[New Word] Muslim Botherhood

The crowd of people who appear, positively or negatively, bothered by Muslims.

Boro Hujur marches to Dhaka

As Basherkella and Shahbag merge into eachother in terms of sh!tst!rr!ng and ruthlessness, I pray that Boro Hojur injects some much needed tranquillity and balance as he marches to Dhaka this Saturday.

May the minarets sing sweet Hamds into the souls of the powerful and humble,  the police and brownshirts be overcome with compassion, and the liararchy self-correct.

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] Gossipistemology

A distorting way of knowing that dominates too many others in this world.
The simpler and more complex folk of Shahbag, and around it, base much of their certainty and conviction on it. It has been a while in casting and setting. This makes it hard to reform, as it contains its own override protects like 'tui razakar' and increasingly, bullets.

[New Word] Digital Separatism

Is how disputes dont get resolved,
Antisocial mediums behold
A tenfold spike
as we retweet and like.

[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.

Practical reflections on The Shahbag Fitna

1. Those accused of war crimes and the fallen deserve a fair tribunal process based on quality investigations of matters during and surrounding the Bangladesh War.
2. There must be space for Political Islam(s) to dwell, refine and evolve in Bangladesh. This includes Jamat and it is no matter that they can be annoying.

The interelation between these two commitments is not my making. The Awami liberation warlore and the Nirmul Commission took one particular war experience, amplified it, then focussed all blame and evil on a politically sampled list of 'collaborators'. I do not beleive that it is criminal to have been against the Bangladesh project, which was at its unfurling even less thought through than its predecessor state. It is with unethical, immoral behaviour that I have a problem.

God knew what was in people's hearts and gave us Shahbag as a reminder.

Over the past weeks and days we have come to know ourselves and the Bangladesh nonsense engine's true colours.  From the Daily Star's blatant disregard for truth regarding the 22nd February Jumma shootings and recent attacks on Hindu properties, to Sabir Mustafa's partisan hackery at the BBC, AJE's Nicolas Haque's spinelessness, Sultana Kamal's ironyless appeal for attention, and Shahidul Alam's sick sweetening of Shahbag Spirit,  it has been a sad to see such selective humanity and cowardice.

On an optimistic note, I have never seen so many brothers alive to the situation in desh, cognisant of the conditions that have created it, and getting busy. In testing times like these, just like in those before, our true colours emerge. Who we are, how we roll and what we bowl are embodied by our response.

This is easily said from the comparative safety of far far away from gunshots and police with shoot to kill directives.

The injustice of these tribunals is symptomatic of a wider corruption of state institutions and civil society. The government can only get away with what is has done with the support of public figures, each of whom have stood still, if not participated in the sham. In dealing with the situation at hand we must build a better social infrastructure of active, evidence-based and soulful citizenship.

Shahbag can be seen as  a radicalisation of the Awami League, the secular block, but what is its significance to me/us?

I say this very deliberately so that every word will ring inside. Broad hearted 'Islamic forces' must renew commitments to Justice, Integrity and Dignity by working for fair trials, political space-making and political self-making.

Five areas I think we need to improve on.

ZERO// Learning
Learn, read, ask, search, discover the issues to the best of your ability.
Recent work by Yasmin Saikia and Sarmila Bose are good places to start.
Bose's London seminar on critical thinking on 1971 is online HERE

ONE// Be unprovokable, undistractable, unbwogable
Avoid being drawn into discussions of faith, non faith and anti-Islamic non-faith.
Shahbag is toxic enough already, Atheisation and AlieNation is the topic for another venture.

TWO// Language
Be responsible with language, not like Maulana Sadruddin who made an ass of himself on Obhimot the other day. Not all Awami Leagers are the same. Do not mirror any tyrant's misuse of language.

THREE// Greater Insaniyyat, humanity
Grow dialogical relations with people in all parties and trends. Some have cornered themselves, many haven't really thought carefully about these things.

FOUR// Empathy
Familiarise yourself the the psyche's of reference points of others through personal relationships, art, twitter, alalodulal, drishtipat (archive), muktomona and alochona yahoogroups.

Poetical interpolations of one family's 1971 justice adventures

David married Sara,
Whose father was Kamal.
They kept the country guessing,
In which direction they could snarl.

Kamal was Foreign Minister,
From the story of creation,
A fine barrister, distinguished man,
Mattabar of the Nation.
 
His daughter was quite sharp as well,
Ziauddin she did advise,
To admit some limits of the trials,
To pass by western eyes.

And now we come to David who,
With journalistic hue,
Brought Nirmulity to the airwaves,
Mistakenly at face value.

With great symbolic powers,
Of status, mind and race,
He's proved the witchhunt bollockful,
Right in its secular face.

Oh countrymen it should be you,
To chasten nonsense engines,
But you kill, humiliate, erase,
With the grace of Gotham's Penguin.

What the f£ck is going on in Bangladesh?

A freind of mine saw the video footage of the Police beating then shooting a young bangladeshi in his 20s in the head and asked me this question. Its hard to answer in a sound bite and from my location but that wont stop me trying to.

Today as the Internationally Discredited War Crimes Tribunals handed a death  penalty to Allama Sayeedi, the government tried switching off social media and unleashed violence of striking Islamists, its important to spend some time thinking and reflecting.

I recommend the following article by William Gomes, a Bangladesh Christian http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/william-gomes/shahbagh-what-revolution-whose-revolution#.US2thTO4AP0.twitter .

Naeem Mohaimen's piece in Kafila is the closest that a Bangla nationalist activist will come to admitting that their case rests on a sea of BS http://kafila.org/2013/02/22/shahbagh-the-forest-of-symbols-naeem-mohaiemen/

In the absense of decent press and in the interests of self promotion, I'm self referencing previous posts here.

Last Fridays jumma firings


http://fugstar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/baishe-february-awami-government-guns.html

Shabagh protest

As it became clearer http://fugstar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/shahbagan-garden-of-hate-and-fear.html

As it kicked off http://fugstar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/only-bangladeshis-could-demonstrate-in.html

War crimes tribunals and the leaks

After the Economist published the leaks http://fugstar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/i-am-justifiably-in-contempt-of-this.html

Before the Economist published the leaks http://fugstar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/war-crimes-tribunal-judge-tells.html

Baishe February: Awami government guns roar at post jummah demonstrations

This is hard to explain, but important that you understand, at least slightly.

Today (friday) after Jummah in Bangladesh there were a lot of demonstrations flowing out of mosques in Bangladesh.  A day after the exploitative commemoration of students shot and killed by government forces in 1952, four people are reportedly killed by the police and scores if not hundreds injured.

Protestors were objecting to insulting antiIslamic writings on the web somewhere, from authors quite close to the centre of the Shahbag movement. The Shahbag movement consists of a large trendy mob demanding executions of prominent leaders of political Islam accused of war crimes, and the exclusion of political Islam from the body politic. The Awami League government is broadly aligned and supportive of this movement. One of its student leaders, Dr Imran H Sarkar in fact is one of Shahbag's defacto spokesperson.

The picture below shows police firing at people in Baitul Mukkarram, the national mosque. Maybe you've prayed there or seen it in your namaz time calenders, or visited the Islamic Foundation on a trip to Dhaka. There are other pictures, of brothers bloodied and lying motionless, other cowering as police fired indiscriminantly at them.

It is the kind of image we are used to seeing coming out of Palestine or Chechnya, not an independant Muslim majority country.

My thinking is now that the wheels are starting to come of the Shahbag Bandwagon more sensible heads will prevail. We hear this as more reasonable figures for fromm inside the awami camp distance themselves from the offending bloggers and Shahbag. 

The religious establishment is a lot larger than jamat, and the party has pissed a lot of people off in its history.The processions across the country today were not pro jamat but more an alliance against a common threat, the autocratic awami league. 

Decolonial duas for all who live and die.