Rational Believer O it got the front-page? O Allah! what what bounties of You shall we deny.

CHOWK is De place Mannn.

m m: Lets talk!

What Am I? Who was she?
Is she still elusive?
Congratulations!

Don Shultz Good stuff indeed!

A very warm welcome to you.

Chowk@Five UMAIR KHAN:

``Jarahat tohfaa, almaas armughaaN, daagh e jigar hadiyaa.

Mubarakbaad! `Umair` ghamkha`ar e jaan e khastaa tuun aayaa!``

__________________________________GHALIB.

We have really come a Long Long way.

There was a CHOWK known as chandni chowk. Ghalib has verse-painted the horrors of those times in such a way that no matter how much the Ba Ba Blacksheep hone their origamic skills, the paper on which those verses are inscribed, always shows the factual facet of the farangi.

Naqsh faryaadi hai kis kee shokhee e tehreer kaa?

Alhamdu-Lillah! We are no longer taken for granted. A lot more has yet to be done to increase the dosage of their barbiturates.



Chandni CHOWK---1857.

Baskeh Faal-i-Ma Yureed Hai Aaj

Har Soo`- Shor Ing-listaan Ka

Ghar Se Bazaar Mein Nikalte Hue

Zahra Hota Hai Aab Insaan Ka

Chowk Jis Ko Kahain Woh Maqtal Hai

Ghar Bana Hai Namoona Zindaan Kaa

GHALIB.

CHOWK---2002

Keyboards kee haqiquatain afsaana buun gaeeN,

MonitoroN pey aaeeN kyaa-- aaeena buun gaeeN!

Tumm ko Umair! saalgirah e CHOWK mubarak

Yeh paanch shummain, buzm ka paimaana buun gaeen,

HAMZAD AFAQUI.

In Defense of The Left #76,#82,#83

YLH-Romair tete-a-tete.

``Meer i sipah na-sazaa,Lashkaryaan shikastaa suff

Aah voh teer i neem kuush,jis kaa na ho koi huduf``

Commander beyond reproach,the soldiers disarrayed,

Woe the half-drawn arrow,that has nowhere to go!

[Please read it in the present context.The bow & arrow is now at Chagai--sitting idle,vesectomised]

``Sohbat e Peer i Rum sey,mujh per hua yeh raz fash

Laakh hakeem sar b-jaib,--eik kaleem sar b-kuff``

Spending some time with Rumi, revealed this to me.

Million pocket-scholars,no match for one in field.

[The truth of every belief is the fruit of its application....everythinng else are just labels,definitions,.... and simply words.Edhi is the greatest LIVING,HOMELAND role model for us---Hakim Saeed was another one,but no more.

PLEASE DE-UNIVERSITISE Yourself---YLH]

``Khheera na kr ska mujhhay,jalva e Danish e frng

Surmaa hai meri aannkh ka,khaak e madina o najaf``

Never could I be blinded by glare of frngi thought

For in my eyes I had the kohlDust of madina & njaf

[If you are firmly anchored as a muslim, there is no way you will be listing in the doldrums of intellectual-itis]

Now please do not tell me that the writer of those lines had not journeyed,sojourned and dwelled in the areas of scholarship & learning.Maulana Suleiman Nadvi and Khwaja Hasan Nizami are other doyens---among many many more.You are INCOMPLETE if you do not know your own but are trying to plant,transplant,graft and clone the brain-tissues of the host which are sure to be rejected the recipient.

THAT,in a nnutshell,is the problem with the (westernised) Pakistanis--and to a lesser extent that of India as well

Kashmir Fatigue rsaxena:244

[who died and gave r. zakaria authority to decide who`s a muslim and who`s not?...and of what relevance is pres. kalam`s religion anyway...]



I think that,as far as I can recall,there has not been a more succinct,profound,& terse post or article written on CHOWK.

``Vaiz e tang nuzar ney mujhhay kaafir jaana

aur kafir yeh samjhta hai musalman hoon mein``

A L L A M A IQBAL

`The myopic mullah branded me a kaafir

and the kafir believes that I am a muslim`

I am a bit spartan & sparing in complimenting(not stingy!) simply because I apprehend that it might be `returned`,undeservedly,with interest...and I may lose my ``anger``.

Now loosen the hounds...........(not on me!);)

Breaking News: Suicide Bomb in Karachi Zafar:363

I`m trying for a long time now to de-educate myself and I know now what an ardous task it is.Please do not do me the `honour` to deport me back to the university-types.

For a fleeting moment(basked?-glowed!) you placed me in the company of Ramanujan-----(who thought he had discovered calculas & was thoroughly embarrased to find out that someone called Newton has already been there.

I am thankful to Allah that now I can afford to shun the company of intellectuals,academics, or the scholastic kind. Now just trying to enjoy the zestful company of the street ``urchins`` & ``goondas`` who,in my not so humble opinion anymore, really carry these pygmies on their shoulders and never even let them REALISE who the REAL ``guide`` is in ``REALITY``--sorry Derrida,Sokol & Foucault.

Do they really matter as much as we worry about them?------If universities were not the factories churning out brain-omellettes then would they have any value other than the chess-games & mahjongs for increasing intellect or kite-flying to improve vision.

``Mehfilain barham karay hai ganjfaa baaz e khayaal

Hain vraq gardani e nairang e yek buut khaana hum``

Ghalib

tr:The mind,as a chess-master plays disturbs the prevailing ethos

We are,but,the browsers of the ONE & ONLY Gallery``

__________________________________________________

Thu, 25 Feb 1999 13:40:41 -0500

Louis Proyect (lnp3@panix.com)

Yes, I have indeed written at length about my objections to the grossly

overpraised Foucault, in a 78-page review-essay, ``Junk Bonds and Corporate

Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf,`` published in 1991 by the

classics journal Arion and reprinted in my first essay collection, ``Sex,

Art, and American Culture.`` One of my observations was that Foucault`s

works are oddly devoid of women. Shouldn`t that concern you as a feminist?

It is simply untrue that Foucault was learned: He was at a loss with any

period or culture outside of post-Enlightenment France (his later writing

on ancient sexuality is a garbled mishmash). The supposedly innovative

ideas for which his gullible acolytes feverishly hail him were in fact

borrowed from a variety of familiar sources, from Friedrich Nietzsche,

Emile Durkheim and Martin Heidegger to Americans such as sociologist Erving

Goffman.

Foucault`s analysis of ``power`` is foggy and paranoid and simply does not

work when applied to the actual evidence of the birth, growth and complex

development of governments in ancient and modern societies. Nor is

Foucault`s analysis of the classification of knowledge particularly

original -- except in his bitter animus against the Enlightenment, which he

failed to realize had already been systematically countered by Romanticism.

What most American students don`t know is that Foucault`s commentary is

painfully crimped by the limited assumptions of Saussurean linguistics

(which I reject). As I have asserted, James Joyce`s landmark modernist

novel ``Ulysses`` (1922) contains, chapter by chapter, far subtler and more

various versions of language-based ``epistemes`` inherent in cultural

institutions and epochs.

I`m afraid I bring rather bad news: Over the course of your careers, your

generation of students will slowly come to realize that the

Foucault-praising professors whom you respected and depended on were

ill-informed fad-followers who sold you a shoddy bill of goods. You don`t

need Foucault, for heaven`s sake! Durkheim and Max Weber began the stream

of sociological thought that still nourishes responsible thinkers. And the

pioneers of social psychology and behaviorism -- Havelock Ellis, Alfred

Adler, John B. Watson and many others -- were eloquent apostles of social

constructionism when Foucault was still in the cradle.

A massive work like W.E.B. DuBois` ``The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study``

(1899) shows the kind of respect for empirical fact-gathering and

organization of data that is completely missing from Foucault, who

selectively tailors his material to fit a monotonous, rigidly dualistic a

priori thesis. For those in the humanities, where anti-aesthetic British

cultural studies (shaped by the out-of-date Frankfurt School) has become

entrenched, I recommend ``The Social History of Art`` (translated into

English in 1951), an epic work by the Marxist scholar Arnold Hauser that

influenced me in graduate school. No one in British or American cultural

studies has Hauser`s erudition, precision and connoisseurship.

Foucault-worship is an example of what I call the Big Daddy syndrome:

Secular humanists, who have drifted from their religious and ethnic roots,

have created a new Jehovah out of string and wax. Again and again -- in

memoirs, for example, by trendy but pedestrian uber-academics like

Harvard`s Stephen Greenblatt and Brown`s Robert Scholes -- one sees the

scenario of Melancholy, Bookish, Passive, Insecure Young Nebbish suddenly

electrified and transfigured by the Grand Epiphany of Blindingly Brilliant

Foucault. This sappy psychodrama would be comic except for the fact that

American students forced to read Foucault have been defrauded of a genuine

education in intellectual history and political analysis (a disciplined

genre that starts with Thucydides and flows directly to the best of today`s

journalism on current events).

When I pointed out in Arion that Foucault, for all his blathering about

``power,`` never managed to address Adolph Hitler or the Nazi occupation of

France, I received a congratulatory letter from David H. Hirsch (a

literature professor at Brown), who sent me copies of riveting chapters

from his then-forthcoming book, ``The Deconstruction of Literature:

Criticism After Auschwitz`` (1991). As Hirsch wrote me about French behavior

during the occupation, ``Collaboration was not the exception but the rule.``

I agree with Hirsch that the leading poststructuralists were cunning

hypocrites whose tortured syntax and encrustations of jargon concealed the

moral culpability of their and their parents` generations in Nazi France.

American students, forget Foucault! Reverently study the massive primary

evidence of world history, and forge your own ideas and systems.

Poststructuralism is a corpse. Let it stink in the Parisian trash pit where

it belongs!

(From Salon magazine archives)

Louis Proyect

In Defense of The Left Gone are the days of left-right!

The secularist/humanist/atheist will still have their place in the sun.The kuffars,as long as they do not act uppity & punkish,have never been an issue among the pious practitioners of ANY faith-----from Amish----to---Zoroastrians & everyone in-between.

Remember when Mosques & Churches were closed down? when the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing(or was it the other way round?)---It was grabbing the peoples balls!--and money!----Still is!

And now the goods news.

__________________________________________________

Islamic Bloc, Christian Right Team Up to Lobby U.N.

By Colum Lynch

Special to The Washington Post

Monday, June 17, 2002; Page A01

UNITED NATIONS -- Conservative U.S. Christian organizations have joined forces with Islamic governments to halt the expansion of sexual and political protections and rights for gays, women and children at United Nations conferences.

The new alliance, which coalesced during the past year, has received a major boost from the Bush administration, which appointed antiabortion activists to key positions on U.S. delegations to U.N. conferences on global economic and social policy.

But it has been largely galvanized by conservative Christians who have set aside their doctrinal differences, cemented ties with the Vatican and cultivated fresh links with a powerful bloc of more than 50 moderate and hard-line Islamic governments, including Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Iran.

``We look at them as allies, not necessarily as friends,`` said Austin Ruse, founder and president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a New York-based organization that promotes conservative values at U.N. social conferences. ``We have realized that without countries like Sudan, abortion would have been recognized as a universal human right in a U.N. document.``

The alliance of conservative Islamic states and Christian organizations has placed the Bush administration in the awkward position of siding with some of its most reviled adversaries -- including Iraq and Iran -- in a cultural skirmish against its closest European allies, which broadly support expanding sexual and political rights.

U.S. and Iranian officials even huddled during coffee breaks at the U.N. summit on children in New York last month, according to U.N. diplomats.

But the partnership also has provided the administration an opportunity to demonstrate that it shares many social values with Islam at a time when the United States is being criticized in the Muslim world for its continued support of Israel and the nine-month-old war on terrorism. ``We have tried to point out there are some areas of agreement between [us] and a lot of Islamic countries on these social issues,`` a U.S. official said.

``The main issue that brings us all together is defending the family values, the natural family,`` added Mokhtar Lamani, a Moroccan diplomat who represents the 53-nation Organization of Islamic Conferences at the United Nations. ``The Republican administration is so clear in defending the family values.``

Lamani said he was first approached by U.S. Christian non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, at a special session of the U.N. General Assembly on AIDS in New York in June 2001.

Liberal Western activists and governments, he said, had offended the religious and cultural sensitivities of Islamic countries by proposing that a final conference declaration include explicit references to the need to protect prostitutes, intravenous drug users and ``men who have sex with men`` from contracting AIDS.

``It was totally unacceptable for us,`` Lamani said. ``The Vatican and so many NGOs came up to us saying this is exactly the same position we are defending.``

The Islamic-Christian alliance claimed an important victory at the U.N. children`s meeting last month.

The Bush administration led the coalition in blocking an effort by European and Latin American countries to include a reference in the final declaration to ``reproductive health care services,`` a term the conservatives believed could be used to promote abortion.

The U.S. team included John Klink, a former adviser to the Vatican at previous U.N. conferences; Janice Crouse, a veteran antiabortion advocate at Concerned Women of America; and Paul J. Bonicelli of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., a Christian institution that requires its professors teach creationism.

The Christian groups and Islamic countries have been seeking to build on those gains at subsequent U.N. gatherings, pressing for greater restrictions on abortion at an annual meeting of the World Health Organization last month and later at a U.N. preparatory conference on sustainable development in Bali, Indonesia.

``The rest of the world saw a shift in the debate`` at the children`s summit, said Patrick Fagan of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington policy group. ``It wasn`t just pure defense. They are on the offensive here.``

Some Western countries and liberal activists say they are alarmed by the influence of the Christian right at the United Nations, where more liberal women`s rights organizations have held sway for the past decade.

``They are trying to undo some of the landmark agreements that were reached in the 1990s, particularly on women`s rights and family planning,`` a U.N.-based European diplomat said. ``The U.S. decision to come into the game on their side has completely changed the dynamics.``

``This alliance shows the depths of perversity of the [U.S.] position,`` said Adrienne Germaine, president of the International Women`s Health Coalition. ``On the one hand we`re presumably blaming these countries for unspeakable acts of terrorism, and at the same time we are allying ourselves with them in the oppression of women.``

The World Policy Center, a Mormon group established in 1997 to promote family values through an alliance that includes conservative Christians, the Catholic Church and Islamic governments, is holding a conference next month at Brigham Young University School of Law. It will bring antiabortion advocates and legal critics of the United Nations together with more than 60 U.N. diplomats, including delegates from conservative Catholic and Islamic countries.

Ruse first outlined his strategy for maximizing the conservatives` leverage at the United Nations at a 1999 meeting in Geneva of the World Congress of Families, a gathering of advocates of conservative family values. It involves ``lavish[ing] all our attention`` on a coalition of 12 antiabortion countries that are willing to fight for their cause at U.N. sessions, he said. Religious leaders and politicians in the United States and in these select countries in the developing world should be persuaded ``to encourage these governments to defend life and family at the United Nations.``

He also boasted that his tactics were beginning to seize the initiative from advocates for the rights of children, women and gays. ``Our team was in a tiny conference room leaning over the backs of diplomats, assisting with the drafting of the conference document,`` he said.

``We broke all the rules of U.N. lobbying, which forbids leafleting on the floor of a U.N. conference. We had our people fan out across the floor of the conference and we placed this letter in the hand of every delegate.``

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

Breaking News: Suicide Bomb in Karachi Jun-21-02 14:19:37 EST Reply #: 318

Zafar Al-Talib]

Thanks....good jokes always hurt(ache?) the abs.

And why do I have this eerie feeling that we (you & me ,& not P & I) could never hurt each other in any friendly-fire.Not that I am any lesser or greater equipped------only that I`m made of sterner(tougher?) stuff...(my mom always called it dhittai,chiknaa gharra,motee khaal vaghaira vaghairra...Of course she knew I do not need extra attention & would somehow manage to fend off the school/mohalla bully.AllhamduLillah how right she haS been!)

So as a reward to you and as a tribute to Biharis:

Mirza Ghalib:

``Ch.....N kee kamee nahee Ghalib

Aik dhoondo,hazaar miltay hain

jitnay chaaho Bihaar sey lailo

Lutf yeh hai--Udhaar miltay haiN!``

MahaAtmaa Buddh got his gayaan(is word origin Gaya?--the place) and Dhayaan(Zen?) in Bihaar.Isn`t it worth investigating why Buddhoo is used for someone stupid in hindi(sanskrit?)...when really Budhhi is brain/intellect.Do you see the hand of Pandits/Pandas in this to revile Buddhism and perpetuate the four-caste play(Nautankee) written,directed and staged on Bharati soil by the Pandits.

Just asking just asking---no joke this.

PS:Are you aware of any more Mahatmaas,other than Gandhi & Buddh?

Dissing Ideologies Deepika:429

Thank you. That was a GREAT article.

In Defense of The Left Malaysia--the proud,avowed,FUNDAMENTALIST Muslim country....You already read what Tunku Abdul-Rehman preached to brain-dead westerners.

Now a glimse into another beacon for muslims AND Non-Muslims alike from all around the world

Worried about the STATUS of minorities in ISLAMI Countries?

READ so that you become less and less ignorant(west-iotic)

:-):-):-)

A Comparative Analysis of the Conditions of Muslim Minorities Around the World and the Religious Minorities in Iran

A large number of Muslims currently reside in non-Muslim countries around the world. They are either refugees or natives of various different ethnic origins. According to the latest statistics, a total of 400 million Muslims are living as minorities in different countries, and this number counts as one third of the total population of Muslims in the world. Among these Muslim minorities, the largest number, which is estimated at 200 million, live in India.

The size of the Muslim minority population in India is even larger than the total population of Indonesia, which is considered to be largest Muslim country in the world, with 180 million Muslims. However, it has to be taken into account that some of the countries with Muslim minorities do not reveal their exact number for political reasons and because they do not want the issue to be picked up by the international media and projected onto the world scene.

Many of these Muslim minorities are denied even the basic human rights. This is despite the existence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Civil and political Rights Treaty, which clearly provide for the basic human right to free religious expression. In certain countries, particularly the so- called secular countries, Muslims are frequently denied the right to find jobs other than of a menial nature; to enjoy a comfortable life; to take part in elections freely or send their representatives to parliament; to bring out publications; to receive decent education and training and generally to voice their concerns and problems.

Muslim minorities are frequently forced to follow the laws framed by the majority in the countries in which they reside, despite the fact that in cases of marriage, divorce, inheritance, legal succession and wills, Muslims are obliged to settle their affairs according to Islamic law. Further to this, Muslims in such countries are often denied the right to their own religious education, and, as far as culture is concerned, they have no choice but to follow the popular traditions of the country where they live.

During the last decade, and following the advent of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a huge wave of people entering into the fold of Islam has been witnessed in various parts of the world. The statistical data available confirms the fact that the number of people who are embracing Islam is much larger than the number of converts to other religious. This has caused great concern in all non - Muslim countries, and particularly in those countries in the West which regard themselves as secular in character.

It is in the context of these fears about the spread of Islam that a wave of discrimination against Muslim minorities can be witnessed in many countries. However, these countries and particularly western nations who identify themselves as leading proponents of human rights, are not in a position to take an open stand against Muslims. Although everyone knows that they are trying their best to undermine the position of Muslim minorities, they are doing so in an indirect manner. It is sufficient to mention for example, that Muslim girl students were expelled from educational institutions in Europe and particularly in France, simply because they had opted to wear head dresses according to Islamic traditions.

Besides this, the western media is playing a leading role in branding Muslims as terrorists while similar acts are undertaken by the neo-Nazi groups in Germany in order to harass Muslims living there. The Zionist regime continuously denies human rights to the Palestinians, and the western media instead of offering sympathy to the bereaved Muslims, is doing its best to distort their image and strengthen the hand of their oppressors.

Despite practicing the worst kind of discrimination against Muslims minorities discussed above, the so called secular countries argue that they have every respect for the religion of Islam and that they are taking every step to safeguard the interests of Muslim minorities in their states. Meanwhile, the same powers consistently endeavor to undermine the significance and importance of Muslim minorities in economic, political, social and cultural fields and take every precaution to prevent the Muslims from playing a respectable role at national levels in their countries.

The total population of Muslims in the United States, for example, is around eight million, whereas the total number of Jews in that country is between 3 and 3.5 million. In practice, Muslims have been given no rights, while Jews control almost everything from installing a government of their choice to managing national affairs in a manner that suits them best.

A comparison between the conditions of Muslim minorities living in different parts of the world and those of the minorities living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, provides us with a striking contrast. In the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the religious rights of all the minorities of this country have been fully recognized and safeguarded. These include Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians. They are free to observe and practice their own religions and follow their own traditions. Article 26 of Iran`s Constitution provides full freedom to the religious minorities in every respect, provided that they act in a manner that is not harmful to the freedom, independence, national integrity and foundations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.

Further to this, Article 67 of the Iranian Constitution states that representatives elected by minorities to the Islamic Republic` s parliament may use their own Holy Books when making their official solemn oath. Articles 19 and 20 of the Constitution also guarantee the same rights to religious minorities that are enjoyed by the Muslim majority in this country. The Iranian Constitution strictly forbids any kind of discrimination against any citizen on the basis of color, race or language. Article 20 of the Constitution states that all citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both men and women have equal rights and can participate equally in economic, cultural, political and social fields.

The leaders of all religious minorities in Iran are witness to the fact that the followers of all recognized religions have full freedom in Iran, with the exception that they are required to maintain due respect for Islam, observe `` Hijab`` and refrain from drinking alcohol in public.

They observe their religious rights and publish their own newspapers and magazines freely. They have their own places of worship such as Churches, Synagogues and Fire Temples, and organize and operate their own sports clubs. Religious minorities in Iran feel as free and secure as any other citizen in all matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance of property.

Dissing Ideologies Could this be of some help? Muslims,non-muslims, anyone?

A great site www.islamfortoday.com

__________________________________________________

The Islamic State and Religious Minorities

The Taliban are gone but they have left us with several serious questions about the future of religious minorities in Islamic states in particular and religious states in general.

By Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D.

Today there are at least three major conceptions of religious states ¨C Jewish, Islamic and Hindu. Israel strongly identifies itself as a Jewish state; Nepal is a Hindu state and India under the growing influence of Hindu Nationalism is toying with the idea of Ram Rajya ¨C Hindu statehood. Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Sudan and Afghanistan under Taliban claimed to be Islamic states.

Religious states face a significant challenge from diversity. They seek to advance and establish a specific normative social agenda. In order for these states to be successful it is important that the population share the ideological beliefs of those who hold power. The presence of diversity and difference of opinion between the populace makes it necessary for the state to privilege one element of the citizenry over others thereby institutionalizing discrimination and intolerance.

The Challenge of Diversity

Islamic states inevitably treat non-Muslim citizens as less than equal curbing their access to power and religious freedom. Even in Israel, which is a democracy, religious minorities face discrimination. In 1976 when Israel captured Jerusalem, 28% of its population was Christian and now only 2% of Jerusalem¡¯s inhabitants are Christians. Christians may become extinct in their own holy city and the primary reason for this is the religious importance of Jerusalem to Jewish state. This is a sobering example of how in spite of democracy a religious state can marginalize religious minorities.

Malaysia is an example where religious ideology and democracy mix very well. Malaysia is 65% Muslim and strongly identifies itself as an Islamic state. It is a very active member of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conferences). In spite of its Islamic identity, Malaysian Muslims share power and wealth with Christians, Buddhists and Hindus who are all equal citizens of the country and have equal rights and duties.

But religious minorities in some Islamic states, such as Afghanistan under the Taliban, suffer institutionalized discrimination because of these states¡¯ legalist orientation and their obsession with the Islamic jurisprudence. Some of the legalist positions in Islamic states are so strict that non-Muslim minorities find it a challenge to live normal lives. Blasphemy laws and apostasy laws are well known for the problems they cause minorities. Narrow interpretation of the role of women in Islamic societies has also restricted the scope of possibilities for non-Muslim women.

The Objectives of an Islamic Society

The Maqasid al Shariah (the objective of the Islamic law/way) are falah (welfare) and hayat-e-tayyabah (good life) for the members of the community. But when contemporary Islamists operationalize this divine vision of the Islamic state, they define the Islamic state as that which implements the Islamic law. Islamic law is divine in its origin, and since God does not need the consent of his creation, Contemporary Islamists insist on imposing Islamic law even without consent. Due to colonization, and prior to it, due to the decline of Islamic intelligentsia, Islamic legal tradition remains fossilized and is still struck in the middle ages. Islamic state therefore becomes a reduced to a coercive institution seeking to enforce a system of laws that were deduced from Islamic sources several centuries ago.

The irony of this reality is that in seeking to impose Islamic law and create an Islamic state, Islamists are actually in direct opposition to the spirit and letter of the Quran. The Quran is very explicit when it says ¡°there is no compulsion in religion,¡± (Quran 2: 256). Elsewhere the Quran exhorts Jews to live by the laws revealed to them in the Torah. In fact The Quran expresses surprise that some Jews sought the arbitration of the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) rather than their own legal tradition (5:43). The Quran also orders Christians to live by their faith; ¡°So let the people of the Gospel judge by that which Allah has revealed therein, for he who judges not by that which Allah has revealed is a sinner,¡± (Quran 5:47). From these verses it is abundantly clear that an Islamic state must advocate religious pluralism even to the extent of permitting multiple legal systems.

Democratic polities are much better at dealing with minorities who do not subscribe to state ideology because they are based on constitutional guarantees of human rights conceived at the level of the individual ¨C the smallest minority. In a sense on some issues, such as the bill of rights in the American system ¨C the individual over rules even the majority opinion. Contemporary Islamic states have yet to develop a legal framework that ensures that there is no compulsion in religion and no discrimination against religious minorities even though the above-identified sources provide a clear Quranic foundation for guaranteeing religious freedom beyond even the scope of the American bill of rights.

Lessons from Medina

Unlike the present day Islamists, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), when he established the first Islamic state in Medina ¨C actually a Jewish-Muslim federation extended to religious minorities the rights that are guaranteed to them in the Quran. Prophet Muhammad¡¯s Medina was based on the covenant of Medina, a real and actual social contract agreed upon by Muslims, Jews and others that treated them as equal citizens of Medina. They enjoyed the freedom to choose the legal system they wished to live under. Jews could live under Islamic law, or Jewish law or pre-Islamic Arab tribal traditions. There was no compulsion in religion even though Medina was an Islamic state. The difference between Medina and today¡¯s Islamic states is profound. The state of Medina was based on a real social contract that applied divine law but only in consultation and with consent of all citizens regardless of their faith. But contemporary Islamic states apply Islamic law without consent or consultation and often through coercion.

It is a sad commentary on contemporary Islamists that while democracy is a challenge to contemporary Islamic states, it was constitutive to the first Islamic state in Medina established by the Prophet of Islam.<

Kashmir Fatigue Kashmiris on Kashmiris

Let us listen to them---for a change!

MEMORANDUM

Submitted on behalf of the Heads of Kashmiri Organisations to the Heads of Delegations to the ISLAMIC SUMMIT HELD IN ISLAMABAD (PAKISTAN) ON MARCH 23, 1997

Most Respected Brothers-in-Islam,

Assalam-o-Alaikum wa Rahmatullah

We the undersigned heads of Kashmiri political organisations heartily appreciate your gestures to participate in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Pakistan to express practically your feelings of solidarity with the State and the people of Pakistan. We Kashmiris also wish Pakistan a peaceful, prosperous and dignified future.

Respected brothers-in-Islam! We Kashmiris heartily thank OIC and its member States for adopting a number of resolutions condemning Indian government for gross violations of human rights in her occupied part of Kashmir and supporting Kashmiris` right of self-determination. We also put on record our heartfelt appreciation for OIC for appointing Contact Group and a Co-ordination Committee to implement its resolutions on Kashmir.

Notwithstanding our full appreciation for the aforementioned steps taken by OIC, we feel that this world-body of Muslims could have done more than it has, to help us get out of the quagmire of the forced foreign subjugation. We earnestly hope that the OIC as also its member countries individually will extend more effective support to our just cause.

We venture to state the following facts about Kashmir issue and matters related to it and request the OIC Secretariat and the governments of its member States to keep them in mind while dealing with the issue:-

1. That Kashmir issue is not a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but concerns the inherent, inalienable, pledged, internationally recognised and fully deserved right of self-determination of 13 million inhabitants of Jammu Kashmir State, more in number than the individual populations of as many as 125 member States of the UN including 30 Muslim Countries.

2. That no solution of Kashmir issue not based on the freely expressed wishes and aspirations of Kashmiri people or imposed on them from outside against their wishes and aspirations will be acceptable to the people of Jammu Kashmir State .

3. That about 80% of the people of Jammu Kashmir State are Muslims. As such it is the moral and religious duty of the Muslim world especially OIC per its own Charter to extend all possible help to Kashmiris` freedom struggle.

4. That both India and Pakistan stand committed through their pledges made on international level including those made at the UN, at home and to the people of Jammu Kashmir State, to concede to them their inherent right to determine their own future in accordance with their freely expressed will.

5. That entire Jammu Kashmir State, as it existed on August 14, 1947, is an indivisible geo-political entity, as such no solution amounting to any kind of division of the State would be acceptable to the people of Kashmir.

6 That Kashmiris are not a party to the Simla Agreement of 1972 between India and Pakistan nor does the Agreement meet the basic principles involved in the issue. As such Kashmiris do not approve of its provisions related to Kashmir issue.

7. That since there are three parties to Kashmir issue i.e. the people of Jammu Kashmir State, Pakistan and India, no bilateral agreement would be binding on Kashmiris but only tripartite talks between the three parties can solve the issue equitably, honourably, peacefully and permanently. Pending such tripartite talks, Kashmiri leaders from both sides of the cease-fire-line representing all regions, religions and all schools of political thought be facilitated to meet in a neutral country to discuss and evolve a consensus formula for a durable and peaceful solution. We will be most obliged if the OIC or the government of any member State makes necessary arrangements for such an intra-Kashmiri moot.

8. That Kashmir problem is, on one hand, a powder-keg that can explode and subject the entire sub-continent to total destruction, and on the other hand, a white elephant that has been eating into the very vitals of the economy of both countries subjecting the bulk of their people to the curses of poverty, disease, and ignorance. As such the issue needs to be solved as soon as possible, to rid the Sub-continent of these evils.

We also request the OIC and its member countries to:

1. Initiate a collective move in U.N. General Assembly to impress upon India to redeem their pledged right of self determination to Kashmiris.

2. Make concerted efforts at the U.N. General Assembly, the Human Rights Commission and all other relevant fora of the UN to investigate the violation of human rights in Indian occupied part of Kashmir and for adoption of adequate and effective measures to restore to Kashmiris their fundamental rights as enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

3. Urge the International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent to send its delegates to occupied Kashmir and to intensify efforts to have international humanitarian organisations provide relief and assistance to suffering Kashmiri people.

4. Initiate a ``Kashmir Solidarity Day`` in all the member countries to demonstrate solidarity with the struggling people of Jammu Kashmir.

5. Extend full political, diplomatic, moral and material support to the people of Jammu Kashmir State for realisation of their inherent, inalienable, pledged, internationally recognised and fully deserved right of self-determination.

6. Use your cordial relations with India to persuade her to give us our due and pledged right.

7. Use your good offices to persuade India to grant ``Protected Persons`` status to all the Kashmiri leaders engaged in freedom struggle in Indian occupied part of Kashmir.

8. Impress upon Indian government to restore the right to travel to all the Kashmiri leaders engaged in freedom struggle in Indian occupied Kashmir

We earnestly hope our brothers-in-Islam will not only keep the aforementioned facts in mind while dealing with Kashmir problem but will also accede to our requests.

With profound regards, We are, Yours brothers-in-faith,

1. Sardar Mohammad Abdul Qayyum Khan

President, All J&K Muslim Conference (Azad Kashmir)

2. Javaid Ahmad Rathore

For Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) (Azad Kashmir)

3. Amanullah Khan,

Chairman, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)

4. Mehmood Ahmad Saghar,

President, All Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League

5. Gen.(r) Mohammad Hayat Khan

President ,Jammu Kashmir Muslim League(Azad Kashmir)

6. Justice (r) Abdul Majid Malik

President, All J&K Liberation League (Azad Kashmir)

7. Sardar Khalid Ibrahim,

President Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party, Azad Kashmir

8. Afsar Shahid (Advocate),

President, Kashmir Freedom Movement (A. Kashmir)

9. Abdul Khaliq Ansari, Founder President,

Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front (JKPF)

10. Major (r) Hussain Shah,

President, Mutahida Quami Party, Gilgit-Baltistan

11. Begum Fauzia Saleem Abbas,

Secretary, Kashmir-Karakarum Solidarity Movement

12. Malik. M. Asghar,

Acting President, Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front

13. Syed Mehmood Shah Bukhari,

President, Tehreek-e-Jafria Azad Kashmir

14. Raza-ul-Mustafa Noorani,

For Jamiat-e-Ulma-e-Jammu Kashmir

This memorandum was adopted in the meeting of heads/representatives of the above mentioned Kashmiri political organisations held in Islamabad on March 19, 1997, convened by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)

Kashmir Fatigue Asia Andrabi

the Supremo of the women organisation Duktran - Millat Kashmir

war is a religious Duty

Asia Andrabi talks to Bilal Bhat

Q. Can you sum up the role of your organisation (Dukhtaran-e-Millat) regarding the ongoing freedom struggle?

A. Regarding Kashmir movement DM is working actively for the past 16 years and is trying its best to help the suppressed Muslim community in the Indian occupied Kashmir valley. DM had a goal to implement Islamic rule on this part of land which has been occupied illegally by India. We have pledged that we will actively support this movement by every means. We are not actively participating in militancy but are supporting it morally and with enthusiasm.

We want to rehabilitate them families of Mujahideen and those who lost their nears and dears during the struggle. We want to provide education to the women of Kashmir and want to aware them about their duties towards Allah and Jehad. We want to rehabilitate the victim women of this suppressed community. We are conducting seminars in mosques, colleges and schools to educate Kashmiri woman about her duty towards male partner and especially their importance in Jehad at this crucial juncture.

As the ongoing movement is concerned it is completely a religious issue. Those who are denying that the Kashmir dispute has nothing to do with religion are hiding the fact and are misleading muslim community.

Q. Can you quote any of the Quranic verse that can prove Kashmir dispute a religious issue?

A. It is not written at a single place in Quran which is relevant to it but there are numerous examples we can prove that Kashmir problem is a religious issue e.g. In one of the verses from Surrah Taubah Allah says ``whenever Muslim are being deprived of their freedom and are not being allowed to create their own social cultural setup, they have to wage war against the suppressor. At the time Jehad becomes mandatory``, we want to accede with Pakistan because it is also a part of religious ideologue. As Islam does not believe in geographical boundaries and accession to Pakistan will strengthen the Muslim brotherhood.

Also I am not talking about any particular Muslim country, infact my dream is to see the whole Muslim world as it was before 1919 i.e., Khilafat-e-Osmania which unfortunately could not sustain because of anti Muslim conspiracies. The disintegration of Khilafat-e-Osmania was a great tragedy for the whole Muslim brotherhood.

Q. What is the role of other Muslim Nations regarding Kashmir Movement?

A. It is unfortunate that the policies in the Muslim countries are being made by un-Islamic agencies. Although Politically and Geographically they are independent countries but transparently their state of governance is being chanaelled by anti-Muslims forces. Taking the similitude of Palestinians, As you might have witnessed how poor and alled Palestinians Muslims were brandished by Israeli aircraft only because two Israeli soldiers were killed. The Muslim countries could do lip-service only.

Q. People allege that DM disoriented the movement by involving it into peripheral issues e.g. enforcing ladies for observing purdah. Do you feel that the number of ladies who observe purdah today has gone down due to coercive activities of your group as compared to the number of women in early nineties?

A. As I know that in early nineties ladies were not observing purdah. There was a least number of Burkah worn women in Kashmir at that time. On the contrary girls in teenages today are observing purdah. Undoubtedly girls of our organisation used hard methods to force Kashmiri women for observing purdah but that too proved catalyst to the Islamic cause and I don`t feel the number of purdah observing women had gone down. In 1990 I went to the cloth merchant at Lal chowk and asked for burkah cloth. The shopkeeper told that he had no cloth of such type and justified by saying that ``you are the first customer who asked for burkah cloth``.

During the initial phase of our activities, we started throwing color on the non-purdah observing women. Regarding this activity I sought permission from Ulemas and they permitted us to use color for the women, who don`t respond for purdah call.

Q. Some years back you criticised Hurriyat for observing barefooted march upto UN observers Mission, saying it un-Islamic. Your organisation time and again called for hartals, what is the justification of it from Islamic point of view?

A. Yes, I condemned the barefooted march led by Hurriyat, and termed it un-Islamic, because the way they protested was like beggers. It seemed as if they had been snatched everything and left nothing even sleepers are not with them, and are begging for their demands. Islam does not teach us to beg, but to work hard and to fight for the fundamental rights.

Begging is prohibited in Islam and none is allowed to beg before non Muslim community. How can you expect well from those non Muslims who want to decrimate Islam from the whole world.

I may clear it to you that I had sought consent from the Iman of Baitul Mukadas-Mohmmad Suyaim. I consulted him and enquired whether hartal is permitted in Islam or not. He told that it is not against Islam and we can protest and demonstrate our disgruntleness before the whole world through hartals. It is the symbol of unity and solidarity with those who are being killed like anything and for those women who are being molested by Indian forces. Hartals as such were performed after proper permission from Ulema.

Kashmir Fatigue How Kashmir became Muslim country

``In thirteenth century, a boy of tender age by name Ratanju came to Kashmir. Somehow, he got a place in the court of king Sahadeva and reached a high rank. He had neither any religion, nor any nationality of his own. Moulana Mohammed Kazam Muradabadi writes in his history book, that Ratanju had a great love for Hindu religion. He wanted to embrace it. But the Hindus were not ready to accept him in their society. He used to listen to story of Gita every day from the pundits.

``One day the pundit, while explaining him the meaning of verse 47 of chapter 18, told him that it is fearful to accept another man`s better religion and one must not leave ones own religion though it had many disabilities. On this Ratanju asked, `Can I not join your religion?` The pundit said `Absolutely not`. Getting disappointed by this reply, Ratanju resolved to accept the religion of the person, whom so ever he will see first one in the morning. One muslim fakir, by name Bulbulshah, got to know the decision of Ratanju. Next morning he went to the palace of Ratanju. On seeing him Ratanju came down and asked him, `Would you accept me in your religion?`

`` `The door of Islam is open to all human beings. A prominent political officer wishes to become my brother in religion (dharma bandhu). What could be more pleasing thing for me other than this`, replied Bulbulshah. Ratanju became muslim. His son Shahamir usurped the throne and brought home forcibly the queen Kona, wife of king Sahadeva`s son. But the queen committed suicide by stabbing herself. It is said, those pundits, who refused to become muslims, were put in gunny bags and drowned in river Jehlam by Ratanju and Shahamir. The place in Shrinagar where they were drowned, is famous even now by the name of `watta mazaar`.`` [Santram, Sarita Mukta Reprint series, (Hindi) vol. 8, p.162.]

But who was this Shahmera and how he became an officer in court of King Suhadeva? He was son of one Ratanju, whose details are given in an article by Santram.

The same story is repeated by Sundarlal Sagar in his hindi book ``hindu sanskruti me varna vyavastha aur jati bhed``, on the authority of a great scholar Ramdhari Simha Dinkar [``Hindu Sanskruti`` - ch.4, p.269].

From the story, though he is said to have no religion or nationality, it seems he was a Buddhist as he was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim, and must have been considered of a low caste as he was not acceptable to the pundits of Kashmir as a ruler. The story runs as follows:

In Defense of The Left The temples of Mammon(Capitalistic Secularism) are the Banks and Insurance companies.These are the tora-boras of the Foundling(and Fondling)fathers of

`red in tooth & claw` Uncle Sam.

Destroying the Baamyaans of Capitalism is Quixotic--like fighting the windmills.It is the Banks & Insurance companies where all money ends up.

``Why do you rob banks,Jesse James?``

`Sir,that is where the money is`.

__________________________________________________

Bankers made BILLIONS from war and are getting sued for it!

Could same be happening in U.S.?

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - Four apartheid victims filed suit on Wednesday against Citigroup Inc.(C), UBS AG (UBSZn) and Credit Suisse, alleging the banking companies helped finance the violent South African apartheid regime and made billions in loans to further its crimes against humanity.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks class- action status on behalf of other victims of human rights violations under South Africa`s apartheid, a government policy of white rule and racial discrimination against black Africans, who were denied basic rights and beaten or killed when they protested the country`s unjust laws.

The suit seeks unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

The plaintiffs also ask the court to order the defendants to produce documents related to their commercial and financial activities in South Africa from 1948 forward. They also want the creation of an independent international commission to provide an accounting of profits that may have been unjustly obtained by the defendants.

Two of the named plaintiffs said they were tortured and two of the plaintiffs are surviving parents of children who were killed in South Africa.

The suit alleges that the defendants had conspired with each other to provide financing for technology systems, equipment and other products used by the apartheid regime to commit crimes against humanity from 1948 to 1993. It further alleges that despite the fact that apartheid officially ended in South Africa in 1994, the defendants continue to profit from the conspiracy.

``As a direct and proximate result of defendants` actions, the apartheid system was supported and enabled to continue its systematic murders, massacres, killings, imprisonments, torture and forced removals,`` the suit alleged.

BANKS RESPOND

A UBS spokesman told Reuters, ``UBS completely rejects these claims as groundless and unjustified and we will defend ourselves vigorously,``

A Credit Suisse spokesman said that while the bank had not yet received a copy of the suit, it did not see any basis in fact or law for the action.

``We operated at all times according to all applicable law and regulations,`` the Credit Suisse (CSGZn)(CSR) spokesman said.

He also said U.S. courts were not an appropriate forum for the litigation.

The Credit Suisse spokesman criticized Edward Fagan, a plaintiff`s lawyer in the case who held a news conference about the planned lawsuit in Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday:

``It appears Ed Fagan is relying on publicity, not the law.``

A Citigroup spokesperson said the company had not seen the suit yet, but added: ``Based on the allegations we have seen, we believe such a suit would have no merit.``

The suit proposes that claimants be organized into five different classes: surviving parents; surviving children or dependents; surviving spouses; torture victims and imprisoned persons.

It said the individual classes include hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of South Africans.

PLAINTIFFS` LAWYER HECKLED

According to the suit, one of the U.S. banks that allegedly provided the most support during apartheid and which violated the financial sanctions campaign restriction was a predecessor of Citigroup. The suit alleged that loans made from 1960 to 1993 supported the regime.

``Predecessors of Citigroup provided Apartheid with in excess of $650 million in principal alone. This amount represented about one-fourth of all loans made by U.S. banks to support apartheid, the military, police and cooperating business,`` the suit said.

It alleged that instead of ceasing their lending practices and demanding repayment of outstanding monies, Citigroup`s predecessors converted loans to long-term loans that could be paid back later with interest.

``The money from predecessors of Citigroup directly benefited and supported the apartheid reign of terror in South Africa,`` the lawsuit said.

When Fagan began the news conference in Zurich, a jeering crowd forced him to move from the Paradeplatz, where Credit Suisse and UBS, Switzerland`s two biggest banks, have formidable presences. Credit Suisse is headquartered in the Paradeplatz, while the main Zurich offices of UBS are located in the office complex. Hecklers were angered at what they saw as just another attempt to smear the country`s good name.

On Tuesday, Washington, D.C., lawyer Michael Hausfeld, a prominent plaintiffs` lawyer, said he is working with a group of about 20 lawyers and academics to file a different suit on behalf of apartheid victims. He said he expects the suit will be filed at the end of the summer after it is thoroughly researched.

He had criticized Fagan`s suit as premature and said it denigrated the entire issue by trying to hold a small number of companies responsible for the ``entirety of evil.``

Courtesy of iwon.com