The Usuli Institute. Khaled Abou El Fadl inaugarates

This is really important and inspiring.

The Tower Hamlets Coup Resource Page: What is to be done?

THIS PAGE WILL EVOLVE AS THE SITUATION EVOLVES

A lot of money and influence has been invested in a Election Court Coup against Lutfur Rahman, the recently reelected Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which has an interesting tradition of demonstrating that the established political order is not the End of History. It is necessary, but fiendishly difficult to improve under fire, but that is what post Labour political formations need to do.

Journalists and politicians, usually all white ones, from left and right are revelling over the judgement of election court engineered to produce this coup. Grinding axes are coming out to play, and yes we have seen most if not all them all before. Corrupt developers not unrelated to the Shirley Porter moment stalk the borough, local housing organisations hardly inspire confidence and the local authority is mired in revolt and institutional dysfunction, thanks largely to the behavior of the local Labour party over recent decades.

Are the Greens for Real?
The Tower Hamlets Green Party has been quite a disappointment on the issue so far, with a whitewashed statement legitimising the re-election and contradicting their own anti-elected mayor policy. On this, the central party, as I understand, didn't guide such a statement and feels it isn't their place to impose a view.

The party has been trying to make itself less white, established a Greens of Colour caucus with a BAME Manifesto, and a highly ironic Brick Lane Launch. Yet this is all academic in the shadow of the Tower Hamlets Coup, which is a twisted cross product of the colonialism and racism of the British Right and Left. The authorial powers of Private Eye, Gilligan, Jeory and Ware have all had an effect here, an issue I will discuss concretely later.

Reducing the coup to an internal Labour party problem, as the TH Greens have done, whitewashes the issues of racism, the standing of the country's then premier anti-austerity executive, and the decades long struggle for political representation from Bangladeshi people in the borough. Secondly, running candidates looks like running over corpses after a political massacre, it legitimises the establishment's war on post Labour alternatives, puts the Greens in the ring as the anti-politics option and sits weirdly with the green position against elected mayors.

An Actual Way Forward.

There is a postLabour position of challenging the prejudice and injustice of the judgement, critically appraising Lutfur's record (warts and all) and pointing to a future of mass participation and resistance to social cleansing.  Unfortunately it is difficult to step into that space, and narrow interests threaten those who pose the possibility.

40 odd years of political struggle

Central government meanwhile has triumphantly usurped much of the power of the local authority. Looking forwards, in a few years there may not be a Tower Hamlets, and the area may be socially 'cleansed' to make way for gentrification and the hipster insurgency. 

People of justice identify with the area because of the vast inequalities that are historically at play .  Deshis locally have struggled for political representation for over 40 years, against the racism of the Labour Party amongst other challenges. Deshis non-locally are involved via a myriad of psychic, economic, professional and historic interconnections.

• We can't remember but we ask our elders about how Labour refused to include and represent Bangladeshis until Nurul Hoque's victory in Spitalfields as an Independent in 1982.
• We remember booting out Oona King who voted for Tony Bliar's criminal war on Iraq, which was pivotal in the production of ISIS.
• We remember booting out Labour's councillor and academic Micheal Keith, puppet master of Labour's Bangladeshi puppets, and whose record of dealings with developers and contracters remains underscrutinised.
• We remember Helal Abbas and the Labour NEC's putred dismissal of Lutfur Rahman's Mayoral candidacy in 2010, how they played the terrorism allegation card.
• We read the patronising, Orientalist and 'clever' text of the Election Court (Deputy) Judge as he played his role in a game that involved the entire political and media establishments.
• We follow the deep connections between the Labour Party and the Bangladesh Awami League and are 'post' both.
• We reflect on our own human shortcomings and the dignity of others.

Why is a resource page necessary?

This is an attempt at a rolling resource page, with articles, videos and official documents. It is a murky and complex arena to try and get one's head around.   There is a huge qualitative and quantitative inequality in knowledge produced by the subordinated sides of this very racist and prejudiced equation. Capital, Labour (R) and Liberal Hypocrisy are very eloquent and well represented.

Looking at the majority of the high profile content out there is can be misleading. Local blogger Ted Jeory is quite 'diligent', and does get quite a bit wrong. He needs to be read as he informs most white people on the issue. Meanwhile more powerfully, hack journalists like Andrew Gilligan and the Evening Standard's Robin de Peyer can be expected to 'do their jobs' and represent the worldview and interests of their class, informants, clients and employers.

There should be dozens of sharp bloggers throughout East London building audiences, debate and scrutinising the powerful, corrupt and autocratic. Maybe there are...

Audio

4th May 2015 | Talk and discussion with housing academic/activist Glyn Robbins, the TUSC candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow. 





Shamaj Views radio show on Tower Hamlets: History, Local Politics and the Trial of Lutfur Rahman




Videos 

Labour Mayoral candidate John Biggs appealing for consideration from the pulpit of Tower Hamlets mosque at Friday prayers (15th May) (relevant given double standards in spiritual influence debate)

Shibbir Choudhury, the secretary of 100 Roman Road Mosque using prayers to promote previously failed mayoral candidate John Biggs, the very same reason why Lutfur Rahman was 'criminalised'. Hypocritical system ?Oh another point.... The claims of ‘granting planning permission’ for the LMC (London Muslim Center) was under John Biggs leadership but there is NO mention about the many strong thousands of people who rallied from East London Mosque to the council demanding planning permission, you John Biggs had NO choice but to give in to the people, do not act all empathetic when you are not, LAIR!!
Posted by No to John Biggs for Mayor on Friday, 15 May 2015

Peter Oborne comment on the racist origins and applications of the spiritual injury law

Peter Obornes views on the Tower Hamlets and Luthfur Rahman case...
Posted by MEND - Muslim Engagement and Development on Wednesday, 13 May 2015

(From Defend Democracy in Tower Hamlets Event 30th April 2015)

Salma Yaqoob ( The Legend of Birmingham)




Ava Vidal (Comedienne and Writer)



Sean Raczka (Tower Hamlet's Resident)




Peter Herbert ( Society of Black Lawyers)



Alex Kenny ( Tower Hamlets National Union of Teachers)



Mayor Lutfur Rahman and Cllr Rabina Khan

Christine Shawcroft (of Labour National Executive Council)



Jonathan Rees

Nana Assante (Former Mayor of Harrow)

Lindsay German

Andrew Murray


Weyman Bennett (Unite Against Fascism)



John Allison (Resident of the Ocean's Estate)



George Galloway

What has Lutfur Rahman done for Tower Hamlets? ( 16 May 2014)

Lutfur Rahman Exposed! (28 March 2014 )

Lutfur Rahman EXPOSED from Tower Hamlets Love on Vimeo.

Articles

15 May 2015 | Guardian, Giles Fraser, Why is it one law for the Hindus and another for the Hindus?

11 May 2015 | Guardian, Rajeev Syal, Labour veteran suspended from party for supporting Lutfur Rahman

7 May 2015 | London Review of Books, Nadine El-Enany  The Judiciary and Institutional Racism 

6 May 2015 | Blog, Jen Izaakson Want to actually read the 101 Imams Letter?

4 May 2015 | 5Pillarz, Mevlana Marx Is Rabina Khan the best mayoral candidate to sort out Tower Hamlets?

4 May 2015 | East End News, Is this the man who can halt the Labour Shoo-in

2 May 2015  | 5Pillarz, Nishaat Ismail The battle for "democracy" continues in Tower Hamlets

30 April 2015 | RS21, Andrew Ward Twelve Reasons why the Lutfur Rahman judgement should worry you

30 April 2015 | 5Pillarz  Will Ajmal Masroor stand for Mayor in Tower Hamlets?

29 April 2015 | Guardian, Giles Fraser The Lutfur Rahman verdict and the spectre of 'undue religious influence'

26 April 2015 | 38Degrees An Alternate Lutfur Rahman Election Petition

26 April 2015 | Blog, Glyn Robbins Tower Hamlets Strikes Back!

24 April 2015 | Blog, Jen Izaakson Review of the Judgement in the Lutfur Rahman case

30 May 2014 | Guardian, Richard Seymour and Ashok Kumar  The Smear Campaign against Lutfur Rahman is an insult to democracy

'Official Documents'

13th May 2015 Legal opinion commissioned by Rev Dr Giles Fraser on Richard Mawrey QC's interpretation and application of 'undue spiritual influence' from Section 115 of the 1983 Representation of the People Act


4 May 2015 Mark Baines writes to Eric Pickles seeking the ban on the candidacy of Robina Khan in election rerun

The 200 page Election Court (mis)Judgement

PWC's 'best Value' assessment, 16th October 2014

Critique of PWC report

The hot politics of understanding Emwazi's journey to ISIS

There are only a few decent sources of information through which I can learn something just, trustworthy and intelligent about Syria/Iraq, the troubled resistance movements there and the unfolding ISIS nightmare. The Black American journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem is one of them, VICE magazine sometimes ( Ghosts of Aleppo), then there is CAGE. 

CAGE are a pretty inspiring and courageous UK research and advocacy organisation who work to protect the rights of those caught at the bum end of the war on terror, in particular salafi-orientated Muslim males and their families but by extension all of us. They are supported by the wider community of Muslims as well as non Muslims and represent a trajectory that evolved from Stop Police Terror to Stop Political Terror  campaigns which grew into Caged Prisoners. It is significant that far sighted people in the community ( and a few institutional funders) have established and supported institution like CAGE to protect a vulnerable community, despite the government clamping down on its bank accounts and personnel, cynically detaining them and preventing them from intervening to try and assist Alan Henning.

Following a press conference earlier this week on the official unveiling of  Jihadi John, of ISIS execution video infamy, as Westminster University alumnus Mohammad Emwazi, the knives are out for CAGE again. And surprise surprise, its not objective critique based on a holistic view of what they presented. The establishment refuses to take responsibility for a problem which belongs to the whole of us and despite their heads in the sand, we are in a moment where we can think through alienation in the UK  more broadly than the narrow interests of securocrats dictate.

Insulating White Supremacism from its recent history 

The course determining contribution of the United Kingdom to creating the conditions of possibility for ISIS was the brazen disregard for decency and rule of law demonstrated by its participation in the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars involved a lot of killing of innocents, creating new instabilities and grizzly videos of death and destruction on a mass scale.  As anti-war protesters and activists, we failed to stop this rain of white supremacist state terrorism and have to live in its consequences. Those responsible for promoting these wars insulate themselves from their complicity when they go on the offensive against organisations defending the legitimate rights of people caught up in forces greater than all of us. It is only decent to remind them of the blood on their hands every time they feign and moral high ground. 

A lot of the anger at CAGE is because they do not play the emotional condemnation game ttry to force on them. Although it is cringeworthy to watch people apologise for acts for which they have no responsibility, it makes sense to reassure alarmed publics, and some are better than others at it. To me, progress looks like connecting to root causes and producing epistemically autonomously framed research and guidance on the matter, whilst putting in its rightful place vis-a-vis other matters. If we look at the national risk register, its communicable diseases, not terrorism thats on top. If I look at near history, the consumer zombie riots following the extrajudicial killing of Mark Duggan are actually more scary. If I look to the future, its petroindustrial capitalism that is destroying life on this earth.

And these are all interlinked.

Rattling the CAGE

CAGE's enemies in the establishment are many and evidently dislike their evidence based analysis of  the UK intelligence community's contribution to the production of terrorism. But then, what else would you expect when you try and hold 'intelligence' services accountable for their contributions to ruining the life of someone Muhammad Emwazi / Jihadi John who would later become a poster boy for ISIS video executions?   A bit of public relations perhaps? 

I worry for the physical safety of the CAGE people on the ground as there are psychopaths in charge at the charity commission, the gutter press and hand in glove with the ultra right groups.

Embedded below is video of the recent CAGE press conference about their contact with Emzawi/Jihadi Jon. It has set the cat amongst the pigeons and inspired a wave of whiteous indignation.  Newspapers, especially on the right, but also on the liberal-left, are blubbering on about CAGE as ISIS apologists.  Usama Hasan and the Quilliam Foundation's handlers are firing of commands on their remote controls; and NATO-backed human rights groups like Amnesty International have been taking repetitional risk avoidance measures.  However, heroes like the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust have backed the groups right to ask legitimate questions.

The CAGE-Emwazi email trail has been put online here, for those of us prone to travelling whilst Muslim, activism or both, it makes for depressing but necessary reading.

Russell Brands Trews analysis looks at the bigger picture and is worth taking in also, but we are still left without public exploration of the spiritual wisdom and analysis that these transformations cry out for.

[Political Tragicomedy Alert] A Diary of a Bad Man does PREVENT

Today around lunch time a piece of weird news was circulating the social media, that the maker of the YouTube phenomenon A Dairy of a Bad Man had sold out to Prevent, the UK government's deradicalisation programme. Sure enough, the BBC article, then the Leicester Mercury piece furnished us procrastinators with the sad tidings and a vivid of Muslim cultural degeneration's latest wrong turning.

We learn that PC Rizwaan Chothia, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit's Prevent team coordinated the project on the same day as a secret trial of a terrorism suspect possibly alludes to an attempt to bring Tony Blair to a belated and worldly account via some kind of Bollywood dance move. Its worth noting that we might have expected better, as PC Rizwaan was subject to Islamophobic humiliation a few years back. I wonder if he 'gets' any of this?


A Dairy of a Bad Man has made me belly laugh at times, especially in its early physicality. Who can forget the classic tribute to the 'Roti or Rice?' dilemma, or Humza's Rap Battle with His Mum? Yet its not hard, even for a comedically challenged miseryguts like me, to notice how he found it hard to grow beyond the slapstick and toilet humour of the facebook/iphone degeneration. Salafis turned on him once they were guilt tripped by their seniors into disapproving of the fellow. His political commitments were admirable, appealing to followers to sign the Babar Ahmad petition, and objecting to Boris Johnson's hair in the run up to his recent reelection.

Think for Yourself is a royal bumwave of epic proportions

His Deradicalisation episode 'Think for Yourself' (above) is very unconvincing. See for yourself, he said, patronisingly. I'm struggling whether to rank it above or below that  #HappyMuslims video earlier this year. But its not just appalling cultural product, by any standards, its menacing. Think for Yourself appeals to viewers to snitch on their close ones, which is deeply Stasi-esque.

Perhaps the Muslim Oaf is an important dumbographic, but I think its been a mistake from Humza, who would appear to have sold himself, and his efforts out to the prevent agenda. Perhaps he made it all the more awful as an act of subversion, or was institutionally bullied into it - sixty eight excuses to go. I hope somebody close to him raises these issues and he considers his community with enough respect to dialogue on the issue.

Analyse the whole A Diary of a Badman experience, with ISIL's most recent propaganda offering 'Flames of War' (liveleak URL here, watch it carefully if you dare), and the whole problem of Muslim Ridiculisation is revealed.

Lecture by Farid Esack on "Islam and Ethics"

As we live in dark and challenging times, its important to drink from better fountains, this is one of those.

Farid Esack on "Islam and Ethics" at George Mason University from Ali Vural Ak Center for Global I on Vimeo.
“Islamic Ethics and Decolonialization - From the Certainties of Ma’ruf and Munkar to the Uncertainties of Post-this and Post-that”

The Qur’an seemingly postulates the idea of a clearly defined good based on widely accepted and acceptable knowables or knowns (ma’ruf) pitted against evil (munkar). These ethical distinctions are also reflected in the Muslim historiographical framing of pre-Islamic Arabia as ‘jahilliyyah’ (arrogant ignorance) against the light of islam/Islam. Dr. Esack reflects on these binaries in the light of the heurism and uncertainties offered by contemporary approaches to ethics. In this talk, he offers a decolonialized perspective as a response to the challenges posed by the seeming certainty of Islamic ethics by considering the urgencies (and the certainties) of the Muslim peripheries (even as these - both Muslims and the peripheries - may themselves be ever-changing).

Farid Esack is a South African scholar of Islam who completed the Darsi Nizami, the traditional Islamic Studies program, in Madrasahs in Karachi, Pakistan. He did his PhD at the University of Birmingham (UK) and subsequently did some post-doctoral work on Biblical Hermeneutics at the Philosophisch Theologische Hochschule, Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt-am-Main.

He is the author of several publications including Qur’an, Liberation & Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression, On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today and An Introduction to the Qur’an (all by Oxford: Oneworld). His current major field of interest and commitment is Islam and AIDS. He is the author of a series of publications dealing with this area including Islam, HIV & AIDS – Reflections Based on Compassion, Responsibility and Justice. He also co-edited “Islam and AIDS – Between Scorn, Pity and Justice", with Sarah Chiddy. He has also published widely on Islam, Gender, Liberation Theology, Inter-faith Relations, Religion & Identity and Qur'anic Hermeneutics.

Part of the Spring Lecture Series on Islamic Ethics

Recorded on April 25, 2013

Shapla Chottor calling Bangladesh: The disgrace behind the Awami League's obstinacy

A telephone call from an eyewitness to government brutality in Dhaka on 6th May



This call furnishes us with a lot of information about what happened that terrible night in Dhaka, information that journalists, human rights industrialists and officials are hiding, dismissing and ridiculing. It is vivid because there is no visual to distract the listener to what the gentleman is saying.

It and much more was available from 6th May 2013 for all to see, the BBC team led by Sabir Mustafa, New Age's David Bergman and the Aljazeera people, Shamim Choudhury, Jonah Hull and now Maher Sattar. They are all careerists and we do not know how far their journalism interacts with intelligence services.

What we have seen is the failure of journalism and the rise of new forms of knowing not without their own problems. Now that the democracy party is in town, folks might peek here and there to try to understand why this illegitimate government is scared

Hasina and Khaleda Zia speak on the Bangladesh elections as the BNP's Oct 25th protest approaches

Consider this an evolving notebook as the 24th October end of government looms as ultraviolence looks very likely to revisit the streets of Bangladesh.


The Dhaka Metropolitan Commissioner Benazir Ahmed, who hails from the Prime Minster's ancestral area Gopalganj has annonced a ban on political rallies, and the main opposition BNP are adamant to hold a big rally in Dhaka on 25th October. To this end a BNP leader and ex Mayor of Dhaka Sadeque Hussain Khokha gargled out some fearsome words before going into hiding while the more polite MFI Alamgir mumbled something about this being the final khela(play)

Yet given the ultraviolence that the Awami League sprung on the country on 28th October 2006, and the encouragement their thugs received by being given a free right to kill so many people over the past 8 months in broad daylight, it is a fearful time and anything is possible.


Furthermore, after the attacks on Hefazot supporters in Dhaka on the 5th and 6th May killed unknown scores, the police, RAB, BGB and media could bring even further disgrace to themselves in the coming weeks and months.

Thus spoke Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia

In this setting the Prime Minster's speech last friday was an important from the point of view of public relations and self image. Watch it below for analytical kicks.


PM Sheikh Hasina Speech on National TV on Friday evening 18th October 2013

Note how she tries to play the sympathy card towards the end re: the murder of her 10 year old brother 38 years ago and how she asks for our prayers as she sits underneath a picture of her father underneath the Shahada of Islam.

Below is one of her principle oppoonent's responses.

Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia Response on 20th October.

Points include

• That civil institutions aren't allowed to work freely.
• Many civil servants have been flung away ( OSD'd) because the government smelled different politics on their bodies.
• The police look like they have been turned into an Army fighting a war.
• Challenges Hasina to a fair election.
• Mocks Hasina's helicopter riding for voters with the boat symbol.
• Mocks governments single song sheet of blaming opposition for everything.
• "If you think that you will do an election with RAB, Police and what was that...BGB..BDR? Then that will not be allowed in this country"
• Contests Awami League freedom fighting credentials.
• Free Mahmudur Rahman, the detained editor of Amar Desh, he did no wrong.
• We want the return of Ilyas Ali, and all the dissapeared leaders.
• Protests the toruture applied to Shibir's young leader Delwar Hussain, whats wrong with working for a party.
• We stopped exam fraud, incumbents have brought it back.
• Contests Awami league claims and appropriations of development work and women's education.
• Stressed the need to save the younger generation.

A day later Khaleda Zia gave a more formal intervention with a more internationally tuned message stressing the need to change political culture and a whole lot of stuff that sounds nice but probably goes over the heads of many arseholes in her party. Its interesting seeing who is in the audience.



in it she mentions the attack on the Hefazot rally explicitly and points out this vital truth.

"...restlessness and confrontation in the society has increased due to the Awami League government’s wrong policy of identifying militancy with the peace loving religious organizations and religion based legitimate political parties. This has adversely affected the drive against militancy."


David Bergman analyses it here, best skip to the end and read the speech before his selective analysis.

Protest Promotion Videos

Demonstrations of street power are now the name of the game and this Friday 25th October the BNP will try their hand. These are the guys who didnt exactly help hefazots cause by threatening to overthrow the government just before Hefazot came in for a walk.

But street power needs to be suplimented by media power. With opposition papers under the cosh, even the technophobic BNP have to bypass the coporates and have a go at something new. The video below is from them, complete with disconcertingly jolly Bangladesh Biman-freindly soundtrack.



The next one is from Shibir supporters, and probably the second shittest video in all of Political Islam.

 

The first shittiest being that of a similar combine which appropriated and exploited Hefazot as well as their 5thMay protest for their own very narrow purposes. I beleive they have the right to exist untortured, but fucking hell they can be irresponsible wankers.

PM of Bangladesh accuses victims of government brutality faking injury and wearing read dye

Anti-NATO Protest video Chicago 2012

NATO is the biggest killing machine going. Something needs to be done about it. Here's what happened last week.

Sami Shah: Intelligent Comedy for our 15th Century

Saw Sami Shah perform a stand up set through Skpe to an audience in London from a hotel room in Thailand and pretty much outdo the uk asian talent. HT radioshak.
When I see deshis and desi's doing their thing, so comfortable in their skins and not in the category of ethnic mediocrity its good.

Al Jazeera Faultlines programme on Occupy Wall Street over the winter

25 minute

hOpeneing

Fetih 1453

It warms the me to the core to discover films like Fetih 1453, an Ummahtic swashbuckler that brings to life the Opening of Istanbul by the 21 year old Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II. Here he is sniffing a flower (see right).

Fetih is the most costly Turkish film to date. It does the same kind of thing as Malaysia's recent Puteri Gunung Ledang, National Visual Archive Making, with  Ottoman grit and substance. The Turkish Film Festival in London always hosts fantastic work, so this isn't a plutocratic shot in the dark. I could see from the end credits just how many small companies supported this work. I hope they like the finished product.

This victorious siege was important because if it had failed, it would have been curtains for the Sultan, his army and his people. Many Muslim armies had unsuccessfully tried to capture Constantinople, inspired by a saying of the Prophet, a hadith which is references from the very  beginning. Framed with Prophesy, that's what this film is.

For Mehmet II be able to succeed was an immense honour for all involved, and of profound importance for Islamic futures that it enabled.  Beamingly pro-Islam, it includes an unforgettable scene of the Sultan leading Fajr (dawn) prayers on the battlefield, and several sky splitting Takbeeric waves. I recommend it to folks to support this film, acquire it and view it multi-generationally.

Historical-technological features abound, those with an interest are treated to the manufacturing of Urban's famous canon, The use of ostrich eggs in building material, and the drawing of the Byzantine chain across the Bosphorous. Special mention must go to the wardrobe team, I hope and pray that Musalmenn the ummah over take heed of the threads on display here and incorporate there into their wedding wardrobes. Beats Green Street Indian tat any day. Girls will like Urban's adopted daughter.

Great casting too: of the Sultan who was played by a graceful man, and of his loyal friend Hassan, not to forget the obligatory sparkly-eyed Shayk who shifts the mood at the darkest hour, with spiritual-material truths at the grave of Eyub el Ansari, the Prophet's companion buried outside the walls of the city at the time of the first attempt to take it. I remember praying Jumma at Eyup. Try to.

There were times during the 160 minutes when I felt I was watching Xena Warrior Princess, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, or Maid Marian and her Merry Men. There's even a a bit of Su-Fi and a Golum at Mount Doom moment. 

I did have a few issues with this marvelous piece of Cultural Jihad.  It could have done a little more booby coverage folks,  the colouring seemed oversaturated / supernatural at times, and the English subtitles of Turkish dialogue took a little getting used to.

Faruk Aksoy and team, thank you, senu seviorum.

Diary of a Bad Man 10 : Roti, or do you like Rice?

Fela Kuti - International Theif Theif

Saw a live cinema screening of Fela  just now. Socks blown off. Cultural Jihad indeed. Might want to minimise the window and ponder the words without visuals. :-P

Rudro and the production of Taslima

There's a familiar song in bangla by the late Rudhro Muhammad Shahidullah (d. 1991) known as "Amar Bhitore Baire" or " Bhalo Achi Bhalo Theko". The rendering in the clip below below has really caught me, from the dude's roommate tapping on his laptop in bed in the background, to the sincerity of his voice. I remember hearing the lyrics from cousins during trips to the Bangladesh in the 90s but have only come to think of them and their situatedness very recently.



The poet was an ex husband of the now notorious writer Taslima Nasreen (TN) and some say that this poem was his suicide note to her.

Thats enough to mess anything up.

Then I got thinking about the experiences that deshi society has given TN, the montage of framed action images that have (co)produced her. I wonder where the agency lay, in her or/and in the societal ecosystem around her.

Looking back at this and similar flashpoints the socially protective-reactive line of reasoning has dominated from what i can see. Forces to compound to power of the covering of truth.

A generative-tawhesive line of flight is what i'dlike

The Jody McIntyre interview - BBCs disgrace, plain for the fair of mind to see.

This footage shows Jody McIntyre, a student with cerebal palsy being dragged from his wheelchair by police during the fees protests of last week. which had the newly tory right thinking public up in arms against the students.

The absolutely outrageous bbc presenter then accuses of thowing concret blocks at police.

Incredible how the bbc has become fox, pretty much over night

The Friends of Design: The Pilgrimage

This is the first single off their debut eponymous album. see www.fernmind.com for lyrics, tafsir, purchasing details.

City of Fear

A dispatches documentary which aired on Channel 4 last night.

Its a view of the bereaved victims of suicide bombings in Islamabad in recent years, including one ar the Islamic University. Shows the english speaking police meeting and talking to cameras which felt unusual, but it is Islamabad, the admin capital.

Anybody remember Karachi cops?

Such a documentary would not have been aired in Pakistan, but was tailored for the UK audience. Struck me how the scale of the problem is so different in Pak. I'm used to hearing twisted BS in the UK and secularist opportunist idiocy in Desh amplifying and blamestorming. Lots of heat and no light.

The UK, and the west in general simply use the violent threat as a legitimation tool, ploughing large amounts of resources into a peripheral physical threat. However, cities of Pakistan, mosques, universities, international 'development' institutions etc. face these threats continually.

This reality really puts whiteously indignant complaints about Pakistan and TWAT into perspective.

The situation and experience frames the fanatic problem differently. Duas to folks figuring out what is going on, avoiding the self serving logics churned out by the extremism policy industry and its clients.

And acting to complete a vision of a country that promised so much more.

Arthur Celcius on the SEEN threat

The Rainbow Connection

Courtesy of the Tailor.