SANSAD-CPPC News Release Dec 31, 2014

South Asian Community Gathers in Grief

The community meeting room in Strawberry Hill Library in Surrey was filled to capacity on Sunday 28 December afternoon with leading members of the South Asian Community and representatives of various faiths, who came to express their solidarity with the grieving families in Peshawar and the people of Pakistan for the massacre of children and teachers on December 16.

Moderating the meeting, Zahid Makhdoom recognized the leaders of the community who had come, including the MLA Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton) and MP Jinny Sims (Newton-North Delta). The Consul General of Pakistan in Vancouver, Dr. Muhammad Tariq was also recognized.

Opening the meeting Dr. Haider Nizamani advised the community to guard their hopes with caution as the record of the past years produced only pessimism. Hundreds of schools had been attacked, unknown numbers of children killed and injured, thousands of innocent people had been killed, Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated for declaring that she wanted to end terrorist attacks, Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab had been murdered by his bodyguard for wanting justice for a poor Christian woman falsely charged with blasphemy, and yet everything had been brushed away with conspiracy theories and justifications. Girls’ education had been particularly attacked, with the well-known attempt to murder Malala Yousafzai for affirming her right to education, yet many in Pakistan and in the diaspora had blamed Malala and found justification in the attention she had received in the West.

Speakers from the Shia, Ahmadiyya, Ismaili, and sexual minority communities spoke of the attacks on their and other minority communities, including Hindu and Christian communities, in Pakistan, and suggested that the impunity these attacks enjoyed in Pakistan provided the context for the massacre in Peshawar.  The time had come to end this impunity and violence.

Dr. Muhammad Tariq, the Consul General of Pakistan, affirmed that the issue of minorities was not specific to Pakistan and should not be confused with the killings in Peshawar, which was a heinous act against the majority Sunnis and indicated that the terrorists did not discriminate between their targets. He pointed out that the Government of Pakistan, the political parties and the security establishment had come together to affirm a determination to root out terrorism  and had established military courts to deal with terrorist acts.

Musa Ismail and Qari Abdul Wahab, representing the BC Muslim Association, condemned the killings in Peshawar and affirmed that such acts of violence were wholly against the teachings of the Quran. The people who perpetrated such acts in the name of Islam were violating its fundamentals and using the name of the religion without understanding it. Islam was a religion of peace. The first attribute of Allah is that He is merciful. The Prophet spoke strongly against the killing and harming of innocent people. He saw the killing of a child as an act of violence against heaven. Yet these false teachings were spreading even in diaspora communities, and the community had to be on guard to prevent their spread and to maintain the safety and openness of our adopted homeland in Canada.

Representing the Hindu Temple in Burnaby, Pandit Manoj Dutt Vashistha expounded the Sanatana Dharma as affirming the oneness of humanity and enjoining respect for and peaceful co-existence with all. He expressed the solidarity of his temple with the grieving families of the bereaved and prayed for peace.

Rev. Edith Baird of the United Church reminded the gathering that the birth of Jesus a few days past had brought the message of peace on earth and goodwill to all men. But peace, she said, went hand in hand with justice and could only come when we found justice. She remembered the lifelong sorrow into which the families of the dead in Peshawar had been cast and expressed our share in that sorrow. She read a letter written by Fra Giovanni, a Franciscan friar on Christmas Eve 1513,  assuring people of hope and urging them to keep alive the aspiration for a better world.

Giani Harminder Pal Singh of the Khalsa Diwan Society, the oldest Sikh organization of North America, noted that Khalsa Diwan Society had recently commemorated the anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh’s youngest sons being bricked alive in a wall by Wazir Khan, the Governor of Sirhind three hundred years ago.  At that time Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan, ruler of Malerkotla and a close relative of the Governor had vehemently protested that this inhuman act was against the teachings of the Quaran and Islam and had walked out of the court. Today the Sikh community of British Columbia condemns the murder of children in Peshawar and stands in solidarity with their parents, the people of Pakistan and people everywhere in seeking an end to terrorism.

Itrath Syed, a long-time activist for the rights of Muslims and particularly Muslim women, affirmed the importance of girls’ and women’s right to education. She pointed out that though this gathering was in response to the killing of children in Peshawar, behind this incident was the killing of unnumbered children in many wars and acts of violence across the world, and that many children have been killed and are being killed in drone attacks in Pakistan. She maintained that the attacks on minorities in Pakistan were indeed relevant as the background for the present massacre because they provide the context of intolerance that made this possible.  But hough people’s and the government’s immediate reaction is to respond militarily against the perpetrators, this had to be avoided. Violence can only breed more violence. Instead the drone attacks must be stopped immediately and no child be killed as collateral damage. The special laws for FATA allowing for collective punishment must be abolished. Civil society must be expanded and strengthened. The rule of law must be established. Children must have the right and access to education.

Rabbi Louis Sutker of Or Shalom Synagogue concluded the meeting by asking how many children had to die for a gathering such as the present one to take place. He noted the irony that it had taken two secular and liberal organizations to bring together members of different communities and people who were not secular, and some who were not liberal. He also reminded the audience of the numberless children who had been killed without anyone calling a meeting to protest these deaths. All religions, including his own, had been responsible for wars and violence and the death of a vast number of people. We had to come together to stop this. it was an irony, and perhaps God was an ironist, that something good can come out of something terrible. The tragedy in Peshawar had brought about the present gathering, which he hoped would be the sign of a new beginning.

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SANSAD-CPPC News release, Dec 17, 2014

Mourn our slaughtered children in Pakistan

South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians (CPPC), two organizations of the South Asian diaspora in Canada, express our profound grief and outrage at the slaughter of 132 children and sixteen teachers and staff, in a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, by the Islamist group, Tehreek-e-Taliban-i-Pakistan (TTP), on December 16.

This is the latest atrocity of the extremist organization in its campaign of violence against the people and the state of Pakistan. In its objective to capture the state of Pakistan and impose its version of Sharia, the TTP has not directed its violence merely against the military, the police, and the functionaries of the government but has killed thousands of civilians, including women and children. It has particularly attacked Shias and Sufis, destroying mosques and shrines, and killing people at their prayer. They have murdered learned clerics who challenged their ill-founded notions of Islam and have particularly attacked schools as offering an education that would expose their lack of legitimacy and authority. They have killed health workers administering life- saving Polio vaccine to children. They have sought legitimacy solely through violence, by their use of terror to impose their “order” on the people of Pakistan’s north- west frontier who have been victimized by decades of wars that others have waged across their land, where the state of Pakistan has not offered adequate governance.

TTP is one of many extremist organizations spawned by imperialist wars and the proxy wars of imperialist and militarist states. They claim legitimacy through religion, though without theological authority. And they appeal to people by their opposition to imperialist violence, though they are born of it and fed by it with every death of innocent civilians as “collateral damage” in the so- called war on terror. They sustain their fraudulent claims by terror and the denial of education.

In the wake of the Peshawar attack the government of Pakistan, the military, and the political parties in Pakistan have expressed their determination to end the violence that has been tormenting the people of Pakistan for many years. We hail this development. We hope that this utterance of political will is not merely an expedient response to the present national grief that dissipates against the deep structure of the Pakistan security state. We also applaud the declaration of the government of Pakistan that they will no longer make a distinction between the “good Taliban”, who do attack targets outside Pakistan and “bad Taliban”. who attack the state and people of Pakistan. Only the erasure of this difference will enable the states and peoples of South Asia to come together to effectively put an end to the purely destructive force of these enemies of the people.

In this festive season when people are engaged in celebrations of family and friendship and hoping for peace in the world, we call on the South Asian community in Metro Vancouver, people of all faiths and national origin to come together to mourn our murdered children in Peshawar. Join us in affirming that we belong to the human community in which all children are our children. Join us to make our united grief into a force for change, to create a world where people can live peacefully with all their faiths and every child is safe, has access to education, and the opportunity to fully develop their potential. Let our grief bring us to labour for peace on earth.
Public Meeting: Strawberry Hill Library, 7399-122nd Street, Surrey, Sunday 28 December, 3.00 pm-5.00pm.

Contact: Chin 604-421-6752; Saif 778-987-0813; Shahzad 604-613—0735.

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 SANSAD News Release, Oct 14, 2014

The Nobel Peace Prize, which has been discredited by its recent awards to such entities of dubious merit as the European Union and Barak Obama, has gone some way toward reclaiming credibility by its award of the prize for 2014 to Malala Yousefzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India, both of them activists for the rights of children.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded within the context of global politics, so that its list of recipients also includes such notorious warmongers as Henry Kissinger. This year’s award is no less political. This year’s contenders included Edward Snowden and Chelsey Manning, who have made contributions of historical proportions toward human freedom from state surveillance and yet remain one in exile and the other in prison. But since Snowden and Manning had dared to challenge the imperial power of the United States of America, they could not be awarded the prize they richly deserved. It is by default that the prize was awarded to the greatly worthy champions of the most powerless, female children of Pakistan and all the enslaved children of India.

Malala Yousefzai and Kailash Satyarthi are remarkable people who have put their lives on the line for the empowerment of suppressed and enslaved children, and Pakistan and India ought to be proud of the recognition they have received. The political leaders of both countries have acknowledged this honor. Yet this global recognition shines a spotlight on national shame: the cause for which these champions have been awarded. In Pakistan the recognition of Malala has generated a vitriolic attack, not only from the expected quarters of the Taliban but also in mainstream media. In India the occasion has brought to attention the extent of the problem of clild labour in conditions of slavery, the laxity of effort in curbing it, and the complicity of politicians in enabling it.

South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), an organization of the South Asian diaspora in Canada, congratulates Malala Yousefzai and Kailash Satyarthi on the recognition their noble and inspiring work for downtrodden children has received and applauds the Nobel Peace Prize committee for their wise decision. We applaud the expressed desire of Yousefzai to invite the prime ministers of Pakistan and India to Oslo for the award ceremony as a contribution to bringing peace to the subcontinent. We condemn those who belittle the contribution of Malala Yousefzai in Pakistan as the voice of the oppressor of the weak. And we urge the governments of Pakistan and India to follow the path of peace and address the issues to which the Nobel Laureates for 2014 have dedicated their lives.

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