SACW - 27 Aug 2015 | Nepal: Political Violence / Bangladesh: Open letter re Killings of humanists / Sri Lanka: Communal Danger / Pakistan-India Deadlock / India: Romila Thapar on the Secular; Gita Press & Hindutva; Islamism / Feminist Manifesto / Suburban Jihadis

Wed Aug 26 15:11:52 EDT 2015

South Asia Citizens Wire - 27 August 2015 - No. 2868 
[since 1996]

Contents:
1. Bangladesh: Joint open letter to Prime Minister and President re violent attacks on humanists, atheists and secularists
1.1 ’Bangladesh Islamists threatened by secular bloggers - minorities hit as govt woos Islamists’ | Imran H Sarker
1.2 Extremist killing of atheist bloggers stirs panic in Bangladesh | Nathan Vanderklippe
2. The Battle for Sri Lanka: Between a communal / majoritarian view Versus a multi-ethnic, plural and democratic vision | Jayadeva Uyangoda
3. Full Audio: Lecture by Romila Thapar on ’Indian Society and the Secular’
4. Statement by the Aligarh Historians Society on the killing of the Syrian archaeologist Khaled al Asaad by ISIL (DAISH) at Palmyra
5. India: Eminent Citizens from 15 states declare support to thousands of Sardar Sarovar oustees in Mass Land-Livelihood Convention
6. India: Teachers Statement Protesting Police Action Against Striking FTII Students
7. Strike Day 70 a short film by Simantini Dhuru and Anand Patwardhan
8. India: Select audio from book launch discussion on Akshaya Mukul's "Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India"
9. Indian Islamism at the crossroads | Fahad Hashmi
10.  India: Thought For Food  | Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera
11. India: Book on Malala a huge public release by All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) in Andhra Pradesh
12. Video: Sumit Guha Speaking on Caste in South Asia
13. A Political Manifesto for the Emancipation of Our Bodies
14. Recent On Communalism Watch:
 - Shivaji: To Each One's Own (Ram Puniyani)
 - Chennai Screening venue of 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai' changed after alleged threats from Hindutva lobby
 - Is the BJP making political use of statistics on demography? The release of religious census 2011 figures
 - Mauritius model for Ram museum in Ayodhya
 - The blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan rescues Hinduism from Hindutva says Jyoti Punwani
 - India: What on earth is the Congress Govt Doing in Karnataka - Why cant it take down Hindutva activists playing havaoc in Mangalore
 - India: How the Gita Press opposed birth control to shore up the Hindu population (Akshay Mukul)
 - India: Holambi Kalan, Delhi’s Latest Communal Flashpoint (Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty)
 - The man who shot communalism: A tribute to Shubhradeep Chakravorty (Ashley Tellis)
 - Public Meeting on 31 st August 7th anniversary of Kandhamal Communal Violence
 - India: An Uncertain Home (G Seetharaman)
 - Kanwariyas: Are the BJP and RSS Attempting to Saffron-ise Dalits? (Sumegha Gulati)
 - Assam's sexist media is toeing a dangerous line in the name of tradition & culture
 - India: If peace is to prevail in Manipur, Meitei majoritarianism has to go
 - India: Urban Rental Housing Market - Caste and Religion Matters in Access
 - Kuldeep Kumar on Dangers of Communal Politics (in Hindi)
 - India: Carcass in mosque, idols defaced: How communal pot is kept boiling in Bihar
 - India: What a viral image of two young women tells us about the Hindutva laboratory in Karnataka (Samar Halarnkar)

::: RESOURCEs & FULL TEXT :::
15. Sri Lanka: SIS Submits Report On Rajapaksa’s Buddhist Temple Based Neo-Fascist Movement
16. 'Foreign policy cannot be left to a policeman like Ajit Doval' | Mani Shankar Aiyar
17. Pakistan - India: No alternative to talks (Editorial, The Hindu)
18. India: Illegal, intrusive, unconstitutional: High Court on Madh moral policing | Mumbai Mirror
19. Nepal’s constitutional politics: It's time to drop the arrogance | Prashant Jha
20. Concerned by ongoing political violence in Nepal, UN rights office urges peaceful resolution to crisis
21. India: Wind in her hair, phone in her hand | Snigdha Manickavel
22. Suburban Jihadis | Owen Bennett-Jones

========================================
1. JOINT OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER AND PRESIDENT OF BANGLADESH RE VIOLENT ATTACKS ON HUMANISTS, ATHEISTS AND SECULARISTS
========================================
We, concerned members of the blogging and activist community of Bangladesh and internationally, along with representatives of human rights organisations and other civil society organisations and supporters, wish to protest in the strongest possible terms the institutional attack on Bangladeshi citizens who profess humanist, atheist or secularist views.
http://www.sacw.net/article11534.html

[Related Material]

1.1 ’BANGLADESH ISLAMISTS THREATENED BY SECULAR BLOGGERS - MINORITIES HIT AS GOVT WOOS ISLAMISTS’ | Imran H Sarker
Bangladesh is being roiled by gruesome murders targeting its secular blogger ommunity. Imran H Sarker is spokesperson for Bangladesh’s Shahbag movement which demanded maximum puni hment for 1971’s war criminals. Speaking with Rudroneel Ghosh, Sarker discussed why bloggers are being killed, the knowing apathy of political parties  and how this inks to attacks on religious minorities
http://www.sacw.net/article11518.html

1.2 EXTREMIST KILLING OF ATHEIST BLOGGERS STIRS PANIC IN BANGLADESH | NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
Anxiety is particularly acute among the young intellectuals whose online writing has attracted the ire of religious extremists.
http://www.sacw.net/article11554.html

========================================
2. THE BATTLE FOR SRI LANKA: BETWEEN A COMMUNAL / MAJORITARIAN VIEW VERSUS A MULTI-ETHNIC, PLURAL AND DEMOCRATIC VISION | Jayadeva Uyangoda
========================================
The possibility of the Rajapaksa-led opposition using Sinhalese communalism to unsettle and undermine the new government of moderates is actually very real
http://www.sacw.net/article11553.html

========================================
3. FULL AUDIO: LECTURE BY ROMILA THAPAR ON ’INDIAN SOCIETY AND THE SECULAR’
========================================
Audio recording of the lecture by Romila Thapar on ’Indian Society and the Secular’ 5th Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture (New Delhi @ Jamia on 19 August 2015) [recording by sacw.net public archive]
http://www.sacw.net/article11529.html

========================================
4. STATEMENT BY THE ALIGARH HISTORIANS SOCIETY ON THE KILLING OF THE SYRIAN ARCHAEOLOGIST KHALED AL ASAAD BY ISIL (DAISH) AT PALMYRA
========================================
The Aligarh Historians Society joins archaeologists and historians all over the world in denouncing as a most barbarous crime the gruesome murder of the eminent Syrian archaeologist, Khaled al-Asaad, an expert on Palmyra, one of the great World Heritage sites.
http://www.sacw.net/article11520.html

========================================
5. INDIA: EMINENT CITIZENS FROM 15 STATES DECLARE SUPPORT TO THOUSANDS OF SARDAR SAROVAR OUSTEES IN MASS LAND-LIVELIHOOD CONVENTION
========================================
Numerous representatives of people's movements, political groups, social organizations, intellectuals, artists, activists passed the “Rajghat Resovle” in the middle of Narmada, in the presence of thousands of adivasis-farmers, fish workers, landless workers, potters etc, who have embarked on an indefinite struggle against the Sardar Sardar Project, with renewed strength as “owners” of their acquired lands and houses.
http://www.sacw.net/article11549.html

========================================
6. INDIA: TEACHERS STATEMENT PROTESTING POLICE ACTION AGAINST STRIKING FTII STUDENTS
========================================
We, the undersigned teachers, scholars and researchers, signatories to different statements issued in Solidarity with the Students of the Film &Television Institute of India (FTII), while reiterating our firm support to this historic strike by students, stand with the FTII Teachers' Association, in unequivocally protesting ‘the manner in which students were picked up by the police in the dead of night (August 18/19) in the absence of senior members of the administration'.
http://www.sacw.net/article11543.html

========================================
7.  STRIKE DAY 70 A SHORT FILM BY SIMANTINI DHURU AND ANAND PATWARDHAN
========================================
"We went to Pune on 20 August, 2015 to attend the second anniverary commemoration of the murder of anti-superstition crusader, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar. Later that day we went to the Film and Television Institute of India where a student strike had just entered its 70th day. The students are protesting the appointment of unqualified administrators whose only distinction is their saffron allegiance." ... Anand Patwardhan
http://www.sacw.net/article11548.html

========================================
8. INDIA: SELECT AUDIO FROM BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION ON AKSHAYA MUKUL'S "GITA PRESS AND THE MAKING OF HINDU INDIA"
========================================
Three audio recordings with Akshaya Mukul speaking on the story of the Gita Press and the Hindu Right; followed by Comments by Siddharth Varadarajan and Urvashi Butalia
http://www.sacw.net/article11550.html

========================================
9. INDIAN ISLAMISM AT THE CROSSROADS
by Fahad Hashmi
========================================
Making Sense of the Meeting of RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami Leaders in Varanasi
http://www.sacw.net/article11527.html

========================================
10.  INDIA: THOUGHT FOR FOOD
by Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera
========================================
Even the worst-governed states can improve their PDS and ensure grain for the poorest. Look at Madhya Pradesh.
http://www.sacw.net/article11533.html

========================================
11. INDIA: BOOK ON MALALA A HUGE PUBLIC RELEASE BY ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (AIDWA) IN ANDHRA PRADESH
========================================
Nenu Malala’ Book Release organised by Andhra Pradesh state committee of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) at Sri Durga Malleswara Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala, Vijayawada on 20-08-2015
http://www.sacw.net/article11531.html

========================================
12. VIDEO: SUMIT GUHA SPEAKING ON CASTE IN SOUTH ASIA
========================================
http://www.sacw.net/article11552.html

========================================
13. A POLITICAL MANIFESTO FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF OUR BODIES
========================================
We as feminists affirm that our bodies are produced and transformed by the social relations in which we are immersed. Thus, in capitalist-neoliberal, colonial, patriarchal, heteronormative and racist societies, where relations of domination and exploitation prevail, our bodies are affected by all relations of exploitation, subordination, repression, racism and discrimination.
http://www.sacw.net/article11532.html

========================================
14. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH:
========================================
 - Shivaji: To Each One's Own (Ram Puniyani)
 - Chennai Screening venue of 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai' changed after alleged threats from Hindutva lobby
 - Is the BJP making political use of statistics on demography? The release of religious census 2011 figures
 - Mauritius model for Ram museum in Ayodhya
 - The blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan rescues Hinduism from Hindutva says Jyoti Punwani
 - India: What on earth is the Congress Govt Doing in Karnataka - Why cant it take down Hindutva activists playing havaoc in Mangalore
 - India: How the Gita Press opposed birth control to shore up the Hindu population (Akshay Mukul)
 - India: Holambi Kalan, Delhi’s Latest Communal Flashpoint (Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty)
 - The man who shot communalism: A tribute to Shubhradeep Chakravorty (Ashley Tellis)
 - Public Meeting on 31 st August 7th anniversary of Kandhamal Communal Violence
 - India: An Uncertain Home (G Seetharaman)
 - Kanwariyas: Are the BJP and RSS Attempting to Saffron-ise Dalits? (Sumegha Gulati)
 - Assam's sexist media is toeing a dangerous line in the name of tradition & culture
 - India: If peace is to prevail in Manipur, Meitei majoritarianism has to go
 - India: Urban Rental Housing Market - Caste and Religion Matters in Access
 - Kuldeep Kumar on Dangers of Communal Politics (in Hindi)
 - India: Carcass in mosque, idols defaced: How communal pot is kept boiling in Bihar
 - India: What a viral image of two young women tells us about the Hindutva laboratory in Karnataka (Samar Halarnkar)
 - Book chronicles Gita Press' journey, its Hindutva stand
 - In Photos: Assam violence hit families wait for a better future at Khagrabari camp
 - India: Why did 3,000 people march in Kolkata to mark the 1946 Direct Action Day riots? 
 - available at: http://communalism.blogspot.com/

::: RESOURCES & FULL TEXT :::
=========================================
15. SRI LANKA: SIS SUBMITS REPORT ON RAJAPAKSA’S BUDDHIST TEMPLE BASED NEO-FASCIST MOVEMENT
=========================================
(Colombo Telegraph - August 23, 2015)

“The State Intelligence Service has submitted a detailed report regarding the newly formed Mahinda Rajapaksa led ‘Buddhist Temple Based Neo-Fascist Movement'” one of Maithripala Sirisena’s advisers informed Colombo Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

Mahinda Rajapaksa RAccording to the report after Mahinda Rajapaksa‘s presidential election loss in January 2015, he commenced visiting a colossal amount of Buddhist temples on the pretext of seeking support for the concluded general elections in seeking the premiership.

The detailed report sates that the sole purpose of these visits was to seek help in safe guarding himself, his immediate family and his brother namely the former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the on going cases relating to abuse of power, forgery, murder, fraud, corruption and malpractices through the creation of a Buddhist Temple Based Neo-Fascist Movement.

Moreover the damning report states that the formation of this Buddhist Temple Based Neo-Fascists Movement was so well organized, that if in the event any Rajapaksa family member was arrested by the authorities, the entire cadre which also includes certain Buddhist monks could take to the streets within minutes, even leaving their places of work by communicating using secret codes.

No sooner the general elections were over, the FCID promptly resumed their investigations by summoning Gotabaya Rajapaksa for questioning.

The report states that Mahinda Rajapaksa led forces are rampantly recruiting numbers to make a strong cadre that could almost instantly commence blanket protests in the Buddhist dominated areas of the island.

The report clearly states that this Buddhist Temple Based Neo-Fascist Movement was an independent Mahinda Rajapksa led body and has no connections whatsoever with the Bodu Bala Sena or the Ravana Balaya.

According to the President’s adviser this intelligence report is currently being studied by other experts, as the threat this poses could have serious repercussions through mob led protests and violence.

=========================================
16. 'FOREIGN POLICY CANNOT BE LEFT TO A POLICEMAN LIKE AJIT DOVAL'
Mani Shankar Aiyar
=========================================
(Catch News - 22 August 2015)

The confusion
    Even two days before Sartaj Aziz arrives for the NSA level dialogue, it isn't clear whether the talks are taking place
    This is the result of Narendra Modi's confused Pakistan policy, says Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar
    Neither India nor Pakistan was prepared at Ufa. This was evident in the joint statement
    Arresting Hurriyat leaders and using them as a pretext to call off talks is a mistake 

The way out
    Uninterrupted dialogue is the only solution. India and Pakistan should go back to where they were in March 1997
    The most progress was made during Pervez Musharraf as he kept the army in the loop
    India must let these matters be handled by seasoned diplomats, not a cop like NSA Ajit Doval
    India's foreign policy cannot be centered around Modi's personality

The complete confusion surrounding the meeting of the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan is a fallout of the utter immaturity of Narendra Modi. He thinks foreign policy is about frequent flier miles. Foreign policy needs careful planning, patience and long-term strategy which the Modi government has not been displaying.

Just two days to go for Sartaz Aziz to land in India and we have no idea whether the talks are going to happen at all. I remember when Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1987, he went with four years of preparation.
Neither side was prepared at Ufa

The meeting between Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif at Ufa happened absolutely without preparation, which was evident in the joint-statement that was released after it.

The initiation of the composite dialogue process in 1997 was a substantive achievement of India's foreign policy. None of its abiding principles found a mention in the Ufa document.

This was also because of the abrupt sacking of former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh. S Jaishankar is a capable officer but he was not in the know of the government's policy. He too was unprepared for the Ufa meeting. Therefore, the result was a hurriedly prepared document.

I think Nawaz Sharif too was not prepared. He was trapped into the discussion under pressure of the Russian and Chinese leaders there. They were both pushing for India and Pakistan to send out a positive message.
Modi's missed opportunity

The original mistake was the scuttling of the foreign secretary level talks last year. Pakistan has been talking to the Hurriyat for years now and neither have they brought any advantage to Pakistan nor have they harmed us.

To use them as a pretext to cancel talks between foreign secretaries was a big mistake. That round of negotiation was talks about talks which is an important component of the process of uninterrupted dialogue.

It was an important step and should have been taken. Since then we have seen one hasty step after another, resulting in the mess we see now. Nawaz Sharif's humiliation in Kathmandu was also another example. The arrest of the separatists by an unprincipled BJP-PDP coalition was an awkward move.

The Modi-Sharif meeting at Ufa happened absolutely without preparation. Neither side was prepared

The present situation is especially disappointing since Modi had a great opportunity to take the India-Pakistan relationship forward when he invited Nawaz Sharif for his grand swearing-in in May 2014.

He made quite a show of meeting and hugging Nawaz Sharif. But Modi himself squandered that opportunity by not letting the foreign secretary level talks happen. And it has been a downhill slide ever since.

The dialogue process between the political leadership of the two countries is always hostage to other actors in Pakistan.

Leaders so far have always been mindful of that and whenever talks have taken place, it has been in spite of these actors. If you have a long-term policy in place you will not be distracted by factors that the Modi-government has let itself get distracted by.
Uninterrupted dialogue

Uninterrupted talks are the only way forward. I have succeeded in convincing the Pakistanis about this. But some people on my own side of the border are yet to understand.

India-Pakistan talks went ahead the most during Pervez Musharraf and that was because he kept the Pakistani army in the loop at every step. You will read more about this in the political autobiography of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri who was Musharraf's foreign minister, which will be released next month.

That's the way ahead for Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif must take the Army into confidence on whatever plans he has.

For India, it is important to note that cross-border shelling has gone up whenever talks have been held up.

Whenever talks have resumed, it has come down. There is data to prove this as the Defence Minister has submitted a response in the Parliament to my question. So this proves that the talks must carry on uninterrupted.
Go back to March 2007

If I was at the helm, I would pick things up from March 2007 when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to visit Pakistan. His visit was eventually cancelled because of the lawyers' agitation that had engulfed Pakistan. That is the point I would go back to and pick up the threads from.

Modi has made himself the centre of India's foreign policy and that is the problem. Let me make myself very clear. It is not even the office of the Prime Minister. It is Narendra Modi the person himself.

Of course, the Foreign Minister is no party to this because she is obviously too busy using her office for the benefit of her friends abroad, even if they happen to be on the wrong side of Indian law.

India's foreign policy needs to be brought out of the its current state in which Modi is its centre. A long term approach needs to be taken and efficient diplomats need to be given the charge, not a policeman like Ajit Doval.

(As told to Charu Kartikeya)

Mani Shankar Aiyar

The writer, a former diplomat, is a Congress leader and a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha

=========================================
17. PAKISTAN - INDIA: NO ALTERNATIVE TO TALKS (EDITORIAL, THE HINDU)
=========================================
(The Hindu, August 24, 2015)

Editorial
No alternative to talks

The failure of India and Pakistan to hold the planned meeting between their National Security Advisers, as was agreed in Ufa six weeks ago, is unfortunate, indeed disquieting. It should give pause to both Islamabad and New Delhi on what kind of relations they could possibly expect to have in the foreseeable future. Arguments to the effect that there were earlier periods when they had agreed to disagree are at best disingenuous. At Ufa there was a limpid agreement on the agenda for the New Delhi meeting: that the NSAs would “discuss all issues connected to terrorism”. Ufa had also yielded a discernible road map to bring about a modicum of peace and tranquillity along the border and the Line of Control (LoC), which has been witnessing rounds of wanton firing and unacceptable casualties. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj put the number of ceasefire violations since Ufa at 91. Barely a week after Ufa raised modest hopes of an upturn in relations, there was firing in the Akhnoor sector. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar spoke of four attempts made by the Director-General of the Border Security Force to “make telephonic contact with Sector Commander Sialkot” as per laid-down procedures, which met with no response. He mentioned how this was unacceptable. Now, with the prospects of even a limited engagement having receded, the question that arises is: how will the two nuclear-capable neighbours deal with each other?

There is no doubt that through its grandstanding on Kashmir and Hurriyat, Islamabad reneged on the understanding reached in Ufa. It is equally obvious that New Delhi has recalibrated its Pakistan policy, willing perhaps to take a calculated risk that the world would be better disposed to its preferences in the matter of dealing with Pakistan, almost 14 years after 9/11. Yet, the new situation may have willy-nilly rendered India vulnerable to facing gratuitous advice, possibly worse. To assume that those who formulate India’s Pakistan policy believed Islamabad would respect the sudden red line drawn on the Hurriyat, would stretch credulity. The Hurriyat certainly does not have a place in bilateral processes. It is at best a Pakistani side-show with some nuisance value and without much consequence. India had indeed learnt to tolerate that. Now, New Delhi’s actions may have the unintended effect of making the outfit larger-than-life — which is an avoidable prospect. Pakistan has also not covered itself with glory by overloading the agenda with issues that the two NSAs meeting for an hour or two wouldn’t have been able to come to grips with. It is best at this point to open a discreet back channel that ensures better bilateral deliverables than has been the case over the last year and a half. There is simply no alternative to talks. 

=========================================
18. INDIA: ILLEGAL, INTRUSIVE, UNCONSTITUTIONAL: HIGH COURT ON MADH MORAL POLICING
Mumbai Mirror
=========================================
(Mumbai Mirror, Aug 21, 2015)

The Bombay High Court has termed as "shocking" the police's crackdown on hotels in the Malwani-Madh Island area.

Two weeks ago, the Malwani police had rounded up over 50 people from the beaches and hotels of Madh Island, including around 10 young couples. The police had knocked on the doors of hotel rooms and rounded up couples who had checked in.

While the local police maintained that they arrested only those who were drunk and created a ruckus and "couples who were behaving indecently", critics said the police had gone back to their moral policing ways and were harassing young couples instead of tackling crime and maintaining law and order. The police charged the couples under Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act.

Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act, 1951, which deals with 'behaving indecently in public' is pretty vague (box, left) and open to interpretation. Although Maria said there was no flaw in the Act per se, the meeting will be about "perception and how provisions are interpreted".

On Thursday, the Maharashtra government sought time from the court to justify its action taken against the couples during the raids. A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing a petition filed by Khar resident Sumeer Sabharwal terming the raids as "illegal, intrusive and unconstitutional" and seeking action against the police officials concerned.

The bench while adjourning the petition to September 3 remarked, "What is happening in Maharashtra? Shocking..."

The petition had sought investigation by an independent agency into the incident and for it to be monitored by the high court. Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde today sought time to take instructions and justify the police action.

The court issued notice to all the respondents, including Maharashtra Home Minister, a portfolio currently held by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. On August 6, the police had cracked down on hotels and bars in suburban Malwani area and had imposed fine on several couples on charges of indecency.

"The police's raid has infringed upon a citizen's fundamental right to privacy. The raid is illegal, unconstitutional and intrusive," the petition states.

Apart from inquiry and action against the police team that conducted the raid, the petition has sought for proceedings initiated against the couples to be quashed and cancellation of the fine amount. The petition has also sought compensation for the couples. MMB

=========================================
19. NEPAL’S CONSTITUTIONAL POLITICS: IT'S TIME TO DROP THE ARROGANCE
by Prashant Jha
=========================================
(Hindustan Times, Aug 24, 2015)

Protesters chanting slogans take part in a general strike organised by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) demanding autonomous regions based on ethnicity to be drafted into the new Constitution in Kathmandu, Nepal. (Reuters Photo)

Even as the Indian foreign policy establishment has been busy with the Sri Lankan elections and the NSA level talks with Pakistan, trouble has broken out right across the open border in Nepal. Protests for a particular form of federal demarcation have turned violent in the western district of Kailali, and several people have been killed – among them 6 policemen and 3 civilians. Unofficial reports put the figure at over 20. If the higher figures turn out to be correct, the state has not faced this scale of violence ever since the civil war ended in 2006.

The killings come in the wake of prolonged agitation in the plains, and deepening polarisation in the Nepali society and polity. The government has, on Monday evening, decided to deploy the army to aid civilian authorities in affected districts. 

Post-quake deal

Nepal is in the final lap of writing its Constitution through an elected Constituent Assembly (CA). The primary political issue which has polarised society is the nature of federalism. After the devastating earthquake of April 25, Nepal’s bigger political parties -- Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Maoists along with a smaller party from the plains -- came together to forge a deal. They decided Nepal would have a parliamentary system; a bicameral house; a mixed election model with both First Past the Post and proportional representation systems. It would also have eight federal states – but the boundaries and names of the states were to be determined by a federal commission.

The deal immediately triggered a backlash from two constituencies. The Madhesis of the plains -- who share close ethnic, familial, linguistic ties with people across the border in Bihar -- have felt politically excluded in the hill-dominated political structure of Nepal. They were at the forefront of demanding federalism in Nepal and saw the deal as a way of postponing and subverting the federal project.

The Janjatis, hill ethnic groups, also sought immediate demarcation. Nepal’s Supreme Court said that the interim constitution had envisaged that the CA would determine federal boundaries and directed the political leadership to go by this directive.

The Government of India too believed that it was important to take in to confidence as many stakeholders as possible, and not let problems fester for the future. When Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba visited New Delhi, Indian leaders and officials advised them to have a constitution with federal demarcation.

Federal protests

Nepal’s top leaders agreed and carved out six federal states, but this triggered a fresh set of protests. For close to ten days, the plains of Nepal next to the Indian border have witnessed a strike. 

Three far eastern districts of the Tarai (Morang, Sunsari and Jhapa which border West Bengal and Bihar) were merged with the hills into one province  – this was primarily done because an influential leader, KP Oli, came from the region. Madhesi political groups which had sought a plains-only province in the eastern Tarai objected to the demarcation and took to the streets. The oldest Tarai party, Sadbhavana, resigned from the CA. Two far western districts (Kailali and Kanchanpur, which border Uttarakhand) were merged with the western hills into another province -- this was done at the behest of another influential leader, Sher Bahadur Deuba. Tharus, an ethnic group of the Tarai, who have ethnic and kinship links with Tharus on the Indian side, also objected to this demarcation. They demanded a Tharu plains-only province in the western Tarai. There were also protests in the mid-western hills of Nepal, which wanted to be carved out as a separate province.

The big three, as NC, UML and Maoists are known in Nepal, agreed to revise the federal deal. They added a seventh province – but that only addressed the demands of the people of the western hills, without taking into account Tharu and Madhesi grievances. Let alone bringing the dissenters on board, this alienated the only Madhesi party which had earlier signed up to the six state deal. The Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (Democratic) also walked out of negotiations.

The polarisation was now deep, driven largely by ethnicity. On one side were hill castes which dominated the ruling parties, and on the other were marginalised social groups which felt excluded from the constitutional process. 

The Tharu movement in the west and Madhesi movement in the east continued to escalate. Kathmandu’s political leadership, however, was smug that that it could not gain popular traction and was reluctant to address the aspirations of the dissenting constituencies. PM Sushil Koirala issued an appeal for talks, but this seemed more formalistic than substantive because the CA process was continuing on the side. Madhesi parties said that unless the constitutional process was stopped for now, and past agreements implemented, the movement would continue. 

At crossroads

It is in this context that violence broke out in Kailali on Monday. The district is considered the heart of the Tharu ‘homeland’ with over 40% of the citizens belonging to the ethnic group. For days, large demonstrations had been taking place. Details of Monday’s event are sketchy, but at least 6 policemen and some protestors have been killed. The government immediately deployed the army to aid civilian authorities in troubled districts of Kailali, Sarlahi and Rautahat.

There are two possibilities now

The government and Kathmandu’s political leadership can choose to dig their heels in. There is understandable anger over the killings of policemen – which cannot but be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The state may use this to unleash retaliation, which can only lead to more violence and deepen the ethnic polarisation. The parties could also choose to postpone the federal project and rush through the Constitution. This carries enormous risks and could sow the seeds of a long term conflict. 

The second -- more desirable possibility – is that the state wakes up to the anger in the plains. An independent investigation is essential to hold accountable those who unleashed the violence; the state has to enforce order. But at the same time, PM Koirala must set up a negotiation team; reach out to dissenting groups; and the parties, along with the CA chair, must put on hold the constitution-writing process for now.

Kathmandu‘s smugness that protests can be managed is partly responsible for the crisis today. It is time to drop the arrogance, and widen the consultations to bring on board Madhesi and Tharu groups in the constitution writing process. India can help by advising Kathmandu to be restrained and encouraging the leadership to tackle the roots of the violence. 

=========================================
20. CONCERNED BY ONGOING POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NEPAL, UN RIGHTS OFFICE URGES PEACEFUL RESOLUTION TO CRISIS
=========================================
(UN News Centre)
25 August 2015 – Voicing concern over continuing political violence and killing of protestors in Nepal, the United Nations human rights office today called on the authorities to respect dissenting voices and seek a peaceful solution with demonstrators.

“The rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly are essential elements in the promotion of democracy and human rights,” Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

Seven members of the security forces and three protestors were reportedly killed yesterday, as well as the two year-old son of one deceased police officer, according to OHCHR.

“We are concerned by reports from Nepal of continuing political violence,” said Mr. Colville, adding that the recent incident was in addition to the deaths of five protestors during widespread demonstrations following an 8 August agreement by political parties on redrawing internal state boundaries.

However, increasingly violent protests against the proposed delineation have taken place throughout the country since the agreement was reached.

“There is a clear risk that the protests and violence will continue to feed off each other in the coming days unless all sides change their approach,” said Mr. Colville.

While urging the Government to create a climate where minority or dissenting views are respected, the human rights office said that security forces should only employ force as a last resort and in full accordance with the standards laid out under international law for maintaining public order, including detailed guidelines governing the use of live ammunition.

“We urge political leaders and protestors to sit down together to find a peaceful solution to the current situation before the rising violence spirals out of control,” said Mr. Colville, also stressing that protests should be carried out in a peaceful manner and not pursue violent confrontations with the security services.

The UN rights office further reckoned the call of the Nepal National Human Rights Commission for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into all deaths and injuries resulting from the alleged use of disproportionate force by security personnel, as well as into the deaths of the seven security personnel killed on Monday.

The agreement, after extended negotiations, aims to draw up a new constitution further to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the 10-year internal conflict in 2006.

=========================================
21. INDIA: WIND IN HER HAIR, PHONE IN HER HAND
by Snigdha Manickavel
=========================================
(Business Line - August 14, 2015)

As mobile phones have percolated their way into everyday life, my mother’s world has expanded, stretched across oceans and trickled down into the palm of her hand

These days when I call home, my mother is often out. She is attending 70th birthday parties, house-warming ceremonies or the weddings of disoriented brides with sleepy NRI grooms. My father will answer the phone instead and he will talk to me thinking that I am my sister. He will tell me in great detail his ongoing battles with the newspaper delivery man and the odd things he has found in the garden. “Your mother has gone out, I don’t know when she will return,” my father will say, with no real anxiety in his voice. This is because, wherever she has gone, my mother is just a phone call away. Her brick-like phone safely tucked away within an embroidered case, within a bag, within a plastic bag and thus there is nothing to worry about. She will be home soon.

Over the past decade or so, as mobile phones have percolated their way into small-town life, my mother’s world has expanded, stretched across oceans and trickled down into the palm of her hand.

My mother’s life started years ago in a small village, barefoot and unable to remember when she first wore shoes. She thought that Sunlight soap was for washing your clothes, then your hair and then your body — one after the other. I think of how her world grew bigger and bigger and then how, after a point, it started to shrink. She was boxed in by marriage and children and all those things that she had been taught to be afraid of. Unknowns and ‘what-ifs’; the places women could not go to, the things they could not do.

But now, here she is, with this phone in her hand (set at an alarmingly loud volume) and she’s not waiting for anyone else. She is at a time in her life that is truly her own. She has kicked all the boxes aside.

My mother doesn’t take pictures with her phone or listen to music. She has no time for selfies, nor is she suddenly overcome by the need to look up how old Madonna’s daughter is right now. She makes calls with her phone and she makes plans. She comes and goes as she pleases; her team of bafflingly loyal auto-drivers at her service. She picks up her friends and she gives them missed calls when she is waiting outside. They head to sales and jewellery exhibitions and they lie shamelessly to their families that they are on their way home when they are truly just sitting around chatting about predictably disappointing sons-in-law.

My mother and her friends are always up to something. They clean temples and dream up uniforms for their singing group. They give combined gifts for each other’s grandchildren’s naming ceremonies and they won’t let anything new come into their little temple-town without visiting it and then promptly cutting it down to size. Their phones are constantly lighting up and they are constantly on the go.

With their phones in their handbags, my mother’s friends check on their tenants, they supervise harvests and they are back in time for tea. They are seeing the world around them and travelling places near and far. They have filled their suitcases with spices and they are calling home from the airport in Dubai to say everything is fine, have you eaten? They have been photographed in front of Niagara Falls, looking adorable in waterproof ponchos. They have enjoyed parks in the sunshine, have resigned themselves to wearing sneakers with their saris.

Every weekend my mom and her rowdy friends hit the road. They hire vans and, under the guise of visiting temples, they terrorise the countryside. They bully the van driver into making unscheduled stops and then emotionally blackmail him into dropping every tour member back home to her doorstep at the end of this very long day. They plan for hours what snacks to bring on tour and how many bottles of water to carry. Before you can question them about the religious significance of the beach they have just visited, they will reel off names of obscure temples and you will be silenced and filled with shame that you dared question their piety.

The other day I found myself on a slow-moving, not-very-popular day train, wobbling its way from one end of Tamil Nadu to the other, and discovered that my compartment was almost exclusively filled with women. Throughout the day, I listened as these women pulled out phones and made calls to check if various people had eaten, if they had boiled the milk, if they had found the food that had been left in the fridge and if they were going to go to sleep on time so that they would not keep people waiting in the station the next morning.

I heard women’s voices all around me, talking to the people they loved, the people they put up with. Their voices were tinged with love and annoyance, sleep and regret. I thought of all of us moving forward, steadily, towards lives that we never thought we would lead. The wind in our hair, phones in our hands, we are all unstoppable.

Snigdha Manickavel is a Chennai-based writer

=========================================
22. SUBURBAN JIHADIS | Owen Bennett-Jones
=========================================
(London Review of Books, Vol. 37 No. 16 · 27 August 2015
pages 9-10 | 2910 words)

‘We’ and ‘You’
Owen Bennett-Jones
(Owen Bennett-Jones presents Newshour on the BBC World Service.)

    Buy‘We Love Death as You Love Life’: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists by Raffaello Pantucci
    Hurst, 377 pp, £15.99, March, ISBN 978 1 84904 165 2

I had my first brush with British militant Islam in Kabul in 1999. It wasn’t a great place for journalists. Government ministers, all mullahs who refused to be filmed, would shrug off any mildly probing inquiries with the stock reply that everything was in God’s hands. Across the city checkpoints enforced a prohibition on music. Streams of confiscated cassette tape tied to poles fluttered in the breeze. Much of the traffic consisted of Toyota pickup trucks crammed with ferocious looking, armed Taliban fighters, their faces framed by long beards and black turbans. On one occasion I was stuck behind one of these vehicles when my driver attempted a somewhat reckless overtaking manoeuvre. As he edged past, a fast-moving oncoming vehicle forced us to swerve abruptly in front of the Toyota. I looked back to see one of the Talibs giving my driver the finger and yelling ‘Wank-eeeer!’ in a thick Brummie accent. The reason for that young man’s presence in Kabul and for the similar journeys so many others have made has become the subject of a prolonged, charged and still unresolved political debate. But the fact that more British Muslims are fighting for Islamic State than for the British army demands an explanation.

As the debate about the radicalisation of some British Muslims has progressed over the last 15 years, the views of those in the government have tended to harden. A few weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, Tony Blair told the Labour Party conference that people should keep in mind the common values of Jews, Muslims and Christians. ‘The true followers of Islam are our brothers and sisters in this struggle,’ he said. ‘Bin Laden is no more obedient to the proper teaching of the Quran than those Crusaders of the 12th century who pillaged and murdered, represented the teaching of the Gospel.’

By 2014 Blair was expressing a very different view. In a speech at Bloomberg’s headquarters in London he surveyed the various frontlines on which violent jihadists were fighting and argued that while each battleground had its own characteristics and complexities, ‘derived from tribe, tradition and territory’, such factors were of limited value in explaining what was happening. Western commentators, he complained, went to extraordinary lengths in their attempts to deny that these conflicts were about Islam, arguing instead that local or historic factors were more important. It was ‘odd’, he said, to deny that Islam was the central element of the various struggles.

David Cameron has moved in the same direction. The day after the 7/7 attacks, when he was shadow education secretary, he said that ‘the Muslim community in this country doesn’t support what is happening.’ Earlier this year he modified that remark, arguing that some Muslims, even if they do not use force themselves, agree with many of the ideas of the violent jihadists. He claimed that some Muslims who reject violence nonetheless have anti-Semitic views, are hostile towards Western democracy and share the ultimate goal of ‘an entire Islamist realm, governed by an interpretation of sharia’. The existence of such a mindset, Cameron argued, is the first step on the ladder that leads some to violent jihad. And then in July Cameron moved another step closer to Blair: ‘Simply denying any connection between the religion of Islam and the extremists doesn’t work,’ he said.

It isn’t just politicians who are adjusting their positions. A Channel 4 poll shortly after 7/7 found that nearly a quarter of British Muslims didn’t believe that the four men identified as the London bombers were responsible for the attacks, and a similar number thought the government or the security services were involved. Such attitudes of denial have often been on display in the obligatory post-atrocity TV interviews of the relatives of violent jihadists. When Mahmood Hussain, the father of one of the 7/7 bombers, learned that his son was missing and had been filmed with the other conspirators, he responded: ‘No one has shown me any evidence that he did it.’

As jihadist violence has become more common, parents have become more willing to accept that their offspring were involved. A typical recent reaction came from the family of 17-year-old Talha Asmal, Britain’s youngest suicide bomber, who blew himself up earlier this year as part of an Islamic State assault on an oil refinery in Iraq. Talha’s parents accepted that their son had done it, but added: ‘Talha was a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager. He never harboured any ill will against anybody nor did he ever exhibit any violent, extreme or radical views of any kind.’ This seems to ignore some rather important developments in his thinking. The wider Muslim reaction to Asmal’s death suggests opinions are shifting. While some said the local council and the police were responsible for what happened to him, others blamed jihadi recruiters, likening them to paedophiles. ‘Isis is running a sophisticated social media campaign,’ one local imam said, ‘and the community is concerned their faith is being used by hate preachers and internet groomers to manipulate their religion.’
Subscribe today

These issues present difficulties for anyone who doesn’t want to see discrimination against British Muslims in the form of ‘security’ measures that undermine civil liberties in general and are aimed at Muslims in particular. Common ground between British Muslims and the old multicultural, anti-racist elements of the left is bolstered by the fact that British Muslims tend to be socially and economically disadvantaged, opposed to modern forms of Western imperialism and to vote Labour. How far should support extend? Should a platform, for example, be offered to clerics who have faced discrimination and opposed neocon foreign policy but have also burned copies of The Satanic Verses and support cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers?

Pantucci’s description of the jihadi plots that have been hatched in the UK concentrates on the question of what causes radicalisation in the first place. With the usual caveat that no single explanation seems adequate, he offers the analogy of a fruit machine. A jihadist recruiter looking for a new volunteer hits the jackpot when three drivers – ideology, grievance and mobilisation – all come together at the same time.

Jihadi mobilisation generally takes place online or, in a few cases, when a charismatic local recruiter manages to inspire young men in his area to take up arms. In both cases, Pantucci argues, recruitment relies on support for an ideology which seeks to impose a global caliphate by force and which generally holds that dissenters are deserving of death. He identifies two schools of thought – Salafism and Deobandism – as the source of many of these ideas. His (albeit brief) reference to Deobandism is welcome. Most accounts of violent jihadism since 9/11 have put the focus on Salafism. Explicitly regressive, the Salafists argue that since Islam was at its purest at the time of the Prophet, mankind would be better off returning to the social conditions that existed at that time. It’s the sort of thinking that allows Islamic State bureaucrats to say that those under IS control should not ask for electricity because people managed fine without it in the seventh century. With the Salafists especially strong in Saudi Arabia and Egypt – the home countries of Bin Laden and the current al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahiri – it’s not surprising that Salafism is seen as a key source of violent jihadist thought.

But in the UK Salafism is relatively unimportant. Increasing numbers of British Muslims have Salafist views, but they still represent a small proportion of British Islamists. Deobandis are far more numerous. As Pantucci points out, nearly half of Britain’s 1350 mosques are run by Deobandis. They trace their theological lineage back to a madrasa established in the town of Deoband, a hundred miles north of Delhi, in 1867. This madrasa brought together many Muslims who were not only hostile to British rule but committed to a literalist interpretation of Islam. The scholars in Deoband argued that the Quran and Sunnah (the words and deeds of the Prophet), as interpreted by religious elders, provided a complete guide for life. Although they opposed the creation of Pakistan because they favoured a pan-Islamic approach to restoring Islamic supremacy, many Deobandi teachers moved to the new country in 1947. They have been a vocal, often militant, element of Pakistani society ever since, and graduates from Deobandi madrasas formed the backbone of the Taliban movements in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They may only account for between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of the Pakistani population but their willingness to take up arms – especially since they were encouraged to do so during the anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan – has given them disproportionate influence.

Many of the UK’s leading Deobandi clerics are from India. A significant number come from business families who arrived in Britain from East Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. Well-educated, effective administrators, they set about establishing institutions to train English-speaking imams. Mosques looking for an imam often end up hiring graduates of these seminaries, giving the Deobandis a major role in the development of British Islam. Before 9/11, Deobandi mosques openly invited violent jihadis to Britain for speaking tours on which they encouraged young Muslims to head out east to fight jihad. Today such activities are more limited and more covert, but most of those convicted of terrorism-related offences in the UK since 9/11 have had significant Deobandi connections. Despite the huge scale of the media coverage of radical Islamism, the Deobandi British leadership has managed to remain remarkably low profile. The man generally considered the most senior Deobandi cleric in the UK, Yusuf Motala, who is based in Bury, holds sway over mosques attended by hundreds of thousands of British citizens. But he has never once appeared on a British TV screen.

On Pantucci’s fruit machine the ideological underpinning of violent jihad has to be aligned with a second driver: grievance. It is tempting to describe violent jihadism as an act of rebellion motivated by socio-economic factors. After all, British Pakistanis – like Muslims in much of the Middle East and North Africa – tend to be at the wrong end of poverty, education and health indicators. Pakistani and Afghan Taliban recruits could be seen as revolutionaries trying to overthrow a corrupt and entrenched feudal leadership. But Pantucci downplays socio-economic considerations, pointing out that many poor people with legitimate grievances do not engage in violent campaigns. Explanations of radicalisation that rely on economic exclusion also fail to explain why many jihadis come from relatively well-off families. To take three British examples: Omar Sheikh, one of those responsible for the murder of the Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, went to the London School of Economics; Ramzi Yousef, who organised the failed World Trade Center attack of 1993, studied electrical engineering in Swansea; and the would-be underpants bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was a student at University College London.

*

Pantucci is more convinced by another oft-cited source of grievance: Western foreign policy. The US, Israel, the UK and France, the argument goes, face violent attacks because, for all their talk of human rights, they cause or allow the oppression of Muslims, whether in Iraq or Gaza. Their soldiers invade ‘Muslim lands’ and their drones kill innocent Muslim civilians. The complaints are not just about military action but extend to other aspects of Western conduct, from secretly reading people’s emails to torturing them. But the cause and effect isn’t as clear as many argue. Until 2012, for example, drone strikes in Pakistan were frequently cited as the main cause of Taliban anger and more broadly as the biggest single reason for the radicalisation of Pakistani society. Yet when the US suspended drone strikes for most of 2013, there was no sign that the jihadis were suddenly short of recruits or that anti-Americanism diminished.

‘We Love Death as You Love Life’ pays insufficient attention to the underlying factor that helps explain radicalisation: identity. The most instructive passage in the book quotes a bunch of 14-year-olds in Rotherham.

    ‘Do you like being called British Asian?’ Shakeel asks a group of friends. ‘I like Paki better. I’m a Paki. What do you think?’

    Kiran replies: ‘I think of myself as a British Asian Muslim.’

    Samina says: ‘I am a Muslim. I believe in Islam.’

    And Shazad: ‘I don’t think of myself as a Muslim and I don’t think of myself as a Pakistani … I may be a Muslim but I don’t think of myself as a Muslim. I think of myself as a British Asian, that is what I think of myself.’

Pantucci interprets this exchange as a demonstration of the teenagers’ confidence in blending their various identities. To me, it shows their bewilderment. The mix of Islam, Pakistan, India, Asia and Britain leaves many uncertain where they belong. Faith schools, sensationalist media coverage, housing segregation and the visibility of the English Defence League add to the confusion. Strikingly frequent stories about the corpses of British jihadis bearing tattoos of English football clubs suggest unsuccessful attempts to resolve these issues. One of the most popular radical Islamist groups in the UK, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been successful precisely because it offers a resolution of these questions by promoting an internationalist vision of political Islam, with nation-states abolished in favour of a caliphate.

The most heavily scrutinised suicide video recorded by a British jihadi was that of 7/7 bomber Siddique Khan. One passage in particular made an impact: ‘Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world,’ he said. ‘And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters.’ Most people focused on the question of whether voting for or against a government that goes to war makes someone part of a war machine. But the most important aspect of the message was Khan’s constant reference to being part of a community opposing the West. In virtually every sentence he divided the world into ‘we’ and ‘you’. And with group identities come the prisms that allow those who identify with a group to view some victims of conflict as having greater value than others. The readers’ comments below newspaper articles on these subjects are telling: when, for example, Islamists complain about victims of Western-backed Saudi aggression in Yemen their critics often hit back with the case of Lee Rigby, the soldier killed near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich. In his suicide video Siddique Khan’s fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer complained about the suffering of those in Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq. While some Westerners share his anger about what’s happened in those places, cultural filters may mean many are more disturbed by the fate of journalists and aid workers beheaded in Syria by Jihadi John.

The role Islam plays in forming the identity of violent jihadis is controversial. Some critics of Islam quote particular Quranic texts to suggest that violence is an essential part of the faith. They point out that as the Kouachi brothers fled the Charlie Hebdo offices, they yelled: ‘We have avenged the Prophet.’ Others look back to the violent history of Islamic expansionism from the seventh century on. Violent jihadis similarly claim that the holy texts of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism are fundamentally violent, and may cite the Crusades or the creation of Israel. Many jihadis have little religious knowledge – like the young men who ordered Islam for Dummies before setting out from Birmingham to Syria – and this is often used to support the view that religion plays a limited role in the radicalisation process. Advocates of this view cite other factors, arguing that the speeches of Enoch Powell in years gone by and the current actions of the EDL have left Muslims fearful and defensive.

Many non-believing cultural Muslims in the UK, the Middle East and South Asia strongly share the view that the West is hostile to Muslim majority countries. Their attitudes underline the obvious point that religious belief is not a prerequisite for those who oppose Western policy. Islam is not the only common factor binding together violent jihadist movements: al-Qaida, al-Shabaab and Boko Haram (which means ‘Western education is banned’) share not only a doctrinal austerity but also a rejection of the West.

Even if we could reach a more widely shared understanding of the sources of violent jihadism it is not clear that there would then be agreement about the policies needed to deal with it. David Cameron wants people not only to have greater loyalty to liberal values but also to say so in public. But even if you could agree on a definition of British values, you can’t use legislation to make people believe in them. In fact, attempting to use the law to oppose extremist thought is not only illiberal in itself but risks deepening the divisions that need to be bridged.

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

South Asia Citizens Wire
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web: 
www.sacw.net/

     #####
    #### _\_  ________
    ##=-[.].]| \      \
    #(    _\ |  |------|
     #   __| |  ||||||||
      \  _/  |  ||||||||
   .--'--'-. |  | ____ |
  / __      `|__|[o__o]|
_(____nm_______ /____\____ 

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