11/9 Attacks and ben Laden Killing ; Milestones in Crusades and Jihads

11/9 Attacks and ben Laden Killing ; Milestones in Crusades and Jihads                       

 "America can do whatever we set out mind to," President Obama on killing of Osama ben Laden on May 1, 2011                                   

                            MORE BRUTAL AND RANDOM *                

                                                                                              K. Gajendra Singh

 

Culture and civilisation have not altered the barbaric nature of human beings.  The more it changes the more it remains the same.  And it's the big powers that are responsible for this perverse Genesis

                 An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.  Mahatma Gandhi.

 

 

                 In 1253, when French ambassador William of Rubruck arrived at the court of the

                 Mongol warlord at Karakorum, he was struck by the elaborate security precautions.

 

                 This was because the mighty Khan had heard that no less than 40 assassins in

                 various disguises from the Middle East had been sent to assassinate him.

 

                 In response, the Khan sent one of his brothers with an army to the 'land of

                 assassins' and ordered him to kill them. Hulegu destroyed the assassin bases in

                 Persia and Baybars in Syria.

 

                 Today, the situation in Washington is similar to Karakorum except that the new

                 millennium assassins, relying on their will to die and simple box-cutters, and with

                 many still at large, have created for the first time an abiding aura of terror in

                 American  history. It was not Pearl Harbour in 1941, but it is September 11, 2001,

                 which has actually stunned the US.

 

                 Millions of Muslims live in France, Germany, UK and the US. Some have suffered

                 the backlash, which can be deadly and self-perpetuating. Jehad and crusades have

                 gone on since Islam's birth in the 7th century. But this jehad is universal, it includes

                 Hindus and others. It might end in terrible damage to human civilisation itself.

 

                 Although Europeans had heard of early assassins through crusaders and travelers,

                 they could put together the story only in the 19th century. Not many crusaders were

                 victims, the first being Conrad, King of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Marco Polo,

                 who passed through Persia in 1273, mentioned the fortress in the Alamut valley

                 near the Caspian headquarters of a sect. Enclosed between two mountains, it was

                 like a paradise with gardens of beautiful flowers and fruit trees, streams of water,

                 honey and wine. Beautiful women sang, danced and entertained the guests. When

                 the Alamut Sheikh wanted an enemy to be assassinated, one of the disciples was

                 commissioned. He was given hashish, a 'glimpse' of the paradise, and told that he                  .                could return to the paradise if alive, otherwise he would enter it directly.

 

                 But this was only fertile European imagination, a misconception that still persists in

                 the West. The only motivation was religious fervour and obedience to the Sheikh's

                 cause. The assassins learnt languages, the art of fighting, even posed as Sufis,

                 waited for years, even decades, for the opportunity to knife the target and die —

                 contented. The word 'assassin' perhaps originates from its abusive use in Syria,

                 their stronghold much later, where they were considered wild and fanatic, like

                 narcotic addicts.

 

                 The intolerance bred by 'my god is the only god', followed by 'my true and only'

                 ideology like fascism, Nazism and communism have been used to butcher

                 hundreds of millions over the millennia, around 80 million in 20th century alone.

                 The followers of Buddha, Tao, Confucius, Mahavira, Shamans and Hindus never

                 forced their belief on others. The world now awaits the latest clash.

 

                 Ever since Darwin's theory of evolution, westerners, particularly Anglo-Saxons, put

                 great faith in the survival of the fittest theory. So there was colonisation in the garb

                 of the white man's burden, the brutal elimination of Red Indians on the American

                 continent, organised slavery and the dehumanisation of the blacks in Africa and the

                 US. One wonders if the second atomic bomb against Japan was really necessary.

                 Then came the napalm and chemical bombings in Vietnam.

 

                 Who established the nurseries of terrorism with billions of dollars of arms due to

                 which countries around Afghanistan and beyond still suffer? And who cares for the

                 poor Muslim masses who want to be left in peace but have to pay for the blunders

                 of their leaders in Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Palestine and Iraq?

 

                 The short-term selfish interests of big powers have brought humanity to this stage.

 

                 After the Berlin Wall fell, came globalisation, a distorted version of capitalism, to

                 promote narrow corporate interests of the West, with no accountability to the people

                 who suffer as in South-east Asia. Under this charade, hundreds of billions have

                 been transferred from Russia and East Europe to western banks and institutions,

                 reducing the people to penury. With the Goebbelisation of western media, Leftist

                 and other forms of dissent, are screened off. The exploited, who could earlier

                 sustain hopes in Leftist ideologies, now have fundamentalist ideologies to resort to.

 

                 For the US and its allies, Islamic fundamentalism has become a life and death

                 challenge of the new millennium. Fifty years ago, the Islamic Ummah had started

                 bestirring into violence a structure whose major fault lines cut a wide swathe from

                 Atlantic to China. It is now in full-bloom around Afghanistan and Pakistan, a

                 strategic centre of the Islamic world. Trained by the CIA and ISI, there are now over

                 100,000 jehadis all over the Islamic world, in Kashmir, Albania, Chechnya, Xinjiang

                 (China), Central Asia and elsewhere. They are sustained by heroin exports and

                 smuggling. It's crucial that leaders of all countries must forget their short-term interests                       .                and ponder what has gone  wrong with the human race, and find peaceful solutions. At

                 least to live and let live.

 

                 The writer is a former Indian ambassador to Turkey

 

* From Hindustan Times, New Delhi 3 October, 2001 (Oped page)

 

 

The announcement by US president Barrack Obama that US special forces have finally succeeded in killing Osama ben Laden at Abbottabad, next to Pakistan's military training academy ,has given corporate and government controlled media in US and some other western countries and Australia, another lease of life for Osamamania , with India's copy cat corporate media toeing the US line.

 

Since the author wrote the piece above immediately after September 11, 2001, the situation has become clearer although the leitmotif of crusades vs Jihads was and remains a major affliction between the West and the Muslim world .But it affects the rest of the world directly and indirectly. The latest episode is Euro-US bombing of Muslim Libya for its oil and acquiring a strategic position in south Mediterranean and for expanding Africom operations ,with the unfortunate acquiescence of United Nations Security Council , a legacy of the WWII United Nations military Alliance led by Great Britain and USA against , Germany, Italy, Japan and other states , which was again  a war for control of colonial territories ,their people and resources . What purpose UNSC serve now ! It has become a tool for the powerful and useless for others like the dead League of the Nations.

 

The timing of the Abbottabad operation comes when Obama's ratings for re-election are poor , in spite of no rational Republican opponent . US as an economic power is fast declining , with debt of $ 14 trillion , an annual trade deficit of around $500 billion , surviving on purchase of US treasuries by China , Gulf kingdoms and others .Standards and Poor have threatened to downgrade USA's credit rating of  AAA. It would have been for any other country equivalent of bankruptcy.

 

In the wake of US caught in quagmire in Iraq and an unwinnable war in Afghanistan ,the Arabs have revolted against US supported dictatorships .It is similar to the 1990s revolts in East Europe against Soviet imposed regimes , which finally led to the collapse of USSR itself . Which way the camel will sit in the Arab speaking world will depend on many factors , but the weakening of US hegemony , which had a Faustian deal to protect the Saud Dynasty in exchange for its energy resources and of others in the region is beginning to unravel. Washington and Riyadh have different perceptions and solutions about the outcome of revolts in say , Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain.

 

With Shia Iran thus emerging an even stronger regional power , Saudi Arabia is worried about its own security and future . Apart from a large percentage of its own unemployed youth , who look askance at luxurious lifestyle of the thousands of princes and princelings of the Saud dynasty , Riyadh has to worry about its disgruntled and ill-treated Shia population in its north east , adjoining Shia majority Bahrain and south of Shia south Iraq  .So Riyadh, always close to Islamabad is coming even closer. Many ex soldiers from Pakistan have been recruited for service for Saudi Arabia .Reports suggest that Riyadh has requested Islamabad to keep two Pakistan divisions on alert in case of an emergency .

 

So Osama , of little strategic value now , but who had many supporters in the Gulf region could be sacrificed .It is like taking a fly out of ointment .Both Riyadh and Islamabad want to close the Al Qaeda chapter. But would they succeed .And what about the backlash and blowbacks. Washington has manipulated ben Laden and the threat of Al Qaeda , more often than not as a useful tool for its policies , internal and external. Has there been any Al Qaeda operation in USA since 11/9!

 

As for 11/9 events, right from the beginning there have been suspicions that it was an inside job to provide a pretext to invade Afghanistan , occupy it and use it to threaten Russia and China and use it for transport of energy from central Asia to the Indian ocean. Before 11/9 Taleban leaders were in Texas with oil company UNOCOL in discussions for such a project.

 

Washington used the pretext of  fight against terror to obtain military airbases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan .Tashkent terminated permission to Washington after US tried to oust president Islam Karimov .US is just about hanging on in Kyrgyzstan for ferrying troops and sophisticated equipment for war in Afghanistan  .

 

The US is not only a declining power but a receding power too.

 

US Congress Commission of inquiry into 11/9 was a whitewash job, according to many well informed individuals and groups. Films have been made to prove this point .Even in USA  , there is a growing opinion that it was an inside job. For example , Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth said

 

"The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers' destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials"  

The technical issues surrounding the collapse of the towers has prompted years of debate, rebuttal and ridicule. Gage is particularly disturbed by Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper, which was not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in "pure free-fall acceleration." He also says that more than 100 first-responders reported explosions and flashes as the towers were falling and cited evidence of "multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft. at 60 mph" and the "mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking." There is also evidence of "advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found in the World Trade Center dust," Mr. Gage adds.

 

Amb ( Retd) K.Gajendra Singh 2 May, 2011.

Safe Haven for Ousted Dictators and Kings ; A 1979 ‘Project ‘ with Ousmene Sembene

Safe Haven for Ousted Dictators and Kings ; A 1979 'Project ' with Ousmene Sembene 

So many dictators and rulers are being ousted now, beginning with presidents ben Ali of Tunisia , and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt , with Western powers pushing for regime change in Tripoli and other states which do not bow to Washington ,from Morocco to the border of Iran and the Indian Ocean. It  reminds me of an afternoon ,while sipping coffee with Ousmene Sembene , Africa's legendry film maker and a prolific writer and sensitive trade unionist rolled into one ,at his sprawling residence in Dakar during my posting (1978-81 ) in Senegal (West Africa.) 

In 1979-80 a dethroned Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi  of Iran was running from pillar to post for treatment of his cancer and a safe haven , so in a lighter vein ,we discussed a possible project to provide security , safety , healthcare, entertainment  and other facilities for kings ,dictators and other rulers ousted from their thrones and palaces or self-exiled. Perhaps an exception could be made for top class white collar 'gentlemen' con-artists likely to be or already unveiled for criminal activities. 

The Shah had lost control over Iran after daily protests and serial killings and fled from Tehran in mid January 1979 ,abandoning the fabled Peacock throne. Two weeks later Ayatollah Khomeini returned from Paris to Tehran, and was thunderously greeted by several million Iranians. 

The hollow royal regime structure collapsed quickly on February 11, when revolutionaries and rebel troops overwhelmed troops still loyal to the Shah in armed street warfare. After a national referendum , Iran became an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979, with a new theocratic constitution making Khomeini the Supreme leader of the country in December 1979. It shocked the western world but there was little chance of restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty. The Shah was USA 's gendarme in the region and along with the Saud dynasty ensconced in Riyadh , both protected by Washington to allow Western exploitation of the region's energy resources and keep out the Soviet influence during the height of the Cold War rivalry . USSR had made inroads by helping nationalist and socialist regimes in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

The Shah was looking for medical treatment and a sanctuary to escape Shia revolutionaries determined to take him back to Tehran for trial for the loot and tortures carried out by Iran's  security services ,Savak trained by  CIA, which acquired such notoriety in recent years by creating Gulags at Abughraib, Guantamano, Bagram and torture rendition black holes around the world . 

From Panama where the Shah found himself, following intervention by his erstwhile friends in President Jimmy Carter's administration , he was allowed to enter United states for treatment of lymphatic cancer. But this enraged the revolutionaries in Tehran , who seized the US embassy and demanded the Shah's extradition in exchange for 50 hostages. Washington refused . 

After being refused  sanctuary by his erstwhile friends around the world ,the Shah was eventually given shelter in Egypt by president Anwar Sadat , where the Shah breathed his last on 27 July 1980 ( the US government froze tens of billions of Iranian funds as they have now of Libya. The US government has a black track record of confiscating other people's money while dictators are so accused by western leaders and its corporate media.) 

At that time it was quite common for some African rulers being over thrown , some while on official visits abroad , others while still in their own country .For example , Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was ousted in 1966 while away on an official visit to China  , but Guinea Conakry's president Seiku Toure gave him refuge and made him co-President. 

Of course we did not go into too many details but felt that an entrepreneur would probably buy an isolated island financed by a mafia style conglomerate with ill-gotten wealth and hired guns so common in Africa then .Since the US led illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its brutal occupation , Pentagon , and other agencies now extensively engage mercenaries , even for duties normally performed by GIs. They are in brief outlaws , responsible for brutalities in Iraq and elsewhere and do not figure on the pay rolls as regular soldiers.   

Of course now with a raging revolt across the Arab world , the safe haven proposal needs a fresh look .Until now  many Muslim leaders have been granted sanctuary in Saudi Arabia , like Uganda's Idi Amin and Pakistan's former premier Nawaz Sharif after he was ousted by Gen Parvez Musharraf. Now the General himself is at a loose end and in exile , travelling around from US to London to Dubai. .But what will happen if Saudi Arabia itself gets caught up in turmoil , where Tunisia's former president Ben Ali is now sheltered . 

The Marmara Sea across Istanbul has many islands ; one was used to imprison Turkey's ousted democrat party leaders in the 1960 coup ,two of whom were later hanged . Turkey's political leaders after the 1980 coup were also imprisoned there but none was hanged .Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Marxist Kurdishtan Labour party (PKK) in Turkey has been imprisoned on the Imarli  island since 1999. 

After Iran's 1979 revolution Muslims became unwelcome in USA. Almost any one with a beard in  info-challenged US population, was looked upon with suspicion, as an Iranian ,as a Muslim and dangerous .After  9/11 it has became even worse .Quite often Sikhs , even US citizens have been targeted and even killed . 

While islands near Istanbul in Turkey remain a possibility the proposal for a well guarded private island with its 24/7 security and health and hospitality facilities remains to be seriously revisited , which must not be too far away from land for provisioning food , personnel and other requirements 

Ousmene Sembene 

I was very fortunate to have known and earn friendship of Ousmene Sembene and his family during my stay in Dakar . He was warm, witty and considerate , mostly seen with his curved pipe.

Ousmene made Africa known through his philosophy and ideas via the medium of his realistic films . His fame spread around the world . Before my arrival in Dakar , he had been the chairman of the jury at India's 1977 Film Festival . This provided me an opportunity to meet with him and befriend him .He would sometimes attend my receptions and dinners ,even with his family  which he rarely did elsewhere  .He also opened his residence and hospitality on weekends , where I would meet intellectuals , lawyers , judges , film makers and writers not only from Senegal but from other countries in Africa too. 

Like many genius filmmakers ,Ousmene was his own producer, director, screen writer ,editor and other aspects of film making , rolled into one .Once I sat alongside him .while he discussed various aspects of his next film project with his assistants .It was quite an education . 

Once he took me and my son Tinoo to a typical Senegalese wrestling festival , similar to the ones in India , where first the budding and juniors exhibit their skills .Finally the two top contestants would appear .What a spectacle it was .He explained all the finer points of Senegalese style wrestling , the role of giri-giri , traditional magic , ancient tribal and other rituals , with the two sides trying to call the spirits to aid their combatant and curse the opponent. Giri-giri experts aka Gurus chanted power endowing mantras , tied bands around the arms , neck and the head and sprinkled special libations over the heads of their wrestlers . 

Like many such bouts elsewhere , the main bout after lots of noise , chanting and screams ended rather abruptly. After slapping hands against each other and circling around each other for sometime , the winner adroitly pulled the over extended loser over to his side , who crashed to the ground , a trick often employed in the Japanese Sumo wrestling and is common in  Indian style of wrestling too . While the loser lay pathetically sprawled  ,the victor was taken around the arena as have been gladiators and victors in sports and games throughout history .The noise decibel level was similar to fairs in India and wrestling matches for the Bharat Kesri crown .It was quite a spectacle and shall remain etched in my memory for ever. 

Once when passing by Ousmen's residence one weekday, I decided to drop by .But when I reached the door of his study, I saw him immersed in absolute concentration writing his next novel or short story .He was almost swaying sideways,  up and down like a Hath Guru Yogi in meditation . One look made for my quick disappearing act .I went over to sit with his wife , a beautiful , intelligent and charming Afro-American . 

With Indian films and music being very popular in Senegal ,as almost around the world , now even in north America and West Europe , to introduce friends to the range of Indian music I regularly taped cassettes with music pieces beginning with popular film music , even Asha Bhonsle's rock and roll number , then gradually progress to singers like Mukesh, Rafi, Talat , Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar ;then Akhtar Begum , Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and others , with separate cassettes for Indian classical instrumental music. Once when I told her that Lata was the most popular singer in India and even elsewhere too, she remarked that the other one ( Akhtar Begum ) was better . Some times we even played scrabble .Once when I defeated her twice , she was not very amused . 

Ousmene Sembene , who died in 2007 when 85 years old was born in 1923 in Ziguinchor village in Senegal's southern province of Casamance. Son of a poor fisherman , he was expelled from school for fighting with his French teacher and sent away to his father's family in Dakar. He studied while doing odd jobs and watched films in the evenings .He was conscripted in the French armed forces and during WWII served in France and Niger . 

With little prospects in Senegal , after being demobilized ,Ousmene stowed away to Marseille .He worked as a docker for 10 years until 1960, when Senegal became independent. His first novel Le Docker Noir ( the black docker ) written in 1956 was based on his experience of a dockyard  strike in Marseille. A fiercely proud man, when slighted he fought back and showed me big scars on his back received during fights as a docker .

His second novel was based on the 1947 strike against the French along the Dakar-Niger railway (in which he had taken part). Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God's Bits of Wood) was written in 1960 ;a moving story of women participation and liberation in a historical process. 

After his return to Senegal in 1960 , Sembene  decided that for his message to spread in Africa and elsewhere , he should translate his ideas and stories into films medium to reach a wider audience including rural, often illiterate, public in and outside Africa. He studied at the Gorky film institute in Moscow under Marc Donskoy. His film making career began with two short films ; Borom Sarett (1963), about a taxi driver whose cart was confiscated for entering an exclusive housing estate previously occupied by the French and the new Frenchified African ruling elite . His second film, Niaye (1964), was a denunciation of the hypocrisy of traditional African tribal chiefs. 

After independence ,Senegal like most former French colonies in West Africa was ruled by former French educated local elite , somewhat like the Indian Civil Service members , who with the new French speaking black local elite occupied positions of power .President Sedar Senghor , his French wife , and other senior ministers and civil servants went to France for summer vacations as in the colonial past .Many ministers were provided with efficient pretty French secretaries and French advisers called co-operants ,who really ran the show and protected French economic interests .In spite of best efforts by me and Tata's representative who used to visit Dakar once a year , we could not sell one Tata truck against French Berliot truck domination . In neigbouring Gunea -Conakary , upset with the declared independent policy by president Sekou Toure, the French before handing over power even pulled out electric power and telephone sockets . 

My love for the game of bridge and twice a week bridge tournaments , brought me in contact with French and local Frenchified ruling elite in business , trading and at the university , which I found very useful in my diplomatic work .Later in 1987-89 , when I told newly recruited Indian diplomats at the Indian Foreign Service Institute , I was establishing in New Delhi ,that bridge could be a useful tool , as playing golf was in east Asia, for establishing contacts and friendship with local power elite and avoid hitting the bottle in capitals with little work , my seniors in the External affairs ministry were far from amused . 

Coming back to Sembene, his first feature film , La Noire de... (Black Girl) made in 1966 , was the first ever feature produced and directed by an African. Shot in black and white, it is a searing account of the isolation of a young black domestic servant working in Antibes. Indians would not make a film on Indian maids working in the Gulf under similar conditions. 

"For us, African film-makers, it was then necessary to become political, to become involved in a struggle against all the ills of man's cupidity, envy, individualism, the nouveau-riche mentality, and all the things we have inherited from the colonial and neo-colonial systems," Sembène stated.( I recall some local nouveau-riche  proclaiming at their dinner that their salad was imported from Marseilles. There are similar stories among India's crass and vulgar nouveau-riche too) 

The 'Black Girl; was followed in 1968, by the international success Mandabi (The Money Order) based on his novel Le Mandat (1966) which narrates the residual ill effects in post-colonial Africa on the lives of ordinary people. Shot in two versions - French and Wolof, the main language of Senegal - it won a special jury prize in Venice. 

Sembène's films and writings were always aimed for the Senegalese public ("Africa is my audience, the west and the rest are markets") They were imbued by his politics and his understanding of the contradictions of a rapidly transforming continent. Emitai (1971) confronts the problems and legacy of French military conscription in Senegal. His film Xala (1974) based on his 1973 novel uses xala, the ancient Senegalese curse, which renders a smug westernised black bourgeois businessman impotent on the day of his wedding to his third wife. It is a metaphor for the adoption of western values and processes . In Ceddo (1976) Sembène brings out the confrontation between African traditions and Christian and Muslim efforts to impose their mores . It refers to the African collusion in supplying slaves to the European slavers . The film was banned by the Senegal government for some years. Sembene gave me signed copies of his books Xala and God's Bits of Wood. 

Perhaps his greatest film' Camp de Thiaroye '(1988), was based on Senegalese soldiers return from Nazi prisoner-of-war camps .When the soldiers revolt at the drastic cuts in their severance pay , the French army attacks the camp with tanks leaving few alive. It is a complex and searing condemnation of colonialism based on true history, and was banned in France until late 1990s, although it had won the jury special grand prize in Venice. In Guelwaar (1992) erroneous burial of a radical Catholic priest in a Muslim cemetery leads to mayhem. L'Héroïsme au Quotidien (1999) describes the heroism of African women in their struggle against subjugation: Faat Kiné (2000) has a single mother with two children and two ex-husbands balancing tribal customs, male prejudice and contemporary aspirations, while Moolaadé (2002), shot in Burkino Faso when he was 82, is an unambiguous condemnation of female circumcision .Aimed at all African audiences, it won the Certain Regard prize in Cannes in 2004. 

Sembène's main themes were  ; colonialism, tradition, capitalism, patriarchy, religion – portrayed use and misuse of power, whether by whites or blacks. His work is not about Africa against the west but also of Africa discovering itself in an ever-changing world. He sought to speak to "all those exploited and silenced by the combined external forces of colonialism and the internal yoke of African 'traditions'." 

 ( 24 April. 22011, Delhi) 

K Gajendra Singh served as ambassador of India to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. Apart from postings in Dakar, Paris, Bucharest , the author spent his diplomatic career in North Africa , Middle east and Turkic countries ( ten years in Turkey in two tenures ). 

He spent 1976 with National Defence college , New Delhi , established the Foreign Service Institute for training of diplomats ( 1987-89), was chairman / managing director of IDPL , India's largest Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company ( 1985  and 1986 ) and while posted at Amman( 1989-92) evacuated nearly 140,000 Indian nationals who had come from Kuwait. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.

 

Veil Ban in France ; A Symptom of Growing Christian -Muslim Chasm, Post 119

Veil Ban in France ; A Symptom of Growing Christian -Muslim Chasm ,Post 119

In Turkey ; A Tug of War between Secular and Islamising Elites 

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité – unless, of course, you would like to wear a burqa," a headline in the Guardian 

 "If the French were not so cowardly – and transparent– they would actually outlaw the burqa and the niqab by name –not coyly banning 'the covering of the face'. Viv Groskop in the Guardian .         [ What about going to a fancy dress party dressed as a Spider woman ,Cat woman or as Zorro or in a ski mask!] 

" The burqa laws will be infinitely hard to enforce, and will be infinitely little enforced." Emmanuel Roux , deputy chief of the French police union, Paris. 

"Some people think of the veil as erotic and romantic, others perceive it as a symbol of oppression, still others consider it a sign of piety, modesty or purity. It has become so ubiquitous that everyone seems to have formed an opinion about it. The various connotations it has, the many emotions it arouses, testify to its continuing, perhaps even growing, significance in the modern world."

- Dr Faegheh Shirazi, an Iranian professor at the University of Texas, Austin   

"Although the custom of covering women with head scarves is now generally associated with Islamic societies, the practice predates Islamic culture by many millennia. Veiling and seclusion were marks of prestige and status symbols in the Assyrian, Greco-Roman and Byzantine empires, as well as in Sasanian Iran. The Muslim Umayyads copied it from the Byzantines in Damascus, which they took over lock stock and barrel. According to one tradition, the Prophet Mohammad's wife Aisha did not veil her face. Generally, there was greater freedom for women among nomadic Arabs, Turks and Mongols before Islam." The author in http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI16Ak01.html

 

Note; Less than 2,000 women of France's 5 million Muslims ( in France's total population of over 62 million) are thought to wear the full-length veil. Many seen in Paris are Saudi tourists riding in limousines from luxury hotels to the expensive boutiques on Champ d'Elysee ,Place Vendome or in Galeries Lafayette. 

On Monday, 11 April ,2011 ,two veiled or burqa-wearing women were arrested outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris , not for wearing a burqa/veil but for disturbing the peace in protest about the burqa law . One face-covered woman arrested is a convert named Kenza Drider, who took a train in the morning from Avignon to protest in Paris, accompanied by numerous journalists. 

It was the first day of enforcing a nine-page police circular or anti-burqa law ie new rules against wearing a face-hiding garment in public. It carries a fine of Euros 150 for offenders .It remains to be seen how strictly this law will be implemented. 

The law stipulates that husbands found forcing their wives to wear the burqa in public be fined sums ranging from 30,000 to 60,000 Euros. The police circulars spell out the methods of arrest. If on demand from the police a covered woman does not remove her veil for an identity check, she risks a fine, or, alternatively, a citizenship training course. Police then tell the woman that she can be taken to a police station to check her identity. If she still refuses, the police are advised to summon a magistrate, the French equivalent of a US district attorney. 

The law was enacted last Oct. 11 after a rancorous and divisive debate with opposition from lawmakers on both the French left and the right. The left described it as the dehumanization of women; the right claimed it dealt a sign of lack of cultural assimilation and possible security related problems by those wearing a face-covering mask. But the law demanded that the citizens should show their faces as a matter of French values of openness The burqa law is being enforced after 14 months of heated political debate and a 6 months grace period . 

It also came into effect a week after a "national debate" on Islam and secularism in France led by the ruling party of President Nicolas Sarkozy .But even the prime minister and many leading lights of his party dissented or refused to participate. France's main religious groups had declared on March 31 in a blunt joint letter that the debate threatened to "stigmatize" Muslims and one of the world's major faiths.  

Many believe that the new "law is part of a new right-leaning symbolic political language in France and elsewhere in Europe that appeals to mainstream voters – underlining that a traditional sense of European identity and culture applies to all members of society, including larger numbers of Muslims" according to Christian Science Monitor . 

Viv Groskop in the Guardian quoted Jean-Francois Copé, leader of Sarkozy's UMP party, that the ban has the support of 74% of the population. But if one reads the comment on French news websites, France is divided. Granted, many support the ban. But as one commentator writes: "This is France. Live by French laws." But equal numbers voice the idea that this ban violates "the basic French principle of liberty". 

Christopher Hitchens believes that many of Europe's so-called "multi-cultural authorities" treat the most militant voices amongst Muslim communities as the de facto voices of the entire community – thereby alienating the moderates, who are almost always in the majority. But it seems that Sarkozy, in his fierce defense of French-style secularism against the "unstoppable" encroachments of Islam, is not simply being politically expedient? As so many commentators have said that the Sarcozy 's new law is primarily  a political maneuver to appease France's resurgent Right and improve his standing in the polls ( very low now) before the 2012 elections. 

Hitchens concludes that the "Islamist threat itself may be crude, but this is an intricate cultural and political challenge that will absorb all of our energies for the rest of our lives: we are all responsible for doing our utmost as citizens as well as for demanding more imagination from our leaders." 

[ Many political analysts on international affairs believe that Saracozy took the lead in promoting the so called 'humanitarian intervention ' in Libya , for a Crusade like Euro-US led NATO bombing of Libya, to improve his re-election chances . Apart from getting a pie along with US and some EU states of the oil resources in west Libya under the wobbly and fluctuating control of ragtag groups of rebels, Al Qaeda types and opportunists .Paris was the first to recognize the unknown and undefined rebels outfit .The results for both the cases might be just the opposite]

 Memories of Crusades and Jihads

Crusades and Jihads are engraved in the historic memories of Europe and the Islamic world in the Middle East and north Africa .Till 17^th century Ottomans arms were knocking at the Gates of Vienna , an event repeatedly recalled by political parties in Europe to keep Turkey out of the Europe Union , even by French leaders. While south European countries have populations from their former colonies in north Africa , millions of poor Turks were invited by Germany in 1960s and 70s to fill the shortage of labour for its booming economy .Thus a complex relationship exists between Christians and Muslims in Europe and neighbouring Muslim countries .Following 911 events , and the US led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have poisoned the relations between the two religions .Now comes US-Euro led Nato bombing of Libya .This situations has been made more complicated with the economic decline and even bankrupting of most European economies , making EU a fortress and insecure and inimical to all immigrants specially Muslims .

  Religious worship places , holy books ,other symbols and rituals have brought out the differences between Islam and Christianity .Scientific socialism in USSR and east Europe had kept the monster of religious extremism dormant , but following the Fall of the Berlin Wall and US led rampant policies against or without UNSC approval to control Muslim lands and its energy resources , training upto even a hundred thousand Muslim extremists like Al Qaeda ,Taleban and other Jihadis have provided the Muslims a tool to fight the West and for the US regimes far away to use it as a pretext for violating international law abroad and national law at home . The simmering tensions between Christianity and Islam in Europe and later in USA itself are likely to get worse and could easily explode . 

Apart from differences and tensions caused over building of new mosques , respect for Quran and Prophet Mohammad and dispute over symbols , countries across Europe have wrestled with the issue of the Muslim veil - in various forms such as the body-covering burka and Hijab/Naqab which covers the face apart from the eyes. In recent history, the veil or hijab has been used to make political statements, even in Muslim countries such as Algeria, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. 

2004 French ban on Muslim head scarves and other religious symbols in France 

 A ban on Muslim headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious symbols at state schools was introduced in 2004, and received overwhelming political and public support in a country where the separation of state and religion is enshrined in law. But after a lot of drama including abduction of French journalists by militants in Iraq to upturn the proposed ban. And despite the hostage crisis, France enforced the law banning Islamic head scarves and other religious symbols from public schools. It was generally peacefully implemented, with a nationwide show of unity including Muslims, against the militants' demands. The head scarf is normally worn in schools, especially in poorer areas, by Muslim girls. Many Sikh students wearing patka (head scarves) were also not allowed to enter classes in Paris on September 2. Sikh community leaders took up the matter with the authorities. This was even discussed with President Sarcozy when he visited India early last year . 

The law to ban head scarves was enacted following a December, 2003 report on church-state relations in France, which recommended a ban on "conspicuous" religious symbols in public schools, including head scarves worn by Muslim girls, yarmulkes worn by Jewish boys and large crosses worn by Christians. The report, which suggested other measures to reiterate France's fiercely secular constitution, was written by a 20-member commission made up of religious leaders, teachers, politicians and sociologists. It said that the 1905 law that codified the strict separation of church and state was no longer adequate given the cultural and religious composition of present-day France. The report charged, for example, that organized groups were testing the secular French state by demands on public services in the name of religion and pressuring Muslims to identify first with their faith and then with their citizenship.

A ruling in 1989 by France's Council of State that religious symbols could not be worn in public schools if they constituted "an act of intimidation, provocation, proselytizing or propaganda, threatened health, security or the freedom of others, or disturbed order" was modified three years later, leaving much discretion to the schools.

Veil and other EU countries 

According to a BBC report , complied on the banning of the veil in Europe ,the lower house of Belgium's parliament has already passed a bill to ban clothing that hides a person's identity in public places but the bill still needs approval in the Senate. It has broad cross-party support, though the Greens oppose it. The law would outlaw the use of garments such as the hijab and the burka. Currently, the burka is banned in several districts under old local laws originally designed to stop people masking their faces completely at carnival time. In Antwerp, for example, police can now reprimand, or even imprison, offenders. 

Though no national ban exists in Spain, the city of Barcelona has announced a ban on full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and libraries. So it is

in two smaller towns in Catalonia to ban any head-wear that impeded identification, including motorbike helmets and balaclavas, rather than religious belief. 

There is no ban on Islamic dress in the UK, but schools are allowed to prescribe their own dress code after a 2007 directive which followed several high-profile court cases. In 2006, the Dutch considered but gave up plans to impose ban on all forms of coverings that obscured the face - from burkas to crash helmets with visors - in public places, saying they disturbed public order and safety. It was felt  unconstitutional and violated civil rights. Around 5% of the Netherlands' 16 million residents are Muslims, but only around 300 are thought to wear the burka. 

Veil in Turkey 

At the other end of the European continent, secular Turkey has been down the road of banning religious dress. Ottoman and Islamic dresses, including head scarves, have been forbidden in public places since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Ataturk abolished the caliphate, closed religious seminaries, converted the Mosque Aaya Sofya into a museum, banned Islamic dress, including the Turkish fez, veil or hijab, including the head scarf.

Opposition to the ban, earlier led by a small minority, is now being spearheaded by the ruling Islamising Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power since November, 2002 .It is a serious cause of simmering tensions , sometimes reaching boiling point between the ruling party and the secular elite led by the judiciary, armed forces and intelligencia .

While in France it is basically a Muslim minority which is against the ban, in Turkey perhaps a majority (led by the male population, other than in the big cities) might favor head scarves. While Ataturk might have put the Turks in trousers and jackets, the thinking, especially in the countryside, is still conservative.

After the election of AKP foreign minister Abdullah Gul as the first ever Islamist president of the Turkish republic in 2007 , the government annulled the ban on Muslim hijab/turban in public places in February ,2008 .

Lifting of Ban Annulled

On 5 June 2008, Turkey's Constitutional Court annulled the parliament's proposed amendment to lift the headscarf ban, ruling that removing the ban was against the founding principles of the constitution. The highest court's decision to uphold the headscarf ban cannot be appealed. But the wives of AKP leaders wear turbans or scarves covering their heads .

At the banquet for Abdullah Gul in New Delhi in February , 2010 , the wives of the AKP leaders and the ladies accompanying them had their heads covered except a few ( They were from the security )

Delhi ,13 April, 2011 

K Gajendra Singh served as ambassador of India to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. Apart from postings in Dakar, Paris, Bucharest , the author spent his diplomatic career in North Africa , Middle east and Turkic countries ( ten years in Turkey in two tenures ).He spent 1976 with National Defence college , New Delhi , established the Foreign Service Institute for training of diplomats ( 1987-89), was chairman / managing director of IDPL , India's largest Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company ( 1985  and 1986 ) and while posted at Amman( 1989-92) evacuated nearly 140,000 Indian nationals who had come from Kuwait. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.

 

 

Veil Ban in France ; A Symptom of Growing Christian -Muslim Chasm, Post 119

Veil Ban in France ; A Symptom of Growing Christian -Muslim Chasm ,Post 119

In Turkey ; A Tug of War between Secular and Islamising Elites 

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité – unless, of course, you would like to wear a burqa," a headline in the Guardian 

 "If the French were not so cowardly – and transparent– they would actually outlaw the burqa and the niqab by name –not coyly banning 'the covering of the face'. Viv Groskop in the Guardian .         [ What about going to a fancy dress party dressed as a Spider woman ,Cat woman or as Zorro or in a ski mask!] 

" The burqa laws will be infinitely hard to enforce, and will be infinitely little enforced." Emmanuel Roux , deputy chief of the French police union, Paris. 

"Some people think of the veil as erotic and romantic, others perceive it as a symbol of oppression, still others consider it a sign of piety, modesty or purity. It has become so ubiquitous that everyone seems to have formed an opinion about it. The various connotations it has, the many emotions it arouses, testify to its continuing, perhaps even growing, significance in the modern world."

- Dr Faegheh Shirazi, an Iranian professor at the University of Texas, Austin   

"Although the custom of covering women with head scarves is now generally associated with Islamic societies, the practice predates Islamic culture by many millennia. Veiling and seclusion were marks of prestige and status symbols in the Assyrian, Greco-Roman and Byzantine empires, as well as in Sasanian Iran. The Muslim Umayyads copied it from the Byzantines in Damascus, which they took over lock stock and barrel. According to one tradition, the Prophet Mohammad's wife Aisha did not veil her face. Generally, there was greater freedom for women among nomadic Arabs, Turks and Mongols before Islam." The author in http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI16Ak01.html

 

Note; Less than 2,000 women of France's 5 million Muslims ( in France's total population of over 62 million) are thought to wear the full-length veil. Many seen in Paris are Saudi tourists riding in limousines from luxury hotels to the expensive boutiques on Champ d'Elysee ,Place Vendome or in Galeries Lafayette. 

On Monday, 11 April ,2011 ,two veiled or burqa-wearing women were arrested outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris , not for wearing a burqa/veil but for disturbing the peace in protest about the burqa law . One face-covered woman arrested is a convert named Kenza Drider, who took a train in the morning from Avignon to protest in Paris, accompanied by numerous journalists. 

It was the first day of enforcing a nine-page police circular or anti-burqa law ie new rules against wearing a face-hiding garment in public. It carries a fine of Euros 150 for offenders .It remains to be seen how strictly this law will be implemented. 

The law stipulates that husbands found forcing their wives to wear the burqa in public be fined sums ranging from 30,000 to 60,000 Euros. The police circulars spell out the methods of arrest. If on demand from the police a covered woman does not remove her veil for an identity check, she risks a fine, or, alternatively, a citizenship training course. Police then tell the woman that she can be taken to a police station to check her identity. If she still refuses, the police are advised to summon a magistrate, the French equivalent of a US district attorney. 

The law was enacted last Oct. 11 after a rancorous and divisive debate with opposition from lawmakers on both the French left and the right. The left described it as the dehumanization of women; the right claimed it dealt a sign of lack of cultural assimilation and possible security related problems by those wearing a face-covering mask. But the law demanded that the citizens should show their faces as a matter of French values of openness The burqa law is being enforced after 14 months of heated political debate and a 6 months grace period . 

It also came into effect a week after a "national debate" on Islam and secularism in France led by the ruling party of President Nicolas Sarkozy .But even the prime minister and many leading lights of his party dissented or refused to participate. France's main religious groups had declared on March 31 in a blunt joint letter that the debate threatened to "stigmatize" Muslims and one of the world's major faiths.  

Many believe that the new "law is part of a new right-leaning symbolic political language in France and elsewhere in Europe that appeals to mainstream voters – underlining that a traditional sense of European identity and culture applies to all members of society, including larger numbers of Muslims" according to Christian Science Monitor . 

Viv Groskop in the Guardian quoted Jean-Francois Copé, leader of Sarkozy's UMP party, that the ban has the support of 74% of the population. But if one reads the comment on French news websites, France is divided. Granted, many support the ban. But as one commentator writes: "This is France. Live by French laws." But equal numbers voice the idea that this ban violates "the basic French principle of liberty". 

Christopher Hitchens believes that many of Europe's so-called "multi-cultural authorities" treat the most militant voices amongst Muslim communities as the de facto voices of the entire community – thereby alienating the moderates, who are almost always in the majority. But it seems that Sarkozy, in his fierce defense of French-style secularism against the "unstoppable" encroachments of Islam, is not simply being politically expedient? As so many commentators have said that the Sarcozy 's new law is primarily  a political maneuver to appease France's resurgent Right and improve his standing in the polls ( very low now) before the 2012 elections. 

Hitchens concludes that the "Islamist threat itself may be crude, but this is an intricate cultural and political challenge that will absorb all of our energies for the rest of our lives: we are all responsible for doing our utmost as citizens as well as for demanding more imagination from our leaders." 

[ Many political analysts on international affairs believe that Saracozy took the lead in promoting the so called 'humanitarian intervention ' in Libya , for a Crusade like Euro-US led NATO bombing of Libya, to improve his re-election chances . Apart from getting a pie along with US and some EU states of the oil resources in west Libya under the wobbly and fluctuating control of ragtag groups of rebels, Al Qaeda types and opportunists .Paris was the first to recognize the unknown and undefined rebels outfit .The results for both the cases might be just the opposite]

 Memories of Crusades and Jihads

Crusades and Jihads are engraved in the historic memories of Europe and the Islamic world in the Middle East and north Africa .Till 17^th century Ottomans arms were knocking at the Gates of Vienna , an event repeatedly recalled by political parties in Europe to keep Turkey out of the Europe Union , even by French leaders. While south European countries have populations from their former colonies in north Africa , millions of poor Turks were invited by Germany in 1960s and 70s to fill the shortage of labour for its booming economy .Thus a complex relationship exists between Christians and Muslims in Europe and neighbouring Muslim countries .Following 911 events , and the US led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have poisoned the relations between the two religions .Now comes US-Euro led Nato bombing of Libya .This situations has been made more complicated with the economic decline and even bankrupting of most European economies , making EU a fortress and insecure and inimical to all immigrants specially Muslims .

  Religious worship places , holy books ,other symbols and rituals have brought out the differences between Islam and Christianity .Scientific socialism in USSR and east Europe had kept the monster of religious extremism dormant , but following the Fall of the Berlin Wall and US led rampant policies against or without UNSC approval to control Muslim lands and its energy resources , training upto even a hundred thousand Muslim extremists like Al Qaeda ,Taleban and other Jihadis have provided the Muslims a tool to fight the West and for the US regimes far away to use it as a pretext for violating international law abroad and national law at home . The simmering tensions between Christianity and Islam in Europe and later in USA itself are likely to get worse and could easily explode . 

Apart from differences and tensions caused over building of new mosques , respect for Quran and Prophet Mohammad and dispute over symbols , countries across Europe have wrestled with the issue of the Muslim veil - in various forms such as the body-covering burka and Hijab/Naqab which covers the face apart from the eyes. In recent history, the veil or hijab has been used to make political statements, even in Muslim countries such as Algeria, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. 

2004 French ban on Muslim head scarves and other religious symbols in France 

 A ban on Muslim headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious symbols at state schools was introduced in 2004, and received overwhelming political and public support in a country where the separation of state and religion is enshrined in law. But after a lot of drama including abduction of French journalists by militants in Iraq to upturn the proposed ban. And despite the hostage crisis, France enforced the law banning Islamic head scarves and other religious symbols from public schools. It was generally peacefully implemented, with a nationwide show of unity including Muslims, against the militants' demands. The head scarf is normally worn in schools, especially in poorer areas, by Muslim girls. Many Sikh students wearing patka (head scarves) were also not allowed to enter classes in Paris on September 2. Sikh community leaders took up the matter with the authorities. This was even discussed with President Sarcozy when he visited India early last year . 

The law to ban head scarves was enacted following a December, 2003 report on church-state relations in France, which recommended a ban on "conspicuous" religious symbols in public schools, including head scarves worn by Muslim girls, yarmulkes worn by Jewish boys and large crosses worn by Christians. The report, which suggested other measures to reiterate France's fiercely secular constitution, was written by a 20-member commission made up of religious leaders, teachers, politicians and sociologists. It said that the 1905 law that codified the strict separation of church and state was no longer adequate given the cultural and religious composition of present-day France. The report charged, for example, that organized groups were testing the secular French state by demands on public services in the name of religion and pressuring Muslims to identify first with their faith and then with their citizenship.

A ruling in 1989 by France's Council of State that religious symbols could not be worn in public schools if they constituted "an act of intimidation, provocation, proselytizing or propaganda, threatened health, security or the freedom of others, or disturbed order" was modified three years later, leaving much discretion to the schools.

Veil and other EU countries 

According to a BBC report , complied on the banning of the veil in Europe ,the lower house of Belgium's parliament has already passed a bill to ban clothing that hides a person's identity in public places but the bill still needs approval in the Senate. It has broad cross-party support, though the Greens oppose it. The law would outlaw the use of garments such as the hijab and the burka. Currently, the burka is banned in several districts under old local laws originally designed to stop people masking their faces completely at carnival time. In Antwerp, for example, police can now reprimand, or even imprison, offenders. 

Though no national ban exists in Spain, the city of Barcelona has announced a ban on full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and libraries. So it is

in two smaller towns in Catalonia to ban any head-wear that impeded identification, including motorbike helmets and balaclavas, rather than religious belief. 

There is no ban on Islamic dress in the UK, but schools are allowed to prescribe their own dress code after a 2007 directive which followed several high-profile court cases. In 2006, the Dutch considered but gave up plans to impose ban on all forms of coverings that obscured the face - from burkas to crash helmets with visors - in public places, saying they disturbed public order and safety. It was felt  unconstitutional and violated civil rights. Around 5% of the Netherlands' 16 million residents are Muslims, but only around 300 are thought to wear the burka. 

Veil in Turkey 

At the other end of the European continent, secular Turkey has been down the road of banning religious dress. Ottoman and Islamic dresses, including head scarves, have been forbidden in public places since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Ataturk abolished the caliphate, closed religious seminaries, converted the Mosque Aaya Sofya into a museum, banned Islamic dress, including the Turkish fez, veil or hijab, including the head scarf.

Opposition to the ban, earlier led by a small minority, is now being spearheaded by the ruling Islamising Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power since November, 2002 .It is a serious cause of simmering tensions , sometimes reaching boiling point between the ruling party and the secular elite led by the judiciary, armed forces and intelligencia .

While in France it is basically a Muslim minority which is against the ban, in Turkey perhaps a majority (led by the male population, other than in the big cities) might favor head scarves. While Ataturk might have put the Turks in trousers and jackets, the thinking, especially in the countryside, is still conservative.

After the election of AKP foreign minister Abdullah Gul as the first ever Islamist president of the Turkish republic in 2007 , the government annulled the ban on Muslim hijab/turban in public places in February ,2008 .

Lifting of Ban Annulled

On 5 June 2008, Turkey's Constitutional Court annulled the parliament's proposed amendment to lift the headscarf ban, ruling that removing the ban was against the founding principles of the constitution. The highest court's decision to uphold the headscarf ban cannot be appealed. But the wives of AKP leaders wear turbans or scarves covering their heads .

At the banquet for Abdullah Gul in New Delhi in February , 2010 , the wives of the AKP leaders and the ladies accompanying them had their heads covered except a few ( They were from the security )

Delhi ,13 April, 2011 

K Gajendra Singh served as ambassador of India to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. Apart from postings in Dakar, Paris, Bucharest , the author spent his diplomatic career in North Africa , Middle east and Turkic countries ( ten years in Turkey in two tenures ).He spent 1976 with National Defence college , New Delhi , established the Foreign Service Institute for training of diplomats ( 1987-89), was chairman / managing director of IDPL , India's largest Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company ( 1985  and 1986 ) and while posted at Amman( 1989-92) evacuated nearly 140,000 Indian nationals who had come from Kuwait. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.