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USA: Muslim women to the fore
Muslim women, complaining that they have
always been stereotyped as submissive and oppressed by the western media, have
now founded a voice for themselves in the US. Lubna Ismail, founder of the
organisation, Connecting Cultures, has launched the struggle to reverse this
attitude by holding workshops with small groups and organisations, disseminating
information about Islam and dispelling stereotypes about Muslims. In the past
two years, she says, her organisation has seen a surge of requests for workshops
about American Muslims. The negative attitude is paralleled with a "curiosity"
about Islam. This is partly due to the fact that it is one of the fastest
growing religions in the US, with about 6–10 million adherents. Another factor,
she adds, is that no American business house competing in the international
market can afford to ignore the sensitivities of the one billion Muslims of the
world anymore.
Semeen Issa, president of the California–based Muslim Women’s
League, says that the American public has learnt to fear or distrust Islam as a
result of decades of indoctrination at the hands of the media, especially
Hollywood. Semeen feels American–born Muslims, in particular, are becoming more
assertive, and have even filed and won law suits against employers who demand
removal of the head scarf.
However, these Muslim women have to fight on two fronts.
According to Sharifa Alkhateeb, president of the Muslim Education Council, while
more Muslim women attend college and enter the work force, in order to find
acceptance in the mainstream, their battles are often compounded by their own
community’s conservative attitudes towards women.
Europe: Racism on the rise
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism
and Xenophobia, Vienna, has conducted a study that reveals that there has been
an alarming rise in racism among Europeans. The organisation compared the result
of polls conducted in 1989 and last year to arrive at this conclusion. The
figures of last year’s study showed that more than 33 per cent of the people
interviewed openly declared that they were either ‘quite racist’ or ‘very
racist’. These figures were "much more" than those of the 1989 study, the report
stated. The study concluded, "the survey of 1997 reflects the feeling of anxiety
experienced by people in Europe, who are dissatisfied with their personal
situation, feel increasingly insecure of the future and regard foreigners as a
danger and therefore as something undesirable."
Another study conducted by the Anti–Defamation League (ADL), a
US–based Jewish organisation, has come to the startling conclusion that blacks
in the United States are four times more anti–Semitic than whites. Abraham
Foxman, ADL national director, blamed the Islamic organisation, Nation of Islam
for spreading anti–Semitic propaganda amongst Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam
promptly denied the charges. However, it is not the only organisation that has
protested against the study. The National Association for the Advancement of
Coloured People (NAACP), has disputed the findings, denying the possibility that
one–third of all black people were anti–Semitic, as the study indicates.
Pakistan: Violence against women
The biggest women’s rally ever seen in
Pakistan — more than 2,000 attended — was held on December 10, World Human
Rights Day, in Lahore, to protest the continued violence and abuse of women and
girls in the country.
In 1997, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRPC)
reported that eight cases of sexual assault were reported every 24 hours, while
the incidence of cases of missing women and abductions was even higher. Domestic
violence is the biggest single cause of injury to women, accounting for more
hospital admissions than rapes and road accidents.
The rally strongly protested the zina and hudood
laws, under which women who marry without their parents’ consent can be taken
into custody and rape victims are required to produce witnesses to register a
case of rape. These ‘black laws’ are a legacy of Pakistan’s martial rule past.
Though a commission of enquiry has declared the laws to be in direct conflict
with Islam and the Pakistani constitution, the Nawaz Sharif government has done
nothing to repeal them. Activists blame Pakistan’s feudal society, where men
consider women their property and ill–treat them without any fear of punishment.
They also fear that if the pending Shariat bill is passed, the situation
can only worsen. Earlier in October, several women responding to a call from the
Women’s Action Forum to protest against the bill, resigned from the government.
Indonesia: Taking a communal turn
I n Friday, January 8, riots broke out in
Indonesia in the town of Karawang. Two were reported dead and 14 seriously
injured. The day–long riots degenerated into looting and vandalising of shops
and churches. The situation in Indonesia which has been facing political
upheavals in the past year has now turned decisively communal, with several
skirmishes breaking out between the Christian and Muslim communities. In
November, 22 churches were ransacked and burnt by Muslim mobs in Jakarta. At
least 14 people were killed in the violence — some hacked to death. About a
month ago, in retaliation to these events, the Christian community set fire to
four mosques, burned down a market, a Muslim school and a hostel for Muslim
pilgrims, in West Timor. Riots broke out between the two communities and
continued till the military finally got the situation under control. Christmas
saw more clashes between the Muslims and Christians.
Earlier, in November, the Hindu community of Indonesia had also
risen in protest against the remarks of a minister, who had ridiculed the
chances of an election candidate on the ground of her being a Hindu. (The
candidate, it was later clarified, was actually a Muslim). The Hindus had
demanded an apology, saying the remarks were derogatory to Hindus. But the Hindu
protests were countered by Muslim groups who came out into the streets saying
there was no cause for apology and asserted that the President and
vice–president of the country had to be Muslims. The growing wave of ‘Islamism’
in the polity of the country is creating fear in the hearts of the minorities in
the world’s largest Muslim nation.
Iran: No repreive for Rushdie
T he fatwa may have been revoked,
but the danger continues for Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
In October, the bounty on his head was increased to $2.5 million by a
non–government body. Now, another extremist group in Iran, called fedayee,
is "preparing to put into effect the historic fatwa" of the late
Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 against the author. The group has also claimed
responsibility for the recent murders of dissidents and secular writers,
Muhammad Mokhatari and Mohammad Pouyande, as well as nationalist leader, Daryuh
Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh Ekandari.
In the meantime, Rushdie himself has been busy opening a ‘safe
house’ for persecuted writers in Mexico City, as part of the refugee cities
programme of the International Parliament of Writers. There are already 32 towns
and cities that are part of the programme. Rushdie arrived at Mexico City on
January 5 with bodyguards. Speaking in the city, he said that the fight against
religious intolerance had been a worthwhile struggle. After ten years of
refusal, India too had declared in October that the author would not be denied a
visa if he wanted to visit the country.
Canada: Ad–libbers anger Christians
In Canada, the Alberta telephone
company’s latest ad ran into trouble in December, and finally had to be
withdrawn. In a campaign timed with the Christmas season, the ad depicted a
novel version of the offerings to baby Jesus at his birth in a Jerusalem manger.
It showed, as usual, two wise men offering frank–incense and myrrh to a figure
off–camera, presumably Jesus. The third wise man, however, instead of the
traditional offering of gold, offers a deal on the company’s pre–paid cell phone
plan! The ad had to be withdrawn following more than a hundred complaints from
various distraught believers, who felt the ad was in bad taste. Arnie Stephens,
vice–president of marketing, said, "We felt people felt strongly about this
religious issue and that it would be better to withdraw the ads". |
