Monthly Archives: April 2005

Staying home from The Prom

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I keep hearing about the growing “dish cities” in Europe and especially in France. “Dish cities” are named as such because they are predominantly Muslim areas where the residents keep to themselves and have television programming from the Arab world beamed into their homes via a satellite dish. The danger here is that this leads to an extreme, often self-imposed isolation, and a local set of laws and norms that often ignores the laws and cultural norms of the adopted country. Is it possible that such “dish cities” might eventually form in the U.S.? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on some young adults whose religious views guide them to skip the prom.

With prom season in full swing, Najeeb and her Muslim peers are learning one of life’s lessons: Principles matter more when something is sacrificed to uphold them.

Each year, many teen Muslims choose not to take part in one of the hallmark social events of high school. For them, staying true to their Muslim identity is staying true to themselves, no matter how hard.

Proms – a ritual of dating and intimate dancing that for some is associated with drinking and sex – conflict with Islamic beliefs. Islam requires Muslims to dress modestly, abstain from alcohol and avoid close contact with members of the opposite sex. Such interactions are considered haram, or forbidden.

Meeting these standards can be an especially tall order for teens driven by raging hormones, intense curiosity and a fear of alienation.

“It’s a challenge,” said Naba Mallick, 17, a senior at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in Milwaukee, who didn’t attend prom last year. “To be the one who has stayed strong in religious beliefs, it’s a big deal.”

Since I live in Los Angeles, I am always looking at stories in terms of a possible script for a Hollywood movie. I am thinking about updating Footloose, but with Muslim characters.

To be clear, not all young Muslims skip prom. And among those who do, they are not alone; many conservative Christian families also frown upon dancing and dating among teens.

Alas, it just isn’t easy for young studs to deal with this kind of thing:

Living in America and holding true to his Islamic beliefs are a delicate dance for Zeki Arain, a junior at Brookfield Central High School.

Arain, 16, sometimes struggles between being a teenage boy and a practicing Muslim. With thick dark hair, pale skin and a sharp wit, Arain knows girls have been sweet on him. He’s had crushes, too.
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Who writes the history books?

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Whoever holds the pen, that’s who. As we’ve all heard, there have been lots of protests (some turning violent) in China, over the version of history found in some Japanese school textbooks. As anyone who, like me is a fan of Zinn’s “A People’s History” knows, you must always remain vigilant against inaccuracies in history and social studies. Some desis in the D.C. suburbs have been doing just that. As reported in the Washington Post:

Fairfax County businesswoman Sandhya Kumar teaches her three daughters about other countries, cultures and religions. She wants them to take pride in their Indian heritage and Hindu faith — and to respect and understand other views.

But when Kumar of Lorton scanned several world history textbooks recommended for Fairfax County schools, she worried that students would come away with a distorted and negative impression of her homeland’s culture.

“I thought the American children will think India is some Third World country with pagan beliefs and backward thinking, not a forward-thinking country,” Kumar said.

She and dozens of other Indian American parents launched a campaign to change the way their history is taught in Fairfax, the nation’s 12th-largest school system. Their lobbying has prompted school officials to rethink presentations of India and Hinduism in classrooms and has sparked efforts to develop a more sophisticated and thoughtful curriculum.

So what in particular was inaccurate in the textbooks?

Balaji Hebbar, a George Washington University religion professor who was one of three scholars hired by Fairfax County to review the books cited by the group of Indian parents, said he and his colleagues found few factual errors. But he said the lessons boiled down a complex culture to “karma, cows and caste.”

“It’s as if I were making a picture book of the United States, and I took pictures of the bad parts of D.C., the run-down parts of New York City and the smoke stacks of Cleveland and left out the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty,” Hebbar said. “I would be telling the truth, but I would only be telling half the truth.”

The very open and gracious way in which the school district responded to the parent’s concerns is quite encouraging to me, especially in light of all the craziness that usually seems to undo the educational system in this country instead of helping it become better.

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DC Event – The Hindu Equilibrium

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SM Reader Anjali, hailing from the Institute for Humane Studies, writes in to point mutineers towards a Desi-themed libertarian book preso at the Cato Institute in DC. Cato is far and away my favorite thinktank and seeing them directly take on Desi stuff is just too cool for words.

The Hindu Equilibrium: India C. 1500 B.C. – 2000 A.D. (Oxford University Press, 2005) BOOK FORUM Thursday, May 12, 2005 4:00 PM [EST] (Reception to follow) …India is an emerging economic giant. Deepak Lal will explain the role that modernity and tradition have played in that country’s recent moves to the market after decades of stagnation. Why has democracy succeeded and the caste system survived in India? Why did India switch to more liberal economic policies, and why is it likely to overtake China in the race for economic growth? Lal will provide answers to those questions and review India’s development challenges. Anne Krueger will comment on the record and prospects of Indian growth and poverty reduction.

Live audio and video streams from the event will be freely viewable on the web. Continue reading →

Looking out for “A” & “T”

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Saurav, who co-writes on the new blog Detained, updates us on the situation of the 16 year-old Bangladeshi and Guinean girls that the FBI recently detained, ostensibly as potential suicide bombers. My original posting about this mentioned that the family was not economically capable of fighting the government and Detained elaborates.

As you may have read recently in the New York Times and a number of other publications, two Muslim teenage girls have been detained. One is from Guinea, and the other is from Bangladesh. The government is using immigration law to jail these 16 year olds without charging them with a crime, holding secret proceedings against them without giving them access to the evidence that is being used against them, and slandering them in the media as “suicide bombers” without providing proof.

In fact, an FBI official told The New York Daily News, “Nobody here believes they are wanna-be suicide bombers.” Another official at the Department of Homeland Security commented, “We’re not spun up about this case.” So why, then, are these young women in jail, cut off from their families? Why are their lives being ruined? This is an insane injustice.

Please open your hearts to both families. The family of A., the young Guinean woman, is in urgent need, and owes money to their lawyer. They have also lost their income, as the father has also been detained on immigration violations. As we learn more details about her situation, we may find they have other needs as well.

The young Bangladeshi woman, T., and her loved ones also face an enormous challenge. Her family needs to raise approximately $10,000 in the next three months just to get by. There are three children. The vast majority of the money would go towards housing, because the family has had to give up their apartment out of fear of surveillance or other threats to their safety. The remainder of expenses are for food, transportation and any legal expenses (although the lawyer is currently doing the case for free). Visits to the lawyer and to the detention center take 3 hours each way and cost money. It may also be necessary to fundraise for airline tickets for some family members in the future. There’s enough money available right now from various sources to cover them for a few days, but their situation could become dire very soon.

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MIDIval PunditZ–MIDIval Times…and niyaz

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punditz.jpg Sepia-friendly record label, Six Degrees Records, based out of San Francisco, releases on Tuesday April 19th a couple of albums that many of you will be interested in. The first, and one of my favorites of the year is MIDIval Times, the second full length release by the New Delhi based duo of Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj, collectively known as the MIDIval PunditZ. The follow-up to their very successful 2002 debut is a bit more melodic, a bit more classically Indian, and a little less beat heavy, but nevertheless has changed my perception of what Asian Massive, or Indian influenced electronica can sound like.

The 11 track album opens with the song, “Morning,” a teaser of sorts that sets you up for an outrageous and mind-opening roller coaster ride of music. The album is not cookie-cutter by any means and does not fall into any one genre of music, at times it is Indian Classical and traditional, and at others it is Drum and Bass and filmi. Continue reading →

The “T-word”: only those with melanin need apply

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Last week, the media flip-flopped yet again on the issue of terrorism. When reporting on the three darker skinned guys recently arrested in the UK and accused of plotting a series of horrific bombings, the NYT, AP and other news outlets called the accused “terrorists.” However, when reporting on the recent plea bargain by Eric Rudolph, the T-word was absent from their coverage. The NYT only called Rudolph an “anti-abortion crusader and former soldier.” Reuters called him a “survivalist” and a “fugitive” but not a terrorist.

What gives? Might melanin and foreigness have anything to do with it?

Rudolph’s actions clearly met the US State Department definition of terrorism. His bombs “killed two people, wounded 120 others, and “terrorized” people in three states.” When he was caught, he had 250 lbs of dynamite stashed away, and a 25 lb bomb “filled with 20 pounds of screws as shrapnel” across the street from his next target.

His goal was political and intended to influence an audience … and the attacks were most definitely perpetrated against noncombatants by a non-state entity. The situation seems at least as clear-cut as many acts regularly labeled terrorism in the media.[cite]

Not only was Rudolph a terrorist, but he was a terrorist who justified his actions based on his religious beliefs. He was a member of an extremist religious group and cited a religion as the central reason for his attacks when he made his statement to the feds. After most of the bombings, letters came from the “Army of God” saying things like:

We declare and will wage total war on the ungodly communist regime in New York and your legaslative bureaucratic lackey’s in Washington. It is you who are responsible and preside over the murder of children and issue the policy of ungodly preversion thats destroying our people. [cite]

While the US government (to its credit) clearly calls Rudolph a terrorist, it may not be prosecuting him as vigorously as it does other terrorism suspects:

Curiously, the Justice Department allowed Mr. Rudolph to plead guilty and avoid the death sentence that in other circumstances the feds have been quite energetic in pursuing. The official explanation was that a trial and a death sentence would have made a “martyr” of this man, who as a high-profile fugitive for five years eluded a giant manhunt and became something of a folk hero in rural Appalachia…. Maybe the prosecutors thought they couldn’t get him and so opted for an easy plea. But there are powerful people for whom the spectacle of an unrepentant murderer for the unborn, a clean-cut movie star handsome Christian terrorist, posed political problems. Better to defend life in the abstract, keep the focus on the enemy at the gates and keep skeletons like Eric Rudolph locked up in the closet.[cite]

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The World’s Worst Airports to Sleep in: Any Airport in India

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There’s a new list of the best airports to sleep in, for those who are too busy or too thrifty to check into a hotel room. The best of the best? Singapore’s Changi airport. The worst? Anywhere in India, which is as bad as PNG’s Port Moresby airport where there was a gang shoot-out in the terminal.

Worst Airport(s) – This was toughy. I certainly could not narrow it down to just one in this case. First up, everybody please put their hands together for Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), an airport in which one of our contributors witnessed 7 seven being killed in a gang shoot-out. When in Port Moresby, be sure you’re wearing your bullet-proof vest and run. And then there are the airports in the Mid-East and India section where we have received MANY Hellish reviews. As there are so many to choose from, I am also giving the Worst Airport(s) award to the entire country of India who only has one airport rated “good”, but only because it was a better alternative to actually sleeping in one of their hotels. Unacceptable seating, foul odours, filth, fleas, safety, and general hassles have resulted in India’s 8 year reign of the Worst Airport(s) Title. Travellers beware: when sleeping in one of India’s “fine” airports be sure you have your own bug spray, air freshener and disinfectant or just go to the nearest bar and drink the pain away.[cite]

The list is an equal opportunity critic, American airports are not spared from its scrutiny either. The first runner up for worst is Boston’s Logan airport, and the fourth runner up was Chicago’s Om Hari airport. [via bookofjoe] Continue reading →

Manipur’s Bamiyan

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The fundamentalists claiming to preserve their cultures are often the ones responsible for torching them:

Protesters demanding the introduction of Manipur’s ancient Mayek script set fire to the Central Library in Manipur’s capital Imphal on Wednesday. Officials say many of Manipur’s most ancient texts were among the books destroyed by the fire… Analysts say… the library was burnt because almost all Manipuri books preserved in it were written in Bengali script.

The Cauvery riots, the Karnataka cinema shakedowns — language stirs intense passions in India. But wishing that history were different doesn’t make it so. I could close my eyes and wish away the British Raj. Open them, and there lies Victoria Terminus still.

Previous post here.

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Midnight’s child

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Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf is finally getting his birth certificate — from a New Delhi hospital:

Officials are set to present Pervez Musharraf with a certificate showing that he was born on 11 August 1942 at a maternity hospital in the city… “Begum Zarin became very emotional during her visit to the hospital and she could even recall the name of the medical superintendent of the hospital in those days and some of the staff members,” said hospital medical superintendent Indira Yadav. Delhi’s city council confirmed that an entry for the Pakistani leader’s birth had been found in the hospital’s records and a certificate was being drawn up.

August 11, eh? It’s a pity he was born four days early, or no one would’ve ever forgotten his birthday. Besides, his punctuality virtually disqualifies him from being desi 🙂

Like Rushdie’s protagonists, Musharraf also has superpowers. Only his came from sacking the judiciary and rewriting the constitution.

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Neobans

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The Neo-Taliban running Pakistan’s fundamentalist parties aren’t content with banning food at weddings. Now they’ve figured out how to recruit more sexually-repressed young men. They want to ban all ads featuring women:

Last week the six-party religious alliance that constitutes one-fifth of the country’s parliament, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) introduced a bill in parliament seeking a complete ban on women in advertising… It proposes one-year imprisonment for any ad agency that uses women models…

The neobans (for banning is what they do) want to turn the clock back to when only men could perform in public, teaching an entire generation of boys to dress in drag. They yearn for when NAMBLA-like encounters were the norm as long as female chastity was protected. Of course, women were treated as mere property and were at much higher risk of rape and murder, but it was all in the name of purity, right? It was all for the noble goal of keeping people’s minds off sex… by depriving them of it.

Yeah, that worked out well. About as well as another movement which went against fundamental human nature.

Of course, the neobans won’t be content with banning female images. They’ll go after the right of women to drive, then to vote. All Pakistan would be left with is rifle-toting bullies in pickup trucks beating up men without beards and women without burqas. Been there, done that, seen it on F*dCountry.com.

The more that a religious strain teaches personal spirituality, the less that political middlemen can manipulate the faithful.

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