Saifuddin's Blog Picks

Veritable Skills

Marina Montanaro — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:01:00 PST

By Rahul Ghai Bikaner, *The flute gathers dust* - Hardnews - India
Thursday, November 5, 2009

Creative expression is not only for pleasure. It must also be a factor while generating livelihood opportunities

As the deep sonorous saxophone-like voice of Piran Khan resonates aj kal bhural maand vasa (Oh brown cloud! Bless our region with rain and life), the noble qalam of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great desert Sufi mystic, wafts through a star-studded, serene moonscape amid the desert wilderness of Dodha, an interior settlement in Bikaner.

Others enthusiastically join him in a chorus. These self-effacing invocations to the rain gods have been of no avail this year. The lilting Rajasthani folk music traditions always promise ecstasy to mystical heights. They soothe the heart and soul alike. But not this year which faces the threat of a creeping drought, the third worst in 28 years. Again, 26 out of the 28 years were affected by drought.

The food, fodder and water crisis is of an unprecedented magnitude. Most villages of the desert districts of Thar have reported more than 75 to almost 100 per cent crop failure. Prices of essential commodities like wheat, bajra, edible oil and kerosene have more than doubled. Fodder is scarce even at double the price. And, water has dried out. It is difficult to obtain water in the parched region even after immense effort. This drudgery is impregnated with signs of a long winter of destitution and misery ahead.

Waris Ali, a singer from Rawala, a remote settlement in Indira Gandhi Nahar Project (IGNP) stage II canal command area in Bikaner, pointed out the water woes here. And, the water scarcity is not only due to failure of rains. "Even in the earlier months we faced drought-like situation. For us, it is a permanent drought. Forget irrigating our fields, we do not even have water to drink," he said.

Lack of opportunities for performance in the canal command area has forced him to go to Punjab to eke out a living through his musical performances.

Abdul Jabbar, another musician from Pugal, pointed out, "For the last 25 years, the state has been pushing the grand IGNP canal as a panacea of all ills. It promises to assuage the misery of drought. But, that has not happened yet. Almost every year we face a drought like situation."

The sagacious Nazre Khan, deft player of been, squatted near a dried water body in his field in a remote chak on the border with Pakistan. "We cannot do anything else but wait for water."

Mohammad Sadiq from Ghulamwala breaks into a qalam of Sassi-Punnu, that debates the metaphysics of life and death through the depiction of tribulations of the harsh and blazing hot Thar. Soon, this gives way to ruminations about the apathy of policy planners and their failure to develop these resilient cultural traditions into lasting livelihood solutions.

Thousands of such families of musicians are scattered in the desert. They mostly belong to vulnerable communities and have survived through the ages as fringe groups with a feeble voice. They have been subordinated and discriminated in cases of access to entitlements. Many development schemes haven't touched their lives.

These subaltern musicians are a paradox: they are vast repositories of raw creativity and are known for their renditions, enticing overtures and robust dissemination of secular culture. Yet, they are languishing in misery.

As the spectre of scarcity looms large, these musicians have no option but try to access drought relief work - digging earth and uprooting bushes - that does not need their skills. This has been the usual emergency drought relief response and is repeated every year. Their musical talent gets buried in the drought relief works. The fonts of ecstasy get metamorphosed into the wretched of the desert.

This time, however, the state has come up with a new solution. The plan is to combat drought through relief works with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The new flagship programme of the state for inclusive growth and sustainable development, NREGS is the world's largest employment generation programme.

But, a glance through its official website tells a different story. It seems to reek of a sophistry in marshalling statistical data down to the panchayat level.

The NREGS is surely more than an employment programme. It conveys the stance of the State towards poverty and poor communities. Probing deeper into its conceptual foundations, one discovers that convergence of different development programmes has indeed been envisaged as a salient cornerstone for achieving sustainable development.

But this mostly applies to programmes relating to natural resources, stock landand watershed treatment projects. Apart from augmenting the natural resource base, it presents the issue of rural employment as essentially one of lack of skills and lack of opportunities to upgrade skills. This aspect of convergence is neglected in the public discourse on NREGS that thrives on providing employment to unskilled labour.

Surely these makers of music in the desert districts of Thar, who have represented India in cultural performances abroad, are prized in the field of cultural diplomacy. They are not unskilled people. They possess veritable skills. It is high time we rid ourselves of the bias and theoretical baggage that makes culture an intangible superstructural variable. Creative expression is not only for transient pleasures but can also be of marginal consequence for generating livelihoods.

Making NREGS perform better by further chiseling the empiricism of statistical jugglery topped with gospels of transparency and accountability is not enough. On its own, it contributes to making lists of numbers and names that get easily manipulated at the village and panchayat levels.

What perhaps is needed is a conceptual innovation in broadening the idea of convergence contained in the NREGS as it relates to sustainable development. NREGS is an opportunity for creating sustainable rural livelihoods through rejuvenation of productive capabilities of rural people. Many of these capabilities lie in the robust folk cultural traditions of the people. These communities need opportunities to graduate from mere wage earners to that of sustainable rural livelihoods. That would help in the realisation of the right to dignified work and reduction of vulnerabilities.

Efforts to engage with these subaltern musicians require a concerted action. But, this has often been found wanting in our stock responses to combat drought that scarcely graduate from emergency relief to long-term reduction of vulnerabilities.

A CEO of a successful NGO once, in his frank moments, admitted that most NGOs do not want to take up the challenge of working with musicians as it is time consuming and calls for compassionate monitoring. Administering muster roll and counting man days during drought relief is obviously less cumbersome.

The State and the civil society must engage with these makers of music. In these moments of crisis, they need opportunities to hone their skills and opportunities to perform.

In this context, it would be worthwhile for NREGS planners and civil society members to remember the Jodhpur Consensus, a concerted call to action by the UNESCO and endorsed by the ministry of culture in 2005. It delineates a strategy for rejuvenating creative communities. A central theme of the Jodhpur Consensus is the recognition that culture includes in its ambit social and economic factors, too. So, supporting these industries is a practical strategy to contribute to socio-economic development and poverty alleviation.

Encouraging people in rural regions to develop traditional forms of livelihood based on cultural resources should be considered an investment in development. Such a development would go a long way in fulfilling the promise of preserving our cultural heritage. It would also provide solace to the arid and parched urban sensibilities.

The writer is a development facilitator and researcher working in western Rajasthan

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikaner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayati_raj]

Sohbet and Zikr in Honor of Amir Celoski

hakkani — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:33:11 PST

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Birthday of Hz Allama (ra)

chaiwala — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:27 PST

Today is the birthday of Hz Allama Iqbal, poet, philosopher and mystic and one of the founding fathers of Pakistan. Despite recent attempts to “shelve” his teachings by some recent governments that feel that he is not liberal enough for their liking, he continues to be an inspiration to millions.

The Path of the Heart

Marina Montanaro — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:01:00 PST

By Len Seligman, *The Path of the Heart with Sufi Teacher Pir Zia Inayat-Khan* - 7th Space Interactive - New York, NY, USA

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Friday, December 4 - Sunday, December 6, 2009 Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Opening with Special Evening Event, Spiritual Chivalry: Answering the Call With Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Friday, December 4, 2009, 7:30 - 9 p.m.

Rumi and many other Sufi teachers are well-known for their deep and touching poetry about love. Many might not know that there is a vibrant contemporary Sufism being practiced in the West. The upcoming visit by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, head of the Sufi Order International, to Georgetown University, on the weekend of December 5 and 6, provides an excellent opportunity to be introduced to Sufism at it has evolved in the 21st century.

Pir Zia, who holds a doctoral degree in religion from Duke University, is the spiritual leader of the Sufi Order International. Pir Zia is also the president of the Suluk Academy and the founder of Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. He is the recipient of the U Thant Peace Award and is a Lindisfarne fellow.

Pir Zia is successor of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan (d. 1927), who is known for being the first person to bring Sufism to the West from his native India one hundred years ago, in 1910.

The theme of the weekend, sponsored by the Sufi Order International, is The Path of the Heart and will be held from 9:30 to 4:30 Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6.

Pir Zia uses meditation, breath, concentration and awareness to quicken the process of awakening through love.

Price: $225 (includes a Friday evening talk). Half-price for students and young adults under the age of 30. Limited scholarship available.

On Friday evening, between 7:30 pm. and 9 pm ., Pir Zia will give a public talk sponsored by Seven Pillars House of Wisdom on Spiritual Chivalry: Answering the Call. Pir Zia will explore the vocation that each of us has beyond our occupation to answer the call toward sacred service.

Price: $10 general admission. Both events are held at Georgetown University, Copley Hall Formal Lounge, 37 and O Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. 20057. For information or to register for the Friday evening and/or full weekend program email gwellock@cox.net or call 703-389-3456. To register please send checks payable to Sufi Order International to: Gail Jamila Wellock, 1427 Filene Court, Vienna, VA 22182.

The Sufi Order International is an ecumenical fellowship rooted in the visionary legacy of the Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan, who brought a message of human divinity and spiritual liberty to the West from his native India in 1910. The Sufi Order recognizes the inherent wisdom in all religious traditions and seeks to encourage harmony amongst all people.

For additional information, please visit http://www.sufiorder.org/.

Seven Pillars House of Wisdom is dedicated to fostering beauty and depth in human culture, and seeks to cultivate awareness of the unity of existence and the qualities of the heart that naturally arise from this awareness: nobility of character, genuine civility and creative optimism.

Seven Pillars offers programs, dialogues, and media projects focused on four primary areas: Cosmology, Revelation, Mysticism and Chivalry. http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/

Fascism, not Islam, is the enemy

Martin Sullivan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:01:38 PST

"It caused quite a stir when it was built more than two decades ago, but now the distinctive domes of Glasgow Central Mosque are an unremarked-upon feature of the Clydeside skyline. The large modern building is a landmark of the transformed Gorbals, no more foreign than the nearby Citizens' Theatre, with its reputation for staging highbrow European plays.

"Locals found the mosque more pleasing on the eye than the monolithic Sir Basil Spence tower blocks the council forced them to live in for decades. The quiet men and women who worship there were no trouble at all – and the Gorbals certainly knows trouble when it comes visiting.

"Trouble will visit this Saturday, in the form of an organisation calling itself the Scottish Defence League (SDL). It plans to protest near the mosque against what it says is the rise of Islamic extremism. There has never been any suggestion that Glasgow's mosque gives succour to extremists – it does not. But that will not stop the SDL."

Habib Umar ibn Hafiz

Arfan Shah — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:10:00 PST

Part Seven of Seven

Seventh Session

The outwards should not conflict the inward

The shariah should be followed; these are Allahs rulings

Applying the rulings of the scared law whilst spiritual journeying

They ascribe their good deeds to Allah

When they travel this way Allah bring them out of the darkness into the light

Ask Allah for success, pardon, pleasure and to be with the righteous

He witnesses that every blessing is from Allah

Allah created us and what we do

Our ability and deeds are created, however we are responsible for the action

A person will be asked about they are responsible for

Final session and Question and Answers

There is a summary of the shariah, the reality and spiritual journeying

Pharaoh, Harrun had great armies and empires but were oppressors; then final outcome was in favour of Musa (upon him peace)

They are in a persistent punishment now and will arrive at a greater punishment

The fire is presented to them in the morning and evening

Musa, Haroon and their followers are show bliss in the morning and evening

Our master Hassan ibn Ali cried near death; our master Hussain said, “Did not Ali, your mother Fatima and your grandfather the Messenger of Allah all die?” he replied, “I swear by Allah that I am not crying for sadness of death or for leaving the world but I fear that I will die and I will not travel as they travelled.”

This is the fear of someone truthful

Q+A

We have ability to acquire deeds and we are responsible for that

When someone does something they are held in responsibility for their action

If someone sees a dream it has to be in the sacred law if it is not then the problem is with the person who saw it

Deem all obstacles as major

Directly yourself to Allah and have glad tidings

Do not seek to be protected from sin because that’s is for the Prophets (upon them peace)

If you make a mistake repent and return

Opposition to Muslim girls' school plan in Pendle

Martin Sullivan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:23:00 PST

Pland to convert the former Smith and Nephew factory in Brierfield into a Muslim girls' school have provoked widespread opposition. Brierfield's Mayor, Michael Sutcliff, has spoken out against the plan.Town councillor Marie Starkie also voiced her disapproval. Pendle MP Gordon Prentice has lambasted the proposal. And a leading Pendle BNP councillor has condemned the idea in a letter to this newspaper.

Birmingham-based charity Islamic Help is planning to take over the mill and use it as the Pendle Boarding School for Girls. It is estimated as many as 5,000 students would attend the school if the plans came to fruition.

Mr Sutcliff says in a letter the school would lead to Pendle being faced with "a real problem". He says: "The local education authority has spent millions of pounds on two new schools in Pendle, one of them in Brierfield, and millions on a new college in Burnley, and this pops up. It doesn't make sense and it wants kicking into the long grass very quickly. It is funded, I rather think, for people with a lot of sand and oil whose way of thinking doesn't fit in with very few people here."

British National Party councillor Brian Parker said the school and an Islamic college proposed for Burnley were not needed. "Quite apart from anyone's view on the desirability of having two communities living side by side with little in common and divided by religion, the sheer scale of these proposals make them unsuited to our two towns.

"Six and a half thousand young women will make up a very significant proportion of the entire population. Over the years, some will doubtless settle and like any other university those over the age of 18 will be entitled to vote, affecting the political make up of the councils and even who will be the MPs. One would like a little more information about the nature of the education intended to be provided by these colleges and why Muslims wish to be educated apart from the rest of us," he said in a letter jointly signed by John Rowe, the BNP's prospective Parliamentary candidate in Burnley.

Pendle Today, 6 November 2009

Islamic schools may groom children for terrorism – at taxpayer's expense

Martin Sullivan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:47:00 PST

Fears are emerging that vulnerable children might be groomed for religious extremism or even terrorism at taxpayers' expense.

Muslim pupils are being taken out of classes and sent to study at Islamic schools, or madrassas. A pilot scheme, the Open Madrasah Network, has received a £550,000 government grant to pay for under-achievers to attend lessons in Arabic, Urdu and religion.

The classes, described as booster lessons for primary and GCSE age pupils, are already running at four madrassas in Bradford, West Yorkshire. If pupils show improvement, the scheme is likely to be rolled out nationally. But critics say it will lead to the risk of taxpayers' money being spent on "suspect" organisations.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "These institutions are devoted almost entirely to pumping Islam into the heads of their pupils. We need to know who will keep tabs on these indoctrination centres to ensure taxpayers' money is properly spent. Although there is no suggestion that the Yorkshire scheme is suspect, if this kind of idea rolls out, who knows what will happen?"

There are almost 1,600 madrassas in Britain, where 200,000 children attend evening classes to study the Koran. But anti-terror police fear that extremists could indoctrinate pupils with anti-Western sentiments.

Sunday Express, 8 November 2009

America Kills Afghanis Working With Them

MR — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:17:41 PST

Man, Afghanistan is a mess. If you fight for your land you may end up dead. If you work with the invaders you may also end up dead. May Allah make it easy for them and free them from any more war. Ameen!

At least eight Afghans working with US forces have been killed in a Nato air strike in north-western Afghanistan, the defence ministry in Kabul says.

Nato confirms an air strike was ordered and is investigating whether it was the cause of the deaths on Friday.

It was launched as US and Afghan forces reportedly came under insurgent attack during search operations in Badghis province for two missing US soldiers.

Five Americans and 18 Afghans were also wounded on Friday.

Nato said the casualties occurred “during a joint operation that involved multiple engagements over several hours”.

‘Important mission’

The Afghan defence ministry said a base housing coalition troops and Afghan security forces was mistakenly hit by the air strike.

Four Afghan soldiers, three police and another person believed to have been an interpreter were killed.

A spokesperson for the Nato force, US Navy Capt Jane Campbell, said: “We are saddened by the loss of life and injuries sustained during this very important mission.”

Source

LIVE Webcast NOW – Intro to Usul al-Fiqh – Shaykh Abdullah Ali

Mikael Pittam — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:06:00 PST

LIVE Webcast NOW – Intro to Usul al-Fiqh with Shaykh Abdullah Ali – http://www.stickam.com/zaytuna_college

Express Yourself LIVE

True Meaning

Marina Montanaro — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:01:00 PST

By Xan Brooks and Agencies, *Matrix producer plans Muhammad biopic* - The Guardian - London, UK
Monday, November 2, 2009

Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production 'will educate people about the true meaning of Islam'

Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.

Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad's life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam".

Osborne's production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim actors. It is backed by the Qatar-based production company Alnoor Holdings, who have installed the Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to oversee all aspects of the shoot. In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen.

"The film will shed light on the Prophet's life since before his birth to his death," Ahmed Abdullah Al-Mustafa, Alnoor's chairman, told al-Jazeera. "It will highlight the humanity of Prophet Muhammad."

The as-yet-untitled picture is due to go before the cameras in 2011. It remains to be seen, however, whether it will be beaten to cinemas by another Muhammad-themed drama. Late last year, producer Oscar Zoghbi announced plans to remake The Message, his controversial 1976 drama that sparked a fatal siege by protesters in Washington DC.

The new version, entitled The Messenger of Peace, is currently still in development.

Picture: Detail of a fireplace on show at the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the V&A Museum, London. Photograph: David Levene

Harrow Festival of Unity ahead of anti-Islam protest

Martin Sullivan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:11:00 PST

Anti-fascists will hold a unity festival in the face of protest threats by an anti-Islam group. Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is arranging political speeches and entertainment on Saturday, November 23, ahead of a planned rally by Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) on December 13.

Sarah Cox, of Brent and Harrow UAF, said: "It's fundamentally about bringing the borough together in unity to show, as it showed before, there's no section of the community that welcomes that kind of bigotry. We want to show that we stand together."

SIOE, a group of self-proclaimed Islamaphobics, plan to protest outside Harrow Central Mosque, in Station Road, and UAF will hold a counter-demonstration the same day. Referring to SIOE, Ms Cox said: "These people cannot be allowed to march without people showing them how unwelcome they are. Otherwise they just get more confident. They come back for more. They come back after dark."

Harrow Times, 6 November 2009

See also "Harrow MPs, councillors and mosque lobby home secretary over rally", Harrow Times, 4 November 2009

'Jihad at Fort Hood' – according to Robert Spencer

Martin Sullivan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:00:00 PST

"Major Hasan's motive was perfectly clear – but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened – and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored."

Robert Spencer at Front Page Magazine, 6 November 2009

See Mehdi Hasan's comments at Dissident Voice, 6 November 2009

Update: See also Sunny Hundal, "Double standards over Fort Hood attack", at Pickled Politics, 6 November 2009

The situation of Sunni Muslims in Iran

Austrolabe — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:46:26 PST

Click here to view the embedded video.

No tag for this post.

Baltimore Islamic School Fundraiser with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf – 11/7/09 – 1:30 PM

MR — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:03:28 PST

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad

Arfan Shah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:58:38 PST

Meeting together at Isna (in Arabic only - sorry!)

The intersections between homophobia and Islamophobia

Martin Sullivan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST

Interesting post from Barry Kade at Socialist Unity.

Sohbet and Zikr from Sheikh Abdul Kerim in Honor of Amir Celoski

yursil — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:37:29 PST

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Discourses of Hazrat Shahidullah Faridi -4

Rizwan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:46:26 PST

RELIANCE ON GOD- TAQWA

"Until Allah does not issue forth His decree, none of the means you may employ will be of any use.
It is only when you put your reliance on Allah that new avenues will become manifest... avenues that you could not have visualized."

Urs Hazrat Banda Nawaz

Rizwan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:34:59 PST

Please go to this new website for more information on this great saint, may God sanctify his secret, and also to view a bit of the Urs ceremonies LIVE, as the Urs is currently in progress.

More on the saint here.

Saifuddin's Blog Picks

Veritable Skills

Sohbet and Zikr in Honor of Amir Celoski

Birthday of Hz Allama (ra)

The Path of the Heart

Fascism, not Islam, is the enemy

Habib Umar ibn Hafiz

Opposition to Muslim girls' school plan in Pendle

Islamic schools may groom children for terrorism – at taxpayer's expense

America Kills Afghanis Working With Them

Related posts:

LIVE Webcast NOW – Intro to Usul al-Fiqh – Shaykh Abdullah Ali

True Meaning

Harrow Festival of Unity ahead of anti-Islam protest

'Jihad at Fort Hood' – according to Robert Spencer

The situation of Sunni Muslims in Iran

Baltimore Islamic School Fundraiser with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf – 11/7/09 – 1:30 PM

Related posts:

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad

The intersections between homophobia and Islamophobia

Sohbet and Zikr from Sheikh Abdul Kerim in Honor of Amir Celoski

Discourses of Hazrat Shahidullah Faridi -4

Urs Hazrat Banda Nawaz