The latest Al Qaida threat

When we all thought that Al Qaida was gone after it's Jihadi leader was killed and fed to the sharks, it seems Al Qaida has come up with a new strategy to promote it's lethal violent ideology.

The Onion News Network reports that there are now close to five million Al Qaida combatants posing as 'patriotic, peaceful decoy Muslims' so that the public will lower their guard thereby making it easy for Al Qaida to strike.

Steps are being taken to counter this threat. The next time you see a patriotic, peaceful Muslims be warned that it could be another Al Qaida combatant just doing what it does best, espousing its violent Jihadi ideology.

Death & Execution

As I type this post, Troy Davis, a man convicted of killing a policeman twenty years ago awaits death. He will be executed by lethal injection in a matter of a few hours, two at most.

I post paragraphs from one of my favourite essays 'A Hanging' by George Orwell, about death, killing and what it means to execute a person.

"It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never
straightens his knees. At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path."

"It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working --bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming--all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned--reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two
minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone--one mind less, one world less. "

If by some rare chance, Troy Davis isn't dead when you read this, please sign this petition here.

Of Sinhalese Buddhism and Racism

I write this post with some level of pain and sadness. I write this also as a Sri Lankan and as a Muslim. My credentials in the Sri Lankan blogosphere are established, if not anything at least as someone with genuine love to Sri Lanka where I was born, where I lived except for five years of my life and where I hope I will be buried when I die.

Those of you who know me, know me for various reasons, one being my fluency in Sinhalese and the fact that it wouldn’t be discernible that I am a Muslim when I speak in Sinhalese to someone who doesn’t know me. Never in Sri Lanka (or elsewhere for that matter) have I been affected by racism, never have any of my Sinhalese friends (who consist of the vast majority of my Lankan friends) addressed me in racially derogatory tones with intended venom or malice, unless in instances when I myself have referred to me and other Muslims facetiously as ‘Thambiya’s.

However, racism has been present in Sri Lanka right throughout my life; I am in my mid twenties now. Never have I known a Sri Lanka devoid of racism. Sadly it seems, racism may be an intrinsic part of Sri Lankan society for years if not for decades to come, in fact one wonders if there will ever be a time in Sri Lanka devoid of racism. Racism is usually propagated by a majority community towards a minority, that is true for almost any instance in the world where racism takes place. By this almost golden rule of how racism takes place, Muslims and Tamils have been mostly at the receiving end in Sri Lanka. I am not suggesting that Muslims have in Muslim majority areas not preferred a Muslim over a Sinhalese or a Tamil.

But forget not the contribution Muslims have made to the Sri Lankan social fabric and forget not how loyal Muslims have been to Sri Lanka as a nation and as a state at its most crucial moments. From spilling their own blood for Sri Lanka in fighting colonial invaders to the crucial political struggles Muslims have made to gain independence from Britain. Remember 'Parangiya Kotte giya wagey' ? How Muslims took the colonial invaders on an almost wild goose chase?

Unlike in Britain, where Muslims are mostly immigrants not more than a few generations old, the question of Muslims in Sri Lanka isn’t even a question!

There have been several instances where Muslims have been attacked recently in various instances. There was this whole debacle surrounding the Grease Yaka, and now the following incident I am about to relate.

I don’t know much about this; Groundviews told me they are looking into it. But it is not a pretty sight.

Images suggest that Sinhalese youth under the guidance of Buddhist Monks and the connivance of the Police (who clearly are meant to be acting on the contrary) destroying a sacred place of Muslims in Anuradhapura.

These are Buddhist Monks we are speaking of, whatever happened to the very Buddhist principles of causing no harm? Of course it does not help the Buddhist philosophy when monks stand by watching and those desecrating the premises do so with Buddhist flags being waved about.

This news piece suggests the place was built illegally. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it wasn’t, I for one do not know. If it was should there not be a court order for it to be demolished in such a way? If there was indeed a court order should it not be the state that carries out such a demolition and not hooligans and thugs waving Buddhist flags with Monks monitoring their every step with hawkish scrutiny ?

It sets an extremely dangerous precedent when vigilantism spreads its thorny fingers around with the state doing nothing about it, more so when such vigilantism has been encouraged when there wasn’t even any harm done to anyone.

Traditionally, Muslims and Sinhalese have been on the best of terms. I have always maintained how Muslims (then Arabs who later married local women) have been in Sri Lanka before Islam itself and Muslims in Sri Lanka have a history as old as Islam itself. Halik writes about this here.

This is not the first time I am blogging about a mosque attack, I blogged here a few years ago.

I refuse to believe that the primary seed that is creating such hatred towards Muslims by Sinhalese Buddhists comes from Sri Lankan Buddhist themselves. The vast majority of Sinhalese Buddhists are innocent human beings who want to get on with their lives; the slim minority who physically sweat to do such laborious tasks are just the labourers. They have no ideology, they have no world view, they do not even live by the sacred texts of Buddhism (some monks included), they are just that – labourers who can wield an axe. Their capacity to wield an axe is being used, exploited by someone who would like to see the dangerous effects of what they do.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I see a third hand involved, a third hand that would benefit in seeing Sinhalese - Muslim clashes. The Sinhalese - Muslim riots in 1915 were unnecessary and were based on an incitement. I have read material suggesting that with 2015 being the one hundredth anniversary of those riots, they should be commemorated. I fear for the Muslims of Sri Lanka when those commemorations take place.

This is beneath the vast majority of Sinhalese to do. This country does not need another conflict to screw us deep into an abyss. It is in the best interests of all to identify these elements and have them dealt with.

The problem with Sri Lanka is that you see negativity on such a regular basis where that which was abnormal once, becomes such a normal thing where people are desensitised to consider it serious.

I will not appeal to the Sri Lankan Muslims to remain calm, I know they would. Being the ever patient and resilient community they have been in the wake of so many difficult and tumultuous events, they would dismiss this as just another incident and try and get on with life. But the fact remains, these incidents keep happening, and the danger lies in the fact that the frequency doesn’t seem to diminish.

I am currently living in the UK. I will eventually return to Sri Lanka, I have never been part of the ‘Diaspora’ and intend never to be so. But when my friend asks me, Machang when are you coming back, and I see images like these, least I can do is tell a date and just shrug or sigh to myself.

Enjoy your weekend.

Click image to see larger.



UPDATE - For some reason I am having problems uploading images. Please save the above image to desktop and view it large. My post would seem less substantial without the images.

Proposals, Aunties and Marriage

As I have said here, I am currently reading ‘Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim’. This is a semi autobiographical account of the life of the author Ziauddin Sardar, a British citizen who came to Britain as a child in the early 60’s.

I only started it so I can’t say much about the book in general, whatever I say about the book in this article will be based on the first few chapters I have finished reading. He speaks of being born in the borders of current day India and Pakistan before the partition took place. Having being born in the borders and not knowing if he really belonged to Pakistan or to India, was the first internal crisis he faced about his identity. His father was one of those who left Pakistan to help rebuild Britain after the World war and his family eventually followed him and thus the author (Ziauddin that is, not me) had to grow up as a Pakistani child trying to carve out an identity of his own as a British person.

The book thus far has been a thrilling read. However, I can’t help but feel that when I have finished reading it I am almost bound to consider it to be a far too liberal approach on how my ideas of an Islamic ideological discourse would be, I must admit though that I would have been superbly entertained by the style of writing and the fascinating diversity of the milieu he articulates of.

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the following paragraph a few days back.

“Marriage has always been the province and prerogative of the matriarchs. The senior women of the family in Muslim households the world over jealously guard their right to investigate, analyse and pair off individuals who come within their purview. It is a traditional skill combining consummate mastery of the deepest mysteries of personality profiling, sociological sensitivity and understanding, psychological insight and quantifying variables well beyond the most sophisticated computer dating software”

This is true, very true. The females in the households usually are the ones who go about with all these profiling of potential spouses for people they know. Many of us would know of the nosy auntie or anti as some would say (a Sri Lankan auntie, as opposed to a British aunt isn’t necessarily related by blood) who would snoop around asking your mother how old you are and what you are doing. In the case of a boy, the job would be of interest, how much he earns and how his personality is would be of reasons to consider. In the case of a girl, how she looks would be quite important, we all know how fascinated and gleeful some Sri Lankan aunties can get when they see a girl with very fair or light coloured skin.

The last paragraph was me trying to get into the mind of a stereotypical Sri Lankan auntie, and not my views, please note.

But are all these profiling of individuals for marriage really wrong, provided they are done with sincere intentions?

The writer further elucidates of the predicament of the young Muslim community in Britain in the 1960’s when it came to marriage and finding a life partner.

“The ideal arranged marriage seeks compatibility, the kind that develops, grows and flourishes in and for the lifetime of two people who, even if close relatives, officially have no idea of each other’s existence. Arranging marriages is an art form, but that does not travel well. In Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, the women of the Muslim community had been uprooted. They were removed from stable environments where they were interconnected over generations with entire villages or neighbourhoods. In their new setting in Britain, they had more truncated networks, more circumscribed access to the contacts and information that were essential to perform the arcane rites of arranging marriages. The steady business of building circuits of visiting, connecting with people from similar backgrounds, identifying the right kind of people from within their limitations of the ‘Asian’ community, sniffing out the not suitable kind of badmashes and making sense of all the new environment’s influences and effects and how they worked on young people was in its infancy.”

The debate about arranged marriages and marriages created otherwise and which of the two is better is a debate of the past. Traditional Muslim communities and Diasporic Muslim communities have very different problems when it comes to marriage. The very use of the term Diasporic in itself is contentious, one being that there is no such word, the other being that whilst parents may consider themselves as part of a Diaspora, their children would not as they would possibly have been born and brought up in a country outside that which their parents were born and consider themselves full citizens.

Asian/Muslim families in Britain are not more than a few generations old and therefore the deep sense of networking that is prevalent in traditional Muslim communities is usually absent.

A sad predicament of Muslim communities (mostly in non-Muslim countries) is that divorce rates are now increasingly on the ascendancy in line with the high divorce rates amongst non-Muslim communities. According to some, one in eight marriages amongst British Muslims now ends in divorce, up from one in twenty within the span of two generations.

There is an inherent lack of trust amongst Muslim youth of their parents’ capability of finding a life partner they would consider suitable and they increasingly look to good friends to find someone for them. This is mostly evident in families where there is a cultural gulf between the parents and children, i.e for instance when the parents grew up in a certain culture and the children grow up in a culture (mostly Western) which is totally different, the salient feature in this gulf is the difference in prioritising.

Why I say 'parents find someone' is because for various reasons the concept of an 'arranged marriage' is considered far more secure within Muslim families worldwide. Another interesting factor that may add weight to this sense of security in avoiding other types is that Germain Greer in her book 'The Whole Woman' argues that ‘Some of the briefest marriages are those that follow a long period of cohabitation’. Muslim societies hold the institution of marriage as relevant and important, for those who don't this argument would be seemingly irrelevant.

In an Islamic sense, cultural gulf should not be a problem when it comes to reconciling critical matters. It wouldn’t matter if the parents grew up in a rural village in the Amazon and the children grow up in the concrete jungles of New York if the priorities in life were defined as a means of best fulfilling your needs for the hereafter. Prioritising decisions for the sake of this life without understanding its impact in the hereafter would be like running in the opposite direction in a train when the train is moving forward.

Of course personal tastes may inevitably differ, but if approached with an Islamic understanding, personal tastes would be strictly within reason.

Muslims believe that this world is a test that would determine the outcome of the hereafter, this is what Muslims believe. Of course non-Muslims or secular readers can dismiss this notion.

If any of you head-hunters (aunties mostly) reading this article get the wrong message, I say this with the greatest respect, please don’t bother. My affairs are in order.

This is an article I wrote for a magazine, I have edited it to suit this blog. It's 1.36 am now and I am not feeling too pedantic. Excuse any errors please.

Of Muslim Women and Marriage

I am currently reading Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim. This is a semi autobiographical account of the author Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani immigrant who came to the UK as a child in the 1960's.

It deals with how he had to negotiate two identities, that of a Pakistani and that of a child growing up in Britain and having to embrace a British identity.

The book so far has been an exceptionally thrilling read. However, I can't help but feel that when I have finished reading it I will consider it to be a far too liberal approach to how my ideas of Islamic ideological discourses would be, even though I am sure I would have been superbly entertained.

I couldn't help but chuckle when I read the following paragraph this morning.

"Marriage has always been the province and prerogative of the matriarchs. The senior women of the family in Muslim households the world over jealously guard their right to investigate, analyse and pair off all individuals who come within their purview. It is a traditional skill combining consummate mastery of the deepest mysteries of personality profiling, sociological sensitivity and understanding, psychological insight and quantifying of variables well beyond the most sophisticated computer dating software."

Though not exclusive to Muslims, and is more of a phenomenon intrinsic to Asian families irrespective of their faith, I couldn't help but chuckle at it's authentic pertinence.

Life as you would have it.

When Louise Mensch wished me for Eid!

Today is Eid here in the UK. After the longest days of fasting I have ever fasted for 30 days, today I celebrate Eid.

It is a bit sad that I am not celebrating Eid with family, I used to go to a park in Colombo every Eid with my family and how I miss it. Today I will be celebrating Eid with no family but with a lot of great friends, and how thankful I am that I have them.

Anyway, last night I had even more reason to be much chuffed (spiritual reasons aside), one of my favourite Tory MP’s Louise Bagshawe now Mensch (not to mention one of the prettiest) sent me a personal tweet wish for Eid! How class is that!

I am not a Tory fan, indeed the Tories are considered much less pro-Muslim than say the Labour Party. Irrespective of faith, minorities in the UK tend to be more Labour leaning than voting for a Tory.

Oh, if it appeals to any of you Metallica fans, her husband is a Metallica person.

Above is a video of Louise, have a look at it. I am sure you will like her personality too, for a woman of forty, she looks remarkably schoolgirlish.

This is her tweet – “@aufidius the co-Chairman of our party is a Muslim! hope you have a wonderful Eid”

In hindsight, this post looks very unlike me and very juvenile, but heck - I don't do this always.

Hope you have a wonderful Eid, please do remember me in your prayers.

An Open Letter to David Cameron’s Parents

London has been burning the last few nights. Riots have made almost all of the city insecure. There was an extremely heavy riot police presence a few yards from my house the night before last, last night there was a heavy police presence and tonight (10th August) the presence of police is more sporadic. I hope by tomorrow things would be perfectly settled.

Other parts of the city that have a weaker immune system than London are now in turmoil, I spoke to my mates in Newcastle where racist attacks had taken place, there are reports of severe rioting and looting in Liverpool, Nottingham and Manchester.

Hackney, Peckham and Croydon are some of the worst affected areas in London. I cycle through Hackney a lot and it was sad to see my usual cycling paths destroyed or damaged.

The resilience of many people in this saga has come out. This woman who shouted at rioters and later saved a boy from them is remarkable, The great dignity and steadfastness of this father whose son was killed is both moving as it is admirable.

All in all London is recovering with the resilience that only a great city with great people can. This clean up operation that instigated great communal feeling is truly marvellous. Of all the images I have seen of great communal spirit in the midst of this whole saga, this would surely be the best.

There have been various people voicing varying opinions about this issue. One thing is common amongst everyone, this criminality and hooliganism is absolutely disgusting and should be condemned and the perpetrators of these crimes should feel the full force of the law. I have no reservations in saying myself that these are terrible acts and all those looters should be punished in proportion to their crime.

However the response of self professed centrists and right wingers is absolutely disgusting vis a vis all that took place the last few nights. By saying this I am not admitting to being a leftie, I am not, the Left isn't devoid of sins either. Twitter and facebook has been full of all sorts of views, some of sympathy , some of hope and some absolute rubbish.

What we have to understand is this, every action is born out of a fertile climate that creates it. Fire cannot spread in a vacuum however much someone tries to. However much someone tries to instigate disorder and anarchy in society, one would absolutely fail to succeed in that if the people in the society are recipients of the moral, physical, emotional and financial justices in the system. If discontent is rampant and people suffer with severe disadvantages and hardships and there were disparities in the way people are treated, all that's needed to start a roaring fire is an accidental spark, and it spreads and spreads and spreads.

What the government needs to do now is to immediately stop the fire first, and then extract the reasons that create a conducive environment for such carnage.

The government is doing the right thing by creating law and order first, well and good. But if it stops there and even if all the perpetrators are locked up and yet the authorities do not attend to the cause - Creating law and order will be purely for cosmetic purposes and history will repeat itself.

Tuition fees have been trebled, there have been cuts to the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), Councils are rampantly closing down youth centres amongst many of the other actions taken by the government that surely has contributed to youth restlessness and frustration. With the closing down of these institutions, one of the few bodies outside the family unit that can keep youth out of mischief has been rooted out.

"But it's also a nonsensical position. If this week's eruption is an expression of pure criminality and has nothing to do with police harassment or youth unemployment or rampant inequality or deepening economic crisis, why is it happening now and not a decade ago? The criminal classes, as the Victorians branded those at the margins of society, are always with us, after all. And if it has no connection with Britain's savage social divide and ghettoes of deprivation, why did it kick off in Haringey and not Henley?"

"It then erupted across what is now by some measures the most unequal city in the developed world, where the wealth of the richest 10% has risen to 273 times that of the poorest, drawing in young people who have had their educational maintenance allowance axed just as official youth unemployment has reached a record high and university places are being cut back under the weight of a tripling of tuition fees." (link)

Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, an otherwise righteous man was imprisoned because he stole a piece of bread out of severe hunger to feed his sister's children. The saner move would have been to eradicate hunger and poverty from that society all in all so that no one else steals out of hunger.

For those of you who don't know. David Cameron and Boris Johnson were part of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, an elitist club where members can join only by invitation. Members were usually from the most aristocratic families. After meetings or events, Bullingdon club members are known to go about breaking windows and causing havoc in the communities. I distinctly remember Ed Miliband once taking a shot at David Cameron's Bullingdon Club past.

I came across this brilliant open letter to David Cameron.

Seeing all these riots, I can't help but wonder if this infamous quote from the Joker is apt in this situation.

"You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...these civilized people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."


Stay safe if you are in England and enjoy the rest of the week.


Update - Just read RD's post on the same issue.