Author: Brown Pundits Archive

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One thing people will be puzzling over while perusing the last email the Caliphate wrote to John Foley (father of James): who is this woman….”our sister”….Dr Afiya Siddiqi? What are the circumstances behind her imprisonment by the Americans? Why is she such an inspirational figure for the Caliphate??
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Deborah is clear on this point: the ambivalence that Europeans feel about condemning the Caliphate is tied to the fear that it would make heroes out of Americans. She is worried as to how the ISIS is poisoning minds which leads to islamo-phobia amongst common (white) people and blind prejudice against muslims and arabs.
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The famous Jewish-American dissident Norman Finkelstein calls the attitude of Jewish liberals (who support the right of Israel to exist as a nation state) as shooting…but crying. Well, the attitude of the West-Left towards islamists is equally instructive. It is akin to a grandma who brings her ward to school and instructs the teacher on tantrum management: if the child makes trouble, then scold the boy next to him and he will calm down. It is as if  the chosen wards of the western left have no agency of their own…the soft bigotry of low expectations.

We have been a consistent fan of Prof Obama and how handles his job…he is the ultimate cool dude. He has been consistent on this point that he wants America to do less outside the borders and more inside. This is how it should be.

When has the last time the international community managed to speak in one voice, in support of the world’s policeman? Perhaps following 9/11 when we were supposedly all americans (that solidarity disappeared real fast). The outrage over James Foley is just a momentary thing, it is like a water-drop on a lotus leaf (one word in Sanskrit: nalini-dala-gata-jalamati-taralam). We hear ad infinitum about Iraq, why not a bit about how Americans saved Bosnia. Deborah has nothing to say about a genocide in Europe four decades after we were assured “never again.”

Now that the Caliphate has made a personal challenge, the President has a well thought-out response: We will get you and we will never forget. If he had just blustered that would not convinces us. Obama is no peacenik, he just wants to focus on (home) economics rather than war (abroad). But now that the choice is clear, we expect difficult times ahead for Al-Bakri (we would love to see his head on a stick, no non-violence for him).
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The parents of slain journalist James Foley have released the final
email sent by Islamic State (Isis) militants a week before he was
beheaded and a video of the killing was uploaded onto the internet. They said they regarded the email as a hopeful sign they could negotiate with the Islamic militants.

Speaking on NBC’s Today, John and Diane Foley from Rochester,
New Hampshire, said they had last heard from the captors via several
emails in December.


…
John Foley said he was excited to see the latest email, even though it
threatened execution, because he hoped they would be willing to
negotiate. “I underestimated that point,” John Foley said of the threat. “I did not realize how brutal they were.”


…
Foley, 40, was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012. In the last email,
Foley’s Islamic State captors demanded USD 132.5 million from his
parents and political concessions from Washington. Authorities say
neither obliged.

…
The militants revealed Foley’s death in a video released on Tuesday. The
extremists said they killed him in retaliation of US air-strikes
targeting Islamic State positions in northern Iraq.

…
The Foleys said they had set up a special email address and sent
multiple messages to try to engage the captors. “We were just anxiously
waiting,” Diane Foley said.


…
Global Post,
a news site the American photojournalist worked for before his death,
said it had chosen to publish the letter “in full in the interest of
transparency and to fully tell Jim’s story”.

                                           Full text of the e-mail:

HOW LONG WILL THE SHEEP FOLLOW THE BLIND SHEPPARD?

A message to the American government and their sheep like citizens:

We have left you alone since your disgraceful defeat in Iraq. We did not
interfere in your country or attack your citizens while they were
safe in their homes despite our capability to do so!

As for the scum of your society who are held prisoner by us, THEY DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE EATEN!

You were given many chances to negotiate the release of your people via cash transactions as other governments have accepted,

We have also offered prisoner exchanges to free the Muslims currently in
your detention like our sister Dr Afia Sidiqqi, however you proved
very quickly to us that this is NOT what you are interested in.

You have no motivation to deal with the Muslims except with the language
of force, a language you were given in “Arabic translation” when you
attempted to occupy the land of Iraq!

Now you return to bomb the Muslims of Iraq once again, this time
resorting to Arial attacks and “proxy armies”, all the while cowardly
shying away from a face-to-face confrontation!

Today our swords are unsheathed towards you, GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS
ALIKE! AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR
BLOOD.

You do not spare our weak, elderly, women or children so we will NOT spare yours!

You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings!

The first of which being the blood of the American citizen, James Foley!

He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!

……………..

Plenty of people are happy enough to agree that jihadists are the
villains, but remain deeply uncomfortable with the idea that Americans
are the heroes. Even some of the people who agree absolutely that
Foley’s death was far, far beyond excuse would argue that part of the
problem with westerners is that we only listen when other westerners are
telling the stories. Foley himself felt compelled to tell the story of
the suffering of Syrians, because he understood that western media
outlets need western translators.

Certainly, most of us don’t want
to sit staring at our screens watching un-contextualised clips of
atrocities. Instead, we want our news to be mediated, by people who
broadly share our values, not the values of the people who are the
objects of our pity or of our disgust. But even this story, which seems
straightforward, is harder to judge than it might appear.

You
don’t have to have seen the film to have picked up more detail about it
than you might want to know. 

My own squeamish imagination is in thrall
to the tiny knife, a picture of which the media in its wisdom has
decided can be published freely. I’m not so sure that it’s wise to bandy
pictures of that (assumed) murder weapon around. Actually, I see so
much meaning in that knife that I wonder if I might have strayed beyond
reason on this matter.

First, it makes a mockery of the idea that
you can protect yourself from the brutality of the attack on Foley by
declining to look at the film. It invites you to think about how
difficult it would be, to sever a man’s head with a little knife like
that, and how painful. You can’t help feeling that the knife was chosen
for that reason. Actually, it’s reported, even the film leaves the
actual butchery to the imagination, showing only its results. 

However, I
think that small knife was selected for reasons more fiendish even than
that unwelcome invitation to imagine it being used. I think it was
selected to provide a contrast with the air strikes of the military
industrial complex, the air strikes that the murderer claimed were
Foley’s real killers. I think it was a message and a warning: “I may not
have many weapons at my own disposal, but look what I’m prepared to do
with whatever comes to hand.”

Terrorists always argue that they
are forced to be brutal because brutality is their only weapon. Their
only weapon, in this case, apart from a knife of familiar and domestic
size, is a camera and every media outlet in the world. And that’s a
massive weapon.

That tiny knife puts me in mind, very much, of the
rockets of Hamas – puny weapons used symbolically, rebuke and
provocation both. “It only killed one person,” as Hamas would say. “Look
at all the people you have killed in your disproportionate response.” 

Maybe Islamic State are deluded enough to believe that their execution
of Foley will stop US air strikes. Maybe they think they will get the
kind of gigantic ransoms for their remaining prisoners that they asked
for in Foley’s case. Maybe they’re not even thinking, but merely
desperate, as some optimistic-seeming observers suggest.

But maybe
they have already got what they want – to be the most notorious group
on the planet simply because their propaganda has the power to unsettle
the minds of humanity. Their own minds may be small and nasty. But they
have still infected the minds of the world, and maybe our hearts as
well. On those terms, heaven help us, they’ve already won

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Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s sister, Dr Fauzia Siddiqui said that
former President Pervez Musharraf handed over her sister and children to
USA in voracity of dollars while her sister had no links with the
banned organization.

Addressing the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) session on
Friday she said that the incumbent government was not working for the
repatriation of Dr Aafia.


She appealed to the lawyer fraternity and masses to run a campaign
for the release of Dr Aafia as they did against former dictator Pervez
Musharraf. She further said that the PPP led government should have
demanded the US government that if Dr Aafia was a culprit then her case
should be pursued in Pakistan.


…
Addressing the session, President LHCBA, Mian Abdul Qadus said that
that former dictator had handed over the Pakistani citizens including Dr
Aafia Siddiqui out of greed for money. He demanded the trial of former dictator under Article 6 of the
constitution while all the responsible people who were involved in
handing over of Dr Aafia Siddiqui should be dealt with iron hands.

Pasban Lahore organised a march here on Friday to press for the
release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui by the US. The march was held from Shuhada
Mosque to Assembly hall where Altaf Shakoor president Pasban, Pakistan
addressed the participants. He urged students, labourers, lawyers and
journalists to intensify their efforts to free Dr Aafia.


….
He said that people should not be mislead by the false stories
against Aafia being churned out by anti-Muslim Jewish lobby. He demanded
of the government to support the daughter of the nation and fulfill its
duties.

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Link (1): Last-EMail-ISIS-Sent-To-The-Foleys-Full-Text

Link (2): james-foley-murder-isis-infected-our-minds

Link (3): musharraf-handed-over-dr-aafia-in-lust-for-dollars-dr-fauzia

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regards

Traditionally, for Hindus it was the gotra (not surname) that was the principal identifier. We are not fully informed on Maharashtrian practices but here is an interesting factoid: If the surname has a -kar suffix, the prefix usually suggests the ancestral village or locality of origin.

Thus for example, Revan-kar – a title from the Daivajna family with common ancestry in Goa (hence termed Gomantak, the ancient name of Goa). The ancestral village for Revankars is Rivona (probably a Portugese adaptation). Other Gomantak Daivajna titles include Karekar (from Karai), Pednekar (Pedne), Haldonkar (Haldona)….

Looking elsewhere, we find Aurangabadkar (Aurangabad in Western Maharashtra, the capital city of Aurangzeb, then Mughal vice-roy of Deccan, in 1653) and Amalnerkar (Amalner, 200 km due north of Nashik, in the north-west corner of Maharashtra where Azim Premji of Wipro spent his childhood, his dad was the proprietor of a local dalda factory). We are a fan of the astro-physicist Jayant Vishnu Narlikar and when we looked, sure enough, there is a village named Narli in Sangli district in south-western Maharashtra.

The family name of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is Sakpal (father: Ramji Maloji Sakpal) but the family took the surname
of Ambawadekar, after the village Ambawade (Ratnagiri district, south Maharashtra). In a brief autobiographical account, Baba-saheb tells us how a school
teacher (a Brahmin, who shared food with him) got the name to be shortened to
Ambedkar. Incidentally, there are allegations (see link below) that Ambedkar’s followers helped erase the contributions of his wife in his life (Savita Mai, a Brahmin), we wonder why?
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Finally, we have Dr Narendra Achyut Dabholkar, who died for the cause of rationality one year ago in Pune (1 November 1945 – 20 August 2013). The Dabholkar title is from the Chitpavan family with common ancestry in the Konkan (hence termed Konkan-astha). Dabhol is a sea-side village on the Konkan sea-coast, 250 km south of Mumbai, near Chiplun, Maharashtra.
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We are not that familiar with Narendra as a first-name (Nara- man + Indra- king of Gods, thus a king amongst men), however the ones we know of are all formidable people (coincidence?). Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi is the current Prime Minister from Gujarat, while Narendra Nath Dutta was the pre-sanyasin name of Swami Vivekananda – the Bengali monk who established the monastic order named Ramakrishna Mission.

When it came to naming his son, Dabholkar made a curious (but meaningful) choice. Hamid Dabholkar is named after Hamid Umar Dalwai who was born in a Marathi-speaking Muslim family and whose ancestral village is Mirjoli, also near Chiplun (and not far from Dabhol). Dalwai was an early follower of the socialist mass-leader (Lok Nayak) Jai Prakash (JP) Narayan and then went on to establish himself as a renowned social reformer focused (primarily) on the advancement of Muslim women. 
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[ref. Wiki] Dalwai joined the Indian Socialist Party of Jai Prakash Narayan
in his early adulthood, but left it to devote himself to social reforms
in the Muslim community, especially regarding women’s rights. 

Despite
living in a period when most people were staunchly religious and
orthodox, Hamid Dalwai was one among the few religiously secular people.
He strove towards a uniform civil code rather than religion specific
laws.


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To create a platform for his views and work, he established the Muslim Satya-Shodhak Mandal
(Muslim Truth Seeking Society) in Pune on 22 March 1970. Through the
medium of this Society, Hamid worked towards reforming bad practices in
the Muslim community especially towards women. He helped many Muslim
women who were victimized to get justice. 

He campaigned for encouraging
Muslims in acquiring education in the State language rather than Urdu,
their mother tongue. He also tried to make adoption an acceptable
practice in the Indian Muslim community.


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He also established the Muslim Secular Society. He organised many
public meetings, gatherings, conventions and conferences to campaign for
better social practices. He was also a great Marathi litterateur. He
wrote Indhan (Fuel) – a novel, Laat (Wave) – a collection of short
stories and Muslim Politics in Secular India.
He used the medium of his writing for social reform.
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Link (1): dabholkar-dissent-and-democracy

Link (2): dr-ambedkar-and-brahmins
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regards

Take one instructive example. EMS Namboodiripad is an all-time great amongst Indian politicians. But even as a man of the left he was not averse to playing communal games. It was in 1969 – only two decades removed from Partition I – that EMS promised and delivered a “muslim district” in Kerala by merging together the Muslim majority areas of Thrissur, Palakkad and Kozhikkode districts. This was done at the behest of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in return for short-term political support for the CPM led Left Front (IUML has long back ditched the CPM and is now partnered with the Congress).

Now the IUML is demanding for a separate Muslim state by bifurcating Kerala and capturing some land from Tamil Nadu (good luck with that). So…the next logical step will be a Muslim country…right? Not to worry, people already refer to Malappuram as mini Pakistan.
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Recently Malappuram district secretary of Muslim Youth League demanded
the division of Kerala. He demanded a new state named Malabar with
Kozhikode as the capital city. It is reported that they want a new state
including “7 districts, right from Thrissur, along with the inclusion
of Mahi and the Nilagiri district of Tamil Nadu.”. The justification for
the demand is that “it will be the sole solution” that will “help in
the progress of the region.” 
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All this political skullduggery has predictably led to a backlash and “hindu” organizations have now joined forces- for example, the
Nairs (NSS) and the Ezhavas (SNDP) who were once separated by bitter
caste barriers. Once the Left collapses, the BJP will be ready to take over (just like how it is happening in Bengal).

No good comes out of creating divisions within people (usually done for winning political power). Neighbors should not have to meet purity tests. And when one identity (religious) becomes too strong, then people will suffer, minorities for sure, but even people from the dominant faith.  

The stowaways who were just now rescued from a “metal coffin” in England have been identified as Afghan Sikhs. Sikhs
and Hindus have been living in Afghanistan for centuries. With the rise
of the Taliban (again), these communities face the choice of conversion or death. If and when the Taliban comes back to power (again), only muslims will be left to face the beatings, hand choppings and be-headings, while muslim women will disappear into home-prisons.
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International manhunt continues for
traffickers who crammed 35 immigrants into container bound for Port of Tilbury. Disturbing footage showed migrants crawling
helplessly on the floor, while harrowing screams echo around docks. Altogether, 13
children, including a baby, and adults up to the age of 72 – including man in
his 40s who died – were among group.  Essex Police have confirmed all of
those inside the unit were Sikhs from Afghanistan – two remain in hospital
today
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Finally, a comment on the latest abduction case (again). Tamil Nadu was spared the terrible Hindu-Muslim riots that shook North India during partition. As a Tamilian from the Christian faith, Friar Alexis Prem Kumar may not comprehend why a Pashtun from the Muslim faith would have cause to dislike him, even to hate him. But we still have to wonder if he and his family were willfully unaware of current events or relying on divine grace. If so it was an act of foolishness that may cost his life.

We also understand that religious folks have a strong sense of service. But any service (especially in foreign lands) must be coupled to a proper risk-benefit analysis. It is madness for a Catholic to be deployed in Afghanistan where apostasy-conversion-blasphemy carries the most severe of penalties. Jesuit Refugee Service, the employer of Prem Kumar, must answer why it was necessary to put this man’s life in danger. 

Ultimately in the grand scheme of things it probably does not matter if a single Sikh, Hindu, or Christian is unable to survive in Afghanistan. The Hindu-Sindhis, to take one example, have made a new home for themselves over a matter of a two generations. But those minds trapped in metal coffins- they are worrisome indeed. 

It will take some extra-ordinary event to bring peace to the Middle East and North Africa. We do not see any prospect of such an event in our lifetime at least. So many millions condemned to perpetual strife, cleansing and genocide, this is certainly not the will of God for sure (if she exists). But it is also a cautionary tale for India and Indians. Let us all learn and live, let us all live and learn.
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 Family
members of abducted Jesuit priest from Sivaganga Fr Alexis Prem Kumar
who met Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi on
Thursday evening said that they were assured that the Centre was keen on
rescuing him soon and it was taking all efforts to bring him back.

It has been nearly two months since his abduction but there was little
information about his whereabouts. “We don’t know where he is being kept
or what efforts were being taken by Afghanistan authorities to rescue
him. But the only factor that keeps our hopes high is the assurance from
the Indian embassy officials that he is safe,” said a family member.

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Link (1): Illegal-immigrants-in-Tilbury-shipping-container-were-Sikhs-from-Afghanistan

Link (2): Government-taking-all-efforts-to-bring-back-priest

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regards

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He is the Guru-ji, who single-handedly created the world-wide Yoga brand (though some naughty people attribute the popularity to Christy Turlington). We are not passionate about Yoga, however it is impolite to say so in academic, left-liberal circles- both in the USA and in India.

We do believe that Yoga provides health benefits…but only for the true believers. Of course, the good thing about Yoga is that believers come in all shapes, sizes and ages. We have been amazed to see seventy year olds doing asanas with ease, the ones we had to work hard over in our teens. Today, Yoga is a multi billion dollar enterprise and Indians are not doing too poorly as new-age entrepreneurs (example: Baba Ramdev). Soft power and all that.
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All in all, BKS was an inspiration to countless folks, a good man who said “Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for….Nor
can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills – it has to be
earned through sweat. It is something that we must build up.” Right on, dear sir, and may you enjoy your brief moments of peace up in the stars before you recycle back to this nasty old earth.
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BKS Iyengar, the Indian yoga guru credited with helping to fuel a global explosion in the popularity of the ancient spiritual practice, has died aged 95. Iyengar
started his yoga school in 1973 in the western city of Pune, developing
a unique form of the practice that he said anyone could follow.
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He
trained hundreds of teachers to disseminate his approach, which uses
props such as belts and ropes to help novice practitioners achieve the
poses. He wrote many books on yoga, which has been practised in
Asia for more than 2,000 years, and has in recent decades become hugely
popular around the world.

His insistence on perfecting the poses – or asanas – won him a huge following, among them celebrity fans ranging from the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the writer Aldous Huxley.

It
was an encounter with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who came across
Iyengar during a trip to Mumbai in the 1950s, that prompted him to take
his practice global. “Perhaps no one has done more than Mr Iyengar to bring yoga to the west,” said the New York Times in a 2002 profile of the guru.

“Long
before Christy Turlington was gracing magazine covers, decades before
power yoga was a multimillion-dollar business, Mr Iyengar was teaching
Americans, among others, the virtues of asanas and breath control.” US
model Turlington graced the front cover of Time magazine in a
cross-legged pose for a 2001 report on the explosion in yoga’s
popularity.

Critics say the global expansion of yoga into western
gyms and fitness centres has taken the practice too far from its
spiritual origins. But Iyengar said it was unfair to blame yogis.
“It all depends on what state of mind the practitioner is in when he is
doing yoga,” he said last year in an interview with Indian newspaper
Mint. “For the aberration, don’t blame yoga or the whole community of yogis.”

His website carried a picture of Iyengar’s smiling face beside a
message that read: “I always tell people, ‘Live happily and die
majestically.’ 14 Dec 1918 – 20 Aug 2014.”

Despite suffering a heart attack at 80, he had continued to practise yoga into his 90s.
He
suffered from ill health as a child but found that he could improve his
strength by practising yoga, which he took up as a teenager.

When
he was 18, his guru sent him to teach in Pune because he spoke some
English. There, he developed his own form of yoga, eventually opening
his own institute.

There are now over 100 Iyengar yoga institutes around the world.

Iyengar is survived by a son and a daughter. He will be cremated on Wednesday afternoon.

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Link: www.theguardian.com/bks-iyengar-guru-global-yoga-dies

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regards