A Summary of Delwar Hussain Sayeedi's closing words to the show trial on 6th December 2012

I am Delwar Hossain Sayedee. I am well known in every part of Bangladesh. 

I am now Delwar Shikder or Delu or Deilla as alleged by the Investigation Officer Helal Uddin.

The present Awami League government that claims to be democratic has appointed Helal Uddin with a mission to impose false allegations of war crimes against me for political vindication. The Investigation Officer Helal Uddin has thus brought 20 false charges against me and complied with the government and political order by distorting my name to humiliate me. He wrote a drama of 4000 pages against me to distort my family life and identity, educational qualification and student life and showed me as a looter, killer, rapist, supplier of women, person destroying by fire, helping hand of Pakistani Army and ferocious Rajakar.

It is not possible for any Muslim to create this type of extreme lies against another Muslim only because of political enmity if they have lightest faith on Allah, fear of death, fear of facing Allah on the day of judgment and fear of the extreme punishment of hell.

Hon’ble Tribunal, definitely this trial will be finished in two parts. One in this eternal world and another in the day of judgment. Today I am helpless and innocent accused and you are judges.

Those who are able to torture an innocent man like me for political reasons due their present power, they will definitely be accused in the second part of the trial on the day of judgment. On that day I will be complainant. And the Almighty Allah, King of Kings, the Only Sovereign Authority of the universe and Great Judge of all trials will be judge in that case. 

In verse 8 of Chapter Teen (The Fig) ,  Allah said 

‘Is not Allah the best Judge of all the judges?’ 

In verse 16 of Chapter Dukhan (The Smoke) ,  Allah said that,

 ‘One day I will surely catch them in extreme way and will surely take revenge.’

Hon’ble Tribunal, sitting here in this Tribunal I swear in the name of Almighty Allah who is controlling our life, I swear touching His Holy Qur'an, I am not at all connected with the allegation brought against me in this Tribunal. Not a single word of the allegations are true. I swear by the name of Allah that my name was deliberated added with the incidents with malafide intension. I have no connection with these allegations.

Hon’ble Tribunal, I hope that you will rise above any anger, favour, pressure or order and consider the overall truth and falsity of the case and will free yourself from any favour and will only fear Allah and extreme punishment of hell and do justice to me. May Great Allah gives you the ability to do justice.

Those who conspired against me due to political vengeance, created this extreme false case, gave false evidence against me, tutored false witnesses against me and mentally tortured me, deprived me from passing the light of Qur'an to people in home and abroad, causing my loved ones to cry, humiliating me in the society by false claims – I pray that Allah give them hedayat (guidance). 

If Allah does not permit them hedayat then all my tears and the tears of my loved ones, children, my worldwide followers will hunt them with curse and may Allah not allow them death without suffering pains hundred times suffered by me. May the curse of Allah rain on the liars and torturers. May the hell be their permanent destination.

[Source: David Bergman's ICT blog]

[New Word] Political load-shedding

The troublesome process of contesting power (re)distribution. Although better timetabled these days, the hartal, or strike, causes problems for the public, which in addition to their existing problems is not the politics of mercy.

By mixing metaphors we avoid depoliticizing strikes, their need, and their impacts on people, power structures and pauperisation.

Political load-shedding is a non-solution to the problem of sustainable and just power generation and distribution.

So if you think that you, or your tribe, have what it takes to lead the people. Find another way. Don't (mis)lead dedicated young people to their martyrdom, bring sakina, or tranquility, to the streets and lives of the people.

As The Tailor once said, the prison has escape encoded in its very bars.

Imagining the Superposition of Green Wavefronts

The long-time anti-war leader, psychotherapist and mother just quit the Respect Party. Its a bit sad how it came about, but its coming about isnt my focus for now. The thought of the Birmingham-based Salma Yaqoob joining the Green Party does joyous things to me. I like to speculate and project my political demands onto others, so please forgive and understand any commodifying of humans-as-my-pawns here.

The UK Green Party just elected a new leadership, choosing Australian expat Natalie Bennett as their number 1 and Dudley-based Will Duckworth as deputy leader.  On a purely regional level, there are potential synergies in the midlands. It would also contest the scary neomalthusianism that underpins several flavours of environmentalism (thats you Jonathan Porritt), the technocratic aspects of Brighton's Green-led council (allowed an 80 year old pensioner to be jailed for not paying her council tax) and might broaden the political constituency beyond the over-representation of the white middle classes.

Looking  generationally I feel the politics of Decolonisation, Alterity and Life converging. Silly little NGOs and the governmentalisation of Environment and Diversity arent really helpful in realising these political demands. Hence the image below.

Black Power, Verdant Knuckles

The Superposition of Green Wavefronts

For as long as I've been paying attention, Caroline Lucas has been a principled friend to Muslims, whether on hijab protection or the case of our dear Talha Ahsan, and interesting principled deshi candidates have stood for the party in national elections. I'm thinking of Farid Bakht for Bethnal Green and Bow and Dr Shahrar Ali for Brent. I won't forget Shahrar's rendition of If you Tolerate this then your children will be next at Bush house in protest at the BBC's evilness during the Israeli siege on Gaza.

Firm, committed, educated and of-the-future, a lot of current Green people tend to provoke accusations of over-middleclassedness. However this need not necessarily a fatal flaw.  With the Occupy and other assemblages out there, including folks like Bread and Circuses and Space Hijackers, its not like we are in a time of low inspiration and monoculture.

The Green's political values seem to include: Palestinian Freedom, Climate Justice, Civil Liberties, Deconsumerisations, Welfare, Humans as part of Nature, as well as Deimperialisation at home and abroad. It seems to be a space where we might breathe in our own skins.

But there is something still more tantalisingly nonsecular about planting our political seeds in this trough, and this relates to some of the projects you see linked to on the left. Its about realising the nonsecular political selves that we are and honouring and eco-akhlaq (practical ethics) and creative ideology of Qur'anic readings, into a politics of life.

Salma Yaqoob shifting into a green political space might enable the following to unfold more fully,

• Transformation of our diet and food system to something more just, tayeb and nuronic.
• Rejection of fake Muslim environmental NGOisms
• Rejection of greenwash
• Development of khalqi politics of ummah.
• Derudeboyification.
• Decoloniality
• Farming revolution, revalourisation and localisation of food systems.
• More Trees in and around Masjids, more Masjids in and around Trees.
• Establishment of the politics of Tawhesion
• Rememberance of the Garden
• Rights of Nature laws and ethics
• Surah Zalzalian conciousness

The Case of Talha Ahsan: What is going on and what can I do?

Imagine that your child, sibling, relative or friend is taken from you and detained for years without trial.  They are accused of 'terrorism-related' crimes by a superpower waging war on its enemies.  Would you turn away from them or take notice?

Justice, dignity, humanity and mercy are crucial principles in our lives, which is why we must know what we can and do what we can for Talha Ahsan. 

Talha  is a 31 year old poet from Tooting who has been imprisoned for coming onto 6 years, without evidence or trial, pending extradition to the USA. Born and bred in London, Talha comes from a Muslim Bangladeshi background and is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.  A shy bookish young man, with a first class honours degree in Arabic from SOAS, he continues to write poetry from prison. At the time of his arrest in July 2006 he was due to be interviewed for a job as a librarian, we are poorer without him.

The USA government requested his extradition from the UK under dubious 'terrorism' related charges and the compliant British authorities did not even scrutinise the evidence against him properly.  Talha, his family and supporters are campaigning for a fair UK trial, which we believe is not possible in the USA.  Achieving justice whilst Muslim is hard, and we must exercise courage, skill and unity of purpose to get it. It is not a ready-made meal.

We must act immediately to build momentum in our communities. From July, as the Olympics capture public attention, Talha may be extradited to the rapturous applause of much of the media, who will drown out the injustice with dehumanising images of men with beards, hooks for hands and loathsome angry preachers.  We know that the story is different, but we need to share this story amongst our families, friends and neighbours and do it justice. 

Muslims in the UK are blessed with many favours but also endangered. Like the Irish throughout the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we are proving easy to accuse, lock up and ignore. We request your support for Talha and others in similar situations help us establish a justice-making, supportive community of principles. There is no shortage of things to do.

• Become informed, organised and mobilised about the issues
• Attend the Public Meeting in Central London on 23^rd May*
• Speak to our close ones about and promote the Free Talha campaign
• Remember Talha in our prayers
• Champion the cause in our organisations
• Write to Talha (who can still receive correspondence so long as he is on these shores)
• Write to the media
• Write to your MP, make it relevant to them, it is surprising how little they know.

To learn more about the case visit www.freetalha.org

 

You can also get involved through social media: find the FreeTalha Ahsan page on Facebook, follow the @freetalha Twitter account and tweet #freetalha

*The Public Meeting will feature Salma Yaqoob, Gareth Pierce, Riz Ahmed and Bruce Kent and take place from 6pm - 8pm at Hend House, 233 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EE. Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road  http://www.facebook.com/events/283339501756605/

The Awami League of Ignocratic Fairy Tailoring strikes again

Two bits of very terrible news today. The first from Bangladesh as Awami Leage lecturers at Jahingirnagar University instigate a witch hunt on a history professor for including critical tracts by Sarmila Bose and Syed Sajjad Husain on the Bangladesh war. Apparently its anti-liberation and worth whipping up student frenzy and authority over. This is reminiscent of the treatment meted out to all who question the Logic of Liberation: that the Awami League, the Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army came down the chimney 40 years ago to fill our stockings with Liberation.

Awami fascism is at a peak these days as Bangladesh = 40 approaches, as opposition leaders are on trial for war crimes. There is interesting coverage of the trial proceedings over here , the witnesses for the prosecution arent very good it appears and the defence counsel himself is being harrassed and undermined by the government.

Squint and find silver linings.

One positive of having a trial is that its forcing the accused to counter the allegations against them, amplified and disseminated over the past 20 years. Their defence is unlikely to be given a fair hearing as the decisions have already been made and the vests involved are very interesting. 'Socially' its good because the population at large has been kept in the dark about important aspects of the Bangladesh War, now its harder for the media and government to drown out every single word they say.

That said, I am not naive about the truth emerging anytime soon.

This Kangaroo Court operates in a society where rage, envy and hurt have been channelled all wrong, into injustice making. Where human rights only apply whilst the awami league is in opposition, to the tune of aid money and towards secular liberal types of people. The NGOs, donors and parties have bought off the collective mind and for scholars its simply easier to reproduce the fairy tales of liberation that please the parties.

This is a protection of intellect, dignity and possible even life issue. Three central, essential objectives of the Sharia.

Prof Mushtaq Khan, of SOAS has been saying for a while that neither of the three narratives : Liberation, Independance and Succession are sufficient and that they dont work for us, so we must make a new one.

Maulana Bhashani's death anniversary today

 Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. Born 1880, Died 1976. aka The Red Maulana

He returned to his Maker on 17th November 1976, a few months after leading the Long March in protest at the Indian Government's dastardly construction of the Farrakha Barrage on the Ganges River. He was doing this kind of thing in his 90s!!!

This was an immense display of political mojo from a gentleman who demonstrated it quite a lot and didn't get stuck in personality cults and petty bickering.

Those of us who share Sylheti ancestry tend to admire his leadership during the Assam Referendum on 1947 and against the Line System which tyrannised cultivators of the Surma Valley, as it was known then.

He embodied a Left Islamic political practise and hailed from a joint Jatra Movement-Deoband training. Interesting huh?!? Mister Jinnah didn't quite like him as he wasn't British educated and suited enough.

He stood against the Pro-US turn of the Pakistani State, and was feted by Late Chairman Mao.


His involvement in the Bangladesh War is hard to figure. He boycotted the 1970 election. The Indian government basically trapped him for its complete duration, as they couldn't trust him.

All of these facts mentioned above mark him out as someone every deshi could easily relate to, limitations and all. Alas, we the bangali musalmans and musalwomans have become seminarised, selfish, secularised and docile.

Allahummah grant him protection, mercy and high station, since you are the Knower of Subtleties, the Reckoner and the Majestic.


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Developmentshire bites back at the Tehrik e Insaf and Imran Khan

Some time ago, Imran Khan a Pakistani political leader made a pronouncement along the lines that Pakistan didn't need foreign 'aid', and that it caused more trouble in any account.

Though not my country of focus, the liberal discomfort with his political existence seems to have amplified.

I think its worth exploring the connection between their development-shire being threatened by creative and disruptive political momentum.

Of course this is coming from the Sylhatian who saw possibilities with the 1/11 coup in Bangladesh which ended up made things worse, but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained.

So to those young people with developmentia. Stop thinking so linearly and with such constipated political horizons. Now is a time when new people are getting turned on into politics, at least be educative with your borrowed white privilege.

Iranian University Chancellors ask Bollinger 10 questions

Here is the response of the Iranian academic leadership to Mr Lee Bollinger ungraceful remarks to their President. I recommend basking for a while because these moments are rare. I am wishful too, hopefully without envy, of the independance on display there.