Shuddhabrata Sengupta on Thu, 20 Sep 2001 20:55:34 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Sanity and Irony from Karachi, Pakistan |
Dear nettime Readers This text - 'The Burden of Sanity' is a message that the Sarai Reader-List received, forwarded by one of the subscribers, who in turn received it as a result of it being circulated by a group of people in Karachi, Pakistan, who have been involved in 'alternative organizing for a while' . I thought that it would be important to share this voice of sanity, from Pakistan and point to the subtle ironies within it. It is important to keep in mind that Pakistan, and the rest of South Asia, will soon be the frontline states of the coming conflict. Shuddha _______________________________________________________________ THE BURDEN OF SANITY, from Karachi, Pakistan In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pantagon on 11 September 2001, there is a real danger of the US government and people bahaving irresponsibly and putting the world peace in danger. Apprehension have been expressed regarding a deterioration in the treatment of Muslims living the US as a result of these tragic events. The following is an appeal to the US authorities and citizens for maintaining sanity. 1. Although the FBI's initial investigations are reported to indicate that the hijackers, who delibrately crashed the commercial aircrafts with civilian pasengers on board, were Arabs who had entered the US and gained access to the training facilities in flying inside the country abusing the laws in force, the entry of people of the Arab or other Muslim origin and their access to such training and other facilities in the US must not be curtailed. 2. Although the Taliban have ordered all non-Muslim foreigners to leave Afghanistan at once, the US authorities must not consider deporting Arab Afghan, Pakistani and other Muslims living in the US. 3. The US legislature must not make law that would result in the discriminatory treatment of the Muslim immigrants living in the US in the manner Pakistan's Qadianis are treated after the country's National Assembly passed the famous amendment to the constitution in 1974. (Qadianis , also known as Ahmediyas, are a religious sect. mainlly located in India and Pakistan, who consider themselves to be Muslims) 4. The US citizens must not attack the settlements of the Muslim immigrants as Qadiani settlements are occasionally attacked in Pakistan resulting in death and injury to men, women and children and damage to their property. 5. In case of any such attacks on Muslims in the US police must not arrest the victims of the attacks just as several Qadiani families (men, women and children) - victims of an attack by Muslims in a town in Punjab, Pakistan, a few weeks ago - were arrested and locked up inside the police station because, according to the police, "they were not safe outside." 6. The Muslims living in the US must not be regularly killed in ones and twos as those belonging to the minority Shia community are being killed in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan these days. 7. The people of USA should refrain from harassing Muslim consulting physicians and surgeons working here the way Shia consulting physicians and surgeons are being threatened regularly in Pakistan. Several such doctors were given three days to sell off their property and leave Pakistan (on pain of getting killed) in the last few months. Most complied and moved to the US. It would be rather unjust if they are asked to leave the US and return to Pakistan where they are likely to be murdered. 8. The angered people of the US must not attack the places of worship of different sects of the US Muslim community in the manner these people attack each other's places of worship in Pakistan, resulting in multiple deaths of people praying inside. 9. The religious freedom of the Muslims in the US must continue to be guaranteed. In the incident mentioned in 5 above, the Qadianis were planning to watch on satellite TV a speech by their religious leader, which the majority community did not allow them to do. They shifted their gathering to a private house, on which their place of worship, which they are not allowed to call a "masjid", was attacked and damaged. There should be no such treatment of the Muslims in the US. 10. The US citizens belonging to the majority community must not scare the Muslims by conducting public meetings inside their neighbourhoods with speakers making derogatory remarks againts their religion and religious leaders such as the Pakistan's majority commuinity routinely does inside the settlements of Qadianis and Shias. 11. In general, the US (and other western countiries) must continue to grant visa, immigrant status and nationality to the liberal minds of the Muslim countries because they have a danger to be persecuted, harassed and even killed in their native countries. The US authorities and citizens should display sanity and do the above and much more. And, they must not ask the present sermonizer why the governments and citizens of Muslim countries should not be urged to do the same with the "aliens" living there. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net