My Thoughts on Mumbai, Part II

I’m going to pick up where I left off: Part I.

Since I last wrote, the tension between India and Pakistan has slowly been rising along the border. Both nations have moved troops nearer to the Line of Control (LOC). And lest you forget: both countries have nuclear weapons. Not a pretty picture, folks. The sky, literally, is darkening in South Asia.

Arundhati Roy, one of India’s most prominent human rights activists and an award-winning author (and all around great human being) wrote a ridiculously awesome piece in the UK Guardian about how the Mumbai attacks were NOT India’s 9/11.

India’s 150 million Muslims are its most persecuted, oppressed, underprivileged social group. They live shorter lives, have lower access to jobs and education, and live in increasingly segregated ghettoes in India’s largest cities. And this is not a new phenomenon, the situation has progressively grown worse in the years after Partition in 1947. The Sachar Report, mentioned in my previous post, attests to all of the above as proven fact. So what does this have to do with Mumbai?

To quote Ms. Roy:

“We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?”

There you have it.

As long as the Indian government continues to shit on Indian Muslims’ human rights as a whole…as long as religious extremist groups like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),Sangh Parivar and Shriv Sena, (associated with India’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, all of whom have been associated with terrorist activities) can operate without impunity, murdering Muslims like in the state of Gujarat in 2001 without fear of punishment then we will have no peace. As long as men like Babu Bajrangi, one the chief organizers of the said Gujarat genocide (MUST READ: Tehelka magazines expose, complete with spycam footage) can say this:

“We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don’t want to be cremated, they’re afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don’t care if I’m hanged … just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay … I will finish them off … let a few more of them die … at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die.” (UK Guardian)

Then India has no hope. And worse: no justice.

As long as Narendra Modi, Bajrangi’s mentor and ARCHITECT of the murder of over 2000 Muslims can remain Chief Minister  of Gujarat, there is no justice. As long as the policemen who stood by, and better yet participated in the murder of their own countrymen were promoted and rewarded (and the majority were)…there is no justice. As long as Babu Bajrangi, the man so eloquently (ha) quoted above, can live peacefully on bail, without fear of any jailtime, there is NO JUSTICE.

So this is the message being sent to the Indian populace: You can treat your Muslim countrymen like shit. You can burn their homes, hack them to death, rape their women and burn their mosques. Don’t worry about serving any jailtime for it: you just might become the Chief Minister of a state.  And if they try to fight back, just call them terrorists. It’s an easy label anytime a Muslim (whether here, in America or anywhere) gets uppity.

This is where the roots of our anger lie. Again, violence does not begat violence, and I am so proud of the restraint and diplomacy Indian Muslims have shown after the attacks on Mumbai (which again, not one Indian Muslim was responsible for). The question remains: When the hell will India wake up to the fact that 15% of its population is living under the most shit-intolerable conditions? When will Indians realize that if they don’t punish the crime of genocide being committed against its own people, that Muslim Indians will totally lose faith in the Indian state?

In the words of Arundhati Roy:

“The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We’re standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There’s no third sign and there’s no going back. Choose.”

Murder in the Gaza Strip

Today two hundred and seventy one people were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Palestine.

This was the deadliest single day death toll in the history of the Palestinian territories after 1967. Men, women and children were killed. More than a third of the dead were civilians.

Israel claims this is in response to rocket attacks from Hamas. The death toll from these alleged attacks?

One.

And those are how the facts stand. Palestinian dead: 271. Israeli dead: 1. There’s something WRONG with this damn picture, folks.

A country with a nuclear arsenal that could rival the United States launched a sustained attack on alleged Hamas targets, all of which were surrounded by civilians. Hospitals nearby had their windows blown out, already overflowing with the sick and dying. All of this inflicted on a city that where the majority of people are malnourished and living in what amounts to a humanitarian crisis.

The idea that Israel’s actions can be construed as some sort of “defense” is ludicrous. The sheer magnitude and deadliness of the bombings on Gaza in comparison to the rocket fire allegedly from Hamas (which hasn’t been proven and to this date, has killed ONE person in Israel) is so ridiculously lopsided it boggles the mind. An analogy comes to mind: a fly buzzes near your ear. In retaliation, you run the fly over with your car. The fly is Palestine. You are Israel. Even Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations had this to say: “[Mr. Ban Ki-Moon] urged an immediate halt to the violence, condemning what he called Israel’s “excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians.”

No, the only way to describe Israel’s attack on Gaza City today is the following: crime against humanity. And the rest of the world, with the exception of the United States, seems to agree. This is what that bitched-out to AIPAC a-hole from the Bush Administration (Some would call her Condeleeza Rice) had to say:

“”We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected.”

Really, Condi? Really? So what about the fact that for the past couple of months, Israel has repeatedly violated the terms of its agreement? Like refusing to allow steady supplies of FOOD and WATER into Gaza? And if there is nothing to hide, than why were almost all journalists stopped from entering the city? Acts of aggression by Israeli tanks along Gaza city’s borders don’t violate that agreement either eh?

And here’s the REALLY BIG QUESTION: If Israel can defend itself…so can’t Palestine? Do Palestinians not have the right to live? Do they not have the right to fight back against the unchecked destruction of their homes and daily siege by the Israeli military? WHY the hell can’t Gaza defend itself in the exact same way Israel is and bomb the living shit out of a city in Israel?

No, because apparently if you’re an Israeli soldier and you kill someone, you’re merely “defending” your nation. A Palestinian who does the EXACT SAME is a terrorist. Simple racist math folks.

and again, as it stands:

Palestine=271 dead. Israel=1.

Relationshipolitik

FYI: This is gonna be a departure from my more “traditional” politically-oriented writespeak. But as I always say, politics are everywhere!

Romantic relationships have always occupied a unique place in American society. Endless rom-com TV shows, movies, and novels have been written about finding that “one true love” and in what context (marriage, tragedy, adultery, comedy–in no particular order). What’s funny is that there seems to be a real reluctance to politicize this stuff–to look at and criticize the realm of romantic attachment as a unique social and cultural contract, ever changing and always controversial.

Case in point: As a twenty-something who came of age in the post- dot com/millenial (apparently that’s what its called now) era, the hookup culture is a huge part of our social scene.  The NY Times recently published a commentary on the “Demise of Dating”. It suggests that the “hookup” (i.e. two people having a brief, seemingly random romantic attachment, which may or may not involve sex) has completely replaced dating–the requisite going out to dinner, lunch, or movie–as the context for romantic relationships.

So is this really the case? Is the hookup culture universal? And what does it really mean, anyway?

I’m not going to argue that the folks at NYT were completely off the mark. They aren’t. But it speaks to a subset of our society, and ignores the many cultural, social, and political factors that play into phenomenon. Take the gender binary, for example (I’m going to go with the straight-person perspective here). The way we as young people perceive relationships has a lot do with the gender equity and the balance of power between men and women.

If anything, I think that this sort of culture downplays emotional connection, trust, and mutual respect. The current status quo, heavily favors the dude side of things. Yes, there are women who believe that the playing field has been equalized to some degree, but I would argue that what has happened instead is a lowering of expectations. Young women no longer expect to be treated respectfully and have their companionship treated as a privilege. Men as absolved of any responsibility towards earning a woman’s trust before anything further happens. And whether you believe that marriage the stable nexus around to which raise a family: stable, lasting relationships are. I really don’t think our current culture is conducive to that.

Secondly, I would argue that the hookup culture is far from universal. America is a rapidly diversifying nation. People come from all sorts of religious, cultural, and native traditions that teach different attitudes with regards to marriage, sex, etc. Take Islam, for example, which stresses the marriage contract as the basis for male-female romantic relationships. As a result, young Muslims raised in the U.S. are exposed to radically different conceptualizations of how men and women should relate: through a traditional marriage framework based on religion, and the dating/hookup scene. Whether or not you agree one is more “right” than the other is a moot point. The reality is, we end up with some strange in-between. People date/hookup/etc at school or away from home, and among family they prescribe to tradition. What does this mean for our future? I really can’t say.

So what does our culture of romantic relationships say about our generation in general? I’ve given my opinion, but the discussion is far from over. Only the future will tell.

My thoughts on Mumbai: Part I

By now, many of you have been inundated with coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.  India, with all of its complicated communal, religious, and cultural conflicts was reduced to the America-like binary: the good citizens of India and the crazy Islamic Terrorists. A simple script for everyone here to digest; in fact many went as far as to call it “India’s 9/11″ ( bullshit comparison, as very convincingly argued in this well written editorial piece in the UK Guardian.

I can’t even begin to start on how simplistic and erroneous that perspective is. And as a Muslim of South Indian ancestry, I feel that I have to tell a side of the story that has been rather conveniently neglected by the media.

So what do we need to know?

Firstly, that India is home to about 151 million Muslims- the second largest population in the world, after Indonesia. That was a much larger number before the Partition of India and Pakistan, though those who remain form India’s largest minority group and nearly 15%. Secondly, Indian Muslims have traditionally been adherents of a moderate, progressive and Sufi-oriented (Islamic mysticism) strand of Islam. And lastly: the Indian Muslims of today are disproportionately poorer, less educated, most segregated and systematically oppressed group in all levels of society in India today.Don’t believe me? Read the Sachar Report, an objective analysis of the status of India’s Muslims by the Indian Parliament.

OK, so why does this matter you ask? especially since the “terrorists” were from Pakistan anyway?

Well here’s the kicker: it really doesn’t matter. The politics of communalism (i.e. ethnic and religious politics) run so deep in India that in the end, right-wing Hindutva (Hindu extremist) parties point their finger at the easiest target in their backyard: Indian Muslims. And in a place like South Asia, this isn’t some tame political issue. People actually die in mass ethnic violence and large-scale genocide. Actually, Muslims end up dying 9 times out of 10, and get blamed for attacks like those in Mumbai whether they were actually involved or not.

It makes me wonder. We’ve gone out of our way to apologize for the actions of “Muslim” terrorists who attacked Mumbai (In what way they represent Islam to any degree? not at ALL). We’ve held marches and prominent religious groups like Deoband seminary and Jamaat-ul-Hind have all issued repudiations of terrorism. But why does it seem like we’re the only ones apologizing?

Where are the Hindus apologizing for the inhumane massacre of over three thousand Muslims in Gujarat by Hindu extremists? (which by the way, happened only seven years ago?) Extending that line of thought: where are the Christians apologizing for George Bush’s shenanigans in Iraq that have left countless thousands of innocent Iraqis dead? Do I see any Jews apologizing for the shit conditions the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip have to live in every day?

This is not to diminish the horror of what happened in Mumbai. What those men did morally defunct and showed an utter disrespect for human life. But until I see some equanimity: i.e. everyone else being taken to task, namely Hindutva extremists in India and the others listed above for the murders committed in the name of religion, there will be no true justice. In the mind of many in the Muslim world, our lives are seemingly worthless, for when thousands of us die–whether in Iraq, India, what have you–no one blinks an eye, and no one feels compelled to make us an apology. Meanwhile, every time some whack-ass nutjob commits a murder ostensibly in the name of Islam, all of us have to apologize for that person.

That’s it for now. I’m gonna continue in Pt. II, so stay tuned.

4 AM Musings

I’ve always found the night more comfortable than the day: quieter, calmer- the darkness cloaking the harshness of the world. People put aside their burdens, joys, their studies and work for a few hours (hopefully more) to rest.

Well, everyone except for me. I have to admit, it wasn’t anything cool or scandalous that kept me awake until this hour. Medical school kept me awake until at least 3 AM. The rest is all my doing.

I like to reflect on my day in the time before I sleep. Creature of the night I am, the most revealing thoughts always seem to surface. For example: I was struck profoundly by two people I had the privilege of meeting today. Both had sickle cell anemia, and came to our class to speak to their experience with the health care system.  And both were black. One described going to an emergency room and being left there for hours in excruciating pain because the doctors, thinking he was a drug addict, couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him.

The obvious: as an African American, the treatment you receive in the country by the health care system is not equal with that of white people. This statistically proven fact. Yet I cannot believe the callousness and ignorance of doctors who couldn’t recognize a disease as simply proven as sickle cell anemia.

I find myself getting more and more disappointed with the physicians that I hear about on a daily basis. But as always, hope springs eternal. I do hope that I can find it.