Friday, May 26, 2006

Event with Asifa Qureshi at Stanford about "Western Advocacy for Muslim Women"

I am have been meaning to attend more events at Stanford, especially in my areas of interest, and am only now starting to fulfill that aspiration. This month's event by the Islamic Society of Stanford jumped out at me as a "must-see" because the speaker worked on the brief for Baria Mughazu, a woman sentenced to flogging in Zamfara State, in my childhood home in Nigeria and at the same time has to her credit a piece critiquing Zina laws in Pakistan from an Islamic perspective. I posted a query on local Muslim lists and a few other activists lists I am asking about her.

To pique my interest further, when the event was posted on our local mailing list for Muslims in Silicon Valley, someone raised the question of whether she was another of "those" people. Especially since the first picture to be found on the Internet was one in which she appears with Aminah Wudud, who led the most public and publicized instance of a woman leading people in prayer. Someone on the list then pointed out her very solid background as a youngster who grew up in the Bay Area Muslim community.

You can read my live notes of the event at the following three posts:

http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/muslim-women-event-at-stanford.html
http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/muslim-women-event-at-stanford-part-2.html
http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/muslim-women-event-at-stanford-qa.html

To wrap up, and talking to her and others after the event, I have to say that I actually came away with some of the depression I often exhibit about American Muslims a little diminished. Though I have to also say, maybe out of habit, that she's from an older "generation", so to speak, of people, and younger people, whether here in American Muslim communities or in Muslim countries are increasingly radicalized.

And on a related note, having met her and Richa Nagar in the same weekend was quite an experience. Both people with South Asian roots; both scholars; both women; and, in their ways, feminists. They definitely break the mould of the impression folks would have of feminists. In Asifa Q's case I don't think she'd identify herself that way; though she doesn't shy away from the term) and she also defies the stereotypes of the headscarf-wearing Muslimah engaged in these discussions.

And to draw another arc, the last event by ISSU's that I attended was a lecture by Dr. Azza Karam, an Egyptian scholar who works with the UN. [I hadn't sorted out access to Stanford's wireless network yet and wasn't able to post from that event--and then have been lazy posting those notes. I will soon. I promise!] Listening to these two women, and meeting Maha El-Gennaidi of IMG at a previous ISSU event (when they hosted Ahmed Naseef last year to talk about the phenomenon of "Progressive Muslims" in North America) has been quite an education, too. I know this is almost a vacuous question, but when the talk shows--even on NPR--want to talk to an Muslim women, why don't they call on these folks? I know Irshad Manji and Asra Nomani and maybe even Asma Gull Hasan on the one hand and Ingrid Mattson on the other make for good radio and TV, but try these women for a change and ask them the tough questions: we all--Muslims included--might learn a few things in the process.

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A Whiff of Gender Studies

Over the weekend, in the middle of other things, I spent some time listening to and interacting with Richa Nagar, a professor in Women's Studies at the University of Minnesota.

It was a wonderful experience. Her approach to gender issues seems to be one that resonates a lot with where I am on that issue myself. Also her work and her passion seems to be all about bringing an amazing facility and engagement with the linguistic complexities on the one hand and the geographical locales on the other that together form my ancestral stomping grounds around Lucknow. (at least in my mind; of course, that might be a "manufactured sensibility" or a "false sensibility/identity"). Kyaa thaab aasmaan kee, kay ch-hutaa'ey Luckna'u, as my father always says. And anyone familiar with me will know how big a part of my own intellectual journey an engagement with that mix has been. It was a breath of fresh air.

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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Muslim Women: Event at Stanford Q&A

Note: This is part of a series of posts about one event. Please see http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/event-with-asifa-qureshi-at-stanford.html for the main page on this discussion.


The Q&A Session brought out, among other things:

* What can non-Muslim women do to help?

Her answer was that it is a matter of humility and respect--and a LOT of listening. And then identifying where it is that an American voice can help. And where it is detrimental.

* In a lot of cases, the issue is that a lot of Western feminists can't accept the very existence of laws based on a religion. Don't we need to have the conversation about that simple fact?

Her reply to this was that yes. But it has to be done with respect on both sides.

* A question about evidence that the thinking of the schools of thought has continued and is alive today.

She admirably explained the movement, starting in the late 18th and 19th centuries against the schools of thought as being the reason of the community's stagnation and some people arguing back. She said that she believes that Ijtihad was always alive in on form or the other.

* Should Muslim women get involved in Western Feminist organizations?

Yeah, sure, absolutely, she said. That is very much a part of the process of learning from each other that needs to happen.

* Should Muslim women be part of the Ijtihad of Hijab?

Yes. There always have been. She says that there were Women Muftis--going all the way back.

* How do we break down the impressions that people who cover and who don't have of each other--within the community?

Her reply, very simply delivered was that we need to stop judging people by how they look. And we need to do that as Americans, too.

* I then raised the question of about how do we counter the extreme reactions to any uncomfortable voices that arise in the community, as was evidence by the reaction to the mention of her lecture on our local Bay Area Muslim list. And said some more things. I couldn't type while I was speaking. [:D]

Quite simply, she said that's a very large conversation and needs to happen.

* And then the last question asked the question about her position on women leading prayer.

Her reply, quite simply was that she has not researched the issue. But that she's not against anyone asking that question. If you ask me, that's a position in itself. But that might just be me.

That's it for now; I need to go and mingle. Drop comments and let's talk!

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Muslim Women: Event at Stanford Part 2

Note: This is part of a series of posts about one event. Please see http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/event-with-asifa-qureshi-at-stanford.html for the main page on this discussion.

Because of her paper on Pakistani rape laws, she got asked to help with the case of Baria Mughazu (need to check that name). One of the four schools of thought in Sunni Islam accepts pregnancy as enough proof of zina. Apparently the governor of Zamfara said that he would not listen to any more Western critique, but if anyone came up with an Islamic argument he would listen. So, as she puts it, "a loosely affiliated Internet group" (NPM, I guess) approached her to write the brief. Before she could finish it, the governor moved up the punishment--apparently because of the pressure on the governor.

She goes on to say that in a similar case, in Pakistan, a woman was acquitted, with a Sharia court saying clearly that pregnancy was not enough proof.

She then discusses the very important distinction between being against the Hudood laws themselves, for example, and pointing out the misuse of Islamic law to the detriment of women, specifically. This, she says, is an insult to Islam.

On Mukhtaran Mai's case, she points out that the tribunal that meted out the "punishment" to her was not an Islamic court, but a tribal tribunal. In fact, her local Imam was the one that told the family to prosecute--and condemned the crime from the Friday pulpit.

She says that it is important to cover the history of colonialism and suchlike to understand why we are where we are today. Quotes Leila Ahmed (author of a book titled "Colonialism, Women and Islam" or something close to that) who says that a lot of the argument /rationale for colonialism was the state of women in colonized societies. And she says that that rhetoric, where feminist logic was co-opted to justify colonialsm, is still in the minds of Western feminists. This leads to Muslims equating any talk of women's rights with colonialism and for feminists to say anything that gets through to formerly (and, arguably, still) colonized societies.

All this has prevented Muslims from making their own conclusions on women's issues. And all this leads to women in Muslim societies thinking that these Westerners should just get out of the way. And things like veils, and scarves become the most important issue.

So she talks about this. The point she's raising is that in this discussion that the reasons that women adopt dress. [And lists reasons. You can look them up. :D] And then raises the issue of the hypocrisy of Western feminists who stand with people who don't want to wear stuff, but then not with those being physically prevented from wearing it. She also raised the issue of the discussion going on within the Muslim community and says that outsiders don't understand that there's a conversation happening within the community. People outside the community ignoring that there might be genuine reasons to veil; but on th other hand within the community, there is the tendency to ignore that there might be very well-informed Muslims that chose not to with a very Islamicly attitude.

So, instead of prioritizing the issue of veils and suchlike, what might have happen if these issue were not at the top of the agenda? She raises religioius education not just as a source of empowerment, but authority is ignored. For example, stressing the Islamic injunction for women to get an education might be a good way to do work that has richochet effect on other issues. Public knowledge disemination, with things like Muslim marriage contracts, rights, and other symbols.

It is very difficult for feminists to engage with thi conversation.

Her conclusion is that it would be better if both sides were working together (the Western feminists and women in Muslim societies). But it is very difficult for this to happen as long as the whole issue is framed with the attitude that Islam is what needs to be removed from the equation. People want to help Muslim women, but there is no respect whatsoever for the deep, deep faith of these people--a faith that often helps them overcome great odds. As in the case of Mukhtaran Mai.

There has to be a broader appreciation of what we are all working for and what we're working with.

[One item that got left out in my notes is something the Prof. Qureshi used to illustrate a few points along the way: The attitude of a lot of Muslim governments--and Muslims--on the Beijing Conference on women's rights was that it was an attack on Islam. Governments like the Saudi one boycotted it. And there were people there who went specifically just with the sole idea of "defending Islam". On the other hand, she related an incident of an Saudi woman wearing a veil--and some of these women wore the veil, amongst other reasons, because they wanted some anonymity precisely because of the attitude of their government--having a Westerner heckle her with a "Liberate yourself!" just passing her on the street. The speaker brought this up as an example of people talking past each other.]

This was followed by an energetic Q&A session. See the next post

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Muslim Women: Event at Stanford

Note: This is part of a series of posts about one event. Please see http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/event-with-asifa-qureshi-at-stanford.html for the main page on this discussion.


I am writing this at an event at Stanford University. It features a young scholar named "Asifa Qureshi", who is now at the University of Wisconsin, but who, I am told, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area herself and was, for example, a co-founder of AMILA and graduated from Berkeley. She got her law degree from UC Davis and has an LLM from Columbia. She's curently at Harvard pursuing a LJD.

I am have been meaning to attend more events at Stanford, especially in my areas of interest, and am only now starting to fulfill that aspiration. This event jumped out at me as a "must-see" because the speaker worked on the brief for Baria Mughazu, a woman sentenced to flogging in Zamfara State, in my childhood home in Nigeria and at the same time has to her credit a piece critiquing Zina laws in Pakistan from an Islamic perspective.

To pique my interest further, when the event was posted on our local mailing list for Muslims in Silicon Valley, someone raised the question of whether she was another of "those" people. Especially since the first picture to be found on the Internet was one in which she appears with Aminah Wudud, who led the most public and publicized instance of a woman leading people in prayer. Someone on the list then pointed out her very solid background as a youngster who grew up in the Bay Area Muslim community.

The topic of the event was "Western Advocacy for Muslim Women: It's Not Just the Thought that Counts".

She points out that the issue she's talking about is not coming from ill intentions. The people trying to help women in the places she's talking about do it from very sincere motives. She brings up a "Rescue Mentality" in the Western (not just American) context. Something with a long history.

She starts with the issue of Abortion and the issue of Islamic law and tradition not having the problem of it being a life in the first trimester. And the way the issue is framed by Western activists, and the assumption that Islam is part of the problem. She goes on to the discussion of Zina laws in Pakistan. Zina is a crime in the Qur'an, but there are very strict standards for witnesses--four are required. When the laws were written under Zia in Pakistan, they included rape under the definition of Zina and therefore put the requirement of four witnesses on rape. She looked into whether this was what Islamic law says and then wrote a paper saying that this was wrong--rape is not a category of Zina, but a whole other, very very serious crime. Her point is that there are different tones necessary for the different audiences. She read the two versions of the introduction to the above paper; on for an American journal and for a Pakistani one.

... more in the next post. I don't want to lose work...

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Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Asifa Qureshi Event Invitation

Note: This is part of a series of posts about one event. Please see http://ifaqeer.blogspot.com/2006/05/event-with-asifa-qureshi-at-stanford.html for the main page on this discussion.

Here's what I posted to local Muslim lists and a few other activists lists I am asking about Prof. Qureshi when I first heard about the event below.

I am not familiar with this name--which is most probably my own shortcoming, because she seems to be working on issues related to both the country I was born in and the one I am a citizen of (Pakistan and Nigeria--I have lived in what is now the capital of Zamfara State).

Does anyone else have a take on this scholar?

I think I will try to make it to the event. From the profile, it seems, at least at first blush, like she's coming from a perspective
that we don't see very often--that of an "Islamic" critique of what is currently passing for "Islamism"--and need so sorely.

iF/SIA.

<-----Original Message----->
>
>Western Advocacy for Muslim Women:
>It's Not Just the Thought that Counts
>with Professor Asifa Quraishi
>
>http://issu.chafi.us/?q=node/84
>
>Thursday, May 25th, 7PM
>Jordan Hall
>Building 420, Room 41 (Lower Level - Psychology Department)
>Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
>
>Drawing on her experiences working on Islamic law relating to women and
>resulting encounters with transnational feminist work, Asifa Quraishi explains
>how some efforts by well-intentioned non-Muslim feminist groups have the
>unintended consequences that actually end up hurting the Muslim women they seek
>to help. Examples will include stories from the 1995 Beijing UN World
>Conference on Women, recent criminal prosecutions of adultery cases in Nigeria
>and Pakistan, and the general nature of feminist discourses in Muslim and
>non-Muslim circles.
>
>Presented by:
>Islamic Society of Stanford University
>http://issu.chafi.us/
>
>Directions to Jordan Hall:
>http://theory.stanford.edu/~aflb/directions-jordan.html
>http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-420
>
>Questions:
>Salman Latif - slatif@stanford.edu
>
>
>x-x-x-x-x
>
>Asifa Quraishi
>Assistant Professor of Law
>University of Wisconsin Law School
>
>Degrees
>LL.M., Columbia Law School
>J.D., University of California-Davis
>B.A., University of California-Berkeley
>
>Teaching and Research Interests
>Comparative Law
>Constitutional Law
>
>Asifa Quraishi, a specialist in Islamic law and legal theory, joined the
>University of Wisconsin Law School faculty in Fall 2004. Professor Quraishi's
>expertise ranges from U.S. law on federal court practice to
constitutional legal
>theory, with a comparative focus in Islamic law.
>
>At the UW Law School, Quraishi is teaching a combination of core law school
>classes in Constitutional Law, and electives in Islamic law and jurisprudence.
>
>Quraishi received her B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of
>California-Berkeley in 1988. In 1992, she received her law degree from the
>University of California-Davis, where she served as Senior Research Editor for
>the UC- Davis Law Review. She also earned an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law
>School, and an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School is nearing completion.
>
>Her professional experience includes serving as a judicial law clerk with Judge
>Edward Dean Price on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
>California and as the death penalty law clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of
>Appeals.
>
>Asifa Quraishi made news in 2001 when she drafted a clemency appeal
brief in the
>case of Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, who was sentenced to flogging for fornication in
>Zamfara, Nigeria. Quraishi is a founding member of the National Association of
>Muslim Lawyers (NAML) and the California group American Muslims Intent on
>Learning and Activism (AMILA). She is an associate of the Muslim
Women's League,
>and has served as past president and board member of Karamah: Muslim Women for
>Lawyers for Human Rights. She also served as an Islamic law and culture
>consultant for the JAG episode "The Princess and the Petty Officer."
>
>Asifa Quraishi's recent publications include:
>
>* No Altars: a Survey of Islamic Family Law in the United States, in Women's
>Rights and Islamic Family Law, Lynn Welchman, editor (Zed Books 2004), with
>co-author Najeeba Syeed-Miller.
>
>* Her Honor: An Islamic Critique of the Rape Laws of Pakistan from a
>Woman-Sensitive Perspective, 18 Mich. J. Int'l L. 287 (1997).
>
>* From a Gasp to a Gamble: A Proposed Text for Unconscionability, 25
U. C. Davis
>L. Rev. 187 (1991).
>

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Personal, Electronic Testament on Pakisan

Adil Najam's Pakistan- Based on Faiz Ahmed Faiz's "Hum Daiykain Gay".
6 minutes and 35 seconds
April 24th, 2006

Here's a personal testament from one Pakistani about his country. It's also a very interesting piece of electronic art incorporating one of the most popular pieces of Urdu poetry written in the 20th Century:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6291983484610119600&q=pakistan


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Hufftington Post, Online Branding and Monetizing...and Muslim Voices


Apologise for the stream of consciousness nature of this post. And for being MIA again. Been a little tied-up and distracted. (Moving to new digs this week! is the good news.)

I went to this month's Stanford/MIT VLAB's monthly event in the Bay Area (thanks McGuj, for hooking me up!), which was on "How to Monetize New Media Channels and Make Ad Revenue Real". That's Silicon Valley-speak for "making money out of your readers/users online". Let's see what Wadiwallah has to say about the event.

One of the loudest messages from that event seemed to be that there's more money being pumped into online advertising than there is "compelling" (that word keeps coming up) content that advertisers can put it on and get good results. That will be worth following up on with time. As I said, Wadiwallah should have more to say on that.

But being in that state of mind, the column in the New York Times today titled "Building a Brand With a Blog" and about how Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post have done since that website started caught my eye even more. Of course, the trail of how it started seeming like it would be a celebrity blog site and morphed (we say "reinvented" here in Silicon Valley) into a place with lots of different voices is something we are familiar with here in Silicon Valley in the context of how ventures, particularly those related to the Internet, evolve and change to become successful.

One aspect I have been keeping an eye on since the HuffPo started, is the number and quality of Muslims voices on it. It seemed like a site providing an outlet to voices that one usually doesn't hear would be a good venue to get some different voices out there. (Yes, most of the people are not disadvantaged; but they are not people you hear discussing current affairs and social issues.)

At first blush, maybe because I am as paranoid as the next Muslim, the only name I noticed was the ubiquitous Irshad Manji. And that didn't bode well. You've seen what where I think she sits in this whole discussion. But then, along the way, I noticed what the HuffPo was doing. Their were Muslim voices on there--and ones that were saying the very things most Muslims would like to bring to the table. What follows here are some notes I took a while back, while digging in to the HuffPo:

One writer, for example, is described in his profile as follows: "...a writer based in New York. He is a contributing editor at CARGO Magazine (Conde Nast), and writes the regular 'Classics' column for the magazine. Majd has also written for GQ (Conde Nast), the New York Times and the New York Observer." And I have to say, I am impressed by both the background of this writer, and his writing. Take for example, the post, titled "Karen's First Baby Steps":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooman-majd/karens-first-baby-steps_b_7889.html

Check out the full list of what he's written:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooman-majd/

Another write has a similar background. The name is Cenk Uygur, a nice Turkish name. Check out what he writes:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/

So on balance, I have to say I am impressed by what the HuffPo is doing in this regard. One thing I think might be worth doing--maybe as part of the The Muslim Center's efforts is to do a "HP Blog, Muslim Edition". I wonder how they'd react if I approached them for a co-branding discussion...


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Friday, May 05, 2006

Blog Ban Rolled Back in Pakistan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4thMay 2006

For Further Information:

Dr. Awab Alvi (Pakistan)
Cell: 92-333-2373493
Email: drawab@cyber.net.pk
Blog: http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/

Omar Alvie (UAE)
Cell: 00971-50-6268410
Email: over_email@yahoo.com
Blog: http://oream.blogspot.com

URL: http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/

Press Releases: http://help-pakistan.com/main/press-release/

BLOGSPOT BLANKET BAN APPEARS TO BE LIFTED

Yesterday, on 3rd May 2006, after almost two months since the initial ban was imposed, the Alvi-e Team, comprised of Dr, Awab Alvi and Omer Alvie, and supported by tens of bloggers worldwide joining under the "Don't Block the Blog" banner are please to report that they again have access to blogspot blogs in Pakistan. The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) had, on the 3rd of March 2006, blocked access to a number of websites for the internet users in Pakistan. This ban was in response to a list submitted by a Supreme Court decision dated 2nd March 2006 instructing the PTA to ban 12 offending websites which highlighted the blasphemous cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In adherence to the Supreme Court ruling, all 12 sites were blocked including one that was hosted on the blogspot domain. But rather than block the offending blogspot website, the PTA blocked the entire domain (www.blogspot.com) which happens to be one of the most popular blog hosting domains hosting approximately upwards of ten million blogs globally.

We believe that this development can be credited to the collective efforts of dozens of free speech activists of the Don't Block the Blog Campaign and the Action Group Against Blogspot Ban in Pakistan. The peaceful activities were primarily responsible for creating a massive awareness campaign nationally (within Pakistan), as well as internationally

The DON'T BLOCK THE BLOG (DBTB) campaign (http://www.help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/ ) was launched by Dr. Awab Alvi and Omer Alvie on 3rd March, 2006 in order to highlight the unfair blanket ban of the blogspot domain and additionally to show support for free internet speech in general. Approximately at the same time the ACTION GROUP AGAINST BLOGSPOT BAN IN PAKISTAN (AGABBIP) (http://groups.google.com/group/ AGABBIP ), a mailing list with hundreds of contributing members also was formed to protest this blogspot ban and in support of free speech

Of the sixteen websites listed on two circulars issued by the PTA (28th Feb & 25th April) only three are presently unblocked and the rest are still inaccessible to internet surfers in Pakistan, we continue our efforts to push for a censorship free Internet

The Pakistan internet blockade issue and the resulting efforts of DBTB campaign, along with those of AGABBIP group, were reported in a number of mainstream news media, including Washington Post, IFEX, Global Voices, Voice of America, The News, Reporters Sans Borders, Dawn Newspaper and Spider Magazine.

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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

How a Tiger Becomes a Man-Eater

I found this very interesting post on a blog that is in itself very interesting if you want to follow Pakistan and Muslims around the world generally; or even if you just follow current affairs and care about the planet, what with Pakistan being a "place of interest" in the "War Against Terror":

http://watandost.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-tiger-becomes-man-eater.html

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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Situation in Gujarat

Just got an email from Shalini Gera, a friend and fellow activist. I have supplemented the material below with with a few things I have received from other sources since (and fixed a couple of typos). Shalini's request is to please consider emailing the draft letter included below.

First a message from Biju Mathew and Angana Chatterjee:
"Several phone calls from India in the last few hours suggest a fast deteriorating situation in Gujarat. To prevent a post-Godhra type of pogrom (which several folks say is possible) it is crucial the Central government take a more aggressive stance and act to prevent the same."
Veena Dubal of Berekeley adds:
"So far, there is limited assessment of the people killed, but a lot of questioning about why there was so much police fire. The Centre has sent paramilitary troops to Gujarat and told the Gujarat government to take all steps to control the violence. But letters from panic-stricken NRIs always puts the pressure on.

Please take this action (fax, email, phone) and forward to as many people as possible ... anything to prevent another 2002."
Biju has quickly drafted a statement (see below), detailing some of what has been happening in Vadodara.

Please take a moment to telephone and fax it to the PM, Home Minister and Sonia Gandhi. If you can't phone/fax, email is also welcome.

Please forward this mail to as many lists and individuals as is possible.

The phone /fax numbers are as follows:

Prime Ministers Office
Telephone: 91-11-23012312.
Fax: 91-11-23019545 / 91-11-23016857.
email: manmohan@sansad.nic.in , pmosb@pmo.nic.in

National Advisory Council
23018651 (FAX)
email for Sonia Gandhi: soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in

Home Ministry
Phone: 23092011, 23092161 Fax: 23093750, 23092763
email: svpatil@sansad.nic.in

News Updates:
From the Asian Age (doesn't open in Firefox; sheesh!): http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=1&cat2=22&newsid=223099&RF=DefaultMain
Yahoo News on Gujarat: http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=gujarat
Google News on Gujarat: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&amp;amp;q=gujarat&btnG=Search+News

------------draft letter - modify as u see fit ----------------

Mr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India

Mr. Shivraj Patil
Home Minister of India

Ms. Sonia Gandhi
Chair, National Advisory Council

I am writing to you today with a deep sense of urgency and anguish at the fast developing situation in Vadodara, Gujarat. In the past several hours the forces of Hindutva (VHP/Bajrang Dal) and the State machinery of Gujarat government have been involved in mass violence and attacks on the Muslim community in various parts of the city. For several of us here, 10,000 miles away we have already received details of major attacks at the Sabina and Bahaar colonies, at Pani gate and at Haathi Khana/Mansoori Khabaristan. News that we have received indicates that in both Sabina and Bahaar Colonies the police have been standing by while the VHP mobs have encircled the said colonies. At Haathi Khana, which is one of the poorest Muslim neighbourhoods in Baroda,, we have received calls that the police has forcibly entered homes and taken away several male members of households. While we have already received such news, the government of India has this far only issued a brief statement of caution aimed at the Gujarat government.

Given the record of the Narandra Modi government, the Central Government should be very clear that its active intervention in the situation is critical. No effort must be spared to ensure that a post-Godhra like situation is not created where pogromatic violence carried out. We urge the Prime Ministers office and the Home Ministry to act immediately and prevent any further deterioration of the situation.

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Survey of the Pakistani American Community

The report of a survey of the Pakistani American community, focusing on their engagement with philanthropy in which I helped out, is now in print from the Pakistan Center for Philanthropy.

The first few chapters of the report and the book have some very interesting historical information about Pakistani Americans in particular, but South Asians and South Asian immigration to the US in general.

An updated book version, including coverage of events since the earthquake in northern Pakistan and surrounding areas, will be available in the summer from Harvard University Press, as Portrait of a Giving Community : Philanthropy by the Pakistani-American Diaspora. Check out the Amazon page for that book.

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Monday, May 01, 2006

The Great American Boycott...Silicon Valley Edition

A journalist friend asked how and whether desis (South Asians) were observing "The Great American Boycott">. Here are some first thoughts:

Coming in to work (I keep later hours than even the Silicon Valey norm), traffic was definitely much lighter than usual for the time of day. But the parking lots of most tech companies didn't seem to have particularly fewer cars than usual.

Coming to the specific question asked by the journalist friend, outside of the activists, in Silicon Valley, I don't think South Asians (aka Indians, Pakistanis, et al) were particularly participating in the boycott. But then, the mentality of Silicon Valley is itself a very interesting subject. Myself very much included. For example, I flirted with the idea of a similar kind of "Day Without" thing during Special Registration, but chickened out of
proposing it to folks formally...

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