Civilians with balls .... not so much
Interesting developments in Turkey. First time this has happened there as far as I know.
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Political, economic, international affairs, cultural, social analysis punctuated by the odd moment in Dhaka, a cricket story or a simple rant!
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Feel free to browse, skim, inhale deeply, comment, ask for clarification, be enraged, scratch your head (or wherever) and even DISAGREE wholeheartedly.
More? Feel free to email me at dhaka.shohor@gmail.com or add me onto facebook and rant there. Answers are not guaranteed.
Bangladeshi blogs I read
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2007
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April
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- Foot in Mouth of the day - Pakistan Edition
- Civilians with balls .... not so much
- Soft coups aplenty
- A conversation with Mash
- "Shushil Shomaj" - an emerging discontent
- Funniest shit of the day
- Self-fulfilling Prophecies
- Free Press vs. Our Press
- Foot in Mouth of the day
- Fear and Loathing in Dhaka City
- Busting some national myths
- "Baby with the bathwater"
- Bangali vs. Bangladeshi nationalism
- Is misogyny South Asian?
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April
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7 comments:
Jemil Bhai i salute you.
At your service sir!
Thankyou for these few years of showing what muslim political forces can do, despite the machinations of weirdos.
Heheh, fugstar, I'm afraid you may have given me your compliment too soon. I don't think there is anything called "Muslim political forces". I think that there are people who use Islamic symbols to mobilise the masses, but no strictly Islamic regime (if there is such a thing) in Muslim-majority countries.
Even non-Muslim political forces can do things that are inherently Islamic, like welfare in the UK and progressive taxation.
But yes, the Refah/Welfare party in Turkey has done very good things, but then like everything else in Turkey, it's unique. My point: you don't have to be Muslim to do something "good". Alternately, being an Islamic party does not automatically make you "bad".
Their SECULAR Turkishness, Mash;). You left out the most important part!
erm. I wasnt complimenting you, i was expressing solidarity with really progressive forces in Turkey.
You to your taxonomy of islamicity and the place of religion in modern muslim society. me to mine ey?
(I think we are speaking to different imagined publics)
The archsecularist vs islam premik polarity has a similar stupidity in turkey than countries like Bangladesh.
The difference is that the islamic types have evolved a lot further and that the country has a decent intellectual scene. Its wakfs/NGOs are emmitters of virtue upon the rest of the world, not a bunch of beggar sinks like the deshi ones.
In Turkey its the lefties who wear beards, and the islamic types who are clean shaven.
They have interesting characters and institutions too. PM Erdogan went to reformed madrassas. The present OIC Sec Gen is a turkish professor of history and philosophy of Islamic civilisation used to run IRCICA.
The turkish nur group run schools internationally, check it out in dhaka. They focus on good morals. Also Fountain magazine, Fetullah Gulen and Said Nursi.
So funky are the 'islamic public organisation societies'(waqf infrastructure) in turkey that after the marmara earthquake, the then secularist government froze their assets because they were scared they would do some good and people would respect them for it.
That is probably the most evil thing I could possibly imagine.
Here's a few more travel experiences
http://fugstar.blogspot.com/2006/04/stumble-over-turkey-and-vendetta.html
I really recommmend Istanbul to the Muslim traveller.
fugstar bhai,
I somehow completely missed your first line saying "Jemil bhai"! Sorry for the confusion...
I was also wondering why you had said "years of service". In any case, I feel like you have more of an imagined public than I do. I read your political orphan article. Feel the same way, but of course for different reasons. Don't classify me as a "secular"-ist just yet eh?:D
'Years of service'
PM Erdogans party has had about 5 years of limited power, and before that he was mayor of Istanbul.
In that time they have andvanced the people and shown the world some funky moves.
heres the cool thing about the EU and turkey. If they join, i have a place to retire in Europe. If they don't they have their honour!
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