Curse of Farakka
__._,_.___
An east
Delwar Hussain,
14 May 2010
Open Democracy
http://www.opendemocracy.net/delwar-hussain/east-london-election-politics-and-coercion
The dubious tactics used by some party campaigners in
Delwar Hussain is a working for a doctorate at
There have been extensive reports over the possible misuse of the postal-voting system in
The borough of Tower Hamlets in east
Such investigation is welcome, even more as the concerns are longstanding (see "Police forces across
The wrong choice
A young woman in Tower Hamlets told me that she and her elderly mother were "bullied" into handing their postal-ballots to a representative of the Respect Party after he knocked on their door seeking support. It was implied that they had to give him their ballots if they wanted to vote at all, as if this was normal procedure.
The canvasser initially asked the mother and daughter - who, like him, were of Bengali Muslim background - about which party they were thinking of voting for. The young woman, a first-year university student, said she was going to vote Green or Liberal Democrat. The man replied that the women, as Bengal Muslims, had to vote Respect because the party truly represented the people of the borough.
Tower Hamlets has become an often fractious place. Whilst religious-based politics was once a minority pursuit, today it is no longer a surprise to hear demands for sharia law, or see tiny girls dressed up in hijabs like protective shields. The active promotion of such ideas helps to create a climate where the extreme becomes the norm.
The tendency emerged during the period when the Labour Party's Oona King represented the area in parliament (2001-05). It became even more prominent and visible after her replacement by the Respect Party's George Galloway (who served as MP from 2005-10). King's defeat at the hands of Galloway in the 2005 general election was very largely due to the political use of her support for
The right party
The path from there to the doorstep in 2010 was not so far.
The young woman was concerned that the eventual effect of such pressure would be to make her feel she had to wear a hijab when outside her home. She challenged the campaigner and said that she would stick to her original decision, ticking her chosen boxes. "No, you cannot vote for them, that is pointless. You may as well vote for the [extreme-right] BNP", the Respect man replied. He then accused her of being "brainwashed", continued to berate her about why it was her duty to vote for Respect, and moved on to questioning her devotion to Islam and their shared faith. She reports feeling very intimidated.
The young woman's mother, unsure about which the "right" party was, was more easily persuaded. She allowed herself to be coerced into voting Respect. The Respect activist took the ballots away with him.
The young woman later wrote a letter to Tower Hamlets' electoral-services office office complaining of what had transpired. She says of the Respect man: "[He] abused his position and my lack of knowledge about the electoral system to manipulate me and my mother in various ways….I was so panicked that I was unable to focus on and read the conditions of the ballot paper itself and I am embarrassed to say I believed him that this was normal procedure…..It could be argued that we knowingly allowed this man to take our ballot papers…. Essentially we have been tricked, manipulated, panicked into voting and bullied into voting for the party the man represented. This was not an independent vote and was influenced by this confidence trickster/con-man".
When no reply was received, the young woman followed up with a telephone call. A Tower Hamlets official told her that intimidation of this sort had been reported from all over the borough in the run-up to the election, and that she could come to the office to pick up two more postal-ballots. The council official also told her that they may be reporting these charges to the police. The young woman had at the time of writing not heard anything since.
The young woman is concerned I do not name her. The caution seems sensible in view of an unrelated incident in the borough during the campaign, in which a journalist from the Independent newspaper who was investigating claims of electoral fraud was violently assaulted (see Jerome Taylor, "'The first punch came, landing on my nose, sending blood down my face'", Independent, 4 May 2010). There is no suggestion whatsoever that members of any political party were involved in this incident, which is now under investigation.
The opportunity to vote twice that seems to have been suggested to the young woman is in itself questionable, and no solution to such a serious matter. Even more so as such incidents occur against the background of increasing allegations of wider political corruption in the borough (see "Dispatches from Tower Hamlets – in the thick of it", Fieldwork in London Network [FiLO], 16 March 2010).
"In true democracy, every man and woman has to think for himself or herself", said Mahatma Gandhi. The evidence suggests that in Tower Hamlets the ability to exercise this freedom has been effectively compromised by intimidatory pressure. When British authorities continue to justify the invasion of other countries with hollow arguments about spreading democracy, it is surely time to sort their own house first.
Saudi Arabia is a cruel place if you are not related to the ruling clan. If you are a foreigner, you might be living in the apartheid era in
The Sheikhs of Araby
By Mohammed Hanif
26 October 2009
http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2009/10/the-sheikhs-of-araby/
Mohammed Hanif was born in
In an interview given at the height of his power, General Pervez Musharraf tried to make sense of his own good fortune and why he was destined to rule this nation: "I am the only Pakistani for whom not only the door of Khana-e-Kaaba was specially opened but I had the unique honour of saying azaan from the rooftop of Khana-e-Kaaba. Not once, but twice."
For people like me who have grown up watching countless images of the Khana-e-Kaaba, the scene was hard to imagine. It sounded disrespectful, even mildly blasphemous. Because of all the images that we have seen of the Kaaba in all its sacred glory, never has one seen a human being on the rooftop of the Kaaba. If it happens, it probably happens off camera and one has to be the head of a nuclear armed state to earn the privilege. Given Pakistan's brotherly ties with Saudi Arabia, or to be more accurate, given successive Pakistani rulers' brotherly ties with the very extended clan of Khadim-e-Haramain al Sharifain, Musharraf might have been granted this extra ordinary if not heretic-sounding privilege.
Musharraf was trying to evoke divine sanction by revealing his exalted status. He was appealing to our absolute devotion to the idea that
The
There is enough evidence to suggest that it is all nonsense.
Somewhere between the world of our devout imagination and cruel reality, lives the real
Islam is often cited as the main reason for our fascination with Saudia and Saudis. We do not seem to have the same brotherly love for Palestinians or our brothers in
There was a picture circulating on the internet earlier this year: a number of Saudi young men sprawled in front of a lingerie shop, trying to look up the dresses on mannequins in a window display. Undergarments again made headlines last month when an Al-Qaeda member tried to blow up Prince Muhammed Bin Naif,
In a society where they pretend that underwear doesn't exist, underwear sometimes tends to blow up.
May 13, 2010
Affluent Qataris Seek What Money Cannot Buy
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/middleeast/14qatar.html?pagewanted=print
So why do so many people here seem so angry?
The problem, many Qataris say, is that they resent being treated as a minority in their own country, which is what they are. Citizens make up about 15 percent of the nation's 1.6 million people — a demographic oddity that fuels a sense of privilege and victimization.
"The priority always goes to the foreigner," said Ali Khaled, 23, who is finishing his government-financed education in
His cousin, Omar Ali, 24, a high school dropout who works as a technician in an electric company, readily agreed: "They always think the foreigner is better at any job than a Qatari, even if the Qatari is perfect at the job."
In many ways, they appear to be right about how they are perceived.
"Qataris are very spoiled," said Mohammed Saffarini, a non-Qatari Arab who serves as research director for health science at
On the surface,
"It's all a sham; it's all a veneer," said Dr. Momtaz Wassef, who was recruited from the
Dr. Wassef's wife asked that he not be quoted until he left
Qataris do not see themselves as coddled. Sure, they do not have to pay for electricity, water, education or health care, and they are given land and low-cost loans to build houses when they marry. They are eligible for public assistance if they do not have a job, often receive generous pensions and acknowledge they will not take any jobs they do not consider suitable for them.
But they also complain that they do not get paid as much as foreigners, and that foreigners get most of the top jobs in critical industries, like finance, higher education and the media. There is also pervasive frustration that English has become the language of employment, not Arabic, and that local hospitals, restaurants, markets and streets are always crowded with foreigners.
"There is a crisis here," said Muhammad al-Mesfer, a political science professor at
The tension in
"There are about 300 employees at my work and only 4 or 5 Qataris," said Mr. Ali, the technician at an electric company. "I walk into work and I feel like I am in
He said that the foreigners were never willing to teach him new skills, so he had lost motivation.
"I have been working there for three years, and I still haven't fully grasped the work," he said. "I go to work to drink tea and read the paper."
During a seven-day visit to
"I am Qatari, and this country is for me," a driver shouted as he forced his way into a parking space that a Canadian driver had also been trying for. "This is my country."
Part of the frustration appears to stem from the lack of an effort to address the differences. People here said that when complaints had been raised, those who spoke up got punished. Foreigners get sent home and local people lose their positions, they said.
Qataris and foreigners alike described a social contract that offers material comfort and financial reward in exchange for not challenging the government's choices.
"To be honest, I'm comfortable and the salaries are good," said Ibrahim al-Muhairy, 29, a Qatari high school dropout who said he earns about $41,000 a year working for the government as a security guard in a mall. "Everyone is getting what he deserves and more."
But there are plenty of others who are unwilling to ride away silently in their Mercedes sedans, like Ahmed J. Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Malik, a former news anchor. He said he was furious that he had not been hired to read the news on Al Jazeera, the popular satellite news channel that broadcasts from here. He has written opinion pieces for a local newspaper complaining that Qataris are now treated as second-class citizens in their own country.
"I met with my friends last night, we joked, we are all 'ex,' that means unemployed," he said, as he climbed into the driver's seat of a Mercedes sedan. His diamond-crusted watch glistened beneath the parking lot lights.
Moza al-Malki, a family therapist, said she was angry, too. She said that she had lost her teaching position when she complained that an Indian woman was hired to run a counseling center that she said she had set up. "We are all angry for staying at home," she said.
A moment earlier, she turned to the Filipino woman walking one step behind her — a servant carrying bags — and told her to go look around the mall they were in while Ms. Malki ordered breakfast. Ms. Malki ordered a croissant with cheese, sent it back because it was too hard, and then settled on an omelet.
Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting.
Till secodn term there was almost no objection against Mohi uddin Chowdhury, the mayor of Chitagong city corporation. But just after his election in third term, lots of allegations against him. he is not caring any one . Even he didn't care to torture councilor of city corporation openly. We all know what he was doing after beinng mayor for the third term. If he is elected again for the fourth term, he will care nothing and none and his torture and illegal activities will increase beyond limit. The test of patriotism is not a one-off event for anyone, let alone the political quarters, that once passed is passed for ever. It is rather a perpetual process, especially for the ruling political quarters that have to pass it every moment- Nurul Kabir , Editor , The NewAge |
This fatwa is un acceptable and will tarnish the image of Deobond.There is no Qati ( as a technical term it means hundred percent certain )evidence to prohibit women from working outside and support family..
Shah Abdul Hannan
-----------------------------------
From: Isha Khan
Deoband fatwa: It's illegal for women to work, support family
Deoband Seminary
LUCKNOW: Darul Uloom Deoband, the self-appointed guardian for Indian Muslims, in a Talibanesque fatwa that reeked of tribal patriarchy, has decreed that it is "haram" and illegal according to the Sharia for a family to accept a woman's earnings. Clerics at the largest Sunni Muslim seminary after Cairo's Al-Azhar said the decree flowed from the fact that the Sharia prohibited proximity of men and women in the workplace.
"It is unlawful (under the Sharia law) for Muslim women to work in the government or private sector where men and women work together and women have to talk with men frankly and without a veil," said the fatwa issued by a bench of three clerics. The decree was issued over the weekend, but became public late on Monday, seminary sources said.
At a time when there is a rising clamour for job quotas for Muslims in India and a yearning for progress in the community that sees itself as neglected, the fatwa, although unlikely to be heeded, is clearly detrimental.
Even the most conservative Islamic countries, which restrict activities of women, including preventing them from driving, do not bar women from working. At the peak of its power, the Taliban only barred women in professions like medicine from treating men and vice versa. But there was a never a blanket ban on working, although the mullahs made it amply clear that they would like to see the women confined to homes.
The fatwa, however, drew flak among other clerics.
"Men and women in Sharia are entitled to equal rights. If men follow the Sharia, there is no reason why women can't work with them," said Rasheed, the Naib Imam of Lucknow's main Eidgah Mosque in Aishbagh.
Mufti Maulana Khalid Rasheed of Darul Ifta Firangi Meheli -- another radical Islamic body which also issues fatwas -- criticized the Deoband fatwa as a retrograde restriction on Muslim women.
The fatwa was in response to a question whether Muslim women can take up government or private jobs and whether their salary should be termed as `halal' (permissible under the Sharia) or `haram' (forbidden).
Well-known Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, however, justified the fatwa. "Women in Islam are not supposed to go out and earn a living. It's the responsibility of the males in the family," he said. "If a woman has to go for a job, she must make sure that the Sharia restrictions are not compromised," he added, citing the example of Iran, where Muslim women work in offices but have separate seating areas, away from their male counterparts.
In Lucknow, a city with strong secular and progressive traditions, where Muslim families train their daughters to be doctors, engineers and executives, there was a sense of shocked disbelief even in conservative quarters that such a decree could come from those who consider themselves to be advocates of the community.
"I am also a working woman and also ensure that my Sharia is not compromised," said Rukhsana, a lecturer at a girl's college in Lucknow and a member of the executive committee of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). "It's not necessary that one would have to go against the Sharia when going to work."
"Name one Islamic country which does not have a national airline and does not hire airhostesses? If I know correctly, even the Saudi Airlines has hostesses and they don't wear a veil," said Shabeena Parveen, a computer professional in the city.
Mr Muhosin Ali, I have showed how rabindranath is a enemy of Humanity n people of Bangladesh.I presented some facts. These are not created by me.First I came to know about this by Dr Ahmed Sharif . In one of his article published in Uttoradhikar
On Sun, 5/9/10, Dr. M. Mohsin Ali
n humanity To: alochona@yahoogroup
On Sat, 5/8/10, Md. Aminul Islam