INSAF Bulletin [18]   October 1, 2003
	Postal Address: Box 272, Westmount Stn., QC, Canada H3Z 2T2 (Tel. 514 346-9477)
	(e-mail: insaf@insaf.net; View the old bulletins)

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                   Editor : Daya Varma (Montreal)
   Editorial Board: Vaqar Ahmed (Montreal), Dominic Vikram Babu (Montreal), Vinod Mubayi (New York)
   Advisory Board: Hari Sharma (Vancouver), Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad), Vithal Rajan (Hyderabad, India)

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Sep 24, 2003: Too soon after the death of Professor Eqbal Ahmed, passes away Professor Edward Said (1935-2003).

Op-Eds

	India is far bigger than Indira – or Vajpayee - Vinod Mubayi
	Can there be a common political platform for South Asia? - Daya Varma
	Dalits, Vote bank, Violence - I.K. Shukla
	Many ways of stereotyping Muslims - Daya Varma
	Unceremonious visit of Vajpayee to Columbia University - Sekhar Ramakrishnan

	News Briefs
	Advani Remains Accused in the Eyes of the People
	Muslims for Secular Democracy
	TADA case against Yasin Malik dismissed
	Students detained for using camera near American Center, New Delhi
	Globe and Mail article praises Nepal Maoists
	Strong indictment of Modi government by the Supreme Court
	Joint India-America military exercise
	Vajpayee yields to public pressure against sending troops to Iraq
	Citizens seek withdrawal of TADA cases against CPI(ML) activists
	White House knew Saddam was no threat
	Burning US flags to greet Bush in Philippines
	Prominent Jews dissociate themselves from the state of Israel

	Obituary
	Edward Said (1935-2003)
	Edward Said Obits
	Edward Said Essays
	Edward Said Bibliography
	Edward Said Awards
	Electronic Intifada

Montreal Events

Op-Eds

	India is far bigger than Indira – or Vajpayee
	Vinod Mubayi

Three decades ago, at the height of Mrs. Gandhi’s fame and power, a Congress sycophant D.K. Barua came up with the slogan “India is Indira and Indira is India”. More recently, the votaries of the BJP are trying something similar with Vajpayee, the only unblemished figure, in their eyes, in a gallery of decidedly lesser mortals that constitute the BJP leadership, some barely one step away from jail.

National elections are around the corner. The BJP’s record is utterly dismal; the fascist Narendra Modi may be ruling Gujarat, Hindutva’s own “laboratory”, but he is an embarrassment everywhere else. Scams abound; Tehelka was merely the tip of an iceberg. Bereft of achievements to point to, the BJP is once again trying to revive the Ramjanmabhoomi Mandir-Masjid controversy with the assistance of a blatantly distorted report from a once-professional government agency, the Archaeological Survey of India, now reduced, like the NCERT, by its Hindutva masters to another international laughing stock.

In the intellectual, spiritual, and moral vacuum they find themselves in, the BJP publicists have resorted to slogans, adorning their leaders as various types of heroic “purusha” (men). Thus we have “loha-purusha” (iron man), “vikas-purusha” (development man), and “maha-purusha” (great man). The last one is clearly meant to be Vajpayee. His achievement, if one can call it that, is that he has so far avoided doing anything that could bring him into trouble with the law, unlike his closest colleague, the “loha-purusha”, who barely escaped indictment by a court in U.P. under the Criminal Procedure Code a couple of weeks ago.

Mrs. Gandhi’s road to fame was also paved with catchy slogans, but they mostly had a populist content like “garibi hatao” that was directed, at least verbally, at the masses. The BJP of course has no use for such slogans. Its economic program of privatization and liberalization is solidly aimed at the elite; for the poor a steady diet of “om jaye jagadish hare” is supposed to suffice in normal times, however, when political exigencies require it, another Ayodhya, or a Gujarat style minority pogrom can always be unleashed.

Future predictions are always hazardous. No one knows or can say with any confidence what damage Hindutva has wrought on the nation’s moral and political fabric or how permanent it is. Indications, however, are that India will survive the BJP’s assault on and insult to the rich and diverse fabric of India’s multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic society. India was not Indira and assuredly India is not Vajpayee or the BJP or even Hindutva. It is something bigger, something greater, and all indications are that it will remain that.

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	Can there be a common political platform for South Asia?
	Daya Varma

Constituting South Asian as distinct from national organizations seems right thing to do; it is assumed that it reflects a progressive outlook, defies national chauvinism, aspires for unity among South Asian people and countries and so on. For this and other lofty reasons, many of us have organized ourselves as South Asian groups. INSAF too is an acronym for International South Asia Forum (INSAF). FOIL (Federation of Indian Leftists) is desperately searching for a new name, which would identify its South Asian as opposed to Indian approach; the search for this new entity is so intense that more Foilers have expressed their bit of opinion on this than on other issues of lesser importance.

There is an implicit assumption that a national group cannot fully reflect a progressive South Asian or international outlook; it is also assumed that Diaspora with origin in different South Asian countries need to unite into a single formation rather than as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and so on. This trend towards South Asian formation is a departure from the earlier practice, which was reflected in groups like IPANA (Indian Peoples Association in North America) or Pakistan Progressives; perhaps this departure also reflects the weakening of national democratic struggles.

In any case, a South Asian formation requires at least a minimum common South Asian platform, which in turn requires minimum common demands by and common aspiration of the masses of these countries. One can therefore ask if political climate for a South Asian formation within or outside South Asia does exist. SARC has miserably failed not only because of fear of Indian hegemony but also because of the marked differences in polity within different countries. Here I raise just one issue – that of secularism; other issues such as parliamentary democracy, gender equality etc too need to be considered.

Secularism has been the guiding principle of India; there still exist sufficient constraints within India, one of which is a functionaing parliamentary democracy despite all its weaknesses, so that even the Sangh Parivar with its political, social and military battalions has not been able to formally make India a Hindu Rasthtra. Like India, Bangladesh too started as a secular democracy but it could not escape from the effect of its original basis of separation from India and soon became an Islamic republic. Pakistan has been forever an Islamic Republic; hardly any one challenges this; at the most it is pointed out from time to time that Jinnah founded it on the basis of religion but wanted to govern it as a secular state. Whatever be the case, no South Asian group, to my knowledge, demands that Pakistan should also become secular. A great majority of the membership of almost all South Asian organizations is also Indian. The only issue where a common platform has proved fruitful is the demand for peace between India and Pakistan; this could be the reason that Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and democracy skipped the term secularism and this may also be the reason why it has gathered a mass base and been successful in implementing its mandate.

It would seem that despite a common historic root of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the concept of South Asia has been reduced to a geographical rather than a political construct. Because Indians outnumber Pakistanis and far outnumber Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Sri Lankan in any South Asian organization, they determine the name and the content of the organization. May be this is the prerogative of progressive Indians.

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	Dalits, Vote bank, Violence
	I.K. Shukla

In view not only of what happened in Gujarat but is threatening to happen on a continual basis in the electoral culture of Hindu fascism it is necessary to look a little closely into the Dalit question.

It is supposed that only Dalits should speak on issues pertaining to them. If Kanshi Ram and Mayawati exemplify the kind of spokesmen that Dalits have, it must be admitted that they inspire no confidence and that they did much disservice to the Dalit cause.

Kanshi Ram and Mayawati visited Gujarat to stump for Modi and his communal-fascist gangsters. They endorsed and encouraged thus the project of India becoming a Hindu Rashtra a la Gujarat under the bloody brutes of HinduTaliban, who have nothing in common with Hinduism except their accidentally Hindu-sounding names.

Political contingencies and exigencies certainly must be factored in which would involve adaptation and adjustment to circumstances unforeseen or unimagined. Unimagined? Politics is the game imaginatively to provide for solutions in the event of unpredictable variables. But a party, ideologicaly committed, need not court disaster and disgrace time and again by its lurch into unprincipled behavior.

UP saw the spectacle of Mayawati's illusionist antics thrice and the Dalit cause was not edified or empowered by it unless we confuse the leap in the personal fortunes of the leaders with that of their constituency, the destitue and deprived mass of people, called a minority by some demograhic sleight of hand.

Have these leaders been able to instil fearlessness and a sense of security and solidarity in the hearts and minds of the oppressed? Wishful thinking and bursts of ceremonial sloganeering apart, the answer, in tangible terms, would be NO, if facts of life are to be admitted honestly.

Have these leaders made common cause with other oppressed sections of the citizenry, the other reviled and ravaged "minorities" like say Christians, Muslims, and Adivasis? Again, the answer is a resounding No. It would seem, they do not think it necessary to bond with the other exploited Indians in order to defeat the monster of social iniquity of the ages, or the statist enforcement of the same by means devious and deplorable.

Self-delusion could not be more fatal.

What these "leaders" have really succeeded in doing is their projection of the Dalits as a viable vote bank. Just a vote bank. A vote bank on the auction block. A vote bank open to the lure of the lucre. A vote bank susceptible to fraud and force by anyone. A vote bank amenable to an anti-social spree. A vote bank available for hire to commit crimes against humanity in exchange for drink, drugs, dope, and dollops of money. It is another matter that the big money goes to the honchos among them, not to the poverty-pulverized plebeians.

How formidably and ferally Dalits have been used as killers, arsonists, rapists, and brigands in Gujarat, the laboratory of Ram Rajya aka as Hindutwa (Hindu Fascism), points the way they would be used in all the planned pogroms against various segments of society henceforward, be they dissenters, independents, democrats, secularists, or just members of a minority community. This is an ugly and prospectively ubiquitous prospect, horrifically violent and diabolically vicious.

Dalits to be used as slaughterers and scavengers, decimating other minorities, for the well being of Hindutva cabal, for the perpetuation of ancient wrongs and modern crimes, for prolonging the tyranny of those parasites and predators who are charged with treason and who have been found committed to moral turpitude as a matter of principle and to their founding dogma of ethnic cleansing (genocide) of the minorities.

The forthcoming elections in four states and Lok Sabha may spell the doomsday for our minorities.

Dalits desecrating democracy, and destroying it, at the behest and in the interests of their tormentors, the staus quoist tyrants, the redoubtable saffronazis, the inveterate enemies of India. Dalis helping India become Gujarat?

Could Dr Ambedkar have foreseen this? Could even Gandhi have visualised it?

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	Many ways of stereotyping Muslims
	Daya Varma

The history of human kind is inseparable from the role religion has played in war and peace, in prosperity and poverty, and in violence and harmony. Likewise, suppression of an entire community because of their religion has been catastrophic.

We are well aware of the atrocities against Muslims of India committed by the extended Sangh Parivar. But stereotyping Muslims and extending this to several levels of victimization is not limited to India. Overtly or covertly, it has permeated the main polity of Western countries which claim to abide by secularism and democracy.

Why is it that all Muslims in the US are treated as terrorists unless proven otherwise? Why is it that French, Italians, Polish, Russians, Germans, etc in Canada, US and other Western countries are identified by their nationality although almost all of them are Christians? And why is it that Muslims from different countries are identified by their religion and not national origin? Hindus from Trinidad and Tobago are primarily identified by their nationality and not religion. Hindus from India are called Indians. In the case of Muslims, the attitude of politicians and media is quite different; to them, they are all Muslims and therefore must be alike and more likely than others to be anti-secular and terrorists.

Of course, Islam is the religion of all Muslims. All practicing Muslims (most likely atheism is as frequent among Muslims as in other religions) revere Koran. But that is where the similarity ends. The societal behavior of believers and nonbelievers is determined by institutions like Church, Mullahs and priests rather than holy scriptures. That is why music was a criminal offence in Talibans’ Afghanistan and was taken to new heights by Muslims in India. Is there much common between a Muslim from Kerala and a Muslim from Gujarat or Kashmir? Indeed the Survey of India took into account multiple variables and found very little difference between Hindus and Muslim of India.

Yet, Hindutva bigots have built numerous derogatory myths about Muslims of India; these myths are becoming a part of Indian cultural outlook. This cannot be undone by clarification because myths are not subject to scientific analysis. But it can be done and can only be done by ushering an alternative democratic movement and culture.

“ In the early 1580s the emperor (Akbar) began openly to worship the sun by a set of rituals of his own invention. Four times a day he faced the east and prostrated himself before a sacred fire. Simultaneously, Akbar engaged in abstinence from excessive meat-eating, sexual intercourse, and alcohol consumption. These were all rites and practices much in evidence in the daily world of Hinduism in North India. Worship of the sun and moon with its images of light was easily compatible with the myths of origin and descent central to ethos of Rajput nobles.” - John F. Richards in “The Mughal Empire”, The New Cambridge University Press, 1993, Indian edition, page 47.

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	Unceremonious visit of Vajpayee to Columbia University
	Sekhar Ramakrishnan

Vajpayee spoke at Columbia Wednesday afternoon. It was a strange scene. You might think that Columbia would make a big deal about a head of government - invite media coverage, announce it widely, etc. But that was not how it was. The university calendar of events had no mention of it. The program was arranged by a new entity called the Earth Institute. Admission was by invitation only. Security was tight - once the leader was in the vicinity, Broadway was closed off for four blocks, as was a side street, though the sidewalks were open.

I have been at Columbia longer than the average foil-er has been alive, but I was not invited. I showed up anyway, armed with fliers designed by Biju and Raza. I was afraid I would be alone but there were quite a few people waiting to get in who joined me in handing out the fliers to everyone on the line. We fliered practically everyone who got in, and it was no more than 400. The auditorium must have been less than half full. [the text of the flier at http://www.insaf.net/foil/vajpayeeflier.htm]

Talking to the fellow-protesters, I learned that I was in good company. Though most of the people on the line were South Asians (probably Indians), almost none of the South Asia-related faculty were invited to the talk. The head of the anthropology department, Nick Dirks, apparently heard about it only this week. The invitations seem to have gone out to people of Indian background, but not to all of them. It must be that Columbia somehow constructed a list and had it vetted by the Indian consulate. I am beginning to harbor doubts about this beacon of freedom.

I also learned the background to the program. Columbia, along with a few other universities, is developing ways to grant degrees in other countries by correspondence courses ("distance learning") combined with brief face-to-face sessions in those countries; needless to say, the goal is strictly academic. Helpfully, there is apparently a WTO mandate for countries to open their education sectors to foreign entities.

A friend who went in writes: "The talk was bland development rhetoric and he just read from papers. Sachs was doing acrobatics praising developing India. Bollinger [Columbia's president] read praises for Vajpayee. Atal left after the talk and then Yashwant Sinha fielded questions from patriotic business school Indians about India's fast growth and need to change its image. The whole show was ludicrous at one level and shows how depraved the development rhetoric has become. The liberals are awful! Even Jagdish Bhagwati thinks all this is a little too much (he was chatting up with students outside after the event - may be because he wants more attention)."

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News Briefs

	Advani Remains Accused in the Eyes of the People
	(Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Sec. CPI(ML))

"The setting aside of the charges in the Babri Masjid demolition case against LK Advani by the Rai Bareli special court has exposed once again the fragility of secularism and constitutional rule in the existing set-up. The flawed and weak manner in which the case has been fought by successive central and state governments, coupled with the blatant misuse of the CBI, has exposed the lack of effective political will on the part of the ruling elite to give a real secular orientation to the Indian polity.

"Regardless of the Rai Bareli verdict, in the eyes of the people Advani will remain a prime accused in the Ayodhya demolition. Meting out effective punishment to the guilty of Ayodhya and defending secularism in the affairs of the state will remain key tasks in the people’s democratic agenda. In the wake of the Rai Bareli verdict it is now clearer than ever that secularism can be defended only on the combined strength of a vigilant public opinion and a powerful democratic movement."

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Muslims for Secular Democracy

Renowned poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar is taking steps to constitute Muslims for Secular Democracy. He has invited many NGOs and Muslim intellectuals for a brainstorming session in Mumbai on October 1 and 2. At a meeting in Bhopal, he declared issues ranging from the Ayodhya dispute to the uniform civil code, the growing cult of fundamentalism to terrorism could be tackled easily if the "silent majority" asserted itself.

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TADA case against Yasin Malik dismissed

On September 23, the Special Judge, S.N. Dhingra of the Delhi court acquitted Yasin Malik, chief of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who was charged under the now-disbanded eleven-year-old Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had accused Malik of receiving funds from the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other agencies to finance terrorist activities in the valley. The judge dismissing the allegation.

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Students detained for using camera near American Center, New Delhi

Ruhail Amin Quraishi, Rita Namban and Shahabuddin, students of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi were arrested by police on 27 September in Connaught Place on grounds that they had been taking video photographs in the vicinity of the American Centre. Although the footage merely showed that they were shooting the traffic in front of the Hindustan Times Building, students were subjected to interrogation by the Special Branch and Intelligence Bureau. This arbitrary behavior of Delhi police was protested by the faculty and staff of the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre (AJK MCRC).

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Globe and Mail article praises Nepal Maoists

The Toronto Globe and Mail (Sep. 18, 2003) carries an article titled “Maoist army wins hearts and minds in west Nepal” by Thomas Bell. The author attributes this to government corruption and neglect on one hand and the land reform, healthcare and education and empowerment of the people provided by Maoists on the other hand.

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Strong indictment of Modi government by the Supreme Court

On September 12, the Supreme Court of India gave a scathing verdict against the Narendra Modi Government, which is widely believed to be responsible for the carnage against Muslims in Marc-April, 2002. A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice S.B. Sinha, found fault with the Modi Government for not being serious in prosecuting the appeal against the acquittal of all the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case. The Court held that appeal of the government for retrial of the case in the High court was an "eye-wash" and said: "Quit if you cannot prosecute the guilty". The Supreme Court directed the State Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police to be present in the court on September 19 to explain who had drafted the appeal.

In the meantime, BJP, which is in power at the center, does not feel Modi should resign because of this verdict of the Supreme Court.

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Joint India-America military exercise

According to a news report in Hindu (Sept. 6, 2003), Indian and American special forces began a two-week exercise close to the Chinese and Pakistani borders in Karakoram ranges. An American Hercules military transport plane landed in Delhi and took off within an hour for a "secret location". Declining to disclose more details, military sources said the exercise was taking place near the Siachen glacier and a battalion-strong Indian special forces were involved. They are believed to be conducting joint exercises at an altitude of 5,000 metres. Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes claimed that this was a military joint exercise and it had no political significance.

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Vajpayee yields to public pressure against sending troops to Iraq

The protest by various political parties and a substantial section of the media against sending troops to Iraq even if requested by UN seems to have succeeded at least for the time being. So far US has not been able to persuade India to get involved in helping its occupation of Iraq. Prominent journalists who advocated “no Indian troops to Iraq” included Khare and Varadarajan.

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Citizens seek withdrawal of TADA cases against CPI(ML) activists

Many noted personalities have sent an appeal asking for withdrawal of TADA cases from 14 CPI(ML) acitivists and leaders in Jehanabad district. Prashant Bhushan, human rights activist and noted lawyer, Shripad Dharmadhikary, Alok Agarawal and Chittaroopa Palit of Narmada Bachao Andolan, noted film makers Sanjay Kak and Anand Patwardhan, Theatre personality Arvind Gaur, H. Thakkar of World Commission for Dam and noted writer and social activist Arundhati Roy have sent an appeal sent to the President of India requesting his intervention to seek release of activists who have unjustifiably been framed under TADA and sentenced for the life term.

The appeal says, "It is an irony that while the draconian act TADA was withdrawn by the government precisely in the background of its gross misuse by the law enforcement agencies, the Act is still being utilized with an ulterior political motive by the powers that be in a state like Bihar, making an open mockery of justice." "There are ample evidences to prove that TADA is being misutilised in Jahanabad and whole of Bihar with ulterior political motive. At least, it has definitely not been used to check terrorist activities." It was the pressure of justice-loving and civil rights conscious citizens under which the government had to withdraw TADA. However, in Bihar the same TADA has been utilized by the state to settle political rivalry.

The Signatories to the letter have appealed to the citizens' democratic conscience to rise against this injustice and compel the powers that be to withdraw the case and set the victims free.

It would not be out of place to remind that in Bihar TADA has never been clamped on notorious gangster Md. Shahabuddin, the killer MP from Siwan, or any of the Ranvir Sena chieftains, including its head Brahmeshwar Singh or dozens of notorious history-sheeters in Bihar.

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White House knew Saddam was no threat

John Pilger, the Australian investigative journalist claims (Sydney Morning Herald Sep 23, 03) that he has evidence to prove that the war against Iraq was based on a lie. Both Blair and Bush knew that Saddam Hussein was no threat. and that he has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.

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Burning US flags to greet Bush in Philippines

According to a new in Manila Times (Sept. 16, 03), George Bush will be greeted by 100 burning US flags when he visits Philippines on Oct. 18. The protest is being organized by a peasant group KMP; thousands of workers plan to walk out of factories to protest Bush's visit.

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Prominent Jews dissociate themselves from the state of Israel

In an Open letter of International Jewish Opposition Committee (Sep 2003) on the occasion of the third year of the current Intifada, a number of influential group addressed to the Palestinian People as members of the Jewish communities and as individuals from around the world. They declared “that Jewish people are not represented by the State of Israel.” They have organized themselves in 150 cities throughout the world as of the year 2001 to speak out against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and also to educate the general public as well the various Jewish communities on this illegal seizure of land. The Open Letter will be presented to The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy . MIFTAH, Ramallah, Palestine. Signatories include Dr. Uri Davis, Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Israel & MAIAP: Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine; David Kalant, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation; Bruce Katz Co-president, PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity) Montreal; Mark Krantz, Manchester Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers; Dr. Clement Leibovitz, Physicist and historian, Edmonton; Mike Marqusee, London, UK; Michael Novick, editor, "Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research & Education" author, "White Lies, White Power/The Fight Against White Supremacy & Reactionary Violence"; Roland Rance, Secretary, Waltham Forest Trades Union Council; Jews Against Zionism (UK); Emma Rosenthal, Los Angeles; Robert Silverman, Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation, Montreal; Salamanca, Spain; Dr Philip Ward, Sheffield, UK; Abraham Weizfeld, Montreal. (Source: Hari Sharma, INSAF)

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Obituary

Edward Said (1935-2003)

Manal Jamal

(The death of Professor Edward Said was announced by all sections of the media and many carried obituaries. Deservedly, many political analysts, and friends of Professor Said wrote about his contributions to the struggle of masses and specially the Palestinian people. We are producing a short note sent within hours of Said’s death by Manal Jamal - Ed.)

It is with great personal sorrow that we inform you of the death of Edward W. Said, today, the 24th of September, 2003, at approximately 4 p.m. EST. Edward had been very ill for the past couple of weeks and last night he was re-admitted to the hospital (he had been released last week and was thought to be recovering). However, it was not to be and this afternoon, he was taken off the respirator and died shortly thereafter.

Prof. Edward Said was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. He was the past President of the Modern Language Association and one of the most influential literary critics of his generation. His seminal work, Orientalism, is widely credited with inaugurating the Postcolonial Studies movement in the humanities. Other works, including The Question of Palestine, After the Last Sky, The Politics of Dispossession, Peace and its Discontents, and his extraordinary memoir, Out of Place, constitute one of the most sustained and effective efforts to represent the Palestinian experience to the American public.

Said, a multi-talented renaissance man, was also Music Editor for the Nation magazine in the 1990s, and an accomplished pianist. His collections of essays, The World, the Text, the Critic, and Reflections on Exile are among the most influential in contemporary literary scholarship. His 1982 work, Covering Islam, set the standard for much of the media criticism to follow.

His 1993 Reith Lectures for the BBC, published as Representations of the Intellectual, explained in detail his vision of the public intellectual as a fiercely independent spirit who confronted both the smugly powerful and the complacent public with difficult truths. Edward Said's life-work was an exercise in this ethos, forever challenging friend and foe alike. (Manal Jamal's email: manal.jamal@mail.mcgill.ca)

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List of Edward Said Obits

1. Barghouti on Said: Shining Light:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030925152906727 2. Nichols on Said:Against Blind Imperial Arrogance:   http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=976 3. Parry on Said: Permission to Narrate:   http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1975.shtml 4. Naggiar on Said: The Beautiful Mind:   http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1976.shtml 5. ADC on Said:   http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2102 6. A Lighthouse that navigated us:   http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1979.shtml 7. Said rails against Arafat & Sharon with his dying breath:   http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1978.shtml 8. Brown: I've been to the Mountaintop:   http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1981.shtml

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Edward Said Essays

1. Edward Said NATION Essays:   http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=52 2. Tarzan & Johnny Weismuller:   http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w33/msg00154.htm 3. Imperial Bluster of Tom DeLay:   http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/652/op1.htm 4. Give us back our Democracy:   http://www.counterpunch.org/said04212003.html 5. Joseph Conrad & Between Worlds:   http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n09/said01_.html 6. The many Islams cannot be simplified:   http://www.harpers.org/online/impossible_histories/?pg=1 7. Thoughts about America:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020326143506107 8. Devil Theory of Islam:   http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19960812&s=said 9. VS Naipaul's "Intellectual Catastrophe":   http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/389/cu1.htm 10. Apocalypse Now:   http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/peace/dec98/0033.html 11. Clash of Ignorance:   http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=said 12. Blind Imperial Arrogance:   http://www.counterpunch.org/said07212003.html 13. My encounter with Sartre:   http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n11/said01_.html                                               http://www.dawn.com/2000/05/14/op.htm#3 14. Excerpt from "Out Of Place":   http://www.blueskypie.com/nonfictionbycategory/memoirs/memoirnonfxnbook 15. The Atlantic Interview:   http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba990922.htm 16. Palestine Report Interview:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20010830173258752 17. Crisis for American Jews:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020518021239793 18. Time to translate Jewish historians into Arabic:   http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/378/pal2.htm 19. Low point of powerlessness for Palestine:   https://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/project-x/2002-October/000637.html 20. The Other America:   http://www.counterpunch.org/said03222003.html 21. Arafat is only interested in saving himself:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=2002061716581243 22. Woe to Iraq:   http://www.ddh.nl/pipermail/wereldcrisis/2002-November/003236.html 23. One Way Street on Iraq (Jul 2002):   http://www.ronhaleber.nl/said-bush2002.html 24. Moral Responsibility:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20011031174106248 25. Rats or cockroaches in Palestine?   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020422044315324 26. $92Billion aid to Israel & the Jerusalem bombing:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20010814002550355 27. Monument to hypocrisy in Iraq:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030218045755595 28. Europe vs America:   http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/612/op2.htm 29. The Meaning of Rachel Corrie:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030626191504591 30. Tearing off our limbs/Is Israel more secure now?   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020106151259156 31. History has no Mercy/Screw Turns:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020207181957293 32. What price Oslo?   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020319184919315 33. When will we resist?   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030127002634162 34. Preposterous call for Elections in Palestine:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20021222233130897 35. Punishment by Detail & Suicide Bombings:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20020809230648935 36. Archaeology of the Roadmap:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030614161332837 37. Arabs & an Unacceptable Helplessness:   http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20030120092847177 38. America's Last Taboo:   http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR24002.shtml 39. Morning After & Palestinian Versailles:   http://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/said01_.html 40. Obit for Eqbal Ahmed:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,296702,00.html 41. Obit for Ibrahim Abu Lughod:   http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n24/said01_.html 42. Audio of Speech @ Rice:   http://www.rice.edu/webcast/speeches/19980326said.html 43. Faculty Profile:   http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/22/22.html 44. Collection of all Essays:   http://www.edwardsaid.org/

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Edward Said Bibliography

Bibliography: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/indiv/scctr/Wellek/said/

Short List of Books

1. Culture and Imperialism: ISBN 0679750541. Reprinted June 1994). The premise that Western literature is responsible for dominating other cultures. 2. Orientalism. ISBN 039474067X. October 1979. 3. The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After. ISBN 0375725741. May 8, 2001. Essays on the Middle East peace process and its consequences. 4. Out of Place: A Memoir: ISBN 0679730672. September 12, 2000. Account of Said's early life. 5. Reflections on Exile and other Essays. ISBN 0674003020. February, 2001. The Title Says It All. 6. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. ISBN 0679758909. April 1997. How American popular media misrepresents the Islamic world. 7. Power, Politics, and Culture: Interviews With Edward W. Said. ISBN 0375421076. August 14, 2001. Literary criticism, cultural theory, and the Palestinian peace process. 8. The Question of Palestine. ISBN 0679739882. Reprinted (April 1992). 9. Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. ISBN 0679761276. Reprint edition (April 1996). Discusses the role of the intellectual, public objectivity, etc. 10. Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process. ISBN 0679767258. January 1996. Associated essays and commentaries. The Oslo Agreement, and Arafat's perception of it, is discussed at length. 11. Beginnings: Intention and Method. ISBN 023105937X. March 1987. 12. The World, the Text, and the Critic. ISBN 0674961870. September 1984. 13. Culture and Resistance: Conversations With Edward W. Said. (expected February 2003) 14. After the Last Sky. ISBN 0394544137. September 1986. Photography of the Palestinians with exile as the theme. 15. The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination: 1969-1994. ISBN 0679761454. June 1995. Palestinian culture and history. 16. The Pen and the Sword. ISBN 1567510302. September1994. Western lit, Arab culture, politics. 17. Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. ISBN 0860918874. April 1988. Discusses Western crimes against Palestinian "historical truth". In addition, Dr. Said authored for Al-Hayat, the Palestinian daily newspaper, and Al-Ahram, the Egyptian daily newspaper. He contributed to additional periodicals and dailies throughout the world, and did music criticism for the Nation.

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Edward Said Awards

The recipient of the 1999 New Yorker Book; Award (Non-Fiction), the 2000 Anisfield-Wolf Book; Award (Non-Fiction), the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award (Literature), the 2001 Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Sultan Owais Prize (Cultural Achievement), and the Spinoza Prize. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Literature, the American Philosophical Society, and several other associations.

Electronic Intifada

We mourn with greatest sadness the death today of Professor Edward W. Said. We extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to Edward Said's family, and we share our profound sense of loss with the many and diverse communities that loved and respected him.

Edward Said was a fountain of humanity, compassion, intellectual restlessness and creativity. At a time when the crude calculus of raw power and fanaticism threatens to swamp global discourse, his irreplaceable voice never needed to be heard more.

The most fitting tribute to Professor Said's life and work is to struggle with increased commitment for the vision of justice and humanity that inspired all of his efforts.

[Ali Abunimah, Arjan El Fassed, Laurie King-Irani, Nigel Parry, for The Electronic Intifada]

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Montreal Events

"The Economic and Political Impact of the Indo-Pak Arms Race" Speaker: Sushil Khanna Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata Friday October 10, 2003 7.30 p.m. Place: Center for developing Area Studies (CDAS), McGill University 3715 Peel Street, Montreal Sponsored by: CERAS and CDAS Admission free - All are welcome.

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