When the Lights Hurt the Eyes

From today`s opinion journal

Overgeneralization

The case against Pakistan`s dictator.

BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN

Tuesday, November 20, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

Which president, of a country that is ostensibly--and ostentatiously--a part of the international coalition against terrorism, made the following public remarks (and numerous others like them)?

``Jihad is not terrorism. Mujahideen organizations are not terrorist organizations. Jihad had been revived during the Afghan war and now it is jihad in Kashmir. Muslims from different parts of the world are coming together to support their oppressed brothers and sisters.`` -- Feb. 5, 2000

``The Taliban are the dominant reality in Afghanistan, and the international community should engage rather than isolate them.`` -- Aug. 14, 2001

The answer is Pervez Musharraf, the general who led a coup against the democratically elected prime minister of Pakistan--admittedly a corrupt man, but isn`t that something the voters of that country might have been expected to address the next time around?--and who now swans about the world wearing a badge, ``President of Pakistan,`` to which he has no moral or constitutional right.

More at: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/?id=95001492

And this one too...

World War IV

Let`s call this conflict what it is.

BY ELIOT A. COHEN

Tuesday, November 20, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

An excerpt here...

Americans still tiptoe around this last fact. The enemy in this war is not ``terrorism``--a distilled essence of evil, conducted by the real-world equivalents of J. K. Rowling`s Lord Voldemort, Tolkien`s Sauron or C. S. Lewis`s White Witch--but militant Islam. The enemy has an ideology, and an hour spent surfing the Web will give the average citizen at least the kind of insights that he might have found during World Wars II and III by reading ``Mein Kampf`` or the writings of Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Those insights, of course, eluded those in the West who preferred--understandably, but dangerously--to define the problem as something more manageable, such as German resentment about the Versailles Treaty, an exaggerated form of Russian national interest, or peasant resentment of landlords taken a bit too far. In the reported words of one survivor of the Holocaust, when asked what lesson he had taken from his experience of the 1940s, ``If someone tells you that he intends to kill you, believe him.``

More at: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001493

RSaxena #193

IMO, the worship of personifications is an element of idol worship too. A worshipper who sees his God personified in the idol or personification is not necessarily prevented from seeing its essential symbolism too or recognizing the limits of the physical idol or personification. Nor does it prevent him from seeing sanctity elsewhere and in other things. The choice of the physical personification/symbolism to worship can be a personal choice from a large almost unlimited set of happily coexisting sanctified entities available to Hindus :).

In mainstream Hindu practices, idols to be worshipped as personifications are usually sanctified only after appropriate ceremonies, and often immersed and dissolved in seas and rivers after festivals like Durga Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi(in childhood we used to immerse our Janamashthmi `nativity` scenes too).

And almost everything is sanctified, eg Pitra Devo Bhava(parents are like Gods), Athithi devo Bhava(guests are like Gods)? Even natural elements like the earth and rivers and mountains, and things like wisdom and wealth are sanctified or personified. (Many people apologise to Mother Earth for putting their feet down on her every morning, for eg).


IMO, the problem occurs when a devotee sees Godlike sanctity only in the physical idol/symbol and in nothing else, often even himself. Remember, this can happen in any religious or even political/personal philosophy, that one sees no sanctity in anything except an idol, or a holy book, a particular religious place or practice, an idea or even a human being.

For example, the rigidity of the caste heirarchy is dehumanizing, as is the distinction drawn on earth between those headed to eternal hell and those headed to eternal heaven.

I believe, the negativity associated with ``idol worship`` comes partly from the fundamental opposition to ``idol worship`` in Judeo-Christian-Islamic history and world view as well as the distortions and misuse within idol-worshipping cultures themselves.

Then there is the disdain for things like declared `bad` things like reproductive organs, animals and other things which are given the connotation of `bad` or `evil` even on chowk. As far as I know, in Hindu philosophy( donot know about Buddhism), conceptually there is no evil Absolute as counterpoint to good for eg like Satan is a counterpoint to God. There is only absence of good or diminished good, like darkness is not an entity in itself, its only absence of light.

Finally these are all only different ways to relate to the world and give us a sense of our connection to the universal scheme of things. If noone is being harmed, there is really no reason for any better or worse comparisons here.

hamzad #206 ``It is like the horsepower of the motor-car.If you cease to be in the drivers` seat then the game is over``

You are quite right here. There is a real danger that rapid technological advancements could overcome our ability to manage it. Also, as I have mentioned before on chowk, the mixture of technological advance with primitive emotions that mankind still posseses, is very dangerous and this was pointed out 50 years ago by Arnold Toynbee and last year (in a different manner) by Bill Joy (who did much cutting edge work in nanotechnologies) in a much-talked about speech he made.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/20/opinion/20FRIE.html

Today`s News Quiz

So, class, time for a news quiz: Name the second-largest Muslim community in the world. Iran? Wrong. Pakistan? Wrong. Saudi Arabia? Wrong. Time`s up — you lose.

Re heeng-hating Hamidm

I was so intrigued by all this heeng stuff that I did some search on ask.com and it turns out that heeng aka asafedita is a product of Iran/Afghanistan. Howzat!

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/20/opinion/20FRIE.html

Today`s News Quiz

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

New Delhi,

So, class, time for a news quiz: Name the second-largest Muslim community in the world. Iran? Wrong. Pakistan? Wrong. Saudi Arabia? Wrong. Time`s up ? you lose.



Answer: India. That`s right: India, with nearly 150 million Muslims, is believed to have more Muslim citizens than Pakistan or Bangladesh, and is second only to Indonesia. Which brings up another question that I`ve been asking here in New Delhi: Why is it you don`t hear about Indian Muslims who are a minority in this vast Hindu-dominated land ? blaming America for all their problems or wanting to fly suicide planes into the Indian Parliament?



Answer: Multi-ethnic, pluralistic, free-market democracy. To be sure, Indian Muslims have their frustrations, and have squared off over the years in violent clashes with Hindus, as has every other minority in India. But they live in a noisy, messy democracy, where opportunities and a political voice are open to them, and that makes a huge difference.





``I`ll give you a quiz question: Which is the only large Muslim community to enjoy sustained democracy for the last 50 years? The Muslims of India,``remarked M.J.Akbar, the Muslim editor of Asian Age, a national Indian English-language daily

funded by non-Muslim Indians. ``I am not going to exaggerate Muslim good fortune in India. There are tensions, economic discrimination and provocations, like the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya. But the fact is, the Indian Constitution is secular and provides a real opportunity for the economic advancement of any community that can offer talent. That`s why a growing Muslim middle class here is moving up and, generally, doesn`t manifest the strands of deep anger you find in many non-democratic Muslim states.``



In other words, for all the talk about Islam and Islamic rage, the real issue is: Islam in what context? Where Islam is imbedded in authoritarian societies it tends to become the vehicle of angry protest, because religion and the mosque are the only places people can organize against autocratic leaders. And when those leaders are seen as being propped up by America, America also becomes the target of Muslim rage.





But where Islam is imbedded in a pluralistic,democratic society, it thrives like any other religion. Two of India`s presidents have been Muslims; a Muslim woman sits on India`s supreme court. The architect of India`s missile program, A. P.J.Abdul Kalam, is a Muslim. Indian Muslims, including women, have been governors of many Indian states, and the wealthiest man in India, the info-tech whiz Azim Premji, is a Muslim. The other day the Indian Muslim film star and parliamentarian Shabana Azmi lashed out at the imam of New Delhi`s biggest mosque. She criticized him for putting Islam in a bad light and suggested he go join the Taliban in Kandahar. In a democracy, liberal Muslims, particularly women, are not afraid to take on rigid mullahs.





Followed Bangladesh lately? It has almost as many Muslims as Pakistan. Over the last 10 years, though, without the world noticing, Bangladesh has had three democratic transfers of power, in two of which, are you ready, Muslim women were elected prime ministers. Result: All the economic and social indicators in Bangladesh have been pointing upward lately, and Bangladeshis are not preoccupied hating America. Meanwhile in Pakistan, trapped in the circle of bin Ladenism, military dictatorship, poverty and anti-modernist Islamic schools, all reinforcing each other, the social indicators are all pointing down and hostility to America is rife.





Hello? Hello? There`s a message here: It`s democracy, stupid! Those who argue that we needn`t press for democracy in Arab-Muslim states, and can rely on repressive regimes, have it all wrong. If we cut off every other avenue for non-revolutionary social change, pressure for change will burst out anyway, as Muslim rage and anti-Americanism.





If America wants to break the bin Laden circles across the Arab-Muslim world, then, ``it needs to find role models that are succeeding as pluralistic, democratic, modernizing societies, like India which is constantly being challenged by religious extremists of all hues and support them,`` argues Raja Mohan, strategic affairs editor of The Hindu newspaper.





So true. For Muslim societies to achieve their full potential today, democracy may not be sufficient, but it sure is necessary. And we, and they, fool ourselves to think otherwise.

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Farzana #190

“How many times in a month do you get it???”

Oh which school did you attend? This sounds so much like my PTI. She too would get bewildered by the same excuse.

For you the nails would itch the relegious frever, for us Hindu girls it would be the gold rings with all the stones embedded in them.

And yes, who could forget the stream of `cousins` who would flock in to meet the girls in the school.

Mona

Dost-Mittarji;

The book seems like a really great insight into the relationship that is at the heart of Naipauls first four novels. It will be very interesting to read his Nobel acceptance speech.

- I have been on sabbatical so cut down on Chowk. But good to see it hasnt changed, still the same filth and flowers being chucked at each other :)

anarayan #200 About the 9 pakis and 1 Indian shatranj champions of the world, that was a good one. LOL :-)

Farzana Versey;

{The Bradfords, Wembleys, Southalls are all evidence of closed groups. Of course, they do have their moments of mix-and-match, but the fusion is with the knowledge of the differences not despite it, just as it is back home. }

- I believe that the distance between the South Asian religious groups in Britain is increasing. Generally speaking Hindus and Sikhs keep to one side and Pakistanis to the other. Sad but hey what to do.

This is particularly noticeable in the British born desis. In fact in this sense I think Asians in the UK have regressed since the original immigrants of 1960`s and 1970`s touched down. Indians and Pakistanis had more respect for each other, they were too busy with getting on, working hard, making money, learning to speak English, try and avoid getting beat up by skinheads, no time for identity politics as such. Now you have Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. There is a tangible feeling of hostility especially amongst 16-25 year old males, who are probably unemployed or underemployed and unable to get a girlfriend. These are the brave boys who cause tension and wont shut up about their politics, religion, ethnicity, culture etc etc. There was some violence between Indians and Pakistanis in Derby in the Midlands recently.

It is amongst the male youth as always that seem to feel the divide most. But this is the Desi mindset, always has been.

hamzad afaqui #191;

Keep taking the incontinence and Alzheimers medicine.

Karakoram # 185;

{And please resist the urge to use whore analogies about Gandhi and his neices. I sense your tendency towards vulgarity, but please not with the Maha Atma.}

- Oh wow you are so provocative. You can say what you want about Gandhi, I dont really care much about dead men nor do I revere him.

But if you want to extend Gandhi`s experimentation with his libido as a metaphor for Pakistan right now I will leave you to do that. Just dont take it so seriously dude.

Re: anarayanan #200

checkmate!

hamzad afaqui has been having these delusions of grandeur about Islam ... wonder what he is out to prove and to whom ... he`s the kind of fellow who gets hard-ons imagining an inverted onion on top of the White House someday ... too bad that`s never going to happen ...

Trillium,

{{{Dont try to sneak in your idols in surreptitiously as SYMBOLS.Symbols are accepted by non idolworshippers.Symbols are non figurative representation whereas IDOLS are close to true REPRESENTATION of the object of worship.}}}

Open your mouth wider; butthead...jerks like you routinely make that kind of distinction between a symbol & an idol ...like i said; we hindus have only one word for guys like you............

``f-alla`you-s``

and please dont feel sorry for our souls & waste your time praying for its redemption...we have NO desire to go to your heaven...that place will bore us to tears...who wants to sport a pair of wings & flit around in the clouds; playing a frikking harp all day?...or try to have intelligent conversations with houris that youre not supposed to lust after? ...

jeeze! klpd city!!..for an eternity, no less!!!

anarayan----200

Thanks for the stats.What I meant was the `culture` of chess,not individual rankings.Didn`t expect a clinical report.

Has Deep Blue won yet?Man is the loser in any case.If you build one which beats you everytime then,and if you are unable to build one which beats you,then too.;)

There is no way anyone can have the memory or the retrieval capacity of an intel-chip.But the human always accesses it;not the other way round.The choice to walk away,dump it or declare even the game obsolete always rests with the human.

It is like the horsepower of the motor-car.If you cease to be in the drivers` seat then the game is over----ChekMate(Shah-Maat);)