2 Gay Teens Executed in Iran

This is heart breaking.

The But Factor

Shikha's father got me onto to the Dawn columnists a couple of months ago and indeed if ye peeps are not reading Dawn's (Pakistani newspaper) steller columnists you're missing out. This week Irfan Hussain holds forth on the "Of course, I condemn the suicide attacks in London. But..." factor and because Dawn doesn't archive I'll have to paste the whole thing here.



The ‘but...’ factor
By Irfan Husain

LAST week, the front page of this newspaper’s Sunday magazine carried a long analysis of the London bombings under the headline “Shocking, but...”

I have encountered this same ‘but...’ in conversation after each conversation about this atrocity. In fact, it has surfaced every time there has been an anti-West attack from New York to Bali to Madrid. This short, seemingly innocuous word is pregnant with real and imaginary wrongs inflicted on the Muslims from the Crusades to Chechnya.

The ‘but...’ pops up something like this: “Of course, I condemn the suicide attacks in London. But surely the British government and Tony Blair should accept some of the responsibility for the incident. After all, they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.” A variation on this theme is: “What happened in London was terrible. But Iraq suffers as many casualties every day, and nobody in the West cares.”

The truth is somewhat more complex. There is no doubting the fact that, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, wars, invasions and occupations have to be paid for too, and usually in blood. Far too often, those paying this price are innocent civilians. Armed conflict invariably claims far more civilian victims than soldiers.

And because civilians are ‘soft targets’, they are the ones terrorists are likely to kill and maim. Unable to strike at well-protected government targets, the killers set off their explosives among crowds of ordinary people among whom they can mingle undetected. Quite apart from the morality of this murderous attack, in terms of tactics, it was a stupid move. The majority of the British people are against the war in Iraq, and support the right of the Palestinians to their own state. This atrocity will only alienate people sympathetic to the cause the bombers committed suicide for.

Although Londoners had long been mentally prepared for the attack, its source has come as a huge shock. Few people expected young Britons to so cruelly and wantonly kill their own countrymen. Had the bombers been Iraqis, the public would have at least seen the attack as a direct response to their government’s policies. Their grief and horror would not have been diminished, but at least the motive would have been clear.

There is currently a feeling of betrayal among even liberal Britons that has nothing to do with so-called Islamophobia. The thought that kids who grew up in British homes and streets, went to school with their children, and were given all the amenities of their generous welfare state, could have perpetrated such a wicked crime fills them with horror and disbelief.

As usual, we Pakistanis went into typical denial in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Our first reaction was: “How can Blair accuse Muslim extremists of the outrage? What proof does he have?” This soon changed to: “How can they suggest that young Pakistanis were behind it?” And finally: “The West always blames Pakistan for every terrorist atrocity.”

The fact is that apart from a vast network of terrorist groups in Pakistan, there is a groundswell of anti-western sentiment that sustains these extremists. The causes for this range from anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, to anti-liberalism and anti-secularism. This broad spectrum of causes unites the democratic left with the religious right, and leaves very few people in the middle.

There is a strong nexus between Pakistanis who migrated to the UK in the fifties and their descendants and the home country. Thus, attitudes here do influence those in the diaspora. And there is no shortage here of extremist and extremely violent dogmas. Since the seventies, when oil exporting countries suddenly became very rich, Saudi Arabia has used hundreds of millions of petro-dollars to push its rigid Wahabi/Salafi version of Islam. This embodies a virulently anti-West strain that has now infected Muslim thinking, especially among the young, across the world. In the subcontinent, Muslims have been further radicalized by the rigidly literalist Deobandi school.

British tolerance is also greatly to blame for the recent attack. An entire generation has grown up in the midst of a remarkable experiment in establishing a multi-cultural society. The various groups of immigrants making up the mosaic that is Britain today have been encouraged to retain their cultural and religious identity. Thus, instead of blending with the mainstream, Muslims have tended to stick together, usually in unattractive ghettos, some of which have become breeding spots for crime. Indeed, many of these are no-go areas for the police, and whites enter them at their peril.

For years, firebrand preachers have been spewing out a message of hate from mosques across Britain. Organizations like Hizb-ul-Tahrir and Al Mahajiroun poison young minds under the noses of the authorities. Thus far, officialdom has turned a blind eye to these extremist attitudes, fearing to offend Muslims in Britain, as well as decent liberals. This easygoing, tolerant ‘political correctness’ will be an early casualty of 7/7.

Muslims in Britain have a mantra which goes like this: “I am a good Muslim, and I am British.” The problem is that more and more people in the UK are seeing this as a contradiction in terms. Being British is more than having a passport proclaiming your nationality. The term implies that you are democratic, liberal, secular and follow the rule of law. None of these attributes are automatically applicable to Muslims.

By conferring citizenship on a foreigner, a society makes certain assumptions about his or her loyalty. If the new citizen is willing to accept the privileges and benefits that go with citizenship, he is also expected to transfer his allegiance to his new country. And while this process cannot be instantaneous, surely the second generation should be integrated into society their parents have decided to settle in.

Unfortunately, this has not proved to be the case for many Muslims, especially those from Pakistan. When pressed, they say they are Muslim first, Pakistani second, and British last. After 7/7, this is going to raise questions about their loyalty. Indeed, a backlash is already building up.

The French daily Le Monde sent a correspondent to Beeston in West Yorkshire to gauge public attitudes immediately after the London attack. He found a divided community where Pakistani gangs warred with white and black rivals. He quotes a bitter Fred Dibner on his Pakistani neighbours: “They don’t mind insulting our women, but if we insult theirs, they turn up to smash our windows...” The correspondent adds that Dibner spoke as though his tongue had been freed by the events of 7/7.

Regretfully, it will be more than tongues that will be freed. Despite odd incidents of racism, Britain has been an island of tolerance in an increasingly intolerant world. Even after 9/11, liberal attitudes mostly kept Islamophobia in check. Now, thanks to the actions of a few deluded men, the gloves will be coming off and Muslims, especially of Pakistani origin, are going to be singled out. I’m glad I’m back in Pakistan for the next few months.

We're Queer We're Here: Get Used to It.

So you want to do it-- love and all that jazz-- with your own gender, so what? Who cares? Except that enough people do for it to be an issue. Here's a tidy piece by a gay Pakistani who prefers being gay in Pakistan-- the letters following his piece are particulary interesting-- he's ovbiously living in the Helite (and yes plenty of gays and lesbians there, and thank Allah for that), however the letters represent the rest of Pakistan-- the little minority there also known as the majority.

Heil the Leader

Interesting write up on Texas, the Bushs and The Little People.

'It started with having to wipe residue from off of my car. Then the iron on my rooftop here started to get corroded, and the trees were dying. Sometimes I have to come inside because my eyes are burning.'

Harold and Kumar

I was not enthralled by the film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Granted it shows two non-white guys getting stoned, getting the munchies, and wanting to get the girls i.e. typical white frat boy movies scenario, but that didn't cut it for me. I felt the movie was rife with stereo types-- Indian must be a doctor, Asian cannot woo a girl-- while the humor belonged to the school of 'I slip on a banana peel and break my hip while onlookers laugh humor'. Here is an interesting review in Chowk by Samina Shahidi. If you want to watch a cutting edge, smart and funny US minority movie go rent Better Luck Tomorrow.

Bios of 7/7 London bombers

I may have written a novel about an ordinary boy turning into an angry young man but here are two profiles on the real deal. Mohammed Khan was a teacher whose classes loved him and Shehzad Tanweer was a boy into sports. It is eerie how family and friends are adamant that they suspected nothing, that in fact a day before the suicide bombings the bombers seemed to be going about their 'normal' everyday lives.

Here is a tale of failed recruitment.

Shop Till You Drop Like a Desi

So manufacturers are more and more catching on that there is a huge market in the desi community (Translation: they like us coz they dig our money). So does this mean we will begin to see more and more the token brown-face (usually Indian-- but then Indian may be the enemy in Pakistan but in the US our Indian bhai and behen is bonafide community) in advertisements in the mainstream media. Get ready yo for Generation Desi (courtesy MTV) and what all and be all that will mean for generational alienation and cultural integration.

1982: On 1st Novels and 1st time Novelists

I have heard over and over again how it is better to be a debut novelist with no record rather than a 2nd timer with a dismal sales record for a first novel no matter how good the reviews were, so it's a change to read about 1st novels having to scrounge to find homes.

fewer publishers are willing to take a risk today—it used to be easier," she says. "You must make the distinction between commercial and literary fiction, though. For a first novel that’s a horror story, mystery or a family saga, particularly one suitable for paperback publications, there may not be as much of a problem getting published. Serious fiction is much harder.

Cosmopolitan London

Following is an excerpt from blogger EuropeanSurrenderMonkey at KOS:

You might think this was an attack on "White People". If so, you don't know this city. There were Bengali chefs on their way from Camden to the West End when that bus blew up. There were Turkish bankers on their way from Stoke Newington to the City when one tube went up, Pakistani civil servants with a nasty commute from Tooting to King's Cross when another went up, Ghanaian shop assistants heading from East Ham to Bayswater when the Liverpool Street train went.

We are the central front, those of us in the big cities in the West with our multi-national multi-class populations and our dodgily liberal politics, and our counterparts in the developing world megacities like Casablanca and Jakarta, not to mention Baghdad and Basra. Al-Qa'eda don't check that their going to kill Bush-Blair supporting racists before they set off a bomb.

London 7/7 attacks

What a horrid world we live in. Aren't there enough problems with famine, disease, poverty, forced prostitution, child molestation, human trafficking, natual disasters like tsunamis etc...etc...etc... without having to add attacks of a terrorist ilk to the fold. How far are the terrorists going to go? And how far are retaliations going to go without 'seriously' impinging on civil liberties? Is there a solution to this? God I hope so, for my children and all the children in the world.
I hated having to call England to check if my family and friends there were okay, hated having to think of people whose family and friends are not all right.

Lahore City

Lahore, Pakistan's cultural seat, is my hometown, a city in which I've lived the best of times and the worst of times, a city I associate with shawls, cigarettes and tea in the winter, bare chested boys diving into the murky waters of the canal in the summer, and earthworms writhing in the driveway in the monsoon rains. It is a city where Mughal gardens are today full of joggers, red brick British behemouths are still fully functional as schools and courts, and Heera Mandi, the red light district and oldest area in Lahore, goes about its nightly duties as always. I have lived in many cities over the years and Lahore is always the bull's eye: everything I write is colored by it. Bapsi Sidhwa feels the same way. Here she talks about Lahore as an inspiration to her and other writers through out the ages.

First Fiction Blues

Another depressing read about first fiction, publicity and how its all so hopeless.

The Halo Effect

I am currently reading MJ Rose's The Halo Effect, a pocket book thriller ($ 6.99-- I have not bought a book this 'cheap' since...well, a long time, and I like it) involving a sex therapist, a missing client of hers and murder. I am fifty pages into it (a review will be forthcoming once it's read) and am enjoying it. Though not the literary tpyes I generally tend to read, The Halo Effect is a gripping, fast paced story with intriguing characters, and reading about sexual quirks is always highly sexy.
I read Rose's In Fidelity many years ago and galloped through the mother/daughter story. MJ has a unique grasp for sensual writing without turning it tawdry. The Halo Effect has a wonderful vidlit (video-literature) here. You can also read the first chapter of the novel, as well as why MJ wrote it here (a deligthful read about MJ at the sex therapist's office lying about why she's there)
For each blog that links to the vidlit until July 19 MJ pledges $ 5 to the nonprofit organization Reading is Fundamental.

Name Changing

Post 9/11 Tariq changes his name to Daniel and job offers begin pouring in for the same jobs that didn't call back when he sent in the identical resume under his parent-given name.
Tariq/Daniel's advice is to viewbeing a Muslim in today's times as a particularly challenging PR problem, and that one needn't wear one's culture on one's sleeve. I have a Jordanian guy-friend who is planning to legally change his name rather than put up with any more flak here in the US. This is practical indeed-- far better to have a job then to stubbornly hold onto your name and proclaim that the world has got to get back to its senses and work fairly. But 'practical' usually implies compromise, and though compromise is as essential in life as salt is to flavor foods, this name changing just doesn't sit right with me. What Tariq/Daniel has gone through is racism through nomenclature discrimination and by name changing bigots are getting away with their behaviour.
Today one changes one's name...what will one be willing to change tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

Paedophiles throw acid on two children

Paedophiles throw acid on two children
from Daily Times, Lahore newspaper

MULTAN: Two servants of a feudal lord threw acid on a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old younger brother at Chak No 63/EB (Luddan) after the youngsters rejected their sexual advances. Police refused to register a case against the men initially. Fauzia and Kashif were washing their clothes near a tube well owned by a local feudal, when two of his servants, Muhammad Aslam and Muhammad Nawaz, approached them and made suggestive remarks. The children berated the men, who retaliated by throwing acid on them. The children, along with their counsel Munir Ahmed Ghauri, went to Civil Judge and Local Magistrate Shaukat Javed’s court and asked for justice. Judge Javed told Vehari district health officer to give immediate medical assistance to the victims and ordered the police to register a case. Ghauri told the court that the police had refused to register their complaint and the medical officer had refused to issue them a medico-legal certificate without the police document. staff report