Sipah-e-Sahabah, a banned Pakistani terror group from the Deobandi sect that persecutes Shia Muslims, also for alleged “blasphemy.” And yet, just as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had attended the vigil in memory of Asad Shah, she also chose the Glasgow mosque to hold a minute of silence after the recent Brussels attacks. Few in wider society are prepared to acknowledge just how deep Sunni prejudice against alleged blasphemers can run. This thirst for an inquisition is not found only among extremist groups, nor limited to these key figures in the U.K.’s largest mosques. It is also present to worrying levels in the wider community. Recently, Luton on Sunday, a local newspaper, carried a double-spread advertisement celebrating 125 years since the Ahmadiyya movement was founded. That paid advert prompted such a level of complaints from the wider Sunni Muslim community in Luton that it led to this groveling response by the newspaper: “Last week the Luton on Sunday carried an advertisement from the Ahmediyyah…We would like to make it clear that we completely disassociate ourselves from the content of the advertisement… On Friday we met with representatives from the Muslim community to discuss the advertisement which we had accepted in good faith but now understand has caused offence to members of the Muslim Community in Luton.” Included is a quotation from one of the “community leaders” the newspaper met with which thanks them for their sensitivity over a matter relating to the “fundamental beliefs of all Muslims.” But as with all things, the mosque imams and “community leaders” find succor in the stance taken by those in authority among them. Look no further than the Pakistani High Commission in London to behold the truly institutionalized nature of this “Blasphemy Inquisition.” Any British dual-national seeking to apply for a passport, or even an identity card, to travel to Pakistan visa-free is asked to partake in the persecution. Upon applying for our papers we are expected to sign a declaration (PDF) attesting— among other religious interferences by the state—that “I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Quadiani to be an imposter nabi (prophet) and also consider his followers whether of the Lahori or Qadiani group to be non-Muslim.” Hundreds of thousands of British-Pakistani Muslims have had little choice but to participate in this ritual that normalizes the Blasphemy Inquisition, in order to gain their identity cards. If we contextualize Asad Shah’s murder by placing it in this hostile climate, as we must, then we begin to realize the horrifying level of persecution facing those deemed heretical, such as Ahmedis or other “blasphemers.” Over the years, in survey after survey, British Muslim attitudes have reflected dangerously high levels of support for enforcing “blasphemy” taboos. A 2007 poll found that 36 percent of young British Muslims thought that apostates should be killed. A 2008 YouGov poll found that a third of Muslim students claimed that killing for religion can be justified, while 33 percent expressed a desire to see the return of a worldwide theocratic Caliphate. A ComRes poll commissioned by the BBC in 2015 found that a quarter of British Muslims sympathized with the Charlie Hebdo “blasphemy” attacks. By any reasonable assessment, something has gone badly wrong in Britain, and a solution must start on the ground, within the communities where the problem has festered for so long. It starts from a recognition that religious extremism has gained significant enough traction for it to pose a danger. For Asad Shah’s sake, for all those persecuted for their religious choices, or lack of, we must speak up. Just as all of us, black or white, are responsible for challenging racism, and just as all of us, gay or straight, are responsible for challenging homophobia, all of us, Muslim or not, are responsible for challenging this religious extremism. Denial that a generational struggle, no less than the civil struggle to challenge racism, lies ahead of us is no longer a viable option. ========================================= 16. OPEN LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ABOUT THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN BRAZIL Professors and researchers from Brazilian universities ========================================= http://brazilianobservatory.com - 26 March 2016 A new type of “judicial-mediatic coup”, more complex and sophisticated than the military coup, is under way in Brazil. Brazilian intellectuals seek support from the international community. We, professors and researchers from Brazilian universities, hereby address the International Academic Community to report serious breaches in the rule of law currently taking place in Brazil. After a long history of coups and a violent military dictatorship, our country has enjoyed its longest period of democratic stability since the 1988 Constitution established a number of individual and civil rights. Despite progress in recent years with respect to social policy, Brazil remains a deeply unequal country with a political system marked by high levels of patronage and corruption. The influence of big business in the electoral process through private campaign financing has led to consecutive corruption scandals involving politicians from all sides. In recent years, a national outcry against corruption has increasingly dominated public opinion. Public accountability and law enforcement agencies have responded by intensifying anti-corruption efforts, targeting major companies and political elites. Unfortunately, this laudable process has been used to destabilize a democratically elected government, resulting in an exacerbation of the current economic and political crisis in our country. The same judiciary that should protect the political and legal integrity of our country has become an epicenter of this process. The main anti-corruption investigation, the “Operação Lava Jato” (Operation Car Wash), is headed by a lower level federal judge, Sérgio Moro, who has systematically utilized procedures that Brazilian legislation clearly defines as exceptional, such as pre-trial detention and coercive transportation of witnesses for depositions. Arbitrary detentions have been openly justified as a method to pressure the accused into accepting plea bargains in which they denounce alleged accomplices. Information about the cases has been regularly and selectively leaked to the media. Indeed, evidence suggests that the press has received prior information about important police operations so as to mobilize public opinion against the accused. Even the nation’s President was targeted by an illegal wiretap. The above-named judge subsequently handed over excerpts of both legal and illegal wiretaps to the press for public disclosure, even when they involved private discussions with no relevance to the investigation. The purpose was clearly to embarrass specific politicians. Complaints against leaders of political parties in the opposition have been disregarded and silenced by the mainstream press. At the same time, although the “Operação Lava Jato” has yet to accuse President Dilma Roussef, the corruption investigations have been used to support impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Eduardo Cunha, an opposition congressmen. Cunha, however, is accused of corruption and is being investigated by the Ethics Committee of the same House When the actions of public authorities begin to challenge basic legal rights such as the presumption of innocence, equal protection, and due process, we must exercise caution. When noble ends seem to justify procedural breaches, the danger is enormous. Sérgio Moro does not have the necessary exemption and impartiality to head the current investigations. The fight against corruption must be conducted within strict legal boundaries that respect the fundamental rights of defendants. Segments of the judiciary involved in this process have worked in close in alliance with the mainstream media, that has been historically aligned with Brazil’s political oligarchy. In particular, the country’s largest television station, the Globo Television Network, openly supported the military dictatorship (1964-1985). We fear that the breakdown of the rule of law under way is a threat to Brazilian democracy that may lead to grave and even violent social polarization. For these reasons, we ask our colleagues abroad for solidarity and support in the defense of legality and of Brazil’s democratic institutions. The website Brazilian Observatory promotes all the updating of this Open Letter and will continue to accept support from researchers and university professors from Brazil and from the whole international academic community until April 10. The number of subscribers today exceeds 3.500 and can be found in this same website. The International Sociological Association Research Committee on Social Classes and Social Movements (ISA RC47) fully supports this Open Letter. To become a signatory, send an email to manifestodemocra...@gmail.com, with your name and affiliation. ========================================= 17. THAILAND IS TURNING INTO JUNTALAND – AND WE ARE RESISTING by Pravit Rojanaphruk ========================================= (The Guardian - Tuesday 5 April 2016) I have been detained and banned from travelling abroad for challenging militarisation. Those who refuse to kowtow to Thailand’s junta are paying the price Deep down, Thailand’s military junta leaders are probably aware that they are illegitimate. They’ve become increasingly paranoid and repressive in their crackdown against any form of resistance – both online and offline. On 30 March, the self-styled National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), or the Thai junta that staged a coup on 22 May 2014 and robbed the rights of millions of voters, told me on the phone that they would not permit me to travel to Helsinki to attend the Unesco-organised World Press Freedom Day. Ousted Thai PM says junta's draft constitution is a charade Read more One of the junta spokesmen was reported explaining the reason for this ban. “He still keeps posting [online] and attacking the work of the NCPO,” Colonel Piyapong Klinpan was quoted as saying. “He keeps violating the orders of the NCPO in many ways, so his travel is not approved.” The right to freely travel outside Thailand has been taken away from me since I was detained without charge in secret locations for a total of 10 days in May 2014 and September last year. Before being released I had to sign, under duress, a “memorandum of understanding” saying that I would seek the junta’s permission before leaving the kingdom. Other conditions included agreeing not to participate, aid or lead an anti-junta movement. If I did not maintain these conditions, the junta reserved the right to freeze all my bank accounts and prosecute me. Nothing in the agreement forbids me from scrutinising and criticising the military dictatorship and this is the one condition I will never sign up to. And I have been criticising them continually for nearly two years now since the coup, both through my work as a journalist and on Facebook and Twitter. This is what happens to a Thai journalist when you refuse to pretend that the military junta is legitimate. As I write, the junta is preparing what it calls “re-education camps” for dissidents and journalists who continue to refuse to kowtow to them. It will soon invite its critics, both political and in the media, to go through a course that could last seven days inside various military camps. The camps are about silencing. If one doesn’t want to be on the list, one simply should just lie low and stop being vocal against the regime. Thai woman charged with sedition over photo of 'provocative' red bowl Read more Thailand’s military dictatorship is led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who once joked that journalists opposing him should just be executed. He is both junta leader and prime minister. Prayuth’s logic is that he doesn’t have to please anyone because, unlike elected politicians, he was never elected. His way of keeping peace and order is to impose a ban on political gatherings of five or more persons. This ban has been in effect for nearly two years. According to iLaw, a Bangkok-based human rights documentation centre, since the coup in May 2014, 900 people have been summoned by the junta for the “attitude adjustment” programme, which in some cases include detention without charge for up to seven days. Over 150 civilians are facing military tribunal, 62 are being charged with lese-majesty offences, 38 charged with sedition and 85 prosecuted for violating the junta’s ban on political gathering of five or more persons. Advertisement I am not alone in resisting the militarisation of Thailand. Others who refused to shut up have paid their price and more will be paying the price. Some face military tribunals, others have had their bank accounts frozen. There are people whose passports have been revoked. There are still people making their voices heard on social media despite the growing crackdown and the junta is toying with the idea of building a firewall to censor the internet – because the yearning for liberty is what makes us human as opposed to being pets of a military dictatorship. Deep down, the junta knows that its power rests not on legitimacy but on the barrel of guns and the threat of arbitrary detention that is increasingly turning Thailand to Juntaland. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ South Asia Citizens Wire Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/ ##### #### _\_ ________ ##=-[.].]| \ \ #( _\ | |------| # __| | |||||||| \ _/ | |||||||| .--'--'-. | | ____ | / __ `|__|[o__o]| _(____nm_______ /____\____ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. ===================================== _______________________________________________ SACW mailing list SACW@insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net
