Tag Archive for ‘Islam’ at Asian Window

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Salman Ahmad, lead singer of Pakistani band Junoon, on Sufism, jihad and peace

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on March 19, 2010

in Entertainment, Faith, Music and Pakistan

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Sally Quinn in The Washington Post:

There is something unusually compelling about his combination of total coolness, gentle innocence and self-deprecating humor. At 46, he still has a child’s heart. At last year’s Brookings Institution conference on Muslim-American relations, in Doha, Qatar, he sort of owned the place: With every appearance, he was immediately surrounded by admiring wonks, wanting to bask in his aura of peaceful energy. There is even a healing quality about him. Perhaps it’s because he has just been dowsed.

Samina, Ahmad’s wife, whom he met and fell in love with at age 17, is a holistic health counselor. Both are, in fact, physicians--though he had always wanted to be a musician, his parents persuaded him to become a doctor. She’s also accomplished in the kitchen and for six years had her own cooking show on television. She was, he says, the Martha Stewart of Pakistan. Samina recently learned to dowse, which is done with a pendulum-like mechanism. “It’s like prayer,” he says. “It uses positive energy from the universe. It’s not distant from the Muslim tradition.”

“I know,” he says with a laugh, “that it sounds like hocus-pocus, and I was skeptical at first. It’s like a spiritual ouija board. It raises people’s energies.” He says it’s certainly hard to describe, and that it’s not like the divining rods that westerners used to find water. His wife started dowsing him in June, and when she does, he recites a Muslim prayer: I seek refuge in the Lord of Daybreak. He focuses on a specific issue that may be bothering him, making him melancholy or anxious. “It’s a cathartic process,” he explains. “Through prayer and talking, you lift yourself out of it.” More:

Frustrated strivers in Pakistan turn to Jihad

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on March 1, 2010

in Pakistan and Terrorism

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A new generation has made militant networks more sophisticated. From The New York Times:

Lahore: Umar Kundi was his parents’ pride, an ambitious young man from a small town who made it to medical school in the big city. It seemed like a story of working-class success, living proof in this unequal society that a telephone operator’s son could become a doctor.

But things went wrong along the way. On campus Mr. Kundi fell in with a hard-line Islamic group. His degree did not get him a job, and he drifted in the urban crush of young people looking for work. His early radicalization helped channel his ambitions in a grander, more sinister way.

Instead of healing the sick, Mr. Kundi went on to become one of Pakistan’s most accomplished militants. Working under a handler from Al Qaeda, he was part of a network that carried out some of the boldest attacks against the Pakistani state and its people last year, the police here say. Months of hunting him ended on Feb. 19, when he was killed in a shootout with the police at the age of 29. More:

Mystical form of Islam suits Sufis in Pakistan

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on February 26, 2010

in Culture, Faith, Politics, Religion and Terrorism

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Sabrina Tavernise from Lahore in The New York Times:

It is Sufism, a mystical form of Islam brought into South Asia by wandering thinkers who spread the religion east from the Arabian Peninsula. They carried a message of equality that was deeply appealing to indigenous societies riven by caste and poverty. To this day, Sufi shrines stand out in Islam for allowing women free access.

In modern times, Pakistan’s Sufis have been challenged by a stricter form of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia. That orthodox, often political Islam was encouraged in Pakistan in the 1980s by the American-supported dictator, Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. Since then, the fundamentalists’ aggressive stance has tended to eclipse that of their moderate kin, whose shrines and processions have become targets in the war here.

But if last week’s stomping, twirling, singing, drumming kaleidoscope of a crowd is any indication, Sufism still has a powerful appeal. More:

Understanding Afghan tribes

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on February 1, 2010

in Af-Pak, Afghanistan, Culture, Society and Terrorism

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From The New York Times:

Muslims have no monopoly over ‘Allah’

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on January 26, 2010

in Faith, Politics and Religion

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Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, a member of parliament for the Justice Party and leader of the opposition, in the Wall Street Journal:

Malaysia has once again resurfaced in international headlines for the wrong reasons. Over the last two weeks, arsonists and vandals attacked 10 places of worship, including Christian churches and Sikh temples. Though there were no injuries and the material damage is reparable, the same cannot be said about the emotional and psychological scars left behind. After numerous conflicting statements from government officials, the underlying causes of the violence are still unaddressed. Malaysia’s reputation as a nation at peace with its ethnic and religious diversity is at stake.

Malaysia’s poor handling of religious and sectarian issues is not unique. The ill treatment of minority groups in Muslim countries is often worse than the actions Muslims decry in the West. I have called attention to the broader need in the Muslim world for leadership that demonstrates consistency and credibility in our call for justice, fairness and pluralism. These values are embedded in the Islamic tradition as the higher objectives of Shariah expounded by the 12th-century jurist al-Shatibi.

We have seen Muslims around the world protest against discriminatory laws passed in supposedly liberal and progressive countries in the West. Yet just as France and Germany have their issues with the burqa and Switzerland with its minarets, so too does Malaysia frequently fail to offer a safe and secure environment that accommodates its minority communities. More:

The dupatta: More than a covering

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on January 25, 2010

in Culture and Pakistan

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Aamna Haider Isani in Dawn:

Interestingly, in the early years after Partition, the dupatta’s symbolism was more national than religious. For example, the uniform of the Pakistan Women’s National Guard that was formed during the Kashmir War included a dupatta. ‘Since Pakistan was a Muslim state, the dupatta was naturally part of the uniform. However, it was just a sash across the torso…a starched V-shaped dupatta,’ recalls former Sergeant Abeeda Abidi in an interview with the Citizens Archive of Pakistan. Clearly, this sash was meant to be more of a comment than a covering.

The years that followed saw leaders such as Fatima Jinnah and Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan enter politics. Unlike their female predecessors in the armed forces, these women made public appearances with their heads covered with a dupatta, which was deciphered as a symbol of modesty. Since they had set the trend, women who stepped into politics in subsequent decades were expected to follow suit.

In 1966, the uniform for the PIA airhostesses, designed by Paris-based fashion sensation Pierre Cardin, also included scarf-like dupattas over graceful tunics. In this incarnation, the dupatta was viewed more as an attractive accessory than a symbol of Muslim womanhood.

Although a dupatta has always been part of the attire of female politicians of this predominantly Muslim state since the beginning, trends among the masses have been slightly different. It was only in the late 1950s that the dupatta became an integral part of the urban-middle-class woman’s outfit. Before then, some women wore burqas and chadors. But younger women who were looking for some form of covering increasingly opted for dupattas as they proved to be a less stringent alternative. More:

[Image: Dawn]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the wildcard draw at the Jaipur Lit Fest

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on January 24, 2010

in Books

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Posted by Namita Bhandare from the Jaipur Literature Festival:

Her name was never on the official programme issued by the Jaipur Literature Festival, but Ayaan Hirsi Ali, often described as Europe’s most controversial politician finally managed to get her visa to attend the fest only at the last minute. Despite her quiet, unpublicised entry, she drew packed crowds when she spoke to Shoma Chaudhury of Tehelka on Islam and her journey towards becoming an infidel.

The author of The Caged Virgin and Infidel spoke about how the Koran is viewed by Islamic believers as a complete book and how the Prophet is infallible. “Every discussion that is even slightly critical of the Koran leads to the accusation that the discussion is a sin, that you are an infidel,” Ali told the audience at the Diggi Palace Durbar Hall, venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival. “Islam is exempted from the kind of systematic scrutiny that, say, Christianity, is subjected to.”

Ali is a prominent critic of Islam and her screenplay for the Theo Van Gogh movie Submission led to death threats and to Van Gogh’s eventual assassination. The Somalia-born author, activist and feminist has been living under tight security in Washington, where she is a fellow with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, since.

Unlike other religions that allowed for criticism, Islam brooks no questioning, Ali said. “In Islam you submit your will to a force outside yourself, to a collective will,” she said. Describing the Koran as a book written within a certain cultural context in the 6th century, she said many values are outdated. For instance, she said, in Islam, men and women are not equal, homosexual relations are not tolerated, women found guilty of adultery are required to be stoned to death, and the list of obligations under Islam have led to an environment of bigotry where believers are obliged to distance themselves from non-Muslims.

Hirsi disputed the idea that Islam is under seige. “The idea that Islam is under seige is an Islamic idea. In the name of Islam you have many organised groups and states committing violence and terrorism,” she said. “Islam in this context is a danger to global peace.”

Also read in The Indian Express: ‘When fundamentalists run out of arguments, they call you an infidel’

“It is important to off-set Islamic values with Western values. In Islam, men and women are not equal, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s, and homosexuality is not acceptable. Is there a way to have a discussion with Muslim fundamentalists about Islam without offending them? No,” says Ali, who feels that Islam needs to go through the same “enlightenment” process that other religions have gone though.

Children of Hindu, Muslim immigrants in US drawn to hard rock

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on January 10, 2010

in Culture and Society

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From the Washington Post:

Artwork from the Punjab state of India decorates the Ray family home. A Johann Sebastian Bach statue sits on a piano. But in the basement — cluttered with wires, old concert fliers and drawings — Arjun Ray, 25, is fighting distortion from his electric guitar.

For this son of Indian immigrants, trained in classical violin and raised on traditional Punjab music, getting his three Pakistani American bandmates in sync is the goal on this cold New England evening. Their band, the Kominas, is trying to record a punk rock version of the classic Bollywood song, “Choli Ke Peeche” (“Behind the Blouse”).

“Yeah,” said Shahjehan Khan, 26, one of the band’s guitarists, “there are a lot of contradictions going on here.”

Deep in the woods of this colonial town boils a kind of revolutionary movement. From the basement of this middle-class home tucked in the woods west of Boston, the Kominas have helped launched a small but growing South Asian and Middle Eastern punk rock movement that is attracting children of Muslim and Hindu immigrants. It also is drawing scorn from some traditional Muslims who say their political, hard-edged music is “haraam,” or forbidden. More:

The unending holiday season in India

Published

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on December 29, 2009

in Faith, India and Religion

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Aakar Patel in The News, Karachi:

In India, secularism is inclusive. Europe’s secularism measures distance of the state from Christianity. Indians think of secularism as equal respect for all religions. This is supposed to reflect the Hindu belief in tolerance. One famous Sanskrit line is: Vasudhaiva kutumbakam. Vasudha is mother earth and kutumb is family and so the line means the whole world is a family. However, our recent record of religious violence shows that inclusive secularism isn’t always followed. Often unhinged views on religion are tolerated under this formulation of non-interference, and journalist George Verghese described Indian secularism as ‘equal respect for everyone’s communalism’.

But the doctrine of inclusive secularism is India’s constitution and perhaps at some point we will become good enough to deserve that fine document. Since the state tries to be inclusive, every religion’s celebrations are official holidays in India. Our calendar is the most colourful in the world.

Many urban Americans now greet each other this season with the words ‘Happy holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’. This is typical European thoughtfulness of the feelings of others. The ‘happy holidayers’ want to share their joy but want not to offend Jews and others. Personally I like ‘Merry Christmas’ and see no reason why anybody should be offended that Christians are celebrating the birth of their saviour. In India, however, you couldn’t say ‘Happy holidays’ because we have them through the year. Let’s have a look. More:

The Halal way to world peace

Published

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on December 14, 2009

in Faith, India and Religion

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Dr Zakir Naik’s tele-Halal empire is funded by donations from individuals in the US, UK and the Middle East. Since 2007, the money has allowed him to conduct an annual soiree called the Peace Conference. Photo: OPEN

He is India’s most voluble Muslim on television today. Just who is Dr Zakir Naik? Manju Sara Rajan in Open:

If you live in Mumbai, you may have seen pictures of him, or if your cable guy has included Dr Naik’s network Peace TV, you may have seen him speak. Last month when the conference was in progress, there were giant billboards all across the city’s suburban highways, there were advertisements on buses, Muslim drivers had pamphlets on the dashboards of their Meru cabs.

Dr Naik does not cut a striking figure. Tall but reed-thin, always outfitted in a-size-too-large suit with standard issue skullcap and beard, he looks more like a religious professor than a televangelist. His voice still contains the remnants of a childhood stammer and lisp. But through his free-to-air channel Peace TV, massive numbers of books, DVDs, CDs, plus his organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation, its school, and all the charities, Dr Naik has become an unlikely but prominent force among Muslims in the country, perhaps even abroad. “It is very important to be religious and he teaches us things about our religion we didn’t know,” says Nida. More:

The Swiss minaret ban — Europe and Islam

Published

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on December 3, 2009

in Conflict, Faith and Religion

. 1 Comment

Fifty-seven per cent of the Swiss population has voted in favour of blocking any new minarets being built attached to mosques. Does the vote reflect a rising tide against Islam across Europe? Watch this Al Jazeera video:

Survey of Pakistan’s young predicts ‘disaster’ if their needs aren’t addressed

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on November 22, 2009

in Pakistan and Society

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From the New York Times:

Pakistan will face a “demographic disaster” if it does not address the needs of its young generation, the largest in the country’s history, whose views reflect a deep disillusionment with government and democracy, according to a report released in Lahore on Saturday.

The report, commissioned by the British Council and conducted by the Nielsen research company, drew a picture of a deeply frustrated young generation that feels abandoned by its government and despondent about its future.

An overwhelming majority of young Pakistanis say their country is headed in the wrong direction, the report said, and only 1 in 10 has confidence in the government. Most see themselves as Muslim first and Pakistani second, and they are now entering a work force in which the lion’s share cannot find jobs, a potentially volatile situation if the government cannot address its concerns. More:

Click here to read the full survey.

Creationism, minus a young earth, emerges in the Islamic world

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on November 4, 2009

in Faith, Religion and Science

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A growing number of Muslims seem to accept the idea of a very old planet but reject human evolution, international academics said at a recent conference. From the New York Times:

For many Muslims, even evolution and the notion that life flourished without the intervening hand of Allah is largely compatible with their religion. What many find unacceptable is human evolution, the idea that humans evolved from primitive primates. The Koran states that Allah created Adam, the first man, separately out of clay.

Pervez A. Hoodbhoy, a prominent atomic physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan, said that when he gave lectures covering the sweep of cosmological history from the Big Bang to the evolution of life on Earth, the audience listened without objection to most of it. “Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up,” Dr. Hoodbhoy said.

Mentioning human evolution led to near riots, and he had to be escorted out. “That’s the one thing that will never be possible to bridge,” he said. “Your lineage is what determines your worth.”

Biology education, even in places like Pakistan that otherwise teach evolution, largely omits the question of where humans came from. More:

The Saudi-isation of Pakistan

Published

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on October 29, 2009

in Pakistan, Religion and Terrorism

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Pervez Hoodbhoy in Newsline [via 3quarksdaily]:

For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the rich soil that had nurtured a magnificent Muslim culture in India for a thousand years. This culture produced Mughul architecture, the Taj Mahal, the poetry of Asadullah Khan Ghalib, and much more. Now a stern, unyielding version of Islam (Wahhabism) is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints who had walked on this land for hundreds of years.

This change is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state used Islam as an instrument of state policy. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for academic posts in universities required that the candidate demonstrate a knowledge of Islamic teachings and jihad was declared essential for every Muslim. Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state. More:

Islam’s Darwin problem

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on October 28, 2009

in Faith and Religion

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In the Muslim world, creationism is on the rise. From Boston Globe Ideas:

Three weeks ago, with much fanfare, a team of scientists unveiled the fossil skeleton of Ardi, a 4-foot-tall female primate who lived and died 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. According to her discoverers, Ardi – short for Ardipithecus ramidus, her species – is our oldest known ancestor. She predated Lucy, the fossilized Australopithecus afarensis that previously had claimed the title, by 1.2 million years.

The papers announcing the find described a transitional specimen, with the long arms and short legs of an ape and strong, grasping big toes suited to life in the trees, but also a pelvis whose shape allowed her to walk upright on the ground below.

That, at least, is what one discovered by following the coverage in the Western press, or by reading the scientific papers themselves, published in the journal Science. If you learned about Ardi on the Arabic-language version of Al Jazeera’s website, however, you discovered something else: The find disproved the theory of evolution.

“Ardi Refutes Darwin’s Theory,” Al Jazeera announced, in an Oct. 3 article not available on the English version of the website. “American scientists have presented evidence that Darwin’s theory of evolution was wrong,” the article opened. “The team announced yesterday that Ardi’s discovery proves that humans did not evolve from ancestors that resemble chimpanzees, which refutes the longstanding assumption that humans evolved from monkeys.” More:

[Please also read the comments]

A quarter of the world is Muslim

Published

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on October 8, 2009

in Faith and Religion

. 1 Comment

World distribution of Muslim population. Map: The Pew Forum on Religion and PUblic Life

World distribution of Muslim population. Map: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

From CNN:

Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim — and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population.

India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world’s Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world’s Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, “Mapping the Global Muslim Population,” by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.

There are about 2.25 billion Christians, based on projections from the 2005 World Religions Database. More

Click here to visit the Pew site and read the full report.

Click here to see world Muslim population by region and country.

Chart by Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life

And below, from CNN:

Top 10 Muslim countries, by population

1. Indonesia: 202,867,000 (country is 88.2 percent Muslim)

2. Pakistan: 174,082,000 (country is 96.3 percent Muslim)

3. India: 160,945,000 (country is 13.4 percent Muslim)

4. Bangaldesh: 145,312,000 (country is 89.6 percent Muslim)

5. Egypt: 78,513,000 (country is 94.6 percent Muslim)

6. Nigeria: 78,056,000 (country is 50.4 percent Muslim)

7. Iran: 73,777,000 (country is 99.4 percent Muslim)

8. Turkey: 73,619,000 (country is about 98 percent Muslim)

9. Algeria: 34,199,000 (country is 98 percent Muslim)

10. Morocco: 31,993,000 (country is about 99 percent Muslim)

Source: “Mapping the Global Muslim Population,” The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Save the Maldives from fundamentalists

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on October 1, 2009

in The Maldives

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From the Guardian’s Comment is Free:

On his recent visit to the Maldives, Salih Yucel, a Turkish Islamic scholar and lecturer at Monash University in Australia, was rejected by his fellow Muslims who deemed his beard too short and his trousers too long for him to be a bona fide Muslim. The response to the former imam came as no surprise, being symptomatic of the puritanical Wahhabism taking root in the Indian Ocean archipelago, a favourite haunt of honeymooners and A-list celebrities.

The country’s legislative architecture entrenches this intolerance, in a constitution that recognises only Muslims as citizens and a Religious Unity Act that stringently demarcates the type of Islam to be practised. Nor are the country’s non-Muslim expatriates, largely Buddhist Sri Lankans and Hindu Indians, permitted to practise their faiths in public as all places of worship apart from mosques are banned. The intolerance does not end here: for Wahhabis, even other Muslims, such as Shias and Sufis, are apostates. More:

Empty churches, full mosques

Published

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on September 27, 2009

in Religion

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Several redundant churches in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland are slowly being converted into mosques as Christian congregations dwindle while a growing Muslim population demands more places to worship. Colin Randall in the National:

Glasgow: When the Glasgow Central Mosque, then rivalling the biggest in Europe, opened a quarter of a century ago, it seemed all the needs of Muslim worshippers in Scotland’s largest city would be met at its imposing site on the banks of the Clyde.

But as the city’s Muslim population has swelled to 33,000, with the Pakistanis who have always formed its main component joined by refugees from conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, demand has continued to grow for space. More than 70 years after organised worship first began, in the homes of Pakistani immigrants, Glasgow has 14 mosques, and some feel it could do with more.

It is not difficult to find examples of growth. Across the city, extensive work is under way to expand al Furqan mosque; elsewhere, two other mosques are being modernised. And 80 km to the east, a mosque that opened in January with the express aim of serving English-speaking Muslims in the capital, Edinburgh, chose Ramadan as the occasion to extend worship to Friday prayers. More

Personal choices for a player during Ramadan

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on September 4, 2009

in Culture, Faith, Pakistan, Religion and Sport

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From the New York Times:

The public-address announcer was advising everybody to drink a lot of fluids (presumably those sold on the grounds) to avoid dehydration. On a warm, mostly sunny day, that seemed like a good idea.

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan had a few bottles of water arrayed below his chair on Court 10, although it is the holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims abstain from food or liquid from sunrise to sundown.

“I have to give the answer to God,” Qureshi said after he and his latest doubles partner, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 4-6, 7-6 (11), 6-4, at the United States Open on Thursday.

In Qureshi’s continuing search for doubles partners, this was the first match the two had played together. Qureshi has shown his independence by playing doubles with Israeli and Indian players, asserting that he considers them brothers of the tour, and of life itself. More:

Message to Muslim world gets a critique

Published

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on August 28, 2009

in Conflict and Terrorism

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From the New York Times:

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting.

The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology. The issue is particularly relevant as the Obama administration orders fresh efforts to counter militant propaganda, part of its broader strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. More:

Burqini swimwear makes a splash

Published

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on August 15, 2009

in Society

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Tahira Yaqoob and Colin Randall in the National:

They live more than 4,800 kilometres apart, have different faiths and have never met – but one thing has united the two women in a political cause célèbre.

Carole is the 35-year-old woman thrown out of a swimming pool in France for wearing a burqini and whose treatment has sparked such controversy that she has become an unwitting ambassador for Muslim women across the globe.

Yesterday she was joined in the spotlight by Jenny Nicholson, the Dubai fashion designer who created her swimming costume and has joined the outcry against the ban.

Mrs Nicholson said she was reluctant to make the garment a political issue but was unable to hold back her incredulity at objections to it as being “unhygienic” by the French authorities who forbade its use at a public swimming pool.

“My swimsuit is a fashion statement, not a political statement,” she said. “I have never laughed so much as when I read about the MP who wants to ban my swimsuit as a militant provocation. It made me feel Inspector Clouseau must be alive and well and making a living as a French politician.” More:

[Image: ahilda.com]

Gay, straight or MSM?

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on August 12, 2009

in Bangladesh and Society

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In Bangladesh, how you define your sexuality can depend on class, education and family circumstances. Delwar Hussain in the Guardian:

There are many in Bangladesh who inhabit a grey area that is neither public nor private, where things that are illegal or socially and religiously taboo are permissible so long as they are not discussed openly. Drinking alcohol, falling in love and disbelieving in God are areas where people rarely disclose their thoughts or activities except in like-minded circles.

Living in such a way protects them from conservative elements of society and allows them to maintain cordial relationships with family and friends. Suleman, an imam at one of the largest mosques in Dhaka, lives with this kind of contradiction every day. None of his family or colleagues suspect anything about his relationship with his male partner, who is publicly acknowledged as “just a friend”. This is not so difficult to comprehend. A few years ago Suleman married a woman. Having fulfilled his social and religious obligations in both public and private matters (they have two children together), he is free to continue his relationship with his “friend”.

Suleman is well aware of the consequences if knowledge of his “friend” became public. He could be thrown out of the mosque or physically punished; there are many who think a man loving another man is among the worst sins a person can commit. Suleman himself believes it is very important that gay Muslims be allowed to marry, as a way to avoid promiscuity. Called upon by gay friends to bless their relationships, he performs readings from the Qur’an and prayers at such ceremonies. More:

Allah’s almighty

Published

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on July 6, 2009

in Art, Culture and Religion

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DC Comics’ superheroes join forces with characters inspired by Allah. Riazat Butt in the Guardian:

They are superheroes battling injustice and fighting evil the Islamic way, and they are teaming up with some of the west’s biggest comic book icons. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are among those joining forces with The 99, who personify the 99 attributes of Allah, according to Islamic tradition.

What will unfold on the pages of the collaboration between DC Comics in the US and Teshkeel Comics in Kuwait is yet to be seen, but the appearance of The 99 – who already appear in comics in the Muslim world – alongside archetypal American heroes would have been unlikely during the Bush years. DC Comics’ president and publisher, Paul Levitz, believes the cross-cultural project is unprecedented.

He said: “It is a long-standing tradition for characters to meet others in the fictional world, and over the years a lot of the superheroes have been translated into Arabic, taking on ethnic elements. But this is a nice step forward. The most difficult creative test is when you are working with the least precedent and when you’re trying to reach an audience that has a different cultural bias and different interests.” More:

Forced marriage: ‘I can’t forgive or forget what they did to me’

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on July 5, 2009

in Bangladesh, Culture and Society

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Humayra Abedin, a doctor from east London, was held hostage and forced into marriage when she visited her parents in Bangladesh. She was freed from her vows on the orders of a Bangladeshi court soon after The Independent on Sunday highlighted her plight. She spoke to Nina Lakhani of IoS about her abduction:

“My face was covered with a piece of cloth by men who told me they were policemen, before they carried me out into an ambulance which was parked outside the house. They held my arms and legs, carried me like a prisoner, while my parents stood in the background.”

She was driven, kicking and screaming, to a private hospital, on the request of her family. During the journey, she was held down and gagged by three people as they tried to stop her shouting.

“This was the first time I thought, ‘this is it, I am dying’,” said Dr Abedin. “I begged them to stop.” And so began the nightmare.

For the next three months, every morning and every night, she was forced to swallow dangerously high doses of powerful tranquillisers used to treat people with psychoses. She was kept locked in the hospital, constantly told she was a disgrace by staff and relatives, and denied contact with the outside world. But she could make it stop, so her parents and psychiatrist told her, if she agreed to give up her life in England, marry the man her family had chosen for her and stay in Bangladesh. She refused. More:

Farah Pandith, US envoy to Muslim world

Published

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on July 5, 2009

in Politics

. 1 Comment

The Obama Administration has appointed Kashmir-born Farah Pandith to head the new Office of the United States Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Pandith, a Muslim, immigrated to the US with her parents from Srinagar, and grew up in Massachusetts. She studied at Smith College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

From the National:

“There is no one bullet that is going to fix everything; there is not one programme that is going to be the magic programme to engage with Muslims. It’s really listening. It’s really understanding what’s taking place on the ground,” Farah Pandith, who was appointed last week to be the first special representative to Muslim communities, said in a briefing with reporters. “It’s finding opportunities through our embassies to get to know what others are saying and thinking and dreaming and believing.”

In what amounted to her official introduction, Ms Pandith struck rhetorical tones similar to those favoured by her new boss, Barack Obama, who has sought to distance himself from unilateral policies of the Bush administration. The very appointment of a high-level state department official focused on communicating with Muslims, many analysts said, indicates a new commitment to dialogue.

But Ms Pandith, 41, does not represent a clean break from the Bush years. She served three years on George W Bush’s National Security Council, where she was responsible for “co-ordinating US policy on Muslim world outreach”, according to a description of her responsibilities released by the state department. More:

In Dawn, Jawed Naqvi writes an open letter to Ms Pandith:

Allow me to make a few quick observations about your road ahead. First, the syncretic culture of Kashmir to which you belong has been subjected to vile abuse in your absence. Beginning with 1990 an exclusivist and narrow-minded Islam was sought to be imposed on the people by armed groups with the alleged support of zealots within Pakistan’s intelligence and security forces. On the other hand, the demonic logic of occupation has spurred Indian security forces to brutalise the people at will, without accountability.

You must have wondered, Ms Pandith, how the tragedies of our times are getting identified with religious strife. Take the important briefs that you have held. The Palestinian question is posed as a Muslim issue. Afghanistan is described as a religious problem. Note also the sleight of hand, since the colonial era, in the orchestrated positioning of identities. Shia, Sunni and Kurds in Iraq, for example, comprise a scantly noticed absurdity: two religious groups and one ethnic community. Does that ethnic community have a religion? Wouldn’t the word ‘hydrocarbons’ explain the ethnic-religious discourse better?

In Lebanon, it is the Shia, Sunni and Druze that beg the question. I think the mischief began with colonial historiography. In India, English chroniclers divided us into Hindu, Muslim and British period. The subterfuge found an echo in Sri Lanka, where Sinhalese, Tamils and Burghers are lumped with Muslims: three ethnic groups and a religious category. Do the Muslims have an ethnicity? More:

India’s ‘Burqa rapper’

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on June 20, 2009

in India, Music and Society

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Click on the video (above) for her version of Wild World, and below, No More Bhopals at a concert in Chennai, India. “…in a way, the burqa helps creates shock value,” she says.

Gopu Mohan in the Indian Express:

How do you say, “I’m a conservative Muslim, but I’m also cool?” Perhaps you should rap it. The medium, after all, is the message. This is certainly what one young woman, Sofia Ashraf, believes. When on stage with her band Peter Kaapi, she raps, clad in a burqa, about what it is to be a traditional Muslim who is also modern and trendy.

“I can’t sing to save my life. In college, when we wanted to try something for a cultural programme, I tried rapping and it went well,” says the 22-year-old freelance graphic designer and copywriter, who is also the lyricist and rapper of the Chennai-based ethnic rock band Peter Kaapi. Incidentally, Peter, in city slang, is a person who speaks in English as if it is a matter of prestige, while the word kaapi is synonymous with the state.

“When I started trying rap during my college years, I was not trying to register a political message or social protest. It was more about teenage ideas like creating an identity. Even the crowd was not right for our songs about Islam. Along the way, somewhere, I started talking about myself.” More:

Kamala Das: 1932-2009

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on June 7, 2009

in Books and Women

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Vijay Nambisan in the Hindu Literary Review:

Kamala Das’s last public act, a few weeks ago, was to donate her ancestral home to the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. She knew she wouldn’t be going back. It was the ultimate renunciation in a life not barren of sacrifices, for, Nalappat House w as the wellspring of her poetry. She had said in a poem, and to her neighbours when she left Kerala in 2006, “I’ll return here after death, in whatever form, as a bird or a deer. I’ll be part of this earth.”

She was brought up in Calcutta, and she would have been a poet in any case, for, it was in her genes. But her precocious childhood was illumined by the sojourns in her tharavad in Punnayurkulam in Malabar, and the family’s literary history flowed as easily into her as the hues and scents and traditions of Kerala. All of those inform all her best work. Leaving Kerala was hard, but her illnesses left her no choice but to be looked after. More:

Leaves from her book

From the Indian Express:

While being trundled to a snake shrine in Punnayoorkulam in a wheelchair on March 8, 2005, Kamala Das had told her entourage, “I have come to say goodbye to Punnayoorkulam. I will return as a bird and flutter all over here.” That was the writer’s last visit to her native village, in central Kerala’s Thrissur district, where she had bloomed into a storyteller, poet and painter. Last Sunday, she returned to rest in the pages of her works, written in English and Malayalam over the last six decades.

Walking down the narrow road in Punnayoorkulam, one understands why the writer desired to come back to the village as a winged creature. A lone tree from her cherished old world stands tall, weathering change. Amy-as she was known to family-can roost in the short branches of the famous pomegranate, which had grown with Kamala Das and figured in her works, escaping the axe only because it stood in the snake shrine. More:

Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University

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on June 5, 2009

in Leaders

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President Barack Obama has called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world. In his address at Cairo University, he said America and Islam were not mutually exclusive, but shared common principles of justice, progress and tolerance.

He said: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

Dawn, Karachi, said in an editorial: “Indeed, it was a sweeping message that tried to show a softer, gentler side of the US, one that emphasised similarities and opportunities and not divisions with the Muslim world. But as President Obama noted, ‘No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust.’ At the very least though, the speech was yet more evidence that the US has put behind it the roughest edges of the Bush years.”

According to a report in the Telegraph, Calcutta, Muslim leaders in Delhi say Obama’s reconciliatory speech was a “good beginning”, but some want to wait till they see some actual change in US policy. “Among the most elated was Kamal Farooqi, member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, who said Obama’s speech had “changed the world order for ever”.”

In case you missed the speech, you can watch it here. (Our thanks to 3quarksdaily for this)

And below, the full text:

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust. Continue reading ‘Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University’

The situation in Pakistan

Published

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on May 19, 2009

in Pakistan and Terrorism

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Veteran journalist Bill Moyers speaks with historian Juan Cole and journalist Shahan Mufti about the US relationship with Pakistan, how it relates to the war in Afghanistan, and why they think Pakistan is not likely to become a failed state anytime soon.

Juan Cole teaches history at the University of Michigan. His “Informed Comment” blog at juancole.com is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of Islam. Shahan Mufti, a Pakistani American, recently spent six months covering Pakistan. They agree that the insurgency in the north is a serious problem but they don’t think Pakistan “is in immediate danger of becoming a failed state.” Bill Moyers Journal on PBS:

BILL MOYERS: Are you two saying that the Taliban are not as great a threat to Pakistan and the United States as the United States has been claiming?

JUAN COLE: Well I have to be careful here. Because, on the one hand, I don’t want to be interpreted as saying this is not a problem. I mean, you’ve got several thousand militants operating in the North-West Frontier Province. This is a problem. And it wasn’t like that, you know, even ten years ago.The idea of Pakistani Taliban is a new idea. The Taliban were always an Afghan phenomenon. So it is a problem. And it needs to be dealt with. But what I’m saying is that let’s just have a sense of proportion here.

The North-West Frontier Province is 10 percent of the Pakistan population. That’s where this stuff is happening. And most of it is actually happening not in the Province itself, but in the Federally Administrated Tribal Regions. Which are kind of like our Indian reservations. Only 3.5 million people live there. It’s the size of, like, New Hampshire. Pakistan is a country as big as California, Oregon and Washington rolled up in one, with a population of 165 million. So to take this threat, which is a threat locally, to the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, to parts of the North-West Frontier Province, and to magnify it and to say, “Whoa, the Pakistani government is six months from falling, the Taliban is going to get their hands on nuclear weapons.” The kinds of things that are being said in Washington, are just fantastical and some kind of science fiction film. How would these guys, with the Kalashnikov machine guns, take over a country that has an army of 550 thousand? Which has tanks and artillery and fighter jets? How would they even know here the nuclear weapons are? In Pakistan, I just quoted you the Gallup Poll. People don’t like Taliban, for the most part.

Click here to watch the video, and here to read the full transcript.

Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined

Published

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on May 7, 2009

in Afghanistan

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Reuters in the Independent:

Afghanistan’s only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

“For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza,” Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. “We’ve done this because people are worried about getting the flu.” More:

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