Author Archives: Faisal

Man Bites Dogs

By Faisal | Published: March 10, 2010

Mehdi Hasan hates animals, particularly dogs:

In fact, you may have guessed by now, and it might upset some of you to hear me say this, but I’m not, by any standards, an animal-lover. Unless the said animal is dead and on my plate. For me, animals, as they say, have two functions: to taste good and fit well.

But, in particular, I despise and loathe dogs (which, of course, have neither a culinary nor a sartorial function — unless you live in South Korea). They are disgusting, dirty animals that should never have become pets, let alone such popular pets (there are an estimated eight million dogs in the UK. I feel like vomiting as I type out this gruesome and dispiriting statistic.)

Posted in Esoterica | 21 Comments

From Secularism to Sectarianism

By Faisal | Published: March 10, 2010

One of the strange ironies of the Southasian immigration experience to Great Britain was how the near-universal levels of racism in the host community dissipated at the same time levels of religious identity politics and radicalisation became endemic. White racism started to fall back but at the same time secular politicisation receded in the immigrant Muslim community. We are now living in times when the kind of visceral racism we Southasians experienced in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s is at an all time low, but Muslim immigrant communities have organised themselves into political structures which are emanations of reactionary political groups from “back home”, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islam.

Posted in Immigration, Secularism, UK Politics | 6 Comments

A Tribute to Iranian Women

By Faisal | Published: March 8, 2010

On International Women’s Day, a tribute to the courageous women fighting for freedom and justice in Iran.

Hat tip: Potkin via Gene.

Posted in Democracy | 1 Comment

The “Hate Sahgal” Template

By Faisal | Published: March 7, 2010

Support for the Amnesty-Begg partnership now follows a predictable shape and form. There is even a template for it. It follows these 6 simple rules-

1) Mention as many times as possible the statements made by present and former officials of Amnesty International, who are paid to tow the official Amnesty line, viz a viz Claudio Cordone, Irene Khan, Widney Brown, Sam Zarifi, Kate Allen et al.

2) Never mention Cageprisoners’ support of jihadi terrorism despite the extensive documentation that demonstrates this support.

3) Never mention Moazzam Begg’s association with Cageprisoners.

4) Never mention the words “partner” or “platform”

5) Never mention the fact that Gita Sahgal has always spoke about the need to protect the rights of Islamists and terrorists from torture, renditions and arbitrary detention.

6) Never acknowledge that Gita Sahgal’s fundamental point is that Amnesty should never have made the individual(s) of point #5 into poster boys or torch bearers of those human rights.

Posted in Moral relativism | 36 Comments

More photos from Pahari protest for justice

By Faisal | Published: March 1, 2010

Here are some photos taken by Brian Palmer from the February 23, 2010 Pahari demonstration at Muktangan, Dhaka.

Posted in Activism, Human Rights | 1 Comment

‘Stop Violence Against Paharis’ London Demo

By Faisal | Published: March 1, 2010

A short video of the “Stop the Violence Against Paharis” demo held at Altab Ali Park, yesterday.

This was the statement which was read out at the meeting:

Honourable Prime Minister,

We, the Bengali and Jumma people living in the United Kingdom (UK), express our deepest concern about the recent attacks and acts of violence against the Indigenous peoples in Baghaichari, Rangamati and Khagrachori districts in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), that occurred between 19-23 February 2010.

Posted in Activism, Human Rights | 1 Comment

Charles le Gai Eaton Dies

By Faisal | Published: February 26, 2010

L-R: Hasan Le Gai Eaton who passed away today, Fuad Nahdi, the late Martin Lings (Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din), Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Peter Sanders.

Charles le Gai Eaton, also known as Hasan Abdul Hakeem, died today. He was 89.

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1921 and raised as an agnostic by his parents. Gai Eaton was educated at Charterhouse and King’s College, Cambridge. He worked for many years as a teacher and journalist in Jamaica and Egypt, and joined the British Diplomatic service in 1949. He converted to Islam in 1951.

Gai Eaton’s books include Islam and the Destiny of Man, King of the Castle and Remembering God. Many British Muslims regard his books as influential.

I had the pleasure of keeping a correspondence with sidi Hasan when I was a younger man, and met him a number of times. He was a gentle, generous man with a very bright, wry sense of humour. I shall miss him.

Posted in Misc | 21 Comments

Jihadi suicide attacks in Kabul target Indians

By Faisal | Published: February 26, 2010

Indian nationals were specifically targeted in three separate suicide bomb attacks in Kabul on Friday. The death toll came to 18 with 32 seriously wounded. Two of the buildings were guesthouses for Indians who worked in NGOs. The third blast was huge and most of the victims were Indians.

Juan Cole notes:

India is also a significant provider to Afghanistan of development aid and investment, and so is helping build up the government of Hamid Karzai. Having offered $1.2 billion in reconstruction aid, India is the largest regional donor. There are some 4,000 Indian workers in the country, some of them “security personnel,” according to the US Council on Foreign Relations.

Several prominent Tajik (Persian-speaking Sunni) politicians have long-standing ties to New Delhi because India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW, the equivalent of the CIA) provided aid to the old Northern Alliance at a time when it was under siege in the late 1990s by the Taliban. These Tajiks are die-hard enemies of the Taliban, who had committed massacres against them. The Taliban animus against India thus is multifaceted.

Posted in Islamism, Terrorism | Leave a comment

Forming opinion by proxy

By Faisal | Published: February 25, 2010

This is an interesting comment from “Mircea” who blogs at Just Speculations, who was at first willing to reject Gita Sahgal’s claims regarding Cageprisoners and Amnesty’s decision to partner with them, not because the accusations lacked veracity but because some people, or often a single person, they loathed had chosen to publicly champion Sahgal, because, of course, their concerns for human rights were highly suspect. In this writer’s case, the bête noire happens to be the “evil” Salman Rushdie:

My reaction, especially after seeing Salman Rushdie’s spirited defence of Sahgal, was suspicion. I remember seeing Rushdie speak ca. 2004, just as my own views on the invasion of Iraq were changing, and realising with some chagrin that he had become in some important ways an apologist for neo-conservative neo-imperialism. But is Sahgal another Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an “establishment feminist” championed by the “enlightened” anti-Muslim literati, hiding a sinister agenda? A glance at the petition supporting her should dispel such doubts:
http://www.human-rights-for-all.org/spip.php?article15

Posted in Human Rights | 2 Comments