by Editor | Mar 12, 2023 | News, Opinion, Opinions
Asad Mirza
The slew of anti-women measures adopted by the Taliban government in Afghanistan has essentially gone against them, further isolating them globally and making them a pariah.
Reportedly, a handful of Afghan women courageously held a demonstration in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 8 March, calling on the international community to protect Afghan women.
This was the second International Women’s Day observed under the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, which swept back to power in August 2021, and more or less marked a year-and-a-half of increasing misery for Afghan women.
In a statement to mark the International Women’s Day, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva said it has been distressing to witness the Taliban’s methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere.
The UN mission said the crackdown was a “colossal act of national self-harm” at a time when Afghanistan faces some of the world’s largest humanitarian and economic crises.
The anti-women Taliban decisions have faced international condemnation, including by some Muslim countries even. The State of Qatar, earlier this week expressed deep concern over the Afghan caretaker government’s decisions which negatively affect Afghan women and girls’ rights, especially suspending their studies in secondary schools and universities and banning their work in non-governmental organisations.
The Qatari condemnation was conveyed in a statement delivered by the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva, HE Dr. Hind Abdul Rahman Al Muftah during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, within the framework of the 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council.
The deputy foreign minister of Turkiye, Mehmet Kemal Bozay, has said that the international community must not allow the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate “even further.” The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, spoke in Geneva and, reiterated the OIC’s condemnation of Kabul’s edicts banning women from education and work, saying: “It is against our religion.”
Anti-women diktats
The biggest crackdown on teenage girls and university students, came just days before the Women’s Day, when earlier this week the authorities banned them from secondary schools and higher educational institutions. No country has officially recognised the Taliban government as Afghanistan’s legitimate ruler, with the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition.
According to UNESCO, currently, 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women – totalling 2.5 million people – are out of school. The Taliban’s decision to keep girls’ schools shuttered has reversed significant gains in female education during the past 20 years.
In another anti-women diktat, Taliban government has annulled divorce in Afghanistan, forcing divorced women to go back to abusive husbands. Lawyers say that several women have reported being dragged back into abusive marriages after Taliban commanders annulled their divorces.
Latest international efforts
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said last Friday that a delegation headed by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed to Afghanistan recently, found that some Taliban officials were more open to restoring women’s rights, but others were clearly opposed.
Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister is the UN’s highest-ranking woman, she was joined on the trip by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, which promotes gender equality and women’s rights, and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari.
The UN team met with the Taliban administration in the capital Kabul and talks focused on the restrictive measures the Taliban government has imposed on women and girls since they re-took power.
The UN has stressed that Afghan women are crucial to delivering humanitarian help to civilians, the majority of them women and children.
The Taliban government adheres to an austere interpretation of Islam and has imposed severe restrictions on women’s lives that the United Nations called “gender-based apartheid”.
Notably, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan have been erased under the Taliban regime.
According to the UN Mission in the country, nine out of 10 women in Afghanistan experience physical, sexual or psychological violence from their partner. Divorce, however, is far greater a taboo than the abuse itself and women who part with their husbands sustain many atrocities at the hands of society.
The United Nations’ special representative for women in Afghanistan, Alison Davidian said the implications of the government’s policies “impact all Afghans and will resonate throughout generations”. Meanwhile, a prominent group of Afghan and Iranian women are backing a campaign calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under the international law.
The campaign, launched on International Women’s Day, reflects a belief that the current laws covering discrimination against women do not capture the systematic nature of the policies imposed in Afghanistan and Iran to downgrade the status of women in society.
The authors of the open letter, including international lawyers, argue that the legal definition of apartheid as a crime against humanity, adopted by the UN in 1973 and supported by the 1998 Rome Statute, does not fit the case of Afghanistan and Iran, even if the descriptive term does.
Taliban Mindset
Initially, when the Taliban 2.0 took over power in Afghanistan in August 2021, there was some euphoria that now they might be a changed Taliban, looking forward to mend their earlier ways and chart a new course of development for their country.
However, starting with their first diktat in September 2021, urging for segregated classrooms for boys and girls at schools, the caretaker Taliban government has followed it up with a slew of anti-women measures.
What perplexes one is that though the Taliban describe most of these decisions as Islamic, in fact they are completely unIslamic. Islam gives equal rights to men and women in all spheres of life, including, education, inheritance, right to work, say in marriage. Yet, in action Taliban goes completely against the spirit and teachings of Islam.
Instead, if they had adopted a new pragmatic and forward looking approach towards reorganising the Afghan society, it would have gone in their favour and would have helped them to consolidate their power in the country. As currently there seems to be no political force in the country, which could counter the Taliban. In addition, it would have provided them legitimacy and support from the so-called Islamic countries, if only they would have chosen to uphold the Islamic teachings, which in reality, they have failed to do
by Editor | Mar 10, 2023 | News, Opinion, Opinions
Syed Ali Mujtaba
Muslims in the US are suffering from marginalization in the media and cinema. This is found out by Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a leading think tank in the US.
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative develops targeted, research-based solutions to tackle inequality. It does original research and sponsored projects, studying diversity and inclusion in the media and entertainment industry.
The USC Annenberg’s inclusion initiative indicated that Muslims make up 25 percent of the world’s population, but their presence as characters in popular TV series does not exceed 1.1 percent.
The study stated that images of Muslims are often linked to terrorism or violence. It found that “more than 30% of the 98 Muslim personalities assessed were vulnerable to perpetrators of violence, while nearly 40% were the target of violent attacks.”
There are two significant pointers about the portrayal of Muslims in popular culture, tells the study. One, there is a common trope that Muslim men are portrayed in a bad light. Second is the portrayal of Muslim women in their veil.
A deliberate stereotype is built which makes the public assume that the ‘veil is a symbol of oppression’. The stereotypes built relate to “the feeling of the liberation of Muslim women when they take off the veil.”
Muslim women in popular culture are commonly portrayed as submissive and fearful of their male counterparts. This is another serotype that is deliberately built to reinforce the idea that Muslim women are vulnerable to oppression by their menfolk.
The study says that the media focus is often placed on the faith of the Muslim personalities interviewed. This makes the public believe that religion is the focus of every Muslim’s life. Such a stereotype reduces the chances of showing some other aspects of Muslim men/women’s personalities.
“These kinds of stereotypes are the cause of Muslims being isolated and not getting integrated as productive members of American societies”, says the study.
The study revealed that among the 98 Muslim personalities interviewed, almost half of them referred to their faith in some way or other, while 23.5 percent of them revealed that they were portrayed non-verbally on the grounds that they are Muslims.
‘Los Angeles Times’ has published a detailed article on Muslims in the US, based on Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The newspaper has indicated that Muslim immigrants in America suffer from abuse in media and Cinema in the US.
by Editor | Mar 6, 2023 | News, Opinion
Dr. Javed Jamil
If you ask anybody or google which are the largest religions in the world, the answer will be Christianity followed by Islam. But the truth is that the population of Muslims believing in the fundamentals of Islam is much larger than the population of Christians believing in the basic tenets of Christianity.
Pew Centre shows 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010. Obviously, these are little older figures. Wikipedia gives the following percentage of the main religions:
| Religion |
Adherents |
Percentage |
| Christianity |
2.382 billion |
31.11% |
| Islam |
1.907 billion |
24.9% |
| Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist |
1.193 billion |
15.58% |
| Hinduism |
1.161 billion |
1 |
But while the number of Muslims who are firmly committed to the fundamentals of their religion (One God, Muhammad the Last Prophet, Quran the Book of God, Hereafter) has been continuously growing, the number of Christians believing in the basic tenets of Christianity (Jesus as God or Son of God, Gospel the Divine book) continues to go down with every passing day. Interestingly, while Muslims firmly believe that Jesus was born as a divine miracle from a virgin mother Mary, a large number of Christians will be found rejecting or doubting this.
According to an article, titled “ A Majority Of Americans Think Jesus Is A Great Teacher Yet” (PRNewswire), “A new survey reveals that 52 percent of American adults believe that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more.” This is despite the fact that the Christianity in America is stronger than in Europe and Australian continents.
An article, titled ‘Christianity as default is gone’: the rise of a non-Christian
Europe” by Harriet Sherwood published in Guardian says:
·
“Europe’s march towards a post-Christian society has been starkly illustrated by research showing a majority of young people in a dozen countries do not follow a religion. The survey of 16- to 29-year-olds found the Czech Republic is the least religious country in Europe, with 91% of that age group saying they have no religious affiliation. Between 70% and 80% of young adults in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands also categories themselves as non-religious.”
An article on the situation in Australia titled “Most Australian young people open to change their religious views”says:
“Australian research company McCrindle recently released a study called The Changing Faith Landscape in Australia, which shows that 46% of Australians “identify with Christianity”. Furthermore, 13% defined themselves as unaffiliated believers; 33% of respondents said they were atheists or agnostic; and 6% practiced other religions.
Regarding the age, “younger Australians are less likely to identify with Christianity than their older counterparts”. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the oldest generation still consider themselves Christian while just 38% of the Generation Z respondents said that.”
In contrast, Muslims are showing greater commitment to their religion, and this has continued to increase. An article about Muslims in America, “Non-Belief: An Islamic Perspective – Secularism and Nonreligion” by K Sevinç · (2018) says, “The rate of those who believe in God is 94.5% and those who self identify themselves as Muslim is 97%”.
The same is true of the whole Muslim world where the overwhelming majority of Muslims (95-99%) can be easily found as having firm belief in God, Muhammad and Quran.
If only 40-50 % (even less in many parts including Europe) of the so-called Christian world does not even believe in Jesus as prescribed in Christianity, why should their numbers be still counted as above 2.3 billion. The truth is that the number of Christians by faith is not more than 1.3 billion. There is absolutely no reason to doubt that Islam is the biggest religion of the world, and its percentage is expected to continue to increase at least in the next decade.
According to The New York Times, an estimated 25% of American Muslims are converts. In Britain, around 6,000 people convert to Islam per year and, according to a June 2000 article in the British Muslims Monthly Survey, the majority of new Muslim converts in Britain were women. According to The Huffington Post
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HuffPost – Wikipedia
HuffPost (The Huffington Post until 2017; often abbreviated as HuffPo) is an American progressive[1][2][3][4] ne… |
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, “observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually.”
When it comes to the reasons why Islam is growing, the Western experts try to paint it mainly the effect of their having more children. First, the conversion to Islam is definitely much more than that to any other religion. Second, if Muslim fertility rate is slightly higher, the reasons are simple. First, the family system is still strong in Muslim societies whereas it has totally disintegrated in the so-called Christian or Western world. Second, Muslims are much less likely to abort than others, as they consider it a sin. On the other hand, in America and Europe, an overwhelming majority of pregnancies end up in induced abortions. Human Rights organizations do not care of the daily genocide which is going around the world without a break, resulting in the murders of more than 70 million unborn children every year. In India, female foeticide is very common in Hindu community with the Male/Female ration dropping to less than 100/80 in many states.
Muslims need to tell the world that support to promiscuity, homosexuality and abortions in the name of “Freedom of Choice” is nothing but a support to dismantling and destroying humanity on the earth, in terms of its physical as well as moral and social meanings. If the current trend continues, a time can come sooner than later when the very survival of mankind will be in danger. Those who support and practice these practices can hardly claim to be civilized. But what else can be expected in a world, which is dominated by what I call “Economic Fundamentalism” and where the interests of life, health and peace are only secondary to the interests of the market.
But the West-dominated media will continue to give the misplaced figures because this suits them. If they are showing this it does not mean that they have any love for Christianity. It is only because they think that Christianity in name rather than in its spiritual and moral forms is no threat to their system which commercializes all those practices that are considered immoral y most religions. They fear Islam more because they feel that the concept of fundamental prohibition is more emphatic in Islam
I need to emphasize here that if Christianity is losing sheen it makes me worried. Christianity needs to be serious about why it is losing to atheist ideologies of the world.
I have been arguing for decades that the challenge for religious in today’s world does not come from one another but from the ant-religion forces that dominate the world; and the religions need to unite to face this threat rather than fighting each other.
Dr Javed Jamil is India based thinker and writer and Chair in Islamic Studies & research, Yenepoya University, Mangalore, with over twenty books including his latest, “A Systematic Study of the Holy Qur’an”, “Economics First or Health First?”, “Justice Imprisoned”, Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”, “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”,”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”.
by Editor | Mar 6, 2023 | News, Opinion, Opinions
Many think that the official motto of the United States is ‘e pluribus unum” — from many one. It is not. In fact, given the national drift toward divisiveness over the past few years, that saying should probably be reversed to “e unum pluribus” — from one many.
FRANK F ISLAM
That was the opening of a chapter titled “Citizenship Dysfunction: Coming Together or Coming Apart?” in our book: Working the Pivot Points: To Make America Work Again published in 2013 (Pivot Points).
We wrote Pivot Points to call attention to a problem that concerned citizens could come together to address. At that time, we didn’t think the separation between us could get much worse.
We were wrong. In the past decade, the separation has become a chasm. The American citizenry is polarized. This is the bad news.
The good news is that Richard Haass, president of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, has written a new book, The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens (Obligations), which was released in late January. Haass’ book, in conjunction with the conversations that he had discussing its relevance and recommendations with pundits and experts on the Morning Joe show in the week of January 23–27, have brought this topic front and center in 2023.
It provides us the opportunity to reiterate once again that it is time for 21st century citizenship. In fact, it is well past time.
Haass acknowledges this fact in Part One of Obligations titled “The Crisis of Our Rights-Based Democracy.” After discussing the nature and identifying some of the reasons for the crisis, that Part concludes as follows;
Again, many readers will have their own ideas. We might be better off if some or even many of these changes came to pass. But few are likely to, in no small part because the same problems that have led to the weakening of democracy have made it difficult to fix it. It is not just that the process of reform is arduous, it is more that those who perceive the changes would restrain their rights will oppose them. This is where obligations come in: American democracy will work and reform will prove possible only if obligations join rights at center stage.
Haass nails it in terms of the difficulty of bringing about meaningful change and the need to persevere to do so. We comment similarly in Pivot Points, stating “As we close this book, it becomes clear that working and moving forward on the pivot points is a long hard slog. It is a marathon and not a 100-yard dash. It requires patience and persistence and the ability to come back again and again after defeats.”
Haass also nails it in naming his first two obligations: Obligation I: Be Informed. Obligation II. Get Involved. We identified those obligations as the characteristics of the 21st Century Citizen and added three more in Pivot Points: Interested. Issues-Oriented. Independent.
Below, in order are our operational definitions for those characteristics:
- Interested: concerned about the common good and the American community as opposed to purely pecuniary or personal concerns
- Issues-oriented: focused on areas of civic and social concern as opposed to rigid ideologies
- Informed: dedicated to gathering and analyzing objective data as the basis for civic and social engagement
- Independent: committed to exercising personal judgment as opposed to taking totally partisan positions
- Involved: engaged actively in addressing those issues that are of paramount concern to our citizens, communities and the nation.
Haass and we are not the only ones who have advanced the cause of good citizenship. A former president has done so as well.
No, it was not Donald Trump. It was Barack Obama.
In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in 2012, Obama declared, “But we also believe in citizenship — citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding, a word at the essence of our democracy, the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations.”
President Obama went on to emphasize that “We the people — recognize that we have rights as well as responsibilities.” The emphasis throughout the President’s speech was on shared obligations and responsibilities.
Civic engagement is central to fulfilling those shared obligations and responsibilities.
The best definition of civic engagement that we have seen comes from a collection of readings titled Civic Responsibility and Higher Education.
That definition states:
Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.
In our opinion, civic engagement takes five primary forms:
- Individual — being the best one can be and responsible for one’s actions
- Organizational — contributing to the success of the groups (e.g., business, religion, associations) to which one belongs
- Political — participating in those processes that shape the structure and nature of government
- Community — collaborating to make the locale and the world in which we live a better place
- Social — advocating for justice and equality of treatment and opportunity for all
Positive civic engagement and the sharing of obligations and responsibilities is essential for a democracy to be successful. This requires the capacity to collaborate with others having different points of view in order to achieve a compromise.
The importance of this attribute is demonstrated by the fact that Richard Haass named his Obligation III: Stay Open to Compromise. Unfortunately, in this 21st century, compromise has become a dirty word for many elected officials and citizens.
Politics has become tribal. We retreat to our own camps and our ability to talk with or listen to someone from the opposing camp who has different values, attitudes, and beliefs has become virtually impossible. We literally don’t trust one another.
That’s why, in our first blog posted in 2020, we chose trust as our word of the year for 2019. We selected trust not because of its presence in 2019 but its absence.
As we noted back then, the Pew Research Center is a definitive source of information on trust. In April 2018 through the end of 2019, the Pew Center intensified its research on trust, facts, and democracy publishing thirty new pieces disclosing that the trust gap between and among us as citizens has widened significantly over the past several years.
A Pew study released in October 2019 revealed that Democrats and Republicans did agree on one thing — that they can’t agree. 73% of those partisans surveyed said “On important issues facing the country, most Republican voters and Democratic voters not only disagree over plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts.”
This wide separation of opinions and positions continues. As William A. Galston of the Brookings Institution reports, various polls conducted throughout 2022 show Americans are divided regarding the significance of January 6 and how much responsibility Donald Trump bears for what happened on that date on which the U.S. Capitol was stormed.
Put this all together and it illustrates the growing nature of the need. The need was great in 2013. It is much greater today.
Richard Haass has issued a wake-up call. We are confident that 21st century citizens will hear that call, recognizing that there is a dire need for them to continue to work to bridge the divides, recognizing that there will be no quick or easy resolution.
Because 21st century citizens understand this, we close this blog in 2023 as we did our book in 2013,
We think and say give them time, too — the pivot points and those pivot persons (citizens and leaders) who will continue to work those points until the necessary and desired outcome is achieved.
It may not be this year. It may not be the next. It may take until the end of this decade — and possibly even longer. Eventually it will be done because time is on the side of those with patience, persistence and principles to work the pivot points to make America work again.
by Editor | Feb 23, 2023 | News, Opinion, Opinions, World
By Haider Abbas
It is now only a week to go to make for the first anniversary of the Russian-Ukraine war. The whole world is right now agog with reports of Ukraine foreign fighters and Ukraine’s brutality to them! What would surely shock the world, is how Ukraine has shown utmost brutality, that too, towards the foreign fighters who had fought from its own side. A report published in The Local Report 1 says that ‘ Ukraine’s horrific act on the battlefield against its foreign mercenaries comes to light. Russian Investigative Committee Chief Alexander Bastrykin said in an interview with TASS that Kyiv is committing “blood-curdling crimes” against its mercenaries to conceal their identities. Several bodies without hands or heads have been found in the zone of Russia’s special military operation, and they were identified as Polish mercenaries thanks to smartphone records.’
This shocking revelation has come apart from reports of the most-rampant-corruption, throughput the war, from Ukraine, out of the billions of USD given by European Union and US to counter Russia. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had to sack his Defense Minister Oleksii Reznilov, over corruption charges. There are also reports, published in News.Sky 2 about mercenaries, the largest from Georgia, US and England fighting for Ukraine too. This Ukrainian horrific brutality, when it is now almost one year of war, has sent shockwaves throughout the world, as Ukraine has done everything to conceal the identity of its foreign mercenaries. Their heads and hands have been cut! This had come after Wagner Group, a private army in Russia, had revealed about it, as Russia had made advances in Bakhmut region in Ukraine. It is estimated that Ukraine is likely to retreat from Bakhmut as the war first anniversary comes.
Meanwhile, Wagner Group, is getting considered to be the bulwark of Russian forces against Ukraine. Wagner Group is a private militia, which has helped Russia to capture key Ukraine cities, like in Donetsk town in Bakhmut. Its founder is Yevgeny Prigozhin has sent a ‘dread’ inside whole of Europe and US as the fear that soon Wagner Group might become a global challenge to the West, unlike what is portrayed as future ‘threat to Russia’ by the West. The success Of Wagner Group, particularly in East Ukraine, has galvanized the popular imagination inside Russia, as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechenyen leader, who has been with Putin, from the very onset of war, has signaled that he would also try to raise a private army on the lines of Wagner Group. Kadyrov has been ‘quite impressed’ by the success of Wagner significant role into turning the tables in favour of Russia and has called that such private-armies are now a necessity for the future wars. Perhaps, India also has taken the cue to raise the future private-armies by way of Agniveer? May be yes.
Ironically, both Kadyrov and Prigozhin who are staunch allies of Russia, have also been critical of Russian military leadership, calling for more vigorous prosecution of the conflict. Kadyrov forces are reportedly making big inroads into Ukraine Luhasank region and a strategic height Bilohorivka has been surrounded by the Chechen fighters. This has brought Russia in a very commanding position, particularly when the war nears its one-year-mark. The world is looking at the high-perch Russia stands today, hence, Donetsk and Luhansk regions are now almost under Russian control, which has made Kadyrov euphoric that Chechen fighters, from the Akhmat Command Unit, have now started to sway their command over the ‘very important and strategic height’ on the outskirts of Bilohorivka, during which Kadyrov forces have taken over 5 kms of terrain, and also an approach to the railroad leading to Seversk, which has given a high impetus, in the frontline areas. It is likely that Moscow, after the help from Chechen warriors, is all set to register a win in the Bakhmut, the administrative center of Donetsk. No wonder Russian President Vladimir Putin, has time and again, lauded the Chechen ‘exceptional-valour’ in the campaign against Ukraine. This has resulted in renewed strafe from the Russian side as the war comes to its one year time.
There are now also reports that Belarus, one of the most formidable ally of Putin, has decided to send 1.5 lakh soldiers to Russia to join the spring-offensive, informed India Today 3! The Belarusian Defense Minister Major General Viktor Khrenin has confirmed it, in the wake of US President Joseph Biden surprise visit to Kyiv on February 20. This is what signals that it is likely to lead towards more-escalation of war, while US and EU, continue to supply huge arms to Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia. May be the potentialities of this war, leading towards use-of-nuclear weapons is now getting moiré and more rife. Interestingly, wjat matters here is to notify that the formation of this new people’s militia in Belarus coincides with Kyiv’s hiring of foreign fighters to counter the Russians, Belarus is the closet Russian ally. It has already allowed its territory to be used by the Russians. It will bring the worst fears true if Belarus is dragged into the conflict, which of course West wants, as that would signal, the war is not going for end any time soon.
No sooner did Biden return from his five hours visit to Ukraine, Russia has spiraled its rocket-attack with heavy bombardment on the line of contact with Ukraine, as Putin seems to be clearly enraged by Zelenskky-Biden unannounced meeting amidst the war. There has been almost ‘now a rain of non-stop rocket fire’ on Ukraine which has decimated the Ukrainian arms units in many cities. In the backdrop of this hurricane of rocket-rain Putin is set to address the nation on the one-year war. Thus, the stage for the next is now set.
What however, are now implications for India? Particularly, when US and Ukraine have ‘warned China to not to arm Russia’ as Zelenskky has cited that it would bring the third-world-war. But, it can easily be deduced that China in this long year has stood by Russia and it is only officially that China joins from the Russian side, as on the very onset of the war, during the Beijing winter Olympics in February 2022, China and Russia had decided to fight-each-other wars.
In case there is a conflict of China and India, where are to be Russian priorities is the big question? India will certainly look for US support and Russia support too, as conflict with China and India is already in the Himalayas and with China and US in South China Sea over Taiwan. The outcome of Russia-Ukraine war, therefore, in the coming next year will be the most keenly watched event in the world, in terms of ‘geo-political interests of nations’ and India is very much to be involved in it.
***
The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner and writes on international issues.
References:
1- https://www.thelocalreport.in/russia-exposes-ukraines-brutality-to-conceal-its-lie-about-nato-nation-fighters-details/
2- 2- https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-3-000-british-volunteers-fighting-on-ukrainian-side-against-russia-says-georgian-commander-12633139
3- 3- Belarus to form nearly 1,50,000 strong volunteer military force
by Editor | Feb 22, 2023 | Opinion, Opinions
By Muskan Mustaqeem
When it comes to the situation of minority constituencies, India has taken centre stage in the debate between the ideological state and the constitutional state. In the past few years, majoritarianism and populist undertones have become a strong force, adding complexities, particularly to Muslim existence, through the deprivation of an equitable share in the social and political landscape. In spite of the constitutional provisions and international obligations, Indian Muslims continue to face socio-political challenges, including discrimination, prejudice, communal tensions, and underrepresentation in politics and the media. Many Indian Muslims face poverty and unemployment due to low levels of education and limited access to economic opportunities. This has hampered their growth and development, including access to basic amenities like health care and quality education. The lack of economic empowerment has forced Muslims to send their children to madrassas and government run schools for primary and intermediate levels. The majority of degree students are forced to discontinue their studies due to financial constraints and the need for family support.
Indian Muslims often experience discrimination and prejudice in various aspects of their daily lives, including employment, housing, and access to public services. It has led to segregation and ghetto formation at particular locations in each city in India. In the past few years, social othering has increased immensely and has enforced a sense of insecurity at a societal level. The communal tensions between Muslims and other religious communities have sometimes resulted in communal violence, particularly in certain regions of India. These tensions have always been a sore spot in Indian politics, and in the last few years, Muslims have been on the receiving end of many of these incidents.
The biggest problem Indian Muslims have been living with since independence is the lack of political representation. Indian Muslims are often underrepresented in politics and government, resulting in a lack of representation for their interests and needs. Despite being the largest minority, Indian Muslims have limited access to political institutions and higher offices of power. Social stereotypes about Muslims are also prevalent in Indian society, contributing to prejudice and discrimination against the community. Indian Muslims are often subject to heightened surveillance and security measures, including detention and harassment by law enforcement agencies. Lack of representation in the media has also given rise to misinformation and the securitization of religious symbols. The Indian Muslim community is often underrepresented in the media and popular culture, perpetuating negative stereotypes and a lack of understanding of the actual issues and challenges Indian Muslims have been facing for most of their history in contemporary India.
The government, civic society, and the media must work together to solve these societal and political concerns. There are several ways to do this, such as advocating for legislation to reduce economic inequality, increasing political representation, combating negative stereotypes, fostering interfaith communication, and guaranteeing the rights and dignity of all individuals.
Access to education and job training programmes, as well as policies that foster economic development in Muslim-majority communities, may assist Indian Muslims in improving their economic condition. Prejudice against Indian Muslims can be reduced through education and public awareness campaigns, as well as the implementation of laws prohibiting religious discrimination. Promoting inter-religious communication and understanding, as well as strengthening the rule of law and holding those responsible for communal violence accountable, may all contribute to lessening communal tensions and avoiding bloodshed. Promoting policies that address the community’s unique problems, as well as encouraging political engagement and representation of Indian Muslims, may help improve political representation for Indian Muslims. Countering negative preconceptions via education and media campaigns highlighting the variety and good contributions of Indian Muslims may assist in debunking negative perceptions and encouraging better understanding and acceptance of the community.
To sum up, although Indian Muslims face several obstacles, resolving these concerns via a mix of governmental measures, policy solutions, and public awareness initiatives will assist in establishing a more inclusive and fair society for everyone.
***
Muskan Mustaqeem is
Research Scholar, Jamia Millia Islamia.
