ACHA PEACE BULLETIN http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin

A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) www.asiapeace.org

Editor: Pritam K. Rohila, Ph. D.

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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN-Volume VI, No. 4, April 15, 2004, Next Issue May 5, 2004

CONTENTS

Peace & Harmony News From & About South Asia 

Feature

*Indo-Pak rockers unite on cricket theme song, Viral Bhayani, India New England, April 1, 2004

*Hawks And Doves, Dr Mubashir Hasan, Dawn, April 6, 2004

*Heed not the fanatics, Will Hutton, The Observer, April 11, 2004

Courses & Training

*August 16, 2004 to February 9, 2005, Hyderabad, AP, India: Post-Graduate Diploma Programme In Conflict Resolution, Peace-Building And Interfaith Relations.

*May 1, 2004, Portland, OR, USA: Forgiveness
 

Lectures

*April 22, 2004, New York City, NY, USA: The Content Of Democracy

REPORTS & ANALYSES

(For a copy send a blank email to pritamr@open.org with its subject as the UPPERCASE word in the article title. Please limit your request to 3 articles. When requesting an article from an issue of ACHA Peace Bulletin, other than the current one, please also mention date of publication of that issue)

Bangladesh

Arms Trafficking: Transit ROUTE or Destination? A Kumar, South Asia Intelligence Review, April 5

Selectivity of "Freedom" Chokes People's Free VOICE, Farida Majid, 2004, New York

Miah commission REPORT on education, Nurul Kabir, New Age, April 8, 2004

India 
NOBEL Gazing, Antara Dev Sen, The Indian Express, March 31, 2004

Politics and the CULT of the Chhatrapati, Ranjit Hoskote, The Hindu, April 01, 2004

Pakistan & Indian Muslims: My religion is not my NATION, A M Chenoy, Times of India, March 27 

Secularism under SIEGE, K.N. Panikkar, The Hindu, March 31, 2004

STATISTICS and demography, C. R Reddy, The Hindu, Mar 30, 2004

Citizen SONIA: racialism has no place in shining India, S Visvanathan, The Times of India, March 31
COW slaughter and Indian Muslims, Ayub Khan, Milli Gazette, 1-15 Mar 2004
 
India-Pak 
A Lahore DIARY, M.J. Akbar, Asian Age http://www.asianage.com
WICKET Politics, Ramachandra Guha, New York Times, March 29, 2004
 

Kashmir

STATUS quo is not the solution for Kashmir, Kuldip Nayar, KGN News April 5, 2004

Kashmiri struggle and ‘Pakistan’s NATIONAL interest’. Dr Shabir Choudhry, April 7, 20044

J&K: Elections, AGAIN, Praveen Swami, South Asia Intelligence Review, March 29, 2004

Nepal

'Musharrafising' a MONARCHY? Beena Sarwar, The News April 11, 2004

Failing STATE, P.G. Rajamohan, South Asia Intelligence Review, March 29, 2004

Pakistan

'Why do they HATE us?' Ajai Sahni, South Asia Intelligence Review, April 5, 2004

STORMING the textbooks, by Abbas Rashid, The Daily Times, April 03, 2004

'Unilateral' MESSAGE of Bab-e-Pakistan, Editorial, The Daily Times, April 01, 2004

A 'SAD and wonderful' visit (by Jinnah’s daughter), G Salahuddin, The News, March 28, 2004

'My daughters are calling me BACK to Mumbai', Shehar Bano Khan Dawn, March 23, 2004
 
Religion
MUSLIM Intelligentsia and Liberalism, Asghar Ali Engineer, Secular Perspective April 1-15, 2004
ARYA Shuddhi and Muslim Tabligh: (1923-30), Yoginder Sikand

Contempt For Budhists As The ROOT Of Untouchability, B. R. Ambedkar

Linking ISLAM to Dictatorship, M.J. Akbar

Sri Lanka

Disturbing MANDATE, Ameen Izzadeen, South Asia Intelligence Review, April 5, 2004

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PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM & ABOUT SOUTH ASIA (Readers are invited to submit similar information from other areas of South Asia to help us broaden of our coverage. Please send the info to pritamr@open.org, a week before the date of publication of the next issue of ACHA Peace Bulletin)

*India

SC for making slanderous ads election offence

NEW DELHI: Deploring political mudslinging as undemocratic, the Supreme Court on Monday warned that it would consider making slanderous advertisements an "electoral offence". This has serious ramifications as anybody found guilty of an electoral offence would be disqualified even after getting elected from a constituency. Hindustan Times, April 6, 2004

Communal harmony cannot be disturbed: SC

NEW DELHI: No person, even the most popular leader, should be permitted to give speeches to destroy the country's secular fabric or stoke communal violence, the Supreme Court said today while upholding a ban imposed by the Mangalore district administration on the entry of Praveen Bhai Togadia, general secretary, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, to address meetings in February 2003. Secularism was not to be confused with the communal or religious concepts of an individual or a group of persons. "It means that the state should have no religion of its own and no one could proclaim to make the state have one such or endeavour to create a theocratic state," the Judges said. The Hindu April 1, 2004

 
Muslims advised to abstain from cow slaughter
Muslims have been voluntarily abstaining for many years from cow slaughter, in keeping with the law in the states where it has been banned, and in respecting the sensibilities of the Hindu population. This year again Darul Uloom Deoband issued on the eve of Eid ul Adha (when the animals are sacrificed) the advisory. Milli Gazette, 1-15 Mar 2004, http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/01-15Mar04-Print-Edition/0103200471.htm 
 
Most people in cities and towns want to keep Indian elections secular
New Delhi: Tracking the pulse of the voters in the charged election campaign, a Times of India-TNS poll finds that a majority of people in cities and towns are firmly for keeping Indian elections on a secular foundation. Across India they blame parties for polluting politics with religion and more than 80% of the polled voters do not justify using religion for politics. The feeling that religion is used or abused in politics is most widespread in the West - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh - where BJP holds greater sway, and least in eastern India, where the party hasn't yet made major inroads. Times News Network, March 31, 2004
 

In Godhra, they say it with roses

Godhra, March 29: Some said it with roses. The medium definitely was the message on Sunday as Godhra lived another day of contrasts. The morning started with activists from 22 city-based NGOs taking out a 3-km-long rose-distribution rally that began at the Station area and culminated near Rani Masjid in Polan Bazar. Carrying placards that conveyed messages of peace, harmony and goodwill, the rallyists marched through the streets, drawing people out of their homes and shops. NGO activists said around 3,000 people took part in the rally. Belonging to all major communities - Jains, Nirankaris, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Christians - the activists shouted slogans like Mata Re Mata Bharat Mata. Saurav Ki Mata. Zaheer Ki Mata and Har Saval Ka Ek Jawab. Phool-diksha, Phool-diksha. (Mar 29 2004, Indian Express)

Irfan ki Jai' shouts crowd at his house http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/582669.cms (Mar 26 2004, Times of India)

Let there be 'aman' in this land, says Irfan's father

Vadodara, Mar 25 (IANS): As Irfan Pathan emerged a hero in Lahore helping India to a historic victory, his family in this Gujarat town was overcome with emotion. "Like every Indian, I too am overjoyed. Our prayers have come true and god has finally gifted us a victory on the Pakistan land," said Mehmud Khan Pathan, the young seamer's father. Pathan's father is a 'mauzi, a cleric, with a mosque in Vadodara, the cultural capital of the state 110 km south of here. Their home is within the premises of the mosque, which was thronged by cricket lovers for the duration of Wednesday's cricket match. The family appreciated the show of communal harmony in a city that was ravaged by communal violence in 2002. "I see that every Indian is celebrating the victory without distinctions of religion. I pray to God that this ambience be maintained, let there be "aman" (peace) in this land," said the senior Pathan. (Mar 25 2004, IANS)
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=7586n

His Hindu neighbours help him rebuild his shop every time

Ahmednagar: The shelves of Alpana Bakers wait to be cleared of charred bread pieces and kharis. Nothing much remains to be salvaged from the ashes of Wednesday's arson and looting. But Haji Shaikh Abdul Rashid Ibrahim knows the memory will fade away soon. That's why he has left for Haj, leaving his family to put the business back on track. Twice earlier, in 1982 and 1997, his bakery was attacked and bore the brunt of communal violence. But his neighbours, most of whom are Hindus and customers, helped him set up shop again. Changing location has never crossed their minds, says nephew Sayyad Salim Pyar Mohammad. ''Our major clients are Hindus and our neighbours are cooperative and supportive. There is no question of moving from here.'' ''Each time this kind of a situation arose, they all came to our help. While few offer monetary help, others help in clearing the mess.'' So this time, it will not be any different, he knows. (Mar 20 2004, Indian Express) http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=29507

 
Muslims go the whole hog to root for Team India.
 In Ahmedabad “where rumours and just one firecracker let off after an India loss have been enough to spark off riots.“ Friday saw Muslims go the extra mile to prove that they are not pro-Pakistan and rooted for India’s victory. More than anyone else. In fact, Friday capped a week-long show of solidarity the Muslims have been playing out on the streets of Ahmedabad to ''remove the impression that we are anti-nationals because we pray for Pakistan’s victory and that we were responsible for Godhra and post-Godhra riots.'' While the community has taken the initiative in most cases, the police too have played their role in ensuring that the community is out on the streets, when in the past they would ensure both the communities stuck to their respective localities. The day began with a gathering of 7,000 Muslims in Jama Masjid, where they prayed for India’s success. Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui called upon the gathering to cheer for the Indian team. ˜Hindustan is our land and it’s the duty of each Muslim to be faithful to it,” he said, and added that “the impression that Muslims are not loyal to India has to change. We will have to prove this by supporting the team openly.” http://www.expressindia.com/cricket/fulleistory.php?content_id=29280 (Mar 12 2004, Indian Express)

*India-Pak

Gas pipeline: Pak to provide India guarantees

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Monday that Pakistan was ready to provide guarantees on extending to India a gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan. "We have very positive thinking about the pipeline project. We are ready to provide guarantees for extending the pipeline to India," Online news agency quoted Kasuri as saying in an interview with Radio Tehran. New India Press, April 6, 2004

Pakistan offers India nuclear talks in May

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday proposed May 25 and 26 as the dates for expert-level talks on nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) with India. Pakistan made the offer to the Indian government under the roadmap worked out between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in Islamabad on February 18. Daily Times April 06,2004

Priyanka writes 'love' letter to Pakistan

Lahore: Indian Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Vadra has relived the "heart-warming" experience of her first visit to Pakistan in a letter to the Pakistan Cricket Board and called for cricket diplomacy to strengthen friendship between the two countries. "Throughout our stay we were overwhelmed by the generous hospitality, warm welcome and friendship extended to us, and the affection and support given to our cricket team by the people of Pakistan, who displayed such a wonderful spirit of sportsmanship," she wrote. April 06, 2004

Pakistan proposes dates to discuss nuclear CBMs http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/apr/05pak1.htm

India and Pakistan to open border for mela

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan have for the first time agreed to permit people living across the working border to attend the ‘Chamblyal Mela’ to be held on June 24 along the Sambra region of Jammu and Kashmir. The decision was taken at the last flag meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers. Hindus on the Indian side revere the ‘Chamblyal Mela’ in memory of Baba Dilip Singh Manhas, and Muslims on the Pakistan side observe it in memory of a Sufi saint. However, the Pakistanis for the past three decades have celebrated the event away from the actual location. They have now enough reasons to rejoice, as they will have access to the main shrine of Baba Chamblyal. BSF officials are also preparing for the people-to-people interaction. Daily Times April 4, 2004

Retreat parade at Wagah turns 'friendly'

NEW DELHI: Marking a major change in attitudes of the two countries towards each other, the new style of decades-old parade will be put into practice from this month-end. The two border forces have already started re-orienting their personnel involved in the decades-old ritualistic exercise."The aim of reshaping the parade is to do away with aggressive gestures during the ritual undertaken at sunset while closing the gates at the border," said official sources. NDTV April 4, 2004

Thaw affect: No Indo-Pak 'war' at UN

LONDON: In a major sign of the improving Indo-Pak ties, both the countries for the first time have desisted from attacking each other on any contentious issue, including human rights violation, at the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on human rights. Building on the recent thaw in relations, delegates of both the nations have not raised any controversial issue pertaining to Kashmir or Pakistan occupied Kashmir, at the international fora. Daily Excelsior March 30, 2004

Pak-India pact to curb border crimes

LAHORE: Pakistani and Indian military officials signed an agreement Saturday aimed at curbing cross-border smuggling, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, officials said. Both sides also agreed to exercise restraint and leniency in their treatment of people who inadvertently crossed the border, he said. Tribune India March 28, 2004

PPP goodwill team reaches Delhi

NEW DELHI: A high-level delegation of Pakistan People's Party, led by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, arrived here on Saturday to promote goodwill and people to people contact between the two countries. Mr Fahim, who heads the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and is the president of the PPP in parliament, said he was expecting to meet a cross section of people and political leaders during the week-long visit, his first to New Delhi. "People are nice and friendly, but we haven't met too many yet," he said. Dawn March 28, 2004

*Kashmir

India to announce ceasefire in J&K

NEW DELHI: Hurriyat sources said Wednesday that the Centre had agreed in principle to declare the truce in the entire state during the two rounds of successful talks between the separatist amalgam and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani here on January 22 and March 27. The decision, which is expected any time, has far-reaching implications as it will go a long way in ending hostilities in the restive state and further strengthen the ongoing peace process, the sources said. The Tribune April 1, 2004

Second round of APHC-Union Government talks held in New Delhi

The second round of dialogue between the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Union Government was held in New Delhi on March 27, 2004. "Recognising that a new Government will be in place in the latter half of May 2004, it was agreed that discussions on substantive issues would start at the next meeting to be held in June, 2004,'' a statement issued by the Union Home Ministry said at the end of the talks. Addressing a press conference later, Advani said that the Hurriyat leaders expressed concerned on two issues - release of political detenues and violation of human rights by the security forces in the State. "We are ensuring that human rights violations do not take place and even while discharging their duties in relation to maintaining security and law and order, [the] security forces must have a human face and they should see to it that ordinary citizens are not subjected to any harassment,'' said Advani. The Hindu, March 28, 2004.

*Maldives-Bangladesh

MALE: President has sent messages of felicitations to the President of Bangladesh, Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed and the country’s Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day. The President also expressed his hope for the continued progress and prosperity of the brotherly people of Bangladesh. Presidency Maldives Gov March 26, 2004

*South Asia

Pakistan plans next Saarc summit in July

ISLAMABAD: The Indian Foreign Minister will visit Islamabad in July this year to attend a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) council of ministers. Pakistan, being the current chairman of SAARC, had decided to convene the meeting to review the implementation of various decisions taken at the last SAARC summit in Islamabad from January 4 to 6. “The SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu will inform member states about Pakistan’s proposal and dates of the meeting will be finalised after consultation”, sources said. Daily Times, March 29, 2004

*Sri Lanka

 
Sri Lanka's new PM a moderate
Mahinda Rajapakse, 58, has supported peace talks with the rebel LTTE. 
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/apr/05lanka1.htm

FEATURE

*Indo-Pak rockers unite on cricket theme song, Viral Bhayani, India New England, April 1, 2004

Pakistani pop-rockers Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood, who make up Strings, have tied up with Indian rock group Euphoria to record "Jeet Lo Dil" as an anthem for the India-Pakistan cricket series.

The pair wrote the song as a follow-up to the message Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee gave the Indian team on the eve of its departure to Pakistan: "Don't only win the match. Win hearts as well."

Sony Music released the song in India. A video shows the Pakistani band members along with Palash Sen of Euphoria. It features children standing in neighborhoods in both India and Pakistan.

"Since we love music and we love cricket, this was a great opportunity," says Kapadia. He adds, "The message we like to bring with this video is go for victory and play but demonstrate humility and respect for those who look up to you and who you represent."

Strings took center stage during last year's Cricket World Cup when they wrote and sang the official song of their country's cricket team, "Hi Koi Hum Jaisa." The duo performed the song live in South Africa during a break in the Pakistan-India clash at Centurion Park.

The song's producers say that cricket-tour-sponsor Samsung has decided to make it the official song of the much-awaited series. Besides this song, Strings is gearing up for the May release of its album "Dhaani." They say they've found the Indian audience very receptive to their music.

"It has been a great experience while touring in India, we have done so many shows by now and got the opportunity to meet other Indian pop bands," says Kapadia.

Interestingly Kapadia's ancestors were from Gujarat and Maqsood's from Uttar Pradesh.

*Hawks And Doves, Dr Mubashir Hasan, Dawn, April 6, 2004

The ruling elites of Pakistan is a house divided against itself when it comes to normalizing relations with India. Similar is the case with the Indian ruling elites. It is gratifying to note that the Indian leadership has rightly concluded that the latest, somewhat belligerent, remarks of President Pervez Musharraf about progress on the resolution of the Kashmir issue had arisen out of domestic compulsions.

There are hawks and doves on both sides. The stakes for the doves as well as the hawks are high. Mostly behind closed doors, the struggle amongst the elites in each country is fierce. The doves see their benefits significantly enhanced through changing the status quo by normalising the relations with the other country. The hawks want to continue to enjoy the benefits under the status quo. The billion-plus people do not appear in the equation. War is waged in their name and so is peace claimed in their name. Yet it is the high interest which weighs heavily in the process of decision making to bring about normalcy between the two countries.

Perceptibly, the doves are gaining strength relative to hawks. They are not strong enough yet to prevail over the hawks. They have yet to prove the case that normalisation of relations will bring immense dividends to them. The hawks have a proven case in the form of the immense benefits that the ruling elites have reaped in the past. The passions and prejudices of the past also go in favour of the hawks.

The doves initial an agreement. The hawks shoot it down and do not allow it to be implemented. Examples abound. Foreign secretaries Niaz Naik and Rasgotra almost concluded a draft agreement for improving the relations between the two countries. The Pakistani hawks shot it down. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Pakistani counterpart approved a settlement of the conflict at Siachin. The Indian hawks shot it down. Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral initiated and approved a format for comprehensive dialogue at the level of secretaries. The Indian hawks shot it down. Vital ground-breaking agreements at the Lahore Summit between Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India got blown up at the Kargil heights by the Pakistani hawks. The consensus on a document between Prime Minister Vajpayee and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh on the one side and President Musharraf and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on the other side at Agra arrived took no time to be shot down by the hawks in India.

Following the attack on their parliament in December 2001, the Indian hawks reigned supreme. They brought armies on Pakistan border and carried out huge propaganda war. While Pakistan offered renewal of dialogue any time, any place without any conditions, the Indian doves took their time. With great deliberation and sophistication the Indian doves cleared the ground and met with their Pakistani counterparts early this year.

On February 18, 2004, the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India announced a schedule for composite dialogue: The foreign secretaries would meet in May/June 2004 for talks on peace and security including Confidence Building Measures and Jammu and Kashmir. They further announced that talks on Siachin; Sir Creek; terrorism and drug trafficking; economic and cultural cooperation; and promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields will be held at agreed levels in July 2004. The agreement also provided that foreign minister of Pakistan and the external affairs minister of India would meet in August 2004 to review overall progress. This was a giant step forward.

The text of the agreement of February 18 was negotiated in great secrecy. The announcement caused consternation among the hawks in Pakistan. The doves of Pakistan had staged a significant coup against their hawks. However, the pendulum had swung a bit too far. A correction was due in favour of the hawks. It came in the remarks made by General Pervez Musharraf while answering questions before select audiences in Delhi and Islamabad. He laid down that progress must be seen in the composite dialogue on the question of Kashmir by July/August 2004. Lack of progress may result in regression to the pre-summit

situation he declared.

The progress with India on the Kashmir issue will be an empty one unless the Kashmiris have full participation in the process. The two governments are hardly strong enough to impose a solution on the former state against the wishes of the people of Kashmir. Unfortunately, the doves in the governments of Pakistan and India have done little to mobilise the forces of peace and settlement in Kashmir. Meanwhile hawks on both sides are having their way. The two governments have failed to realise how easy their task would be, how weak would the hawks of India and Pakistan become, if the people of the former state were mobilised for peace and settlement.

In the meanwhile help has come to hawks as well as doves from two sources. The announcement by the U. S. Secretary of State Collin Powell, conferring on Pakistan the status of a Non-Nato ally is bound to strengthen the hands of the hawks in India. For the present the “status” only means that certain sanctions against sale and transfer of war materiel against Pakistan will be lifted. The adverse effect of the high profile announcement upon the future of the composite dialogue should have been foreseen. Colin Powell should not have been allowed to make the announcement in this fashion. There were many ways to say the same thing. Why did the U. S. choose this particular mode?

Extraordinarily huge help has come to the doves of Pakistan and India from the people of both the countries. In the last few months, the bonhomie exhibited by the people in criss-crossing the borders in very large numbers enormously strengthens the hands of the doves. Now the ruling doves can reduce the flow of human traffic only at their own peril. They should let Kashmiris also criss-cross the Line of Control in the same fashion and reap the dividend in the form of peace and settlement.

*Heed not the fanatics, Will Hutton, The Observer, April 11, 2004

Only by rebutting fundamentalism in all its forms can we stop ourselves being plunged into a new Dark Age

Today, more than two million Protestants and Catholics will attend church to celebrate Easter, a resilient band but millions fewer than just 50 years ago. The great fathers of sociology - Weber, Marx, Durkheim - all believed that industrialisation, wealth and democracy would lead to the development of a massively secular society. Religion and its myths, the linchpin of dirt-poor traditional society, would evaporate before detraditionalising modernity.

They were right about Europe but wrong about almost everywhere else. Protestant evangelism in the United States and Islamic fundamentalism are the two fastest-growing religions on the planet; even Hindu and Buddhist fundamentalism are on the increase. Only Europe has moved in the direction the classic sociologists predicted. A mere third of Europeans report that they think that life is worth living because God exists. In the US, 61 per cent do, a proportion matched, although we don't have reliable evidence, within Islam. In those broad religiously inclined majorities, fundamentalists find it easier to recruit.

But why? Why is rich Europe secular and rich America religious? And are there any clues in the answer to that riddle to the rise in religious fundamentalism, one of the most pernicious and hateful phenomena in human association, ranking with political fundamentalism of Right and Left in its destructive and poisonous influence.

Whether it is the perpetrators of the Madrid atrocity or Franklin Graham, evangelical son of evangelist Billy Graham, calling Islam a 'wicked religion', fervent fundamentalist religiosity breeds violence, intolerance and sexism. The sacred texts of Christianity and Islam may plead love, mutual respect and peace; their fundamentalist followers observe these doctrines in the breach.

You cannot watch Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ without being provoked into these questions, for while it is breaking box-office records in the US and even playing to crowded cinemas in the Arab world, European audiences are smaller, less credulous and largely interested in the film as a cultural and cinematic phenomenon rather than as a religious experience.

They are right. Gibson is a conservative, Catholic fundamentalist. Each day's filming began with Mass; Gibson claims extraordinarily that the holy spirit was on the set throughout, with Jesus-like incidents of sudden healing. Gibson says he was God's tool. It is a perspective that saturates his film, with a cowled Satan appearing at key moments, rather as a vampire might in a classic Hollywood horror movie.

It also reduces the whole to the level of farce, emotionally distancing the viewer from Christ's horrific last hours which are meant to trigger our rediscovery of what it means to be Christian.

Gibson insists on Christianity without compromise, and literal interpretation of the New Testament texts. Crucifixion was a blood sacrifice to atone all humanity's sins at which both God and Satan were physically present. The moral message, in particular the transcendent capacity of love to produce mutual understanding and which retains my loyalty, just, to the Christian camp, is subsumed by a perverse insistence that Christian belief means that we have to plunge back into the values and myths of the pre-scientific, pre-Enlightenment, pre-democratic, barbaric and primitive Middle East.

Gibson insists that his film is not anti-Semitic; he dissimulates. We are invited to enter the value and belief system of early Christianity with its unmistakable conclusion: Jews bayed for the death of the son of God, for which Jewry suffered millennial discrimination that ended in the Holocaust, and whose consequences are playing themselves out in the revival of Jewish fundamentalism and its calamitous impact on the Middle East.

There is a tension in religion. It offers a moral compass by which to live - the world's great religions have a very similar moral message - and so forms a key underpinning of good behaviour. But it also offers the answer to the ontological question: why? Everybody seeks a purpose; to make a difference; to be part of something; to belong.

Purpose within a social context allows us to make sense of being alive. For the secular, that purpose can be building a great society, a great work of art, a great business or a great family, against which religious values may or may not be an important backdrop.

But for the religious, the pursuit of their faith is their purpose, with the everpresent danger that because their religion answers the 'why?' question, they are compelled to impose it on others as crucial to their own purpose.

American society, where reformist social and political movements are undermined by its sheer continental scale, along with a deeply felt, faith-based individualism, is particularly prone to throwing up individuals who see no other way to give their lives purpose than by evangelising others.

For them, it is not enough to live by a religious code. They want others to live by it, too, and conversion is part of their purpose. Gibson is a classic of the genre - and so we are invited to put the clock back and live as if we were third-century Christians who believe in the reality of spirits and kingdoms of the faithful in paradise.

Evangelism of this type has less fertile soil in Europe, but in ways that, too, have their dark side. Secular politics and political ideology have been seen as the vehicle through which to express utopian purpose but which dangerously toppled into fascism and communism. Now that political beliefs are reduced in appeal and relevance, most European societies are suffering from a chronic incapacity to express purpose.

Unable to turn to religion, there is an ominous drift to nationalism and tribal identity, hence the reaction to immigration, asylum-seekers and terrorism that everywhere in Europe is sparking atavistic and primitive responses.

In Islam, unable to use politics to express purpose in backward autocracies and whose economies and civilisation are eclipsed by the West, purpose expresses itself in the mirror image of the US: the assertion of meaning is through adherence to religious fundamentalism.

In Iraq, the two unforgiving eye-for-an-eye fundamentalisms - American and Islamic, informed by the doctrine of blood sacrifice - confront one another in an arena of escalating violence. Europe looks on helplessly, in danger of succumbing to its own parallel demons.

What is needed is a rediscovery of politics and a belief that purpose is best attempted in a secular guise underpinned by universal values, and that religion is a moral code to live by, rather than a purpose in its own right that gives believers the right to deny rationality and humanity.

This is a tall order. It won't be helped this Easter by following Gibson's interpretation of the Passion. The values we need are inclusion and love, not exclusion and irrationality. There's too much of that around, enough, if we let it, to usher in a new Dark Age. Values, yes; religious fundamentalism, no.

COURSES & TRAINING

*August 16, 2004 to February 9, 2005, Hyderabad, AP, India: POST-GRADUATE DIPLOMA PROGRAMME IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION, PEACE-BUILDING AND INTERFAITH RELATIONS. The Henry Martyn Institute, an International Centre for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation (www.hmiindia.com), invites applicants for this new six-month course by May 15, 2004. More info from Michael Frank A. Alar, Acting Programme Coordinator, PGD in CR, PB and Interfaith Relations, The Henry Martyn Institute. P.O. Box 153, Chirag Ali Lane, Hyderabad 500 001, A.P., INDIA, Ph: (040) 23201134, Fax: (040) 23203954, hyd1_hmiis@sancharnet.in

*May 1, 2004, Portland, OR, USA: FORGIVENESS, a workshop led by Judy Brodkey 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., at Central Lutheran Church, 1820 NE 21st. Cost is $75 - $40 sliding scale for individuals; $75 organizations and companies. Pre-registration is required. More info from 503.234.1012 or j246brodkey@aol.com. 
 

LECTURES

*April 22, 2004, New York City, NY, USA: THE CONTENT OF DEMOCRACY, a lecture by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen discussing his recent work on the relation between democracy, human capabilities, and economic development, at 6:00 p.m., at New School University, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). Free, reservations strongly suggested. More info from 212.229.5488 or boxoffice@n...