A Poem

A Poem

Lines to Cordoba

Cordoba, your river is full of djinn
that once roamed your olive groves:
they now go up and down
these meagre waves
unable to leave

At dusk,
they stand at your gates like lamenting lovers,
begging that naked man
in the parched courtyard of La Mezquita
"guard that from which we are forever banished"

Test of Faith

Test of Faith

In India, discrimination can be blatant and open or subtle and hidden depending on who you are interacting with. It can also depend on the time and place. So there are millions of variables that can determine the degree of prejudice that you experience.However, there are several paradoxes at play in those situations. Most Indians will talk of their favourite film stars(mostlyt Muslim by birth), their favourite foods, their favourite clothes, their favourite clothes (mostly Muslim in origin) etc and "those Muslim terrorists" in the same breath.Who are these Muslims who have gained us this epithet? Who are these people who gain entry or steal across the countr's borders and then proceed to commit crimes against humanity in the name of Islam? What do they know of Islam? have they ever read about Islam? its history? the life of its prophet?Ironically, most of their "knowledge" has been acquired from the local bearded mullah who is totally threatened by the new world order and the shape of economies.It is these men, with their prejudices agaisnt women, modern education, democracy and liberal thought who trap the poor and the frustrated in their politics of hatred. Again, most Muslims caught in this vortex don't realise that the goals of terrorists are political. These goals are NEVER social or economic upliftment.If they were then there would be a focus on education, social renaissance and movements to take our communities forward rather than reactionary beliefs and so called "fatwas".How can anyone claim with complete faith that his beliefs/faith/religion/ideas are the best, the most correct or the purest?How can anyone kill in the name of God? rape and pillage in the name of religion?To be Muslim was always a test of faith but now in these times, being a Muslim, a woman and a citizen of a third world country has become the greatest test of all

An old post from a previous blog

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Absurd Theory of the Clash of Civilisations

In the past few weeks since I have been posting I have received several comments from people either applauding my point of view or deriding it. In some cases I received long diatribes against Islam and ALL Muslims filled with a violent hatred.

What shocked me more than anything else was that some of my Indian compatriots are parroting what the western media has cleverly planned and disseminated which is taking a dozen complex conflicts that originated in a dozen countries, stripping them of all historical and political context and lumping them together in an amorphous blob called the "Clash of Civilizations."

So now by the looks of it it is not only East against the West but also Christians against Islam, Jews against Islam and if I am to take any heed of some responses to my blog, Hindus against Islam.

Should we then call it an epic struggle between the East and the West?

If so, then why is the US government now bandying around the dangerous term Islamo-fascism while conveniently forgotting that some of its staunchest allies are undisputed champs in spreading violent Islamic extremism? It is common knowledge now that both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan not only established fundamentalist, anti-Western madrassas all across the world but also funneled gobs of cash to extremist groups, and nurtured and supported them in their infancy. In fact,Saudi Arabia made it a foreign policy priority to spread its brand of Wahhabism, mostly to counter the perceived threat of Pan-Arabism and other anti-colonial ideologies. Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI -- sometimes called a "state within a state" -- not only supported the Taliban in Afghanistan but funded, equipped and helped train some of the most notorious terror groups that grew out of that country in the 1990s.

Talk all you want about Syria and Iran supporting Hezbollah, these are the great terror-sponsoring states, and they're on the side of the Western democracies, particularly the US.

Now, in columns in Indian newspapers there are hawks exhorting the Indian government to take on "wild, terrorist Muslim" hordes.

Respectable journalists are parroting the Clash of Civilizations rhetoric completely oblivious to the fact that it is obvious nonsense peddled by vested interests playing to xenophobia latent in all human beings, rather than something inherently violent or nihilistic in Islam which may be violent, but no more than any other religion.

"Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims" is a common refrain on the many "war-blogs" that have proliferated since 9/11.

This is not only wrong but racist. Last year, excluding the mess in Iraq (it's awfully tough to distinguish between terrorism, insurgency, sectarian violence, etc.), U.S. government statistics showed that the country with the most terror fatalities was India. Some were inflicted by Muslims, but more were perpetrated by secessionist groups from the Northern provinces, the Communist Party of India and various Hindu extremists. Next up was Colombia, a country with a population that's over 90 percent Roman Catholic. Following in fifth place -- after the mess in Afghanistan -- were the victims of secular Maoist terror groups in Nepal.

Research show that in Indonesia -- the most heavily populated Muslim country in the world which is considered by Western analysts to be a hot-bed of Islamic terror, "violence against innocent civilians has been ... committed by secessionist movements in Sumatra and elsewhere, by Christian and Muslim fanatics [and] by indigenous people threatened by migrants ..." The University of Chicago's Robert Pape, who has studied terrorists exhaustively (and seriously), found that the group that led the world in suicide attacks between 1980 and 2004 was the Tamil Tigers, a secular group that draws its adherents from Sri Lanka's predominantly Hindu population. Saying that terrorism is a result of some deep flaw in Islam just isn't serious at all.

It has to be understood that so called Islamic extremist groups are not fighting one ill-defined and melodramatic conflict with the "West," but a host of conflicts with national or regional origins. For the most part, their primary targets are not liberal democracies or Western decadence, but some of the most brutal, authoritarian regimes in the world, many of which are considered "moderate" by our own extremists. The fact is that virtually all terrorist attacks outside of the disputed Kashmir region are perpetrated by extremists in their own country or in the homelands of states that are occupying their country. Some examples are stateless peoples whose desire for self-rule are violently suppressed -- Palestinians and Kurds the most prominent among them.

Some terrorist groups have recently turned their eyes to the US not because they hate their freedoms or their women's bare shoulders. It's because Americans have supported many of those repressive regimes -- often with troops on the ground -- from Indonesia to Iran.

In the end, the Clash of Civilizations rhetoric is, by design, a way to cut short any discussion of neo-imperialism, the conviction of the US and other Western nations that they have the right to control the world's resources.

Sure, there is a Clash of Civilizations, but its dividing line is not between East and West but North and South.

Ultimately, these conflicts, like civil conflicts in the non-Muslim world, are about power, control of finite resources or long-term ethnic and tribal friction, regardless of whether they're packaged as religious-inspired "Jihad" or not. Those who embrace the idea of a global struggle against "Islamic fascism" would never suggest that decades of violence in Ireland could be reduced to a story as simplistic as Catholics against Protestants, much less that it was an indictment of Christianity as a whole. They'd be quick to admit that the sectarian divide in Ireland was just one of a number of factors that caused so much bloodshed.

As for Indian Muslims and Hindus, there have been clashes since the time of partition and subsequently-- ALL in the name of politics. All of these have been ignited by political concerns. All have had some roots in economic issues. This includes the violence in Assam. The clashes after the Babri Masjid debacle were also after Shri Advani undertook his infamous rath yatra with the single minded mission of stirring up trouble in communities which had learnt to live with each other. The Gujarat riots two years ago, which gave our country such a good name, were also based in economic rivalries and insecurities.

That's why it's so important to understand that those reactionaries within our own society who are pushing the Clash of Civilizations are mirror-images of the terrorists that inspire their hyperbolic fear; they're just as xenophobic, just as irrational and, ultimately, are just as great a threat to our security. Both have to be challenged aggressively before they give birth to another, even bloodier generation of culture warriors.

"Islamo-fascism" looks like an analytic term, but really it's an emotional one, intended to get people to herd together in fear and terror. It presents the bewildering politics of the Arab world as a simple matter of Us versus Them

The Dillemma of Indian Muslims

I have blogged on many sites in the last 2-3 years and the blogs that got me the most hate mail were those on Indian Muslims. In fact, it would not be facetious for me to say that I lost several friends because of the views I expressed in my blogs.

Since I am Muslim myself the whole exercise gained several dimensions. Fellow Muslims cursed me for being elitist, fellow Indians (non Muslims) sent me threats that seemed very real. There were blogs posted in response to mine filled with language that should have been checked and controlled by webmasters but obviously wasn't.

However, the good thing was that there was a significant number of those who were fair and rational in their responses.

When I look back at that period of my life when I was blogging almost everyday on a very well known blogging site for non resident Indians, I wonder at my own productivity. I haven't blogged for nearly 14 months now. There should be no excuse for not writing but the hate mail that had poured into my mailbox had so frightened me that I sat at my computer with my fingers completely atrophied and all my writing abilities in a state of petrefaction.

Now, ironically, when I decided to start writing again, I have found that my favourite topic, Indian Muslims, are in the news again and the discussions surrounding them are virtually the same as two years ago.

Alas! somethings never change.

In fact, I read all my old pieces again and was shocked to see that none of them had lost their relevance vis a vis the Muslims of India. I would also like to state here that I am not trying to launch a one (wo)man crusade in their defence. Far from it. However, I do believe that there is more to this question than what is immediately apparent.

However, I don't want to delve into that at the moment.

I am not sure if any fellow Indian Muslim is going to read this blog but if someone does this is what I would like to share with him/her:

dear fellow "believer", I hope you are still not labouring under the illusion that you made the wrong decision by not migrating to Pakistan when it first came into being. I hope you know how refugees from India were forced to live in ghetto like colonies with no sewage system and water supply and how this same population was treated with contempt and superiority (Islamic brotherhood notwithstanding!)

I hope you know that even today Indian Muslims are looked down upon by the rest of our Muslim fraternity and that we are not considered "real Muslims"

Do you know that other Muslim countries (mainly in the Persian Gulf) treat all foreign Muslim bretheren worse than beats of burden? That a white coloured Christian/Jew automatically gets more pay and perks than a fellow Muslim?

Do you know that you are being accused of not taking part in India's growth? Do you know that clever politicians are putting forth the argument that Indian Muslims have never taken part in the flowering of Indepenedent India and that they have spent the last 60 years pining for a country across the border because they believe that is their "true homeland"?

Of course, all these questions are rhetorical and no answers are expected.

Some days ago when the news of the Ahmedabad blasts came in I dashed off an angry letter to the Times of India (which they did not publish).

What had maddened me was the luke warm response of Indian Muslims to the libel that Muslims were terrorists and traitors and were threatening to blow up Indian icons and cities in "revenge"! I heard on Zee that some ulema from Deoband had come forward to state grandly that Islam was a religion of peace and decried all manner of violence. But there was no straightforward condemnation of the blasts themselves even though a group of common bandits going by the name of "Indian Mujahedeen" was taking the responsibility.

My point is, when will you learn?