A Profile in Courage

Shafiq R · July 24, 2018 · 23 comments

I am not adding anything extra with this short news item, I think the news speaks eloquently and voluminously by itself. I just want to add that I feel utterly humble when I consider how much courage and determination people like  Jibran Nasir possess to do what he is doing day after day in a place like Pakistan.

Rare secular candidate in Pakistan hounded by angry mob

Saad Sayeed

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – It began with a audience members asking Pakistani parliamentary candidate Jibran Nasir to declare his religion at a public forum, a request he politely refused on the grounds it is irrelevant.

  • Later, the mobs started showed up. In the past week, three of Nasir’s public meetings in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, have been disrupted by religious hardliners – shouting out and shoving his supporters.

    Nasir, a human rights lawyer, is a rare breed in Pakistan: an avowedly secular, progressive candidate in the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 208 million, where most parties appeal to an Islamic vote bank.

  • His independent candidacy is in stark contrast to the prevailing mood of Pakistan’s campaign, which has seen the rise of new ultra-right Islamist parties campaigning on protecting draconian blasphemy laws and denouncing the persecuted Ahmadi sect.

    Liberal and secular-minded Pakistanis say the sheer number of religious party candidates, combined with their ultra-conservative rhetoric, has already shifted the agenda in their direction.

    Nasir aims to challenge the prevalent extremist discourse.

    “Our campaign is bigger than just my win… What it is symbolizing for the people is a change in narrative,” he told Reuters.

  • “That challenging extremists is possible … not using religion to get votes is possible.”

    Since launching his campaign, a number of clerics in Karachi have branded Nasir a blasphemer from the pulpit, a dangerous accusation in Pakistan that can lead to the death penalty, and labeled him an Ahmadi, a sect they consider heretics.

    On Saturday, a mob of people chanting slogans associated with the new ultra-Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party, which campaigns under the “death to blasphemers” rallying cry, descended on his public meeting, crowding around Nasir and intimidating his supporters.

    “I believe it’s being done in a very organized manner,” Nasir said. “Our politics should be free from compromise, fear, and discrimination.”

Labaik spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi said his party “did not send anyone to do this”, adding that people running in elections should declare their faith.

Nasir gained nationwide prominence in 2014 after staging protests against the Red Mosque, the Islamabad center of a militant network with links to Pakistani Taliban strongholds in the northwest and in neighboring Afghanistan.

The mosque was the site of a military standoff in 2007, but within two years its chief cleric was freed from detention and was once again calling for strict Islamic rule across Pakistan.

The mosque campaign earned Nasir a phone call and death threats from a high-ranking Taliban commander.

“We are doing it for the millions of Pakistanis … who right now are forced to choose amongst the lesser of evils, who are willing to embrace different political leaders with all their biases and religious bigotry,” he said.

“Every day I am carrying on with my mission, they are making a fool of themselves.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-election-independent/rare-secular-candidate-in-pakistan-hounded-by-angry-mobs-idUSKBN1KD1L7

Why moderating this weblog has become more difficult

Razib Khan · July 23, 2018 · 31 comments

This is still a modest weblog. But engagement is high (average time on the website is 4+ minutes). And the proportion of Indian readers getting is higher and higher. At some point in 2019, conservatively, I think this weblog will have more Indian readers than American.

That is a problem for me because I have a hard time understanding a lot of the references or anticipating triggers. So flame-wars are getting common as I’m not sanitizing much….

Islam at her Greatest

X.T.M · July 22, 2018 · Comments Off on Islam at her Greatest

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bla8F4OHdd9/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1h5bpz7tovf9j

The great story of our Post-1492 age is the decline and decline of Islam. I don’t know what the blip in China (between Burma and Laos) is but I imagine it must have something to do with the WarLord Era.

This does bring to mind Huntington’s maxim that Islam has bloody border; Spain, Israel, Greece (+Balkans) & the Phillipines have all shrugged of the Muslim yoke (according to their national histories)..

Amartya Sen calls demonetisation despotic

X.T.M · July 22, 2018 · 40 comments

I don’t know who the other chap but he’s being rather rude to Professor Sen who is not only a Nobel Laureate but was the Master of Trinity College (which is no mean feat for a coloured person as Trinity is the Queen of Oxbridge and it’s richest college by far – also the whitest, poshest and most entrenched).

My thoughts on demonetisation is that it was a tax on the upper middle classes but one that the ultra-rich (the Ambani class) could easily avoid.

The magic of PR is that Aam Admi hates both the upper class and the Muslim minority but admired the oligarchic class, who really control India’s tentacles. That 0.1% elite is immunised to all governments and changes to tri-colour to Saffron depending on who is in power. Continue reading Amartya Sen calls demonetisation despotic

How have the English paid for imperialism/colonialism?

X.T.M · July 22, 2018 · 14 comments

Yesterday we went for lunch with some friends and rather randomly the husband engaged Vidhi on the merits/demerits of colonialism. I also had a commentator somehow bring up that I’m unfairly blaming the English for South Asia’s problems.

My point being is that the new counter-narrative is that the English seem to have done us a favour by gifting us English, building railways and a United India.

The idea that India was some sort of net expense on the Crown is palpably absurd and I’ll leave it to the Commentariat to discuss. Continue reading How have the English paid for imperialism/colonialism?

The future of Hindi cinema

X.T.M · July 22, 2018 · 17 comments

I’m excerpting Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra’s reviews of Dhadak. I haven’t seen Sairat, the movie on which Dhadak is based on, but I’ll excerpt what Rajeev and Anupama said:

(1) a homogeneised Dharma production of the caste issue (there was an important water scene in Sairat not repeated in Dhadak) (RM)

(2) Jhaanvi’s hair was perfect throughout the second half even when they were living in the slum (AC). Continue reading The future of Hindi cinema

Judicial Jitters in Pakistan. A look back..

Omar Ali · July 22, 2018 · 1 comment

From Dr Hamid Hussain

Controversy about judiciary is seen as a novel phenomenon in Pakistan.  Found this piece from the vault written in 2007.  It is long but provides context of current status.  There is a coming ‘food fight’ among senior judges.  A sitting senior judge has leveled the accusation that court benches are formed at the advice of intelligence agencies and that phones of judges are being taped.  This is the first salvo and more fireworks in store.   When politics is militarized and judiciary and army brass politicized, then system will always be wobbly.  Read it if you have some spare time but I’ll advise to take some aspirin before reading it.

“The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of our adversities”.    Sophocles

Hamid

Defence Journal, June 2007

Judicial Jitters in Pakistan – A Historical Overview

Hamid Hussain

‘Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please’.   Mark Twain

Pakistan is in the throes of a judicial crisis since March 2007.  On March 09, 2007, general Pervez Mussharraf summoned chief justice Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudry to army house.  He was asked some tough questions and then asked to resign.  Chief justice held his ground and refused.  He was kept at army house for several hours so that an acting chief justice could be sworn in.  Justice Javed Iqbal was sworn in as the senior most judge justice Rana Baghwan Das was out of country.  Chaudry was given the title of ‘suspended’ chief justice and his case referred to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for action.  This started a crisis where majority of the people denounced the cavalier manner in which general Mussharraf dealt with the chief justice.  Legal community fully supported chief justice by boycotting courts and bringing out processions on the streets.  Now every one is waiting for the final scene of the drama which may take a while.  Current crisis has brought judiciary in the lime light.  This article will give a historical overview of the role of judiciary in Pakistan and its interaction with both civilian and military rulers.

In every country, there is a continuous struggle for accumulating more power between different state institutions.  Executive tries to get a free hand and does not like legal restraints.  Judiciary tries to put some breaks on unchecked powers of the executive.  This struggle keeps some semblance of balance of power.  However, a politicized judiciary is as dangerous as an uncontrolled power hungry executive.  Continue reading Judicial Jitters in Pakistan. A look back..

Dhadak

X.T.M · July 21, 2018 · 9 comments

We just saw Dhadak; an excellent and important film about an inter caste romance starring Jhanvi Kapoor (SriDevi’s daughter) and Ishaan Khattak (Shahid Kapoor’s half-brother).

The funny moment is when shortly after intermission was over 2 black guys walked into the cinema hall. The whole audience was so confused but they then realised they were in the wrong hall to the merriment of all.

A few observations: Continue reading Dhadak

Brown Missionaries and the Anglospheric Hegemony

X.T.M · July 21, 2018 · 27 comments

In the centre of Cambridge there are these missionaries preaching the Word of God and the love of Jesus.

It’s the yellow-shirted people and they are entirely brown.

They come from Kent but I can’t place them perhaps they’re Sri Lankan origin as I don’t know any other British Asian community with a large Christian community. Continue reading Brown Missionaries and the Anglospheric Hegemony

Brown Pundits