Announcements

International Dialogue

The IOS is going to organize a three-day international “Inter-Civilizational Dialogue in Globalizing Contemporary World” on April 8-10, 2005 in New Delhi. The international meet is to discuss such vital topics as “Relevance and Need for Understanding the Essence of Religious Traditions in Contemporary World”, “Role of Religion in Harnessing Creative Energies and Fostering Culture of Peaceful Coexistence”, “Relevance of India’s Composite Civilizational Legacy in Promoting Dialogue and Reconciliation” and “the Challenges, Impediments and Prospects Relating to Inter-Civilizational Dialogue in Global, Multi-Cultural Scenario”.

Dr. Manmohan Singh has kindly consented to inaugurate this international inter-faith meet. Other dignitaries who have given their consent for participation include, Justice A.M. Ahmadi, Dr. Anwar Ibrahim former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Abdullah Umar al-Nasif, Dr. Karan Singh, Mrs. Shiela Dixit and Arch Bishop Dr. Vincent Concessao. Prof. Khurshid Ahmad, Swami Agnivesh, Mr. Walson Thampu, Mr. Samdong Rinpoche, Prof. Sanghasen Singh, Dr. Yoong Suan, Dr. Thomas Butler, Prof. T.K. Oommen, Dr. Ahmad Totonji, Dr. Abdul Wahab Noorwali, Dr. Abul Hammed Ahmed Abu Sulaiyman, Mr. John Dayal, Prof. A.R. Momin, Prof. M. Nejatullah Siddiqi, Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Dato’ Mohammad Iqbal have also consented to participate. Many more intellectuals, scholars and activists are likely to attend the international meet. Preparations for making the event a grand success are in full swing.

The Scottish International Scholarship Programme

The Scottish Executive is offering 6 scholarships for students from India during the academic year 2005/6. The scholarships are available for courses at any Scottish higher education institution.

Level: Masters of not more than 12 months based in a Scottish higher education institution. The scholarship covers the tution fees and a living allowance.

Subjects covered:

Priority will be given to applications in the fields of science and technology and creative industries (arts, design and culture), but this does not mean candidates cannot apply in other fields. Medicine and Dentistry are excluded.

Eligibility criteria:

You must meet the following criteria to apply:

• be a permanent resident of India and staying in India at the time of application

• be between 25 and 35 years old at the time of application

• have between 3 and 5 years relevant working experience

• have a good working level of English demonstrated by an IELTS test result of at least 6.5 on the academic module with no individual band less than 6.0

• not currently be working or studying in the UK

• not be in receipt of any other scholarships or award for the academic year 2005/6

• hold a good first degree in a related subject from a recognized university

• not have received UK government funding in the past

• The Programme is looking for individuals that possess the following qualities:

• ambition and drive

• flexible and adaptable

• innovative, creative and entrepreneurial

• a commitment to change and organisational development

• an ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, not only in technical and professional terms but also culturally.

Last date for submitting application: 18 March 2005.

For more information and application forms please visit: www.scotlandscholarship.com

Find out more about Scottish universities are their programmes from the Education UK Scotland website.

Applications for the Scottish Scholarship can be made simultaneously with other scholarship programmes.

Application should be made on the prescribed form (available on the above website) and send to your nearest British Council Offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata (addresses available on the above website).

IOS Publication

Human Rights Today

The quarterly IOS publication, Human Rights Today, (Vol. 6 No. 4) has been published. The contents of the issue at hand are given below for the benefit of our esteemed readers:

• Editorial

• MPL & Nikahnama

• Inclusion of Muslims & Dalit Reservation

• National Commission for MEI

• A Report on Gujarat

• Minority Rights/South Asia

Book Review

Flowers of Galilee: The Collected Essays of Israel Shamir by Israel Shamir, Tempe, Arizona: Dandelion Books, 2004, 304 pages.

Flowers of Galilee breaks new ground in modern political discourse. This book recommends a democratic one-state solution in all of historical Palestine and the return of the Palestinians to rebuild their villages. The beautiful front cover painting by Suleiman Mansour of Jerusalem lovingly depicts a Palestinian family, children seated on a donkey, walking past a hill covered with olive trees. Similarly, Israel Shamir’s essays portray the peaceful, pastoral landscape of the Holy Land and the humanity of its inhabitants, juxtaposed against the ugliness and inhumanity of Jewish racism.

These thought-provoking essays, written in Jaffa during the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2001-02, call for Jews to leave their sense of exclusivity and plead for human equality. The author, a Russian immigrant to Israel in 1969, followed his meditations to their inevitable conclusion, renounced Judaism, and was baptized in the Palestinian Orthodox Christian Church of Jerusalem. A brilliant storyteller with a vast knowledge of history, he discusses current events and their global implications with brutal honesty and tenderness. His clear insights and lyrical use of language to illustrate social, religious, and political complexities make him the Khalil Gibran of our time.

An important chapter, “The Last Action Heroes,” memorializes the Spring 2002 siege of Bethlehem. The Israeli army surrounded 40 monks and priests and 200 Palestinians seeking refuge in the Church of Nativity. For a month, “people starved… Stench of corpses and of infected wounds filled the old church” (p. 63). The UN did nothing, but a few International Solidarity Movement activists from America and Europe, including the author’s son, broke the siege. One group distracted the soldiers while the others rushed into the church’s gates, brought food and water, and helped negotiate a surrender.

Shamir deconstructs the legal fictions of the state of Israel and the elusive Palestinian state: “Israelis who would like to live in peace with their Palestinian neghbors… cannot counteract the raw muscle of the American Jewish leadership” (p. 179). He further dissects the Jewish Holocaust cult and other Zionist public relations tactics. He exposes the two-state solution as a political bluff, calls on the world to cut off aid to Israel, and admonishes the Muslim world for indulging in usury.

Shamir strives to free Gentiles from both their fear and adoration of Jews. He searches into the material successes of world Jewry, the Jewish rejection of Jesus, and the global applications of Jewish ideology, resulting in the mass immigrations of refugees into Europe from war zones and the destruction of local cultures. The Left and the Right, he believes, are like the two legs of a human being: They must work together to counteract the uprooting and homogenizing forces of the global elite, whom he calls Mammonites.

The author debunks the myth of Islamic terror, pointing to the anti-Gentile polemic embedded in Jewish discourse. He demystifies the threat of “anti-Semitism” as a control mechanism to keep good Jews from confronting those Jewish leaders responsible for promoting war and policies of economic inequality. He points out that the political position of a “moderate” Jew is alarmingly similar to Nazism. Shamir explains “Jewishness” as a destructive concept of “separateness and privilege” based on the “two-tier approach of ingroup-outgroup” (p. 263). He sees Jewish chauvinism as threatening not only Palestinians but the entire world, because of the Jewish control over public opinion and policy. His philosophical analysis of Judeo-American power is illuminating.

Shamir pays tribute to former US Representative Cynthia McKinney, who stands out as a politician who refused to be disloyal to America. Her defeat by Jews who organized Republican voters to vote for a Democrat in order to unseat her sounded the death knell of American democracy. Jews used black Americans to open the doors to the elite positions formerly held only by white Christians. Once the Jews were in, the author explains, they closed the doors to blacks. Jewish equal rights activists were steered into Zionism and became enemies to those blacks who rejected Jewish supremacy.

The book concludes with the author’s personal peace treaty with the Arabs: “As for me, Syrian children may come and swim in the Sea of Galilee, and children of Palestine are welcome to the amusement parks of Tel Aviv. … The refugees of Gaza may come back to the fields they owned before 1948, and deal directly with the few old Polish Jews who ‘privatized’ the lands. Keep me out of it.” He tells Sharon: “General, if you want war, please wage it personally” (p. 296).

The author presents a compelling argument to the native Palestinians to accept him as their brother and let him live in their beautiful land as a neighbor, with their permission and blessing. Every chapter maintains an inspiring certainty of humanity’s victory over evil. I would have liked to learn more about his own personal transformation from someone who watched his Israeli army buddies shoot unarmed prisoners to someone that courageously withstands vilification to champion human rights for all.

Flowers of Galilee is a romantic discourse on Palestine that lacks native Palestinian voices; however, it provides sincere and wise counsel. The author recommends neutralizing the invader through assimilation. He dreams of a world in which the descendants of Jews and Palestinians will be able to live as equals, intermarry, and create a new race of people. Shamir’s proposal is consistent with Islamic tradition and is the only viable option for a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Reviewed by Karin M. Friedemann

Miscellany

A two-day national seminar was organized by the Department of Arabic, Osmania University on 5th and 6th January 2005 on Professor Mohammed Hameedullah – Life and Work. Many scholars from around the country participated in the seminar and presented their papers.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Chief Guest Shri Mohan Kanda Chief Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh said that Prof. Hameedullah was that son of the soil of Deccan who left an impression on the scholars of the Islamic world in this era of modernity. He termed Prof. Hameedullah as a great scholar born in Deccan. He will be remembered for his service and leadership to his community. He said that while working with Justice Hidayatullah in the Gulf he saw that not only Muslims but also non-Muslims were seen reading Quran translation and other books written by Prof. Hameedullah.

Former Chairman Minorities Corporation, Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed in his keynote address described Prof. Hameedullah as a great scholar of the 20th Century. He was born in 1326 Hijri in Hyderabad and at the age of 27 years he served as Professor of Arabic in the Osmania University. From childhood he was inclined towards theology and as he was interested in serving Islam he travelled to many countries. He was fluent in a dozen languages. He was the first to translate the Holy Quran in French, German and English. Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed said that Prof. Hameedullah had special interest in Traditions of the Prophet. He translated many traditions in different languages and in a way which was easily understood and in turn many people embraced Islam. He had so much interest in education and knowledge that he went to school even on the day his mother died.

Vice Chancellor Osmania University, Professor Dr. D. Ramchandra said that although he had not met Prof. Hameedulalh but had heard the praise showered on him from various people. He was happy to know that he had over 165 books and over two thousand papers to his credit. He was not only a scholar but also an expert in literature and law. He advised the new generation to follow the footsteps of Prof. Hameedulalh and follow his guidelines.

Professor Abdur Rehman Momin, Professor and Head Department of Sociology Mumbai University said that Prof. Hameedullah was the last shining star of Hyderabad and the last repressentative of the Deccan culture. He said that even in Paris which is one of the msot modern cities in the world, he lived a simple life. He published twenty editions of the French and English translation of the Quran and about two million of each edition were sold. Thousands of non-Muslims embraced Islam. His love for the Prophet was such that he travelled from Mecca to Media on camel and donkey and stayed where the Prophet had stayed.

The government of Pakistan had awarded him with its highest civilian award ‘Hilal-e-Pakistan’. He said that Islamic awareness in Turkey was due to Prof. Hameedullah’s writings. He suggested organizing an international seminar on him and an academy to be named after him.

Dr. Mohammed Hasan Hitou, Director International Islamic Centre, Germany said that there is no parallel for the Islamic services rendered by Prof. Hameedullah. There has been an Islamic revolution as a result of his books. He has written books in Arabic, Urdu, English, French, German, Persian and other languages. He told the audience that he knew Prof. Hameedullah for thirty years. He was a simple person and God fearing. He had given the true meaning of ‘Roohullah’ and Yadullah’. He and his services will live in our hearts.

Prof. Izzuddin Zughaiba, Director Juma Masjid Research Centre, U.A.E. regretted that in the state of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa, manuscripts are being destroyed and no one is there to look after. Thousands of manuscripts in manuscripts Centre of Tamil Nadu have been destroyed. It is for the concerned authorities to look into this matter.