issue
Prejudice or policies

A blasphemous remark or a film has become ideal means for any ill-wisher of Muslims to inflict damage and destruction upon them
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim
A week since the deadly protests sparked across the Muslim world over the movie trailer ‘Innocence of Muslims’ insulting Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), followed by the publication of cartoons of the prophet by a French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, tension remains high and emotions inflamed.

performer
Music that unites

Acknowledged for staying true to the classical form of vocal music, Shafqat Ali Khan was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy in Chennai
By Sarwat Ali
When Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy in a ceremony held recently, the citation read that the award was an acknowledgement of his staying true to the classical form of vocal music and introducing it to a large number of countries around the world. The grandson of Mahatama Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Vijantimala in Chennai presented the award to him.

In the land of others
Is it possible to ignore violence and terrorism anymore while making art? P.S. Art at the Drawing Room Gallery tried to address this question
By Quddus Mirza
Seher Tareen (currently part of MA Applied Imagination course at Central Saint Martins, London) organised an art event P.S. ART at the Drawing Room Gallery in Lahore recently. It included a show comprising works of five artists and a discussion with the participants, art critics, educationists and art students.

 

Righteous are revolting
The righteous are revolting; against the insult that a low-budget video has aimed at their religion. Hurt by the slings and arrows of a shoddy and malicious little production, the righteous have done their best to give lots and lots of publicity to the piece of malodorous trash that is the offensive film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  issue
Prejudice or policies
A blasphemous remark or a film has become ideal means for any ill-wisher of Muslims to inflict damage and destruction upon them

A week since the deadly protests sparked across the Muslim world over the movie trailer ‘Innocence of Muslims’ insulting Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), followed by the publication of cartoons of the prophet by a French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, tension remains high and emotions inflamed.

“It’s not over yet,” warned Muhammad Yahya Mujahid, spokesperson of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, talking to TNS.

His words echoed those uttered by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah, Lebanese political and paramilitary organisation, far off, in Ramallah. “The world should know our anger will not be a passing outburst but the start of a serious movement that will continue on the level of the Muslim nation to defend the Prophet of God,” he said to thousands of cheering protesters.

“If our government can take serious note of the Salala incident and block the Nato supply routes, they can very well take a firmer stance over this issue,” Mujahid said.

Saying it is a signal for “open war” from the US, he further went on to say it was not simply not free speech overstep. “It’s hard to believe that the US administration had no hand in the making of the film. If they are really not involved they should hold the film-makers accountable for hurting the sentiments of the entire Muslim Ummah in this manner,” said Mujahid.

However, Ian Black, Guardian’s Middle East editor, has a slightly different view. Tracing how speedily the insult travelled from one combustible Islamic country to the next, he pointed to some political movements there stoking and exploiting the situation — “In the Arab world you have had mostly Salafi types exploiting what was clearly intended to be a provocative anti-Muslim film made by extremists who presumably were happy to stir up anti-American sentiment.

“That certainly seems to have been the case in Egypt, which was crucial in starting this chain of events — the situation there [was made] complicated by the Muslim Brotherhood now being in power,” Black explained to TNS in an email exchange. He further added that in Libya, the protests were used as “cover by Ansar al-Sharia to kill the US ambassador”.

He added, “And look at Hizbullah’s Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, delighted to be able to blame America, protector of Israel, and usefully distract attention from the slaughter in Syria! An-Nahda in Tunisia, it is worth noting, did not encourage protests — though they have problems with Salafis.”

So is this about prejudice or policies?

If you ask Lahore-based defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi, he’d say both as did Black. “Anti-Americanism is a part of the ideology and discourse of Islamic hardliners and militant groups. How could they miss this opportunity that gives them a chance to criticise and condemn the US?” asked Rizvi

According to him, these Islamic groups and militants pursue a two-pronged agenda — opposition to the US and sever its relations with the Muslim world. “They want to assume power in their home country to implement the Islam of their choice,” he pointed out.

The film, he said, provided a “godsend” opportunity to pursue both the objectives. The protests and rioting across the Muslim world, he said, shows the power of these hardliners and at the same time forces others to adopt their political discourse.

Black termed the motives on both sides to be entirely “opportunistic”.

“Hillary Clinton [Secretary of State] emphasized that the US government deplored the film but also made clear that it cannot act against perceived blasphemy. All in all it’s an unpleasant reminder that it is very hard to separate religion from the real world,” Black concluded.

“As nasty as it is, it doesn’t directly call for murder, arson and so on. The clip does not directly incite violence against anyone and thus is likely protected under the First Amendment,” Dr Mohammad Taqi told TNS. He pointed out that it did not veer towards hate speech.

Taqi, a Pakistani doctor settled in Florida, who saw the 14-minute trailer, is a practicing Chishti Muslim. He not only found it “abhorrent and hateful expression” but also crass production-wise. “It’s a cross between ainak wala jinn and some third-rate porn flick!” he expressed.

Further, Taqi may or may not agree with Mujahid’s stance that the US administration was involved in the making of the film, he is definite “bigotry and malicious intent” was obvious.

But, says Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, a peace activist, a blasphemous remark or a film has become ideal means for any ill-wisher of Muslims to inflict damage and destruction upon them. “Toss a lighted match, and then step aside to watch the fun as they kill, burn, and destroy their own kind,” said the professor who teaches at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and the Quaid-e-Azam Univerity in Islamabad.

Hoodbhoy said collective derangement takes place when “reason is banished and raw emotion is allowed to rule”. He blamed the “hysterical reaction” to the “venom of the mullahs, overflowing madrassas, and a dysfunctional education system that have created a tinderbox that catches fire from time-to-time,” he told TNS.

To that, said Mujahid: “All this wouldn’t have happened if our leaders, like President Zardari, had led the protest in the first place.” And then added: “But those holding the begging bowls are in no position to hold their head held high and seek repentance from powers that dole out money and mischief.”

For its part, Mujahid said, the JuD itself carried out huge rallies in Lahore and ensured nothing untoward happened despite emotions running awry.

However, the government gave in to people’s pressure and announcing Friday Sept 21 a public holiday, called it an official day of “expression of love for the prophet”.

Naeem Sadiq, a Karachi-based businessmen, looks with distaste at the way Pakistani cities have been rampaged in the last few days.

“Religion is an excellent tool for exploitation and capturing space,” he said, wryly. “It is the mullah, who decides what is ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the many buckets of Islam, which they have manufactured to suit their own viewpoint. The sane ones are too scared to plead sanity,” he added.

He further said: “Muslims do not honour the Holy Prophet; they do not enhance his respect; they do not add to his glory and they do not benefit themselves by violent protests when any of the six billion or so persons going around the globe acts in a disrespectful manner towards him.”

At the same time Sadiq holds their rulers responsible. “At another level, this has also something to do with the frustration of Muslims with their own countries and rulers, who are corrupt and incompetent. You will not see these kinds of protests amongst Muslims in western countries.”

To ensure respect for all religions, Imran Khan has suggested a comprehensive global legislation.

Finding Imran Khan, “too naive” to understand the dynamics of international politics, Rizvi said: “The United Nations or any other international organisation cannot create totally binding laws. The UN General Assembly can pass a resolution asking the member state to control religious extremism and the activities of the people and groups that offend the followers of any religion.”

Moreover, he said: “There is a problem in all this. Will Imran and other Islamists in Pakistan be willing to review the laws concerning blasphemy and stop engaging in verbal campaign against the Ahmedis?”

And even if the UN does something to that effect, Hoodbhoy pointed out, it would be impossible to regulate the internet. Clinton, in 2010, in one of her speeches on internet freedom said: “Viral videos and blog posts are becoming the samizdat of our day.”

caption

Protesters outside the US consulate in Lahore. — Photos by Rahat Dar

 

 

 

 

  performer
Music that unites
Acknowledged for staying true to the classical form of vocal music, Shafqat Ali Khan was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy in Chennai

When Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy in a ceremony held recently, the citation read that the award was an acknowledgement of his staying true to the classical form of vocal music and introducing it to a large number of countries around the world. The grandson of Mahatama Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Vijantimala in Chennai presented the award to him.

As discussed in this very space, since the beginning of ‘Surkshetra’ and the threat of Bal Thackeray, some cold ashes from the amber of the debate about the artistic relationship between the two countries has been blown off to re-smoulder. The classical musicians of Pakistan, too, have been very well-received in India.

Indeed the true genius of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, the father of Shafqat Salamat Ali, was acknowledged in India by the connoisseurs and it was said that he  made genuine contribution to kheyal gaiki. His stature back home in Pakistan was elevated by the felicitations that he received across the border.

It has been the ardent desire of the Indian artistes to perform in Lahore as well, and some who have played or sung have said so without mincing their words. It has been a treat to listen to Ustads Bismillah Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Pandits Jasraj and Hari Prasad Chaurasia. All of them called the concert as a fulfilment of an ardent desire. Lahore was one of the centres of learning and the arts in undivided India and its music lovers were considered to be well-initiated into the intricacies of classical music. Axiomatically, it was considered to be the most difficult place to perform for it was assumed that the artiste who could perform successfully in Lahore could perform anywhere in the world.

Like all city dwellers, the citizens of Lahore too have a bloated image of themselves and their city. They still like to believe that they comprise the most informed and initiated audience. Lahore did undergo a sea change with the transfer of population in 1947 when nearly half the city population migrated to be replaced by many more who came from across the Radcliff divide. But the old Lahoris have insisted, despite reservations in private, about themselves being the most sophisticated and cultured audience of the higher arts in the country or indeed the entire world.

It is the same old Lahore that the artistes in India remember and the comparatively younger ones who either have grown up in India or were born there have been told so by their nostalgia-driven elders. It is the old Lahore that they come in search of and just one performance or a couple of days stay in not enough for them to gauge the changes that might have taken place in the last 65 years.

Ustad Salamat Ali Khan also went to Sham Chaurasi for he wanted to see the house that he was born and grew up in. He was recognised by the people of the town and, by the time he reached his former abode, he was led by a procession. When he knocked at the door, the person who lived there came out and told him that the former residents of the house had come to visit he felt very uneasy. His welcome was subdued for he feared that perhaps Salamat Ali Khan had come back to claim his property. He was repeatedly assured that it was no more than a trip down the nostalgia lane but far from being appeased or satisfied he must have heaved a sight of relief once Khan Sahib left.

It is the crux of this relationship — at times warm and expansive yet shrouded in doubt and misgiving. There is both love and hatred locked in an intricate embrace. It breeds the contempt of familiarity.

The audiences in India also praised Ustad Sharif Khan very lavishly when he went there on his only visit and Tari Khan too is quite well-received. Tufail Niazi was treated as a demigod when, in Amritsar and Jalandhar, he reminded the Sikhs of the true musical worth of their shabds, kirtans and shaloks. He won many awards including an Amir Khusro Award.

It appears in India there are many Amir Khusro Awards exclusively for literature and quite a few bodies designate the awards under the same generic label, a reflection of the stature of the man who lived so many centuries ago but is still remembered due to his multifaceted contributions. Same is true for Pakistan.

Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan has matured over the years that he has been performing. Though he was not the oldest of the progeny but when, as a youngster, he started to team up with Ustad Salamat Ali Khan the latter felt more assured. It has been an uphill struggle and Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan had to play to the gallery to stay in business but when singing to himself or to a very select gathering his true talent has always flowered.

In this age of rapid technological development and change in taste, the purer forms of art including that of music are under great amount of pressure to constantly adapt. It is often feared that the rapid change somehow damages the purity of a form. The classical forms by nature are more conservative in character and something essential is lost when change under compulsion takes place. It can be handled better if it is slow and properly digested.

It appears that across the border the same concerns must have been raised and those who have stuck to the guns of their intonation need to be acknowledged. Within the Pakistani context the struggle of Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan appears to be more heroic because here even the very worth of the classical forms are questioned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  In the land of others
Is it possible to ignore violence and terrorism anymore while making art? P.S. Art at the Drawing Room Gallery tried to address this question

Seher Tareen (currently part of MA Applied Imagination course at Central Saint Martins, London) organised an art event P.S. ART at the Drawing Room Gallery in Lahore recently. It included a show comprising works of five artists and a discussion with the participants, art critics, educationists and art students.

It was a coincidence the show took place on Sept 6, a date that reminds of Pakistan’s war with India; the exhibition comprised works by artists who belong to areas that are fighting a war of another kind with invisible forces. Besides, these ‘warzones’ have a link with another September event, known as 9/11.

The display revealed how the artists from the tribal areas or Balochistan deal with the theme of violence. There were miniatures with details of bloodshed, weapons and views of explosions. Shadows and silhouettes of drone planes were drawn against cloudy skies. Nests made of barbed wire were installed in the gallery; hence the artists expressed their experience of turbulent areas and terrible times. Two of these artists belong to the Hazara community, people facing ethnic/sectarian cleansing of the worst kind in the country’s history. Other artists had witnessed acts of violence and at least one was a survivor of a bomb blast.

More engaging than the artworks, which were refined in terms of execution and creative solutions, was the discussion. Like all such discussions, it soon drifted from its main course — art — into politics. It was expected because the premise of the exhibition was its political content. So the conversation invoked many points which, like art, were not resolved or answered satisfactorily.

An important aspect of this discourse that engaged the artists, organisers, art critics and audience was the general reluctance to name the enemy. Everyone talked about the awful nature of war, brutal killings on sectarian ground, senseless targeting of public places like markets, bus stops and girls schools and even mosques of other faiths, but the perpetrators were referred to as they —some unknown individuals who could not be defined or described. This reminds one of terms we use like agencies or establishment which conceal the subject.

This habit of avoiding the enemy’s name in public is the first measure of the enemy’s success. One is so frightened that one starts deceiving oneself by not proclaiming the protagonists. Umber to Eco in his essay ‘Inventing the Enemy’ recounts his ride in a New York cab when a Pakistani taxi driver asked him about his nationality and, upon knowing that he is Italian, inquired about Italians’ enemies. Eco was speechless because he couldn’t think of a country which could be called an enemy of Italy. He told the driver Italy does not have any, an answer which not only perplexed the driver but the author who pondered upon the fact that Italy does not have external enemies because Italian themselves are the enemies of each other.

The present day Pakistan is also like Italy in that respect. Yet we believe that Indians or Hindus and Israelis or Jews are our enemies. Children are taught this in schools; newspapers are filled with this rhetoric and so is the electronic media. Lately, the US has joined the list of our adversaries in an active way; thus every calamity in Pakistan is considered a conspiracy of some American-Jewish-Hindu plot. One wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of people thought the earthquakes, torrential rains, floods and epidemic such as Dengue are triggered by this trio. Some of them seriously do and articulate it also.

In the gallery discussion, too, it was hard to state that our own version of Taliban or their supported groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are behind the atrocities against the Shiite community of Hazaras in Quetta. Also, the terrorist attacks in public places are the outcome of our religious militants active in Northern Areas.

Perhaps the artists’ attitude of not stating the actual cause of our predicament is due to their conditioning — to always convert the content into something ambiguous so that it offers more than one meaning or version. Their work in the show also indicated this approach towards art and politics; the nests made in barbed wire by Suleman Khan Mengal stemmed from a certain situation but became a metaphor for many others like it. Similarly, the delicately-drawn miniature by Sajid Khan of a sky heavy with dark clouds with a hint of red in it could be read in another context too. Likewise, Shakila Hiader depicted the interior spaces being destroyed (linked to her father, a political activist, who committed suicide) in a remote and private narrative.

All these works, focusing on terror in one way or the other, are made by artists from troubled territories who have shifted to relatively peaceful places (Lahore or Karachi) for education or better professional opportunities. But a number of artists still residing in those areas are not addressing the grave surroundings. Hence, instead of war-related visuals, most artists from the ‘warzone’ of Pakistan are painting pretty landscapes and beautiful flowers. It is only when an artist moves away from reality, physically as well as emotionally, that he sees it differently and decides to depict it.

Or maybe the decision to pick painful, shameful and shocking subjects — which ‘rightfully’ belong to the artist — is only to meet the expectations of others. So the artist becomes a respondent to outsiders who assign him the role of voicing the trouble of others. The exhibition and discourse at P.S.ART was about five artists who are re-presenting their miserable conditions to a different audience. But is that not the case with a majority of our artists showing here and abroad?

 

 

 

 

  Righteous are revolting

The righteous are revolting; against the insult that a low-budget video has aimed at their religion. Hurt by the slings and arrows of a shoddy and malicious little production, the righteous have done their best to give lots and lots of publicity to the piece of malodorous trash that is the offensive film.

In sustaining these extended protests against this perceived insult to religion, the righteous have managed to destroy cars and property in their own cities and kill and injure their own fellow citizens and co-religionists. They have also managed to be a complete nuisance to their governments and a headache to their own police force that has struggled to contain their numbers and their determination to attack and destroy foreign embassies.

The righteous have assembled and marched to protect the ‘honour’ of their religion, they have burnt flags and effigies and breathed words of fire and brimstone and preached hate and destruction. They have destroyed any notion that they, or any of their co-religionists, can think in rational and humane terms. The righteous want everyone to know that they are always, always, always right, because if you do or say anything they disagree with, well your life is under threat and anybody who kills you will go straight to heaven... The righteous are not, of course, bullies even though some people do think they are thugs.

What would we do without the righteous leaders who whip mobs into a frenzy and encourage the burning of flags and effigies? What would happen to us if we channelised our anger into a process of constructive protest that could actually effect change?

What a strange and terrible idea! After all, what is protest without violence, threats and effigy burning? Without attacking and destroying? Without preaching hate and violence? Such protest is nothing — nothing at all.

If it weren’t for the righteous among us we would be people misguided by reason and compassion, beguiled by the idea of progress and civilisation. Perish the thought! Our righteous brothers always save the day: they so selflessly assemble and form large and menacing crowds whenever needed. They are our heroes. They are revolting. Revolting against something or the other, but revolting, nevertheless.

Thank you, oh righteous ones.

Yours sincerely,

Umber Khairi

 

 

 

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