Category Archives: Politics

All religions suck … except Jainism

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Militant atheist Sam Harris has been making quite a stir lately with his best-selling polemics against religion and his in-your-face public appearances:

… [while] debating a former priest before a packed auditorium… he condemns the God of the Old Testament for a host of sins, including support for slavery. He drop-kicks the New Testament, likening the story of Jesus to a fairy tale. He savages the Koran, calling it “a manifesto for religious divisiveness…” [Link]

He goes beyond the usual attacks on fundamentalists to attack moderates for being “enablers” and apologists for more extreme actions:

Religious moderates, Harris says in his patient and imperturbable style, have immunized religion from rational discussion by nurturing the idea that faith is so personal and private that it is beyond criticism, even when horrific crimes are committed in its name. [Link]

He sees all religion as fundamentally dangerous, especially in the post 9/11 world:

… he demonstrates the behavior he believes atheists should adopt when talking with Christians. “Nonbelievers like myself stand beside you,” he writes, addressing his imaginary opponent, “dumbstruck by the Muslim hordes who chant death to whole nations of the living. But we stand dumbstruck by you as well – by your denial of tangible reality, by the suffering you create in service to your religious myths, and by your attachment to an imaginary God…” [Link]

The worst part, Harris says, is this: Because Christians and Jews cling to their “delusions,” they are in no position to criticize Muslims for theirs. And, as he italicizes it in his new book for maximum effect, ” most Muslims are utterly deranged by their religious faith. ” [Italics his] [Link]

Despite his deep and abiding enmity to all religions, he finds one acceptable:

He endorses Jainism, a religion-philosophy from India that finds God in the unchanging traits of the human soul. But everyone who organizes his or her life around an ancient text that purports to convey the words and sentiments of God — Harris would like you to surrender your prayers, history and traditions. You are welcome to check out Jainism, but Harris recommends that you accept his conclusion, which is that we live in a universe without God. Deal with it. [Link]
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Asra Nomani, Daud Sharifa, and the Women’s Mosque

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Congratulations are due to Asra Nomani, who won this year’s SAJA fellowship for a planned project to go to Tamil Nadu to report on movement to build a women’s mosque there. The project has been initiated in the town of Pudukkottai, as a reaction against male-dominated mosques and local, male-only Jamaat boards, that have the power to decide many personal and marriage-related disputes in India’s Muslim community.

The movement is being spearheaded by a woman named Daud Sharifa, and has already received a fair amount of coverage in the past two years from major news organizations such as the BBC. (More stories can be found here [Outlook] and here [New American Media]). Despite getting quite a bit of attention, the project is years away from completion owing to fundraising difficulties.

However, as one reads more about Daud Sharifa, the symbolic project of actually building a women’s mosque (which would be the first one to be built anywhere in the world) begins to seem somewhat secondary to what might be her main goal: building a broad-based, national movement to support the rights of Muslim women. Since the government has done little to help (and sometimes much to hurt) the cause, Sharifa and her NGO, STEPS, have gone ahead and created a women-only Jamaat (“Congregation”) to arbitrate family disputes using a feminist slant on Islamic law. They have been in operation since February 2004, and get a steady stream of cases to resolve (according to this article, they get about 15 petitions a day).

Daud Sharifa’s justification for the project seems strong:

“The male jamaats are unlawful kangaroo courts that play with the lives of women. A mosque-jamaat axis is a power centre that controls the community. When women are refused representation here, we have no choice but to have our own jamaat. And since a jamaat is attached to a mosque, we have to build our own mosque.” (link)

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South Asian via Africa Diaspora

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Ever notice how sometimes there are certain themes in your life? This month it was the theme ‘everything is related to the South Asian diaspora via Africa route.’ Chick Pea’s mother fed me fried mogo w/ tamarind sauce, Yo’ Mom told me stories of her life in Africa as a child, and a friend of mine just got back from a summer social work stint working in the desi townships of Durban, South Africa. I’m very interested in the creation of political ethnic identities in the South Asian diaspora and was intrigued by hearing these stories, and seeing the different diaspora perspectives.

Appropriately, I saw an early screening of the movie “Catch a Fire” last Thursday, and haven’t been able to stop talking about the movie since. Starring Tim Robbins (as the German Afrikaner oppressor), and Derek Luke (as the freedom fighter Patrick Chamusso), the movie is beautifully crafted, telling the story of a South Africa man who gets caught up in love, betrayal and the fight for freedom.

Catch a Fire is based on actual events that occurred in the 1980s. While Nelson Mandela was locked up for treason in the Robben Island prison, the banned and exiled ANC was engaging in sabotage against the Apartheid government. Patrick Chamusso, on the other hand, had found a job at the Secunda Oil Refinery, the largest coal-to-oil plant in the world. He preferred his simple family life to the underground movements. His wrongful arrest and subsequent interrogation and torture by the South African Special Branch forever altered his outlook and led him to Mozambique where he joined the ANC and received his military training. He volunteered to single-handedly carry out the operation to blow up the Secunda Oil Refinery and as per specific instructions, only property was damaged by the explosion.

Robyn Slovo, who is one of the film’s producers, and Shawn Slovo, who wrote the screenplay, are actually daughters of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, pioneer white activists who stood up against the Apartheid government. Joe and Ruth joined the ANC, while in exile. [link]

Maybe I’m just a sucker for movies with men who play roles as fighters against injustice, like The Motorcycle Diaries. Or maybe it’s because in reality, Luke is paying for his on-screen daughter’s real-life education because she is the daughter of an HIV positive African woman. I’m not sure, but both reasons make my heart melt for this story, both on and off screen.

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Eid Mubarak!

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Muslims all over the world will be waking up early this Monday [or Tuesday] morning and making their way to prayer in celebration of Eid ul-Fitr.

It is a joyous occasion with important religious significance. Happiness is observed at attaining spiritual uplift after a month of fasting. Muslims dress in holiday attire. After attending the special congregational prayer in the morning, worshippers greet and embrace each other in a spirit of peace, love, and brotherhood. Visiting friends and relatives is common.

For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyful celebration of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory and peace, of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control.[wiki]

Eid morning childhood memories for me are littered with 6am wake up calls, new colorful outfits, fresh warm rashagallas quickly stuffed in mouths and static-y arabic suras blasting through the tape deck in the family car as we made our way to the 8am morning prayer. Prayers were held in a huge hangar at the Fairplex – otherwise home to the LA County Fair – but on this morning, it was always home to thousands of Muslims from all across Southern California coming together in Eid solidarity. While my father went with the men folks one way, we women would enter through another, taking shoes off and keeping an eye out for family friends. As we lay down our prayer mats amongst a colorful sea of satin, sparkles, and smiles, you could hear Eid greetings being murmured in Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, and Malay all around. The sound system would crackle, there would be a slight pause in the crowd, and then azan (the call to prayer) could be heard through the speakers. We would all rise, stand shoulder to shoulder, a holy hush would fall over the crowd and Eid prayers would begin…

I have always loved Eid-ul-Fitr, more so than the other Eid, because this one marked the end of fasting for Ramadan. The day is spent reflecting on the success of fasting, the feeling like I had accomplished something. I had resisted food/ temptation/ indulgence/ profanity/ haraam for a whole month, and hoped that I could hang on to that spirituality, until the next Ramadan came along. Of course, it is also a day to spend in celebration with family, which for us always involves an inordinate amount of chaat puti, puris, goat curry, and rashmali.

Sadly, as I researched for this piece, the stories I found were somber – attacks on Iraqi Ramadan shoppers, an exploding fruit cart killed nine in Pakistan, the possible use of spy planes over Eid prayer. I didn’t want to ignore those stories altogether, but I did want to shine a positive light on what Eid means to millions of Muslims around the world. But these stories are a reminder, at least for me, to pray for the defeat of ‘evil-doers’ everywhere in my Eid prayers today.

Hopefully everyone in the mutiny had a wonderful Ramadan. Here’s to wishing everyone an Eid Mubarak!

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Draconian — Even By Israeli Standards

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Between the radioactive elucubrations of the Dear Leader, the accumulation of tortured and executed bodies in Iraq, the tawdry revelations of the Foley affair, and the growing murmur of a supposed Democratic sweep in the midterm election (I’ll believe that one when I see it), there has been precious little front-page consideration of the signing, earlier this week, of the Military Commissions Act.

As you may have heard, the act drastically changes the legal landscape for foreigners in the United States, whether here legally or illegally. It allows the government to deny a foreign suspect the right to challenge his or her imprisonment (habeas corpus), to employ evidence obtained by a wide and ambiguous range of coercive methods, and to use classified evidence whilst withholding it from the defense. Small things like that.

I will leave it to the lawyers here to amplify or amend this summary. Perhaps one reason why there hasn’t been much discussion is that the Supreme Court will ultimately determine whether, and in what form, this law stands. It’s quite possible that the Hamdan case, in which desi lawyer Neal Katyal plays a prominent role, will become the test case. At any rate, some in the media are looking ahead to this next phase, and already centering speculation on Justice Anthony Kennedy, the current swing Supreme.

I did, however, come across one very interesting piece of commentary that I wanted to share. In an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe, Harvard Law professor Martha Minow and a former legal adviser to the Israeli military, Gabrielle Blum, compare the new legislation with Israel’s approach to the same problem. They lead with their finding:

BEFORE ENACTING the “Detainee Bill” (otherwise known as the Military Commissions Act) two weeks ago, Congress should have spent more time learning from the Israeli experience. Compared with Israel’s security measures during a long and difficult experience with terrorism, the US Congress has gone too far in its willingness to compromise human rights and civil liberties. Security considerations, as legitimate and forceful as they are, do not justify such excessive measures, as the Israeli practice demonstrates.

Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Act, enacted in 2002, among other things provides for an immediate military hearing of the detainee upon detention, and a judicial hearing within two weeks and again every six months; a range of requirements for detention conditions and privileges; and the detainee’s right to meet with the Red Cross. The current U.S. legislation provides none of these safeguards. In addition, also unlike Israel, the U.S. law grants immunity to U.S. officials from prosecution except in the most extreme cases.

Minow and Blum conclude:

… the US Military Commissions Act sends to other countries facing terrorism the message that effective judicial review is null and void once the security alarm is sounded. It demonstrates a level of panic and irresponsible abandonment of principles that other nations, facing similar dangers, have avoided.

As bad as this may be for America, it is potentially far worse for countries that look to the United States for leadership. Now, the US example will encourage other nations to throw away rights just when they are sorely tested.

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Oh, What’s The Diff?

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Terrific op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times by Jeff Stein, national security editor of Congressional Quarterly. He’s been conducting a little experiment…

FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”

A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want?

Here are some of the answers:

A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”

That was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,” he said. “And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.”

A member of the House intelligence committee:

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”

Another committee member:

“Do I?” she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. “You know, I should.” She took a stab at it: “It’s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it’s the Sunnis who’re more radical than the Shia.”

Now we’re not talking theology. Stein’s asking his repondents who’s who right now. Do they know that Hezbollah is Shiite? That Osama bin Laden is Sunni? Stein says that some of his interviewees are able to answer these questions easily. But all too many, he says, “don’t have a clue.”

“How can they do their job,” Stein asks, “without knowing the basics?” Continue reading →

“At War In All But Name”

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The LTTE has struck for the first time on Sri LankaÂ’s southern coast, in the tourist belt:

Tamil Tiger guerrillas opened a new front against the Sri Lankan government today when rebels posing as fisherman blew up their boats in an ambush on a naval base on the islandÂ’s southern tourist belt.

It is believed three sailors were killed and a dozen injured in the attack on the navy in Galle harbour. Fourteen civilians were also wounded. The authorities imposed an open-ended curfew on the town after mobs began to target Tamil-owned shops. Police brought the situation under control by firing on the crowds.

As you probably know, this bombing came two days after a particularly horrific attack in which a suicide bomber drove a truck into a convoy of buses returning Sri Lankan soldiers from their tour of duty on the front. Approximately 100 soldiers were killed. The military carried out air raids in retaliation.

A few days earlier, the Supreme Court ruled that the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces, which was effected back in 1987 in the context of the India-Sri Lanka agreement, was unconstitutional and must be reversed. The merger was a concession to the Tamil separatist side and it was challenged in court by a hard-line Sinhalese party.

It is discouraging to talk about the situation in Sri Lanka. Prior threads here have eventually disintegrated into mud-slinging about the legitimacy or otherwise of the LTTEÂ’s grievances. The official or unofficial mouthpieces of the government and rebels specialize in incendiary rhetoric. The civilian peace movement in Sri Lanka appears beleaguered at best.

Most analysts agree that Sri Lanka is now at war in all but name. However, they say that both sides are likely to sit down for face-to-face talks in Switzerland at the end of the month to revive the peace process.

[Link]

So what are the conflict resolution experts saying?

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Sepia Destiny Part II: Dating while Desi

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Much like the girls on Sex and the City would get together to dish, my girls and I will get together and dish about the dilemmas of Dating while Desi. Yes, girls do talk, far more than we blog about. And Dating while Desi ain’t easy, as the mutiny has informed us on Sepia Destiny Part 1. In these talks, we girls will touch on questions such as, “Do you date desi only or non-desis or anyone but white boys? Do your parents sneak around behind your back with biodata and pictures? Do your parents give out your numbers to guys that call and don’t leave messages – from obscure area codes? Do your parents even know that you date? Where do you find desi guys that haven’t gone back to South Asia to get their bride already?” These questions (and more) are indicative to the plight of the single, 25 yr.+, independent-thinking desi girl and is why I love to find solidarity with my single desi sisters – whether over chai, or virtually by reading my favorite desi gal bloggers ( Rupa, TheBarMaid, Chick Pea, brimful, SP, to name a few).

Saturday night while I was surfing on YouTube alone in the North Dakota bunker, I came across this episode of Desi OC – after watching the video I thought to myself, maybe I’ve been playing the game all wrong…

The Desi OC episode above comes out of production company Raising Desi, and one of the film maker is Los Angeles comedian Tarun Shetty. (You may also recognize the gal pal from Timberlake’s Senorita music video.) All of Tarun’s addictive mini-movies are far more polished than the typical YouTube video, but the thing that struck me about this episode in particular were the rules they had for Dating while Desi. We all know the general “Dating Rules” — Wait three days before calling back, never talk politics or religion on a first date, and never say yes to a guy that asks you out the day of.

But I realize now after watching the video, that there are a whole different set of dating rules set aside for Dating while Desi. Who would have known? I certainly didn’t know the rules changed between dating desi, and dating non-desi. So, to summarize what I have learned so far…

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Time to Liberalize Higher Education in India?

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I’m sure many readers saw the article in the New York Times on the coming skills gap in the IT sector in India. The basic gist is this:

Software exports alone expanded by 33 percent in the last year.

The university systems of few countries would be able to keep up with such demand, and India is certainly having trouble. The best and most selective universities generate too few graduates, and new private colleges are producing graduates of uneven quality.

With the number of technology jobs expected to nearly double to 1.7 million in the next four years, companies are scrambling to find fresh engineering talent and to upgrade the schools that produce it. (link)

A shortage of 500,000 high tech workers is predicted for 2010. Perhaps the only way to forestall a huge wasted opportunity would be if the government were to liberalise its policy on foreign universities, and allow for-profit foreign institutions to open up campuses — with some regulation. According to this Rashmi Banga editorial in the Financial Express, the many thousands of Indian students who don’t go to IIT currently spend $3 billion on education in the U.S. — money which could be spent in India itself. Banga also outlines some of the basic problems in the Indian system as it operates from an insider’s perspective.

This is not a new idea. Proposals have been floated, committees have reported, and bills have been passed — though none of it has really led to anything. The many U.S. universities that have pondered building campuses in India (including both Stanford and Yale) have all been repulsed by the continuing ban on for-profit enterprises and the miles of regulations, regulations, regulations. (You can follow the saga on the T. Satyanarayan’s excellent Education in India blog) The arguments against liberalization seem weak. Standards are really not that hard to ensure, and a set of simple regulations or guidelines to ensure an orderly process shouldn’t be that hard. The charge of “cultural sensitivities” is raised, but are cultural sensitivities served by the current system, where thousands of students go abroad to study? (And many of them end up sticking around in the places where they get their degrees?)

It also needn’t be solely about filling the voracious staffing needs of the big consulting, outsourcing, and banking companies; I imagine that a Yale or Stanford campus in India would be much more than that. I’m sure many U.S. academics in the social sciences and humanities would jump at the chance to have rich, lively intellectual exchanges with Indian students and researchers — without having to go through a lot of bureaucracy. Continue reading →

The Plight of the Cabbie

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We have done many stories here on SM about South Asian cabbies that make a living here in America. It’s a job full of risks, and sadly one cabbie died on the job over the weekend.

The body of a taxi driver who had been shot to death was found slumped over the steering wheel of his cab Sunday morning. The Contra Costa County coroner’s office identified the driver as Musharaf Poswal, 48, of Rodeo. Officers found Poswal with multiple gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead at the scene. [link]

As some of you may recall, I was involved in researching taxi workers in Los Angeles earlier this year. Talking to the taxi drivers was an interesting experience — many of the drivers were men my father’s age, unaccustomed to talking about their lives, yet totally welcoming of the opportunity. They lead hard lives with long hours, and of course, always with a potential risk. The report was launched last month.

The report, called “Driving Poor” and written by law professor Gary Blasi and urban planning professor Jacqueline Leavitt, paints a bleak picture of the lives of the city’s roughly 5,000 taxi drivers.

The typical driver makes $8.39 an hour — less than the city-mandated “living wage” — and 61% have no health insurance, according to a survey of 302 drivers conducted as part of the study. On average, they drive 72 hours a week and show signs of extreme stress and chronic back and leg injuries, the study found. The report also found that drivers lack the protection of wage, hour and workers’ compensation laws; many own their cabs but can lose them at any time; and they retain little control over their working lives, even being told by the city what they can wear. [link]

There are proportionally far fewer South Asian taxi cab drivers in Los Angeles than I had expected – the report shows only 5% are South Asian. Surprisingly, the largest percentage of taxi drivers were born in the Middle East, 38%. [p. 18] The hundred page report gives insight into the taxi industry here in Los Angeles and is downloadable here. More importantly, this document can be used in changing and creating policies that can protect taxi workers in this industry. Let us hope that by creating reforms in the system, we’ll be able to protect the lives of more of our taxi workers.

Related Posts: Taxi Cab Confessions, Immigrant Entrepreneurs, You Talkin’ to Me?, and The Transporter.

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