Violence and discrimination against Muslims is currently framed by some Buddhist groups as a necessary response to the imminent threat of Islam’s expansion into the Buddhist community

By Matthew J Walton

Matthew J Walton is an adjunct professor in political science at The George Washington University. This autumn, he will become the Aung San Suu Kyi Senior Research Fellow in Modern Burmese Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He can be reached at mjwalton@gwu.edu.

Muslim people gather as the bodies of victims of a fire are brought for their funeral at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon April 2, 2013. Thousands of Muslims attended the funeral for the 13 victims of the fire that broke out in a dormitory of an Islamic school in the central, multi-ethnic Botataung district of the former capital. The fire caused by faulty electrical equipment killed 13 boys at the school in Yangon on Tuesday, the fire service said. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Recent violence in Myanmar between Buddhists and Muslims in the central town of Meikhtila (also spelt Meiktila) and areas beyond, which has left a reported 43 people dead, as many as 12,000 displaced, and more than 1,000 homes and building destroyed, has raised concerns over the stability of the country’s current democratic transition and the imposition of martial law in the troubled area has raised the specter of a return to direct military rule.

The communal riots of the past year in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas have now expanded into a broader Buddhist versus Muslim framing that has spread dangerously across the country.

Buddhist campaigns against Muslims, such as the increasingly visible Buddhist nationalist ‘’969’’ movement, seem to have inflamed tensions in Meikhtila and prompted outside observers to worry about the role of monks in encouraging discrimination and even violence against Myanmar’s minority Muslim population. [1] While Buddhist nationalism has long had the potential to be turned against non-Buddhist groups, Buddhism’s influence on politics and public opinion requires careful analysis in Myanmar’s contemporary context.

The Buddhist-Muslim conflict embodies a broader threat to democratic consolidation in Myanmar that reflects a common theme in Theravada Buddhist history, yet also represents only one potential interpretation of Buddhist principles. Violence and discrimination against Muslims is currently framed by some Buddhist groups as a necessary response to the imminent threat ofIslam’s expansion into the Buddhist community; in a situation like this, some Buddhists have argued that any actions can be justified in order to protect the religion.

A compelling counter-argument, however, is rooted in Buddhist values and doctrine that prioritizes the democratic values of inclusion and tolerance as a better strategy for the long-term protection of Myanmar’s Buddhist community. The Pali word savanna refers not just to the Buddhist community of monks, nuns, and lay people, but to the very existence of the Buddha’s teachings. For Theravada Buddhists, this includes the texts of the Pali canon as well as the vast commentarial literature. The lived knowledge of those teachings among Buddhists is critically important, for without all of this enlightenment would be impossible.

Religious and political figures throughout Buddhist history have justified many violent, exclusionary acts by claiming to be acting “in defense of the savanna’’. One of the earliest accounts is of the Sinhalese king Dutthagamani who defeated a Tamil king in approximately the first century BCE, declaring that his purpose was not to win territory but to protect the sasana. Monks even allegedly disrobed in order to join his army and fight.

When Dutthagamani experienced remorse at the bloodshed he had caused, his monastic advisers assured him that there was no need to worry. Only one and a half “people” had died at the hands of his army, one who had taken the Five Precepts (and who could be considered Buddhist, and therefore, human) and one who had taken a lesser vow. The rest were all non-Buddhists, less than human and not even deserving of consideration, let alone pity, according to the advisers.

Religious and political leaders have also employed “defense of the sasana” arguments in contemporary democratic contexts in order to justify bloody, anti-democratic policies, particularly violence against non-Buddhist religious groups perceived as a threat to Buddhism. In contemporary Sri Lanka, some nationalist monks exhorted the Buddhist-led government to press the prosecution of the war against the Tamil resistance (won in brutal fashion by the government in 2009) using imagery that invoked the legacy of Dutthagamani.

They were following in the footsteps of the controversial Sinhalese monk Walpola Rahula, who, in legitimizing monastic participation in politics in the 1970s, also commented approvingly of the belief of Dutthagamani’s monastic advisors that “the destruction of human beings [for the purpose of protecting the religion] was not a very grave crime’’.

Some modern conflicts between Buddhists and non-Buddhists have not been explicitly framed by the rhetoric of defending the sasana, but the connection is still apparent. For example, national political leaders in Thailand have stressed that the ongoing conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in several southern provinces is simply evidence of lawlessness and banditry, or foreign influence. Yet the state has encouraged the formation of Buddhist citizen protection groups in response to the crisis (something that is also rumored to be happening now in Myanmar).

More importantly, the “protection of the sasana” argument no longer needs to be explicit in cases like Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar, where the identity of the Buddhist majority has effectively merged with the national identity. Calls to “defend the motherland” in these countries might appear to be simply nationalistic, yet the long-standing connection in Buddhist political thought between the integrity and strength of the state and the health of the religion suggests that many people view these conflicts through a religious lens.

The recent march of thousands of Buddhist monks in anti-Muslim protests across Myanmar makes it clear that they see the purification of the state and the protection of the sasana as coterminous processes. The 969 movement has launched a sort of “Buy Buddhist” campaign, urging Myanmar’s Buddhists to strengthen the sasana against the imagined threat of expansionist Islam by patronizing only Buddhist businesses; its logic suggests that the only way to protect Buddhism is to drive Islam completely out of the country by economically punishing local Muslim populations until they are forced to leave.

The Myanmar monk U Wirathu allegedly recently billed himself as the “Burmese Bin Laden’’, saying he would use any means necessary to defend his religion and nation. He is a complex figure, having helped to organize recent citizen protests against police violence but also traveling the country giving sermons in which he demonizes Muslims and urges Buddhists to join the 969 boycott campaign.
While supporters of the 969 movement have billed it as a peaceful campaign to promote Buddhism, there are reports that “969” has been spray-painted on the walls of recently destroyed mosques in other cities in Myanmar, suggesting that at least some in the movement have adopted a more vindictive and retaliatory “defense” of Buddhism.

Powerful political tool

It is critical for scholars and policymakers analyzing recent events to recognize the persuasive force of religious reasons given in defense of discriminatory or exclusionary policies. This is a particular threat to continued reform in countries where democratic practices and values have not yet been consolidated, as is currently the case in Myanmar. At the moment in which the Buddhist sasana is threatened, democracy reverts to theocracy.

The argument for the defense of the sasana is so compelling and difficult to refute (what Buddhist wants to be accused of not defending the religion?) that it remains a powerful political tool. The recent conflicts in Myanmar likely have more localized and personalized causes, as people struggle to maintain stability in a transitional context of economic, political, and social uncertainty. However, the broader religious context allows Buddhists to portray Islam and the Muslim community as a threat to the sasana, despite the absence of evidence to support this claim.

The sasana is central to Buddhist belief and practice, and it would be unreasonable to expect any Buddhist to prioritize a set of worldly political institutions and practices over the Buddha’s teachings. A different response, however, would be to argue that a commitment to democratic principles need not be in opposition to defense of the sasana.

This type of argument has not yet been developed or advanced by Buddhist groups, although an increasing number of Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike have criticized the violent and exclusionary actions allegedly in defense of the sasana as antithetical to core Buddhist values.

One of the more compelling criticisms against the violence is that Buddhist discrimination against Muslim Rohingya or any other Muslim group is antithetical to the core Buddhist values of metta (loving-kindness) and karuna (compassion). These are two of the four qualities that are among the most noble and sublime attributes that a Buddhist can cultivate.

A key aspect of both metta and karuna is the non-discriminating quality of these characteristics. That is, the ideal of Buddhist practice is to cultivate the same feelings of loving-kindness and compassion toward every living being, including one’s enemies. Some explanations of metta and karuna mark these end cases, where the practice of compassion and loving-kindness is the most difficult, as the key moments of personal moral development where one overcomes prejudice and partiality.

The Myanmar Buddhist monks who marched against the previous military regime in 2007 chanted the metta sutta, a prayer of protection that texts relate the Buddha taught to some monks who wanted to meditate in a forest but were fearful of being attacked by wild animals. This prayer invokes a wish that all beings might be free from suffering, a far cry from current reports in the country that suggest Buddhist monks are encouraging their followers to shun and even attack those (Buddhist and non-Buddhist) who do something as simple as patronize a Muslim-owned business.

The argument for protection of the sasana has always relied on an “end justifies the means” logic, in which the preservation of the Buddhist community as a whole allows Buddhists to act in ways, including the promotion of hatred, discrimination and exclusion, that contravene the basic moral teachings of the religion. The counter-argument, however, is that the best way to preserve the sasana in the present and future and strengthen the moral practice of the community is to act in accordance with the basic values of the Buddha’s teachings in political, social and economic realms.

The dominant framing driving Buddhist anti-Muslim actions in Myanmar is one in which Muslims are posited as a threat to Buddhism, which appears to justify any number of anti-democratic, extra-legal, and violent actions. Not only does this “defense of the sasana” argument pose a threat to democratic consolidation in the country, it also fundamentally misreads the nature of threats to Buddhism in Myanmar.

Actions by Buddhists that contravene the basic values of the religion pose a much greater threat to the health of the sasana than the mere presence of other religions. In Myanmar’s current case, Buddhism and Buddhists are not inherently xenophobic, racist, fascistic, or anything else that they been labeled, but they have in recent paroxysms acquiesced to an intolerant and ultimately self-destructive interpretation of their religious values.

It is the responsibility of Buddhists, and especially monks, whose exalted position in Myanmar society allows them to influence public opinion, to develop alternate interpretations of Buddhist doctrine that denounce violence and insist that adherence to democratic values is indeed the best way to strengthen and defend the Buddhist community in a time of transition.

Note:

1.    In the ‘’969” referenced by the Buddhist movement, the first 9 stands for the nine special attributes of the Buddha; the 6 for the six special attributes of his Dhamma, or Buddhist teachings; and the last 9 for the nine special attributes of Buddhist monks, according to Irrawaddy magazine.

Asia Times

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By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Swiss guards gather before a weekly general audience led by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican April 3, 2013. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

(CNN) — Pope Francis washed the feet of a dozen prisoners, including young women, at a youth detention center in Rome as part of a Holy Thursday Mass ahead of Easter.

The pontiff poured water over the young offenders’ feet, wiped them with a white towel and kissed them.

The act of foot-washing at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper is part of the Christian tradition that mirrors Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet.

Francis’ decision to celebrate the Mass with young offenders at the Casal del Marmo center represents a break with tradition but is in step with his record in embracing simplicity and humility.

The service has in past years been held at the grand Basilica of St. John Lateran, the official seat of the bishop of Rome.

This time, the Mass “will be, by his express desire, very simple,” the Vatican said before the service.

The young offenders were expected to give the pope a wooden crucifix and kneeler, which they made themselves in the detention center’s workshop.

In return, Francis was to bring Easter eggs and colomba, traditional Italian Easter cake in the shape of a dove, for all, the Vatican had said.

The Casal del Marmo center houses close to 50 inmates, who range in age from 14 to 21. The young people who had their feet washed were chosen from different nationalities and diverse religious backgrounds. Two young women and two Muslims were included in the rite, according to the Vatican.

Why is the pope washing prisoners’ feet?

More than 2,000 cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests, as well as more than 10,000 of the Roman Catholic faithful, joined the pope in celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday morning.
Francis urged the priests to be close to their congregations and listen to their everyday concerns, even if those concerns sometimes appear material or mundane.

The priests should be “shepherds who have the smell of their sheep,” he said.

Francis was installed as pope to fill the shoes of Benedict XVI.

Since taking on the role, he has focused on a message of helping the poor and needy.

In his first general audience Wednesday, before crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he spoke of how following Christ “means learning to come out of ourselves … in order to meet others, in order to go toward the edges of our existence, to take the first steps towards our brothers and sisters, especially those who are farthest from us, those who are forgotten, those who need understanding, consolation and assistance.”

He also called for an end to the violence in the Central African Republic, where a coalition of rebels ousted President Francois Bozize this week.

All those suffering in the African nation are in his prayers, he said.

“I call for an immediate halt to the violence and looting, and that a political solution to the crisis may be reached as soon as possible so that peace and harmony may be restored in that dear country, which has, for too long, been marked by conflict and division,” he said.

The Holy Week services will culminate on Easter Sunday with the pope’s first “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, directed to the city of Rome and to the world.

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By Fareed Zakaria

Pedestrians look at billboards with the pictures of Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu (L), in Ankara March 25, 2013. Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday an Israeli apology for the 2010 deaths of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists that was brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama met Turkey’s conditions and signalled its growing regional clout. The billboard reads, “Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear Prime Minister (Erdogan), We are grateful that you let our country (Turkey) experience this pride”. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

As a piece of rhetoric, Barack Obama’s speech to college students in Jerusalem was a triumph. He finally convinced Israel and its supporters that “HE GETS US,” as one of them e-mailed me. “In his Kishkas [gut], he gets us!” But Obama also spoke more bluntly about Israel’s occupation and the case for a Palestinian state than any U.S. president has in the past. Oratory aside, Obama has recognized and employed the strongest — and perhaps only — path toward peace and a Palestinian state: an appeal to Israel’s conscience.

For 40 years, those who have tried to push Israel toward making concessions have pointed to dangers and threats. Israel is surrounded by enemies, the argument goes, and the only way to ease that hostility is to give the Palestinians a state. Palestinian terrorism will make daily life in Israel unbearable, another variant explained, and Israel will have to settle this problem politically. These assumptions undergirded the peace process and Obama’s approach in his first term.

The argument reflected reality in the 1980s and 1990s, when Israel faced an array of powerful Arab states with large armies — Iraq, Syria — formally dedicated to its destruction. The Soviet Union backed these regimes with cash and arms and ceaselessly drummed up international opposition to the Jewish state. Israelis lived with constant Palestinian terror, which created a siege mentality within the country.

The situation today, however, is transformed in every sense. The Soviet Union is dead. Iraq and Syria have been sidelined as foes. The Arab world is in upheaval, which produces great uncertainty but has also weakened every Arab country. They all are focused on internal issues of power, legitimacy and survival. The last thing any of them can afford is a confrontation with the country that has become the region’s dominant power.

The data underscore this. Israel’s per capita gross domestic product is now nine times that of Egypt, according to the International Monetary Fund’s most recent figures; six times that of Jordan; and nearly three times that of Turkey. It is almost 50 percent greater than Saudi Arabia’s per capita GDP. Israeli military expenditures are larger than those of all its neighbors combined, and then there are its technological and qualitative superiorities and its alliance with the world’s dominant military power. Israel’s highly effective counterterrorism methods, including the wall separating Palestinians and Israelis and the “iron dome,” which increasingly shields Israelis from missiles, have largely made Palestinian terrorism something that is worried about and planned against but not actually experienced by most Israelis.

Even the much-discussed “demographic threat” is a threat only if Israel sees it as such — something the country’s new breed of politicians, such as Naftali Bennett, have cynically grasped. After all, Israel has ruled millions of Palestinians without offering them citizenship or a state for 40 years. There is no tipping point at which this becomes logistically or technically unsustainable. Walls, roads and checkpoints would work for 4 million Palestinians just as they do for 3 million.

In a sense, both hard-line supporters of Israel and advocates of peace have clung to the notion of the Jewish state as deeply vulnerable. For Likudniks, this demonstrated that Israel was at risk and needed constant support. For peaceniks, it proved that peace was a vital necessity.

But Israel’s strength and security are changing the country’s outlook. Don’t look only at the tough talk coming from the new right. As columnist and author Ari Shavit notes, the country has turned its attention from survival to social, political and economic justice. (January’s election results confirmed this trend.) And while these seem, at first, domestic affairs, they will ultimately lead to a concern for justice in a broader sense and for the rights of Palestinians.

Obama’s speech appealed to this aspect of Israel’s psyche and grounded it deeply in Jewish values: “Israel is rooted not just in history and tradition but also in the idea that a people deserve to be free in a land of their own.” Then, applying that idea to Israel’s longtime adversaries, he said: “Look at the world through [Palestinian] eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own. Living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements not just of those young people but their parents, their grandparents, every single day.”

Having tried pressure, threats and tough talk, Obama has settled on a new strategy: appealing to Israel as a liberal democracy and to its people’s sense of conscience and character. In the long run, this is the most likely path to peace and a Palestinian state.

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By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

University of Oklahoma junior Amath M’Baye has announced that he will forgo his senior season men’s basketball and will enter the National Basketball Association Draft. He is graduating early, and he announced plans to hire an agent.

“My time at OU has been great,” said M’Baye, “I’m 23 years old. My goal when I came to the United States was to take care of business in the classroom and by the time I was 23 to have a degree in my pocket. Now that I’m graduating in May, it’s time for me to start taking care of my family the way they’ve taken care of me for so long.

“It’s a tough process of saying goodbye to everybody because I love everyone here,” he added. “The coaches did an amazing job with me and with this team in general. Everyone was great here and I had an amazing time. I want to be able to come back down the road and help the program however I can, because it’s given me a lot.”

In his one season with Oklahoma M’Baye averaged 10.1 points and 5.2 rebounds this season en route to earning third-team All-Big 12 honors. He came into the season as the Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.  M’Baye subsequently helped the Sooners to a 20-12 record and a return to the NCAA Tournament after a three-year hiatus. He ranked second on the team in rebounding and third in scoring, and shot .461 from the field, .279 (12-for-43) from 3-point range and .750 (60-for-80) from the free throw line. He started all 32 contests and was named to the Big 12 All-Rookie Team, as well as to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team.

“Amath has been a terrific ambassador for the University of Oklahoma, both on the court and in the classroom,” said University of Oklahoma men’s basketball head coach Lon Kruger. “We appreciate his many contributions and wish him nothing but great success in the future…Amath’s contributions to this year’s team enhanced the foundation of our program, and we have a great and motivated young group of guys who will look to build on the success of this year’s squad.”

M’Baye stands at 6’9”, 208 pounds. He is originally from Bordeaux, France, but he also spent time in Senegal as a youth. He subsequently came to the United States in 2008 and played one year at Stoneridge Prep in Simi Valley, Calif. He played two seasons at the University of Wyomingbefore transferring to Oklahoma. The NBA Draft will be held on June 27th.

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Europe’s Best Airline Took Off from IAH

Turkish Airlines, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, is expanding its presence in the United States. Today marks the launch of its newest gateway in Houston, Texas. Houston becomes the fifth U.S. gateway, joining Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The airline will offer non-stop flights from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport (IST).

“We’re delighted that Turkish Airlines can now serve the Houston community and better connect them with our services to 220 destinations globally via Istanbul,” says Hamdi Topçu, Turkish Airlines’ Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee. “Houston is a key point in the international aviation. We believe that these new flights will make international travel easier and more convenient for both business and leisure travelers in the area.”

Members of the media, along with Hamdi Topçu, Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the Consul General of Turkey in Houston Cemalettin Aydin, , and Houston Airport System Director of Aviation Mario Diaz, attended the launch event at Terminal D at George Bush Intercontinental Airport before Turkish Airlines’ inaugural flight. The event featured authentic Turkish cuisine, live entertainment, a ribbon cutting ceremony and speaker remarks by top officials from local government, the Turkish government, Turkish Airlines, and the Houston Airport System.
“The direct flights to Istanbul will strengthen trade, investment and tourism ties for Houston in Turkey,” said Mayor Annise Parker. “I will lead a trade mission later this month to Istanbul to capitalize on the new air service and develop more economic relationships that will build a stronger bond between our global markets.”

For the first time ever, Houstonians will be able to experience firsthand Turkish Airlines’ unparalleled service, award-winning gourmet cuisine and amenities on the Boeing-777 aircraft en route to Istanbul. Houston service of Turkish Airlines will start with four frequencies per week: Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Beginning from July 3, 2013, the weekly frequencies of the mentioned flights will increase to six: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

“This new route positions Texas with a new strategic advantage for international commerce since more than 300 Houston companies have business or trade ties with Turkey,” said Mario C. Diaz, Director of the Houston Airport System. “In addition, Turkish Airlines offers outstanding connections from Istanbul, where a connecting passenger will have only three hours flying time to 50 different countries.”

Thirty-nine million passengers flew with Turkish Airlines in 2012 and that number is expected to grow by nine million this year, resulting in a 20% increase compared to 2011. With Houston being the fourth largest city in the United States in terms of population and home to thousands of Turkish residents it was a natural choice for the airlines’ next gateway. Houston is comprised of many different ethnic communities, many whom travel frequently to their homelands. Trade missions between Texas and Turkey have dramatically increased over the past few years and with the introduction of Turkish Airlines in the Houston market, investment opportunities will multiply.

Visit http://www.turkishairlines.com/.

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Jaguars owner makes it to the list of ‘Richest Floridians’

Shahid Khan, owner of Jacksonville Jaguars, has made it to the list of ‘Richest Floridians.’ He is ranked No. 9 Florida Trend’s list, with a net worth of $2.8 billion.

According to the Business Journal Khan has been spreading his good fortune throughout Jacksonville. He’s offered up to$1 million in prize money for OneSpark, a Downtown arts and innovation festival later this month and made a $1 million loan to an entrepreneur for research on fuel-injection technology.

Rashid Najeeullah wins Positive Coaching Alliance Award

Rashid Najeeullah — who coaches basketball for several New York City youth sports organizations, as well as The Heschel School — has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance for his positive impact on youth athletes.

“Rashid helps youth athletes win on and off the court,” said Jim Thompson founder and CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and author of eight books on youth sports, including The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience, and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Rashid helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”

Najeeullah coaches a 14-and-under team for the legendary Riverside Hawks AAU organization, whose alumni include Elton Brand, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Lamar Odom, Jerry Stackhouse and Metta World Peace (although Najeeullah did not coach them). He also is an assistant for the varsity high school team at The Heschel School, serves as basketball coordinator at the Boys’ Club of New York and leads a basketball program for Global Professional Sports

In all his different positions, he realizes that “coaching is a huge responsibility,” he said. “You’re not just a basketball coach, but you’re really a youth mentor, helping to raise productive members of society. Of course, everybody loves winning games, but I really enjoy the relationships I build with these youth.”

Najeeullah’s coaching runs the gamut from the recreation-oriented Global Professional Sports program to the more competitive Heschel School to the nationally competitive Riverside Hawks. “One thing I’ve learned is that kids are all different,” he said. “You have to know who you should be extra-hard with and who requires a softer approach. These are 14-year-olds, trying to figure out who they are and where they stand on the team and in life.

Winston-Salem library to host ‘Muslim Journeys’

WINSTON SALEM,NC–“Muslim Journeys,” a series of programs slated to be held next month in the Central Library Auditorium, will support the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, a collection of 25 books and three DVDs awarded to Forsyth County Public Library by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The series is free and open to the public.

• The film “Koran by Heart” will be screened on Sunday, April 14 at 2 p.m. This movie follows the story of three young people as they train and then compete in the annual International Holy Koran Competition in Cairo. The film will be introduced by Dr. Marlin Adrian, professor of religion at Salem College.• “What is Islam?” will be held on Sunday, April 7 at 2 p.m. The presentation will deal with the origins, history and basic beliefs of Islam. It will be presented by Imam Khalid Griggs of the Community Mosque of Winston-Salem.

• “Islamic Art: Mirror on the Invisible World” will conclude the series on April 21 at 2 p.m. This film explores the richness of Islamic art, from ornamented palaces and mosques to the beauty of ceramics and paintings. The film will be introduced by Dr. Chanchal Dadlani, assistant professor of art history at Wake Forest University.

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By Noor Hani Salem

Green Eggs and Ham sounds familiar, but what happens when this popular book by Dr. Suess enters an Islamic School? Well, simply, it becomes “Green Eggs and Jam” as one creative kindergarten teacher, Sr. Amale Abdu, put it. Inside the kindergarten classroom at the International Islamic Academy in Detroit, MI sit little imaginative minds ready to take on just about any adventure handed to them. The month of March is known to be Reading Month across the nation, but this classroom stands out from the rest for the creativity and uniqueness of activities done.

At the beginning of the month the students were sent home with a packet and calendar with daily activities linked to reading. Whether it was taking a book to bed, reading in the kitchen, or dressing as your favorite character, students were beyond hyped for nightly cross outs. Every student was asked to do free writing of the easiest thing to do and draw a picture to go along with it. One student writes “the easiest thing to do is reading because it’s the easiest”.

One of the most unique activities done in the classroom was the Green Eggs and Jam day. After the teacher changed the famous “Ham” to “Jam” so it could be Halal, the extreme fun began. All the students joined in and made green eggs, along with a side of toast and jam. Students sat and enjoyed their green meal, while the teacher made a graph and took note of the likes and dislikes. It was a successful activity on the teacher’s part, for students did truly take the main message of the book and went beyond their taste buds to try something new.

After reading The Magic Tree House the students had a day long program full of enjoyment. “Funday Monday” took place halfway through the month. It began with activities and centers for the students. After snacks and a movie students had reading time. Sr. Amale planned a scavenger hunt for the students around the entire school.

Rhyming words came into the picture too, after reading over a dozen of the Dr. Suess collection, including Hop on Pop. The students individually made a double sided flip book and found rhyming words and put it together. They also made rhyming books after reading Fox in Socks.

Around March 14th, after reading many rainbow related books and learning about them, every student was asked to complete a rainbow project at home and bring it in to the class to share. They were told to use various objects and simply get creative. They did truly take that statement to heart, and went above and beyond the imagination of a kindergartener. One student used crayons to create a rainbow, and another used pink flowers, red tissue paper, and orange leaves. Every rainbow was very unique and gorgeous in its own way. One student, Layan, even went above and beyond just making a rainbow poster project, she brought in a rainbow cake for her classmates.

Reading The Foot Book by Dr. Suess meant doing something that has to do with feet. That’s exactly what these adventurous little students did.  They painted their feet and created a class Foot Book. Every single page was designated to one student, with their painted foot along with a sentence or two explaining what their feet can do.  Those few students who didn’t like the idea of sticking their foot into paint were able to simply trace and draw their foot, and be a part of the class book too.

Throughout the entire month this kindergarten class room was visited by Mystery Readers. Parents were able to notify the teacher of a date and time they would be the mystery reader, without the students knowing who. Five clues of that parent were written down and they had to try to figure out who was coming in next. After reading the students a book many parents handed out goodies, some gave candy, others small toys, and some activity books and crayons. The excitement was clear on the faces of the children, and the love for reading was evidently growing immensely.

Parents were not the only ones coming in and reading to the students. The fourth grade classroom came in and sat one on one with the kindergarteners and a favorite book.

So it only takes the creativity of one teacher to get more than a dozen young minds creating beyond imagination.  These kindergarteners were able to build on reading, writing, and activity skills without realizing it was learning. They bonded with the Dr. Suess collection and many other books. They accomplished a lot, all in one month for a few hours every day. They didn’t simply “drop everything and read” or wear pajamas to school and bring a book. They went beyond that by miles. Now that’s what you call an adventure.

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Over-definition of norms makes it possible to legitimise attitudes that may be legally licit, but do not respect Islamic ethics in matters of behaviour

By Tariq Ramadan, Special to Gulf News

From Asia to North America, by way of the Middle East, Africa and Europe, the conclusion is inescapable: The contemporary Islamic conscience is in deep crisis. How to be a Muslim today? How to be faithful to one’s principles while remaining open to the world? How can Muslims deal with their diversity and overcome their multiple divisions? Can Muslim majority societies create new models of development, education and social justice; can they imagine economic alternatives?

Can the 1,000-year Islamic civilisation make an original contribution to the concert of cultures and civilisations? Everywhere, Muslim women and men, individuals and societies, ask themselves the same burning questions. The crisis drags on; no answer seems in sight. The light at the end of the tunnel seems nothing but an illusion.

Islam’s spiritual, religious and philosophical message is as clear as it is demanding. Humans are free beings who must assume full responsibility for their freedom by striving spiritually and intellectually for peace. Islam means the quest for peace: that of the heart as well as that of society: peace between citizens as well as nations. The message requires that we not neglect a single condition of peace, to keep constantly in mind the order and priority of ultimate goals. And if the ultimate of these goals is to respond to the Creator, and to love Him, if the essence of hope goes beyond the horizon of our earthly lives, it is no less true that life on this earth (“do not forget your part in this world”), knowledge (a message for those “imbued with intelligence”), dignity (“We have conferred dignity upon the children of Adam”), freedom (“No compulsion in religion”) and justice (“God commands justice and spiritual excellence”) are values and principles, and objectives to be attained in the here and now.

Our ultimate goals are clear; believers must participate in a jihad of humanity, dignity and conscience with their full hearts, minds and souls. As free beings they are called upon to act, with all the intensity of their faith, and to reform themselves and the world. Faith and belief in the One and Only means that they must never abandon hope among human beings. The most visible, the most serious signs of the crisis of the contemporary Islamic conscience can be found in the inversion of means and ends, and in the reversal of the order of the essential and the secondary. Inversion and reversal best describe the crisis that afflicts virtually every aspect of human activity, up to and including Islam’s spiritual message.

Believers are summoned to live their lives in the presence of the One and Only, by consciously behaving “as though they can see Him”. But many today, obsessed by their actions, their organisations, their movements, by power and money act in His name while forgetting the ultimate goal. Means have replaced ends, and the spiritual basis of action is lost, like a person at prayer who focuses his entire attention on the ritual movements of his body while forgetting to turn his heart upwards.

In dismay, some have sought to resist the drift by turning to spiritual teachings or joining mystic circles. Some have found genuine equilibrium, while among others we can observe troublesome excesses. While spirituality should help us change our lives, such peoples’ spiritual experience stands apart from their lives, which remain almost entirely untouched by the spiritual and ethical teachings they claim to follow. Still others turn their hearts almost entirely over to masters and guides whom they idealise, reducing themselves to a childish state. But at the heart of the Islamic message lies the shaping of free, responsible and autonomous beings in their relationship with God and with man. We have entered into a danger zone where a warped Muslim spirituality engenders human beings who are either potentially schizophrenic or suffer from serious emotional handicaps. The education of the heart should remind us of the ultimate goals of our existence; instead it ends up neglecting the most basic of all teachings. Spiritual exile is a means whose ultimate objective is reconciliation of the human being with his heart in a state of humility and peace. To exile oneself for the sole sake of exile may well be, in this perspective, a trap set by the ego that must be mastered and that, maliciously, may well end up dominating once again: the inversion is a pernicious one.

We find the same inversion when we examine the question of Islamic rules and regulations (the licit and the illicit, halal and haram) in today’s world. Whether a question of personal practice or social regulation, or even of applied legislation, we encounter the same dilemma: the hypertrophy of norms that limit, forbid and accuse while forgetting the higher objectives for the attainment of which these selfsame rules and laws were established in the first place. Discounting the most literalist trends, this reflex can be noted among a large number of jurisprudents (fuqaha) and simple believers who confuse respect for norms — while failing to take account of context and ultimate goals — with fidelity and its finality. The rule should be the means; now it has been transformed into an end.

Of course, we must assert, and emphasise, that clear-cut and unchangeable practices, duties, and proscriptions exist and must be respected. It is also true that some of them require knowledge of the context in which they apply if we wish to remain faithful to their logic. If we fail to do so, fundamental issues are neglected: over-definition of norms makes it possible to legitimise attitudes that may be legally licit, but do not respect Islamic ethics in matters of behaviour.

The treatment of animals provides an excellent example. Concentrating on the licit quality of meat slaughtered according to strict Islamic rules leads to overlooking, and not challenging, the unacceptable treatment of living creatures (including by Muslims). Examples are legion: the licit nature of the rule by no means guarantees the ethical basis of behaviour. This holds true in such diverse areas as social justice, relations between women and men, racism, pluralism, etc. The obsession with norms transforms them into an ultimate goal; they are no longer a means to an end, but the end itself, an inversion of priorities: the essence is forgotten and vanishes.

The Messenger (PBUH) clearly defined his message in terms of rules and regulations but also above and beyond them: “I was sent to complete proper [ethical] behaviour.” A rule is only as good as the ultimate goal that lends it its meaning. To pray without remembering the Unique One is no longer to pray.

The crisis is acute. To resolve it there must be an awakening, a renewal, and a revolution — in the literal sense — in our way of thinking. What the current state of confusion, the inversions and the reversals reveal is a state of mind, a collective psychology that, for generations, has attempted to integrate — to the point of transforming it into second nature — the idea of the victim who must so surround himself with rules, regulations and interdictions that he ultimately denatures the very meaning of Islam’s teachings. Shaped by psychological victimhood, constantly on the defensive, the norm indeed becomes an objective in and of itself, a limit, a framework that must be affirmed in order to prevent the loss of selfhood, alienation and ultimately, disintegration off the self. Such an attitude, natural enough as a first reflex of survival, can only produce a crisis of confidence and meaning if we remain entrapped by it, as we are today.

We are coming to the end of a historic cycle the likes of which Islamic civilisation has experienced many times before. Scholars and thinkers of the new generations will emerge to carry out the fundamental reform as to the way of reading the sacred texts in a spirit of renewal, faith and courage. Women and men who embody a reform of consciences that resists the dehumanisation of their spiritual being, who refuse to accept the world as it is, and who commit themselves to reform in their hearts and societies, not by adapting to what they have become, but by transforming them and leading them to what they must become, in freedom, dignity and peace.

Tariq Ramadan is professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Qatar. He is the author of Islam and the Arab Awakening.

Gulf News

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International law does not allow combatants to kill in the morning and enjoy dinner with their children later in the evening.

By Aroop Mukharjimar

A German Bundeswehr armed forces pilot operator controls a Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicle on a mission from their Advance Ground Control Station at the Marmal army camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, on December 11, 2012. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Here’s one aspect of the drones debate that has received little airplay: the international consensus against human shielding – the idea that civilians in the United States should be protected from military targeting and the battlefield. There’s a lot of talk about protecting civilians abroad from drone strikes, but what about civilians at home?

Most people associate human shields with the horrific practice of physically surrounding oneself with children in battle, a tactic most recently used by the Syrian army in 2012, when the UN reported that it had strapped children to its tanks to deter enemy attacks. That is the clearest and most perverse example of human shields, but human shielding is not limited to those instances alone.

The Geneva Convention and customary international law also extend the definition to three other scenarios. First, it can refer to the purposeful placement of military facilities within dense civilian population centers, or, conversely, the purposeful placement of civilians among military facilities. Additionally, shielding occurs when combatants deliberately attack from or are housed within civilian residences. These actions are prohibited because combatants can effectively “shield” military targets with innocent civilians, contravening the codes of war.

Sound familiar yet? Because drone operators (those who fly drones by remote control) target and kill enemies, they are targetable as participants in combat. But American drone operators are not normal combatants. They live with their families. Their civilian and military worlds are intertwined.

For example, a drone operator sitting in a base in Nevada may control a drone buzzing over Afghanistan. Though the operation may be conducted within a military compound, far removed from civilian populations, the problem arises when a drone operator completes a shift and goes home.

As combatants, drone operators are targetable at any time. On the battlefield, a combatant does not acquire immunity when he (and now, she) is eating, sleeping, or picking up children from school. And that is the key, because on traditional battlefields, there are no children, and there are no schools. International law does not allow combatants to kill in the morning and then enjoy immunity later in the evening. It is not a light switch. War has never worked that way.

In all the discussion about drones, little attention has been directed at drone operators. When they do come up, the conversation centers on the psychological effects of constantly switching from combatant to civilian life, day in, day out. While that is a significant concern, this duality of civilian and military life under the laws of war gets little attention.

The reason is obvious: nobody is attacking drone operators in Nevada. Al-Qaeda thankfully has no armed drones at its disposal, so U.S. operators risk little by sleeping in their homes at night. And nor are they deliberately using civilians to shield themselves.

But what happens when the rest of the world has drones? That question is increasingly important as manufacturers look to international markets. While only the U.S. and U.K. have ever deployed armed drones, several countries have them, including China, which considered using one last month to kill a drug lord. Dozens more countries are eager to jump on board and are already investing in research, so drone technology will likely be widely available soon.

The advent of drones challenges the notion of the battlefield and we are far from resolving all of the legal and moral questions it raises. Allowing drone operators to live among civilians is a part of that story. Are we comfortable with a tactic that contradicts one of the essential maxims of warfare, the separation of civilian and military targets?

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THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOK

By Asif Jamal

Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf speaks during an interview with Reuters in Dubai March 23, 2013. Musharraf said on Saturday he has been granted bail in advance to avoid being arrested upon his planned return home on Sunday following nearly four years of self-imposed exile. REUTERS/Mohammad Abu Omar

Commando style heroic touchdown of the tenth and longest serving President of Pakistan, General Parvez Musharraf, despite having uncertainty of his safety, he still proved that he is the man of his word who is ready to face all prevailing challenges and is ready to even put his life on stake on his principles.  So he touches the soil again after four years of his self-imposed exile with an expectation of taking the political center stage again and it’s not because of any lust of power, but a sheer feeling of pure love to the motherland leaving that safe and sound life abroad aside, he has indeed made a move that only a patriotic brave army man could have taken under the circumstances when neither he is sure of his triumph nor he is cast-ironed his safety. 

President Musharraf has survived at least three assassination attempts during the time when he was in power earlier and even to date when he has serious threats to his existence, adding those cases hovering around on him, his return is indeed very courageous and for sure he must have pensively pondered all aspects of his safety and integrity.  He acknowledges that there are a lot of challenges in front of him but he bravely says that he is ready to face them all and he is not afraid of anyone but Allah so, to his mind, he has put his life in danger to save Pakistan.

Valiant by nature, President Musharraf has high hopes of taking mandate in the upcoming general elections on grounds of leaving Pakistan in much better condition than it is today but sour taste that he left behind him then is not easy to dilute. 

The five years of bad governance has pushed the country at least 50 years back in progress but having an analogy of only the last government’s failure will not justify anything.  There were many important issues were neglected during President Musharraf’s tenure as well but if the yard stick is the last PPP government, then, indeed, situations were not as absurd as it is today.  However, what is the likelihood of him taking the control seems far from reality unless or otherwise, there is another strategy in place that is if somehow all other parties unanimously announce their support in favor of his newly formed party, APML which is again very unlikely but anything is possible, in a place like Pakistan.

No doubt he has a lot of credentials to support his aspiration of becoming the head of state again, but on contrary to this, what’s going to haunt him is how he got the power in the first time!  The civil society, despite of its inability of managing the system under democracy, still don’t like the dictatorship.  In this particular scenario, he is perhaps the only one in the history of Pakistan that in spite of him being the longest serving undemocratic president, he wishes to come back to power now through the democratic way to change the questionable destiny of Pakistan but really will he be able to win the mandate across the territory?  No matter how captivating he is, but he still has to assimilate that he is dealing with those 70% who live in the rural areas and mainly controlled by feudal-lords of the respective area.  Had he taken action against the real dictatorship of those feudal lords during his reign then, it may have been a bit more conducive for him to get a landslide! Thus, the only workable strategy for him is really to vow the prevailing political strength and get them to bow down to his leadership under some sort of arrangements otherwise, this dream will never come true since Imran Khan is equally desperate to take the control in his hands.

To this connection, I have brought in two distinguished individuals to present their point-of-view on the subject:

Amir-Ul-Islam, a very prominent businessman from NJ, while commenting on President Musharraf says: “While others, looking from outside, might ascribe ulterior, personal and ambition related motives to his desire to come back, he is looking at it through a different prism.  To him, he is the only hope of salvation for the country and for the country to survive; he must come back and take over the reins.”

He added, “the rationale for this view point is substantiated by his actions prior to his ouster as well.  He is a man of principles and yet he is a pragmatist and a strategist. When the time came, he did whatever he had to do to preserve his government. He made the deal with the devil. End justified the means.  He was utterly convinced that not only the country needed him but that there was no other viable alternate. He rationalized that preserving his rule is not only the best course for the nation but the only course and to that end he theorized that whatever actions needed to be taken were justified.  Five years later, he is still working under the same paradigm.”

“Corruption in Pakistan is a systemic problem and a matter of mindset.  GPM is more of a strategist than a tactician. True, that the corruption during his tenure was not as pervasive as today but it was still fairly rampant. To his credit he managed to maintain a reputation of honesty and integrity in a personal level but even his closest aides were embroiled in multitude of scandals. On a more positive note however, if past is any guide, the will not be providing the patronage to corruption that is currently being afforded from the highest levels of government. This in itself should tamper down the malaise of corruption to some degree,” Mr Islam concluded.

Mawiz Siddiqui, a senior journalist based in NY, says: “First of all, a dictator cannot make space in people’s heart no matter how good of a leader he was, they can tolerate him during the time, but cannot be accepted as a national leadership.  “Democratic leader is a democratic leader, remember when Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan, the cheering crowd that came to receive them was over 100,000 versus, for President Musharraf, to exaggerate, only a few thousand were there to welcome him.  The detriment to him and his party is, they can’t run a an election campaign effectively due to security concern, so fear is there which means, he may even go back to Dubai or London and settle down there after elections and still claim that he was brave enough to return to the soil and have faced all cases against him.” 

“I am sure he will not go into public openly.  But he came back with the blessings of Saudi Arabia and western governments, just imagine why all of a sudden Nawaz Sharif is quite who once used to issue harsh statements against him,” Mr. Siddiqui concluded.

In the light of above point of views, at one point it seems that he has the capability in him to take the country into next level or at least, bring it back to the same place where he left five years ago and might even be able to bring back the looted money to national exchequer though it is too tall an order but even  if he slow down the drain on nation’s finances through pilferage, it would be a significant victory but on the hand it also looks that this task is far from the cry. 

– To participate in this column or for comments and suggestions, you may reach the scribe via email at theamericannotebook@gmail.com & follow him on Twitter @AsifJamalNY

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