A lot has been happening in Sri Lanka since mid-May, when the 25 year conflict between the government and the Tamil rebels effectively came to an end.

AFP Photo

Last week, Amnesty International posted a call for the government of Sri Lanka to start opening the camps, so people in them can either return to their villages, or, if those homes are destroyed, be relocated to new permanent housing. Earlier, the government justified keeping these camps open on the grounds that it needed to ensure that militants that are mixed in with the civilian population in the camps should be discovered and extracted. It’s now been four months, which should be enough time. The government originally said people would be resettled in 180 days — six months. But as of now (four months in), there is no progress at all on that front, leading one to think that the promise is unlikely to be met. Update/Correction: A commenter links to a report that re-settlement is in fact well underway: TheHindu. The minister in charge of resettlement is named Rishad Bathiudeen; there is more about him, and government reports on resettlement progress here.

The detailed Amnesty Briefing paper can be found here, for people who are interested.

I am curious to hear what readers think about this. How long will this go on? Are there any indications from Rajapaksa or others in the Sri Lankan government on a timeline for closing the camps? Might the government have other considerations or unspoken reasons for keeping these camps open for an indefinite period of time?

I looked at Groundviews to see their thoughts on the Amnesty call, but I haven’t found much specific coverage of the issue there. Continue reading →

It’s Indian and Pakistani independence day time. Zindabad! On the Pakistan side, Raza Rumi has a sobering reflection here; a look at Pakistaniat is also recommended. On the Indian side, not much is going on yet in the blog world that I’ve seen, since the actual day is tomorrow. (If anyone has recommended I-Day reading to recommend, please post the link below.)

In New York, they’re having the annual India Day Parade this Sunday, with a couple of Indian A-List celebs (i.e., Shilpa Shetty) airlifted in to add a little glamor to what is otherwise, in my experience, a rather ho-hum affair.

The usual slew of groups will be marching in the parade, from the “Telugu Literary and Cultural Association” to the VHP-A (yes, them again). One group that petitioned to march but was denied is SALGA, the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association. SALGA has fought in the past to participate, and won that fight. However, the refusal this year carries an extra sting, since it was only a few weeks ago that the Delhi High Court threw out the old ban on homosexuality in India (as I understand it, the Supreme Court later upheld the Delhi High Court’s ruling, making the decriminalization of homosexuality a national fact). Here is what a SALGA supporter named Sapna Pandya wrote in an Op-Ed she has been circulating:

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We have mentioned Saqib Ali several times previously on Sepia Mutiny. Anna mentioned a personal challenge he and his wife faced a few years ago here. We also had posts on his campaign for the Maryland state legislature here, and then again after his election victory here

Now Saqib Ali, one of a very small number of Muslim candidates elected to public office anywhere in the U.S., has taken a public stand in favor of granting gays and lesbians the right to marry. He published an op-ed in the community paper the Gazette: here. It was also covered yesterday on NPR, which is how I heard about it. What I like about Saqib Ali’s approach is the directness with which he handles the religious prohibition on homosexual acts in Islam:

It feels like the nature of the fight for equality has changed. It has gone from being a rather niche liberal issue to perhaps the most pressing civil rights issue of this generation. And marriage equality throughout the land now feels like an eventual inevitability.

I expect some day people will look back at this fight for equality like we now look back on oddly antiquated anti-miscegenation laws. I’m proud that I’ll have stood on the right side of history: In support of full marital rights for same-sex couples.

My stance on this issue isn’t politically expedient. I am the first Muslim in the legislature. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Islam. As such I have evinced much grief from my most conservative supporters.

But I recognize that I represent people of all faiths and no faith at all. If I tried to enforce religion by law — as in a theocracy — I would be doing a disservice to my both constituents and to my religion. (link)

What’s clever about this is the twist on religious morality. Normally, opponents of gay marriage apply a version of a presumed Judeo-Christian morality as support for their position. Saqib Ali, coming from an Islamic background, knows full well that his invocation of “theocracy” has extra rhetorical weight; the last sentence in the paragraph quoted above hits home. Continue reading →

There has been a new wave of anti-Christian communal violence in Pakistan, with a riot involving as many as 20,000 people in the town of Gojra, west of Lahore.

We normally use the phrase “communal violence” in the Indian context, but reading the particulars of this story in the New York Times, the idea of “communalism” (a particularly South Asian expression of communitarian religious hostility) seems to fit. The recent riots were not on a huge scale — 100 houses belonging to local Christians were burned (compare to 3000 homes of Christians burned in the violence in Orissa last year) — but it’s still frightening and sad.

There is a history of this kind of violence in Pakistan. I don’t know the history in great detail, but Wikipedia has links to several similar incidents in just the past few years. (It often starts with the claim that someone has desecrated the Koran.)

One oddity in the Times coverage was the way they described the size of the Christian community in Pakistan, as comprising “less than five percent of the population.” I gather the number is more like 1.6% — why not simply say, “less than 2%”? Maybe that’s a nitpick.

As a response, the Christian schools in Karachi are on strike for three days. A number of arrests of those involved in the attacks have been made, and President Zardari has strongly condemned them. The Daily Times newspaper has a story with a subheader that the DPO (police chief) in the district has been “booked” as well, but the text of the story actually states that authorities are at this point just thinking about charging him with failing in his duty to keep the peace.

Incidentally, the town of Gojra is in the Toba Tek Singh District of Punjab, an area made famous by Sa’adat Hasan Manto’s story about Partition, “Toba Tek Singh.” Though we’re no longer talking directly about partition, that story about the madness that can sometimes overtake people in the name of religion still feels relevant. Here is a translation of the story, and Professor Fran Pritchett has both the original Urdu and a Devanagari version of the story linked from her site: here. Continue reading →