Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
EDITORIAL
Implications of the Assaults and Killings of Shias (and other minorities) by Sunni-terrorist groups for the State in Pakistan
In recent months, an unprecedented wave of killings of Shias in Pakistan by terrorist groups who identify themselves as Salafi or Wahabi (extremist Sunni sects) has taken place in Quetta, in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, and in the metropolis of Karachi. Read more…
SOME NOTES ON THE SHIA-SUNNI CONFLICT IN PAKISTAN
Dr. Omar Ali
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” (Karl Marx) Read more…
DESTINED TO FAIL
(Editorial in Dawn on Shia-Sunni Conflict in Pakistan, March 5, 2013)
We can go on talking about the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi till we`re blue in the face. Or about the specific forms that sectarian violence takes in flashpoints such as Quetta and Karachi. But as long as we continue to pretend that Pakistan`s militancy problem is that limited in scope, innocent civilians will continue to die. Read more…
EXCHANGE BETWEEN FEROZ MEHDI, VINOD MUBAYI, AND ARSHAD KHAN
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013, Feroz Mehdi wrote:
This article (i.e. Item No. 1 above) gives us an impression that there is a popular war between Shias and Sunnis. The Islamic history sure points out the origins of differences between Sunnis and Shias but the killings today are done by terrorist methods. The killings are not done by organized groups of Sunni citizens with connivance of police and administration.
Feroz Read more…
FORUM FOR SECULAR PAKISTAN CONDEMNS ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS
(Supplied by Irfan Engineer, March 10, 2013)
The Forum for Secular Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on the Christian Community of Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh Lahore, in which 178 houses of the low-income community, as well as shops and 3 churches were looted and burnt to ashes, the Pastor was attacked and the father of Savan Masih, the youth falsely accused of blasphemy, was beaten up and subsequently arrested. Read more…
MUSHAWARAT CONDEMNS STATE TERROR AND VENDETTA IN BANGLADESH
Published Online: March 2, 2013
New Delhi, 2 March 2013: President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations and eminent personalities, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, condemned here today the unjust verdicts being passed by the controversial “International Crimes Tribunal” in Bangladesh and the daily toll of dozens of protesting civilians being mowed down by the trigger-happy Bangladeshi security forces.
PAKISTAN: THE MISSING DEMOCRATS
Christophe Jaffrelot
On Saturday [March 16, 2013], the Pakistan National Assembly was dissolved after completing five years. This is an unprecedented achievement. Even under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, no democratically elected legislature had lasted for a full term. And the work accomplished by this legislature is in many ways truly remarkable. Not only have Pakistan’s MPs restored the parliamentary character of the 1973 Constitution, but a whole series of constitutional amendments — starting with the 18th — have promoted federalism at the expense of Punjabi domination, significantly upgraded the independence of the judiciary, created a powerful Election Commission and introduced a procedure for conducting elections the democratic way, a procedure that implies the designation of a caretaker prime minister during the time of the campaign. Read more…
‘I WAS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BECAUSE I AM MUSLIM’
( Express news service <http://m.indianexpress.com/columnist/ens/ Supplied by Sukla Sen)
(As told to Irena Akbar)
In 2008, a youth was arrested from my neighbourhood in Hubli for alleged links with the Student Islamic Movement of India. He was studying to be a doctor and had no history of indiscipline or run-ins with the law. His family was traumatised, and still is, for he continues to languish in jail.
If that could happen to a young, educated Muslim like him, it could happen to me, too, I thought then. Five years later, that passing thought became an ugly reality. Read more…
INDIA’S FANTASY OF DISLOYAL MUSLIMS MAY COME TRUE
Pankaj Mishra
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is fond of boasting that not one of India’s almost 180 million Muslims has been discovered to be a member of al-Qaeda.
He could underscore an even more remarkable fact: None of the foreign jihadists caught fighting alongside the Taliban has turned out to be from the country with the world’s third-largest Muslim population. Read more…
INDIA VOTES AGAINST SRI LANKA AT UNHRC, DMK SLAMS GOVT FOR DILUTING RESOLUTION
(Supplied by P. V. Srinivas [pv.srinivas@gmail.com; PTI | Mar 21, 2013)
Geneva: The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a US-sponsored resolution on human rights violation in Sri Lanka with 25 countries, including India, voting in favour of the document in the 47-nation strong body. Read more…
DMK, AIADMK SLAM CENTRE FOR STAND ON LANKAN TAMILS ISSUE AT UN
AIADMK and DMK on Thursday accused the UPA-led government of “diluting” the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council by not moving any amendments demanded by it. Read more…
FILM ON MN ROY “THE KOMINTERN BRAHMIN”
An award winning Film on M.N. Roy (Manabendra Nath Roy 1887-1954) “The Comintern Brahmin -The Untold Story of M.N.Roy” (128 minutes) made by French Director Vladimir Leon was shown at 6.30 PM, 19th March, 2013 at Auditorium, India International Centre, 40, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi (near Lodhi Road). Read more…
DELHI GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS CERTAIN DEMANDS OF SLUM DWELLERS
(Circulated by Ramendra Kumar, Secretary General, Delhi Shramik Sangathan: Abridged)
The Delhi Government has accepted most of the demands of the Sangathan & amended policy has been notified on 25th ‘February’2013. The benefits of amended slum policy of Delhi will reach to the hundreds of slum clusters and lakhs of slum dwellers of Delhi.
CONSOLIDATING THE DISCOVERY OF THE HIGGS BOSON
Atul Gurtu
“4 July 2012: The most expensive and painstaking hunt in fundamental science is over and a new chapter is beginning. The Higgs boson is finally pinned down; the so-called ‘God Particle’ unveiled. Elation, not only among the practitioners of particle physics, but headlines the world over.” (Atul Gurtu: INSAF Bulletin 125 September 2012). Read more…
THE IRAQ RETROSPECTIVE WE DESERVE
Anthony DiMaggio
March 19, 2003 marked the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. For those who remember those polarizing days, it doesn’t seem like so long ago, although I’m constantly reminded of how much time has passed every day when I lecture with my 18 year old students who were just eight years old at the time of the invasion. Sadly, the youngest generation of American adults remembers little about this war in light of the failure to promote critical awareness in our K-12 educational system. University professors have hardly fared any better from what I’ve seen, as most seem preoccupied with esoteric research of limited practical utility. When it comes to teaching, most professors avoid controversy or engagement in real world politics like the plague. Read more…
IRAQ: LIVING WITH NO FUTURE
Dahr Jamail
26 March, 2013 (TomDispatch.com)
Back then, everybody was writing about Iraq, but it’s surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn’t what’s on anyone’s mind. This was why I returned to that country before the recent 10th anniversary of the Bush administration’s invasion and why I feel compelled to write a few grim words about Iraqis today. Read more…
NEW CHINESE LEADER FACES TOUGH CHOICES IN SEEKING BREAKTHROUGH REFORMS
Manoranjan Mohanty
General Secretary of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Central Committee Xi Jinping’s early performance has created positive vibrations in China and abroad. However, on some crucial issues, the extent of Xi’s new policies has yet to be evaluated. Read more…
BASKETBALL IS NOT PING-PONG
Sam Noumoff
The recent visit of Denis Rodman and members of the Harlem Globetrotters to North Korea raises the spectre of Ping-Pong diplomacy in the normalization of relations between China and the U.S. Tragically, this is an unlikely parallel. Ping-Pong was known internationally as the premier Chinese sport, while basketball has never been associated with North Korea. More importantly the China-US rapprochement was always driven by the US wanting to take advantage of the Sino-Soviet dispute as part of its cold war strategy. Read more…
OBITUARY: HUGO CHAVEZ (1954-2013)
Sam Noumoff
Much has been written about Hugo Chavez in recognition of his devoted commitment, not only to Venezuelans, but to all those fighting against imperialism and exploitation. Affectionately known as El Comandante, Chavez reminds us how powerfully important leadership is in any struggle. It is not leadership, in the Latin American context of the Caudillo, but rather that disenfranchised masses require a skillful and articulate spokesperson to mobilize their voice. This they found in a military officer, who while he taught at the Military Academy found his own platform for his early political career and an audience who echoed his own reality. As it has turned out, Hugo Chavez, as a Paratrooper officer spent two years in prison built his own network within the military, which aided him in any blocking and coup attempts from within the military after founding his 5th Republic Movement. Read more…
OBITUARY: CHAVEZ AND TCDC/ECDC
Vinod Mubayi
[Hugo Chavez was an inspiring leader in many ways as was his companero from an earlier generation, Fidel Castro. His untimely death from cancer is a setback in some ways but if his successors can consolidate the Bolivarian project he began, it could be a landmark in Latin America’s struggle to sustain a progressive future for its countries and peoples, hitherto in the shadow of the superpower colossus to their north]. Read more…
OBITUARY: V.B. CHERIAN (1945-2013)
V. B. Cherian, Vice President of the NTUI and President of the NTUI Kerala State Council passed away after a long fight with ill-health in Kochi yesterday evening. He was 68 and is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son and several thousand comrades in Kerala and throughout the country. Read more…
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