Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Oz Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia: Asia Society

Asia Society is currently seeking nominations for the Oz prize
For Details, click Asia Society, New York

The $10,000 prize is awarded annually to a writer or team of writers who has produced the best example of journalism about Asia during the calendar year. Criteria for the prize include consideration for the impact of the work, its originality, creativity, depth of research and educational value in informing the public about Asia. Find out more about the nomination and submission process here. The deadline for applying is February 28, 2013.

The next winner of the “Oz Prize,” whose work was produced during the 2012 calendar year, will be celebrated at a special program at the Asia Society in New York City in May.

Affectionately nicknamed the "Oz prize," the Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia honors the late Osborn Elliott, a legendary journalist and author.

Former editor-in-chief ofNewsweek, Osborn Elliott set new standards for reporting and editing and became one of the earliest practitioners of "civic journalism" — the deliberate focusing of the journalistic enterprise on urgent issues of public policy.

To see details about applying, click here

Previous Winners

2012: April Rabkin, Fast Company
2010: Keith Bradsher, The New York Times
2009: Team of Reporters, International Herald Tribune
2008: Shai Oster, The Wall Street Journal
2007: Evan Osnos, The Chicago Tribune
2006: Barbara Demick, The Los Angeles Times; Matthew McAllester, Newsday
2005: Philip P. Pan, The Washington Post
2004: John Pomfret, The Washington Post
2003: Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Interview of Abida Parveen: The Great Singer of Sufi Poetry



Excerpts from:
'The I Doesn't Matter'
By Farahnaz Zahidi, Express Tribune, January 13, 2013

I am waiting to meet Abida Parveen. More than 100 interviews in my portfolio as a journalist, and I am as nervous as a rookie as I sit in the ‘Abida Parveen Gallery’ in F-10, Islamabad, waiting to be taken to her adjoining house. I’m nervous because of the power of this performer and of the words that seem to speak themselves through her. The walls of the gallery, replete with pictures and awards, pay homage to Abida’s journey. She is seen performing in the grandest of places, standing next to the biggest names in the music industry. In one picture, she is smiling along with heads of state. In another, she is receiving one of countless awards. But the ones I like best are those of Abida alone, lost in another realm, her face displaying both peace and a fiery passion with no contradiction whatsoever between such opposing emotions.
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Her journey began almost six decades ago. Born in mohalla Ali Goharabad in Larkana, Sindh, Abida’s learning began at home with her father Ustad Ghulam Haidar, whom she proudly calls a “gawayya.
“All this is a gift from my father,” she says. “It is because of his barkat (blessing). But he never had to force me to sing. I was drawn to this myself. From the age of three, my earliest memories are that I would sit with the harmonium. I felt a pull towards music and Sufi poetry. I always felt an inner happiness when I would hear the Abyaat of Bhittai. I always felt attracted to dargaahs (shrines). Mujhe un se jor diya Maula ne. I think this connection is formed before one is even born”....
She then moves on to talk about the inner ‘spark’ within us, that eternal fragment of the divine. I find myself listening intently, my notebook forgotten....
“All humans have this spark. God has kept it in us. Once we come into this world, with this inherent spark in us for the love of the Divine, it tugs at our heart strings intermittently. This is a gift. It is in all of us. All Prophets and spiritual masters do is stoke this fire if it starts to die out. Visiting shrines or staying in the company of the pious or reading this poetry — it transforms the spark into a full-fledged fire. Once that fire catches on, then…” she chuckles knowingly, a glow on her face, and that uncontrollable signature mop of hair framing her face. The laughter has a child-like innocence and spontaneity. I’m wondering how she can talk about such deeply philosophical and heavy concepts with such ease.
In an era where it is fashionable to label oneself as “spiritual, not religious,” where Rumi is quoted out of context and the couplets of Bulleh Shah are memorized with little understanding of their meaning, here is a true spiritual being. Meeting her, I realize that true sufis don’t need to flaunt their spirituality.....
They don’t need Facebook groups, twitter hash tags or a plethora of interviews to announce their spiritual quest. They are who they are. The aura of peace that emanates from them is the only identification they need.  If I were to praise her with all the qualities I see, it would only embarrass her.....
And it is fitting, as the most basic tenet of Sufism is humility. Not the false humility that is pride in disguise, but the true loss of self. Abida, it is clear, is the real deal. How does she manage it? I ask. How does she keep the fame from going to her head? She starts shaking her head as I ask and replies, “I am so scared. May Maula keep me humble”....
Enviously, I ask her how one develops this spirituality. As expected, she takes no credit at all. “I do not deserve it. Besabab karam hai (it’s an unmerited mercy upon me). Mujh mein mera kuch naheen, jo kuch hai so tera. Tera tujh ko sonp dein, kya laagay hai mera. It is a bestowed blessing. You cannot work hard at it. Mehnat riyazat se naheen milta (you don’t get it by striving for it)”....
The conversation moves towards music. “I am still very nervous before a performance. I plan out in detail what I have to sing. Every time, it feels like it is the very first performance. I keep learning and practicing my music. Perfection is only for Allah. Ye insaan ka na-mukammal hona…yeh silsila bara acha hai,” (this state of human incompleteness is beautiful) she says with a smile....
Abida is no puritan and does not believe in boundaries in her music, so long as the basic etiquette of rendering mystic poetry is kept in mind. “I have tried my hand at fusion music, like in my CD Raqs e bismal.
But when singing sufi poetry, one has to bear in mind that the musical instruments or even the voice needs to be submissive to the kalaam; the message in the words of Sufi poetry must remain intact. Maintaining that balance is tough; music should just support the kalaam, and not by-pass it or take over, otherwise the message gets diluted. This is jalaali kalaam(powerful narrative) and a certain adab (respect) is required.....
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We talk about the poets she admires and understands. She tells me that her upcoming projects include the Persian works of Shams of Tabriz among others. Abida has an interesting take on Iqbal’s philosophy of Khudi and interprets Khudi as not the “self” but as the zameer(conscience), calling it “the voice inside that tells us when we go wrong”. Speaking of Iqbal, she quotes his famous verse which emphasises love for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh):Quwwat e ishq se har past ko baala kar dey …. Dehr mein ism e Muhammad se ujala kar de.
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I have always wondered how she seems to become another person when she sings. It is as if she is in a trance and the words simply speak themselves through her. “Because I do not perform for people. I perform for Him. In that moment, it is Maula who connects me to the audience and to myself. Woh zaat nazar naheen aati magar karti sub kuch wohi hai. Whose eyes and hands are actually at work? Banda aur Khuda — they are never apart. My prayer is for myself is that Maula zaat mein zaat mila de. A relationship based on love between the Creator and Creation. You will find Allah as you perceive Him,” she says.
Living in this world whilst simultaneously existing in a higher spiritual plane, Abida has also led a very normal life as a mother of two daughters and a son. I ask her what she feels about the ascetic principle of renouncing this world and everything in it. After all, some do believe that spiritual growth is only possible when the one leaves the world and its trappings behind. “This earth …. we cannot renounce it! It is so precious. This is where Muhammad (pbuh) placed his forehead in sajda,” she says. Nothing more remains to be said.
For complete article, click here
Related:
India honours Abida Parveen with life time achievement award - Dawn
Lighting the lamp within - The Hindu

Dynamics of Renewed Push for a Negotiated Settlement with Taliban in Afghanistan


Renewed Push for Afghans to Make Peace With Taliban
By Alissa J. Rubin and Declan Walsh, New York Times, February 16, 2013

Frozen for months last year as another fighting season raged in Afghanistan, and as election-year politics consumed American attention, diplomats and political leaders from eight countries are now mounting the most concerted campaign to date to bring the Afghan government and its Taliban foes together to negotiate a peace deal.

The latest push came early this month at Chequers, the country residence of the British prime minister, David Cameron, who joined President Hamid Karzaiof Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan in calling for fast-track peace talks. Weeks earlier in Washington, Mr. Karzai met with President Obama and committed publicly to have his representatives meet a Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar, to start the process.

Yet so far the energized reach for peace has achieved little, officials say, except to cement a growing consensus that regional stability demands some sort of political settlement with the Taliban, after a war that cost tens of thousands of Afghan and Western lives and nearly a trillion dollars failed to put down the insurgency.

Interviews with more than two dozen officials involved in the effort suggest a fast-spinning process that has yet to gain real traction and seems to have little chance of achieving even its most limited goal: bringing the Afghan government and Taliban leadership together at the table before the bulk of the American fighting force leaves Afghanistan in 2014.

“The year 2014 has begun to be seen as a magical date, both inside and outside Afghanistan,” said Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the Afghan national security adviser. “It’s difficult to find what is realistic and what is illusion.”

That is not least because the major players — Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and the Taliban — have fundamentally different visions of how to achieve a post-2014 peace, according to accounts of setbacks in the process.

For the Afghans, the simple act of considering what a peace deal might look like has inflamed factional differences that are still raw two decades after the country’s civil war.

The Afghan High Peace Council, which Mr. Karzai has empowered to negotiate for his government, has put forward a document called “Peace Process Roadmap to 2015.” While many Afghan leaders say they have not seen the proposal, first reported by McClatchy in December, those who have view it as outlining a striking number of potential concessions to the Taliban and to Pakistan. They include provisions for the Taliban’s becoming a political party and anticipation that some of the most important government positions could be open to them, including provincial governorships, police chief jobs and cabinet positions.

Some Western commentators as well as Afghans view this as returning to the past or opening the door to a division of the country. Senior members of the powerful Tajik and Hazara factions, both of which suffered greatly under Taliban rule, charged that they had been left out of the deliberations. When they are asked about striking a peace deal, they make veiled references to a renewal of ethnic strife.
For complete article, click here

Also see: Afghanistan's future: 5 burning questions
By Kyle Almond, CNN, February 16, 2013

(CNN) -- In his State of the Union address, President Obama reaffirmed that the country's war in Afghanistan would be over by the end of 2014.

He also laid out more specifics.

Of the approximately 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now, more than half -- 34,000 -- will come home in the next year, Obama said.

At the same time, Afghan troops will assume most of the responsibility for combat missions."This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead," Obama said.

It was previously expected that Afghan forces would take the lead in combat missions by the middle of this year. But a U.S. official told CNN that the military transition has accelerated and that Afghans will lead all security operations by March.

What does this news mean for Afghanistan and America's longest war? Here are some key questions that will be asked in the coming months:

1. Are the Afghan troops up to the task?

There are certainly doubts.

A Pentagon review in December claimed that only one of 23 Afghan army brigades was capable of functioning on its own.

For complete article, click here

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Former US Ambassador to Pakistan continues to speak out....

Cameron Munter blasts US ‘callousness’ on Pakistan
Dawn, February 13, 2013

[Also see: A Former US Ambassador's Advice on How to Work With Pakistan - Asia Society, Feb 7, 2013]

WASHINGTON: AFP : Former US ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter on Wednesday criticised Washington’s “callousness” over the killing of Pakistani troops as he called for both nations to rethink how they see each other.

Munter served as ambassador during some of the most difficult times of the turbulent US-Pakistan relationship including the slaying of Osama bin Laden and a US border raid that killed 24 Pakistani troops in November 2011.

Cameron Munter, who resigned last year, said that the United States had shown a lack of generosity over the deaths of the 24 troops. Pakistan shut down Nato supply routes into Afghanistan until the United States apologized seven months later.

“The fact that we were unable to say that we were sorry until July cost our country literally billions of dollars,” Munter said, pointing to the costly shift to sending supplies for the Afghan war via Central Asia.

“But worse than that, it showed a kind of callousness that makes it so difficult simply to begin to talk about those things, that I’ve always tried to stress, that we have in common,” he said at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.

Munter steadfastly denied conspiracy theories and said the deaths near the Afghan border were a case of mistaken identity. Munter said that US-led forces “obliterated” the soldiers by firing from an AC-130, a powerful gunship.

“If you don’t have that in common — that you’re sorry when there is nothing left of the bodies of 24 of your boys — then it’s very hard for many people, especially those who want a relationship with us… to defend us to their peers,” Munter said.

The border attack took place as Mitt Romney and other Republicans seeking the White House were attacking President Barack Obama for allegedly being too apologetic about the United States.

Munter pointed to comments by then candidate Newt Gingrich. In 2011, the former House speaker berated Pakistan over the presence of bin Laden despite the billions of dollars in US aid to Islamabad, saying: “How stupid do you think we are?”

“If we have that kind of dismissive attitude — that we can give people money and they’re going to love us… and somehow that means they’re going to think the way we think — that’s equally stupid,” Munter said.

He called for the United States to change its way of thinking but was also critical of Pakistan.

Munter said that Pakistanis, who in opinion polls voice widespread dislike for the United States, were wrong to take for granted that Washington simply wanted to use the country for its own interests and then discard it.

“It’s a bigotry, it’s a lazy way of thinking, and as long as Pakistanis do it, they’re going to cripple the relationship,” he said.

Munter also called for a reconsideration of “very ambitious” US aid projects, saying that such largesse was ineffective and may even be counterproductive unless Pakistan reforms its feudal-based economy.

The nation’s elites “need to stop blaming America for its perceived failure to fix Pakistan,” he said.

In a 2009 law spearheaded by now Secretary of State John Kerry, Congress authorized $7.5 billion over five years in aid to Pakistan for education, infrastructure and other projects in hopes of boosting civilian rule.

Related:

A Former Ambassador to Pakistan Speaks Out - Daily Beast, November 20, 2014
CIA station chief clashed with Munter - The Nation, Pakistan, August 1, 2011
Tough tenure: US ambassador to step down ‘prematurely’ - Express Tribune, May 9, 2012
A Way Forward for US-Pakistan Relations - Asia Society Discussion video

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Why some Americans are overly concerned about Sharia ?

Sharia and Diversity: Why Some Americans are Missing the Point
Asifa Quraishi-Landes, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, January 16, 2013

Executive Summary:

The lens of state power is not the only way to see law. Jewish halakha is one example. The scholar-created doctrines of Islamic law are another. Both are complete systems of law that do not need state power in order to govern individual behavior. This is why, when American Muslims say that they live according to sharia, this does not mean that they want government enactment of Islamic law. Their request that American law recognize their choice of religious rules in their lives is not a demand that American law legislate Islamic law for everyone. To think so is to fundamentally misunderstand what Islamic law is, the fact that it differentiates between God’s Law and the human interpretations thereof, and how Islamic law operates in practice. Much of the confusion in the United States regarding sharia would be untangled if Americans could appreciate these realities, however unfamiliar.

Sharia is, for Muslims, Divine Law—the Law of God. But it takes human scholarly study of scripture to articulate and elaborate that Divine Law in the form of legal rules. Those legal rules are called “fiqh,” crafted by religious legal scholars with a self-conscious awareness of their own human fallibility. As a result, there are many fiqh schools of law. According to Islamic legal theory, no fiqh rule can demand obedience because every such rule is the product of human (and thus fallible) interpretation. This pluralism allows the divine sharia “recipe” to be tangible enough for everyday Muslim use, yet flexible enough to accommodate personal choice.

Pluralism in fiqh (human articulation of Divine Law) illustrates the dynamic interactive engagement that sharia (Divine Law) has had with many different human environments. In other words, Muslim religious scholars have always treated sharia (Divine Law) as a recipe that is meant to be made (with all the natural diversity that results from that process), not one frozen in pristine condition decorating a kitchen bookshelf.

The enactment of so-called “sharia laws” in Muslim-majority countries is a modern mutation. Pre-modern Muslim governments formally recognized fiqh, but not by legislating it as the uniform law of the land. Instead, there was a separation of legal authority between the realms of fiqh (human articulation of Divine Law) and ruler-made laws for public order (siyasa). This separation enabled pre-modern Muslim legal systems to preserve the pluralism of fiqh and the principle of individual personal choice between fiqh schools, while still enabling Muslim rulers to make laws in order to serve the public good (siyasa). In stark contrast to this history, most Muslim-majority countries today have a very different constitutional framework, inherited or borrowed from the European nation-state model in which all law is controlled by the government. Modern Muslim legal systems no longer formally separate the realms of fiqh (human articulation of Divine Law) and state-made law (siyasa). Instead, the only formally recognized law in most of these countries is the law made by the government. Thus, the phenomenon of “sharia legislation” exists not because sharia (Divine Law) demands it, but rather, because of a complicated series of political events in these countries.

For complete summary, click here
For complete report (pdf), click here