Kashmir polls

DISMISSED by All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq as an “administrative exercise” that has “no bearing” on the region’s political future, state elections in Indian-administered Kashmir came to an end on Wednesday after over a month of polling. Calls for a boycott issued by separatist leaders produced a mixed response, with the turnout no more than 20 per cent in Srinagar but significantly higher in other areas. It is being said that the majority of Muslims who voted, even if they support independence from India, did so because day-to-day local issues cannot be ignored until a long-term solution is found to the wider Kashmir problem. One explanation of the discrepancy in turnout numbers could be that issues such as healthcare, education and civic amenities need more urgent attention in rural areas than in the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. Localised issues probably were a factor because it goes without saying that anti-India sentiment is growing across the disputed territory.

Barring a few incidents, the elections were peaceful for the most part. One reason could be that security was tight, a description that runs the risk of being called the understatement of the year. Every separatist leader of any note had been arrested and at least 30,000 troops patrolled the streets of Srinagar. The hub of the freedom movement, Srinagar had in short been turned into an army garrison, according to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. But that is perhaps only a partial explanation. The freedom movement in Indian-occupied Kashmir is now more a peaceful and popular uprising of a Gandhian hue than an armed insurgency. Hundreds of thousands of moderates have joined the cause now that the militants have been shunted into the background. This clearly does not suit India. Killing highly trained militants is one thing, state violence against unarmed protesters on the streets of Kashmir quite another. Given India’s clout in this day and age, it will take some doing to dent its image abroad. But pictures and footage of peaceful protesters being mowed down by Indian soldiers may well internationalise the Kashmir issue with greater rapidity.

Pakistan-India relations may be strained as we speak but not everything can be seen in the context of the Mumbai carnage. Terrorism and Kashmir are two separate issues given the peaceful nature of the current uprising in the held Valley. As president of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf made unprecedented conciliatory gestures vis-à-vis Kashmir but India made no attempt to reciprocate. Pakistan’s follies in the Zia era, when militants bound for Indian-held Kashmir were assisted by the official machinery, are common knowledge. The situation today, however, is completely different. It would only be sensible if India were to respond positively to the growing voice of the traumatised Kashmiris before their cause is hijacked by militants yet again.

Iran-Arab talks

AT a time when initiatives on all matters concerning the region are not in Middle Eastern hands, the Arab League secretary general’s plea for talks between Iran and the Arab world clearly makes sense. Speaking to reporters at Cairo on Tuesday, Amr Moussa said Iran was an important country and that the time had come for the two sides to resolve their differences through negotiations. The AL chief’s statement comes at a time when Iran’s nuclear issue is being tackled by four western powers besides Russia and China. The protracted negotiations have produced no results, except that threats of military action by Israel and the US have made Tehran quietly slow down its uranium enrichment programme. However, Iran’s nuclear ambitions are also viewed with suspicion by some Arab governments. Besides, a number of other issues also serve as an irritant between Iran and the Arab world.

Iraq is in a mess, and even though American forces are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011, there is little possibility that the weak Nouri al-Maliki government will be able to maintain the country’s unity and focus on post-war reconstruction. Given Iraq’s demographic character, the predominantly Shia Iran can play a major role in stabilising Iraq. However, this is a prospect that America and the Gulf kingdoms do not welcome. Also irksome to the Arab world are Iran’s growing links with two militant organisations, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, and the consequent influence Iran has come to acquire in the Levant, especially in Lebanon’s factional politics. Also cause for concern for all sides is the continuing war in Afghanistan and America’s decision to increase troop levels in a country that is Iran’s neighbour.

Against this background one is sorry to see that it is outside powers which are deciding the region’s fate — as they have indeed been doing since implementing the Sykes-Picot pact and the Balfour declaration last century — and that Iran and the Arab world are mere spectators. The Organisation of Islamic Conference is a non-starter and has nothing to its credit — not even in the economic and cultural fields — since its founding in 1969. A grouping of states cannot take decisive action when its own members are divided on key issues. The Arab League and Iran have a chance now to make sincere efforts to resolve regional issues themselves instead of looking to outside powers to do so.

The food we eat

WE eat therefore we live. This is indeed as simple as it sounds as long as we cook our meals at home and know fully well what goes into the making of our meals. But in an age when bakeries and eateries abound and a culture of eating out is here to stay, we can no longer take for granted the simple link between eating and living. Unless we are aware of the ingredients that go into the baker’s bread or the gourmet’s gravy, we cannot be sure if the food on our plate will help us live. Awful as it may sound, the eateries and bakeries that we frequent hardly ever enlighten us about their fare. We assume that they care for our well-being as much as they care for their profits. Unfortunately, the discovery of a hair in a cake in Lahore suggests the truth may be otherwise. Even though a court has duly compensated the consumer for the legal expenses incurred and the amount spent on the hairy cake, the issue highlights some serious inadequacies in the processing and marketing of food at eateries. Bread, cakes and patties have labels that tell us nothing about how they are made, with what ingredients and, more importantly, when. The goings-on inside restaurant kitchens and bakery plants are so aggressively kept under wraps that any news of something fishy found there is suppressed.

Addressing consumer worries about food, therefore, should not just stop at the occasional compensation for a faulty product. Those responsible for overseeing the making and marketing of food need to ensure that all commercial food products have standardised labelling containing all the information a consumer may ask for — ingredients, date of manufacturing, expiry date and advice for storage. The food authorities also need to equip themselves with machinery and scientific know-how to test food on the spot and check recipes. Without such a comprehensive approach, we will keep eating without knowing what is going inside our bodies. Being compensated for hair-raising incidents once in a blue moon is certainly not what consumers should be satisfied with.

OTHER VOICES - Sri Lankan Press

Another Christmas

Daily Mirror

ANOTHER Christmas dawns today with people around the world wishing one another ‘peace’…. Yet, the peace on earth for which … Jesus Christ paved the way is still eluding the world, judging from the bloody conflicts and confrontations occurring in many parts of the world. True, the world has seen some advance towards the ideal over the years. Destructive armed conflicts of the magnitude of the last two world wars have been avoided and mass persecution and extermination of human beings … have largely ended with concepts of democracy and human rights gaining ascendancy….

Why is this phenomenon of violence and conflict continuing unabated despite the world being inundated with the teachings of great religions and most people seemingly committed to following them…? …What has obviously gone wrong is the way in which the adherents follow the hallowed teachings of their respective religions….

It is no secret that most people tend to ignore or completely deviate from these true values…. Today’s event of the birth of Jesus Christ, no doubt, is a joyful occasion for Christians and the celebration of the event in the appropriate manner is warranted. What is observed however is that the manner in which a large number of people … celebrate … does not conform to the way of life shown by the great religious leader. What Jesus Christ taught the people … is the importance of simplicity and humility and … caring....

But this lesson of simplicity, humility and altruism seems lost in the celebrations most people engage in. Eating, drinking and merry-making they indulge in rob this event of its religious significance. Some of them, no doubt, engage in acts of charity…. But the amount of money they spend on their own food, drinks and merry-making far outweighs … these acts of charity.

How many among them spare even a thought for those who suffer immeasurable agonies in the battlefield? Those who suffer in the theatre of war range from displaced families to soldiers encountering the blows of the inclement weather as well as bullets from terrorist guns. The suffering that the innocent civilians caught up in the crossfire between the security forces and LTTE terrorists undergo and the screams and cries that emanate from their temporary accommodations are lost in the din and revelry of the celebrants….

— (Dec 25)

In quest of truth or power?

THERE is great confusion worldwide as to the significance of religion in one’s life. For instance, does religion urge its followers to engage in a quest for truth or for power? Most middle class and upper-middle class people use religion as an instrument of power instead of seeing it as an instrument in the quest for truth.

If religion signifies that quest it becomes a great boon for humanity; whenever it has been used as a tool of power it has brought war and bloodshed.

All religions have put great emphasis on the truth. The Quran also maintains that all prophets came with the truth from Allah and hence it accepts the validity of earlier prophets’ message though followers may have distorted it later. In the Quran one of Allah’s names is Haq i.e. Truth. All prophets, including the Prophet of Islam (PBUH), were greatly disturbed by the prevailing conditions, especially the moral degradation of the rich and the powerful and their oppression. Through the power of truth they challenged the rich and powerful.

Opposition to Prophet Mohammad also came mainly from the rich and the powerful of Makkah who were highly disturbed by the message of truth, justice and peace and began to persecute him. The Prophet and his followers faced oppression from these quarters but they remained steadfast and determined. They never gave in, and made sacrifices for establishing a just and peaceful society where all could live in freedom and dignity, believing in one God and fearing none but Him. The Prophet and his followers were seriously engaged against injustice in society.

It is for this reason the Quran condemns the accumulation of wealth (chapter 104) and shows great sympathy with orphans, widows, the poor (masakin) and other weaker sections of society (chapter 107). Social dynamics in the Quran consist of a constant struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor (mustad’ifun and mustakbirun) and Allah’s sympathies are of course with mustad’ifun (28:5).

Thus it becomes clear that Islam and the Holy Prophet were never in search for power but in a constant quest for the truth. It is also a fact that the quest for truth makes a person humble and the quest for power makes a person arrogant. A society dominated by the urge for truth will never become a cause for conflict, but a people in search for power can even become Hitler in extreme cases.

Sufis in Islamic history also represent the quest for truth whereas sultans and kings represent that of power. While Sufis attracted the masses and brought about inner peace to many, kings and sultans brought wars and bloodshed. One dynasty of rulers fought the other. Sons fought against fathers, and brother against brother.

Also, ulema who did not align themselves with rulers — like Imam Abu Hanifa and several others — never became an instrument of consolidating a ruler’s power. The Abbasids, for their own reasons, upheld the doctrine of createdness of the Quran (mainly for support from the Mu’tazilites) but ulema like Abu Hanifa refused to endorse the doctrine and were flogged. Imam Hanifa even refused to become the chief qazi, fearing he might be required to support the rulers’ political doctrines which may not have conformed to the teachings of Islam.

Such ulema tried to uphold the truth (haq) because they understood Islam as a quest for the truth, not for power. The sultans shed much blood and even their governors, like Hajjaj bin Yusuf, were notorious for slaughter. He is reported to have killed some 100,000 Muslims and imprisoned more than that number; he also kept some 50,000 women in prison. Yazid got the grandson of the Prophet martyred for the sake of power, whereas the imam remained steadfast in his conviction of the truth. Yazid was on the side of power and Hussain on the side of truth.

Coming to our own times, religion has been often misused in the quest for power by dictators, sheikhs and kings. Even Islamisation became a political tool in the quest for power for rulers like Ziaul Haq. No dictator who talked of Islamisation ever made an effort to usher in a just society, free of oppression and exploitation of the weak, which was the goal of Islam.

The dearest thing to the Prophet of Islam was justice, not power. Even before he became the Prophet he had set up hilf al-fudul (society of the meritorious) to do justice by those who were wronged by the unscrupulous. It was truth and justice, not power, that the Prophet strived for. That was his real jihad; one that never sought power.

Thus establishment of haq, not iqtidar, is the goal of religion.

The writer heads the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.

Europe’s first dark sky park

FROM the car park in the foothills of the Range of the Awful Hand, it is a short walk to what may be the darkest place in the UK. The site is famous among a small group of enthusiasts who come here in the black of night to stand, watch and wonder.

The patch of ground in the imposing row of mountains is surrounded by nearly 500 sq kms of moorland, woods and lochs that form the rugged wilderness of Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland, and in a few weeks, officers at the forest will take steps towards making it Europe’s first official dark sky park.

On a cloudless night, the area offers an unrivalled view of the heavens: a rare chance to see shooting stars and the distant Andromeda galaxy, the aurora borealis and stellar nurseries where suns are born.

Only two other parks in the world, one in Pennsylvania, the other in Utah, have been recognised by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a US-based organisation that seeks to preserve and celebrate the darkest corners of the Earth.

Interest in preserving areas where the glow of the city has yet to encroach on the night sky follows work by the Campaign for Dark Skies, a group set up by the British Astronomical Society in 1989 to highlight the growing issue of light pollution. With increasing urbanisation come better-lit streets, roads and buildings, which send light needlessly up into the sky, obscuring all but the brightest of stars.

“If you go out in an urban street and look up at night, you might see 50, maybe 100 stars at best,” said Keith Muir, recreation officer at Galloway Forest Park. “But come to our park, and when you look up and let your eyes adjust, there are so many stars you can’t count them. You see shooting stars, satellites and the Milky Way, with its billions of stars. You don’t even need a high-powered telescope: a pair of binoculars is brilliant.”

Steven Owens, an astronomer who is coordinating the UK’s involvement in Unesco’s international year of astronomy in 2009 said: “We’ve become a very urban population, and in doing so, we’ve cut ourselves off from experiences people have had for hundreds and thousands of years.

The darkness of the night sky is judged on what is called the Bortle scale, where night-time illumination over London ranks as 10, while that over an oil rig in the Pacific ranks as one. Galloway scores around three on the scale, making its skies the darkest in Europe.

Marek Kukula, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, east London, said designated dark sky parks were needed to put the brakes on the rapidly vanishing natural beauty of the night sky. “This is a part of our heritage that we’re losing,” he said. “If we concreted over the countryside and bulldozed the forests, there would be an outcry, but this has sneaked up on us, and people don’t realise what we are doing. The night sky is an amazing spectacle that 90 per cent of the population doesn’t get to see.”

Next year, astronomers led by Dan Hillier at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh aim to set up partnerships between local parks and astronomers to raise awareness of stargazing across the UK for those without easy access to the more remote corners of the country.

Amateur astronomers recommend using websites and magazines to find out what will be in the sky and when. “You might be able to see Venus and Jupiter on the horizon at sunset. And if you go somewhere perfectly dark and look just beneath the belt of Orion the Hunter, you’ll see a fuzzy blob. It might not look much, but it’s a stellar nursery, where new stars are born,” said Owens.

After midnight on January 3, Britain will have a prime view of the Quadrantid meteor shower, when astronomers expect to see about 100 shooting stars an hour. The streaks of light are caused by the Earth hurtling through giant clouds of dust particles, which burn up in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

— The Guardian, London