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A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) www.asiapeace.org

Editors: Pritam K. Rohila & Azam Saeed

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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN (Volume IV, No. 6, June 5, 2002 (Next issue, July 3, 2002)

India And Pakistan: Ensuring Peace & Avoiding War

CONTENTS

Something To Think About

Prayer

World Peace Is Becoming A Reality – One Heart At A Time

Editorial

India And Pakistan: Ensuring Peace & Avoiding War - A Proposal, Pritam K. Rohila

Peace & Harmony News

Peace & Harmony Organizations

The Coalition For Nuclear Disarmament And Peace (Cndp)

Legal Awareness Watch

Jana Natya Manch

Feature

A Show Of Faith, By Meera Nair, The New York Times Magazine, April 28, 2002

Letters & Opinions

A War With No Winners, Dr I A Shibli, Pakistanis for Peace & Alternative Deevelopment

Reining In The Extremists In India And Pakistan, By Dharmendra Vahalia

The Time To Stop This Insanity And Mutually Assured Destruction Is Now, Naeem Sadiq

Basic Social And Sexual Ethics Of Islam, Dr. Ausaf Ali

Aging

Books & Magazines

Monthly Qalandar

Unholy War: Terror In The Name Of Islam, By John Esposito

Beyond Hindu And Muslim-Multiple Identity In Narratives From Village India, By P Gottschalk

Conflict Unending, By Sumit Ganguly

Five Past Midnight In Bhopal, By Dominique Lapierre

Children

Courses

August 19-23, New York, Usa: Designing & Implementing Interventions For Global

Change

Events

November15-17, New Delhi, India: Masihi Mahotsav

Environment & Health

Gujarat

Poetry

Kindness, By Ambalal Rawal Acrawal@Aol.Com

REPORTS & ANALYSES

(For a copy send a blank email to pritamr@open.org with its subject as the UPPERCASE word in the article title. Please limit your request to 3 articles)

India

MYTHS About Muslims And The Gujrat Carnage, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Secular Perspective May 16 - 31, 2002

India-Pak Relations

The PEON has the nuke trigger, By A Barman, Times News Network, May 22, 2002

BRINKMANSHIP in South Asia, Editorial, The New York Times, 22 May 2002

Lighting The Nuclear FIRE, By Pervez Hoodbhoy, May 28, 2002

Nuclear SHADOW falls on Kashmir, By Z Ahmad, San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 02

India and Pakistan on the ROAD to ruin, By C. R Reddy The Hindu, May 25, 2002

Three million would die in "LIMITED" nuclear war over Kashmir, By Rob Edwards,

NewScientist.com news service, 24 May 02

TRIANGLE of Tension: India, Pakistan and the United States, Stratfor.com, 28 May 2002

SILK Road: Celebrating collective suicide, By Anwar Iqbal, May 20, 2002

India- Pakistan: Still on the BRINK - why? By M B Naqvi, 20 May 2002

India-Pakistan: Four Years After POKHARAN, By Praful Bidwai,

PLUNGING Into A Diversionary War, By I.K.Shukla, AsiaPeace, May 22, 2002

Blackout at NOON, Ashok Kapur The Hindustan Times, May 22, 2002

Kashmir

Baltistan 52 Years of AGONY, By Mohammad Hasnain Sengge Thsering

Hazrat BULBUL Shah:The First Muslim Missionary in Kashmir, By Y Sikand, Qalandar

CEASEFIRE, By Ajaz-ul-Haque, 5 May 2002

Will Hizb expulsions affect new TREND in Kashmir? KT News Service, 07 May 02

Hizbul doves decide to float a new FLOCK, A Khushu & P Dutta, Indian Express, 05.07.02

HURRIYAT torpedos ISI gameplan

DEATH of separatist is a triumph for hardliners, By P Popham, The Independent, 22 May

Kashmir-Lone’s Murder

Mr LONE paid the price in the murky politics of Kashmir, By Rajyasri Rao, 22 May 2002

From DUBAI to Death, By Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani info@jkchr.fsnet.co.uk, 23 May 2002

Kashmiris REJECT War In Favour Of Democratic Means, MORI, 31 May 2002

What The Kashmiris WANT. Outlook India, June 01, 2002

Pakistan

Address By General Pervez MUSHARRAF To The Pakistani Nation

Pakistan's misplaced EDUCATION priorities , By Dr Riffat Hassan & Others, 05.03.02

MISREADING Musharraf, By Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, May 23, 2002

Religion

POLYGAMY in Islam-Concept & Practice, By Asghar Ali Engineer, Islam & Modern Age, May 2002

SUFI Shrines of Ayodhya, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Monthly Qalandar

______________________________________________________________________

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

*Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate – Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965)

*...when scholarship becomes the weapon of politics, mobs become the historians, spears become quills and the pages of history run with blood -Shankar Vedantam

*The Qur’an declared then, more than fourteen hundred years ago, the importance of plurality and taught respect for all the prophets and religious guides, hadis. In fact the Qur’an says that if Allah desired he could have created one ummah, one religious community but he created plurality in order to test us whether we can live in peace with each other. (5:48) The Qur’an, while doing away with all differences of caste, creed and colour emphasised the message of istibaq al-khayrat i.e. vie one with the other in virtuous deeds rather than quarrel about superiority of one's own faith.

PRAYER

*World peace is becoming a reality – one heart at a time, Daily Word 05.05.02, www. Unityworldhq.org

Watching the news or reading about current events, I may question how peace in the world could ever be achieved. Yet I know that the answer is this: through one heart at a time. So I add to the peace of the world with my own thoughts and actions and with my prayers.

“Dear God, I pray that all people realize that there is tremendous power in gentleness. Showing reverence for the sacredness of one another, the people of the world will ive together in peace.

“ I pray that the leaders of the world listen – truly listen – to one another and are committed to learning from each other. Then they will be peacemakers.”

As I paray for world peace, I am affirming that through the love of God, the people of all nations will live on planet Earth in fellowship and with understanding.

EDITORIAL

India And Pakistan: Ensuring Peace & Avoiding War - A Proposal

Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.

Dark clouds of yet another war between India and Pakistan gathering rapidly over the horizon.

Pakistani hawks are seeking an opportunity to regain the lost glory of the Mughals. Hindu hawks think they are facing another Dharamyudh, another Mahabharata. Each side wants to teach the other side a lesson, once for all.

With nuclear weapons in their arsenals, this war will probably be the worst ever. Regardless of who starts it, or who wins it, not many Indians, Pakistanis or Kashmiris are likely to survive. There will be vast areas of utter desolation, from which it will take centuries to recover.

The successive governments of India and Pakistan have failed to reconcile their differences over the last 55 years. What we need now is not another war, but a people’s effort to achieve a comprehensive, fair and just settlement of all bilateral issues between India and Pakistan.

Time is now, for anyone who claims to aspires for peace in the region to prove for what (s)he really stands. Just words won’t be enough, (s)he will have to act on them with all the strength (s)he has. After the war, regrets about (s)he did or did not do will not help him/her get over his/her guilt.

Therefore, the Association for Communal Harmony is Asia offers the following proposal, and request your help in building a consensus among the peace loving people of and from India and Pakistan. Please circulate it among your friends and associates.

The Draft of a Comprehensive Agreement Between India and Pakistan

(All parties must accept all parts)

1. Creation within one year of the following five autonomous regions, with their foreign affairs to be conducted by the governments of Pakistan or India as indicated below.

Azad Kashmir (P)

Northern Territories (P)

Jammu (I)

Kashmir (I)

Ladakh (I)

2. Creation within two years of Joint Governing Council of Jammu & Kashmir (consisting of representatives of all the five regions as well as India and Pakistan ) to regulate inter-region affairs.

3. The Governing Council will come up with a detailed plan for settlement of all Jammu & Kashmir related matters, within five years.

4. Implementation of the above plan and final resolution of Kashmir issue within 10 years. Until then, acceptance of the existing Line of Control as the International Border between India and Pakistan.

Provided India as well as Pakistan agree to cease all hostilities with immediate effect and implement the following steps governing their bilateral relationship within one year

Ban all activities (including propaganda) against each other by all government agencies,

Allow unrestricted travel between the countries,

Grant each other the Most Favored nation, and

Sign a No war/Friendship pact.

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS

Bangladesh offers to defuse Indo-Pak tension

'Bangladesh always wants resolution of a problem through constructive dialogue,' Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan told US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington. http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/22war4.htm

Indian Delegation in Bangla Festival

Led by state Education Minister Anil Sarkar, A 200-strong delegation of politicians and artists from Tripura arrived May 2 in Dhaka to take part in the four-day Muktijodhha Festival celebrating Bangladesh’s liberation war. “The people and the government of Tripura made significant contribution by giving shelter to about 1,700,000 refugees from Bangladesh,” Kamal Lohani, the festival convenor said (PTI, Via India West, May 20, 2002).

Sri Lankan leaders meet Tamil Tigers

Bernard Gunethilake, head of the Peace Secretariat, the government body dealing with the peace process, met with S. P. Thamilselvan, leader of the rebels’ political wing, in the rebel-held territory, May 21, to hold Sri Lankas’s first talks in seven years with Tamil Tiger guerrillas. They discussed matters relating to trade and free movement of people by the key highway that links the northern Tamil heartland with the rest of the country. (Statesman Journal May 22, 2002).

“Resorting to the gun is neither our hobby nor our profession. If peaceful means are initiated to resolve the Kashmir issue, we are ready to support them,” Hizbul Mujahideen’s expelled commander Abdul Majid Dar, and his lieutenant Zafar Abdul Fateh told American South Asia expert Michael Krepon, in a three hour-long closed door meeting in Srinagar on May 15. Krepon gave Dar and Fateh a patient hearing, and made very few suggestions. “We did our best to convince him about the problems faced by people here. Krepon assured that he would project our point of view,” said Fateh. Krepon, the founder-president of the Henry L Stimson Center in the United States, also met with Hurriyat Conference chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Democratic Freedom Party president Shabir Ahmed Shah and other separatist leaders. He also met with the Army’s 15 Corps Commander Lt Gen V.G. Patankar. Security officials here are keen to counter any speculation that Krepon’s visit and meetings are an indication of third party intervention by the US. “It’s not like that. We have no objection to such missions. In fact, it only serves our purpose,” said a senior officer of a security agency here. Rather, Krepon’s visit is being seen as an attempt to assess the ground situation rather than engage separatists in any process. http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2787

Prospects of Naga peace process bright

The Centre has agreed to lift the ban on the NSCN (IM), allow its leaders safe passage into and out of the country and got the latter to come to Delhi for future talks.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/14naga.htm

Expelled Hizb leader backs political initiatives http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/11kash.htm

Nepal's Maoists declare unilateral ceasefire

The rebels have lost nearly 1,000 men in a weeklong crackdown launched by security forces in the Maoist stronghold of Rolpa district. http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/09nep.htm

PWG declares month's truce in AP

In this period, the Naxalites will stop all attacks on politicians, policemen and police informants and desist from destroying private/public properties.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/08jafri.htm

VHP, Muslim leaders to help restore peace

Senior VHP, RSS and Muslim leaders came together to discuss the situation in Gujarat and agreed to join hands to spread the message of peace in Ahmedabad.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/07train1.htm

I want to eliminate extremism: Musharraf

'I tread on many people's toes, especially when I take action against extremists,' the Pakistan president said in an interview to German newspaper Die Welt.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/07pak3.htm

Interfaith prayers offered to Gujarat victims

Community leaders gathered April 21at India House of Worship in Washington, D. C. for interfaith prayers to heal the wounds of the recent victims of the recent communal violence in Gujarat.

PEACE & HARMONY ORGANIZATIONS

*The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)

While condemning strongly the latest terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the CNDP, on May 21, issued an appeal to all political leaders, policy-makers and legislators of India and Pakistan to ensure immediate pull-back of troops from their common border and to launch a dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues.

*Legal Awareness Watch (LAW), 384-D Sabzazar Lahore-54783, Pakistan, Phone 92-42-784 7384, lawpak@nexlinx.net.pk:Contact Person: Liaqat Ali Advocate High Court

LAW was established in 1999 to work for a number of objectives including the following:

To provide free legal aid to needy persons with special emphasis on the disadvantaged lot of society (women, children and minorities)

To strive against discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions and make efforts for democratic and equality based society.

To work for the promotion, development and strengthen the endeavors for the speedy evolution of democratic society in Pakistan.

To promote the independence of all people irrespective of their caste, creed, gender, religion and political affiliation and to oppose any restrictions of the independence or freedom whether in law or in practice.

*Jana Natya Manch, J-147, R.B. Enclave, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi 110063, Phone 011-5264822, 3356966, 3359456, jananatyamanch@yahoo.com Contact Person: Moloyashree Hashmi

A month and a half after the carnage began, the selective targeting of minority establishments, property and lives continues. To take the truth of Gujarat to the people, the All India Meeting of Street Theatre Activists, convened by Jana Natya Manch on 31 March-2 April, observed the week between 12 and 19 April as Combat Communal Fascism Week. As part of this campaign about 10-12 thousand performances of various kinds took place all over India. These included street plays, poetry readings, film shows, mobile exhibitions, songs, and other forms of cultural protest. Several cultural organizations across the country were involved in this initiative. These include, besides Jana Natya Manch, the Praja Natya Mandali, which has about 1,000 units all over Andhra Pradesh; Samudaya, which too has units in several districts of Karnataka; IPTA, West Bengal, with about 350 units across the state; several units of the Janvadi Lekhak Sangh and the Ganatantrik Lekhak Shilpi Sangh; Chennai Kalai Kuzhu, Chennai; Haryana Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Rohtak; Jana Natya Manch, Jaipur; Samahar Natya Goshthi, Guwahati; Jagar, Mumbai; Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangam, Kerala; Disha, Mumbai; Gazar Sanskritik Manch, Nagpur; SAHAS, Cuttak; Prerna, Patna; Kalam, Lucknow; Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Shimla; Jana Sanskritic Manch, Bihar; Bhavaikyatha Vedike, Karnataka; Janayana, Thrissur; Mukhouta Kala Manch, Guna; and Jana Natya Manch, Gawalior.

FEATURE

*A Show of Faith, By Meera Nair, The New York Times Magazine, April 28, 2002, Via South Asian Journalists Association http://www.saja.org

'There's a dead Hindu in the building,'' says the Muslim watchman. We are standing inside the gates of my apartment complex in the South Indian town of Hyderabad. Outside, except for a stray dog nosing through a garbage bin and the armed soldiers at the corner, the sun-rinsed street is deserted.

The city is under curfew for the eighth straight day, and the soldiers have orders to shoot violators on sight. They announce this fact at intervals, politely, over megaphones.

It is December 1990. Hindu fundamentalists have once again tried to tear down a 400-year-old mosque in Ayodhya. They claim that Babar, the Mogul emperor, razed a Hindu temple to Ram, the Hindu god-king, to build the mosque. The mosque is only slightly damaged. But it is enough to make mythic hatreds between Hindus and Muslims bubble to the surface.

''It was a mistake,'' the watchman says. The dead man was a laborer, newly arrived from North India, one of a gray, overlooked brigade that polished floors. His downfall was that he spoke an unfamiliar rural dialect.

''He was shouting something, but no one understood.'' The watchman is insistent, a town crier with an important proclamation. ''So the Hindus thought he was a Muslim and cut him.''

''Where was he?'' I ask.

''His wife found his body in the alley behind the building,'' he jerks his thumb over his shoulder. ''Fate! What else?'' he cries, trying to answer the unanswerable. ''He had to be there at that time.''

I look away from his darting kohl-rimmed eyes and his rumpled khaki uniform. I didn't want him to sense my unease.

I want to believe his version -- that it was a tragic misunderstanding. But first, I want him to explain how he knows the details -- the worker's futile pleadings, the identity of his killers. ''How do you know they were Hindus?'' I ask him.

''They were,'' he replies and starts to walk away. Too quickly, it seems to me.

Did he see it all? The scuffle in the alley, the knives to the belly. Did other tenants stand by, watching from their windows? Letting a man die because he was Hindu? Until that moment, it hadn't occurred to me to be afraid of my neighbors.

My brother and I were among the few Hindus in a predominantly Muslim complex. We had moved in four months before. We hardly knew anyone in the building. But we liked the place and didn't mind the smell of biriyani rice in the corridors or the hordes of children playing loud cricket on
holidays.

Even when the curfew emptied the streets, I felt safe, surrounded by the ordinary. But that was before the laborer was killed. Now, after, I am afraid of drawing attention to myself and ashamed of my fear. I don't want to see the changed, severe faces of my neighbors turning to watch me as I walk past the knots of women talking in the courtyard. The escalation of attacks -- women and children, Hindu and Muslim, killed in their beds -- angers me. I can only imagine what it makes my neighbors feel.

We don't nod hello to each other anymore. How can we? In the streets, our people are doing unspeakable things to one another. There are rumors about the revival of an age-old torment: mobs from both sides stop men at random and demand they declare their religion. Those suspected of lying are forced to undress. Once naked, they are easy to indict or set free -- only
Muslims are circumcised.

One evening, our food runs out. During a brief break in the curfew, my brother goes for groceries. We hear the stores are empty. But he must try.

The knock on the door, when it comes, is soft and hesitant. I hear my breath, noisy in my chest. ''Kaun hai?'' I ask in Hindi. ''It's me,'' my co-worker Muhammed answers. ''And Anwar. Open the door.'' They live 20 minutes away. I have known them for years. Yet for one horrible, shameful
instant, I stand in my doorway and wonder if it is safe to invite them in. They must have read my face because they rush to state their purpose. Muhammed's mother has sent me a gift: potatoes and onions in a string bag.

Last year, she showed me how to make sheer korma, the creamy vermicelli dessert she made each year to celebrate the end of Ramadan. I didn't know what to say.

''Leave the door open,'' Anwar says, as I let them inside. ''This being a Muslim area, we thought it was good to show people that we know your family.'' They stayed for some time and left only when my brother returned.

I'll never know whether we were in real danger. Were Anwar and Muhammed just playing it safe? Or did they know of actual threats against us? I never could bring myself to ask them. It was a terrible time; and when it was over, none of us wanted to talk about it anymore. So I only told them how wonderful the potatoes had tasted. I never told them that I had eaten dinner that night more terrified and more grateful than I had ever been.

LETTERS & OPINIONS

*A war with no winners, Dr I A Shibli ias23@hotmail.com, Coordinator, PPAD is a Peace and Alternative Development, 2 Warwick Gardens, Ashtead, Surrey, UK

PPAD is a Peace and Alternative Development group which was formed in 1998 by academics, intellectuals and professionals of Pakistani origin to promote peace, tolerance and alternative development in South Asia and elsewhere.

Like many other peace loving groups we are shocked at the daily talk of war between India and Pakistan potentially leading to nuclear annihilation of parts of their populations. For the two countries whose people share much of the history, culture and language such frenzy of war and talk of destruction is a sad and shocking state of affairs.

The two countries have struggled in their brief history to reduce poverty of their people - some of the poorest on earth. Between them they have the largest mass of poor and illiterate population on earth. The earlier wars and huge expense on defence has meant that the reduction of poverty in these two countries has remained a dream for most of their people. Further wars can only deepen this poverty and suffering that the leaders of both countries should be ashamed of and ought to work to eliminate.

We believe that this will be a war in which there will be NO winners. Whatever the short term consequences of the war, history tells us that the hatred and conflict thus developed and perpetuated will only lead to further civil or national wars and destruction in the region.

We appeal to the governments of the two countries to show maturity and restraint and resolve their disputes through negotiations and peaceful means. We also appeal to the people of the two countries to put pressure on their governments to avoid further war and destruction. As wars will not solve their political problems and will only lead to further suffering and deprivation.

We strongly feel that peace is vital for the education, development and prosperity of the people in the region and must be supported at all cost. Without peace there is little hope for future.

Dr I A Shibli and following other members of PPAD

2. Dr Ghazala Anwar, Newzealand.

3. Mr Nazeer A Chaudhry, Pennsylvania, USA.

4. Gp/Captn (Rtd.) Cecil Chaudhry, Lahore, Pakistan.

5. Prof. Hassan Gardezi, Canada.

6. Prof. Bilal Hashmi, Washington, USA.

7. Mr Owais Hasin, Karachi, Pakistan.

8. Mr Ayyub Malik, London, UK.

9. Dr Babar Mumtaz, London, UK.

10. Prof A H Nayyar, Islamabad, Pakistan.

11. Dr Saghir Shaikh, California, USA

*Reining in the extremists in India and Pakistan, By Dharmendra Vahalia dharmendravahalia@yahoo.com, ACHA Member

I read an article today that claims that for the first time in Pakistan's history, there's a division in national opinion on waging a war with India. The lines are clearly drawn between the political class, liberals, and moderates on one side and the militarists and the extremists on the other.

This may even imply that despite its military posturing, Pakistan as a nation is not seeking war. There is also no doubt that the military, ISI, and the mujahideen elements are bent sparking a conflict to perpetrate 'my way or no way' philosophy.

Under such circumstances, how can India help the people of Pakistan take control of their own destiny? How can we prevent the extremist elements in India from making war cries (surprising I haven't read anything on Bal Thakarey or VHP making bellicose statements)?

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that this will be a deciding conflict in the subcontinent. It will wipe out ~20% of our people, destroy everything that we built over the past 54 years, and render the future generations helpless and enslaved to international monitoring and controls (ala Germany and Japan) on our own internal matters.

India will lose the freedom it so dearly wanted even at the expense of Partition. Pakistan will lose its existence it so dearly strived to achieve and retain for the past 54 years.

God Bless South Asia.

Jai Hind

*The time to stop this insanity and mutually assured destruction is NOW, Naeem Sadiq ensad1@yahoo.com

The subcontinent that houses over a billion Indians and Pakistanis may be just a few days away from going back in time by five thousand years.

The establishment in both countries suffers from very low levels of maturity and high levels of accumulated hatred and distrust. It is simply immaterial as to who will press the trigger first, and how many cities will get knocked out. The survivors would not be left with any interest in such arithmetic, while the dead would simply have no such need.

The fact that we stand today at the brink of annihilation for issues that could have been well resolved, sitting across simple pieces of wooden furniture - is a matter of shame for the people of the subcontinent, as well as the civil society across the globe.

The new scenario may hardly be a war between the two armies. It may begin by plucking of cities, rather than garrisons. There are no dividing lines, boundaries or frontiers in a nuclear war. It is the common people across the subcontinent and beyond who shall be the greatest victims of this utter madness.

The time to stop this insanity and mutually assured destruction is NOW.

*Basic social and sexual ethics of Islam, Dr. Ausaf Ali, Member Asiapeace, ACHA’s Discussion Group

I read the moving appeal that you (Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Moderator, AsiaPeace) made in behalf of Ms. Zafran Bi Bi, who was accused and convicted in a court of law in Pakistan of adultery and given a death sentence by stoning under the Hudood laws. I hope and pray that the execution of the sentence would be set aside by the Chief Justice of Pakistan - insha Allah.

However, I think that the problem is, first of all, moral and ethical or of social ethics and societal norms. What I think needs to be done is for concerned Muslims to reinterpret, revise, readjust, reconstruct, and recidify the basic social and sexual ethics of Islam in which a sustained case has to be made that the time has come when such absolute prohibitions in gender and sexual ethics as are imposed in the Quran and Sunnah on premarital sexual activity and intercourse between consenting adults willingly and consensually may not be called and legally defined as crimes punishable by law. The notion and applicability of willing and voluntary sex between consenting adult has then to be extended, as it must logically, to homosexual, lesbian, and extramarital sexual activity and intercourse as well, so long as it is between partners who consent to it freely as a moral choice and decision of their very own. All this requires a radical paradigm shift in social and sexual ethics at whose center has to be the concept the permissibility of consensual sex. It is one thing to uphold and preach that sexual intercourse outside wedlock is immoral and unethical, but quite another to make it a capitally punishable crime as per the verdict of a court of law.

The problem is that Islam has no separate concept of morality apart from law, whereby all sexual activity, especially intercourse outside marriage, is made a prosecutable and punishable crime.

Islam permits and considers lawful having female sex slaves, with whom the master can do sexually what he wills without the consent of the female slave. Personally I think this is more immoral, unethical, and criminal than a man and woman having a sexual intercourse with each other's free and voluntary consent. This is what thoughtful Muslims have to realize and say.

I am not advocating an open season on sexuality or free love. Instead, I am saying that it is consensual sex -- premarital, extramarital, homosexual (male and female), bisexual sex, and what have you -- should be de-criminalized, i.e., that all forms of sexual activity outside marriage shall no longer be defined legally as crimes punishable under law by flogging, imprisonment, or death by stoning or any other means. In other words, it is the whole idea of consensual sex outside marriage treated as crimes punishable capitally that has become obsolete and outrageous in today's word. Time has come when all forms of male and female socialization and consensual sex had best be left to the individual him-or-herself as his or her own moral choice.

In the Muslim society, this new ethical and moral code would also redress the gross inequality between the social and sexual conduct of men and women. As it is and as it has been since the advent of Islam and the codification of the Shariah, too, Muslim men have always transgressed every social, ethical, moral, and legal code of sexual conduct. Inhumane restrictions on their person and conduct, honor killing of women, and death by all means, including stoning, have been the unfortunate lot of Muslim mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, etc. only. Rarely, it is demanded that men who engage in pre and extramarital sex be stoned to death.

I am not out to destroy Islamic social and sexual ethics. I should like nothing better than that both Muslim males and females ought to abstain from sexual activity and intercourse before and outside marriage and remain chaste till their dying day and, above all, that Muslim spouses ought to remain faithful in an exclusive way to each other in all their married days together.

I even regard for a man to have multiple wives a socially, ethically, and morally reprehensible. For me a polygamous man is as good as a promiscuous man. Indeed, the institution of multiple wives is a license for promiscuity that has encouraged and concealed male promiscuous, even adulterous, behavior, granted to men by the Quran and Sunnah. It is a frontal attack on the dignity of the woman as a human being and as a member of society. I should certainly like to see polygamy (viz., the institution and practice of up to four wives, though permitted in the Shariah, legally forbidden, as has been done in Turkey and Tunisia) abolished in today's Muslim countries with the aim to bring about some semblance of gender equality, dignity, autonomy, self-determination, and justice for and between men and women alike.

I am all for a pardon of death sentence for the unfortunate sister of ours in Islam, viz. Zafran Bi Bi. More importantly however, it would require a radical change in Muslim thought, ethics, morality, and culture along some such lines as I have indicated briefly in th above. You might even want to look up my recent book on the Internet, viz., ISLAM RETHOUGHT: GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND MARRIAGE IN ISLAM. The address is:

http://cyber_bangla0.tripod.com/aa/AAli.html>

To make a summary of it: What we need is a new social and sexual ethics in
which is removed the theological and legal basis and justification for capital punishments for certain acts that should be no business of the law--criminal or civil. They are and ought to be matters of individual moral choice. I have tried to present such a new social and sexual ethics for the Muslim society in our time. Maybe you can give the matter your thought and propose a new Muslim social and sexual ethics.

AGING

Long Shadows In The Evening Of Their Lives

India has the second largest number of old people in the world. And, their numbers are growing. Older people in India are also the fastest growing age group in the population. Today seven per cent of the population, 77 million people, in India are over 60. Their numbers will reach 179 million by 2026.

The majority of them, over 60 per cent, live at the margins of society, clinging to either side of the poverty line. 30 per cent of the elderly live below the poverty line and 33 per cent live marginally over it. Less than 10 per cent of India's senior citizens enjoy a modicum of economic security. There are around 730 old age homes in India, and over 50 per cent of these are in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. More than 65 per cent of women over 60 are widows, the figure goes up to 80 per cent for those over the age of 70. In the countryside some 44 per cent of women over 60 work as
agricultural labourers. (The Hindu, May 12 Via India New India News" christianpatriot@mantraonline.com)

BOOKS & MAGAZINES

*Monthly Qalandar www.islaminterfaith.org, Editor: Yoginder Sikand, ysikand@hotmail.com, ysikand@yahoo.com, Executive Editor: Amna Khaishgi amnakhaishgi@hotmail.com, amnakhaishgi@yahoo.com

*Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, By John Esposito, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Pages196, $25, ISBN:0-19-515435-5

Starting with the Qur'an and the Hadith, the Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, Esposito shows how the notion of jihad differs distinctly from the notion of holy war against unbelievers as is commonly understood today by some militant Islamists as well as their foes. Jihad, in its original sense, simply meant striving in the path of God. Such striving could take various forms. Helping the poor and the distressed could equally be a form of jihad as could defence of the community from hostile attacks. Indeed, as the author stresses, jihad as war was originally intended as defence of the faith and the community in the face of aggression. In normal times relations between Muslims and people of other faiths were intended to be peaceful, and violence the exception rather than the norm.However, over time, as the Muslim community expanded outside the narrow confines of the Arabian desert, the notion of jihad underwent radical transformations.

*Beyond Hindu and Muslim-Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India, By Peter Gottschalk, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, Pages 215, Rs. 525, ISBN: 019565439-0

The much bandied-about thesis of a clash of civilizations doing the rounds these days threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with prophets of doom the likes of Samuel Huntington being lionized in the press and academic circles. In a religiously plural country such as India, the devastating effect of religiously inspired conflict are particularly real and threatening. Multiple religious identities need not, however, be a source of conflict, as this book seeks to argue. Rather, if carefully managed, religious diversity can be a source of a country's strength and stability. Never before, it seems, has the art of skillfully negotiating the conflicting demands of diverse religious identities been so desperately needed as it is today.

*Conflict Unending, By Sumit Ganguly

Written by one of the most highly-regarded experts in the field, Conflict Unending is the only comprehensive and comparative work in English language to thoroughly analyze the origins and historical evolution of the long-standing Indo-Pakistani conflict. Unlike many who feel that the
dissension is essentially religious in origin, Ganguly asserts that the two countries remain mired in conflict due to features inherent to their nationalist agendas.

*Five Past Midnight In Bhopal, By Dominique Lapierre, Warner Books, 2002, Hardcover, $25.95 ISBN: 0-446-53088-3 http://www.twbookmark.com Via South Asian Journalists Association
http://www.saja.org

With his new book, Dominique Lapierre returns to India with Spanish journalist Javier Moro to tell the unforgettable story of the world's worst industrial accident. At five past midnight on December 3, 1984, a toxic gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in the ancestral Indian city of Bhopal left up to 30,000 people dead and half a million injured. Intended to provide the pesticide needed to deliver the country from famine, the plant instead unleashed the worst industrial mishap in
history. How did it happen? Who was affected? Who was responsible? In FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT, Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro bring the hundreds of characters, conflicts and adventures together in a profoundly moving tale of love and hope.

CHILDREN

*In a lecture on "the sexual abuse of child" organized by the Aurat Foundation at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Dr Tufail Mohammed said that 50 per cent of victims of sexual abuse in Pakistan were under 15. (Dawn, Dec 31, 2001)

Statistics show that in 1991, the number of child rapes registered with the police in India was 3720. This figure arose to 3986 in 1994 and jumped to 4067 in 1995 showing that the cases of child rape increased in 1995 by two per cent over 1994 and 9.1 per cent in the same year compared to 1997. (The Pioneer, May 13 Via India News christianpatriot@mantraonline.com)

*As many as 443 children were killed in different parts of Pakistan during 2001 as cases of child abuses continued unabated, revealed a report issued on January 3, by Madadgar, a joint venture of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid and UNICEF. (Dawn Jan 4, 2002).

*The National Human Rights Commission has recommended stringent measures against child marriages in India, including enhancement of the present imprisonment period of three months to two years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh or both for a male adult above 21 years marrying a child. The rights commission, which recently held a high-level meeting with government officials, has suggested amendment to the Child Marriage Restrain Act 1929 to provide for higher penalty in case of violation of the provisions of the Act. (The Telegraph, May 6 Via India News christianpatriot@mantraonline.com

*Almost 11.7 million children in Pakistan are suffering from stunting (less height for age) and wasting (low weight for height), officials reports revealed. According to the reports, the situation was indicative of the dismal state of malnutrition and high prevalence of infectious diseases among the children. (Dawn January 4, 2002)

According to a recent survey in India, the district's bidi industry, cotton and chilli farms employed nearly 1.5 lakh child labourers. Almost 20-30 per cent of them were kept chained throughout the day to prevent them from running away. More alarming was the inhuman treatment meted out to the child labour employed by the big landlords of the district. Some of them were chained
when they retired for the day, while the younger ones were chained throughout the day to prevent them from running away. According to Kurnool district collector G.Sai Prasad, the prime cause of growing child labour was the menace of moneylenders in the village. "Parents who could not return loans had to leave their children, even minor daughters, for work. Such practice was evident even in the houses of prominent politicians and faction leaders of the district," Prasad said. (The Telegraph, May 6 Via India News christianpatriot@mantraonline.com

*Out of over 53 million babies in Pakistan, nearly 270,000 die before they are one month old - the percentage is roughly ten times higher than that in the developed countries, says the report, "State of the World's New-borns - Pakistan" by a United States-based organisation, Save the Children, that has launched a 15-year global programme of maternal and child healthcare funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (Dawn January 20, 2002)

COURSES

*August 19-23, New York, USA: DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING INTERVENTIONS FOR GLOBAL CHANGE, a course offered by the Institute for Global Leadership for those who are searching for a new way to address global problems that emphasizes respect for human rights, peaceful settlement of disputes, global ethics, values and systems that will secure greater ecological integrity, economic and social well being Cost: US$500. US$100 deposit due by June 30. More info from the Institute for Global Leadership (www.global-leader.org/gl_upcomingevents.htm) Box 20044, Worcester, MA 01602, USA.
Phone/Fax 1-508-753 7683 vswain@global-leader.org

EVENTS

*November15-17, New Delhi, India: MASIHI MAHOTSAV, Festival of Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, the most inclusive ecumenical event of the church in India in history to celebrate God's faithfulness for the churches' service to the nation and people’s national identity as Christians and to be proactive channels of truth, peace, love and justice. Participation by invitation only. More info from Rev. Dr. Ipe Joseph, General Secretary, NCCI: nccindia@nagpur.dot.net.in, Rev. Richard Howell (Convener), General Secretay, EFI: efiindia@vsnl.com, or Fr. Dr. Donald H. R. De Souza, Dy. Secretary General, CBCI: cbci@vsnl.com

ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH

CSE is organising June 24 –29, the sixth pani yatra with a unique opportunity to meet pioneers in India, who managed the front ranks of the movement, to harvest rainwater. More info from http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/paaniyatra.htm

Down To Earth (DTE) analysed the surfeit of data and information to bring forth the underlying reality of the 10 poorest districts in India -- environmental degradation.

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020515/dte_analysis.htm

The Indian government has a set a target for renewable energy: 10,000 megawatt by 2012.
But how will it meet this target? Especially, when it took 20 years to generate just 3,500
megawatt. A detailed analysis of the obstacles facing the renewable energy sector in
India. Details at http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020430/dte_analy.htm

If you think you know your environment, try this month's eco queez at: http://www.cseindia.org/html/eyou/envedu/ecoquiz.htm

GUJARAT

NHRC charges Modi with 'comprehensive failure'

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/31train1.htm

POETRY

*Kindness, By Ambalal Rawal ACRAWAL@aol.com

Fold two hands together, and express a dash of sorrow,

Marinate it overnight, and work on it tomorrow.

Chop one grudge in tiny pieces, add several cups of pure love,

Pour with a large sized smile, mix with the ingredients above.

Dissolve the hate within you, by doing a good deed,

Be prepared to help someone, if someone should be in need.

Stir laughter, love and kindness, from the heart they have to come,

Toss with genuine forgiveness, and give everyone some.

The amount of persons served, will always depend on you,

It can serve the whole world, if you really want it to.

WEBSITES

*www.homepages.ihug.com.au/~masonda offers peacebuilding specifically designed by Teaching and Learning for Peace to incite interest in some new thinking about peace education possibilities and future directions. They have been created to counterbalance helplessness that young people may perceive and to cease negative thinking by them. More info from Ann Mason, Pulteney Grammar School,190 South Terrace, Adelaide, 5006, Australia

amason@staff.pulteney.sa.edu.au

WOMEN

*Crime against women in Pakistan assumed horrid proportions during 2001 as at least 228 females were killed in various parts of the southern Punjab. (Dawn January 02, 2002)

*At least 587 women were subjected to sexual harassment and 934 children, boys and girls, went missing during the year 2001 in various parts of Pakistan, according to a report released by Madadgaar, a joint venture of UNICEF and Lawyers for Human Rights. (Dawn January 07, 2002)