Via: Yousuf
Please write to the embassies mentioned on this link
for the release and pardon of the British teacher:
http://www.sudan.net/government/embassay.html
Via: Atul Gupta
Dear Friends,
I would like to bring to everyone's urgent attention on a disturbing
trend
emerging in Bhubaneswar amongst the film fraternity & media persons.
Over
the last few years more and more film festivals are being sponsored by
corporations facing charges of gross human rights violations &
environmental
damage. The best example being Vedanta Alumina Ltd., a company that
has been
internationally hounded for its activities in Orissa. Vedanta sponsored
Bring Your Film Festival in Puri two years back and now it has
sponsored the
Bhubaneswar Film Festival '07.
The timing of these festivals sponsored by Vedanta is always when the
company is going through a tough time. The Bhubaneswar Film Festival '07
kicks off today, a week after the company was denied permission to
carry out
bauxite mining in the pristine primary forested Niyamgiri Hills by the
Supreme Court of India on many grounds, a week after the State Pollution
Control Board issued a notice to the company for affecting more than
25,000
villagers in 10 villages by the air and water pollution caused by its
illegal factory in Lanjigarh and three weeks after the Govt of Norway
withdrew its investments in the company for its malpractices in Orissa.
The people's movement against Vedanta has been raging for five years
now.
Many inncoent civilians have been beaten up by goons, and arrested under
false charges. Vedanta's factory was built in the most dubious manner
and
many villages were forcefully displaced with ample support by district
administration. Their villages were bulldozed while the police held them
captive. Their cattle was shooed away and they have been put in a
virtual
prison since then which the company has termed Rehabilitation Colony.
One
local person was allegedly killed by the goons of the company for
resisting
displacement and protesting strongly against the atrocities of the
company.
Around the factory there are many stories of many deaths that have been
hushed up.
As a headline in the frontpage of The Times of India questioned a
week back
"Whats good for Orissa, bad for Norway?", the same question can be
put to
the organisers of the Bhubaneswar Film Festival who choose to ignore the
mishappenings in other parts of the state caused by their patron company
Vedanta. Just google keywords like Vedanta, Niyamgiri, & Lanjigarh
and one
finds hundreds of webpages with adequate information on how the
company has
violated almost every law of the land in order to get its way ahead.
One can only guess if the organisers are ignorant partners in this
'consent
manufacturing event' or not. Nevertheless, their disrespect towards
other
citizens of the state who are suffering due to the company's activities,
cannot be more overt than the mammoth billboards plastered all over
Bhubaneswar, advertising the film festival and Vedanta's name.
These bilboards might create some goodwill amongst lovers of cinema and
distract them from the real nature of the sponsors which is most
certainly a
planned strategy. Unfortunately these kind of festivals which are
supposedly
for the cause of meaningful & good cinema will incur more damage on
society
than the very meaningless & commercial cinema with whom they are
fighting
for space.
Though I have tried my best not to make this appeal to boycott the film
festival to be a personal attack on the organisers I am compelled to
mention
that seemingly they have started to make a livelihood out of
organising film
festivals. In Orissa erring companies like Vedanta and Tata need all
the goodwill they can and are more than happy to pay these people
more than
they ask for. Being a volunteer in some festivals in the past I am
aware of
how budgets are proposed to potential sponsors who are mostly
companies with
overactive PR wings (meaning they require more damage control) many
times
more than the actual cost
Inscreen Film Society of which I was once a part is also planning on
a film
festival next month in Bhubaneswar and it will not be a surprise if
names
like Vedanta or Tata pop up again alongwith as they have started the
trend
of manufacturing consent through film festival with BYOFF in Puri.
Ironically BYOFF was born to liberate and democratise film festivals
but has
only proved to be facade for 'consent manufacturing'. Now Bhubaneswar
Film
Society is doing it with the Bhubaneswar Film Festival '07 from today
without any regard for thousands of people in Orissa who might be
displaced
if Vedanta Alumina has its way. This film festival cannot be treated
as a
film festival, rather an advertising vehicle by Vedanta. I would call
it a
Trojan horse and would like to sincerely appeal to everyone to boycott
such film festivals that disregard human life and nature.
With regards,
Surya Shankar Dash
Filmmaker,
Bhubaneswar
P.s. Please sign and circulate it as widely as possible.
Via: "Bridget Kustin"
*http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10214763*
**
*Myanmar's Rohingyas*
*No place like home*
Nov 29th 2007 | SITTWE AND TAL CAMP
From The Economist print edition
*Stateless and homeless, Myanmar's Muslims have been abandoned by everyone*
AS UNREST in Myanmar kindled flickering hopes of political change,
long-suffering refugees in Bangladesh were glued to their radios. They hope
for a chance to reclaim their land and their dignity. Sadly, they may be
waiting in vain. Not only are there scant signs of change from the
repressive ruling junta. But these are also Rohingyas, members of a poor
Muslim minority never very welcome at home.
The junta's persecution of Muslims has been extreme. But anti-Muslim
sentiments have been simmering for centuries in Burma. The dark-skinned
Rohingyas, who have more in common physically and culturally with
Bangladeshis than with most Burmese, have always suffered abuse.
The junta has ostracised them, by refusing full Myanmar citizenship, calling
them only "residents of Rakhine state". Almost all the roughly 800,000
Rohingyas today are stateless. The military regime routinely presses them
into slave labour, severely restricts their rights to travel and marry, and
denies them access to both medical care and education.
In Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine (formerly Arakan), Rohingyas lead
desperately poor lives. Those not pressganged into road construction at
meagre wages live by subsistence farming and fishing. "It's because we're
Muslim," declares a trishaw driver. He says people give work to Buddhists.
There are many poor Buddhists in Sittwe too. But the perception of unfair
treatment lingers amongst Muslims, though some made common cause with
September's anti-government protesters.
Rohingyas have been fleeing Myanmar for decades. Many mingle among the
million or so illegal Burmese migrants living in Thailand. And the office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has documented
12,000 in Malaysia, but admits there may be twice that number. The largest
number has fled to Bangladesh. But the Bangladeshis have been reluctant
hosts. Citing overpopulation and land scarcity, successive governments have
forcibly repatriated the refugees: 250,000 were expelled between 1991 and
1992, and almost as many since.
Since 1992 Bangladesh has refused to grant the Rohingyas refugee status.
Only two official UNHCR camps now remain near Chittagong. But most of those
repatriated to the same dire conditions they had fled have trickled back to
squat in makeshift shelters and camps just across the border. Today around
8,000 live in an unofficial camp called Tal. Another 200,000 have settled in
the surrounding area.
Tal was born out of Operation Clean Heart, a 2002 crackdown in which
thousands of Rohingyas were rooted out of local villages. Frido Herinckx of
Médecins Sans Frontières, an aid organisation, describes how the police
threatened local Bangladeshis with prison unless they reported on their
Burmese neighbours. Instead of returning to Myanmar, thousands of homeless
Rohingyas regrouped and settled on a 30-metre-wide stretch of mud along the
banks of the Naf River.
In Tal as many as 12 people are crammed into flimsy shelters patched
together from reeds and plastic sheets. Floods regularly inundate the camp,
and local hostility to the incomers often leads to violence. Still, most
feel that life there is preferable to the daily humiliations suffered in
Myanmar. "If I can't even say 'this house is mine,' how can I live there?"
asks one 32-year-old man. He says the regime confiscated all he had.
The government in Bangladesh has recently shown signs of softening its
policies. It plans to move Tal to a drier and more permanent location. Aid
workers hope the Rohingyas will eventually be granted Bangladeshi
citizenship. Most Rohingyas say that if democracy is established in Myanmar,
they will go back. But the junta is not their only enemy.
Via: "Radhakrishnan"
Pawan,
We have been interacting about defending democracy and civil society in the Sarai discussion forum. So kindly spare the undemocratic theocratic as well as medieval regimes from the discourse of secularism and welfare of socio-cultural groups or for that matter any debate on threats to primordial identities.
Lets us look at issues within the country in a holistic manner.
Discrimination and violence is quiet rampant in this country, particularly in some areas cutting across region and religion. The recent abominable acts of stripping an adivasi girl in Assam or such similar act in Kerala wherein a pregnant woman was disrobed on the suspicion of stealing, few months ago.
It's high time to shed the upper caste/class attitude of being in a state of self denial. There has been violence, discrimnation and oppression based on gender whether at the hands of law enforcement agents in Jammu and Kashmir or Ideological fascists in Nandigram, Gujarat or kerala or for that matter primodialists in Assam.
If such things are an aberration we have been witnessing, with stomach full of indignation, since the inception of organized violence in the name of defending one's caste, religion or so called ideology.
It's time we shed our colonial as well as pathological biases towards the others' whom we try to outwit through contrived rationality and self righteousness.
R.Radhakrishnan
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 reader-list-request@sarai.net wrote :
>Send reader-list mailing list submissions to
> reader-list@sarai.net
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> reader-list-request@sarai.net
>
>You can reach the person managing the list at
> reader-list-owner@sarai.net
>
>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..."
>
>
>Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison by Saudi judges
> (Pawan Durani)
> 2. Fwd: YJA - Bhujal Suraksha Yamuna Yatra - Final program
> (Ratish Nanda)
> 3. Re: Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison by Saudi judges
> (shuddha@sarai.net)
> 4. Re: Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison by Saudi judges
> (anuradha mukherjee)
> 5. Re: Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison by Saudi judges
> (Shivam Vij)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:13:08 +0530
> From: "Pawan Durani"
>Subject: [Reader-list] Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison by
> Saudi judges
>To: "sarai list"
>Message-ID:
> <6b79f1a70711300043t1c3d3ff5vcfc303fddcc99c11@mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
>Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva ..........some
>intellectual surely would ..............
>
>http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
>http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and-prison-by-saudi-judges/
>What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
>Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200 lashes
>and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous crime were
>allowed to walk free.
>
>The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was originally
>sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of an 'unrelated
>male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman had the temerity of
>not unquestioningly submitting herself to be tortured as punishment of being
>raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council more than
>doubled her punishment for attempting to influence the judiciary through the
>media.
>
>Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been banned from
>carrying her case further. His license has been revoked and he has been
>called to appear before a disciplinary committee for challenging the
>judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime and not its
>perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry sentence of one to five
>years of imprisonment.
>
>This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women forcefully
>behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous crimes against them in
>the name of maintaining social discipline.
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:45:17 +0530
> From: "Ratish Nanda"
>Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: YJA - Bhujal Suraksha Yamuna Yatra - Final
> program
>To: reader-list@sarai.net
>Message-ID:
>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
> Dear all,
>
>please see e mail below from Shri Manoj Misra of Yamuna Bachao Andolan -
>they have been protesting against the proposed constructions planned on
>the Yamuna riverbed for over a 100 days and are now planning a padyatra. The
>proposed constructions are expected to choke our city as, amongst other
>factors, the river bed is essentially a water recharge zone.
>
>Please forward this e mail and join in the Yatra.
>
>Regards
>
>Ratish
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan
>Date: Nov 29, 2007 10:14 PM
>Subject: YJA - Bhujal Suraksha Yamuna Yatra - Final program
>
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>Kindly note the program as under:
>
>1.12.2007 - Yatra begins at 1030 hrs from Satyagrah Sthal (behind Akshardham
>next to NZM bridge) and proceeds northwards along the west bank of the
>river. After we have crossed the urban stretch of the river walking through
>ITO bridge, and Wazirabad Barrage we shall halt for the night at
>Village Buradi.
>2.12.2007 - Start morning and travel through western bank of the river till
>Palla village (where the river enters Delhi). Halt for the night at
>Bhaktarpur Village.
>3.12.2007 - Start morning, cross over to the eastern Bank and travel
>southwards along the river. Halt at Gamdi Village for the night. (It is the
>125th day of the Yamuna Satyagrah)
>4.12.2007 - Start morning and travel along the eastern bank, cross
>Wazirabad, Shastri Park, Geeta Colony and back to Satyagrah Sthal.
>5.12.2007 - Start morning and travel southwards along the west bank of the
>river, cross DND, Okhla and halt for the night at Basantpur / Jaitpur
>Village (where the river leaves Delhi).
>6.12.2007 - Start morning and return to Satyagrah Sthal along the east bank
>of the river.
>
>9.12.2007 - Yamuna Sansad at the Satyagrah Sthal.
>
>Kindly forward this program as widely as possible.
>
>Looking forward to having you with us during the Yatra.
>
>manoj
>
>
>
>
>--
>www.yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>--
>Ratish Nanda
>
>
>
>--
>Ratish Nanda
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 3
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:40:26 +0530
> From:
>Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison
> by Saudi judges
>To: " Pawan Durani "
>Cc: reader-list@sarai.net
>Message-ID:
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>Dear Pawan,
>
>Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier post,
>and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out to a
>young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
>
>Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
>partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual that
>I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
>evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it takes,
>no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people like
>Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize his
>prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence against
>its own subjects in West Bengal
>
>And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have been
>active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
>occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
>determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left Front
>ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship in
>Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis of
>the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to be
>discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
>arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North Korea
>at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran, the
>United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
>
>Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is ruled
>by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money, weapons and
>influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and foreign
>policy. If the international community was justified in operating a set of
>sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should have
>no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
>anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support agency
>of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz Sharif.
>
>The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British foreign
>policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over an
>imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist brand
>of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its rented
>clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world. Its
>significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and American
>fighter jets.
>
>One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
>venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of abominations
>that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be just
>as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I would
>be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and in
>India.
>
>regards.
>
>Shuddha
>
>
>
>On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
> > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> >
> > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
> > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
> > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
> > crime were allowed to walk free.
> >
> > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of
> > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
> > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
> > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> >
> > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
> > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
> > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime
> > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> >
> > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.ne
> > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive:
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 4
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:35:34 +0000
> From: "anuradha mukherjee"
>Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison
> by Saudi judges
>To: shuddha@sarai.net
>Cc: reader-list@sarai.net
>Message-ID:
>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
>I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a horrible
>incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against a
>particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What is the
>connection?
>Best
>Anuradha
>
>
>On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
> >
> > Dear Pawan,
> >
> > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier
> > post,
> > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out to a
> > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
> >
> > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
> > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual that
> > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
> > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it takes,
> > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people
> > like
> > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize his
> > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence against
> > its own subjects in West Bengal
> >
> > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have been
> > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
> > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
> > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left Front
> > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship in
> > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis of
> > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to be
> > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
> > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North Korea
> > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran, the
> > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
> >
> > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is ruled
> > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money, weapons
> > and
> > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and foreign
> > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a set of
> > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should have
> > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
> > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support agency
> > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
> > Sharif.
> >
> > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
> > foreign
> > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over an
> > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist brand
> > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its rented
> > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world. Its
> > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and American
> > fighter jets.
> >
> > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
> > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of abominations
> > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be
> > just
> > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I would
> > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and in
> > India.
> >
> > regards.
> >
> > Shuddha
> >
> >
> >
> > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
> > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> > >
> > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
> > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
> > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
> > > crime were allowed to walk free.
> > >
> > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of
> > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
> > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
> > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> > >
> > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
> > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
> > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime
> > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> > >
> > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > > _________________________________________
> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.ne
> > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > List archive:
> >
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive:
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 5
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:12:10 +0530
> From: "Shivam Vij"
>Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison
> by Saudi judges
>To: "anuradha mukherjee"
>Cc: reader-list@sarai.net, shuddha@sarai.net
>Message-ID:
> <9c06aab30711300442xdc57c49ucd01db8e4bd05647@mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
>Well the connection is, 'Look you are obsessed with Gujarat but not with
>Saudi Arabia'. It assumes that one condones oppression and violence when it
>comes to "Muslims" and one is thus a "pseudo-secularist". Shuddha has
>demolished it well. Those who accuse others of pseudo-secularism are in fact
>themselves guilty of partisan obsessions with oppression. Funny how they
>seek to transpose their bias onto others.
>shivam
>
>
>On 11/30/07, anuradha mukherjee wrote:
> >
> > I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a
> > horrible
> > incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against a
> > particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What is
> > the
> > connection?
> > Best
> > Anuradha
> >
> >
> > On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Pawan,
> > >
> > > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier
> > > post,
> > > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out to
> > a
> > > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
> > >
> > > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
> > > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual
> > that
> > > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
> > > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it
> > takes,
> > > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people
> > > like
> > > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize his
> > > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence against
> > > its own subjects in West Bengal
> > >
> > > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have been
> > > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
> > > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
> > > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left Front
> > > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship in
> > > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis of
> > > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to
> > be
> > > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
> > > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North
> > Korea
> > > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran, the
> > > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
> > >
> > > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is
> > ruled
> > > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money, weapons
> > > and
> > > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and foreign
> > > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a set
> > of
> > > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should
> > have
> > > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
> > > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support
> > agency
> > > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
> > > Sharif.
> > >
> > > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
> > > foreign
> > > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over
> > an
> > > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist
> > brand
> > > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its
> > rented
> > > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world. Its
> > > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and
> > American
> > > fighter jets.
> > >
> > > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
> > > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of
> > abominations
> > > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be
> > > just
> > > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I
> > would
> > > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and in
> > > India.
> > >
> > > regards.
> > >
> > > Shuddha
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
> > > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> > > >
> > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
> > > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
> > > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
> > > > crime were allowed to walk free.
> > > >
> > > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of
> > > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
> > > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
> > > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> > > >
> > > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
> > > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
> > > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime
> > > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> > > >
> > > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > > > _________________________________________
> > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.ne
> > > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > List archive:
> > >
> > > _________________________________________
> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > List archive:
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive:
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>reader-list mailing list
>reader-list@sarai.net
>https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>
>
>End of reader-list Digest, Vol 52, Issue 79
>*******************************************
Cell - 9818063517
Via: "Shivam Vij"
You may first want to reply Shuddha's reply to your post.
s
On 11/30/07, Pawan Durani wrote:
>
> Brother Shivam ,
>
> An employee makes an organisation / future organisation and presents a thought. It anyway doesnt matter.
>
> Anyway , as an individuals one of us has to demolish the myth and it takes two to debate ?
>
> I am game for it ....are you ?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 11/30/07, Shivam Vij wrote:
> >
> > Brother Pawan, I spoke on my own behalf, not my ex-employer. Or future employers, for that matter!
> > best
> > shivam
> >
> >
> >
> > On 11/30/07, Pawan Durani wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Friend Shivam ,
> > >
> > > Let us demloish the myth . Are you ready for the debate ?
> > >
> > > On a side note , forget even saudi arabia ! Isn't the place you work for still obsessed with Gujarat while as it has has not given more than 5cc column for all the killings of hindus which have happened .
> > >
> > > I would discuss more , if you are open for a debate . But the question is .....would you ?
> > >
> > > Pawan Durani.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 11/30/07, Shivam Vij wrote:
> > > > Well the connection is, 'Look you are obsessed with Gujarat but not with
> > > > Saudi Arabia'. It assumes that one condones oppression and violence when it
> > > > comes to "Muslims" and one is thus a "pseudo-secularist". Shuddha has
> > > > demolished it well. Those who accuse others of pseudo-secularism are in fact
> > > > themselves guilty of partisan obsessions with oppression. Funny how they
> > > > seek to transpose their bias onto others.
> > > > shivam
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 11/30/07, anuradha mukherjee wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a
> > > > > horrible
> > > > > incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against a
> > > > > particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What is
> > > > > the
> > > > > connection?
> > > > > Best
> > > > > Anuradha
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Dear Pawan,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier
> > > > > > post,
> > > > > > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out to
> > > > > a
> > > > > > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
> > > > > > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual
> > > > > that
> > > > > > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
> > > > > > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it
> > > > > takes,
> > > > > > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people
> > > > > > like
> > > > > > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize his
> > > > > > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence against
> > > > > > its own subjects in West Bengal
> > > > > >
> > > > > > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have been
> > > > > > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
> > > > > > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
> > > > > > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left Front
> > > > > > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship in
> > > > > > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis of
> > > > > > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to
> > > > > be
> > > > > > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
> > > > > > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North
> > > > > Korea
> > > > > > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran, the
> > > > > > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is
> > > > > ruled
> > > > > > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money, weapons
> > > > > > and
> > > > > > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and foreign
> > > > > > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a set
> > > > > of
> > > > > > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should
> > > > > have
> > > > > > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
> > > > > > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support
> > > > > agency
> > > > > > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
> > > > > > Sharif.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
> > > > > > foreign
> > > > > > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over
> > > > > an
> > > > > > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist
> > > > > brand
> > > > > > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its
> > > > > rented
> > > > > > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world. Its
> > > > > > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and
> > > > > American
> > > > > > fighter jets.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
> > > > > > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of
> > > > > abominations
> > > > > > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be
> > > > > > just
> > > > > > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I
> > > > > would
> > > > > > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and in
> > > > > > India.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > regards.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Shuddha
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" < pawan.durani@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > > > > > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > > > > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > > > > > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > > > > > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
> > > > > > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
> > > > > > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
> > > > > > > crime were allowed to walk free.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > > > > > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of
> > > > > > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
> > > > > > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > > > > > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
> > > > > > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > > > > > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > > > > > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
> > > > > > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
> > > > > > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime
> > > > > > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > > > > > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > > > > > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > > > > > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > > > > > > _________________________________________
> > > > > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > > > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.ne
> > > > > > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > > > > >
> > > > > > _________________________________________
> > > > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > > > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > > > > _________________________________________
> > > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > > > _________________________________________
> > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> > > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
Via: "Shivam Vij"
Brother Pawan, I spoke on my own behalf, not my ex-employer. Or future
employers, for that matter!
best
shivam
On 11/30/07, Pawan Durani wrote:
>
> Dear Friend Shivam ,
>
> Let us demloish the myth . Are you ready for the debate ?
>
> On a side note , forget even saudi arabia ! Isn't the place you work for
> still obsessed with Gujarat while as it has has not given more than 5cc
> column for all the killings of hindus which have happened .
>
> I would discuss more , if you are open for a debate . But the question is
> .....would you ?
>
> Pawan Durani.
>
>
> On 11/30/07, Shivam Vij wrote:
> >
> > Well the connection is, 'Look you are obsessed with Gujarat but not with
> > Saudi Arabia'. It assumes that one condones oppression and violence when
> > it
> > comes to "Muslims" and one is thus a "pseudo-secularist". Shuddha has
> > demolished it well. Those who accuse others of pseudo-secularism are in
> > fact
> > themselves guilty of partisan obsessions with oppression. Funny how they
> >
> > seek to transpose their bias onto others.
> > shivam
> >
> >
> > On 11/30/07, anuradha mukherjee wrote:
> > >
> > > I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a
> > > horrible
> > > incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against
> > a
> > > particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What
> > is
> > > the
> > > connection?
> > > Best
> > > Anuradha
> > >
> > >
> > > On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Dear Pawan,
> > > >
> > > > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an
> > earlier
> > > > post,
> > > > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted
> > out to
> > > a
> > > > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
> > > >
> > > > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
> > > > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of
> > intellectual
> > > that
> > > > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
> > > > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it
> > > takes,
> > > > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for
> > people
> > > > like
> > > > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize
> > his
> > > > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence
> > against
> > > > its own subjects in West Bengal
> > > >
> > > > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have
> > been
> > > > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
> > > > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in
> > being
> > > > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left
> > Front
> > > > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military
> > dictatorship in
> > > > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the
> > aegis of
> > > > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were
> > to
> > > be
> > > > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
> > > > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North
> > > Korea
> > > > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran,
> > the
> > > > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
> > > >
> > > > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is
> > > ruled
> > > > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money,
> > weapons
> > > > and
> > > > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and
> > foreign
> > > > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a
> > set
> > > of
> > > > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it
> > should
> > > have
> > > > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
> > > > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support
> > > agency
> > > > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
> > > > Sharif.
> > > >
> > > > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
> > > > foreign
> > > > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides
> > over
> > > an
> > > > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist
> > > brand
> > > > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its
> > > rented
> > > > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world.
> > Its
> > > > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and
> > > American
> > > > fighter jets.
> > > >
> > > > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to
> > the
> > > > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of
> > > abominations
> > > > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would
> > be
> > > > just
> > > > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I
> >
> > > would
> > > > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat
> > and in
> > > > India.
> > > >
> > > > regards.
> > > >
> > > > Shuddha
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
> > > > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > > > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > > > >
> > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > > > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > > > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's
> > Higher
> > > > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive
> > 200
> > > > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most
> > heinous
> > > > > crime were allowed to walk free.
> > > > >
> > > > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > > > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car
> > of
> > > > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the
> > woman
> > > > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > > > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi
> > Arabia's
> > > > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > > > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> > > > >
> > > > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > > > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been
> > revoked
> > > > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee
> > for
> > > > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the
> > crime
> > > > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > > > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> > > > >
> > > > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > > > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > > > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > > > > _________________________________________
> > > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe:
> > https://mail.sarai.ne
> > > > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > > >
> > > > _________________________________________
> > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > > _________________________________________
> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>
Via: "TaraPrakash"
I just heard GuruDas Dasgupta telling BBC that Taslima called him up and
informed that she is ready to remove the portions which might cause
disturbance in the society from her "Dvikhandita".
This will provide fresh amunition to the Brigade, and for any champion of
true democracy, a new genuine reason to be ashamed of being part of a
society which cannot allow the freedom of expression to artists and others.
Via: "TaraPrakash"
How many places can one be obsessed with?
Why Shuddha only be expected to be obsessed with the oppression of Chinese
in Indonesia, Tamils in Malaysia, Pashtoons in Pakistan, Bihari Muslims in
Bangladesh, etc etc etc, plus the disadvantaged in all nooks and corners of
the world, women, disabled, and other kind of have-nots?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shivam Vij"
To: "anuradha mukherjee"
Cc: ;
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Rape Victim ordered 200 lashes and prison bySaudi
judges
> Well the connection is, 'Look you are obsessed with Gujarat but not with
> Saudi Arabia'. It assumes that one condones oppression and violence when
> it
> comes to "Muslims" and one is thus a "pseudo-secularist". Shuddha has
> demolished it well. Those who accuse others of pseudo-secularism are in
> fact
> themselves guilty of partisan obsessions with oppression. Funny how they
> seek to transpose their bias onto others.
> shivam
>
>
> On 11/30/07, anuradha mukherjee wrote:
>>
>> I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a
>> horrible
>> incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against a
>> particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What is
>> the
>> connection?
>> Best
>> Anuradha
>>
>>
>> On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
>> >
>> > Dear Pawan,
>> >
>> > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier
>> > post,
>> > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out
>> > to
>> a
>> > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
>> >
>> > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
>> > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual
>> that
>> > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
>> > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it
>> takes,
>> > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people
>> > like
>> > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize
>> > his
>> > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence
>> > against
>> > its own subjects in West Bengal
>> >
>> > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have
>> > been
>> > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
>> > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
>> > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left Front
>> > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship
>> > in
>> > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis
>> > of
>> > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to
>> be
>> > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
>> > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North
>> Korea
>> > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran,
>> > the
>> > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
>> >
>> > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is
>> ruled
>> > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money, weapons
>> > and
>> > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and
>> > foreign
>> > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a set
>> of
>> > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should
>> have
>> > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
>> > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support
>> agency
>> > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
>> > Sharif.
>> >
>> > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
>> > foreign
>> > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over
>> an
>> > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist
>> brand
>> > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its
>> rented
>> > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world.
>> > Its
>> > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and
>> American
>> > fighter jets.
>> >
>> > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
>> > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of
>> abominations
>> > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be
>> > just
>> > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I
>> would
>> > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and
>> > in
>> > India.
>> >
>> > regards.
>> >
>> > Shuddha
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
>> > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
>> > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
>> > >
>> > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
>> > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
>> > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
>> > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's Higher
>> > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
>> > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
>> > > crime were allowed to walk free.
>> > >
>> > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
>> > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car of
>> > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
>> > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
>> > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
>> > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
>> > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
>> > >
>> > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
>> > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
>> > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
>> > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the crime
>> > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
>> > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
>> > >
>> > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
>> > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
>> > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
>> > > _________________________________________
>> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> > > Critiques & Collaborations
>> > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
>> > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe:
>> > > https://mail.sarai.ne
>> > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>> >
>> > _________________________________________
>> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> > Critiques & Collaborations
>> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
>> > subscribe in the subject header.
>> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
Via: "Naeem Mohaiemen"
URGENT: In a secret decision, the controversial loan of historic
artifacts from Bangladesh to Musee Guimet in France finally went
underway this morning. The upper court struck down the lawsuit
brought by Bangladeshi artists and archaeologists blocking the loan of
artifacts. The controversy had already cost the previous French
Ambassador his job. The French Embassy was "outraged" at the
accusations from Bangladeshi protesters. How dare they accuse a French
museum of being a location where theft, counterfeiting or any other
harm to the artifacts could happen!
But in the end "French prestige" was saved as Guimet and the Dhaka
French Embassy collaborated to secretly ship the artifacts out of the
museum this morning. The artifacts are flying out of Dhaka on a
midnight Air France flight tonight.
What next?
Guimet Protests
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/11/30/guimet-protests/
"Protesters are asking international media to disseminate the news,
and prevent the artefacts from being taken away in this manner."
Shahidul Alam: Price of Priceless Objects
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/the-price-of-priceless-objects/
Via: "Partha Dasgupta"
Hi,
Without trying to imply that Pawan's view-point is justified, I can
understand his angst of being a displaced Hindu minority in a state which he
can no longer visit in peace.
And, to make another jump, these segregations of 'pseudo-secularist' or
'Islamo-fascism' or even 'Hindutva' seem rather dangerous categorizations to
me. How does a viewpoint force us into one camp or another? They are
reasoned and / or believed views. For example, though I would condemn Modi
for the Godhra riots, I would also have to admit that the frequent
Hindu-Muslim riots that would happen while I was in college in Baroda are no
longer so common.
To get back to the point raised by Shuddha, I still oppose state-sponsored
and / or state-endorsed violence fo reasons that I've mentioned elsewhere so
I won't drag this post.
Rgds, Partha
...........................
On Nov 30, 2007 6:12 PM, Shivam Vij wrote:
> Well the connection is, 'Look you are obsessed with Gujarat but not with
> Saudi Arabia'. It assumes that one condones oppression and violence when
> it
> comes to "Muslims" and one is thus a "pseudo-secularist". Shuddha has
> demolished it well. Those who accuse others of pseudo-secularism are in
> fact
> themselves guilty of partisan obsessions with oppression. Funny how they
> seek to transpose their bias onto others.
> shivam
>
>
> On 11/30/07, anuradha mukherjee wrote:
> >
> > I think Shuddha's reply has summed it up beautifully. Why should a
> > horrible
> > incident in Saudi Arabia be brought up to shame those who are against a
> > particularly violent form of Hindutva being practised in India? What is
> > the
> > connection?
> > Best
> > Anuradha
> >
> >
> > On 11/30/07, shuddha@sarai.net wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Pawan,
> > >
> > > Hell comes in different flavours, as I tried to explain in an earlier
> > > post,
> > > and as is evident from your posting of the brutal treatment meted out
> to
> > a
> > > young woman who has been the victim of gang rape in Saudi Arabia.
> > >
> > > Being against one kind of hell does not mean that we have to be the
> > > partisans of other kinds of hell, elsewhere. The kind of intellectual
> > that
> > > I find interesting it the one who has no problem at all in terms of
> > > evolving an engaged critique of oppression, no matter what form it
> > takes,
> > > no matter where it occurs. That is why, despite our respect for people
> > > like
> > > Noam Chomsky, some of us took it upon ourselves to sharply criticize
> his
> > > prevaricating apology for the 'Left Front' government's violence
> against
> > > its own subjects in West Bengal
> > >
> > > And so, contrary to your expectations, some of those of us who have
> been
> > > active on this list in arguing against the Indian state's military
> > > occupation of the Kashmir valley have had no problems at all in being
> > > determined in our opposition to oppression when it occurs in Left
> Front
> > > ruled West Bengal, in the current conditions of military dictatorship
> in
> > > Burma and Pakistan, or for that matter when it occurs under the aegis
> of
> > > the Ibn Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow, if North Korea were to
> > be
> > > discussed on this list, I would be certain that there will be clear
> > > arguments on this list against the imbecilic regime that rules North
> > Korea
> > > at the moment. The list can be justifiedly expanded to include Iran,
> the
> > > United States, Russia and many other countries and states.
> > >
> > > Saudi Arabia is one of the most horrible places on the planet. It is
> > ruled
> > > by a corrupt, decadent ruling elite and kept in place by money,
> weapons
> > > and
> > > influence wielded by British and American corporate intersts and
> foreign
> > > policy. If the international community was justified in operating a
> set
> > of
> > > sanctions against the hated South African apartheid regime, it should
> > have
> > > no business in cosying up to the sexist, slave-owning, xenophobic,
> > > anti-semitic Saudi regime which is the favourite retirement support
> > agency
> > > of third rate dictators like Idi Amin and corrupt rulers like Nawaz
> > > Sharif.
> > >
> > > The Saudi Monarchy, which rose to eminence as the stooge of British
> > > foreign
> > > policy in the middle east in the early twentieth century presides over
> > an
> > > imbecilic and paranoid gloss of Islam, and the particularly Salafist
> > brand
> > > of Islam that is held out as an ideal by the Saudi monarchy and its
> > rented
> > > clerics is rightly rejected by the majority of Muslims in the world.
> Its
> > > significance lies only in that it is backed by petro-dollars and
> > American
> > > fighter jets.
> > >
> > > One does not have to link the decadence of current Saudi Arabia to the
> > > venality of Moditva/Hindutva. They are two different kinds of
> > abominations
> > > that need to be fought, and fought till they are destroyed. I would be
> > > just
> > > as happy to see Salafist Islamo-fascism perish in Saudi Arabia, as I
> > would
> > > be to see the short, sharp end of Moditva and Hindutva in Gujarat and
> in
> > > India.
> > >
> > > regards.
> > >
> > > Shuddha
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 2:13 pm 11/30/07 "Pawan Durani" wrote:
> > > > Would Someone Puhleez link this to Modi , RSS & Hindutva
> > > > ..........some intellectual surely would ..............
> > > >
> > > > http://www.themuslimwoman.org/
> > > >
> http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/rape-victim-ordered-200-lashes-and
> > > > -prison-by-saudi-judges/
> > > > What can be called a travesty of judiciary, the Saudi Arabia's
> Higher
> > > > Judicial Council has actually sentenced a rape victim to receive 200
> > > > lashes and prison while the perpetrators of humanity's most heinous
> > > > crime were allowed to walk free.
> > > >
> > > > The 19-year-old Shiite woman who was raped by six armed men was
> > > > originally sentenced to receive 90 lashes for traveling in the car
> of
> > > > an 'unrelated male' at the time of the rape. However after the woman
> > > > had the temerity of not unquestioningly submitting herself to be
> > > > tortured as punishment of being raped, the judges on Saudi Arabia's
> > > > Higher Judicial Council more than doubled her punishment for
> > > > attempting to influence the judiciary through the media.
> > > >
> > > > Her lawyer, human right activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, has been
> > > > banned from carrying her case further. His license has been revoked
> > > > and he has been called to appear before a disciplinary committee for
> > > > challenging the judgment, which only punished the victim of the
> crime
> > > > and not its perpetrators. The Sunni rapists were given a paltry
> > > > sentence of one to five years of imprisonment.
> > > >
> > > > This is the horrendous state of a country that keeps its women
> > > > forcefully behind veils only to extenuate and encourage heinous
> > > > crimes against them in the name of maintaining social discipline.
> > > > _________________________________________
> > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > > subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe:
> https://mail.sarai.ne
> > > > t/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > >
> > > _________________________________________
> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > > subscribe in the subject header.
> > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
