A Cultural Revolution?

zia:

..you say `try explaining that to the guardians...`

...who are these guardians?...but do not answer...it is not really relevant...what would be interesting to learn is the impact of this `open air` policy...the `cultural` invasion of the lowest equation from the west on unsuspecting rural south asians...has any work been done..being done to study open media`s impact ..in pakistan...in india?

rgds,

t


ps: what does the positioning of the dupatta got to do with anything?...the law and order situation, high unemployement, low meaningful education, opportunities...emancipation...of women, mind and horizon...tolerance for dissenting view points...these and more are as affected by the duppatta`s positioning or even abscence...as they are by the exchange rate of the ruppee or the dow jones averaqe!

http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/08/india.technology.reut/index.html

Curry software gears for ``Made in India`` push

March 8, 2002 Posted: 4:59 PM HKT (0859 GMT)



The Simputer (short for Simple Computer) was the first indigenously built pocket computer of its kind in India.

BANGALORE, India (Reuters) -- From the popular Hotmail service acquired by Microsoft Corp to the Pentium chip owned by Intel, Indians have been at the core of the technology revolution that powered an economic boom in the 1990s.

But missing was a telltale tag: Made in India.

A handful of pioneers in India`s technology capital are now trying to change that, aiming to turn the nation from a pool of cut-rate software programmers to a center for finished products that carry high profit margins.

Writer Michael Lewis once said that ``the definitive smell inside a Silicon Valley start-up was of curry``.

``For the last two decades, `Made By Indians` is a popular thing but `Made in India` is not very popular. Our entire mission is to change that,`` Deepak Ghaisas, chief executive of the Indian operations of software firm i-flex solutions Ltd, told Reuters.

I-flex, which makes back-end products that power banks, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) of shares later this month or in April in what would be the first significant Indian product company to go public.

Indian hidden talent

Indian talent has thus far largely hid behind multinational labels.

With a global downturn hitting technology spending, India`s traditional software service companies are under intense pricing pressures.

High-end, finished products are seen as the way forward.

Software services involve code-writing often billed by the hour like a tailoring job, while a product, such as Microsoft`s MS Word, is essentially a big bundle of codes which can be copied, reducing costs and adding brand value.

Alongside i-flex, Talisma Corp, incorporated in the U.S. but based in Bangalore, is now counted among global leaders in customer relations management (CRM) software with Sony Corp and Samsung ranking among its clients.

Sitting in her office above a bowling alley in Bangalore, Rekha Menon, one of Talisma`s co-founders, says she and her co-founder Pradeep Singh took a leap in the dark when they plunged into the product area in 1996.

``The DNA of a product company and service company are very different,`` the lean, bespectacled Menon told Reuters.

``The product business is long haul and has high risk.``

Experts say Indian software service companies facing pricing pressures must develop products to charm the capital markets.

``The rest of us are condemned to lower margins, competition from China with an arguably better record at mass production of commodities, and a future down in the dumps,`` venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy wrote in ``Business Today`` magazine last month.

Product companies rely on blending technology with a close understanding of customer needs, design, quality and brand power to reap higher profit margins.

They also gain from program upgrades.

Both i-flex and Talisma have founders who cut their teeth in global giants, learning the ropes of the product business i-flex is 48.5 percent owned by Citigroup, where its founders worked earlier.

Talisma`s Singh was a product manager at Microsoft.

The companies have their main chief executive officers sitting in the United States, close to key customers and markets.

Indian heart and brain

Talisma was born out of Aditi Technologies, a service company that provided technical support for developers using Microsoft technologies.

Talisma`s founders yanked out 14 of Aditi`s best engineers and talked them out of working for Microsoft in the United States. Instead they set about designing a product.

The team found help from Hungarian-born Kornel Marton, who designed Microsoft`s popular MS Word program.

But Talisma had to junk 18 months of design after it proved faulty. It also faced difficulties in raising funds in India, where venture capitalists preferred low-risk service companies.

Talisma eventually got incorporated in the United States, where it has since raised $53 million from venture funds, but 400 of its nearly 500 employees function from India.

``It is only a legal entity in the U.S.,`` Menon said. ``The heart and the brain of the company are in India.``

I-flex founders,``Shanx`` Ravisankar and Rajesh Hukku, took a bet on the financial industry more than a decade ago, and are now seeing the gains.

I-flex now serves about 330 financial institutions in 80 countries, and Citibank is set to deploy its FLEXCUBE software in 100 countries.

About half of its 2,100 employees are in Bangalore, where i-flex is building a $10 million complex.

Attitude shift

Like Talisma and i-flex, iCode, headquartered in the United States but functioning substantially out of Bangalore, is reaching out globally with software that helps small and medium firms manage accounts, sales, shipping inventories and e-commerce.

Sanjay Shah, one of iCode`s three founders, shifted to Bangalore in 1996 from the United States and recalls his frustration on a monsoon night, when he got stranded on a waterlogged road.

``The mosquitoes were biting, but I said I am going to do an attitude shift or it ain`t gonna happen,`` Shah said.

Things have come a long way. iCode is now debating whether to make India its headquarters. About 35 of its staff, mainly in sales, are in the United States while 320 are in India.

ICode`s product AccWare, whose Windows version was entirely built in India, has 1,200 customers in the United States. Its latest product, Everest, launched in December, is being readied in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Korean.

There have been some setbacks, too.

Hyderabad-based VisualSoft Technologies, which made intermediate tools to help build end-use software, is now focusing only on services after being hit by cutbacks in technology spending in the United States.

But it is different for others. An Indian base now means newer, cheaper product versions with 24-hour support, Talisma`s Menon said.

``We now use `Made in India` as a competitive advantage.``

{{And the level of dupatta head-cover on Khabarnama - that eternal barometer of the government`s ``liberalism`` - is at an all-time low. Often, you need a side profile to discern that the dupatta is in fact making contact with the head.}}

yah man, it must be totally wild ... i mean, can you imagine, showing skin from the dupatta and all ... next thing you know they`ll be showing ankle skin ... that`ll just drive the men crazy ... like those Good Girls Gone Bad clips from Mardi Gras, and Spring Break in Cancun ...

who decides censorship in Pakistan....on the one hand you have these news readers, hanging on to their inch of dupattas for dear life and it`s not ok for them to just give it up..... and then we have those 200lb bimbos gyrating their cellulite in the faces of men in Punjabi/Pathan movies and it`s perfectly alright.

could we Pakistani women start a charity fund for these actresses and prevent them from making fools of themselves?

for what it`s worth, i`ll help Resham go to college.

anyone else interested?

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Just finished reading Malcolm X`s biography and couldn`t help but think that there is, somehow, a link between the mentality of the Afro-Americans of that time and my Pakistani brethren today. Please forgive me if I seem to be placing everyone in the same box?I am not?

?But there`s truth at the core of every stereotype?right?



Best wishes

UM

PS. Regarding the 200lb dugongs and elephant seals, I think it would make better sense to put their boobs, bellies and butts through the cog, extract the fat, add a strong alkali for hydrolysis and fry it all to give lashings and lashings of `Gai soap`.

UM

Perhaps it is time to have a real true Cultural revolution. To cut our cultural ties with the Middle East and South Asia, and look beyond our geographical handicap... let us Europeanize.

Pakistan Zindabad

I stand corrected.

``On the same night, that radiant but fading beauty Laila Zuberi asserts rather nonchalantly: ``kisi nay theek hee kaha hay, waqaee hum aurton ki jaga ghar mein hay.``

Is this why Mr (roohi-doohi stick to potty training) Urstruly was telling me to keep my nose out of international affairs on another board ? Why ? Can`t sleep deprived, diaper changing, (temorarily) stay-at-home Moms have an opinion ?

... and, just to rattle your cage, Urstruly - let me restate the comment you objected to there

1. There are Insaans on both sides of the border

2. Some Insaans are Gadhas, even in Pakistan

3. Going by your above assertion, you sir, appear to be a prime sample of said species

May the feminist subset of the cultural revolution in Pakistan rock on !!! ... and now, if you`ll excuse me, I have to go wipe juniors bottom.

http://www.dawn.com/2002/03/10/nat13.htm

Saarc ministers laud Pakistan`s cultural tolerance

ISLAMABAD, March 9: A nostalgic journey back into the ancient Gandhara civilization in Taxila and a lifelike observation of Pakistan`s diversity-filled culture at Lok Virsa drew appreciation from the Saarc Information leaders on Saturday.

``I thank the Pakistani Government and people for preserving this great archaeological heritage, it really reflects the cultural tolerance being practised by the Pakistani nation,`` Sri Lankan head of delegation, Kuma Abeysinghe said.

Being a Buddhist from Sri Lanka, he said, he was overwhelmed by the objects he saw in the sprawling Taxila museum.

Indian Information Minister, Sushma Swaraj said, the visit to Taxila reminded one of the great past. ``We used to study in our textbooks that Taxila and Nalandha were great centres of learning, so I really became nostalgic.``

The museum has been very well maintained, she said after getting glimpses of the civilization from a treasured collection of archaeological fragments, ornaments, bedecked jars, water vessels and flasks.

``They have preserved the articles meticulously and displayed them beautifully, I congratulate and thank Pakistani Government for doing this`` she said.

At Lok Virsa Museum, the Saarc information ministers witnessed many facets of Pakistani culture including some glimpses of Tharparkar, Thal, Harappa and Kalash civilizations.

Information Minister Nisar A Memon and Secretary Infor-mation Syed Anwar Mehmood welcomed the delegates.

Director Uxi Mufti, apprising the delegates about the cultural diversity of Pakistan and country`s respect for different cultures, informed the delegates that the Hindus in Tharparkar are living happily.

Of particular attention were the Fresco paintings, wood work, metal craft and architectural craft signifying Pakistan`s close cultural affinity with both Central Asia and South Asia.

Calligraphy with mirror work and musical instruments arrayed at the museum also captured visitors attention.

The delegates expressed great appreciation for the museum`s library which houses books on the many and various cultures found across the country.-APP

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/250102/detide01.asp

Second coup

Praful Bidwai



In his first interaction in mufti with the media after seizing power in October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf emphatically delivered a message: he was not going to be a military dictator in the Yahya Khan or Zia-ul-Haq mould.

Thus, he got himself deliberately photographed in an ?un-Islamic? image, with a dog. He made copious and glowing references to secular and modern identities and symbols. And he declared Turkey?s radical reformer, Kemal Ataturk, to be his hero.

Many progressive and liberal Pakistanis told me they welcomed this, with abundant scepticism. Their scepticism got strengthened when in mid-2000, Musharraf beat a retreat on blasphemy law reform, which bigoted mullahs fiercely opposed because that would have reduced the power of the sharia-based courts.

The liberals felt reassured, however, when Musharraf took on the mullahs last June at the Seerat Conference, savaging their jehadi interpretation of Islam, their ?phoney? claim to tolerance, their support to ?cowardly? terrorism. They felt even more encouraged when during his visit to India last July, Musharraf carefully avoided paying obeisance to orthodox Sunni-Muslim monuments ? an encouraging sign despite the Agra gloom.

When Pakistani liberals watched Musharraf on January 12, they weren?t merely clutching at symbolic straws. They were witnessing a serious, coherent, focused, effort to elaborate an agenda and a vision, of a kind not heard since Jinnah promised a secular, modern future to independent Pakistan. Musharraf was now fleshing out the ideas he first publicly proposed two years ago.

To call a spade a spade, Musharraf has done something that no Pakistani ruler has ever done, and few rulers anywhere do: he has outlined an audacious plan to dismantle a major pillar of the ideological foundation which has sustained the edifice of his own state for two decades. This is militant, muscular Islam, wrought into a malign force under Zia through his campaign for a Nizam-i-Mustafa or sharia-based government.

Our reservations notwithstanding, we must honestly admit that Musharraf?s agenda represents not incremental, marginal change, but a major transformatory change of intent, a radical shift of purpose. His address falls in the category of declarations that can move social and political goalposts, create new paradigms, and release huge social energies ? like ?Garibi Hatao? once did.

Musharraf promises to sever the links between political Islam and the State, between the military and the mullahs, and between Kashmir and terrorist violence, and thus put Pakistan on the road to modernisation and secularisation. At the core of his reform programme is trenchant criticism and rejection of the heady mix of religion and politics which characterises Pakistan, which he clearly identifies as the source of the intolerance and bigotry which underlie extremism and terrorism.

Musharraf?s address unconditionally condemned all forms of terrorism and the ?Kalashnikov culture? of all religious extremism. Equally significant was his insistence that Pakistani groups must not mess around in other countries ? no matter what the cause. This has had a sobering impact on many Pakistani opinion-shapers who now call for returning to a pre-1989 Kashmir policy.

As intentions go, Musharraf?s plan is the most ambitious reform programme announced in South Asia to deal with the issue of religion and politics. It represents a total overturning of the Islamisation project launched by Zia-ul-Haq to acquire a figleaf of legitimacy for his brutal dictatorship. That project?s logic unfolded in its most developed form via the Taliban through Pakistan?s attempt to virtually annex Afghanistan and acquire ?strategic depth?, and through the promotion of a variety of militant groups.

Musharraf has launched South Asia?s biggest-ever crackdown on communalist extremists, exceeding even the banning of the RSS after Gandhiji?s assassination. His proscription of five organisations, arrest of 2,500 militants and sealing of 900 offices may well be the beginning of what is likely to be a prolonged process which will inevitably involve purging the army of pernicious religious-political influences and even cleansing the ISI.

Musharraf has thus embarked on an extraordinary bold and risky mission. It is not clear if he will succeed. Arrayed against him are numerous jehadi militants inflamed by the Taliban?s defeat in Afghanistan, bigoted mullahs, even his own military colleagues. His own survival is not guaranteed.

It will not do to minimise the significance of Musharraf?s overall reform agenda, while conceding it has ?positive elements? (Vajpayee) or is even ?path-breaking? from the purely ?internal? point of view (Advani), but claiming it is weak on the ?external? front.

The ?internal? and ?external? components are strongly, organically, inter-related. Implicit in the insistence on limiting Pakistan?s external role is the view that the country has paid dearly by pandering to pan-Islamic ideas ? themselves a consequence of the domestic Islam ? politics mix. Musharraf wants Pakistan to be seen as a ?normal?, moderate, non-aggressive, ?responsible? nation in the region and the world.

This paradigm-shift reform need not be attributed solely to personal conviction. Musharraf may have acted under external ? especially US ? pressure, and used the opportunity provided by the post-December 13 developments to push his anti-extremist agenda, just as after September 11 he had cut the umbilical cord with the Taliban.

That should not detract from the importance of his endeavour or coherence of his purpose. Far-reaching changes sometimes occur not because there is a ?genuine? change of heart, but because ?soft? options vanish, and there is a compelling need to change. This was true of Ataturk?s ?need? to give Turkey a viable non-Caliphate identity after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, or of the importance of Marshall Plan in providing legitimacy to the West in the face of the post-World War II communist challenge.

Musharraf has followed his address with some action. He has abolished communal electorates and expanded the National Assembly?s size by 48 per cent. He is preparing to hold elections by the Supreme Court ? stipulated October 2002 deadline.

It?s possible, as Pakistani progressives say, that he is not doing enough: he should have banned not just the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, but also the Markaz-Dawa-Wal-Irshad and the Jamaat-i-Islami, and disbanded the ISI?s Kashmir desk. Musharraf?s is very much a reform ?from above?, unaccompanied by a radical programme of economic change and popular empowerment. His implementation agency is, woefully, the State, a thoroughly corrupt and unreliable entity.

However, even if Musharraf achieves a quarter of his goals, he will have made a qualitative, directional, difference, and put Pakistan on the road to becoming a modern, more tolerant, plural, forward-looking society not totally obsessed with religious identity. Post-Musharraf, someone else could build on that gain.

In contrast to Pakistan, India is evolving in a retrograde direction under the most conservative Right-wing anti-pluralist political leadership in its history. There is a fresh explosion of obscurantism and chauvinism. Our education system is being consciously re-engineered to promote illiteracy in history, Vedic (we-knew-it-all-2,500 years ago) cultural supremacism, and toxic forms of national hubris, as well as to teach pseudo-sciences.

An epidemic of superstition has broken out. Tub-thumping nationalism, obsession with ?national security?, and aggressive identity-assertion are undermining the values of reason, tolerance, dialogue and compassion.

The bhadralog middle class is increasingly retreating from modernist and rational goals, even as it psychologically secedes from the people, and mutilates and tramples on secular humanism, egalitarianism, even democracy. Instead of rejecting the perverse logic of ?an eye for an eye?, our children are being taught to gouge out ?both eyes? and ?whole jaws?. Torture, draconian ?preventive? detention, witchhunts of suspects (?caught? speaking chaste Urdu) are all rationalised as part of the ?fight against terrorism?.

Rabid male-supremacism and militarism are glorified. As is India?s presumed moral superiority and global greatness whose ?unfair? denial by the world produces extreme resentment. Our middle class increasingly equates modernity with McCulture, Bollywood-style vulgarity and cellphones. Its consumerism has a ?western? exterior, but lacks authentic cultural content.

Nothing could be further removed from an emancipatory liberal culture than this phenomenon. This is not the ?Tryst with Destiny? that India made at independence. Such horrific retrogression will turn this society into a cauldron of hatreds, prejudices and superstitions ? besides being the world?s greatest reservoir of poverty, illiteracy, destitution, economic servitude, and Hindutva-style intolerance.



Pakistan

Not a pariah, a friend

Mar 7th 2002 | LAHORE

From The Economist print edition

Six months on from September 11th, Pakistan`s president looks secure

AP







Get article background

PAKISTAN`s president, General Pervez Musharraf, counts his decision to support the international war against terrorism after September 11th as the most difficult of his life. It meant not only abandoning a five-year old policy of support for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, but also providing military bases on Pakistani soil for the American attack on al-Qaeda`s terrorists and their Taliban hosts. In consequence, another hard decision had to follow: whether to crack down on the militant fundamentalists inside Pakistan who support the Taliban, or al-Qaeda, or both, and who desperately want to oust the pro-American government in Pakistan.

In taking these decisions, General Musharraf had to sweep aside resistance to an about-turn on Afghan policy in the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) that oversees security policy, as well as in the armed forces` general headquarters. First to be sacked was General Mahmood Ahmad, the ISI chief who failed to persuade the Taliban to ditch al-Qaeda and save themselves as well as Pakistan`s foreign policy. Then came the turn of the deputy chief of army staff, General Muzzafar Usmani, an Islamist, who favoured a less pro-American stance. Both were personally close to General Musharraf, having jointly carried out the coup against the government of Nawaz Sharif in October 1999 after Mr Sharif sacked General Musharraf while he was out of the country.

These brave decisions have proved to be a boon for Pakistan. As a reward, governments and international banks have rescheduled $12.5 billion in Pakistani debt over 30 years, reduced tariff barriers against Pakistani textile exports to America and the EU, and governments have nudged donors, including the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to provide soft loans for restructuring the economy and boosting Pakistan`s foreign-exchange reserves.

America has also removed all the sanctions against Pakistan (imposed progressively since 1990, when the government in Islamabad was deemed to have crossed the line into nuclear proliferation). It has provided about $600m in economic assistance for poverty alleviation, promised to try to write off $1 billion in bilateral debt, allowed the Pakistani army to buy military parts and spares for its ageing American weapons systems and restored military-to-military contacts. Before September 11th, Pakistan`s economy was in a hole, with reserves of barely $3 billion and big trade deficits in goods and services. Now things are looking brighter?reserves are $5 billion or more, foreign payment pressure has eased significantly and international credit ratings have risen. The rupee has even appreciated a bit against the dollar, while the Karachi stockmarket is up a thumping 45% on its pre-September level.

But it is General Musharraf`s personal stock at home and abroad that has risen most. At the time of the 1999 coup, the world regarded him as a usurper and shunned his country as a pariah. Apart from the Gulf states, only such countries as Libya, Myanmar and Malaysia were ready to welcome him as a state guest. Every international visitor who at that time descended on Pakistan, including Bill Clinton in March 2000 for just five hours, seemed interested only in demanding a timetable for a rapid return to democracy.

Now, in a remarkable reversal, General Musharraf looks more like a statesman than a mutinous soldier. Last month he was feted in Washington by President George Bush, who described him as his ?friend?: before the American presidential election of 2000, Mr Bush had been unable to remember his name. Much the same sort of treatment was accorded the general during brief stopovers in London and Paris. Next week, he will visit Japan, where he will attend a luncheon given by the emperor, a rare honour considering that Japan became Pakistan`s severest critic after it tested its nuclear bombs in May 1998. Meanwhile, a string of bigwigs, from the British prime minister to the German chancellor, as well as the American secretary of state, have been trooping in and out of General Musharraf`s house in Rawalpindi cantonment. The topic of democracy gets barely a mention these days. Only India, piqued that its efforts to cosy up to America have been trumped, is immune to the general`s charms.

Yet the new, anti-fundamentalist and pro-western Pakistan and its secular architect are not yet out of the woods. The threat of a fundamentalist backlash remains real enough, despite mass arrests of militants and extremists. In recent weeks, a spurt of sectarian warfare has occurred in urban areas, in which over two dozen people have been shot. The kidnapping and gruesome killing of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist, is another indication of the defiance of the fanatics. General Musharraf`s own security has had to be intensified.

There are other worrying signs, too. General Musharraf recently quoted a verse from the Koran which implied that divine intervention had catapulted him to the top and had ensured him success in all his past, present and future endeavours. Even devout Pakistanis tend to be wary of such observations. Another military coup-maker, General Zia ul Haq, suffered from much the same sort of delusion, and he remained in power for years longer than he had promised before he perished in a plane crash in 1988. Not to be outdone, Mr Sharif, Pakistan`s former prime minister, had been set to have himself officially declared as an Amir ul Momineen (Leader of the Faithful, a title also used by the Taliban`s leader, Mullah Omar) shortly before he was booted out by General Musharraf.

All this has ominous implications in the context of the ?true democracy? that Pakistan`s military leaders say they intend to usher in next October, when a general election is still scheduled. Controversial constitutional amendments have already been decreed to accommodate a new institutional role for the armed forces in politics, and the general will be staying on as (unelected) president. Democracy is still a distant dream in Pakistan.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1021676

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/88/story_8847_1.html

Who Defines Islam?

The struggle for the soul of Muslim youth

By Jane Lampman

The Christian Science Monitor

Sept. 20, 2001--It`s an event that might occur in any family--capturing a child`s imagination and sending him in a new direction, perhaps shaping a lifetime.

A young boy in Lahore, Pakistan, often told his uncle that he wanted to grow up to join the Army and kill Hindus. Then he saw a feature film about the man who founded his country. Now he talks about growing up to be another Jinnah, a man of justice and peace.

It`s a simple, true story, and it`s not happenstance. And the implications are global.

Aiming for the hearts and minds of youths throughout the Muslim world is exactly what Akbar Ahmed - a former Pakistani diplomat and a scholar of Islam - had in mind when he spent years on that film, which has stirred debate in many countries since 1997.

His desire to offer youths a compelling role model other than radical Islam struck a nerve: Sheikh Bakir, the self-declared representative of Osama bin Laden in Europe, attacked Dr. Ahmed as an ``Uncle Tom`` who ``admires Western civilization more than Islamic civilization.``

The reason: M. A. Jinnah - who was the leader of perhaps the largest Muslim movement of the 20th century - also talked of democracy, human rights, and women`s rights.

Who defines Islam?

This clash symbolizes the ferment roiling many countries in the Muslim world over what should be the contemporary face of Islam and its expressions in society. But it also holds a message for America, as it decides how to respond to the terrorism unleashed against it, apparently by Mr. bin Laden`s followers.

``This is not just a defining moment for America, it`s a defining moment in world history,`` says Ahmed, now chair of Islamic studies at American University in Washington. One of every 5 people is a Muslim, and the relations between the West and Islam will shape the 21st century, he says. ``Anyone involved in a crime like this has to be punished, but we at the same time need long-term thinking; otherwise we are on a collision course between Islam and the West.``

This is not a ``clash of civilizations,`` as some have claimed, he and other experts say. It is more a clash of misunderstandings. But if the US focuses only on eliminating a terrorist network, and fails to recognize the larger stakes, ``there will be many more Osamas.``

Those stakes include the outcomes of the ``Islamic revival,`` a range of movements spurred initially by the encounter with Western colonization. across the entire Muslim world of 55 states, stretching from Indonesia to Morocco. To many Americans, Islamic revival evokes the image of angry clerics railing against the West and calling for Islamic states and the imposition of Islamic law. That is a significant part of the story.

But since the 19th century, it has also included major reform movements seeking a ``rapprochement between Islamic values and Western values,`` says Ibrahim Abu-Rabi, co-director of the Center for the Study of Islam at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. ``These movements are still there in a very powerful way.``

Former President Abdulrahman Wahid of Indonesia, for example, though an ineffective president, for decades was the renowned leader of a Muslim educational movement that supports pluralism and democracy.

``Islamic reformers can be advocates of women`s rights and family planning, or they can be bearded mullahs calling for women to put on scarves and stay home,`` says Tamara Sonn, of William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Va., a specialist in contemporary Islam. ``There is this huge range of approaches.``

These movements, arising from differing interpretations of Islam, are vying for influence and credibility, particularly among the young. But their struggles are having to be fought out under the grip of unpopular dictatorships or foreign occupation, and under dire economic straits, she adds.

A majority of the population in many countries is under 25, and often frustrated, jobless, and unable to show their anger against their own governments. In some cases, they see the US propping up regimes; and in others, they see a US indifferent to their sufferings - as among the Palestinian, Afghani, and Iraqi peoples.

Dr. Sonn says, ``It`s never been more clear how little the American government and people understand the suffering that is going on in the Muslim world.``

``If you are a young man and you`ve been involved in the Palestinian or Afghanistan situation,`` Ahmed says, ``your emotions are high, and you`ll want action. That`s what the sometimes-illiterate religious leaders offer.``

The crisis within Islam involves a battle over leadership, and the challenge is not only to win over hearts and minds, but to avoid being silenced or chased out of the country.

Those seeking a tolerant, open, contemporary society not only face threats from radical Islamists, but also from crackdowns by governments supposedly supportive of Western ties. For example, Saad Ibrahim, a leading scholar and dual citizen of Egypt and the US who works for tolerance and democracy, was recently sent to jail for seven years in Egypt on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges.

``Muslim society is decimating its scholars,`` Ahmed says, despite the Koran`s injunction to respect knowledge, and this is creating the vacuum that permits the rise of radical leadership.

As today`s superpower, the US influences life in the Muslim world in weighty ways, and should not be surprised, these experts say, that expectations are greater that it take responsibility to support the right kinds of change - fostering civil societies and democratic openings and resolutely seeking solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem. America`s future will not be secure, they say, unless it becomes more knowledgeable about and positively engaged with the Muslim world.

It`s being urged to do so, too, by religious minorities facing restriction or persecution in some predominantly Muslim countries. The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, an umbrella organization of some 50 Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Bahai, Jewish, and Muslim groups from around the world, is building a network to promote security and equality for minorities within their own societies.

But to do so, says Keith Roderick, the Episcopal priest who heads the coalition, also means challenging what it terms ``the ideology of radical Islamism.`` This ``segregationist view`` that institutionalizes minorities as second-class citizens, he says, ``is a perversion of Islam and creates a cultural temperament of hatred, within which the idea of jihad as holy war can flourish.``

Michael Meunier, who heads the US association of Coptic Christians, grew up in southern Egypt and says his family regularly experienced persecution from Muslims. While some progress is being made - a law was recently changed that required approval of the Egyptian president before a Coptic church could be renovated - many Copts remain second- or third-class citizens, he says.

How the US carries out its ``war on terrorism`` and whether or not it develops a broader strategy for relating to a Muslim world in transition will have tremendous impact.

``I`ve gotten e-mails from all over the Muslim world expressing shock and anger`` over the attacks on the US, Abu-Rabi says. ``All are interested in preventing similar attacks in the future.... But if the US were to invade Afghanistan, it would create anger among neutral Muslims and breed more violence.``

``If we drop bombs on Afghanistan, where there is massive starvation, who is going to sympathize with that?`` Ahmed asks. ``Not people in the Arab world, or Asia, or Africa.``

They are hoping for a more targeted approach, involving intelligence work with other nations similarly committed to wiping out the terrorism scourge.

``Millions and millions of Muslims have great affection for American values,`` Ahmed says. When it comes to mainstream Islam and the US, ``we are talking of two compatible systems: both believe in God, in a happy family life, and in an optimistic future.``

These Muslims want a dialogue, not a clash of civilizations.

US actions will influence whether those who want the dialogue or those who want confrontation gain the upper hand, he adds. ``You can create more Osamas, or you can help create the Jinnahs of our societies, who will challenge the Osamas.``

ANALYSIS: Pakistan divided by religious, secular schools

Copyright © 2002

Christian Science Monitor Service

Special Report: America Under Attack

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By SCOTT BALDAUF, Christian Science Monitor

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (October 2, 2001 4:19 p.m. EDT) - In Pakistan, a nation divided between militant Islam and Western-leaning modernity, Mehreen Shahid represents an increasingly unpopular yet pivotal minority.

A student at St. Paul`s Cambridge School in this sprawling suburb of Islamabad, she is bright, open-minded, ambitious and ready to see the world.

Shahid and her classmates dream, individually, of being highly educated, working as surgeons, engineers, software developers, architects and physicists. Together, they dream of a better Pakistan, where the best and brightest don`t have to leave the country to get ahead.

``Our generation is very intelligent, we can do a lot for Pakistan,`` says Shahid. Classmate Ali Arsan agrees. ``I think we should go out on our own, seek to gain knowledge in the world, and return to our motherland and teach the people who can`t afford to go outside.``

Those who ``can`t afford to go outside`` include the estimated 600,000 to 700,000 children attending the large and growing number of madrassahs, or religious schools, where the focus is on study and memorization of the Koran, Islam`s holy book.

As Pakistan prepares to host an American-led military response against Afghan-based terrorist groups, education is one factor that will help determine the course of the nation`s future.

For more than a generation, Pakistan`s social divide has been drawn in this Muslim nation`s schools. Westernized middle- and upper-class families send their children to private schools like St. Paul`s, which, despite its name, is nondenominational. The poor attend either inadequately funded public schools or the madrassahs.

And this gap that marks Pakistan`s social divide is turning into a chasm. Street protests, led by religious students, are a daily event. Radical clerics have begun to preach a violent, political version of jihad, or spiritual struggle, against those who support America, even Pakistanis.

Education is one of the key factors that will decide which direction Pakistan heads, whether toward the outward-looking secular state envisioned in 1947 by founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah or toward a more inward-looking path of Islamic conservatism, similar to that of Afghanistan`s isolated theocratic rulers, the Taliban. For many Pakistanis, the outcome of this longer-term war is of primary concern.

``These so-called fundamentalists ... are becoming a menace now,`` says Akhtar Mahmud, a retired government official in Islamabad who describes himself as pro-Western. ``Some government had to take them on if Pakistan was to carry on as a state. The U.S. has its own reasons for being against this section of humanity, but people like me feel it is important that these people be contained and put an end to their expansion.``

While the military government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has recently begun to rein in sectarian political groups - banning three militant Islamic groups outright, and forbidding others from raising funds or displaying weapons - some Pakistanis argue that the effort is coming too late. After all, it is in the thousands madrassahs where this literal and political version of Islam is being preached to coming generations.

As Pakistan`s 141-million population grows, and public schools fail to keep pace, it is madrassahs that are taking up the slack, and shaping the next generation.

While there are no official figures, the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, a New Delhi-based think-tank, estimates that there are more than 15,000 madrassahs in Pakistan today, up from fewer than 2,000 in 1979.

``What`s the price of ignorance? It`s more costly than educating people,`` says Ardeshir Cowasjee, a longtime columnist for the Dawn, a leading Pakistani newspaper.

``In Pakistan, we have eight births a minute. That`s almost 500 births an hour, 12,000 a day, 4 million a year. You need funds to build schools for all these children, and the funds don`t match,`` Cowasjee says.

``You Americans are worried now,`` he adds. ``I`ve been worried since 1948.``

If liberal Pakistanis like Cowasjee are worried, it is because Pakistan`s madrassahs are responsible for spawning militant movements like Afghanistan`s Taliban rulers.

In 1994, a group of madrassah students answered the call of a charismatic recluse, Mullah Mohammad Omar, to overthrow Afghanistan`s unruly mujahideen warlords and purify the country.

Even today, Pakistan`s madrassahs frequently empty their halls to send young men to fight for the Taliban during Afghanistan`s warmer warring season.

Not all madrassahs are alike, however. While many offer only the most rudimentary math and science, others are more sophisticated, aiming at the same level of education found in Pakistan`s more-elite schools.

One of the better-funded madrassahs is the Anjuman Faizul Islam in Rawalpindi.

Here, boys and girls - nearly 700 of whom are orphans - study together up until fifth grade, and then continue their studies separately until grade 10.

This madrassah`s library is full of books in both English and the national language, Urdu, from ``Gone with the Wind`` to ``How to Build a Hydropower Dam.`` The chemistry lab would not look out of place at any American public school. The curriculum includes Islamic studies, to be sure, but the emphasis is on achievement, not on Islamic political causes.

``The big thing in our country is that the illiteracy rate is high - 38 percent. It is ignorance that is making us so backward,`` says Muhammad Farooqi, principal of Anjuman Faizul Islam.

``The basic aim is so that this orphan, this poor child, he should not become a beggar or a burden to his family. Whosoever is a lady person should not be left behind. We are all human beings created by Allah, the master of the universe,`` he says.

Students educated in this progressive-minded madrassah, where some female teachers don`t even wear headscarves, share many of the dreams of the children of St. Paul`s. Ninth-grader Muhammad Aqeer wants to be a software developer. So does classmate Abid Hassan, who also plays a pretty mean game of cricket.

At St. Paul`s, Ali Arsan says that education shouldn`t be just for individuals to get ahead. Educated Pakistanis must come back to help their country.

``We are the future of Pakistan, we have to make it a better country,`` says Ali, who attended a madrassah for two years before coming to St. Paul`s last year.

``We`ll try our best, and in 10 years, Pakistan will be a great country.``

Behind him, a number of students whisper reflexively, in unison, Inshallah, ``If God wills it.``

CHOWK STAFF,

PLEASE ASK NAQSHBANDI TO STOP CURSING ME IN ARABIC OR I WILL CURSE HIM IN LATIN!

reply to the general idiotic and vituperish and abusive posts of ylh:

1. Not that you put much emphasis on hadith or the sayings of Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam`s sayings (you have said enough stuff on here which if you said publically in an islamic country would put you as a candidate for apostacy) but have you read the hadith of the 73 sects? Well guess what, mr. oh-aren`t i so clever cos i`m a secularist and can speak two words of english (prob. in a strong pakistani accent and not very well either)--this hadith clearly says that only the Ahl al SunnaH w`al Jama`aH [the sawad al azam]is going to JannaH.



ever heard of DUAL NATIONALITY? so it is not us MUSLIMS who are LIARS but secularists and kemalists like you and him. La`anat Allah ala`l Kadhibeen.