[Reader-list] In Valley, gunmen take to moral policing: ‘enforce hijab in college’

Mon Aug 31 09:40:45 IST 2009

dear all,

i just hope Shudda's gives the right links,however i dont think even this
forum can teach him that,otherwise he would have learnt it by now

https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011033.html

I will not let the readers have the trouble of clicking the link.Here is
what our friend Shuddha writes.

*"It is necessary to remember that Kashmir is a part of South Asia where the
rise of Islam
did not accompany a military invasion, but occurred largely due to the
example set by missionaries and religious divines."*

and who were these people who spearheaded the conversion of Kashmir or  let
us say "rise of islam"(even a kid in Kashmir will us these two
names-Butshikan and Syed hamdani),and what were the examples of these
"missionaries and religous divines"...

Iconoclasm and imposition of "true" Sharia through all means...which are
enumerated here

https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-December/014758.html

So here we are.....Shudda's shoots himself in the foot again....

Best Regards

Rashneek

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
<shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:

>  Dear All,
>
> Rashneek says  -  "there is a history on this network here is a history on
> this
>
> network where people have called barbarians like Sikander Butshikan and
> Syed
> mohd.Hamdani divinely ordained dervishes and incidentally these are people
> who claim to have Marxist if not Moaist ideologies."
>
>
> This is a very interesting statement. I am not a Maoist (I consider Maoism
> to be yet another variety of degenerate third worldist nationalism - ) but I
> am persuaded by critical strains within Marxism, (among other things) and
> have never concealed that fact.  I also happen to have mentioned Sikandar
> 'Butshikan' and Hamadani in one of my set of postings -
> https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011030.html
> Annotations to the History of Iconoclasm in Kashmir - I (posted on November
> 9, 2007) written, incidentally in response to Rashneek Kher's postings on
> the subject of iconoclasm.
>
> I have trawled through the Reader List archives, and the only reference to
> Hamadani that I could find made by anyone who could even remotely be
> described as a 'Marxist' (even by a stretch of imagination) occurs in this
> posting. So, I take it, that the gesture is made in my general direction.
> Hence this clarification.
>
> Nowhere in this posting do I deny that either Sikandar 'Butshikan' or
> Hamadani were not in fact iconoclasts. I merely make the point that the
> history of iconoclasm in Kashmir does not have a solely 'Islamic'
> provenance. And that just as there were many non-muslim iconcolastic rulers
> in pre-Islamicate Kashmir, there were also several muslim rulers in Kashmir
> who protected non-muslim places of worship.
>
> More importantly, never, in any posting, have I characterized either
> Sikandar 'Butshikan' or Hamadani as 'divinely ordained dervishes'. Shah
> Sikandar is a king, and that is how I have described him, and Hamadani is a
> religious leader, which is exactly what I have called him. Neither of these
> two descriptions amounts to what it means when one says 'divinely ordained'.
> For that to obtain, I would have first of all to believe in the notion of a
> 'divnity' which I don't. And secondly, believe that such a 'divinity'
> ordains the destruction of architecture and images, which, logically,
> following from the first, i don't either. I have viewed all acts of
> iconoclasm in the history of Kashmir, regardless of who caused them to
> occur, as acts of violence. And have never said any thing that can be read
> to the contrary.
>
> I think, yet again, Rashneek, in his haste to score a weak point, has been
> a little too generous in his interpretation of the textual substance of the
> archive of this list. As always, I would urge him, and everyone else to
> buttress their easily brandished opinions with a modicum of evidence. The
> point I made about Nadeem Paracha's loosely articulated polemic against Roy,
> which inititated this exchange, seems, to me to be strengthened by this. I
> do however, remain hopeful, that this list will eventually teach Rashneek to
> be more careful with his words.
>
> best
>
> Shuddha
>
> I
>  On 28-Aug-09, at 12:40 PM, rashneek kher wrote:
>
>  Dear Anupam,
>
> Well I am not confusing anything with anything.There is a history on this
> network where people have called barbarians like Sikander Butshikan and
> Syed
> mohd.Hamdani divinely ordained dervishes and incidentally these are people
> who claim to have Marxist if not Moaist ideologies.
>
> Thanks
>
> Rashneek
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 12:07 PM, anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
>   Dear Rashneek,
> "They would cleanse the society by imposing purity on the inhabitants and
> the sly shadows of Mao would cheer them and call them dervishes oops
> divinely ordained dervishes."
>
> I think you are confusing Talibanisation with Marxism and Maoism. If the
> so-called "armed" gunmen threatened the college principal, as the reports
> stated, to which he opposed and said:  "he would not be cowed by the
> threat
> and would continue to do his work at the college" and also the fact he is a
> specialist in greatest Islamic revivalist of our times, Sayyid Qutb (who
> the
> neo-liberal sorts think that because of his criticism of the American way
> of
> life has helped in shaping of al-qaeda) then there is an inherent
> contradiction in your claims about dervishes. here we have someone who is
> specialist, who is opposed to imposition of hijab. i think i would
> appreciate the principal's stand.
> - thanks
> anupam
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 9:26 AM, rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Dear All,
>
> A story done by Indian Express on the Islamist Icons(Robin Hoods of our
> friends) imposing Hijab and threating Prinicipals of Colleges by burning
> their cars.
> How I wonder would Taliban control the land that once infidelds lived
> in.They would cleanse the society by imposing purity on the inhabitants
>
> and
>
> the sly shadows of Mao would cheer them and call them dervishes oops
> divinely ordained dervishes.Their divine powers derived from mediveal
> obscrutanist religiou practices-soon flogging,killing in football grounds
> and burning of girls schools would be the order of day.And our Marxist
> demi-icons would sing paeans to the piety of the new age dervishes.
> It may also be worthwhile to mention that the leaders of the "azadi"
>
> today
>
> have done exactly this when they "were a part of the armed struggle".For
> the
> proponents of jihad and their supporters...from Riyaz Wani
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  In Valley, gunmen take to moral policing: ‘enforce hijab in college’
>
>
>
>    In the first such incident in the Valley since the decline of militancy
> started two years ago, masked gunmen waylaid the principal of a North
> Kashmir college, destroyed his car, and gave him a three-day ultimatum to
> ensure the 3,000 girl students in his institution began wearing the
>
>   hijab.
>
>
>  The principal, Muhammad Ashraf, a respected Islamic scholar, told The
> Indian Express today that he would not be cowed by the threat and would
> continue to do his work at the college.
>
>  Ashraf said seven men stopped his car — in which he was riding with his
> son
> and a local acquaintance — near his village at Dangiwacha, and
>
> commandeered
>
> the vehicle over a dirt track into a thicket of bushes. “They wore masks
> and
> dark glasses and were heavily armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols and
> grenades,” Ashraf said.
>
>  According to the principal, the men appeared to know a lot about him:
>
> that
>
> he was a specialist on Sayyid Qutb — the Egyptian Islamist political
> theorist and leading intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 50s
>
> and
>
> 60s who is thought to be one of the philosophical progenitors of Al Qaeda
>
> —
>
> and that he had been trying to enforce discipline in his college.
>
> “You have taken some really good steps in the college like banning
>
> smoking
>
> and cellphones. Now, you must do something that we want you to do.
>
> Enforce
>
> an Islamic dress code for girl students,” Ashraf said the men told him.
> They
> gave him three days to carry out their diktat, failing which they would
> “act”, they said.
>
> Ashraf’s college, Degree College, Sopore, has around 7,000 students on
>
> its
>
> rolls, 3,000 of whom are girls. It is among the largest colleges in the
> state.
>
> “They told me that they had picked me to send a message to all other
> schools
> and colleges in the Valley in which girls study,” Ashraf said.
>
> Perhaps to rattle the principal and send the message that they meant
> business, the gunmen set his vehicle on fire. Ashraf and his companions
> were
> released after about two hours in captivity.
>
> The Dangiwacha police have filed a case, and are looking at all angles,
> including one unrelated to militancy. “We are exploring the possible
> dimension of college rivalry,” said a senior officer who did not want to
>
> be
>
>   named.
>
> No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the incident. The
> separatists too have been silent, and are perhaps trying to ascertain if
> militant groups were involved.
>
> Senior Superintendent of Police Viplav Kumar said a hunt was on for the
> gunmen. “We are trying our best. Hopefully, we will crack the case soon,”
> he
> said.
>
>
>
> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-valley-gunmen-take-to-moral-policing-enforce-hijab-in-college/507208/0
>
>
> best
>
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
> _________________________________________
>  reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>  _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>  Rashneek Kher
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
> _________________________________________
>  reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>  Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
>

-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com