irshaddering thoughts

The future of progressive Islam: My Newsweek.com exclusive

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements on May 01, 2009

Faces of progressive Islam in Indonesia (April 2008)

With the media focused on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, it’s easy to assume that progressive Islam has no hope in hell.

But if you read this blog regularly, you know that I highlight reformist Muslim voices at every turn. As I said to my Facebook fans a few days ago, “Let’s bring Islam’s reformists out of the shadows and give the world much-needed hope.”

Now, Newsweek.com is featuring my latest essay about the future of progressive Islam. Here’s the opener:

At a recent event in India, I asked Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf, whether he would support his country’s tireless human rights activists. He invited me to pose a different question. I didn’t.

“Sit down!” the retired army general then ordered.

Things probably won’t get that tense when Pakistan’s current president, Asif Ali Zardari, visits Barack Obama next week. But maybe they should, given the Taliban’s growing reach and Zardari’s plunging cred. The two presidents will be joined by a third, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, a religious “moderate” who routinely barters away the rights of women and minorities to warlords and mullahs.

As a reform-minded Muslim, I admit that these guys make the notion of diversity in my faith look laughable. Their track records underscore why, to fathom the future of progressive Islam, we have to venture beyond the geo-political hotspots…”

Read my entire Newsweek.com essay.

And remember to comment! My favorite reactions so far:

“I take offense at the recent push to recognize this heinous belief. You can stick it up where the sun dont shine! This insidious machinations of corrupted minds and manipulative skulduggery is reprehensible. Go away!”

Another reader echoes this statement by commenting, “Ban Islam worldwide and any of the other cults posing as religion that oppress their followers or use force in any way to promote their garbage!” To which the mischievously named Osama Bin Login replies, “Does anyone else see the irony in that statement?”

Personally, I don’t see the irony in insisting that violent cults be expunged — by force if diplomacy fails.  How else would Nazism have been defeated? We should never tolerate persistent intolerance for the sake of “inclusion,” as that only legitimizes the exclusion practiced by those whom we’re bending over backwards to accommodate. Osama bin Login loses me on that score.

But unlike the reader who wants to “ban Islam,” I believe that a tolerant, humane and rational version of Islam is possible.  Indeed, my Newsweek.com feature gives a real-world example, which apparently escaped the reader’s radar. “Ban Islam” proves the old adage that people hear what they want to hear.

We all come to the table with prejudices — some, to be sure, more dangerous than others.

Defeating Islamophobia

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Q & A on Apr 25, 2009

A few days ago, I wrote about Aska. She’s a university student in Poland who wonders how to combat Islamophobia. Specifically, what can she tell her friends and teachers who seem to believe that Muslims are inherently arrogant and misogynist hell-raisers? Read the beginnings of my response.

Of course, I affirm the humanity of Muslims. But I won’t romanticize Islam or sanitize how we widely practice it. The fact is, Muslims can be remarkably arrogant when accounting for the human rights abuses that we inflict on each other, never mind how we so often treat those outside of the ummah (global Muslim community).

Rather than own our dysfunction, we reflexively blame America, Israel, Christianity, materialism, MTV, McDonald’s, and the ever-convenient Jews. An equally popular coping mechanism is to remain mute about our self-inflicted shortcomings, for fear of damaging relations with our higher-ups — be they parents, imams, or even secular leaders of our communities.

Bottom line: Our prickly defensiveness stops Muslims from presenting ourselves as complex, multi-dimensional beings. In effect, we’re conspiring against ourselves, giving Aska and other non-Muslim allies precious little ammo to confront bona fide bigots.

So how can this young woman of good will persuade her peers and educators that Muslims are capable of both humility and humanity?

The key, I believe, is to promote the voices of reform-minded Muslims. These people remain faithful to the just ideals of Islam, but acknowledge the trouble with Muslims today. (Hmmm… “The Trouble with Muslims Today.” What a great idea for a book title!)

Reform-minded Muslims struggle not so much with Islam as with the fear that comes from speaking truth to power within Islam.

When publicizing their sincere struggles, we send two messages: First, Muslims who value reason and freedom actually exist. Second, they deserve to be brought out of the shadows — for everyone’s education.

Here, then, are the words of three reform-minded Muslims who wrote to me after Aska emailed her question about fighting Islamophobia. Their words are the antidote to anti-Islam prejudices on the part of non-Muslims, and anti-modern biases on the part of Muslims:

* “I read The Trouble with Islam Today and can’t tell you how much of an eye opener it was for me, the muslim woman, who was raised up with fear of the dad, the teacher and God. For the first time, the things I was brought up not questioning, became questionable. I started thinking and reasoning facts, I’m 37, too late in life, I know, and I just wish I read it earlier…

There’s turmoil now in my brain, and I’m glad there is. I still can’t help relating every small bad thing that happened to me to God’s wrath for something I’ve done, though I’m very innocent :), I’ve always lived by the book and did the right thing. I guess fear is so embedded in my soul, and hopefully one day, I get rid of it.” - Mona El Samaty, Egypt

* “I have come to know about your mission to resuscitate the true spirit of Islam [as] a voice of sanity in this psychopathic world of biases. Being in Pakistan with an inquisitive head on my shoulders, I have some idea of the travails that you have chosen to face…

We have a female breed here which seems to buy constrictive dogmatic notions to such a degree that it takes the likes of me, arguing in favour their liberation, for which I am seen as less faithful and even immoral. Moreover, the biased way in which our mothers treat their male and female children, makes me dare propound that today it’s more the ‘women against women’ than the ‘men against women’, at least in Pakistan.

I really feel sad when I see that the practices in Islam, rather than giving the courage and confidence to live a free and inquisitive life, renders most of my fellow-religionists to live as ‘born’ cowards. I call them born cowards because the religio-cultural training behind this in our societies starts right from the moment of the birth.

Respected Ms. Manji, people like you serve as a source of energy for the ones like me, living in Muslim states, who cannot afford to ’speak out loud’. I tried to, but I was made to realize that I would offend many and win almost none, with harassment being the cherry on the top. May Allah always bless you with the best. And bless me with the courage to stand up, like you have chosen to.” - Muhammad Khurram Yaqub, Lahore, Pakistan.

* “Thanks so much for posting the reformist translation of the Quran. I converted 7 years ago and the basic faith principles were appealing, but I quickly learned that my views were NOT accepted by mainstream muslims. I wondered if I really was muslim?

But I always thought that the hadiths [reported words and deeds of the Prophet] were a bunch of lies made up by men with beards and that religion can be often contorted by man, so I felt like at some point I will have more clarity and I should stick with my gut feeling.

Now I have some material to read and help me interpret the Quran. For many, many years I’ve been searching for an English translation that makes sense! Keep posting great things on your site, I will be checking often.” - Julie, USA

These are the Muslims whom Aska should bring to the attention of her university friends and teachers. They are the Muslims who speak to the corrupt reality of contemporary Islam, while holding fast to the ideals for which Islam once stood — and, in its best moments, still does.

Above all, these are the Muslims whom other Muslims should support if they’re frustrated with being framed through one lens. Mona, Muhammad and Julie are proof positive of the diversity within our faith, if only we allowed ourselves to express it. Out Loud.

The first step to fighting Islamophobia is that we Muslims must stop stereotyping ourselves.

Your big questions, my big mouth

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Q & A on Apr 20, 2009

With students at the University of Western Ontario, April 2009

Students who attend my lectures are brazenly pelting me with deep and complicated questions. It’s my fault for traveling the world and delivering speeches entitled, “The Power of Asking Questions – Out Loud.”

Am I an idiot? Before you answer, let it be known that I’m adopting a new title: “The Power of Asking Questions — to People Other Than Me. Thank you, Good-Bye and Good Luck.”

Alright, I know the title is too long. In any event, I can’t run away. Not before the summer.

So here’s one of the questions that I’ve been reflecting on lately. It comes from Poland — and , appropriately enough, it’s asked by someone called Aska. (When you live up to your name, you deserve a response):

“I’m student of International Relations on Cardinal Wyszynski Uniwersity in Warsaw. Your book is fantastic for me - help me understand problem in muslim country. But I have problem with one matter: Islamophobia in Europe. Tell me how we (students, youth, people) should fight wrong stereotypes? I have a lot of muslim friends, I understand what they feel, what they think. I know that there r good muslim and bad muslim, this is same for christian, jew, hindu. But when I talk with my friends & sometimes my uniwersity teacher, they told this: muslim r no good, they r egotistic, they not respect women, they have wrong thinking, islam is destructive religion etc. Soon I will make a speech about Islamophobia in Europe. Please help me present the important & persuasive arguments for my friends & teacher.”

I love the irony: Someone wants me to help her debunk stereotypes of Muslims when I’m so often accused of perpetuating those very stereotypes.

Didn’t Aska get the memo that I’m a self-hating Muslim because I challenge my fellow Muslims to rise above their lazy prejudices?

Is Aska a self-hating Pole for challenging members of her own nation to do the same?

Or would Muslims consider her a constructive member of the human family?

It might be cheeky to pose these questions. But my intent is more profound. If we’re serious about fighting stereotypes of Islam, it’s we Muslims who must lead the effort by allowing diverse voices within our own communities to flourish.

The fact is, reform-minded Muslims exist. But instead of giving them the permission to express their truths, we label them self-haters. Too often, we go even further to intimidate reformists into silence.

Then we tell earnest Westerners like Aska to convince her fellow Westerners of Muslim goodness. To help her, we emphasize that “Islam means peace.”

Reality check: Irshad means guidance. Clearly many Muslims believe I’m misguided. So which is it, people? Am I divinely guided because my name says so? If not, then why should anybody take to heart that Islam is peaceful simply because of its name?

After tossing Aska’s question in my head for a month, I’ve realized this: The answer that she needs can’t come from me; it must come from Muslims everywhere. We have to stop treating ourselves like a monolith and thereby giving non-Muslims a reason to see us that way too.

In my next blog post, I’ll help us get there. At the same time, I’ll help Aska show her friends and teachers a different side of Islam — without sanitizing the very real troubles within Islam today.

Now go ask someone else your annoyingly tough question. I’m just a little busy.

Afghanistan: What the…?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Apr 15, 2009

Kabul, April 2009 (Photos: Roberta Bonazzi)

A number of you are writing to ask what I think of President Barack Obama’s strategy of committing more troops to Afghanistan.

He’s explained it this way: 4,000 more soldiers will support the Afghan army and police so that the people there, like Iraqis, can soon stand on their own. By staying ‘focused’ and ‘realistic,’ Obama’s vision sounds like a winner. Except…

I’ve just written a commentary about why I can no longer defend our military presence in Afghanistan. Here’s how my editorial begins:

There was a time when I believed. With every fibre of my feminist Muslim being, I believed in our Afghanistan mission. No longer.

On Sunday, the Taliban assassinated another Afghan women’s rights activist. It happened only days after the world learned of yet one more anti-female statute that Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, signed into law.

Critics accused him of caving to warlords ahead of the coming elections. Only when Western voices amplified the protests of liberal Afghans did Karzai put the law “under review.” Human rights advocates called it a triumph.

The victory, such as it is, will be short-lived. I’m increasingly convinced that Afghanistan’s problem lies deeper than a recalcitrant Taliban or a gutless central government. It’s a problem so profound that for the first time I have to ask: Should coalition troops just get out?

My good friend Roberta Bonazzi, Executive Director of the European Foundation for Democracy, disagrees with my new pessimism. Having just returned from Kabul, she argues that to pull out now would be to abandon the people of Afghanistan.

But in this editorial, I point out why “winning” might only mean reinforcing age-old patterns of cyclical violence. How does that empower the people?

Think and decide for yourselves after reading my full commentary in the Toronto Globe & Mail.

Update: The commentary has generated a lot of debate — so much so that two days later, CBC Radio’s main news show, The Current, had me on to discuss my doubts. The interview was more heart-wrenching than any I’ve done about my book. Am I betraying the cause of human rights by asking my questions out loud? Listen here.

Christian and Muslim - at the same time?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements, Q & A on Apr 12, 2009

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

I’ve just returned from Easter service at the Riverside Church in New York City. Before his impassioned sermon, the Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton announced that next Sunday, April 19, Riverside will host an Episcopal minister who’s just been defrocked because… she’s also a Muslim.

You got that right: Rev. Ann Holmes Redding is a Christian clergywoman who has converted to Islam but refuses to choose between the two religions. How’s that possible? I don’t know. But I can’t wait to find out.

It’s not just personal curiosity that propels me to clear my schedule and attend Rev. Redding’s talk next week. It’s also the fact that last week, I received a profound question from a student at one of my university lectures. After she heard me describe myself as a Muslim who appreciates multiple perspectives, the student wrote: “How can one have true faith in one religion and have a pluralistic attitude with which to meet people who hold other beliefs? Don’t these two ideas contradict each other?”

I don’t believe they contradict each other, and I’ll explain why in my next book.

But I also don’t go as far as Rev. Redding in acquiring a second religion to express my pluralistic impulse. It’s true that I’ve jokingly referred to myself as a Bu-Mu, or Buddhist Muslim. I think the Buddha got it right that attachment, including attachment to one identity, creates suffering since affixing ourselves to labels prevents personal — and communal — growth. For that same reason, I feel no need to “convert” to Buddhism or any other creed.

Which is why I’m intrigued that Rev. Redding does feel that need. Judging by this interview, she seems to be saying that Christianity is substantively no different from Islam, so embracing both is a blessing. But if there’s no real difference, then why go through the process of converting?

Moreover, why would a female Christian minister adopt a religion that has — count ‘em — not one official female cleric in its ranks? “It’s not about the dogmatic practitioners,” I can hear my own inner dialogue replying. “It’s about the God Who transcends human pettiness.”

But if the God of Christianity is the God of Islam, then we’re back to square one: Why bother converting? Why not love the best of each faith and dispense with the formalities; the very formalities that calcify faith into dogma and make people believe that God is some gatekeeper of club membership? (The fact that Rev. Redding now covers her hair around Muslims — a custom straight out of tribal culture, not faith — tells me that her Islam is already corrupted by the clubby consensus of the dogmatists.)

It seems to me that if God is love, then God accepts all attempts at sincere and peaceful communication, whether you bend, bow, breathe deeply, or simply whisper from the seat a of New York City subway train. If god isn’t so merciful, then I’m not convinced it’s a god worth worshiping.

Precisely because I appreciate multiple perspectives, I’ll be listening closely to Rev. Redding on April 19 at the Riverside Church. If you live in New York, please consider joining me.

Update: CNN special postponed because of pirates

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements on Apr 10, 2009

Um, that’s the weirdest headline I’ve ever given a blog post.

Let me explain it. The “Test of Faith” program that CNN was to have aired tonight — and for which I asked you to give me advice — has just been postponed due to breaking news about the American being held hostage by Somali pirates. CNN’s in the news biz so I can’t blame them for letting pirates hijack a meaningful hour of TV.

For transparency’s sake, I’m sharing the text that the producer just sent me: “Up to eyeballs in pirates… [Tonight’s] show cancelled. Wld love to have you back next week. Apologize for any inconvenience.”

I apologize too. Because so many of you sent thoughtful responses to the spiritual questions that we would have explored on-air. But who knows? Assuming CNN broadcasts “Test of Faith” next week, your responses might still come in handy. So continue thinking, reflecting, and emailing: comments@irshadmanji.com

If nothing else, in a few days, I’ll post a blog or two excerpting your responses and informing you of my own. Meanwhile, keep the faith. Pray for the hostage’s safe release. And Happy Easter/Passover weekend to you all.

Previously on CNN: “Lemme have a word with those pirates…”

CNN this Friday night - don’t just watch; advise me!

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements on Apr 08, 2009

Previously on CNN: “C’mon, you do think I’m right, don’t you?”

On Good Friday, April 10, I’ll take part in a CNN prime-time special called “Test of Faith.” Among the questions to be explored:

* Is the global financial meltdown more of a spiritual crisis than an economic one?

* Does God hate materialism?

* Can religion effectively curb human greed?

* What ethical lessons have the past several months taught us — be it about saving or consuming?

Now, I’d like to believe that I have fan-flippin’-tastic answers to all of these questions. But the truth is, I’m wrestling like all of us.

So I invite you to send me your responses to any of the questions above. Your views may very well shape what I say on-air. Hell, you might even find yourself directly quoted. (How’s that for infiltrating the media?)

Contact me: comments@irshadmanji.com

“Test of Faith” will air this Friday at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific) on CNN.

Are you on The List?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road, Announcements on Apr 05, 2009

Paparazzi swarm a party that I recently attended in India…

…But you’ll only hear the buzz by subscribing to The List

Last week, I blasted my latest e-newsletter to the several thousand members of my mailing list. The very first response I got? “Absolutely love your newsletter! It is interesting, youthful, exciting and informative.”

To which I responded, “Thanks mom.”

If you’re not on The List — my free and confidential mailing list, that is — subscribe here.

Read my e-newsletter here.

You can also read past newsletters by going to my new “Events” page and scrolling down. Enjoy all the photos!

By the way, I’m keenly aware that a lot of you are asking about my take on Afghanistan. I plan to address that in my next blog entry. For now, let’s just dance.

The audacity of Pope

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Mar 29, 2009

One of my finest students, Kate Otto, in Africa

I admit it: I’m one proud professor right now.

That’s because you’re about to read a star student of mine named Kate Otto. She’s a Christian, an HIV/AIDS activist and a soon-to-be graduate of NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.

Kate’s mighty outraged by Pope Benedict’s latest comments about condoms. And she’s saying so. Publicly. On a blog that she knows is read by people in America, Africa, India, even Indonesia — where she’ll be working for a year upon graduation.

Ladies and gentlemen, a young voice of moral courage…

Mahatma Gandhi once commented, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I imagine he would have considered Pope Benedict XVI just such a Christian based on his remarks en route to Cameroon last week. HIV, the Pope opined, is a tragedy “that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”

As both a Christian and a student of health policy, I understand the Pope’s comments to reflect the frustrating dynamic of religious interpretation intervening in public health solutions. The ironic bit is, religious leadership and ‘Christlike’ behavior could help slow the pandemic.

Countless Biblical passages call Christians to attend to those in most dire need; in our world, they are indisputably people at highest risk of contracting HIV. The same passage used to condemn sexual ‘immorality’ (1 Corinthians 6:20 — “honor God with your body”) could easily be used instead to promote healthy physical behavior, including safe sex.
Religion is interpretation, and always has been. In the disappointing case of the Pope, religious interpretation continues to exacerbate the AIDS pandemic. This Pope needs to wake up to the twenty-first century: Condoms decrease the spread of HIV.

However, let me confess that he makes an important point: Condoms alone will not resolve AIDS. Condoms cannot simply be shipped out and distributed haphazardly. People must learn how to use them, and how to talk about using them. Until cultures (including American culture) shift towards seeing condom use as normal sexual behavior, HIV will persist. Condoms are effective only when used correctly and consistently, and this requires comprehensive sex education, which the Pope should endorse.

My faith and my intellect are stunned by the Pope, who is audacious enough to encourage abstinence in the face of serious sexual issues that he is too cowardly to address. He ignores the women who remain faithful but are infected by promiscuous partners. He ignores that they are often domestically abused if they ask to use a condom. He ignores the economic conditions and cultural biases that mean, for millions, that sex is never a pleasure. Sex workers sell their bodies as the sole means of keeping themselves and their family alive. Children are raped, every single day, worldwide. Instead of avoiding these disenfranchised victims, I believe the Pope’s job description calls him to mimic Christ, and attend to them.

Ultimately, this is not an issue of religion; it is an issue of morality. The Pope is missing an incredible opportunity to turn the tide on this disease. Recently, former South African President Thabo Mbeki was charged with causing 365,000 AIDS deaths for his failure to ensure provision of lifesaving AIDS medications.

I similarly hold the Pope accountable for AIDS deaths (certainly the 50,000 that will happen this week alone) for failing to use his immense influence to change culture and promote evidence-based, effective prevention mechanisms.

Christians should be protesting the Pope in the name of Christ. As a Christian, I am speaking out against the Pope’s abysmal leadership. May he learn to live like the Christ who said, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

“Sit down!”: My moment with Musharraf

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road on Mar 23, 2009

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf answering my question at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi

Some people back-pack in India. Others join meditation retreats. A lot of us visit relatives (because we’re in horrendous trouble if we don’t). One day, I hope to drop in on all my Aunties and Uncles. But for now, I’m satisfied with having used my India adventure to confront Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf, about honor killings.

Let me explain.

India Today — the news magazine of record in the sub-continent — invited me to speak at its annual conference, known as the India Today Conclave. My speech tackled the question, “Does terror have a religion?” (Quick answer: Terror has no particular religion, but it always has a dogma. Just ask Robespierre, luminary of the French Revolution, who hated institutional Christianity but embraced terror. As he notoriously announced, “Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue…“)

Speaking at the India Today Conclave:

“Does Terror have a Religion?”

(Courtesy: Hemant Chawla/India Today)

On the final night of the conference, delegates convened for a gala dinner keynoted by Pervez Musharraf. I was seated at the head table — mere feet from the speaker as he addressed the entire ballroom. Musharraf called himself a “man for peace” and acknowledged the link between religious “extremism” and “terrorism.”

Given these statements, I had to pose a question. But how to get the moderator’s attention? After all, the majority of delegates — among India’s power players — were springing out of their seats to press Musharraf about Pakistan’s involvement in last November’s terrorist attacks on Bombay.

The moderator, India Today’s elegant editor-in-chief, ain’t no dummy. There was news to be made here. His sharp journalistic instincts compelled him to set aside the lion’s share of time for the boisterous debate about India’s 9/11.

In that atmosphere, what was I to do — knowing that my question would inconveniently change the topic?

Don’t let the look fool you: Maulana Madani, a progressive Muslim cleric, speaks after me and blasts gender bias in Islam

(Courtesy: Ravi Sahani/India Today)

Enter Pakistan’s ambassador to India, a refreshingly open-minded man who, it turns out, has defended my work since his days as Pakistan’s ambassador to Canada. (Talk about moral courage!) He waved to the moderator and directed his sight to me. The ambassador, God bless him, had no idea what I would ask. All he had was faith that it would be worth hearing. I tried to make it so.

Standing up, I broke with the barrage of hostility aimed at Musharraf and began, simply, with “salaam alaikum.” I wanted to assure him that I’m asking my question as a fellow Muslim – and a faithful one, at that. He let slip a smile of relief. The smile wouldn’t last, as my question came next:

Since you’ve emphasized the connection between extremism and terrorism, and since you’ve been respectfully challenged to find a post-presidential role for yourself as a “man for peace,” will you let me help you find a role in supporting the many Pakistani human rights activists who are working against the epidemic of honor killings in your country?

Musharraf paused. “Would you like to ask another question?” he retorted. No, I replied. Honor killings are an important issue, and this is a golden opportunity for you to declare before an august audience that you mean what you say.

At which point, Musharraf whipped out the cultural club. “Sit down!” he ordered.

I guess even retired generals never really hang up their army fatigues. For the sake of results, I did as he decreed and took my seat.

Musharraf launched into a defensive dissertation about women’s inequality being a problem all over the world, not just in Pakistan. He then insisted that his government took steps to end discrimination against women. (To an extent, he’s right, and I wrote about these efforts almost three years ago in the Los Angeles Times. Facing a robust campaign waged by Pakistani civil society, Musharraf did more to loosen the grip of strict Sharia than the late Benazir Bhutto ever did.)

But to those women who aren’t satisfied with what he’s already done, Musharraf said this: If you try to climb a ladder too fast, you’ll fall off. (Perhaps he should read the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which Martin Luther King Jr. writes, “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’”)

Musharraf wrapped his reply by admitting that he’s really not sure what he can do now that he’s no longer president, but that “even in my present capacity if I can do anything, I would like to do it.” You gotta take victories where you can get them. I interpreted his parting words, however grudging and grumpy, as an invitation to send him ideas.

Daila Lama opens the India Today Conclave

Later, I told my new diplomatic BFF, the Pakistani ambassador to India, that by no means was I singling out Pakistani women as the only victims of male violence in our messed-up world. In fact, I’ve recently blogged about the anti-female ferocity of Hindu nationalists in India.

But surely it’s reasonable to expect Pervez Musharraf, as the former prez of Pakistan, to care about the plight of women in Pakistan. Imagine the impact that his voice could have: A high-profile (and, let’s face it, authoritarian) Muslim male, publicly protesting honor crimes, could give so many other Muslim men the permission to ally with women activists.

On top of it all, months after 9/11, Musharraf famously spoke about the need for Muslim enlightenment. By visibly opposing the abuse of faith that honor crimes brutally and blatantly represent, Musharraf would do his stated vision of Islam a huge service.

Over dinner, the ambassador introduced me to his daughter, a soft-spoken and whip-smart Muslim who, it turns out, has been immersed in the Pakistani struggle against honor killings. She thoroughly understood the purpose of raising this issue with Musharraf, especially in light of the privileged access we had to him that night. Above all, she volunteered to put me in touch with Pakistani advocates who would know how — or if — the former president ought to get involved.

Since then, India Today’s broadcast arm has aired my encounter with Pervez Musharraf, sparking a certain emotionalism:

“Its hard for me to express in words how outraged I was when I saw you on TV [with] Retired General Pervez Musharaf and questioning how you can help him change the customs that trouble not just Pakistan, but India as well (i.e honour killings)… My question to you is: How can I help you help the women in India?? How about the fact that there are 500,000 female fetuses aborted in India every year? Is that number a bit low for you? How about 20 million female fetuses aborted in India alone in the past 20 years. Please tell me how I can help you lessen the number of female fetuses killed by your innocent people of India?

There are NGOs in Pakistan functioning for the empowerment of women. As I’m sure there are in India as well. But please, stop acting like India is the creme brule when it comes to women’s rights and fix your own problems first. The best part of that segment was when Musharaf told you to ’sit down’.” - Dr. Said A. Chaudhry, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan

And sit down, I did. But when will educated men like this stand up — and set an example for other countries by improving their own? Maybe if Pervez Musharraf made noise about honor killings, the fine Dr. Chaudhry would too. Maybe. It’s a possibility that begs to be pursued.

Peace out, people, and “Jai ho!” to human rights activists everywhere

(Ravi Sahani/India Today)

Pages (20): Previous 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 Next ... Last »