[Reader-list] India on a list of countries which have failed toprotect its religious minorities adequately

[taraprakash]

"Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Djibouti,
Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Albania,  Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,
Palestinian Authority and Turkey."

Are these countries? or you just imagined them? On a more serious note, 
Turkey's case is interesting. There is a tussle going on between the army 
and intelectuals on one side and the current elected government on the 
other. The army wants to keep the country "secular" (perhaps a Turkish 
Islamic fanatic might use the term "sickular") The army has toppled 
governments in the past when it thought the government was not respecting 
the secular credentials of the country.
Turkey, in fact, is much more "sickular" than India. The women cannot use a 
veil in the academic institutes. And, apparently for that reason many women 
are bereaved of education as their religion does not allow them to go to 
public places without a veil. Recently the elected government was trying to 
make a law allowing women to cover their faces in schools and colleges and 
the intelectuals/liberals in Turkey were quite offended by it. Such a law, 
they argued, violates Turkey's secular credentials.

On the other hand, when France disallowed the use of any visible religious 
symbols on any person in the academic institutions, the French liberals did 
not like it.

So we have 2 cases of secularism. If I am asked to choose between secularism 
of Turkey and secularism of France, I will choose the latter.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>
To: "Jeebesh" <jeebesh at sarai.net>
Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] India on a list of countries which have failed 
toprotect its religious minorities adequately


> Murali,
>
> Jeebesh is right, except that Indonesia is the worlds largest (by
> population) Muslim countriy. Not the second largest. And here is a
> list of 19 other Muslim majority countries that are not Islamic
> states, or do not have Islam listed as state religion.
>
> Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Djibouti,
> Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan,
> Uzbekistan, Albania,  Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,
> Palestinian Authority and Turkey.
>
> There are several other countries, which recognize Islam as a state
> religion, such as Egypt but are still not 'Islamic States', that is,
> they are not governed by Islamic law
>
> Only a third category of states, which includes, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
> Pakistan, Afghanistan etc, can be strictly called Islamic States, in
> that they are partially or wholly governed by Islamic law and
> recognize the Sharia as a source of law and jurisprudence.
>
> Please take the trouble to make credible and factual statements as
> far as possible when you seek to impose your opinions on this list.
>
> Shuddha
>
> On 15-Aug-09, at 5:27 PM, Jeebesh wrote:
>
>> Indonesia?
>>
>> second largest muslim population in the world. not a islamic state.
>> airlines is called Garuda airlines.
>>
>> Turkey?
>>
>> 90% muslim. Not an islamic state.
>>
>> On 15-Aug-09, at 5:22 PM, Murali V wrote:
>>
>>> If you look at all the countries that have a majority muslim
>>> population, all of them have declared themselves as islamic states.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> V Murali
>>>
>>> On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Rakesh Iyer<rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> I am talking about Europe and USA, not Saudi Arabia. The You-tube
>>>> link you
>>>> gave was referring to these two entities, hence I wanted to know
>>>> about the
>>>> same. Are Muslims restricting the freedoms of individuals living
>>>> there? If
>>>> yes, why? Is it lack of public discussion or difference in value
>>>> systems?
>>>> What can be done in either case? Is the problem intrinsic to Islam?
>>>> If no,
>>>> then what is the case? If yes, then what can be done to change the
>>>> nature of
>>>> Islam? And if no solutions are possible (after exhausting all the
>>>> possibilities), should we ban Islam? Should these nations ask
>>>> Muslims to
>>>> leave the nation so that the rest can leave peacefully with their
>>>> rights
>>>> secure? Should they be sent to settle in any other country (like
>>>> Jews were
>>>> settled in Israel)? What costs and benefits are involved in these
>>>> arrangements?
>>>>
>>>> These are just some of the questions which need to be asked, before
>>>> making
>>>> any value-based judgements on these nations.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _________________________________________
>>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>>> Critiques & Collaborations
>>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>>> subscribe in the subject header.
>>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>>> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>>
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with 
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>