[Reader-list] Simi Garewal?

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Kshmendra, Dear Naeem.

The crescent moon and star are not, strictly speaking an Islamic  
symbol. You are right. They happen to be the crest of the Ottoman  
ruling dynasty, which somehow got metastasized, since the rise of the  
Ottomans to the general Muslim world. You do not find it prior to the  
rise of the Ottoman caliphate (an episode quite late in Islamic  
history). its use by all sorts of Muslims, Ottoman or not, (many of  
them former subjects of the Ottoman empire) today, is an instance of  
their amnesia regarding the history of symbols and visual tropes in  
Islam


On 03-Dec-08, at 4:19 PM, Kshmendra Kaul wrote:

> Dear Naeem
>
> Simi Garewal for sure has interviewed Benazir on her show  
> "Rendezvous with Simi Garewal" for the 'Star World' channel
>
> That is probably what you saw. I do not know of any other 'oldtime'  
> actress who conducts interviews.
>
> She has apologised for her "Pakistani Flags" comment. She missed  
> the fact that 'those' flags did not have the vertical White Stripe.  
> I guess since 'peace' was a casualty, the 'white stripe' was not  
> taken into account.
>
> That brings me to the question to educate myself. Where does the  
> 'Crescent Moon and Star' motif  come from as an Islamic symbol?
>
> All accounts suggest that it has nothing to do with Islam as such  
> and predates Islam. The know linkage for introduction into Islamic  
> Symbolism is after the Islamisation of Constantinople where it was  
> already a part of the flag for the Ottomon Empire.
>
> The Star is used on the flags of islamic countries with varying  
> designs and numbers. The suggestion therefore that the Star if 5  
> pointed represents the 5 pillars of Islam does not seem to be valid.
>
> If this is factual, then the question arises for the Indian Muslims  
> that should they be thinking about using the Islamic Flag without  
> the Crescent and Star so that it does not appear to be close to  
> being the flag of Pakistan?
>
> Kshmendra
>
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 12/3/08, Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
> From: Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Simi Garewal?
> To: "reader-list at sarai.net" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 3:18 PM
>
> On Jet Airways Dhaka-Delhi flight last week, there was a full-length
> interview of Benazir Bhutto that kept running on one channel. Very
> odd. But anyay, my question is, was the interviewer Simi Garewal or
> someone else? I can't keep the oldtime filmi stars straight, so I may
> have mixed her up.
>
> I ask because now I read reports of Simi G talking about "Pakistani
> flags" in India, so just trying to connect.
>
> But I may have the interviewer mixed up, can someone shed light?
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net