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Thursday, May 22, 2008

[chottala.com] Again ....... Chorer Jote!!!!!!

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[chottala.com] Tk 588.4 crore in fine - how many has been held accountable

Tk 588.4 crore in fine - how many has been held accountable
A crime of this proportion should not only be restricted on paying fine. A process should be developed that allows the law enforcement agencies to get into deeper to held accountable those who were responsible
 
Five organizations - four for-profit joint venture organizations and one government watchdog. And among them, a total of 588 crore taka of fines. See the following news item attached at the end of the article. The four companies had actually done the wrong, and the government agency didn't do anything to right the worng. Actually, many would argue that the BTRC was actually facilitating the theft over the years.
 
While the fines are good news, it is incomplete.
 
Within these five organizations, how many has been held accountable so far? The companies has been fined. But how many of the individuals has been fined?
 
Punishment on the individual level may not be our main objective, but what is there to deter similar kind of abuse in the future? Can we at least know who were the responsible person in policy-making positions who oversaw this mess, had the capacity to make policies to avoid the mess, but didn't do anything? Again, to emphasize the point, we are worried about the whereabouts  of those persons now - what new mess are they are creating now (either because of their incompetence or because of their dishonesty or both) that the nation will know few years later?
 
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columinsts in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence. 
 
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
 
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article.
 
Dear readers, also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the head of the government please forward the message to them. Email address for the Chief Advisor: feeedback@pmo.gov.bd_ or at http://www.cao.gov.bd/feedback/comments.php . The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy. It is already proven that this government responds to the feedback.
 
Send it to BTRC at btrc@btrc.gov.bd_

Also send to your favourtie TV channel:
Channel i: http://www.channel-i-tv.com/contact.html
ATN Bangla: mtplive@atnbangla.tv_
NTV: info@ntvbd.com_
RTV: info@rtvbd.tv_
BTV: info@btv.gov.bd_
====================================================
  
 
Illegal VoIP
Tk 150cr fine slapped on Citycell
MD Hasan
 

 
Citycell, the country's oldest mobile phone operator, has been fined Tk 150 crore by the telecom regulator for its involvement in illegal VoIP or international call termination.

The company has already paid Tk 75 crore to the telecom watchdog--Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) -- and the rest of the amount will be paid within a short time in two instalments, BTRC sources said.

Citycell is the fourth mobile operator to be fined for their involvement in the VoIP scandal. Grameenphone, the country's largest operator was fined Tk 168.4 crore, Aktel Tk 145 crore and Banglalink Tk 125 crore. In total Tk 588.4 crore will be deposited with the government exchequer as compensation.

VoIP made it possible to terminate international calls illegally as only Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), the state owned body, had the right to do this.

Citycell, the country's oldest mobile phone operator, has been fined Tk 150 crore by the telecom regulator for its involvement in illegal VoIP or international call termination.

The company has already paid Tk 75 crore to the telecom watchdog--Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) -- and the rest of the amount will be paid within a short time in two instalments, BTRC sources said.

Citycell is the fourth mobile operator to be fined for their involvement in the VoIP scandal. Grameenphone, the country's largest operator was fined Tk 168.4 crore, Aktel Tk 145 crore and Banglalink Tk 125 crore. In total Tk 588.4 crore will be deposited with the government exchequer as compensation.

VoIP made it possible to terminate international calls illegally as only Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), the state owned body, had the right to do this.
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[chottala.com] Re: [notun_bangladesh] Islamic leaders seek Nizami's punishment for war crimes

 

 
On 5/21/08, Shamim Chowdhury <veirsmill@yahoo.com> wrote:

 
Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Thursday, May 22, 2008 02:29 AM GMT+06:00  
 
Front Page
Islamic leaders seek Nizami's punishment for war crimes
Staff Correspondent

Representatives of the Islamic community of the country yesterday demanded punishment of Jamaat Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes he committed during the Liberation War.

The demand came at a meeting between a delegation of Islamic leaders and the Sector Commanders Forum (SCF) at the SCF office in Banani.

The delegation, led by former director of Bangladesh Islamic Foundation Maulana Farid Uddin Masud, said war crimes are more heinous than corruption and for that the government should try the war criminals by a special tribunal.

At the meeting they said the rule of law that the government is telling about could be ensured if they try the war criminals.

The religious leaders said that there can be no peace in the country if war criminals are not tried.

SCF chairman and deputy chief of Liberation War Air Vice-Marshall (retd) AK Khandaker, sector commanders Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Maj Gen (retd) CR Dutta, Maj Gen (retd) Rafiqul Islam, Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, former Army Chief and chief coordinator of SCF Lt Gen (retd) Harun-ar-Rashid, among others, were present on behalf of SCF.

Maulana Abdur Rahim, Maulana Mizanur Rahman, Principal of Baridhara Madrasa Maulana Abdul Alim Faridi, Khatib of Rajbari Mosque Mufti Ainul Islam, among others, represented Islamic leaders.
 


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[chottala.com] 60 years of denial - Ethnic cleaning of the majority of Palestinians produced the 'Jewish state' !

60 years of denial - Ethnic cleaning of the majority of Palestinians produced the 'Jewish state' !
 
 
60 years of denial
The ethnic cleaning of the majority of Palestinian Christians and Muslims from 1947 to 1948 is what produced the 'Jewish state' of Israel. But Palestinians haven't yet forgotten who they are.

By Ramzy Baroud
'Don't ask for what you never had,' is the underlying message made by supporters of Israel when they claim Palestine was never a state to begin with. The contention is, of course, easily refutable.
Following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century, colonial powers plotted to divide the spoils. When Britain and France signed the secretive Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916, which divided the spheres of influence in west Asia, there were hardly any 'nation-states' in the region which would fit contemporary definitions of the term.
All borders were colonial concoctions that served the interests of the powerful countries seeking strategic control, political influence and raw material. Most of Africa and much of Asia were victims of the colonial scrambles, which disfigured their geo-political and subsequently socio-economic compositions.
But Palestinians, like many other people, did see themselves as a unique group linked historically to a specific geographic entity. All That Remains by Professor Walid Khalidi is one leading volume which documents a thriving pre-Israel history of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Such history is often overlooked, if not entirely dismissed.
Some choose to believe that no other civilization ever existed in Palestine, neither prior to nor between the assumed destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE until the founding of Israel in 1948. But what about irrefutable facts? For example, the Israeli Jerusalem Post was called the Palestine Post when it was founded in 1932. Why Palestine and not Israel? Whose existence, as a definable political entity, preceded the other? The answer is obvious.
It isn't the denial or acceptance of Israel's existence that concerns me. Israel does exist, even if it refuses to define its borders, or acknowledge the historic injustices committed against the Palestinian people. The systematic and brutal ethnic cleaning of the majority of Palestinian Christians and Muslims from 1947 to 1948 is what produced a Jewish majority in Palestine and subsequently the 'Jewish state' of Israel.
Also worth remembering are the equally systematic attempts at dehumanising Palestinians and denying them any rights. When Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, compared Palestinians in a Jerusalem Post interview (August 2000) to "crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more," he was hardly diverting from a consistent Zionist tradition that equated Palestinians with animals and vermin.
Another Prime Minister, Menahim Begin referred to Palestinians in a Knesset speech as "beasts walking on two legs." They have also been described as "grasshoppers", "cockroaches" and more by famed Israeli statesmen.
Disturbingly, such references might be seen as an improvement from former Prime Minister Golda Meir's claim that "there were no such thing as Palestinians...they did not exist." (June 15, 1969)
To justify its own existence, Israel has long subjugated its citizens to a kind of collective amnesia. Do Israelis realise they live on the rubble of hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns, each destroyed during a most tragic history of blood, pain and tears, resulting in an ethnic cleansing of nearly 800,000 Palestinians?
As Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, nothing is allowed to blemish the supposed heroism of its founding fathers or those who fought in its name. Palestine, the Palestinians, and an immeasurably long relationship between a people and their land hardly merit a pause as Israeli officials and their Western counterparts carry on with their festivities.
While some conveniently forgot many historic chapters pertinent to the suffering of Palestinians, Israeli leaders — especially those who took part in the colonization of Palestine — were fully aware of what they did. David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, warned in 1948, "We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return." By ensuring that Palestinians were cut off from their land, Ben Gurion has hoped that time will take care of the rest. "The old will die and the young will forget," he said.
Moshe Dayan, a former Israeli Defence Minister also had no illusions regarding the real history beneath Israel's momentous achievements. His speech at the Technion in Haifa (April 4, 1969) was quoted in the Israeli daily Haaretz thus: "We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab village."
Israel has, since its foundation, laboured to undermine any sense of Palestinian identity. Without most of their historic land, the relationship between Palestinians and Palestine could only exist in memory. Eventually though, memory managed to morph into a collective identity that has proved more durable than the physical existence on the land.
"It is a testimony to the tenacity of Palestinians that they have kept alive a sense of nationhood in the face of so much adversity. Yet the obstacles to sustaining their cohesiveness as a people are today greater than ever," reported the Economist (May 8, 2008).
Living in so many disconnected areas, removed from their land, detached from one another, fought with at every corner, Palestinians have not just been oppressed physically by Israel, but physiologically as well. There are attempts from all angles to force them to simply concede, forget, and move on. It is the Palestinian people's rejection of such notions that makes Israel's victory and 'independence' superficial and unconvincing.
Sixty years after their Catastrophe (Nakba), Palestinians still remember their past and present injustices. Of course more than mere remembrance is necessary; Palestinians need to find a common ground for unity — Christians and Muslims, poor and rich, secularist and the religious — in order to stop Israel from eagerly exploiting their own disunity, factionalism and political tribalism.
But, despite Israel's hopes and best efforts, Palestinians have not yet forgotten who they are. And no amount of denial can change this.
-- Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in numerous newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Washington Post, Japan Times, Al Ahram Weekly and Lemonde Diplomatique. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website: RamzyBaroud.net
Source: Middle East Online
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[chottala.com] Obama inching ever closer to nomination


AP
Obama inching ever closer to nomination

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., acknowledges the crowd after he speaks at a rally Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in Des Moines, Iowa. Obama declared himself 'within reach' of the Democratic nomination and celebrated in the state where his win in the opening contest of the presidential primary season helped reshape the race.  (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

AP Photo: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., acknowledges the crowd after he speaks at a...

By The Associated Press 1 minute ago

Barack Obama is inching ever closer to locking up the Democratic presidential nomination despite another resounding loss to Hillary Rodham Clinton, this time in Kentucky.

 

Clinton beat Obama by 35 percentage points in Kentucky, after trouncing him by 41 percentage points in West Virginia last week, and has won five of the last seven primaries.

Once all the delegates were allocated from Tuesday's contests in Oregon and Kentucky, however, Obama was expected to be within 60 of the magic 2,026 needed to cinch the nomination. With 80 percent of the vote counted, he was winning Oregon by a 58-42 percent margin.

"Tonight, in the fullness of spring, with the help of those who stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America," Obama said Tuesday evening at a rally in Des Moines.

As he nears the Democratic prize, Obama has been concentrating his campaign more and more on John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, rather than on Clinton.

But Clinton insists she still sees a path to the nomination by winning over the party leaders and elected officials known as superdelegates, whose support will be needed for either candidate to be clinch the nomination.

"Neither Senator Obama nor I will have reached that magic number when the voting ends on June 3," she said Tuesday night in Kentucky. "And so, our party will have a tough choice to make — who's ready to lead our party at the top of our ticket, who is ready to defeat Senator McCain in the swing states and among swing voters."

She also continued to insist that Michigan and Florida Democrats deserve to have their votes counted, a reference to the lingering controversy surrounding primaries in both states held in defiance of Democratic National Committee rules.

Clinton and Obama both planned lunchtime campaign appearances in Florida on Wednesday and Clinton once again underscored the need for Democratic unity in November.

"While we continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination, we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to uniting our party to elect a Democratic president this fall," she said Tuesday evening.

Clinton won at least 54 delegates in the delegates from Kentucky and Oregon and Obama won at least 39, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. All 51 delegates from Kentucky were awarded but there were still 10 of 52 to be allocated in Oregon.

Obama has an overall total of 1,956 delegates, including endorsements from party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,776, including superdelegates, according the latest tally by the AP.


The Associated Press
Today on the presidential campaign trail
The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
IN THE HEADLINES Obama inching ever closer to nomination despite another big loss to Clinton ... Obama and McCain build cash reserves while Clinton carries ...

The Associated Press
AP Top News at 4:24 am EDT
The Associated Press - 3 hours ago
Barack Obama is inching ever closer to locking up the Democratic presidential nomination

 

Parties and Politics


Canada.com
Analysis: Clinton scores a win, Obama nears finish line
CNN - 3 hours ago
By Alan Silverleib and Mark Preston NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in Kentucky Tuesday, but momentum -- and a growing sense of inevitability -- is now firmly on Barack Obama's side.
Video: Obama Claims Majority of DelegatesVideo: Obama Claims Majority of Delegates AssociatedPress
Clinton takes Kentucky as Obama claims Oregon San Francisco Chronicle
Chicago Tribune - Kansas City Star - The Associated Press - Washington Times
all 464 news articles »
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[chottala.com] McCain Pastor: Islam Is a 'Conspiracy of Spiritual Evil'

Pastor supporting McCain calls Islam ``evil" and ``anti-Christ"


May 22nd, 2008 @ 6:57am


by Brian Ross/ABC News


 
Remember the troubles Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama had over his relationship with The Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Republican presidential nominee John McCain could face his own firestorm with a pastor he calls a spiritual guide.
McCain, who has made calls for diplomacy to win the hearts and minds of the Islamic world, has the endorsement of evangelical pastor Rod Parsley, whom the candidate recently introduced as ``one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide."
Parsley, pastor of the World Harvest Church of Ohio, has denounced Islam as ``evil and anti-Christ."
Brian Ross, chief investigative reporter for ABC News, says that Parsley has made no secret of his feelings that Islam is the enemy.
``Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world," Parsley has said. ``America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed."
He also has said, ``I will rail against the idea that the God of Christianity and the God of Islam are the same being. I will sound the alarm about the pernicious agendas of the enemies of my country and the cross of my Christ, and I will proclaim the truth at every opportunity."
Ross says that Parsley has warned about Islam in sermons sold on DVD since 2005 and in a book, ``Silent No More."
McCain's campaign issued a statement, saying that the senator strongly rejects such statements as Parsley's. But, Ross says a campaign spokesman would not answer whether the senator knew of Parsley's views before seeking his endorsement.
 
McCain Pastor: Islam Is a 'Conspiracy of Spiritual Evil'
ABC News - 5 hours ago
McCain sought the support of Pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio at a critical time in his campaign in February, ...
Pastor supporting McCain calls Islam ``evil" and ``anti-Christ"
KTAR.com, AZ - 1 hour ago
Parsley, pastor of the World Harvest Church of Ohio, has denounced Islam as ``evil and anti-Christ." Brian Ross, chief investigative reporter for ABC News, ...
The Morning Report
Yahoo! News - 1 hour ago
Said Ross, "John McCain sought and received the endorsement from Ralph Parcley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio." Parsley accused Islam of ...
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[chottala.com] Chasing a Mirage : The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

May 20, 2008

Book Review

 Tarek Fatah (Author)

Chasing a Mirage:
The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State


By Tahir Qazi
Chowk, Pakistan
 
 
Islamic State has proved to be an illusion in history for past 1400 years. However, chase continues even to this day. Tarek Fatah has explored the idea of Islamic State in his book titled Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (John Wiley & Sons).

This book is written with passion of a political activist. Turbulent times like ours, when passions swing high and rhetoric is loud, it is difficult to speak with calm candor of a historian. Fatah has no claim that his book is a history textbook or an encyclopedia on Islam. Fatah, an avowed Muslim and an activist has, indeed, passionately spoken to tweak Muslim thought in his book: Chasing a Mirage. This book will win praise from some intellectuals and garner criticism from a sizable number of Muslims and non-Muslims.

While discussing prevalent conditions in Islamic world with mindset of a political activist, Mr. Fatah heavily banks on history to frame his arguments. In fact, it is history that creates conditions for political activism. And, it is also true that change in social and political conditions can only be brought by actions of those who are either concerned or those who are affected by such historic conditions. Fatah's book is a voice from both sides of this equation. He has painstakingly gone through annals of Islamic history to tersely conclude:

"From Ridda (Apostasy) Wars of Caliph Abu-Bakr to the humiliating defeat of Caliph Mustasim, I have not found a single period that I could in all honesty say I would trade for my 21st-century existence as a Muslim living in a secular democratic society".

It is an undeserved task to compare 21-st century living with any other period in history as Fatah is trying in the above paragraph. It seems his real motive is to challenge fanatics who idealize Muslim history and wish to bring it back at any cost. Fatah's book is about doing away their agenda. Fatah has frequently used the word "Islamists" in his book. However, Fatah has painted "Islamist" with a rather broad brush almost to the point that anyone who does not agree with a certain activist vision may be an Islamist.

In his book, Mr. Fatah portrays himself as a religious Muslim and a leftist but he invariably denigrates leftist intellectuals clamoring as if there is a conspiratorial nexus between Islamists and leftists. The issue of proverbial "Left" and its alignment with Islamism is intriguing and needs some elaboration.

If I understand correctly, left was a terminology with clear meanings in the past century. Lately, contours of this term have become blurred. Historically, leftist analysis used to be materialist conception of history, not ideological. Ideology and its corresponding social relations, according to leftist view, is only superstructure of history. There are some who think of left and liberalism as synonymous and interchangeable. This understanding is questionable.

Curiously in Fatah's book, there are only passing remarks on material forces and their social relations in so-called Islamic world. A generous portion of the book is dedicated to discussion of political history of few Muslim countries and unresolved ideological issues that have plagued Islamic world for centuries. Fatah does recognize that religious ideology is intertwined with culture and politics. He wishes to unwind issues in the Muslim world but does not put forward an approach to resolution of socio political conflicts in the Muslim world based on material justice. Therefore, in my opinion, Fatah's book is not a leftist analysis and as such there is not enough reason to implicate left leaning intellectuals for aiding Islamists.

Broadly, any society is made up of at least three elements: Values, culture and social structure. There are lots of people who think of culture and values as a static entity. For them, social structure is sustained exclusively on the basis of ideology. Fatah's book challenges static perception society based on ideology by some Muslims. Somehow Fatah in his book, has not been able to escape the trap laid out by ideologues and despite his vast knowledge of history and society, he has chosen to limit himself to some provocative issues of culture, like "Hijab". I am not sure if social emancipation across genders can be achieved by doing away with hijab.

Idea of introducing Sharia-Law in Canada gained full support from some Muslims who continue to envisage their future rooted in past experience of "Islamic Golden Age". For Tarek Fatah religious law has no basis in a secular society. During Sharia-Law debate in Canada he came out as a vocal critic of Sharia-Law and by proxy elsewhere too. It was a principled position for an intellectual who believed in principles of secularism and democracy as practiced in Canada.

Fatah reminds us history that Muslims failed for centuries in creating sustainable secular institutions. Secular state is duty bound to guard against religious law taking over society in the guise of reasonable accommodation. However, confusion of nation-state politics based on religious fervor could not have been better illustrated than by presenting case study from Pakistan. Fatah justifiably quotes an exchange from judicial inquiry into religious riots of 1953 in Pakistan (Page 34):

"Q: Will the Khalifa of Pakistan be the Khalifa of all the Muslims of the world?
A: He should be but he cannot be".

The above question and answer bring the dilemma of Islamic State to the fore because there is neither a unified Muslim world nor there was one ever in both material as well as ideological sense. Umma (Oneness of Muslims as a nation), Islamic State and pan-Islamism are only illusionary conceptions. Idea of an Islamic State failed Islamic zealots and intellectuals in the past but it still survives as a dream. However, mindset for creating an Islamic-state does hold potential for anarchy and use of violence to address grievances.

I believe Fatah does not have problem with Islam as a matter of personal choice. What concerns him the most is adopting violent methodology by Muslims. He wants to change this mindset and he is emphatic about it in his book, Chasing a Mirage. It is a good rationale for his book and well said. In this context, this book provides lots of food for thought.

After describing Islamic history, Fatah's book makes reference to various Muslim organizations that are involved in political activism in North America. They have partly emerged as a reaction to ubiquitous crises in the Muslim world. Fundamentalist Muslims are bent upon recreating past. I have previously described their mindset as "Intellectual Nostalgia" because they are comfortable only in the past. And, there are others who wish to integrate with modern world. They propose Islam as a personal value and conceive of sociopolitical relations as a secular conception of the world. This takes us to understanding Muslim identity and its contemporary crisis.

In a secular society, "Muslim" as a group-identity ought to diffuse and merge with the rest of humanity. Contrarily, some leftist intellectuals of Muslim background have clearly moved to religious Muslim identity. Fatah also seems to have taken a nostalgic turn and unwittingly fortifies religious identity for Muslims both in theory as well as in act of his co-founded Muslim organization in Canada called MCC (Muslim Canadian Congress). MCC is one among many Islamic organizations in North America that thrive on Muslim group-identity. However, democratic culture of secular North America has, to my knowledge, only minimally influenced politics of Muslim organizations. In the absence of solid data on this subject it is hard to say how many Muslim organizations have held democratic elections in past 5 years for instance, including Mr. Fatah's MCC. Political behavior of Muslim organizations within secular North America may be a microcosm of Muslim political culture on global scale.

Unfortunately, democracy as social value appears somewhat stooped even among Muslim organizations that enjoy freedoms of secular and democratic societies. Secularism and democracy, in addition to many other factors, is also a mindset. Given our experience with Muslim organizations in North America, it is not a surprise that secularism and democracy in the Muslim world are feeble. This is indeed a malaise with multiple roots. It afflicts many parts of globe and crosses over religious boundaries. There is no easy way to gloss over it.

The book Chasing a Mirage, which heavily draws from North American experience, does not soften Muslim group-identity even though secular culture of North America does not insist on a religious identity. Paradoxically, this book validates religious identity for Muslims on individual and group level. If psychological need for religious identity obtusely fuses with social identity among Muslims, I am afraid Islamism would be only a stone throw distance away from that vantage point. History of religious consciousness is marred with divisiveness. Finding ways for social interaction beyond religious identities is a quest that may hold promise for peaceful future. Nevertheless, Tarek Fatah's book is a good attempt to start dialogue in the ideological world. It is also a dream for a better world that is free of friction among various ideologies.
 


 
Source:
where paths intersect

Books Arts & Culture

Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

"I have not found a single period that I could in all honesty say I would trade for my 21st-century existence as a Muslim living in a secular democratic society."

May 20, 2008   Views 1124   Interacts 24
 
 
Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

 

Bob Rae - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

 

"Tarek Fatah is never afraid to speak his mind, and he refuses to shrink quietly into the night. The questions he is posing are critical."

- Bob Rae

  Foreign Affairs Critic, Liberal Party of Canada.

 

 

Senator Mobina Jaffer - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

 

"The book is a valuable contribution to the on-going debate within the Muslim community  about how it reconciles with modernity."

- Senator Mobina Jaffer
 
 
Parliament of Canada, Ottawa.

 

Pervez Hoodboy - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

 

"This work of courage and daring needs to be read widely."

- PERVEZ HOODBHOY

  Professor, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

 

 

Janice Gross Stein - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"...a must read for anyone who cares about these issues."

- JANICE GROSS STEIN
  Director, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

 

"Tarek Fatah rightly explains that the decline of the world's Muslims does not come from the absence of a puritanical Islamic state."

- HUSAIN HAQQANI
 
 Professor, Boston University/Co-Chair - Islam & Democracy Project at Hudson Institute, D.C.

 

 

Michael Coren - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"Fatah writes with a startling knowledge of and empathy for his religion and its adherents."

- MICHAEL COREN
 
Columnist, Toronto SUN.

 

Taj Hashmi - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"This fascinating work by brave and brilliant Tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim."

- TAJ HASHMI
  Professor, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu.

 

 

Farish A. Noor - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"the author reminds us that the canonisation of Islamist political thinking... can only be described in present-day terms as Fascist and intolerant."

- FARISH A. NOOR
  Professor, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin.

 

Ishtiaq Ahmed - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"Tarek Fatah shows through painstaking, meticulous research that the sooner Muslims rid themselves of the  deadweight of centuries of tribal feuds in the name of true Islam the greater will be their chances of getting out of   the rut of obscurantism and fanaticism."

- Ishtiaq Ahmed
  
Professor of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden.

 

 

Farooq Tahir - testimony for "Chasing a mirage" by Tarek Fatah

"Chasing a Mirage is an extremely valuable contribution to the fight by progressive Muslims against Islamist fascism."

- Farooq Tariq
  Secretary General, Pakistan Labour Party.

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[chottala.com] Re: [notun_bangladesh] Indian machinations?

Readers' Opinion [NFB]

Mr. Quraishi now promoting MBI Munshi's magnum opus in the Net!

Thursday May 22 2008 12:32:48 PM BDT

by A.H. Jaffor Ullah, usa

Dear Mr. Quraishi:

I don't know how long and to what extent you know Mr. Munshi. AS far as I know he grew up in England but he lived in Dhaka for the last few years. Through his writings in NFB (I am one of the members of the board of editors) and his postings in Mukto-mona (a forum for South Asian Secularists) I can attest to the fact that he is an Indo-phobic par excellence! Therefore, one would be hard pressed to find objectivity in his writings.

For example, when Islamists were blasting their homemade crude bombs allober Bangladesh during 1999 through 2006, Mr. Munshi confidently opined that those bombings were the handiworks of India's RAW. We vigorously protested to his infantile assertions; finally we learned that the spate of bombings was done by none other than the Islamists of Bangladesh. Mr. Munshi used to support the political party BNP while Mrs. Zia's party was in power during 2001 through 2006. The BNP patronized the Islamists quite openly. When we pointed this out to Mr. Munshi, he chose to remain reticent.

Also, for your information, Mr. Munshi for whatever reason never did like the Awami League - the party that helped emancipate Bangladesh from the clutch of Pakistani military in 1971. Maybe, Mr. Munshi did not like the independence of Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshis who held this view found it convenient to blame India for all the ills that confront our unfortunate motherland.

In summary, Mr. Munshi's mindset was exposed by fellow Bangladeshis. He believes in conspiracy theory whenever something extraordinary happens in South Asia. Please Google MBI Munshi and you will learn pronto the mindset of this man who you are promoting in the Net. Caveat Emptor. That is all I could say!

Sincerely,

A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Research scientist and columnist
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
e mail :jhankar@bellsouth.net
------------------------------
News From Bangladesh
May 21, 2008
Indian machinations?
"Viewpoints"
Wednesday May 21 2008 14:47:35 PM BDT
By Ahmed Quraishi
------------------------------------
A London-based Bangladeshi author, M B I Munshi, is preparing to release in August a revised version of a book, The Indian Doctrine, which is expected to shed new light on what happened in Pakistan in 2007. Simply said, it was an impressive destabilization campaign, combining suicide bombings with threats of taking out Pakistani nukes and open insinuations in op-ed editorials in major US dailies about the breakup of the Pakistani homeland.
 
PS: Up until 2004 Mr. Ahmed Quraishi was promoting American venom accusing
      "reckless Saddam Hussein build a nuclear program."
 
 
On 5/22/08, Salahuddin Ayubi <s_ayubi786@yahoo.com> wrote:

It is a revealation. Not only Pakistanis but Bangladeshi, Nepalis and Sri Lankans must also take note of the nefarious activities of the Indian intelligence against the sovereignity of its smaller neighbours in order to fulfill thier long cherised dream of an akhand bharat.

                Salahuddin Ayubi

--- On Wed, 5/21/08, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com>
Subject: [notun_bangladesh] Indian machinations?
To: khabor@yahoogroups.com, rehman.mohammad@gmail.com, alochona@yahoogroups.com, mbimunshi@gmail.com, dhakamails@yahoogroups.com, notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 7:36 AM

Indian machinations?


 
By Ahmed Quraishi

A London-based Bangladeshi author, M B I Munshi, is preparing to release in August a revised version of a book, The Indian Doctrine, which is expected to shed new light on what happened in Pakistan in 2007. Simply said, it was an impressive destabilization campaign, combining suicide bombings with threats of taking out Pakistani nukes and open insinuations in op-ed editorials in major US dailies about the breakup of the Pakistani homeland.

A small incident in Karachi in September 2007 gave Pakistani policy strategists a rare glimpse into the larger game plan in the region at the time. The incident fitted a pattern and provided clues to the unfortunate role played by some actors in India, apart from the sitting government there, in compounding Pakistan's problems on our western borders. A car raced by a police check post in the city's busy downtown, stopped close enough for the policemen to see it but far enough to ensure escape. Two men were inside. One of them pulled down the window, threw out some jackets on the street and then screeched away. The unknown car had just dropped a few 'suicide vests' ready for use, with markings that indicated US origin. "It was a lousy act linked to the Indian intelligence services trying to create an impression that CIA was sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan," Mr Munshi's book quotes a Pakistani source as explaining. "Neither the CIA nor the actual suicide bombers are in the business of dropping US marked suicide vests on roadsides from moving cars in front of the police."

Later that month, Washington sent a rare message to New Delhi that basically said, 'Please don't make things difficult for us. Try to get out of this Pakistan obsession. You are too important to limit yourself in this way.' According to a transcript released by the Pentagon, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defence, James Clad, told a visiting group of retired Indian generals and diplomats that the US had "de-hyphenated its relations with India from its relations with Pakistan. New Delhi should do the same".

The US official was essentially telling the Indians they should not feel threatened by the Pak-American cooperation in Afghanistan for the simple reason that it was not going to affect Indian interests. The Indians, Clad implied, should desist from trying to undermine Pak-US ties based on that false notion. But Clad's advice fell on deaf ears because, by 2007, India was in the advanced stages of executing an ambitious intelligence operation suspected of having substantially contributed to the multiple and unprecedented security challenges that Pakistan faced in its western regions in the period between 2004 and early 2008.

In a special chapter titled, The Peace Charade: How 9/11 Helped India Penetrate Pakistan, Mr Munshi's book shows how a document prepared by two Indian security analysts in the year 2000, recommending to the Indian government a creative approach to expand Indian intelligence operations in Pakistan, inspired an ambitious Pakistan-specific plan after 9/11, exploiting the unprecedented uncertainty on the ground in the Pakistan-Afghanista n region.

The ultimate goal of this massive operation was "to help [India] in the foreign policy objective of breaking the monopoly of the ISI and army over Pakistan," according to the Indian document, aptly titled, 'India's Experience and Need for Action Against Pakistan,' authored by Dr. Bhashyam Kasturi and Pankaj Mehra. "The aim is," the authors wrote, "to break the stranglehold of the intelligence agencies, the bureaucracy and the military in Pakistan." We Pakistanis need to learn how our domestic politics should be managed unless we want to lose everything.


------------ --------- --------- ---------
Ahmed Quraishi
Web : http://ahmedquraish i.com
The writer also works for Geo TV.
Email: aq@ahmedquraishi. com

 



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[* Moderator's Note - CHOTTALA is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political and non-discriminatory organization.

* Disclaimer: Any posting to the CHOTTALA are the opinion of the author. Authors of the messages to the CHOTTALA are responsible for the accuracy of their information and the conformance of their material with applicable copyright and other laws. Many people will read your post, and it will be archived for a very long time. The act of posting to the CHOTTALA indicates the subscriber's agreement to accept the adjudications of the moderator]




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