SACW - 16-17 June 2015 | Sri Lanka: Healing war wounds / Pakistan: teachers with guns; vigil for the dead 2014 peshawar tragedy / India-Pakistan: Dangerous war-mongering / India: Yoga, caste, eggs / Xenofeminist Manifesto / Sharia "kangaroo courts" in UK / USA: The Street Politics of Abortion

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - 16-17 June 2015 - No. 2861 
[since 1996]

Contents:
1. Can reconciliation heal Sri Lankan war wounds? | Annie Gowen (Washington Post)
2. Dangerous war-mongering in India over the military action in Manipur - Statement by CNDP
3. India - Pakistan: Mutually destructive rhetoric | I.A. Rahman
4. Pakistan: School Teachers With Guns ? | Maria Amir
5. Pakistan: Islamabad Citizens Vigil on 16 June 2015 in memory of victims of Dec. 2014 APS massacre in Peshawar | Text of Draft Statement
6. India’s 1947 Partition And The ’Deadly Legacy’ : interview with Nisid Hajari | npr.org
7. India: Yoga Hoga | Dilip Simeon
8. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s yoga mudra | Jawed Naqvi
9. India: Caste, class and eggs | Jean Drèze
10. India: Caste at the Heart of Indian Engineering - When Students Struggle, They Win | Ajantha Subramanian
11. India: After caste and religion specific appartment blocks, now an exclusive Badminton tournament for Daivadnya Brahmins only 
12. India: A discussion on what ails Indian education system? - Rajya Sabha TV
13. India: Citizens Appeal for the Release of Raif Badawi, a Saudi Blogger
14. ’Leave God Out of It’: Plight of Humour under the Gods of the Present Era | Sumanta Banerjee
15. Diminishing Democracy in India  | Nirjhari Sinha
16. India: Modi Government's 1-Year - Systematic Attack on Constitutional Values (Newsclick interview with Harsh Mander)
17. India: Law suit in Madras high court challenges chief engineer's circular to perform worship at temples for rain
18. The Xenofeminist Manifesto | Laboria Cuboniks
19. India: Jharkhandis Organization Against Radiation’s press release on the corruption scandal at Uranium Corporation of India Limited
20. Recent on Communalism Watch:
  - Germany's Pegida anti-Islamisation group says it has a new hero: Narendra Modi (Anuradha Sharma, scroll.in, 15 June 2015)
  - India: Now, Pratapgarh - Dalits and Muslims clash over bathing in river, ‘spoiling’ of graveyard
  - Squandered heritage | A.G.Noorani, Frontline Magazine, Print Edition, June 26, 2015
  - India: Keep yoga off religion, politics (Editorial in Deccan Herald, 15 June 2015)
  - The Imambaras are not meant for tourism': Shia cleric locks the gates of Islamic heritage site
  - India: Pass the word on the coming press conference in Bombay to release a report on 365 days of the Modi govt.
  - India: “Hindu Left”, "Muslim Left , What Nonsense ? - A strange push for identity politics from S G Vombatkere a member of the NAPM
  - A Banaras Hindu University public event co organised by SIO the student wing of Jamaat e Islami has invited a leading RSS activist
  - India under Modi: A Hindutva laden National Film School / Open Letter from a Film School Student
  - Growing intolerance in Bangladesh
  - Bombay's Bindi-sporting Muslim domestic workers lay bare a divided city
  - Bangladesh: Blogging for secularism (Anand Kumar)
  - India: The Hindu Right demand not to drop cases booked against PFI, KFD in Karnataka
  - India should be declared a Hindu nation: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president, Dr. Togadia
  - Video: The terrifying American anti-abortion movement is exporting its tactics to the UK
 
::: RESOURCEs & FULL TEXT :::
21. The Rohingya refugee crisis: Rajya Sabha TV Discussion
22. Pakistan Doctors Live in Fear After Spike in Deadly Attacks
23. India-Pakistan: stop the '56 inch' talk; give peace a chance | Mahmud Durrani
24. Can music lead to social harmony in Sri Lanka? | Dinouk Colombage 
25. Britain must ban sharia "kangaroo courts", say activists | Emma Batha
26. Vicki Toscano. Review of Wilson, Joshua C., The Street Politics of Abortion: Speech, Violence, and America's Culture Wars

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1. CAN RECONCILIATION HEAL SRI LANKAN WAR WOUNDS? | Annie Gowen (Washington Post)
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Sirisena’s government has begun returning land to families whose property is still being used by the military, as well as resettling those remaining in displacement camps or living with relatives — officially about 13,000 families, although civil society activists say the number is higher.
http://www.sacw.net/article11298.html

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2. DANGEROUS WAR-MONGERING IN INDIA OVER THE MILITARY ACTION IN MANIPUR - STATEMENT BY CNDP
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We are shocked at the level of jingoism being peddled by the ministers of the Modi government, members of the ruling BJP and sections of the mainstream media in India over the recent action by the Indian army in Manipur.
http://www.sacw.net/article11277.html

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3. INDIA - PAKISTAN: MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE RHETORIC | I.A. Rahman
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The escalating war of words between India and Pakistan will do good to neither side; on the contrary it could cause incalculable harm to people of both countries.
http://www.sacw.net/article11275.html

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4. PAKISTAN: SCHOOL TEACHERS WITH GUNS ? | Maria Amir
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It is a sad day when the job of ‘engaging' terrorists in a ‘preventative' gunfight falls to schoolteachers.
http://www.sacw.net/article11279.html

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5. PAKISTAN: ISLAMABAD CITIZENS VIGIL ON 16 JUNE 2015 IN MEMORY OF VICTIMS OF DEC. 2014 APS MASSACRE IN PESHAWAR | TEXT OF DRAFT STATEMENT
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Requesting participation in the planned event on 16 June 2015 at 6:30-7:30 pm at the Parliament chowk, in memory of, and to honour and pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the APS/Peshawar tragedy of 16 Dec.2014.
http://www.sacw.net/article11291.html

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6. INDIA’S 1947 PARTITION AND THE ’DEADLY LEGACY’ : INTERVIEW WITH NISID HAJARI | npr.org
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In his new book, Midnight’s Furies, Nisid Hajari explores the partition that created Pakistan as a separate state, the violence surrounding the partition and why those tensions persist to this day.
http://www.sacw.net/article11290.html

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7. INDIA: YOGA HOGA | Dilip Simeon
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The RSS thrives on animosity. They would have been truly upset had Muslims not objected to compulsory yoga. Popular sovereignty has been perverted in South Asia. It refers not to the People but to the Emperor’s Moustache. The people may not define their nation - it is the Nation that defines the People. The people are seen as a biomass of zombies – hamara maal, as the sarsangchaalak once said. Our imperial metaphors symbolize the inner world of communalists. The RSS are no different from the maulanas they love to hate.
http://www.sacw.net/article11288.html

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8. BADE GHULAM ALI KHAN’S YOGA MUDRA
by Jawed Naqvi
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Many of Mr Modi’s supporters are toxically projecting the June 21 mobilisation for the worldwide yoga day through the filters of narrow Hindu nationalism. They have also reportedly told those Indians who do not wish to follow the official fiat to go away to Pakistan.
http://www.sacw.net/article11296.html

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9. INDIA: CASTE, CLASS AND EGGS
by Jean Drèze
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Chouhan and other state leaders must not ban this super-food for growing children from midday meals
http://www.sacw.net/article11263.html

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10. INDIA: CASTE AT THE HEART OF INDIAN ENGINEERING - WHEN STUDENTS STRUGGLE, THEY WIN | Ajantha Subramanian
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Democratic rhetoric, it seems, has become the favored language of anti-democratic politics.
http://www.sacw.net/article11289.html

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11. INDIA: AFTER CASTE AND RELIGION SPECIFIC APPARTMENT BLOCKS, NOW AN EXCLUSIVE BADMINTON TOURNAMENT FOR DAIVADNYA BRAHMINS ONLY 
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Billboard announces caste specific sports event in Karnataka.
http://www.sacw.net/article11272.html

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12. INDIA: A DISCUSSION ON WHAT AILS INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM? - RAJYA SABHA TV
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A discussion on a public television network in India with Prof. Sushma Yadav (Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU) ; Aditya Mukherjee (Professor, JNU) ; Urmi Goswami (Special Correspondent, Economic Times) ; Nandita Narain (Associate Professor, St. Stephens College, University of Delhi & President, DUTA)
http://www.sacw.net/article11280.html

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13. INDIA: CITIZENS APPEAL FOR THE RELEASE OF RAIF BADAWI, A SAUDI BLOGGER
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This is an appeal regarding Raif Badawi, a blogger and Saudi citizen, founder of the website ‘Free Saudi Liberals'. Mr Badawi has been under arrest since 2012 for insulting Islam and apostasy. We are mindful that India and Saudi Arabia have long-standing friendly political and commercial relations and that large numbers of Indians live and work in your country. It is because of this that we feel constrained to convey to you our concerns. Raif Badawi is a public intellectual who communicated his thoughts to the public through a blog. We do not believe that any of its contents constituted a threat to the state.
http://www.sacw.net/article11274.html

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14. ’LEAVE GOD OUT OF IT’: PLIGHT OF HUMOUR UNDER THE GODS OF THE PRESENT ERA
by Sumanta Banerjee
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From Copenhagen and Paris to Mumbai and Kolkata, satirists and cartoonists have become targets of bigoted followers of both religious gods (who choose to murder them) and political gods (who put them behind bars). 
http://www.sacw.net/article11262.html

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15. DIMINISHING DEMOCRACY IN INDIA  | Nirjhari Sinha
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In political terms, yes, people of country do vote every five years to decide who is going to run the Government. In 2014 as well, 31% of Indians who have voting rights elected the NDA government headed by Narendra Modi, thus giving it a mandate for five years. So, we do have political democracy. But do people of India have any say in the functioning of the government? Is democracy limited to the process of elections or does it also fulfill the social and economic aspirations of the people?
http://www.sacw.net/article11284.html

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16. INDIA: MODI GOVERNMENT'S 1-YEAR - SYSTEMATIC ATTACK ON CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES (Newsclick interview with Harsh Mander)
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In an interview to Newsclick, prominent social activist Harsh Mander talks about the Modi led NDA government's attack on the constitutional values of the country. These values — equality, fraternity and solidarity — were product of the national movement that had also rejected the divisive nationalism of the RSS. He explains that the present government is vastly different from the 1998 NDA government not only because it enjoys an absolute majority in the Parliament, but also due the authoritarian and Hindu majoritarian tendencies of Narendra Modi. He says that the agenda of the Modi regime seems to be to remake India into a Hindu nation and to force the minorities into submission.
http://www.sacw.net/article11286.html

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17. INDIA: LAW SUIT IN MADRAS HIGH COURT CHALLENGES CHIEF ENGINEER'S CIRCULAR TO PERFORM WORSHIP AT TEMPLES FOR RAIN
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The circular would encourage those people who were exploiting the public in the name of religion, the petitioner said
http://www.sacw.net/article11287.html

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18. THE XENOFEMINIST MANIFESTO | Laboria Cuboniks
=========================================
Ours is a world in vertigo. It is a world that swarms with technological mediation, interlacing our daily lives with abstraction, virtuality, and complexity. XF constructs a feminism adapted to these realities: a feminism of unprecedented cunning, scale, and vision; a future in which the realization of gender justice and feminist emancipation contribute to a universalist politics assembled from the needs of every human, regardless of race, ability, economic standing, or geographical position. No more futureless repetition on the treadmill of capital, no more submission to the drudgery of labour, productive and reproductive alike, no more reification of the given masked as critique. Our future requires depetrification. XF is not a bid for revolution, but a wager on the long game of history, demanding imagination, dexterity and persistence.
http://www.sacw.net/article11281.html

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19. INDIA: JHARKHANDIS ORGANIZATION AGAINST RADIATION’S PRESS RELEASE ON THE CORRUPTION SCANDAL AT URANIUM CORPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED
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It is extremely shocking and shameful that the senior officials of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) at their Jadugoda Headquarters have decided to bypass all rules and regulations.
http://www.sacw.net/article11293.html

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20. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH:
=========================================
  - India: Undermining National Institutions to Create Regimented Minds (Irfan Engineer)
  - Germany's Pegida anti-Islamisation group says it has a new hero: Narendra Modi (Anuradha Sharma, scroll.in, 15 June 2015)
  - India: Now, Pratapgarh - Dalits and Muslims clash over bathing in river, ‘spoiling’ of graveyard
  - Squandered heritage | A.G.Noorani, Frontline Magazine, Print Edition, June 26, 2015
  - India: Keep yoga off religion, politics (Editorial in Deccan Herald, 15 June 2015)
  - The Imambaras are not meant for tourism': Shia cleric locks the gates of Islamic heritage site
  - India: Pass the word on the coming press conference in Bombay to release a report on 365 days of the Modi govt.
  - India: “Hindu Left”, "Muslim Left , What Nonsense ? - A strange push for identity politics from S G Vombatkere a member of the NAPM
  - A Banaras Hindu University public event co organised by SIO the student wing of Jamaat e Islami has invited a leading RSS activist
  - India under Modi: A Hindutva laden National Film School / Open Letter from a Film School Student
  - Growing intolerance in Bangladesh
  - Bombay's Bindi-sporting Muslim domestic workers lay bare a divided city
  - Bangladesh: Blogging for secularism (Anand Kumar)
  - India: The Hindu Right demand not to drop cases booked against PFI, KFD in Karnataka
  - India should be declared a Hindu nation: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president, Dr. Togadia
  - Video: The terrifying American anti-abortion movement is exporting its tactics to the UK
  - Where do Ram and Allah Live? (Ram Puniyani)
  - Explained: Holiness of the Cow and Controversy Over Beef-Eating In Ancient India

 - available at: http://communalism.blogspot.in/

 
::: RESOURCEs & FULL TEXT :::
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21. THE ROHINGYA REFUGEE CRISIS: RAJYA SABHA TV DISCUSSION
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL4QrprybxY

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22. PAKISTAN DOCTORS LIVE IN FEAR AFTER SPIKE IN DEADLY ATTACKS
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http://mobile.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/06/15/world/asia/15reuters-pakistan-healthcare-attacks.html…

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23. INDIA-PAKISTAN: STOP THE '56 INCH' TALK; GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
by Mahmud Durrani
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(Catchnews.com - 15 June 2015)

DIPLOMATIC BRAWL

The escalation
    A few months back India and Pakistan seemed ready for dialogue. Today they are sabre-rattling.
    Diplomatic engagements are badly affected. Both countries have become stingy in granting visas.
    M Narendra Modi raked up the 1971 war; Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has threatened to attack Pakistan.
    Pakistan Army and government have responded in the same coin.

The viewpoint
    India can attack Pakistan on the pretext that it's a haven for terrorists.
    Yes, Pakistan is teeming with terrorists, but that's despite the security establishment's efforts.
    Today security forces in Pakistan are busy fighting terrorists, not nurturing them.

The solution
    The two prime ministers need to talk, with a commitment to reduce tensions. Set up a secret back channel.
    Foreign ministers must set up an agenda for regular talks.
    Exchange of visits by 10-20 parliamentarians from each side to give recommendations on how normalise relations.
    Announce a liberal visa policy; increase interaction between citizens.

In the first week of February I visited New Delhi and got the distinct impression that India was ready to resume dialogue with Pakistan.

Of course a couple of preconditions were thrown in for good measure but the essential message that I received was, 'lets talk'.

However, four months down the road, apparently for no good reason, it seems we are fast moving towards a serious confrontation. It is amazing how fast our two countries can climb up the escalatory ladder.

Are we headed for a confrontation?

Now all we need is a spark, a spark that will quickly move us from the verbal to the area of action and a counter reaction. And there are many spoilers on both sides to provide such a spark.

In case of a physical confrontation and a possible short term war, Pakistan will certainly be the bigger loser but not without giving India a bloody nose. There is enough evidence of that.

What possible reasoning could India use to strike Pakistan? Pakistan is a safe haven of terrorists? Yes, Pakistan is teeming with all kinds of terrorists, not because of the establishment but in spite of the establishment.

Threats and loud rhetoric is stuff for Punjabi and Hindi movies, not India-Pakistan diplomacy

In the past, the establishment's relationship with some jihadi groups was suspect but today I see no sympathy of the establishment with any jihadi group.

Presently, the major portion of the Pakistani military, para-military and intelligence agencies are actively engaged in fighting terrorists. In fact, India should offer to help Pakistan in this war.

The current atmosphere has pushed political and diplomatic engagements between India and Pakistan to the back burner. Visas to all and sundry are being denied; in one case even a diplomat has been denied a visa. But this time round, the brinkmanship is a bit scary and certainly devoid of any reason.
Pointless threats

Forget the possibility of a nuclear holocaust; can these two developing nations afford such blatant brinkmanship? I am surprised even a seasoned political leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi is exposing the wounds of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war and that too without any serious advantage.

The Indian role in the breakaway of East Pakistan is already well known and documented.

The Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar went a step further and threatened to strike Pakistan. My friend, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who was once part of the world of espionage, also added to the variety of threats from New Delhi.

Why this coercion? Does the Indian establish seriously feel Pakistan will lie belly-up and wag its tail. Such thinking would be a serious error of judgment. I am almost certain India can achieve far more in fulfilling its strategic interests through the big brother approach and dialogue.

Does the Indian establishment seriously feel Pakistan will lie belly-up and wag its tail?

Of course we in Pakistan hate to be outdone in rhetoric, after all we are from the same stock with massive pride and inflated egos. Our defence and interior minister promptly hit back and warned India of dire consequences if India was indeed planning any kind of offensive against the Pakistan.

Not to be left behind, the Pakistan Army also warned of a befitting response if anyone cast an evil eye in the direction of the land of the pure.

I believe a one liner from a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have been a more dignified and appropriate way to respond. What kind of message are we giving to the hawks in India? Are we rattled?
What's the way out?

The problems that divide India and Pakistan are tricky but I am convinced they are eminently resolvable, even the Kashmir issue. All that is needed is some flexibility, lots of patience and, above all, a wise leadership. Threats and loud rhetoric is the stuff for Punjabi and Hindi movies, please let us not bring this into our real life.

To overcome the current impasse I have three recommendations:

    A sooner than later telephonic exchange between the two prime ministers with a commitment to immediately control the escalating tensions. In addition, a decision to set up a secret back channel concurrently with meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries, ASAP. The foreign ministers need to set up an agenda for regular and routine talks.
    Exchange of visits by ten to twenty selected parliamentarians from each side to focus on developing collective recommendations for both governments on how best to normalise relations between the two countries.
    Without further delay announce a liberal visa policy on which considerable work has already been done. The essence of the visa policy should be to increase interaction between the common citizens of both the countries.

Senior citizens like me (over 70 years of age) should be given visas at the point of entry, without any questions. The demeaning and useless practice of city specific and police reporting visas should be done away with.

Our two countries have wasted immense time and resources in battling each other and what do we have to show for it? Nothing, even our region suffers. Let us turn a new leaf and give peace a chance.

The views expressed here are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation.

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24. CAN MUSIC LEAD TO SOCIAL HARMONY IN SRI LANKA?
by Dinouk Colombage 
=========================================
(Al Jazeera -14 Jun 2015)
After a long civil war, a children's orchestra aims to bridge gaps between Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups.

Mulliativu, Sri Lanka - Although Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war ended in 2009, an entire generation remains scarred by the conflict.

Many children grew up knowing nothing but the trauma of war, which pitted the majority Sinhalese against the minority Tamil ethnic group.

In 2012, as the country was struggling with reconciliation, a privately funded group called the Music Project was launched. It aims to bring together children of different ethnicities through the formation of a youth orchestra.

Shalini Wickramasuriya is the driving force behind the project. Her inspiration for the venture, she explained, emerged from a similar project in Venezuela.

As the conflict was fought on ethnic lines, the idea that children from different races could come together to form an orchestra shows the country has a promising future.

Shalini Wickramasuriya, Music Project

"In Venezuela, many children come from broken homes. Their childhood is disrupted by the violence that surrounds them. Music is a great healer, and it has done great things for children over there. I hope to emulate that over here with these children who have been exposed to the war," she said.

The children chosen for the programme come from northern Sri Lanka, where much of the fighting took place, and they are selected from both Sinhala and Tamil areas.

Many of those who were chosen for the inaugural group in 2012 were directly affected by the war.

"Some of these children have lost parents to the war," said Wickramasuriya.

"As the conflict was fought on ethnic lines, the idea that children from different races could come together to form an orchestra shows the country has a promising future."

Music for friendship

Since 2012, the number of children in the programme has swelled. Today, nearly 500 children between the ages of 11-16 take part.

Because of difficult travel logistics, children are given music lessons at their schools through an after-school programme organised by the trainers of the Music Project. Twice a year, the kids and their parents come together for a one-week camp where they perform a concert.

The project has seen children from different ethnic backgrounds form strong friendships.

On the final day of the camp, the children spent their lunch break playing with one another, showing no signs of division along ethnic lines. In this part of Sri Lanka, students learn both the Tamil and Sinhalese languages in school, so they are able to easily communicate with one another.

At one point, Kavin, a 12-year-old Sinhalese boy, grabbed his friends - one of whom is a Tamil - and said that he wanted a picture taken of them.
Kavin and his friends [Dinouk Colombage/Al Jazeera] 

"We are going to start a band together, but only after we play cricket for Sri Lanka," he promised.

The boy explained that he started playing the flute when he was nine years old.

"I never played an instrument before. I only wanted to play cricket. Since coming here, I can play cricket all day with my friends and also practise for our band."

Kavin responded in a confused manner when asked whether he enjoys playing in a band made up of Sinhalese and Tamil children.

"I like playing in this band because I like my music," he said. "A lot of the others who play here are my friends, so I enjoy that also."

Healing wounds

In addition to the children's friendships, Wickramasuriya said some of their parents are also becoming close.

"These parents have spent their lives associating [with people] from similar racial backgrounds. After 30 years of war, it is heartening to see friendships sprout up between the Sinhalese and Tamil parents."

N Balakrishnan, the mother of a Tamil girl, said the programme has helped her to move on from the war.
The Music Project has also allowed parents from the two sides of the conflict a safe space to socialise [Dinouk Colombage/Al Jazeera]

"For almost 20 years we had very little contact with the Sinhalese. We only knew them as soldiers. Even when I was a child I had little contact with them. Thankfully, my daughter does not have that same issue," Balakrishnan said.

She said her daughter is close friends with a Sinhalese girl who also plays the flute.

"They write letters to each other and are almost inseparable during the programme," said Balakrishnan.

The music the children play is mainly classical Western music, and most of the trainers are specialised in the field. In the future, Wickramasuriya said she hopes to also have the children play traditional Sinhala and Tamil music.

"For this programme to be a real success, we must expose the children to the different cultures that inhabit the country," said Wickramasuriya. 

Now in its fourth year, the programme will soon attempt to hold concerts around the country, said Wickramasuriya.

"The musical talent that is being uncovered by this programme is astounding. The children deserve the opportunity to show off their talent to the country," Wickramasuriya said.

"To see Sinhala and Tamil children combine to form an orchestra will send a signal to the country that genuine reconciliation is a possibility."

Source: Al Jazeera

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25. BRITAIN MUST BAN SHARIA "KANGAROO COURTS", SAY ACTIVISTS
by Emma Batha
=========================================
(Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 15 Jun 2015)

[photo:] A banner calling for British Muslims not to vote as part of the Stay Muslim Don't Vote campaign is held aloft outside the London Central Mosque in London April 3, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

LONDON, June 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain's new government must abolish Islamic sharia courts, campaigners said on Monday, describing them as "kangaroo courts" that deliver second-rate justice and trample over the rights of women and children.

They called for the government to stick to pre-election promises to hold an inquiry into sharia courts which first appeared in Britain in the mid-1980s.

"Over the years, we have witnessed with increasing alarm the influence of 'Sharia courts' over the lives of citizens of Muslim heritage," nearly 200 women's rights and secular campaigners said in a statement.

"Though the 'Sharia courts' have been touted as people's right to religion, they are in fact, effective tools of the far-right Islamist movement whose main aim is to restrict and deny rights, particularly those of women and children."

It has been reported that there are 85 such courts in Britain, but the number is unknown. The courts -- called sharia councils -- deal mostly with family matters, in particular divorce.

Campaigners say women in abusive relationships are being forced to return to their husbands while others end up in destitution following divorce under sharia law. Women can also lose custody of their children after divorce.

The courts give a woman's testimony only half the weight of that of a man, campaigners say, and sons inherit twice the share of daughters.

Sharia councils contacted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation were not immediately available for comment. But the Islamic Sharia Council in east London says on its website that it takes a "harsh stance" on domestic violence, never forces a woman to stay with a husband she wants to divorce and always insists that couples refer custody issues to civil courts.

The campaigners' statement called on the government to stop the development of parallel legal systems and to defend the principle of one law for all.

The 197 signatories include women's rights groups and secular organisations along with prominent writers, academics, journalists and lawyers. Many of the signatories are from a Muslim background.

Britain's Home Office said on Monday that a review into sharia courts would be included in a counter extremism strategy to be announced soon.

Some supporters of sharia councils have suggested problems with the system should be addressed through regulation, but opponents say the courts simply should not exist.

"Opposing 'Sharia courts' is not racism or 'Islamophobic'; it is a defence of the rights of all citizens, irrespective of their beliefs and background to be governed by democratic means under the principle of one law for all," the statement added.

The statement also called for the government review to examine the impact of "draconian" legal aid cuts which they said were increasingly forcing abused women from minority backgrounds to go to sharia courts to sort out family legal proceedings.

Sharia law derives from the Koran and the Hadiths, the sayings and customs attributed to the Prophet Mohammad, as well as rulings by Islamic scholars.

But the statement pointed out that sharia laws are contested in many Muslim-majority countries including Iran, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.

(Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

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26. VICKI TOSCANO. REVIEW OF WILSON, JOSHUA C., THE STREET POLITICS OF ABORTION: SPEECH, VIOLENCE, AND AMERICA'S CULTURE WARS
=========================================

 Joshua C. Wilson. The Street Politics of Abortion: Speech, Violence, and America's Culture Wars. The Cultural Lives of Law Series. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. xi + 244 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-8533-4; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8047-8534-1.

Reviewed by Vicki Toscano (Nova Southeastern University)
Published on H-Law (June, 2015)
Commissioned by Charles L. Zelden

In this multifaceted book, Joshua C. Wilson sets out to accomplish a number of ambitious goals. Based on fifty interviews and secondary and primary source materials, including newspapers, Wilson tells the stories behind three distinct court cases. What these court cases share is that they stem from an actual or perceived conflict of interest regarding people's rights in relation to the physical space around health clinics where abortions occur. Firstly, he attempts to develop these stories through the lens of "movement-countermovement" analysis whereby he analyzes "how directly competing movements interact with one another—and possibly with a more traditional entity like the state—in a dynamic process where each movement in part creates the conditions within which the other acts" (p. 10). At the same time, he sets out to understand what we can learn about these stories regarding questions raised by traditional "legal consciousness" research, including "determining if and how law mattered for those involved in these disputes; how their stories may or may not reproduce, challenge, or amend legal power and state authority; ... and how their conceptions of law affect the ongoing politics of abortion" (p. 111). Lastly, Wilson includes the perspective of a group of participants in these legal conflicts that is often explicitly excluded in traditional legal consciousness research: state legal insiders or legal "elites," specifically lawyers, legislators, and amicus brief authors. Overall, this book achieves the ambitious goals it sets for itself in that it engages with and furthers two types of socio-legal-historical research: movement-countermovement literature and legal consciousness literature. Nonetheless, certain aspects of the conclusions reached by Wilson raise questions and leave room for further analysis.

In the first half of the book, Wilson tells the stories behind Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams (1995), Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997), and Hill v. Colorado (2000). These three cases frame Wilson's investigation and arise from a particular historical moment in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the primary battleground over abortion was set, literally, in the street. This is not to say, as Wilson explicitly notes, that all abortion wrangling was occurring on the streets at this time or that all street-level protests and actions have ceased since then but rather that clinic-front direct action was one of the anti-abortion movement's "identifying hallmarks" during this time (p. 1). As Wilson notes briefly, this move to the street partly occurred as a result of failures and setbacks for the anti-abortion movement within the courts and on judicial benches. This led to a new set of tactics being developed on both sides of this controversy.

Two specific types of anti-abortion protestors, as identified by Wilson, were created during this time: the picketers and the rescuers. Both targeted their direct-action tactics at health clinics where abortions occur. However, the picketers tended to be more peaceful, less aggressive, and generally more interested in educating and counseling women who were considering abortion. The rescuers, so called due to their connection with organizations like Operation Rescue, were involved with large-scale demonstrations that often explicitly included illegal activities, such as participating in sit-ins in parking lots and/or using their bodies to prevent entrance and exit from health clinics in other ways.

Both types of direct-action anti-abortion protestors sparked various reactions from abortion rights advocates, particularly those affiliated with the specific clinics that were heavily targeted. One direct-action tactic abortion rights advocates used included the regular use of "escorts," people who were willing to walk patients from their car to the entrance of the clinic in order to physically separate the protestors from the patients and to help shield patients from some of the more explicit photos employed. Increasingly, however, abortion rights advocates found themselves turning to the law to find a solution. The three cases Wilson details are examples of the move to engage the law to help solve the problems created by these street-level anti-abortion tactics.

To tell the stories in a way that engages with movement-countermovement and legal consciousness research, Wilson utilizes the accounts of participants on both sides of the cases and includes perspectives of street-level activists and legal "elites" in their own words to help explain what these individuals thought these cases were about. Both Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams and Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York dealt with the use of court-ordered injunctions. In Williams, the permanent injunction pushed anti-abortion protestors so far away from the clinic that they were separated from it by a busy four-lane street. In Schenck, the permanent injunction included, among other things, a fixed no-protest buffer of fifteen feet around all clinic entrances and driveways and a cease and desist provision. The cease and desist provision required that, although two picketers at a time were allowed within the fifteen-foot buffer to counsel patients, those picketers must stop counseling or engaging with patients within that fifteen-foot buffer if they were asked to stop by the patients. Hill v. Colorado dealt with a law passed by a Republican-dominated legislature in the state of Colorado in 1993 to limit the means by which protestors may target patients entering clinics. The law created a "floating bubble" that required anyone within one hundred feet of a clinic entrance to first get permission before approaching closer than eight feet to another person to pass out a leaflet, counsel, display a sign, protest, or educate. However, if a person approached within eight feet of the protestor, the protestor need not move away but could remain standing in place without violation of the law. All of these legal solutions were ultimately upheld by the reviewing courts as content-neutral and as valid "time, place, and manner" restrictions on speech and therefore not in violation of the protestors' First Amendment rights.

The unique and most important contribution of this book is made through Wilson's choice to pick this set of cases and, in fact, this entire controversy. He explicitly chooses these cases in a calculated and effective move to broaden the scope of traditional movement-countermovement and legal consciousness research. His choice to examine these cases is driven by their classification as, in his terms, "secondary movement litigation" (p. 12). By this classification, he explicitly draws two important parallels between these cases. First, they all arose from back-and-forth reactions to the tactics taken by both sides of the controversy rather than being brought as part of an intentional legal strategy. Second, he claims, these cases "are not meant to, nor do they even have the ability to, incrementally or immediately achieve either movement's ultimate policy goals" (p. 14). Further, he suggests, a third way to understand the status of these cases as secondary litigation is by noting, jurisprudentially, that these cases were about competing interpretations of the First Amendment right to free speech rather than the Fourteenth Amendment due process right to privacy and liberty around which reproductive rights have been legally framed. This type of litigation, he points out, has rarely been examined explicitly in either movement-countermovement or legal consciousness literature. His insights regarding what this less deliberative type of litigation can tell us about how movements respond to each other and how individual participants understand and shape law is unique and useful in many ways. Nonetheless, I believe there is a conceptual flaw in part of his definition of these cases as secondary litigation.

I believe Wilson got it wrong when he claims that these cases are unrelated to either movement's ultimate policy goals. Both anti-abortion picketers and rescuers were at the clinics to stop women from having abortions through education and/or counseling they thought would be effective in reducing abortion and through blocking access to the clinics more directly. This action relates directly to anti-abortion policy goals of, at the very least, reducing the absolute number of abortions that take place. Similarly, abortion rights advocates were compelled to defend against these actions. If intimidation of patients and the effective shutting down of clinics for short periods of time were allowed to continue, the most important policy goal for abortion rights activists, safe and reliable access to abortion, would be compromised as well. Although Wilson is correct in the idea that this litigation is "secondary" in that it was reactionary and legally distanced from the normal abortion jurisprudence issues, it is not accurate to suggest that the aims being sought by this litigation for both sides were not central to the overall aims of both movements. This mischaracterization, although leaving many parts of his otherwise excellent analysis untouched, does affect some of the conclusions Wilson reaches.

For example, one conclusion Wilson examines in relation to secondary movement litigation is that "one would expect the movements not to be fully invested in them.... The movements may be better able to end these cases if they seem too great of a drain on financial or emotional resources" (p. 167). Yet he also notes, "these cases persisted through the appeals process even when they were quite costly for both sides. This shows that the movements were deeply invested in these cases" (p. 170). He looks for reasons why this might be the case here when, given his earlier assumptions about secondary litigation, it seems as though there should be more of a divestment in cases such as this. Finally he adds, "the risk of a movement harming itself through overinvesting in secondary movement litigation should be recognized" (p. 171). The fact missed by Wilson throughout this analysis is that defeat in these cases would reduce the ability of both sides to achieve their ultimate policy goals, either the goal of reducing abortion or the goal of ensuring safe and reliable access to abortion. This is an additional factor that could help explain why these cases were not easily abandoned and why the cases were seen by the participants as "personally important" and "highly significant" for both sides (p. 170).

The second half of Wilson's book engages in analysis of the effect of these cases on the legal consciousness of the various participants. As he says, "We know how the actors in these disputes have behaved, but in order to fully understand the nature of legal power, we need to explore how they understand their behavior and construct law in their stories" (p. 113). His analysis of this question leads to several interesting insights. Briefly, he forwards two conclusions regarding the street-level participants' beliefs in the legitimacy of state power and access to law's narrative power after the conclusion of these cases.

First, even though abortion rights advocates won in the courts and were able to recognize and make use of the coercive nature of state power, this victory did not enable the victors to have unlimited access to the normative power of law. This is best understood as a result of the fact that these cases arose as secondary litigation where, specifically, abortion rights advocates found themselves arguing for a more conservative view of First Amendment rights to free speech in this area. Since many of the activists in the movement tended to believe in an expansive reading of the right to free speech in other contexts, this position required the activists to carefully articulate the interests being balanced in these cases rather than have access to a clear-cut and powerful rhetoric regarding absolute "rights" in these cases.

Second, even though anti-abortion forces lost in the courts and were made subject to coercive state power, this loss did not require them to either delegitimize state law or to give up their beliefs or sense of themselves as law abiding citizens. Rescuers' narratives generally underscore their belief that the courts were simply enforcing law that probably should be enforced, for example, anti-trespassing laws, but were doing so because the state misunderstood the nature of what was at stake. For rescuers, the appeal to a higher extra-state law, found in their belief in God's law, fueled their anti-abortion actions but also allowed the participants to recognize that, in these cases specifically, they were actually breaking state law and the state responded appropriately. The picketers, on the other hand, saw their actions as legal and justifiable and the courts as wrong in imposing punishment on them. However, in their overall narratives, rather than regard state law as illegitimate, the picketers tended to minimize their critique of state law by claiming that the cases were a result of individual corrupt judges or lying clinic owners. Further, the anti-abortion movement, partly through the interplay of participants in these three cases, has been advantaged by these cases in the long run by making key connections and marshaling resources that have continued to serve them in the state legislative battlefield.

Another innovative aspect of this book, and one of the most interesting conclusions Wilson generates from his research, revolves around his choice to extend this legal consciousness analysis to the legal "elites" he interviewed regarding these three cases: the cause lawyers, state attorneys, "hired gun" lawyers, legislative members, and amicus authors. Most research on elites tends to focus on the way that elites may have a detrimental effect on movements and alienate activists by taking over the rhetorical framing through focusing on law and litigation strategies. In his research, Wilson thought it useful to "revers[e] the causal arrow and not[e] the degree to which the lawyers and other elites that work with movements adopt the street-level frames and rhetoric" (p. 133). He made three crucial claims regarding the legal consciousness of "elites" based on these cases.

First, lawyers, especially those in closest coordination with the movement's street-level participants, did demonstrate similar rhetorical constructions of the issues at stake and the view of law that the street-level activists accepted to some extent. Second, the "elites" placed further away from the movement were less likely to share the movements' rhetoric and, more important, "the overwhelming majority of elites constructed images of law that were unprincipled and infused with politics and showmanship" (p. 178). Yet, third, he claims the elites' "anemic" version of state law, which tended to undermine state law's legitimacy, did not seem to pass to the street-level activists (p. 180). Although he mentions a number of reasons why this may be so, one reason Wilson proffers is the distance between the activists and the legal battles of the elites. Wilson suggests that rather than alienating the street-level activists in these cases, the distance between the activists and the "legal fights in a foreign world being waged by distant surrogates" actually insulated the activists from the problematic versions of state law created by these distant legal "elites" (p. 183). Thus, while many studies warn of the problems created by this separation between legal elites and activists in movements, he recognizes one possible benefit that this distance may afford.

Finally, although Wilson's close analysis of these three cases reveals some really interesting dimensions related to movement-countermovement and legal consciousness research, it also shields from view some important and useful insights, particularly interesting movement-countermovement dynamics. Although Wilson does briefly mention that the anti-abortion movement has had some considerable success in the state legislative arena since these cases were fought, he misses some specific connections between the goals of the anti-abortion activists in the street and the form of some recent state laws. For example, some recent state laws require women who present themselves for an abortion to be told that personhood begins at conception and that there might be serious negative psychological effects on the women due to abortion, and/or to receive information on the ability of the fetus to feel pain.[1] In Texas, the state has gone so far as to require women who present themselves for an abortion be given a sonogram, often a vaginal sonogram, even when not medically necessary and even against the woman's will. The doctor is required to turn the screen toward her face and describe various body parts of the fetus although the woman may close her eyes and cover her ears.[2] In effect, these state laws have taken the messages and images conveyed by the protestors outside the clinics and put them into the mouths of the doctors and/or other health professionals inside the clinics. Wilson symbolically demarcates the end of the street politics of abortion with an image of a picketer who claimed that after the bubble bill was passed she felt unsure how to proceed and would sometimes not move or speak when a woman walked by in case she was accidentally violating the law. He says, "The resulting street-level demobilization is captured in the image of [the anti-abortion activist] standing stock-still and silent" (p. 106). The insight he misses by cordoning off the street aspect of the anti-abortion movement from the wider movement itself, however, is another symbolic picture: this one of the health-care practitioner speaking the messages and reproducing the images of the anti-abortion movement at the coercive behest of the state. The street activist is now, effectively, inside the clinic and wearing the doctor's coat. Nonetheless, given the scope and aims of the book Wilson set out to write, he has done an admirable job of furthering the existing socio-legal-historical research.

Notes

[1]. Guttmacher Institute, State Policies in Brief: Counseling and Waiting Periods for Abortion (2015), https://www.guttmacher.org/sections/abortion.php#.

[2]. For further analysis and critique of this law, see Vicki Toscano and Elizabeth Reiter, "Upholding a 40-Year-Old Promise: Why the Texas Sonogram Act Is Unlawful According to Planned Parenthood v. Casey," Pace Law Review 34, no. 1 (2014): 128-184.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.


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