Monthly Archives: July 2005

Muslim…Sikh…what’s the difference? (updated)

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Something depressingly predictable has gone down in the wake of last week’s terror attack on London (thanks, RC). The backlash we worried about has commenced:

Arsonists set a mosque in northwest England on fire on Saturday, police said, two days after a string of bomb attacks across London killed at least 50 people.

According to the Hindustan Times, authorities are searching for two white men in their early 20s, who were spotted near the mosque before it was vandalized. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only religious edifice that was harmed:

There were also reports in the Indian media Sunday that a Gurudwara — a Sikh temple — had been vandalised in an arson attack in Leeds.
According to the spokesman, two Sikh temples were attacked.

attacks.jpg An attack for an attack and the whole world going up in smoke. Those who are responsible almost seem to be saying, “Hurt us and we’ll hurt you, too” all the while forgetting that they are attacking their own, not to mention their suffering own. As people have pointed out on this very blog, the areas that were hit are quite Muslim, quite brown. We didn’t get a courtesy warning to stay home, we died and bled, too.

The attack on a mosque is awful enough, but going after a Gurudwara…that stings in a different way. You know, I had naively hoped that this wouldn’t happen across the pond. Contrary to America, where Sikhs are more scattered and less understood, I thought that in England, people were more knowledgeable about Sikhism, that they could tell the difference between al-Qaeda and an innocent group of people who had nothing to do with transportation treachery. Perhaps some, if not most of the English can…but much to my alarm, there are quite obviously a dangerous few who can’t. To them, a turban is a turban is a turban. Bend it like Beckham and bomb it like someone ignorant.

“Such attacks are an affront not only to the great Sikh religion but to entire humanity,” the spokesman said.
“The Sikh community in the United Kingdom has carved out a highly respected place for itself in the British society through its industriousness and commitment,” the spokesman said.

None of that matters. We are foreign and we wear turbans, just like that bastard Osama. Thanks to a coincidence of complexion, we are complicit and we will pay. Continue reading →

Blood brother

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SM reader Ravi Swami is an animation designer, and I love what little of his work I’ve seen. His demo reel includes retro desi artwork, war propaganda-style satire, psychedelic flying Bugs and a kitschy robot that’s a cross between Sky Captain and Futurama.

Swami mashes up kaleidoscopes, lotus mandalas, Indian revolutionaries and multi-armed deities. Behind a Bollywood theater, London’s Erotic Gherkin lurks erect. It’s all set to the moody atmospherics of Domenico Modugno’s original recording of ‘Volare,’ popularized again by the Gipsy Kings. Watch the demo reel.

The Spitfire beer ad is quite witty: pouring a draught becomes a visual pun about rolling a fighter plane. Brill! The reel also includes a snippet of an animation called ‘Mr. and Mrs. Singh.’ Its visual style is tremendous, 3D with a watercolor look:

A few years ago Ravi developed a short film with Gurinder Chadha which was to be shown before the film Bend it Like Beckham. When the Channel 4 animation department folded, so did the short. A real shame because… such a high profile film [could] have helped to resurrect the feature film trailer as a legitimate forum for quality animation shorts… [Link]

Most of the desi bits in the demo reel are from his short film ‘Blood Sutra,’ with director Rajesh Thind and a title shared by a Vijay Iyer album. As part of a public health campaign, the short fights desi superstitions about donating blood. Paper doll doctors dance bhangra at the hospital; a phillum poster announces the debut of an Indian starlet, ‘Heema Globin.’

… Rajesh and Ravi have also gone for a rapid-fire episode series… Shorts within a short if you like. This approach may have something to do with Ravi’s early obsession with Zagreb School Animation and the ‘Mini-mini’ series. The influence of the animated one-minute gag can certainly be seen in ‘Blood Sutra.’ Ravi’s views on the irony of the communist Zagreb School evolving into the capitalist Red Bull adverts could spawn a whole Ph.D. thesis… [Link]

Most who mine old Indian health propaganda (‘An Ideal Boy‘) do so purely for art’s sake, winkily adorning a coffee table book or T-shirt. But Swami re-applies the parody to the source. What can you say about making doctor cutouts do a silly dance, then sticking them back in a hospital? It subverts without subverting. I’ve never had so much fun watching a health film. Watch the short (3:01).

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Next Weekend in SF: The Domestic Crusaders

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crusaders.jpg I know it seems like we only post cool things to do in NYC, L.A. or D.C. but yay urrea readers, take dil: this one’s for you. Next week, you should totally drag your friends and frenemies to Mutineer Manish’s old stomping grounds, for an evening at the theater.

You’ll be watching The Domestic Crusaders, a two-act play which takes place on a single day in the life of a multi-generational Pakistani-American family–a day, by the way, that happens to be the “baby’s” 21st birthday:

With a background of 9-11 and the scapegoating of Muslim Americans, the tensions and sparks fly among the three generations, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader” struggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions, while still attempting to maintain and understand that unifying thread that makes them part of the same family.

How’s that for salient? If you’re worried about whether or not it will be good, here’s what the Contra-Costa Times had to say about it:

Wajahat Ali didn’t set out to write an earthshaking play. The Berkeley student was taking a short story course from Pulitzer Prize nominee Ishmael Reed. When his professor pulled him aside and told him he was a natural playwright, Ali couldn’t believe it. “I thought it was pure nonsense,” Ali says. Reed encouraged Ali to write a Muslim-American response to 9-11. “All I wanted to do was pass a class,” says Ali, who succeeded in doing much more than that.

Hey. All you readers who have totally reasonable gripes with the media, for not covering a broader, more accurate world– this blockquote’s for you:

“Domestic Crusaders” represents Muslim-American voices that have not been heard because we are living in a country whose media is censored…
“In the largely Pakistani-American audience at the premiere of the play, people were roaring and falling off their chairs,” says Blank. “It’s the kind of audience most original playwrights would kill to be able to contact,” Blank says, laughing.

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“Ram Gopal Varma ka Sholay”?

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sholay.jpg

Oh, dear. Are they fixing what isn’t broken?

His recent hit film starring the Bachchans was an ode to one of his favourite films, The Godfather. Now, filmmaker Ramu is all set to remake one of India’s cult hits – Sholay. “More than The Godfather, Sholay is my favourite film. I entered movies because of the film and owe my career to it. I remember having seen the film 27 times. With Godfather, I did not exactly do a remake. But now, I want to remake Sholay in all its essence,” the filmmaker said soon after procuring the rights for the remake from the Sippys.

Well, she-it…I’ve seen The Sound of Music 92 times, but I’m not about to re-cast the family Von Trapp… 😉

There’s a reason why I loathe cover songs, they almost never measure up to the original. Aside from Dinosaur Jr’s explosive rendition of “Just like heaven“, I can do without remakes, thank you very much. Movies are no different. Sabrina? Pffft. But what do I know? Why buck a trend?

Reworking older hits seems to be the order of the day. After yesteryear hits like Devdas and Parineeta being remade, plans are on to remake films like Don, Teesri Manzil and Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam.

How do you replace a legend? You don’t. (Or can’t, in my snarky opinion):

…he is unlikely to cast Abhishek Bachchan for Amitabh’s role. “The casting is still open. I do not plan to work with any direct descendant of the Bachchans and the Deols for this movie,” he says.

Well, now that THAT’S decided…book ’em, Dhann-o. Or perhaps just say “no”. To remakes, 😉 that is:

As for the setting of the film, he said, “The new Sholay will be set in contemporary Mumbai and the two heroes will be fighting against Samba, the underworld don. And Basanti will be the city’s first woman cab driver and her cab will be called Dhanno!”
The film will be called Ram Gopal Varma ka Sholay. He signed off saying, “People might say this is the height of arrogance. They might even think I’ve lost my head after my recent success.”

I don’t know about arrogance, but I’d vote for quixotic. What say you, SMers? And has anyone seen the brown Godfather? Continue reading →

Rinse and spin

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This little chestnut has been on CNN’s front page since Friday, in the bottom left corner (thanks, chick pea). It’s also on the current Time home page.

The Time magazine story is not only part of MTV Desi’s PR launch (sow widely, eat phat), it’s part of the South Asian brand launch in the U.S. It’s the usual hype and Mercedes-driving uncles, but hey, we’re narcissists:

… during the 1990s the number of Indians in the U.S. more than doubled–making them the fastest-growing Asian minority. There are some 2.5 million desis in the U.S., and the vast majority are Indian…. consider how premium a customer a South Asian is: Indians alone commanded $76 billion worth of disposable personal income last year… median household income is nearly $64,000–50% higher than the national average. The U.S. has always welcomed the world’s poor and working classes. India has sent its professionals… 64% of Indians in the U.S. hold a bachelor’s degree, vs. 24% of the overall population… “We make up one-fifth of the population of the world. Imagine that.”

Jay Sean explains why he picked Bipasha Basu for his video. What the other reason could possibly be escapes my mind.

Sean is miked and seated in front of an MTV logo reminiscent of the Taj Mahal… “This is your boy Jay Sean,” he says, “and you’re watching MTV Desi…” Sean, in typical eyebrow-raising rock-star fashion, picked actress Bipasha Basu for his music video in part because she was racy enough to have had an onscreen kiss…

Ah yes, now I remember. It’s because she looks like this:

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4

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No civilian deserves to die

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Thanks to my Salon subscription, whenever I want to, I get to read a publication I’d normally ignore —The New Republic Online. On the 8th, an article about the attack on London caught my attention. I’ve often said that the comments on this blog are what captivate me, that the discussions which spontaneously erupt under a post are the best part of the Mutiny. This week has proven no exception, as I am surprised and provoked by what some of you have said.

Your words made me think that a few of you might also want to read “Response Time”, by Joseph Braude, an essay about how Muslim groups responded to the terrorist attack on London, especially since SM regular Al Mujahid was repeatedly asked to provide “proof” that Muslim groups had denounced the terrorist bombing that rocked London’s transit system; he responded here and here. With that in mind, I found Braude’s piece even more salient.

Yesterday’s attack on the British people gave Muslims everywhere a chance to distance themselves from the radical Islamists who claim to have perpetrated it. While Muslim governments have taken the opportunity to speak out against the killing of innocents, Muslim Brotherhood offshoot groups failed to rise to the challenge. What they offered instead were statements full of equivocation–in marked contrast to other Arab politicians.*
Among Muslim heads of state, condemnation of the Al Qaeda “raid” was just as severe as the rest of the world’s. Jordan, the Gulf states, and Egypt as well as Syria and Iran all sent official condolences on behalf of the nation. Some went further: Egypt, whose ambassador to Iraq was also murdered by an Al Qaeda affiliate yesterday, called in its official press for seamless counterterrorist coordination between Arab countries and the West. In Europe and the United States, Muslim community organizations like Britain’s Muslim Council and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) were absolute in their condemnation: “barbaric crimes” which “can never be justified or excused,” according to CAIR; “hateful acts” which only “strengthen our determination to live together in peace,” says the Muslim Council.

The response from Hamas was predictable:

Hamas, on the other hand, laid ultimate blame for the attack on aggression against Arabs and Muslims. In an official communiqué from Gaza, the movement declared:
We call upon all states and influential international societal forces to bring about an end to all forms of occupation, aggression, oppression, and discrimination directed against the Arab and Islamic nation–particularly in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan–because the continuation of these acts offers an environment of tension and repression which naturally leads to a continuance of the likes of these acts and explosions.

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Sanjay finds a loophole

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The talented artist behind Ghee Happy just published a short graphic story in a new comic anthology with fellow Pixar employees (via Boing Boing). Sanjay Patel’s story, ‘Loopholes,’ is in an anthology called Afterworks. The coworkers call their venture E-Ville Press, named after Pixar’s Emeryville location. Patel is selling the anthology and a new T-shirt at Comic Con in San Diego, July 13-17:

 

In case you’re confused, the artwork suitable for toddlers is the one on the left. I figured that out all by myself despite, I swear, never having been to a comic book convention in my life.

Previous post here.

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Arrested development

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The BBC is running a pictorial on members of the pheasant family in South Asia which are being hunted to extinction. This spectacular-looking family includes the Indian, green and white peafowl, the satyr tragopan, the Himalayan monal, the Western tragopan and the Koklass pheasant, among others.

    

Last October, the Acorn covered the hunting of another South Asian bird. Arab sheikhs fly into Pakistan every year to hunt the endangered houbara bustard, carving the deserts into exclusive playgrounds. Believing the bustard to be an aphrodisiac, the sheikhs use the C-130 Hercules, one of the biggest airplanes in the world, to airlift deli trucks into the desert to store their meat.

Some have built personal airfields… Some have constructed large desert palaces… Some live in elaborate tent cities, guarded by legions of Bedouin troops… Totally closed off to outsiders, these hunting fiefdoms are, in effect, Arab principalities. They sprinkle the vast deserts of Balochistan, Punjab, and Sind… the late King Khalid of Saudi Arabia transported dancing camels in a C-130 to join him on his hunt… The sheikhs normally spent between ten and twenty million dollars for a typical royal hunt…

“… while Pakistanis are being arrested and prosecuted if they’re found to be hunting the bird, Arab dignitaries are given diplomatic immunity… It’s slaughter, mass slaughter. They kill everything in sight.” When I asked him why the government of Pakistan had done so little… he replied, “Because we lack the moral fibre…”… The Pakistanis see the Arabs breaking Pakistan’s own laws, yet there are huge sums of money involved… [Link – PDF]

In the bustard hunt, some see an allegory for Pakistan itself:

Like the houbara bustard, Pakistan too has been the prize in many people’s elaborate games. It has been used by the Gulf States to house and train their Islamists, the fodder for the war in Afghanistan, and by the United States as a conduit for arms and money for anti-Soviet forces. It was given the cold shoulder by both once the last Russian tank departed. Like the devastated desert after a houbara hunt, Pakistan was left a wasteland of heavily armed and angry militants and a socio-economic situation that threatens to turn the country completely towards militant Islam. [Link]

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The “B” word

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After every terrorist attack in the Western World I look for the “B” word in the news the next day. Here we go:

The San Jose Mercury News– Among London’s Muslims, fears of backlash linger, but quietly

Newsday– U.S. Muslims denounce London bombings, brace for backlash

Vive le Canada– Canuck Muslims dread backlash

Monsters & Critics– Australian Moslems fear backlash after London bombs

India Monitor– Muslims cower in fear of backlash

See, here is the thing. Whenever a terrorist attack like this occurs, the cold, dispassionate, analytical side of me asks, “why is the average citizen so afraid to get back aboard that plane, train, or bus the very next day?” The attack was temporally and spatially isolated and not something they must continue to cower in fear of. Aside from not giving the terrorists what they want, the probability that there will be another attack within days or months of the original is just not backed up by the data. The compassionate side of me realizes however, that humans are humans. Fear, real or imagined, is part of who we are and keeps us alive.

For people with brown skin, and especially Muslims, the actual attack is just the beginning of a terrorist incident however. For this group an attack is not a temporally or spatially isolated event. The moment that the physical attack ends is when the real fear begins for a sizeable portion of the population (as shown by the headlines above). With a terrorist attack you don’t know when it’s going to come. You realize that you shouldn’t live your life in fear so you go about your day quite normally, perhaps being slightly more attentive. The general population has a Homeland Security Department to warn them of a possible terrorist attack by means of a color coded system. After a terrorist attack however, if you are brown or Muslim, you need your own system. You have knowledge of credible but unspecified threats.

My point? This is exactly what Reza Aslan stresses. This isn’t a war between Islam and the West. This is a war between Islam and Islam. Brown-on-Brown violence. The West is often just caught in the crossfire because they provide the most dramatic field of battle. Continue reading →

Catch and release

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The BBC reports that Pakistan is trying a new strategy to catch militants associated with Al-Qaeda. They’re using a classic technique from spy movies, so hoary it’s almost a staple Bollywood plot:

The game plan involves letting loose dozens of suspects known to have been affiliated with or at least sympathetic to al-Qaeda, in the hope that they would eventually lead the authorities to some top wanted figures in the terrorist organisation.

Top security experts admit that it is a dangerous game but argue that a similar approach in the past has reaped rich dividends. Security experts say former Guantanamo detainees – released by the Pakistan authorities on being returned – unwittingly led security agencies to many previously unknown hideouts used by local and foreign militants… Pakistani authorities have now clearly decided to extend this strategy on a scale that some feel could lead to unexpected results. [BBC]

The Pakistani government claims that this strategy has led to important arrests in Waziristan, Balochistan and Karachi.

I have no idea whether to believe the Pakistani government, because they have plenty of other incentives to want this strategy. From a political standpoint, this is convenient. The Pakistanis obtain the domestic benefits of getting their citizens out of gitmo without the headaches of locking them up in Pakistan:

In immediate terms, the strategy means easing some of the restrictions imposed earlier on top Pakistani militants. The visible part of the plan unfolding in recent weeks came in the shape of the release of about 150 Pakistanis who had returned from Guantanamo Bay. After extensive debriefing lasting between nine to 10 months, most of these men were allowed to go free.  [BBC]

More importantly, it also gives the Pakistani government an excuse for not cracking down harder on certain extremist groups at home. They can say that it is all part of their grand strategy.

Some security analysts in Pakistan have been critical of the government’s seemingly soft stance in relation to Harkat and Jaish – wondering why they have not been dealt with as severely as some of the other groups. [BBC]

We’re leaving these groups intact, not for any political benefit, but so we can catch Osama. Really. That upsurge of violence in Afghanistan? The attempt on the life of the US Ambassador there? It’s all part of our grand plan …

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