Issue 53 Vol III, December 15, 2007

A N A L Y S I S

Reprieve at last
Ishtiaq Ahmed

Once again, ample proof is in hand to suspect that the contemporary world of Islam is in deep moral and intellectual turmoil. A British school teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who arrived only recently in Sudan in August to teach in primary school, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison for allegedly blasphemy against religion and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by allowing a student in her class to name her teddy-bear, Muhammad.

I am convinced that although some law on blasphemy does exist in the Sudan, and it does mention that insulting the Prophet (PBUH) carries severe punishment, including the death sentence, the Sudanese lawmakers, as also the original medieval sources, could not have imagined that someone wanting to insult the Prophet (PBUH) would do it by naming a toy after him.

The sentence she received – 15 days in prison – was very lenient for blasphemy, and that largely proves my point: even the authorities are fully aware of the fact that Mrs Gibbons had not even the foggiest idea that naming a teddy-bear in the manner that happened will be construed as an insult to the Prophet (PBUH). Anyone familiar with British or Western cultural practices would know that when pets and toys are given human names it is an indication of affection and fondness and not contempt or insult.

Many years ago, something similar happened in Stockholm. A Swedish dignitary (whose identity I would like to keep anonymous) had named one of his pets, Ali. Some Pakistani students studying at the Royal Technical University got to know about it and wanted to take out a procession to protest the perceived sacrilege and insult. Just by chance, I happened to listen to their angry speeches. After everybody had spoken, I took the floor and urged them not to jump to conclusions before finding out if he had named his pet out of fondness or not. Ali is an easy and popular name and has universal appeal. One can start liking it with all the good intentions instead of prejudice and hatred.

My argument was fortunately accepted by the people who had come to the meeting. It was agreed that a letter should be written to that person, explaining that Ali is a highly revered name among Muslims and pets should never be named Ali. Within days a reply came back with an apology, regretting the hurt it had caused. It was explained that there was no malicious intentions involved; rather he found the name Ali very lovable. He thanked the letter-writers for correcting him. The matter ended there and then.

I know I did not please the group of rabble-rousers who just wanted to make political capital out of an innocent mistake of someone not familiar with Muslim sensibilities. The irony was that these troublemakers were studying free of charge in the famous Swedish engineering university. As educated people their first duty was to find out the intention of the person in question rather than jump to the nastiest of conclusions.

The cultural fascists -- a phenomenon now common all over the world -- claiming to speak in the name of Islam in Sudan took to the streets chanting slogans for the lady teacher's execution for blaspheming against the Prophet (PBUH) without making any effort to find out if there existed any reasonable grounds to suspect that insult to Islam was intended.

Why should someone come to Sudan and start working in a school to give vent to her alleged hatred against Islam makes no sense to someone looking for a rational basis to prove Mrs Gibbon's guilty. On the Internet, currently people who want to insult religion actively do it all the time. The only thing to note in this regard is that not only rabidly anti-Islamic websites exist, but a sort of perverted 'level playing field' obtains and Jesus, the Jews, the Hindus and their gods and indeed Islam – all are described in derogatory terms. Most often those who do this are religious bigots who can't tolerate other faiths and beliefs. Why a middle-aged school teacher would leave her family in Liverpool in order to teach seven-years olds in Sudan is probably more of an indication of an idealist or someone completely naïve. At least she must be totally non-political, not to be aware of the fact that the British government has earned the wrath of the Sudanese government for alleging that genocide is taking place in Darfur.

The British government has been an outspoken critic of such Sudanese policies, although since its own hands are red with the blood of innocent Iraqis the hypocrisy inherent in its stand cannot escape being noticed. In any case, the political fallout of the British government's criticism of what the Sudanese regime has been doing in Darfur could have played a role in getting Mrs Gibbons in trouble.

It is good, then, that the visit to Sudan by two Muslim peers from the British House of Lords, Lord Ahmed and Lady Warsi, ended with Mrs Gibbons release. The peers met the Sudanese president and were able to convince him that the teacher should be pardoned because she did not intend to blaspheme. In an increasingly globalised and pluralised world it is important that channels of communications are kept open so that misunderstandings can be removed quickly.

But this is not going to be the last incident of its kind that will erupt into angry protests and agitation in the Muslim world. There is a rage that pervades the Muslim world, because of a huge gap between its own self-image as the best of all civilizations and the fact that it feels powerlessness vis-à-vis the west. Such a discrepancy between self-image and the negative stark reality has set in motion psychological forces that generate professional agitators, rabble-rousers and even suicide bombers.

Westerners coming to work in the Muslim world should be advised to take lessons in the cultural sensibilities of the people they want to live among and work. Relations between the west and Muslims have reached the nadir, because of the conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan and elsewhere. If one were to believe Samuel Huntington, these relations will never become friendly because civilizations represent competing tribes. This is a sad though not necessarily correct conclusion, but at present it seems to hold water.

[The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore, on leave from the University of Stockholm. Email: isasia@nus.edu.sg courtesy News International Pakistan.]

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Russian Voters Give a Strong Anti-West Mandate
Sawraj Singh

THE recent Parliamentary election results in Russia showed that the Russian voters gave a very strong anti-West mandate. America and the Western European countries are very frustrated with the results and are proving to be sore losers. They are complaining that the elections were not fair. However, President Putin’s United Russia party and the other anti-West parties beat the pro-Western parties with such a huge margin that the victory can be called a landslide. And one has to conclude that there is a strong pro-Putin sentiment in Russia. Putin made opposing the West the main issue in the election.

He said that the West has humiliated and weakened Russia. He said that he wanted to restore the prestige of Russia in the world. He severely criticized the Western democracy and called his opponents jackals of the West. The organization for security and cooperation in Europe cancelled plans to send observers to watch the election. Putin said this decision was taken under pressure from America and its purpose was to decide the election.

Putin’s party, United Russia, received 64.1% votes and won 315 seats out of 450.  The Communist party got 11.6% votes and won 57 seats. The other two pro-Kremlin parties also won seats. The nationalists’ liberal Democratic Party got 8.2% of the vote and the Just Russia party obtained 7.8% of the votes. According to the Russian laws, a party has to win at least 7% of the votes to win a seat in the Duma (parliament). None of the pro-Western parties could get 7% of the votes; therefore, they will have no members in the Duma.

Compared to the last parliamentary election, more people voted in this election. In that election 56% of the voters cast their vote. During this election, 63% of the voters cast their vote. There was a strong sentiment among the voters that the West humiliated Russia and that President Putin strengthened Russia and restored its prestige in the world.

It appears that after receiving such a strong mandate from the Russian people, President Putin will continue to play a crucial role in leading Russia towards regaining its lost glory. According to the Russian law, he cannot become the president for another term. Therefore, he’s thinking of becoming either the prime minister or the speaker of the house.

President Putin brought fundamental changes in the Russian policy. Gorbachev with his Perastoika and then Yeltsin both followed a pro-Western policy. Because of their policies, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian economy was on the verge of bankruptcy. President Putin changed the course and tilted Russia to the East by aligning it with China.

The friendship with China and the rising prices of gas and oil helped Russia to become economically strong. The real estate in Moscow is now the most expensive in the world. Russia is restoring its prestige in the world. The vast majority of the Russian people are very happy with President Putin. India should also learn from the Russian experience and should start looking east.

[Sawraj Singh M.D. F.I.C.S. Chairman, Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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Where are the toilets, please?

CITY dwellers who have had neither a past nor a present link with the rural India would wonder that majority of the 70 per cent people who live in over 5.5 lakh villages have no toilets to answer the call of nature. Roughly 55 crore Indian citizens have no access even to most primitive kind of toilets. It is sixty years that we attained freedom from the British imperial yoke. While defecating in the open leads to host of diseases, for women and children it is particularly distressing and irksome to go the fields to ease themselves.

Now village council candidates in India are being asked not to stand for election if they do not have a toilet at home. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Rural Development Minister in a letter to all chief ministers, said this toilet rule should be set out in law. He found too many elected members "do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open". This was the main cause of the high incidence of diarrhoea in rural areas. About 70% of India's billion-plus population lives in its more than 550,000 rural villages. "It is unfortunate that a large number of elected village council members and rural government officers do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open," Mr Singh's letter said.

More than 65% of India's rural population defecated in the open, along roadsides, railway tracks and fields, generating huge amounts of excrement every day. "This finds its way into the water sources," Mr Singh said.

"It is essential to obtain their commitment to the sanitation agenda in view of the influence they exercise in the rural areas," the letter said.

Some states have already made amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act, which deals with the election of village councils, to ensure that elected members have toilet facilities in their households. The rural development minister suggested all chief ministers make similar provisions. "Only then can we eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2010," he says.

The central government has already launched a Total Sanitation Campaign in which awareness is being created regarding the ill-effects of open defecation. Sanitation promotion requires social mobilisation on a large scale and cannot be achieved by a few individuals but by collective involvement of all sections of society," the letter says.

The minister wants the people to change their behaviour and adopt better sanitation and hygiene practices. But how? Does he have an answer? The people have little choice when their daily run is for two square meals.

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