SACW | 13 Oct 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  13 October,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Taslima Nasrin gets the 2004 Unesco-Madanjeet Singh Prize
[2]  Can Pakistan Work? A Country In Search of Itself (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
+ Pakistan's education system its greatest threat: Hoodbhoy
[3] Pakistan a victim of its own culture of militancy: analysts
[4] India: Muslims and Catholics in Gujarat [Part 
1 and 2] (Prof. J. S. Bandukwala)
[5] India: Fight on, without faith or friends (Basant Rawat)
[6] India: Of figures and communal propagandists (J. Sri Raman)
[7] India:  Renaissance had its limitations: Panikkar
[8] Publication announcement: 'Savarkar: Myths and Facts by Shamsul Islam'
[9]  Upcoming event :
An Evening with Pervez Hoodbhoy + screening of 
his "Crossing The Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, 
India" (Oxford, Oct 14, 2004)


--------------

[1]


Press Release No.2004-92

TASLIMA NASRIN,
WINNER OF THE 2004 UNESCO-MADANJEET SINGH PRIZE FOR THE PROMOTION OF
TOLERANCE AND NON-VIOLENCE

Paris, October 12 - Bangladeshi writer and journalist Taslima Nasrin is the
laureate of the 2004 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of
Tolerance and Non-Violence. The Prize was attributed on the recommendation
of an international jury, presided by Andrés Pastrana Arango, former
President of Colombia, and endorsed by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura. It will be awarded in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters on
November 16.

A qualified physician, Ms Nasrin began receiving public recognition in the
late 1980s because of her writings against the oppression of women in some
Asian countries. Facing death threats from [Muslim] fundamentalists, she
continues fighting for a new civil code, based on gender equality, and for
secular education.

Ms Nasrin has published more than 20 books in Bengali, some of which have
been translated into more than 20 languages. She has won several
distinctions, including the Indian literary award Ananda Puroshkar; the
European Parliaments’ Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Kurt
Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN.

The $100,000 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize was created in 1995 thanks to the
generosity of the Indian writer and diplomat Madanjeet Singh, who is also a
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Dedicated to advancing the spirit of tolerance
in the arts, education, culture, science and communication, the Prize is
awarded every two years to an individual or an institution for exceptional
contributions in the field of tolerance promotion. Previous laureates are:
Rwanda's Pro-femmes Twese Hamwe association of 32 women’s groups (1996),
Joint Action Committee for Peoples’ Rights (Pakistan) and the Indian
anti-nuclear campaigner Narayan Desai (1998), Egyptian Pope Chenouda III,
head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church (2000), and to Nobel Peace Prize
laureates Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (2002).

On March 22 this year, Mr Singh and Mr Matsuura signed an agreement for the
creation of the Madanjeet Singh Institute for Afghanistan's Cultural
Heritage for which Mr Singh granted US$ 1 million. The training centre for
Afghan cultural conservation specialists, presently under construction in
Kabul, will be operated with UNESCO.

The author of a great many books, Mr Singh today presented his latest work
The Sasia Story to the Director-General. The book presents its authors
career and his links with the Organization, which date back to the 1950s. It
will be translated into more than 20 Southeast Asian languages.

______



[2]


CAN PAKISTAN WORK? A COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF ITSELF
by Pervez Hoodbhoy

(A review essay and commentary on a book by 
Stephen P. Cohen, 'The Idea of Pakistan', the 
Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Published 
in the October 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs)
Full Text is available at:  http://www.sacw.net/free/ReviewCohen.pdf


  o o o o

Daily Times - October 13, 2004

Pakistan's education system its greatest threat: Hoodbhoy

WASHINGTON: The greatest threat to Pakistan's 
future comes from its present abysmal education 
system, according to noted physicist and 
campaigner Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy.
In a review article on Stephen Cohen's new book, 
The Idea of Pakistan, in the forthcoming issue of 
Foreign Affairs Quarterly, Dr Hoodbhoy writes, 
"Schools - and not just madrassas - are churning 
out fiery zealots, fuelled with a passion for 
jihad and martyrdom. The obstacles to reform are 
great. For example, recent street rampages by 
Islamists forced Musharraf 's former minister of 
education, Zubaida Jalal, to declare herself a 
fundamentalist and denounce as unacceptable 
school textbooks that do not include Quranic 
verses on jihad."
Dr Hoodbhoy argues that political reform must 
begin with the reversal of the legacy of Ziaul 
Haq, who set out to purge Pakistan of "the 
scourge of politics." He and his successors 
succeeded in depriving the Pakistani people of 
their means of self-expression and collective 
action, and popular politics at the national 
level has disappeared along with Pakistan's 
once-thriving trade unions, student groups, and 
peasant collectives. "Thirty years ago," he 
writes, "university students noisily argued over 
ideological positions and competed for votes in 
student elections. Today, there is no voting and 
no legitimate student government-just Islamic 
sectarian movements and groups defined by 
ethnicity pitted against one another. With 
Islamism as the only outlet for political 
involvement, these students are prime candidates 
for membership in extremist organisations. Unless 
political organisations are once again allowed to 
organise locally and nationally and intelligence 
agencies stop harassing critics of state 
policies, this 'depoliticisation' will push 
Pakistan further down the path toward 
instability."
He notes that the United States, along with the 
United Kingdom and the European Union, has 
recently poured hundreds of millions of dollars 
into the Pakistani educational system-but with" 
minimal effect." USAID officials in Pakistan have 
shown little inclination or desire to engage with 
the government on the issue of eliminating jihad 
and militarism from schoolbooks. Indeed, rather 
than calling Musharraf 's government on the 
continuing espousal of jihadist doctrine, the 
White House, out of either ignorance or 
compromise, even praised former Education 
Minister Jalal for her "reforms." Jalal's 
successor, General Javed Ashraf Qazi, is a former 
intelligence chief known for his "ruthless 
tactics." He believes that Gen Musharraf 's 
educational curriculum will go unchanged. He 
writes, "This difficulty, of course, reflects the 
underlying problems of Pakistan's government. 
Aware of its thin legitimacy and fearful of 
taking on powerful religious forces, no reigning 
government has made a serious attempt at 
curricular or educational reform, quietly 
allowing future minds to be molded by fanatics. 
But without such critical reforms, the long-term 
prospects for Pakistan are anything but 
comforting."
Dr Hoodbhoy while wondering what Pakistan's 
"warrior class" was never tamed by civilian rule, 
points back to the founding of the Pakistani 
state. He maintains with Eqbal Ahmed that the 
ideological confusion that grips Pakistan dates 
back to its very creation. Since that confusion 
has not been resolved, the result has been 
civilian helplessness, and an environment 
eminently hospitable to coups. "Indeed, no 
elected government has completed its term in 
Pakistan's 57-year history. Pakistani generals 
express contempt for the civilian order and 
steadfastly hold that 'what is good for the army 
is good for Pakistan,' and Pakistani society is 
thoroughly militarised," he adds.
While praising Choen's book for its precision and 
insights, he quotes the South Asia expert as 
pointing out that Pakistan's "nuclear dreams" 
probably began 40 years ago when-under the aegis 
of the Central Treaty Organisation- the US Army 
initiated large-scale training of Iranian, 
Turkish, and Pakistani officers in armour, 
artillery, and other technical services. Hundreds 
of Pakistani officers attended U.S. schools 
between 1955 and 1958. 'There was an important 
American contribution in the form of periodic 
visits by American nuclear experts to the Staff 
College in Quetta,' he writes, citing from 
Cohen's book. During a visit to the Staff 
College, Cohen noted that the school's official 
history refers to "a 1957 visit by a US nuclear 
warfare team that 'proved most useful and 
resulted in modification and revision of the old 
syllabus' to bring it into line with the 'fresh 
data' given by the team.' In Cohen's opinion, 
"present-day Pakistani nuclear planning and 
doctrine is descended directly from this early 
exposure to Western nuclear strategising; it very 
much resembles American thinking of the mid-1950s 
with its acceptance of first-use and the tactical 
use of nuclear weapons against onrushing 
conventional forces."
Dr Hoodbhoy believes that a number of key reforms 
- some touched on, though not explored, by Cohen 
- are necessary. First, Gen Musharraf must be 
forced to take seriously his call for 
"enlightened moderation." He has, to the relief 
of liberal Pakistanis, sought accommodation with 
India, softened his stance on Kashmir, cracked 
down on Islamist terrorism at home, and begun to 
negotiate the revision of blasphemy and 
anti-woman laws. The Pakistani nuclear expert and 
activist quotes Daily Times editor Najam Sethi as 
saying that "the momentum of change is too slow 
and awkward and unsure to constitute a critical 
and irreversible mass." He highlights Sethi's 
emphasis on "two specially critical areas in 
which Musharraf must do more: packing up the 
jihadists, which means accepting that they are 
not the solution to the Kashmir issue, and 
reducing the influence of Islamist parties by 
facilitating the rise of moderate mainstream 
parties in free elections. This latter goal 
points to the need for broad political reform in 
Pakistan to build responsible civilian leadership 
while keeping the military at bay.
______



[3]

Khaleej Times - 12 October 2004

PAKISTAN A VICTIM OF ITS OWN CULTURE OF MILITANCY: ANALYSTS
(AFP)

KARACHI - With nearly 80 deaths in 10 days from 
violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, 
Pakistan is once again caught in a spiral of 
bloodshed borne of its own culture of Islamic 
militancy, analysts say.

"When terrorism becomes a culture in society, 
it's alarming and it's always more difficult to 
get rid of it," Professor Fateh Mohammad, head of 
criminology at Karachi University, told AFP.

"Both the victims of terrorism and the terrorists 
are treated as 'martyrs'," he said, using the 
Muslim terminology, which glorifies fighters or 
soldiers who die in action.

From the bazaars of port megalopolis Karachi, 
where violence in all forms is endemic, to 
northwest frontier city Peshawar and southwest 
city Quetta, videos and audios are sold carrying 
the messages of "shahid" or martyrs and 
glorifying "jihad" or holy war.

"One can see all around the shops movies and 
videos which not only promote "jihadi culture,' 
but are a source of inspiration for potential 
youth, including women," said Gul Rehman, owner 
of a shop at Rainbow Centre, the hub of audio and 
videos in Karachi.

Often children buy Osama bin Laden T-shirts, or 
collect pictures of him, while parents name their 
children after him, he added.

The finger is often pointed at Pakistan's 12,000 madrassas or Koranic schools.

Even if the majority offers a free basic 
education to the poor, in the absence of a cheap 
and efficient state education system, many are 
denounced as "schools of terrorism."

"Sectarian violence is the result of years of 
brainwashing of thousands and thousands of young 
minds educated in madrassas," said the director 
of the independent Human Rights Commission, I.A. 
Rehman.

"Violence is the only job they are taught to do correctly," he added.

"Madrassas are the principal source of religious 
intolerance and militant violence," Ghulam 
Kabria, author and human rights activist, told 
AFP.

The former head of Karachi's Police Citizens' 
Liaison Committee, Jamil Yusuf, said all 
"detainees who are condemned to death should be 
executed before they emerge from prison as 
heroes," as has been the case with numerous 
militants in recent years.

Even at the highest level, condemnations of 
militant attacks are timid, said a Western 
diplomat on condition of anonymity.

"Why has (President Pervez) Musharraf not 
appeared on television to denounce the murder of 
Muslims by Muslims?" he asked.

Since October 1, 77 people have been killed in 
Pakistan in four separate sectarian violence.

A suicide bomber in a mosque in eastern city 
Sialkot killed thirty Shiites on October 1, and a 
week later 41 followers of an outlawed Sunni 
organisation were killed in a car-bomb attack in 
central city Multan.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber was intercepted at 
the entrance to a Shiite mosque in eastern city 
Lahore, but he detonated the explosives he was 
wearing, killing two guards, a child and himself.

On Saturday in Karachi, two Sunni clerics from 
the Binori Town madrassa, one of the most 
important in the southern port city, were shot 
dead by unknown gunmen.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 171 
people have been killed during sectarian violence 
between fanatics of the Sunni majority, who 
account for around 80 percent of Pakistan's 
Muslims, and Shiites.

The bloody rivalry has claimed 4,000 lives since the 1980s.

______


[4]


MUSLIMS AND CATHOLICS IN GUJARAT [Part 1 and 2]
by Prof. J. S. Bandukwala
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2004/10/muslims-and-catholics-in-gujarat-part.html
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2004/10/muslims-and-catholics-in-gujarat-part_12.html



______



[5]

The Telegraph - October 08, 2004

FIGHT ON, WITHOUT FAITH OR FRIENDS

Basant Rawat

Ahmedabad, Oct. 7: Zehra Cyclewala is not a born 
rebel. She became one after a fatwa (religious 
decree) was issued nearly 20 years ago to "break 
her will''. But the 47-year-old is made of 
sterner stuff and has continued to defy the fatwa 
all these years.

Forced to fight for her survival, Zehra has 
emerged as a flagbearer of reform within her 
orthodox Dawoodi Bohra community that ostracised 
her for challenging the supreme religious leader, 
Syedna Muhammed Burhanuddin.

The Mumbai-based Syedna who belongs to Surat 
virtually regulates the lives of every member of 
the community.

Zehra's struggle began in 1985 when the supreme 
leader issued a fatwa ordering his followers to 
give up their jobs and withdraw money from banks 
that charge interest on loans, considered a 
"sin'' and "un-Islamic''.

Although her fellow Bohras resigned from the 
managing committee of the Saif Cooperative Credit 
Society where she worked as a manager, Zehra 
refused, saying she had no other means of 
livelihood.

The refusal marked her out as the first Bohra 
woman to defy Syedna's decree in Surat and 
probably the first anywhere to do so.

Zehra was ready to quit her job if the leader 
helped her find a new one. But when she asked the 
Bohra elders to find her a job, she was told to 
have faith in God. "But that would not have 
helped me as I had to look after my ailing 
mother,'' she said.

Some community members began to harass her, 
getting her demoted from manager to junior clerk. 
But Zehra did not give up and fought a legal 
battle to get reinstated. When a court ruled in 
her favour, indignant community members boycotted 
her. Even her brothers and sisters deserted her 
when she could have dearly done with their 
support.

Zehra's mother, who always stood by her and 
shared her woes, died in 1991. Her body was taken 
to the burial ground, but some Bohras objected, 
not willing to allow last rites to be performed 
for her as she had supported Zehra.

There was no end to the manager's harassment. She 
was dubbed a "non-believer'' and some of Syedna's 
rabid followers would spit on her. Zehra would be 
chased and hounded; she was greeted with the 
choicest abuses when she stepped out and no Bohra 
would speak to her.

Fearing for life and bombarded with threats, 
Zehra sought and received police protection in 
1995.

With a tinge of sadness she said: "Today, I have 
no friends in my (Bohra) community. I do have 
Hindu and Muslim friends, but no one from my 
community.''

But Zehra has no regrets. "Yes, after my mother's 
death, I am leading a lonely life. But I am happy 
that I have inspired many women who have been 
victims of injustice in my community. Whenever 
they call me up, they get instant justice as the 
community does not want another Zehra,'' she said.

Zehra was recently in London to attend the 
reformist Dawoodi Bohra conference where her 
biography One Against All was released by British 
MP Tim Boswells.

The 146-page book chronicles her story - that of 
a B.Com graduate who was forced to take up 
cudgels against society. Her rousing story is 
still unfolding.

As Zehra took on Syedna, reformist Bohras settled 
abroad took note of her struggle. She has been 
invited to many countries to tell her story of 
how a single woman could resist the might of the 
community and battle against their tyranny.

In all this, Zehra, who chose to remain unmarried 
as she realised she was too liberal and educated 
for the men of her community, has one question 
for Syedna who has rented out large property in 
his hometown Surat. The fearless manager asked: 
"If the income from rent is okay, how is that the 
interest (from income) is a sin?"


______


[6]

The New Nation - Oct 12, 2004

OF FIGURES AND COMMUNAL PROPAGANDISTS
By J. Sri Raman

We have heard of chemical warfare, the kind 
witnessed in the U.S. defoliation campaign in 
Vietnam. Of biological warfare, which the U.S. 
Government waged by donating smallpox-infected 
blankets to Native Americans long before the 
advent of anthrax terrorism. Not, however, of 
population warfare.

It has been left to the communalists of India to 
discover this new dimension to unconventional 
warfare. And they see in it the cunning, 
conspiratorial strategy of their main enemy - the 
country's religious minorities. It has taken only 
a single mis-statement of a census official to 
revive this pet theme of "Hindu nationalists" (a 
misleading, self-conferred title).

The Indian media have been full of the cries of 
alarm raised by the far Right over the alleged 
findings of the first ever religion-based census 
report by the official Census Commission of 
India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), licking 
its wounds after losing the general election four 
months ago, has pounced upon the findings to 
launch a high-decibel campaign in defense of an 
allegedly endangered majority.

On September 6, Census Commissioner J. K. Banthia 
released in New Delhi the Census 2001 report, 
along with a rank misinterpretation of the 
findings. Almost instantly, all hell broke loose. 
The allegation that the official was striking a 
blow for the BJP may appear unfair. He could not 
have done better, however, if he were.

The report put the growth rate of Muslims at 36 
per cent in 1991-2001, a 1.5 per cent rise over 
the previous 1991 census.

The data indicated the Muslims were multiplying 
faster than in any decade since the country's 
independence in 1947 and more than any other 
community. Correspondingly, said Banthia, the 
growth rate for Hindus had come down by five per 
cent to 20.5 per cent. The growth rate for 
Christians had, according to the report, gone up 
by over one per cent to 22.6 per cent.

Cold figures? You must have seen them inflame 
fascist passions. "This is a disturbing 
development", declared BJP president Venkaiah 
Naidu. "This imbalance is unhealthy for the unity 
and integrity of the country." The rest of what 
the far Right, in a mafia-like metaphor, calls 
'parivar' ('family'), joined in. The Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the patriarch of the 
'parivar', took a longer-term and larger view. 
"The Hindus will be reduced to less than of the 
subcontinent's population by 2050", said its 
spokesperson Ram Madhav, making it clear that the 
RSS was not happy with the Muslim growth rate in 
neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh, either!

It was left, however, to the Vishwa Hindu Parshad 
(VHP), the most vicious member the 'parivar', to 
spell out the peril they all saw in the census 
findings. Chinubhai Patel, a VHP leader in 
Gujarat (where the 'parivar' carried out its 
famous anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002), warned in all 
seriousness: "The (Muslim) community is 
conspiring to convert Hindu 'rajya' (state) into 
a Muslim country''!

The BJP-'parivar' scare campaign against a Muslim 
"swamping" of the country is pre-dates by at 
least two decades. The minority is supposed to be 
advancing towards this objective by two methods.

The Muslims, in the first place, are accused of 
breeding faster than the Hindus by avoiding birth 
control under the influence of Islamic laws and 
leadership. The second method is what Naidu calls 
"demographic invasion" (which comes pretty close 
to "population warfare").

The Bangladeshi "infiltration" - never "illegal 
immigration" or anything else of politically 
innocent import - has intensified the threat of 
numbers that the "Hindu nation" faces, screams 
the entire BJP-led bloc.

The census figures even of the flawed set, which 
the campaigners do not care to quote, show up the 
ludicrousness of their logic. Of the total Indian 
population of 1.028 billion at the time of the 
census, the Hindus totaled 827 million and 80.5 
of the population. The Muslims numbered 138 
million, comprising 13.4 per cent of the 
population. The next in size were the Christians 
(24 million or 2.3 per cent). Census data since 
1951, the year of the first Indian head-count, 
suggest that the Muslim population increases by 
about one per cent every decade.

Experts have pointed out that, at the same rate, 
it will take three centuries for India to become 
a Muslim-majority country! No grave emergency for 
the 'Hindu nation', surely, as a hysterical 
'parivar' and hundreds of its websites made it 
appear on the morrow of the report's release.

The figures, in any case, have turned out to be 
fudged. The commission was confronted with the 
fact that the census 2001 included India's only 
Muslim-majority State of Jammu and Kashmir, 
excluded in the 1991 exercise, and the 
Northeastern State of Assam, excluded in 1981. 
After two days of mounting tensions, the 
commission came out with "adjusted" figures, 
which told a different story altogether.

They show that that the growth rate of the Hindu 
population has declined from 22.77 per cent over 
1981-91 to 20.02 per cent over 1991-2001, and 
that of the Muslim population from 32.86 per cent 
to 29.33 per cent.

In other words, the decline in the population 
growth rate has been greater for the 
much-maligned Indian Muslims.

The clarification should have ended the 
controversy. But it could not have. The fascists 
trying to force their way back into political 
reckoning cannot do without the windfall issue. 
BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley has objected to 
exclusion of the Assam figures in the process of 
"adjustment". He argues that the border State is 
the main recipient of Bangladeshi infiltrators, 
though the number of the immigrants here can make 
no serious difference to the demographic picture.

Loudmouth VHP leader Praveen Togadia has 
threatened to take the matter to the court.

Facts have not stopped propagandists campaigners. 
Figures are not going to stop them, either.




______


[7]

The Hindu - Oct 13, 2004
RENAISSANCE HAD ITS LIMITATIONS: PANIKKAR
By Our Staff Reporter
THRISSUR, OCT. 12. The Renaissance in Kerala had 
a lot of limitations and did not develop into a 
mass movement, the vice-chancellor of the Sree 
Sankaracharya University, K. N. Panikkar, has 
said.

Inaugurating a seminar on `Kerala: reformation 
and modernism' organised by the History 
Department of the Kerala Varma College here on 
Tuesday to observe the 150th birth anniversary of 
Sree Narayana Guru, Dr. Panikkar said that 
Malayalis had romanticised the concept of 
Renaissance.

"We debate that all growth has been the result of 
the so-called Renaissance. This belief needs to 
be questioned. The middle class, the base of the 
Renaissance movement, had gravitated towards 
colonial ideals, and their stance on social 
issues was inadequate and ineffective. There was 
no influential political initiative till the Left 
movement gathered strength. I even wonder whether 
there was a Renaissance in Kerala,'' Dr. Panikkar 
said.

Delivering a lecture on `Kerala Renaissance - a 
feminist reading,' K. M. Sheeba, lecturer in 
History, Sree Sankaracharya University, said the 
reform movement had contributed to keeping women 
away from the public domain.

"The 19th-century Renaissance in Kerala had 
witnessed the growth of caste groups. These 
groups had actively discussed the concept of the 
modern woman. The discussions, however, did not 
question women's domestic role. The result: the 
modern woman was expected to wear current attire 
and be educated, but was forced to retain her 
traditional domestic role. In this sense, the 
reform movement had hardly helped women,'' Dr. 
Sheeba said.

The principal of the Kerala Varma College, R. 
Gopalakrishna Pillai, presided. The head of the 
History Department, T. A. Usha Kumari, K. Vinod 
Chandran, Sunil P. Ilayidam and Lalitha Nair, 
lecturers, spoke.

______


[8]

From the Delhi weekly Indian Currents | 3 October 2004
A Book with a Difference

Savarkar: Myths and Facts by Shamsul Islam
(With reproduction of Savarkar's original book Hindutva, pub. in 1923)

This book unveils mysteries, presents unknown 
documents from British archives, bringing light 
into the dark, shocking and deplorable episodes 
of the newest Hindutva icons.

Dr Shamsul Islam teaches political sience at 
Satyawati College, Delhi University. He is a well 
known authority on communal politics, religious 
fundamentalism, human rights, street theatre, 
Dalit and gender issues. He writes in leading 
publications of English, Hindi and Urdu.

Date of publication: 31 Oct. 04,  Price: Rs. 200/-

Media House, 375A, Pocket 2,Mayur Vihar 
Phase1,Delhi - 91, E-mail: 
books at indiancurrents.com

______


[9]    Upcoming Events:

"An Evening with Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy"

You are cordially invited to the viewing of

CROSSING THE LINES: KASHMIR, PAKISTAN, INDIA

A 45-MINUTE DOCUMENTARY
Produced by Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy and Dr. Zia Mian

at
Wolfson College (Buttery), Oxford, 

at
7pm on Thursday, 14 October 2004.

Professor Hoodbhoy is a well-known academic and 
peace activist from Pakistan, where he has been 
teaching at the Quaid-i-Azam University, 
Islamabad, since 1973. With a doctorate in 
Nuclear Physics from MIT, he has authored several 
books and articles on subjects such as Islam, 
science, Indo-Pakistani relations, education, 
nulcearisation and peace. He heads the editorial 
board of Mashaal, an Urdu magazine devoted to 
women's rights and has been the recipient of 
several awards for his courageous work including 
the UNESCO's Kalinga Award. He has written 
extensively for international magazines and 
newspapers besides producing a television series 
on science education in Pakistan. His other 
documentary, "The Bell Tolls for Planet Earth" 
has already won him a global acclaim. "Crossing 
the Lines" is based on archives, live footage and 
elaborate illustrations, representing various 
Kashmiri, Indian and Pakistani views on the 
Kashmir dispute. Co-produced with Zia Mian 
(Princeton University) under the auspices of 
Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, the video has tried to 
offer an alternative thinking. He will introduce 
the documentary and after the viewing will be 
prepared to lead the discussion. You may read 
more about the film and Professor Hoodbhoy on:
http://www.ektaonline.org/events/hoodbhoy/index.htm
Ample free parking available around the college: 
Wolfson College, Linton Road, OX2 6UD. (Lodge 
Phone: 01865-274125: www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk).


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at:  bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project :  snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.