Hot Coals

Peace for Life

Our world is in crisis. We face a growing, more aggressive empire with an insatiable appetite for consuming the resources of our world, subverting justice and humanity by its desire to strengthen its global hegemony; destroying the environment; feeding racist ideologies and practices of discrimination and marginalisation based on ethnicity; and driven by a patriarchal system and misogynist construction, which reinforce the power of men over women and children, rendering them vulnerable and subject to abuse.

The manipulation of religion to legitimize hegemony and mystify power relations is a standard tool of empires. This is dramatically at work in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; imperialised religion is utterly entangled in the project of domination.

We, people of different faith traditions and ideological convictions, together with representatives of movements for justice and peace from 16 countries in Asia and the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa, unite to seize this opportunity in obedience to the imperatives of our faiths and consciences to raise our voices loudly in the face of this danger and threat to all our lives and dignity.

For the US Empire, the ‘primary, vital focus’ is the Middle East; Occupied Palestine is at the centre of this imperial project and dreams of conquest. Today, meeting on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine and on the eve of the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), our commitment drives us to engage more strenuously in the struggle to break the yoke of empire, build a global community of justice and peace, and be in solidarity with the resistance for the liberation of the Palestinian people, based on our firm conviction that international law is applicable to all. Read more »

Nasrin Jewell and Fouzi Slisli

Without sectarian conflict, colonial justification evaporates.
—Michael Provence, The Great Syrian Revolt, University of Texas Press

The Middle East consists of people of different races, beliefs, ethnicity, and certainly different cultural and social backgrounds, at times reflecting the economic realities. To think of all the Middle East as one, and to deny the complexities of the people that live in this region is a serious mistake. It is problematic to ignore the diversity among the people of any one of these countries, much less the entire region.

However, there are two factors that unify the current Middle East—Islam, and the historical role that the U.S. has played in all of these countries. It may be argued that they are interrelated factors.

While the religious aspect of Islam is certainly important, we should consider Islam as more than a faith. For Muslims, it is a way of life, a unifying factor. It defines their identity, it is a political doctrine of freedom, it is an economic philosophy of justice for all, and a culture of respect. Therefore, when we talk about Muslims we need to go beyond issues such as whether or not Muslims drink alcohol, and whether or not Muslim women have to cover their hair. Read more »

Farid Esack

Islamabad, Pakistan

Farid Esack here (that Muslim guy from South Africa). I am still around in Islamabad –my last few days, and I am still enjoying it as my two-month sojourn here draws to a close. Islamabad is not quite Pakistan, certainly not Karachi, where I lived for eight years as a madrassah student. But then, it is the best that this country can offer “Distinguished Visiting Scholars,” a title conferred upon both of us by the International Islamic University and which we graciously accepted by coming here, business class, and getting paying paid a princely sum by the standards of the people who clean our toilets, folks who have to deal with the consequences of our shit.

I just got in from Karachi and Lahore, and on my way to class I stopped at the office of Faruq Terzic (the tall Bosnian guy), who moaned about your blog. I am not really into blogs and was somewhat irritated at how he was curious and upset at what you had to say. Normally, I pay very little, if any, attention to what people have to say about me and would rarely, for example, read news reports on something that I have said or done. So I was kind of annoyed that he was so defensive about the International Islamic University. “OK,” I argued with him, “if you are so pissed off with As`ad Abu Khalil, why don’t you write to him?” Then he read some of your stuff to me, and I was troubled enough to come to my room here — the same place that you fled from 10 minutes after your arrival — and read your blog for myself.

Please allow me to be a bit blunt here: Although I’m not in the business of spending my time critiquing fellow left academics or intellectuals, I still live in a — possibly bygone — world of comradeship. After going through and reading the posts for myself, I couldn’t help but think how sadly irresponsible and utterly unprincipled you are. Going on and on about the supposed pathetic state of Pakistan by focusing on your lack of comfort at some hotel, your aversion to lizards, etc., may be just foolish and a sheer waste of time (I keep thinking to myself if I know any left/revolutionary intellectual that would do this?), but the clear condescension displayed toward your audiences and the Muslim nature of the events/peoples was utterly contemptible. Again, what befuddles me is how can someone so well-versed in the politics of social change and grassroots activism write so irresponsibly. Where is the accountability to any sense of “real activism” on the ground? Read more »

Robert Jensen

Islamabad, Pakistan.

For my first three days in Pakistan, no conversation could go more than a few minutes without a reference to the crisis at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) compound. I had landed in Islamabad on July 8, and by then it seemed clear that government forces would eventually storm the mosque and the attached women’s seminary to end the confrontation with fundamentalist clerics and their supporters.

The final assault was finally unleashed as two companions and I drove to Lahore as part of a lecture tour. During several hours of intense discussion in the car, they gave me background and details that explained the real tragedy of the conflict.

When the news of the final assault came via cell phone we all fell silent, and we all quietly cried — for those killed and for opportunities lost, out of our grief and from our fear.

In the Western news media and even much of the Pakistani press, the story was framed as crazed radical Islamist forces challenging relatively restrained government forces. Indeed, the two brothers who ran the mosque preached an interpretation of Islam that was mostly reactionary and sometimes violent. None of us in the car — two Muslims and one Christian, all progressive in theological and political thought — supported such views.

But there was more to the story. Farid Esack, one of the world’s foremost progressive Muslim theologians who was in Pakistan to teach and lecture, and Junaid Ahmad, a Pakistani-American activist and law student directing the lecture series, both pointed out that key social/economic aspects of the story were being overlooked. Read more »

Farid Esack

A while ago I visited friends at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. The school’s football team, the Fighting Irish, was playing against their ancient and nearby rivals, Purdue. This match is traditionally preceded by a lot of fanfare with thousands of family, alums and fans coming from all over North America. About three hours before kick-off, in the heart of Roman Catholic scholarly excellence in the United States, I stood outside the backdoor of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart where a large crowd had gathered. A very long honour line snaked its way from the Basilica to the stadium in order to receive ‘The Irish’ – many were black - as they emerged from the Basilica after attending a special mass. They walked out, as serious looking and well-dressed as business executives, to be greeted by the oohs and aahs of an awestruck crowd as they made their way over to the stadium in perfect silence. Several spectators tried to shake the players’ hands and made the sign of the cross as they passed by.

A few minutes later, tucked away behind a building adjacent to the Basilica, I discovered more fans… now kneeling and making the sign of the cross before or after having lit a candle before a statue of the Virgin Mary in Our Lady of Lourdes grotto. I wondered whether the athletes had also come here before their special mass inside the Basilica… What I did discover a few hours later is that, a few minutes before kick-off, many of them did take the time upon racing into the stadium to run to the other end of the field in order to kneel down, say one last prayer, and hastily make a sign of the cross in the direction of a massive portrait of Jesus with open arms, popularly known even beyond Notre Dame as ‘Touch-down Jesus’. This ten-story high mosaic on the south wall of the main university library stands higher than the stadium, keeping a watchful eye over ‘the Irish’ at every home-game. Read more »

Kameelah Janan Rasheed

I have spun myself into a web of non-stop, albeit non-linear, intertextual journeys and discursive shadow boxing matches towards a coherent narrative about hijab. I feared that in writing about hijab that my thoughts would be so reminiscent of previous works, that my narrative would be surrendered to the museum of embalmed anachronisms and clichés. This fear kept me running as far as my short legs could carry me away from the oppression versus liberation paradigm, and hiding in a dark corner away from self-hating confessionals about the ugliness of Islam.

I am not interested in proving to anyone that I am in fact liberated or that by wearing hijab in America I am engaging in a radical feminist act. Just as I gave up the task of proving my blackness or womanhood years ago to those who were skeptical of my ‘credentials’, I do not plan to spend time here validating my humanity or agency. Such a task is a distraction. The task here is not to shuck n’jive or discursively gyrate towards a presentation of hijab and myself that will grant me entrance into the feminist or ‘mainstream’ community. I do not want to spend time convincing people that in fact my hijab is not surgically attached to my scalp.

Nor, do I want to spend energy arguing that there is not a tracker embedded in my hijab that screeches a pronounced ‘haraam, haraam’ when there is too great of a distance between the said hijab and my head. The task here is to share stories that if nothing else will illustrate that self-elected liberators who are convinced of my oppression are doing more to oppress me than my hijab ever could by fixing me in conceptual incarcerations. In telling me that as a hijabi, I can only represent and ever be seen as the epitome of oppression - the atavistic aberration, then you have succeeded in reifying the patriarchal structures you pretend to despise. You have held me hostage in your imagination and my only key to freedom is to surrender and corroborate your assumptions of my subjugation.
Read more »

A talk by Sister Amirah Ali Lidasan titled “War and Resistance Through Women’s Eyes.” The talk touches on the US Army presence in Mindanao, the Philippine Army repression of Muslims and other peoples’ movements, female mujahideen and women’s involvement in the struggle, roots of militancy, internal class and gender struggles, and building a borderless solidarity and resistance to a borderless “war on terror” along with other oppressed communities and peoples’ movements.

Download the talk here (MP3 format - 9.3MB)

Amirah Ali Lidasan is a Muslim Filipina who studied journalism and Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines. In 1995, she became national president on the National Union of Students of the Philippines and president of the National Organization of Student Councils, Governments, and Organizations. Moved by the continuing crisis in her country, Amirah volunteered at the Karapatan Human Rights Center and the militant labor federation, Kilusang Mayo Uno. In 2000, she was elected secretary-general of the Moro-Christian People’s Alliance. In 2003, she became national Vice-Chair of the Suara Bangsamoro Partylist and was chosen second nominee for the 2004 elections for the Philippine Congress under the partylist system. She is also deputy secretary-general of BAYAN Philippines. She is among the few Muslim Filipinas speaking out on the impact of the “borderless war on terror” upon the Moro peoples.

Ebrahim Mphutlane Wa Bofelo

Matter does not but intellect matters
To put it in simpler terms
Matter is immaterial
If the intellect is shackled
By mental manacles &
The metal shackles
Are of no matter
If the body
Has rid itself
Of the mental chains

It does not matter
Whether they are stone curtains
Steel barriers and metal blockades
Or mental barricades
All walls are breakable
Let a twenty pound hammer
Be under the command
Of human intellect and physique
And you will see gigantic towers falling &
Prostrating to the image of God in “man”
Read more »

At the end of last year, the Bush administration attempted to include the names of two South Africans on the UN list of terror suspects that is maintained by the “1267 Committee”. The two – cousins Junaid and Farhad Dockrat – were spared by the intervention of the South African government which objected to the inclusion and demanded evidence before accepting such charges against its citizens.

The US claimed that it had “three trolley loads of evidence” but that revealing these trolley loads would compromise its intelligence-gathering techniques. With no evidence forthcoming, the 1267 Committee – which can only make decisions on consensus – placed the names on its list of “holds”.

The US, nevertheless, went ahead and included the Dockrats’ names on its own terror list. The result is that any assets of the two in the US would, by now, be frozen, they would not be able to travel to the US (why anyone would want to, these days, is beyond me) and their assets in South African banks linked to the Swift network could also be in jeopardy.

In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, only one South African organization issued a condemnation of the US actions. After much discussion and negotiation, a group of 15 organisations last week held a media conference where they issued the following statement (the organisations’ names are at the bottom of the statement).
Read more »