Growing Intolerance : Fatwa against all girl band of Kashmir - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14164939
The Hindu wrote:
Despite Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s reassuring tweets, the teenage members of the Valley’s first all-women rock band have gone into hiding immediately after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit

Despite Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s reassuring tweets, the teenage members of the Valley’s first all-women rock band have gone into hiding immediately after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit.

Coming as it did after the fatwa from Kashmir’s head mufti, this development has halted all support for the band from civil society and cultural circles.

Left to fend for themselves, the families of Noma Nazir, Farah Deeba and Aneeka Khalid in the vulnerable neighbourhoods of Chhanpora, Bemina and Rajbagh have forced the teenagers to snap their contact with all, especially the media. “We have seized their cellphones and laptops,” two of their relatives revealed to The Hindu. “Their band has been shut.”

“Nobody is safe here. The Chief Minister’s tweets and the police can’t protect us. We don’t want to get caught in politics,” one of them said.

Dukhataarn-e-Millat has in fact avoided issuing a direct threat to the girls. It has rather innocuously communicated that their continued performance would force the outfit to call for a social boycott of their families. “We appeal to the parents of the band members to ask their children to refrain from singing as it is against Islamic principles. If they don’t follow our advice, we will be forced to announce a social boycott against them,” it said in a statement on Sunday.

The Dukhataarn-e-Millat does not have any history of using firearms. Founded in 1982 by Syeda Asiya Andrabi, the outfit claims to orchestrate ‘peaceful campaigns’ against anything it perceives to be contrary to the tenets, teachings and traditions of Islam. It played a key role in a campaign to close down cinema, video libraries and wine-shops, which culminated in the eruption of an armed insurgency in January 1990. Since then, it has been among the outlawed radical groups in the Valley. In 1992-93, it grabbed the headlines, enforcing the Islamic dress code allegedly by sprinkling acid on young girls wearing jeans and refusing to clad the ‘Abbaya’. Ms. Andrabi has repeatedly denied having used acid. The spray, she insisted, was “a harmless ink.”

Nonetheless, the Dukhataarn-e-Millat carries the image of a dreaded outfit for many — particularly those associated with the media, art and culture — in Srinagar. Ms. Andrabi is the wife of the jailed founder of the Jamiatul Mujahideen, Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, who now heads a different political outfit called the Muslim League.

More than fighting Indian troops and the police, the Jamiatul Mujahideen is known for its anti-media strikes, including banning publications and kidnapping theatre and television talents. Police records show that the group was responsible for the assassination of the former Joint Director of Information, Syed Ghulam Nabi, human rights activist Hridhay Nath Wanchoo and a couple of television artists.

The police consider the Dukhtaraan threat more seriously than the Mufti’s fatwa. “Till date, there’s no FIR but we are working on certain inputs,” Srinagar SSP Ashiq Bukhari said.

Another senior police official pointed out that many people, from Mufti Azam Basheer-ud-din to heads of the two Hurriyats Mirwaiz Umar and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were all dismissing the December 2012 concert as ‘immoral and un-Islamic.”

Chief Minister vocal, government mute

With the exception of the reactions from Mr. Abdullah and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, hardly anyone of consequence has supported Pragaash.

Three fresh Facebook pages have come up with nearly 1,000 supportive posts in the past four days but most of the contributors are either morphed or believed to be those from outside the Valley. ‘Filmmakers’ and music lovers, who have expressed solidarity with the group, are familiar to a few in the media and cultural circles. Even officials of the Department of Information and the Cultural Academy have chosen to be mute spectators.

No association of the film, theatre, music, culture, art or media circles has come up with a statement of solidarity. Aziz Hajini, the Sahitya Akademi’s convener (Kashmiri), and president Adabi Markaz Kamraz maintained that they had no knowledge of the developments.

A Kashmir University professor, who runs a representative civil society group of intellectuals, traders and rights activists, declined to comment. “Now that the politicians and the clerics are in, it’s really difficult to make a comment,” she said. Woman rights activists Quratul Ain, Ezabir Ali and Hawa Bashir are the three-odd individuals who unequivocally condemned the hate campaign.

“Why these double standards? Don’t millions of the Kashmiris enjoy the songs of Raj Begam, Zoon Begam, Shameem Dev and Jameela Khan for the last many decades? Why don’t these groups object to the extremely objectionable songs and dances running in our drawing rooms through the local cable TV channels,” asked Ms. Bashir, who taught at the Department of Music at Government Women’s College for more than 30 years. “By their argument, there’s has to be a blanket ban on music in Kashmir.”

Pragaash’s promoter and organiser Adnan Matoo, who claimed to have launched the State’s first rock band, Bloodrockz, in 2005, refused to admit that that there was anything objectionable or un-Islamic in the performance. According to him, it was all a Sufi musical with a number of Bhule Shah hits — and a remix: mein hoon mushkil mein nazar tou kar le, faza ke pal mein zara gul kar de. Image


source

So basically in a great liberal democracy with freedom of speech and etc, we have

Various banned books on Shiva Jee, Mahatma Gandhi etc as they are hurtful to sentiments of certain groups.
MF Hussain has to leave the Country.
Kamal Hasan threatened to leave the country
Salman Rushdie can't come to India
and etc etc.

What is interesting in this case is that the man who issued fatwa has said that

Mufti E Azam Bashirudiin wrote:"Singing and Dancing is not allowed in Islam".


Really, even if I haven't studied Quran, I am sure its bull crap. Why the fuck people listen to these blood sucking insects (they are in all religions, I am not sidelining Islam only), but I am sure a "fatwa" can be issued against this man for misusing and defaming Islam.
#14165811
Usually I would give a long complaint about how this came to be, and how it needs to change. But really, I just feel sadness. They can't even form a band without it being banned by some cleric?

This kind of story really makes a person take stock of their life for a moment. It's like, when people have a stack of papers, like say on a radio show and you have printouts of a number of stories you need to cover, and then like halfway through the stack you just lose the will to go on, chuck the papers despondently across the table, and say, "I just don't even know how to continue, we are fighting against a great wickedness, that's all you need to know".

That is how I felt halfway through reading that article. Seriously, I just feel profoundly sad. I mean, look at this:
Mufti E Azam Bashirudiin wrote:"Singing and Dancing is not allowed in Islam".

Singing and dancing is not allowed? In my view that's one of the most wicked and sickening things I've ever seen any political figure say.
#14165815
It still doesn't beat the Taliban's ban on kite flying. I wonder why Islam ended up the worst of the Abraham religions vis a vis the war on fun? The Christians and the Jews were forced to moderate by the very people they were supposedly ruling over, why has it not happened with Islam?

I imagine living life under one of there regimes would be the most soul destroying thing possible to conceive of.
#14165821
Rei Murasame wrote:They can't even form a band without it being banned by some cleric?
This is what happens when we allow reactionary ideologies to continue to proliferate within society. They really should make the concept of religious organisation a crime. Sure, you can sustain your own personal religion within your individual body, but to attempt to promote it and spread it out beyond your own body and mind, religion becomes a virus in and of itself.

With that said, the idea of developing a girl band is also irrational, as they pander to the concept of getting popular, special and rich quickly is only feeding into the corporatist concept of turning music, which was once a cultural concept, into a commodity. It's too bad that these girls couldn't have been in a Soviet music class where they could properly tune their skills and abilities, rather than pander to a populist commodity industry.
#14165823
why has it not happened with Islam?


Its newer. They haven't really let their steam out in inter-sectarian war like the Christians and the Jews have for Centuries until the people have enough. They are just having it now.
#14165831
This is a depressing story, but moreso when one considers the fact that for Islam to have great social weight and influence around Kashmir is in and of itself a fundamental part of the problem. That said, it seems to be Sunni fundamentalists who are worse at this than anyone else, and not their Shia counterparts. I am starting to sound like Rich, but when looking at Iran, it is in no way comparable with the worst excesses of Sunni Islamism in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (which unfortunately has been creeping into sovereign Indian territory ever since the partition); Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, among other places. During the early days of Khomeini's rise, there was some talk of attacking young and men for listening to music in their own homes, but that is largely a thing of the past and the Iranian population as a whole about a thousand times more advanced than Pakistan's leavings in Jammu and Kashmir.

Eauz wrote:With that said, the idea of developing a girl band is also irrational, as they pander to the concept of getting popular, special and rich quickly is only feeding into the capitalist concept of turning music, which was once a cultural concept, into a commodity.


Fixed.
#14165844
Eauz wrote:This is what happens when we allow reactionary ideologies to continue to proliferate within society. They really should make the concept of religious organisation a crime. Sure, you can sustain your own personal religion within your individual body, but to attempt to promote it and spread it out beyond your own body and mind, religion becomes a virus in and of itself.

I disagree with this, since banning their religion would just cause them to shift all of their arguments into the secular realm, and they'd just keep on doing what they do.

Eauz wrote:With that said, the idea of developing a girl band is also irrational, as they pander to the concept of getting popular, special and rich quickly is only feeding into the corporatist concept of turning music, which was once a cultural concept, into a commodity.

I don't think I have a problem with this. Making money off something doesn't necessarily detract from what that thing is.
#14165846
Eauz wrote:So, you agree with my statement in general, regardless of the fix? I consider Corporatism = Capitalism.


I endorse the statement wholeheartedly otherwise, but naturally disagree with Marxist analysis that leads one to believe corporatism is in any sense synonymous with capitalism. You can draw similarities in that private property is typically protected if this does not conflict with the public, national interest among a few other attributes, but no more than I can draw comparisons between the internationalism of capitalism and (Marxian) socialism.
#14165865
Rei Murasame wrote:I disagree with this, since banning their religion would just cause them to shift all of their arguments into the secular realm, and they'd just keep on doing what they do.
I never said we would ban religion, I'm saying that the idea of attempting to influence society through reactionary ideologies, which would include religious concepts, should be criminal and punished through severe means.

Rei Murasame wrote:I don't think I have a problem with this. Making money off something doesn't necessarily detract from what that thing is.
It somewhat cheapens the concept of music into a commodity. The artist produce to meet the requirements of their agents and companies that they belong to. Modern music is more a concept of mass production for the masses, just as with any commodity.

Far-Right Sage wrote:but naturally disagree with Marxist analysis that leads one to believe corporatism is in any sense synonymous with capitalism. You can draw similarities in that private property is typically protected if this does not conflict with the public, national interest among a few other attributes, but no more than I can draw comparisons between the internationalism of capitalism and (Marxian) socialism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_capitalism
Fascists always love capitalism, as long as it benefits them as an individual. They hate the fact that capitalism constantly attempts to expand and develop new markets, because it affects the fascists utopian idea that they can continue to have capitalism and be productive enough, despite the fact that one would have to be a DPRK style government to sustain such a system. The fascists want capitalism, without the progress and development. They will subsidise failed businesses in order to sustain their economy, but over decades, this subsidy erodes the competitiveness and productiveness of the capitalist business.

fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.[
#14166162
The girls have disbanded their band and have gone in hiding vowing to never "sing" again.

But the major point is that this isn't an isolated case or related to any particular community or religion, recently two school going muslim girls were harassed and arrested (for a very brief period) for posting on facebook a very innocent comment i.e. "Why whole Maharashtra being closed down for the death of one man i.e. Bal Thackrey", one girl wrote it and other one liked it, that was their crime.

I am so glad I am living in a liberal democracy instead of being caught in a so called dictatorship or even anarchy.
#14166990
Well, I heard about that incident, but it's a different case as Thackeray was not only a great man and a great Indian, but a priestly son of Maharashtra. The touching show of respect by Shiv Sena and ordinary workers and peasants was quite inspiring and I must say, it was a beautiful ceremony; I sincerely wish I could have attended.

This is just thuggery for its own sake. Where exactly in Islamic scripture is music pronounced as absolutely forbidden? Perhaps I'm misinformed on the topic, but it seems like a convenient excuse for Muslim tribalists who more often get their commandments and proscriptions from tribal code than they do from Islamic law to throw their weight around and exercise social control of young females in Kashmir, as they do in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. In other words, it's more to do with Pashtun or Bedouin nonsense than it is authentic Islamic nonsense.

Eauz wrote:Fascists always love capitalism, as long as it benefits them as an individual. They hate the fact that capitalism constantly attempts to expand and develop new markets, because it affects the fascists utopian idea that they can continue to have capitalism and be productive enough, despite the fact that one would have to be a DPRK style government to sustain such a system. The fascists want capitalism, without the progress and development. They will subsidise failed businesses in order to sustain their economy, but over decades, this subsidy erodes the competitiveness and productiveness of the capitalist business.


You are conflating the terminology "corporate capitalism", which was in essence just adopted to describe crony capitalism (or in my view, the logical extension of capitalism and its excess) with actual corporatism. This is a common technique employed by liberals to blame and identify fascists with the failures of the liberal-capitalist structure in existence today, but Marxists aware of economic theory should know better.

When exactly have actual fascists in power endorsed capitalism and the free market - the unrestrained movement of capital and labor and tolerance of the massive accumulation of wealth and capital to the detriment of the working and middle class - rather than condemning such?
#14167012
FRS wrote:Well, I heard about that incident, but it's a different case as Thackeray was not only a great man and a great Indian, but a priestly son of Maharashtra. The touching show of respect by Shiv Sena and ordinary workers and peasants was quite inspiring and I must say, it was a beautiful ceremony; I sincerely wish I could have attended.


Well that may be the case, I obviously don't agree as he and his party are the reason why working class movement in Maharashtra for all practical purposes lays in ruin which was largest center of working class movement more than Bengal in post independent India.

But even from your perspective I have to oppose/dislike him for his anti Bihari stance as I happen to be a Bihari.

But still the harassing of those girls was despicable and condemnable. Other than that I agree with your input on this particular incident.

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