Overcrowded prisons, and other emergency woes

Asif Saleh on Al Jazeera

It is the ordinary citizens of Bangladesh who need a voice

Asif Saleh

Published in the Guardian, UK (April 3 2008 )

John Pilger mounts an impassioned and spirited defence of the Bangladeshi politician Moudud Ahmed (The prisoner of Dhaka, March 12). “There is a decent, brave man sitting in a dungeon in a country where the British empire began,” Pilger says. “I have known him since a moonless night in 1971.” Pilger does his reputation an immense disservice with his erroneous and exaggerated claims on behalf of Ahmed, by ignoring the real issues at hand in favour of using his influence to defend an old friend.

On the 37th anniversary of its independence, Bangladesh faces a human rights crisis. Our fledgling democracy – hard won in 1971, and resurrected again in 1991 after years of military rule – is in suspension. Thousands of ordinary citizens have been rounded up and imprisoned without cause, without due process, and with no hope of release. It is true that Ahmed is one of those people. He was arrested by the security forces and is now in jail as a VIP prisoner.

Where is the Conscience of Our Nation?

Tazreena Sajjad

Published in the Forum (June 2008 )

Why speak up about things that don’t seem to affect you? Silence is, after all, protection. When demanding accountability and seeking dignity can be slandered as “anti-state activity,” it is better to save one’s skin by not raising one’s voice.

Yet silence connotes another message — compliance, and more wretchedly still, agreement. In the end, the politics and psychology of fear, compounded by our ability to disengage based on what is “us” and “them” robs us of our conscience. And we seem to accept without censure or question, what we give away — our consent.

Fear of a Muslim Planet: Hip-Hop’s Hidden History

Naeem Mohaiemen

Published in the Forum (June 2008 )

(Amin) Pray Allah keep my soul and heart clean
(Amin) Pray the same thing again for all my team

– Mos Def, “Love”
(Black on Both Sides, 1999)

Camoflouged Torahs, Bibles and glorious Qurans
The books that take you to heaven and let you meet the Lord there
Have become misinterpreted, reasons for warfare
We read ‘em with blind eyes I guarantee you there’s more there
The rich must be blind because they didnt see the poor there

– Lupe Fiasco, “American Terrorist”
(Food & Liquor, 2006)

JOURNALIST Harry Allen once called Islam “hip-hop’s unofficial religion.” This theme is echoed by Adisa Banjoko, unofficial ambassador of Muslim hip-hop, who says: “Muslim influence was at the ground floor of hip hop. Hip hop came from the streets, from the toughest neighborhoods, and that’s always where the Muslims were.”

Lessons from the Women Development Policy Debacle

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Forum (June 2008 )

As part of a program marking the International Women’s Day, the government announced a National Women Development Policy on March 8. The announced policy was condemned by a section of Muslim clerics as un-Islamic. Specifically, the clerics objected to any possible change to the inheritance laws such that women could get equal inheritance rights as men. On March 11, the government announced that it had no intention of passing any law that is “anti-Islam.”

On March 27, the government formed a 20-member committee to identify inconsistencies in the policy as per Islamic rules and suggest steps to remove any such inconsistencies. While the committee deliberated, the clerical opposition continued.