US rights group reports spike in ant-Muslim bias

Congressional testimony says Ground Zero mosque controversy may have stoked anti-Muslim hate crimes

 29 anti-Muslim incidents documented since May 2010

By Jehangir Khattak

NEW YORK: A leading national civil rights organization has said that controversy over a proposed Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site, also known as Park 51, in New York City appears to have stoked an increase in hate crimes and other bias incidents directed at Muslims in the United States.
In a written testimony submitted with Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights on March 29, Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said the FBI had not released statistics for 2010 or 2011. It was the first-ever congressional hearing to investigate anti-Muslim discrimination and civil rights civil rights issues.
“But our own compilation of news reports suggests that anti-Muslim incidents are again on the rise. We have compiled news reports on 156 anti-Muslim incidents since the terrorist attacks. Fifty-one of those incidents – approximately one-third – occurred within one year of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But since May 2010 – when a controversy erupted over the opening of an Islamic cultural center near the site of the World Trade Center attacks – we have documented 29 anti-Muslim incidents. That means nearly one-fifth of the incidents spanning 10 years occurred within one 10-month period.”
Mr. Cohen asked America’s political leadership to condemn hate speech directed at Muslims in America. SPLC monitors the activities of hate groups, anti-government militias and other extremists in the United States through its Intelligence Project. It also works to reduce prejudice and bigotry among the nation's youth by providing educators across the country with free anti-bias resources through its Teaching Tolerance project.
The testimony was submitted as Sen. Dick Durbin began a series of hearings on the civil rights of Muslims in response to recent incidents involving desecration of the Holy Quran, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech and other forms of discrimination.
"Today’s political leaders have an important role in speaking out against anti-Muslim hate and bigotry," Cohen said. "They must follow the example set by President Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and remind the American public we are not at war with Muslims. At the same time, the government must ensure that hate crimes are vigorously prosecuted so that the Muslim community knows the government is on their side." He added that schools must combat prejudice by fostering an understanding of Islamic culture.
The FBI has yet to release hate crime statistics for 2010, but SPLC quoting media reports says that there has been a recent spike in such crimes. The last such spike occurred in 2001.
According to the SPLC testimony, the first spike in anti-Muslim hate crime followed the 9/11 attacks. In 2001, Department of Justice statistics showed a 1,600 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crime incidents in the United States – 481 incidents reported to the FBI, compared to 28 reported a year before. Cohen said because of limitations in the collection of data, these numbers vastly understated the problem; adding: “more than half of all hate crimes are never reported to police and many others are incorrectly categorized. An extensive 2005 Department of Justice study concluded that the real level of hate crime is between 20 and 30 times higher than the FBI statistics suggest.”
Of the 156 hate crimes and bias incidents collected by the SPLC from news reports since 9/11, about one-third occurred within a year of those attacks. But nearly one-fifth have occurred since May 2010, when controversy over the Islamic center in New York City erupted.

Cohen said anti-Muslim hate groups, including Stop Islamization of America, played a major role in creating a toxic atmosphere surrounding the planned Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks. He said one of the most prominent anti-Muslim hate groups is Stop Islamization of America, the New York City-based group run by Pam Geller and Robert Spencer. It was instrumental in creating national anger over the so-called Ground Zero mosque.
He said in 2010, Muslims had been harassed, threatened, attacked and stabbed. For example, in August a taxi driver was slashed in the neck and face after his fare discovered he was Muslim. That same month, a piece of construction equipment was set afire and gasoline poured over other pieces of equipment at the future site of an Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. “These attacks touch more than their victims. They tear at the fabric of our society and instill fear in entire communities,” said the testimony.
It notes that the toxic atmosphere has also entered the schools, manifesting itself in the harassment of Muslim students and teachers as well as in attempts to limit how the history and culture of Islam is taught. “This past October, four high school students in Staten Island, New York, were charged with a hate crime after spending more than a year bullying a Muslim classmate, occasionally beating him and calling him a terrorist. A teacher in Arizona contacted us after an angry caller complained that she had invited a representative from the Islamic Speakers Bureau to speak to students about Islam,” says testimony. It documents the following other incidents:

•  Sikhs in Queens, New York, have complained about harassment and bullying of their children in schools. Sikh boys are often threatened with having their turbans pulled off, in addition to being called "terrorists.
• In Cambridge, Massachusetts, when a store burned down, Muslim high school students were asked by classmates if they bombed the store.
•  In St. Cloud, Minnesota, Somali refugees have experienced a spate of incidents. In March 2010, for example, a high school student created a short-lived Facebook group called "I hate the Somalians at Tech High."

“Educators also must contend with organizations such as the American Textbook Council, which has criticized textbooks and complained that textbooks don't highlight "Islamic challenges to global security." In September 2010, the Texas Board of Education approved a resolution that would require its textbooks to pass an American Textbook Council litmus test and not cast Islam in a favorable light.
“A Pennsylvania educator told us that a history program had come under attack by several parents because they believed the text was "advocating a positive 'indoctrination' of Islam." This type of scrutiny makes teachers extremely wary of teaching about Islam at all, thus perpetuating the fear and myths that are percolating throughout society and creating this anti-Muslim atmosphere.
“We must examine what is helping to fuel this toxic atmosphere. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a number of anti-Muslim hate groups operating in the United States. They portray Muslims as fundamentally alien and attribute to its followers an inherent set of negative traits. Muslims are depicted as irrational, intolerant and violent, and their faith is frequently depicted as sanctioning pedophilia, marital rape and child marriage,” says the testimony.
Cohen said these groups also typically hold conspiratorial views regarding the inherent danger to America posed by its Muslim-American community. “Muslims are depicted as a fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism. Anti-Muslim hate groups allege that Muslims are trying to subvert the rule of law by imposing on Americans their own Islamic legal system, Shariah law.” He said we shouldn't be surprised by the effects of such vitriol on the public. The Pew Research Center found that nearly one-fifth of Americans (18 percent) believed President Obama was a Muslim in August 2010 – up from 11 percent in March 2009, prior to the controversy over the supposed "Ground Zero mosque." In addition, 43 percent of all Americans said they didn't know what Obama's religion is, despite his profession of Christianity.
Another indicator of the hysteria sweeping the country is the introduction of bills in numerous state legislatures to ban the use of Islamic Shariah law in our courts. These bills are based on a completely unfounded fear. “They are little more than political stunts designed to pander to the country's growing anti-Muslim sentiment. The real danger is that the fear-mongering associated with these bills will add fuel to the anti-Muslim fire that is brewing,” Cohen added in his testimony.
“Today's political leaders have an important role in speaking out against anti-Muslim hate and bigotry. They must follow the example set by President Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and remind the American public we are not at war with Muslims. At the same time, the government must ensure that hate crimes are vigorously prosecuted so that the Muslim community knows the government is on their side,” the SPLC testimony concluded.

A crispy interview with an Arab journalist

A decade ago the U.S. government attacked Al-Jazeera as a propagator of anti-American propaganda. Now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is citing the network for fine news coverage and tweaking the U.S. media in the process.
The Arab broadcaster says it’s ready to take advantage of what it considers a major boost in its acceptance in the United States. Here is one more reason why it should. Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin tells Stephen Colbert the American cable companies that refuse to carry Al Jazeera help contribute to the misinformation about the Middle East. (05:36)

Number of U.S. hate groups on the rise: Report

By Jehangir Khattak

An Alabama-based organization says hate groups in America are growing at an explosive rate – wake up Congressman Peter King. In its quarterly publication, Intelligence Report, SPLC said hate, “Patriot” and nativist groups expanded explosively in 2010 for the second year in a row. The report says this increase was driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government’s handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities. For many on the radical right, anger is focusing on President Obama, who is seen as embodying everything that’s wrong with the country.

SPLC says hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the Southern Poverty Law Center began counting such groups in the 1980s. Anti-immigrant vigilante groups, despite having some of the political wind taken out of their sails by the adoption of hard-line anti-immigration laws around the country, continued to rise slowly, the report says, adding that by far the most dramatic growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of over 60%.

Taken together, these three strands of the radical right — the hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots — increased from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010, a 22% rise. That followed a 2008-2009 increase of 40%, the SPLC report noted.

It pointed out that the “remarkable” growth of right-wing extremism came even as politicians around the country, blown by gusts from the Tea Parties and other conservative formations, tacked hard to the right, co-opting many of the issues important to extremists. Last April, for instance, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070, the harshest anti-immigrant law in memory, setting off a tsunami of proposals for similar laws across the country. Continuing growth of the radical right could be curtailed as a result of this shift, especially since Republicans, many of them highly conservative, recaptured the U.S. House last fall.

But despite those historic Republican gains, says the report,  the early signs suggest that even as the more mainstream political right strengthens, the radical right has remained highly energized.

According to the report, in an 11-day period this January, a neo-Nazi was arrested headed for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades; a terrorist bomb attack on a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Wash., was averted after police dismantled a sophisticated anti-personnel weapon; and a man who officials said had a long history of antigovernment activities was arrested outside a packed mosque in Dearborn, Mich., and charged with possessing explosives with unlawful intent. That’s in addition, the same month, to the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, anattack that left six dead and may have had a political dimension, it added.

It’s also clear that other kinds of radical activity are on the rise. Since the murder last May 20 of two West Memphis, Ark., police officers by two members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement, police from around the country have contacted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to report what one detective in Kentucky described as a “dramatic increase” in sovereign activity. Sovereign citizens, who, like militias, are part of the larger Patriot movement, believe that the federal government has no right to tax or regulate them and, as a result, often come into conflict with police and tax authorities. Another sign of their increased activity came early this year, when the Treasury Department, in a report assessing what the IRS faces in 2011, said its biggest challenge will be the “attacks and threats against IRS employees and facilities [that] have risen steadily in recent years.

Egyptian Americans support calls for Mubarak’s resignation

By Jehangir Khattak, NYCMA, 2 February 2011.

Egyptian Americans are watching the events in their homeland with anxiety, fear and hope for a better tomorrow. With the Internet blacked out by President Hosni Mubarak's government, the Egyptian community here has reported increasing difficulties in reaching families and friends in the land of the Nile and pharaohs. The community is disappointed by what many call President Obama's soft peddling on the crisis and his failure to demand Mubarak's resignation. Community leaders fear that whatever the results may be of the current mass uprising, it will have an impact on the peace process in the Middle East.

President Mubarak has few supporters in the Egyptian-American community. "We are obviously very supportive of the demands of Egyptian people because we feel that they have the right to have democracy. We feel that the Mubarak regime must go," said Linda Sarsour, director of the Brooklyn-based Arab American Association, a nonprofit working to empower the Arab immigrant community.

Khaled Lamada, president of Society of Egyptian Americans for Development, another Brooklyn-based community organization involved in charitable work in Egypt, shared Linda's sentiments. "Every one is asking Mubarak to leave. He has to go. I don't think they (the protesters) will accept any thing less than that," he told NYCMA. He said Egyptians deserved democracy and freedom.

Nadine Wahab, a spokesperson for Egyptian Association for Change (EAC), called Mubarak government "most brutal and oppressive." EAC is a Washington DC-based non-partisan community group that supports Mohammad Elbaradei's National Association for Change's 7-point reform agenda. Talking over phone to NYCMA from Washington DC, she agreed Mubarak must leave power. The economic plight of Egyptians, she said, had deteriorated over the years under his watch, with over 40 percent of its population of 82 million living on less than $2 a day. 

Narine didn't think the United States was a real player in the current crisis. "It has to be a people's movement and foreign interference is completely unacceptable." She sounded critical of Obama Administration's soft stance on Mubarak's future, saying Egyptians expected a much firmer U.S. stand against the Mubarak regime. She said Egyptians were disappointed that President Obama didn't demand Mubarak's resignation in his remarks following the strongman's announcement on Tuesday, February 1, that he wouldn't seek re-election.

Khaled Lamada agreed with Narine. "Obama sided with the regime. He didn't make a clear cut demand that Mubarak should resign. It's not really encouraging," he said, referring to Obama's February 1st remarks.

Some Egyptian Americans did agree with President Obama. "He talked about change and free elections. I think the message was very clear and good," said Amjad Maky, a Queens-based Egyptian photojournalist who works for his community publications in Astoria and New Jersey. Amjad supports the demand for Hosni Mubarak's exit; however, he saw no need for the people to continue protesting after Mubarak announced his decision to not seek re-election and felt Egyptians needed to be more patient with change. "It's not like you hand over the keys and leave. It's more complicated."

The Internet blackout

The Mubarak government clamped down on the Internet shutting down major providers in the country to stop people from using Facebook and Twitter, the social media that has been extensively used to usher in the massive protests. Google has reported its Internet traffic going down to zero percent, while mobile phone lines and SMS services are reporting more and more glitches. 

Khaled, whose immediate and extended family lives in Cairo and Alexandria and is safe, said it was becoming a challenge to get connected with his next of kin in those cities. "Most of the times only land lines work as much of the cell phone services are down." Both Linda and Khaled said people in Cairo and elsewhere in the country had started community policing after several looting incidents were reported.

Community protests

The crisis has evoked a spirited response from Egyptian community overseas. In the United States, the Egyptian Association for Change has reported "hundreds" of protests in as many as 15 states since the crisis began. These protests are receiving support from other communities as well, including American social justice and civil rights organizations and some Palestinian groups.

There are no exact numbers available about the Egyptian community's population in the United States; however, some community leaders believe their population could be as much as half a million. In New York, southwest Brooklyn, Astoria, Queens and Staten Island have large pockets of Egyptian immigrants. According to Khaled, the Egyptian community is the fifth largest in Staten Island.

Most of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations in New York have been organized by Egyptian American United, a membership-based community organization and Al Awda, The Palestine Right to return Coalition. Both Linda's and Khaled's organizations have actively participated in these protests. Khaled said his organization will hold another protest in Times Square this Friday, February 4.

Like in Egypt, Facebook remains the favorite means of mobilizing the community for protests in the United States. 'Peaceful protest' postings have received robust response with people seeking shared rides and help with logistics in places as far as Detroit and Portland.

Fears about Middle East peace process

The crisis has pushed the Obama Administration into a virtual scramble. Many in Washington and other Western capitals are gauging the impact of the tumult. There are mounting fears that the uprising might spillover into other countries of a volatile Middle East, the majority of which lack representative governments. Many of these governments have enjoyed Washington's support for decades and played key role in promoting the U.S.-lead peace process in the region.

Jordan, Washington's key ally in the region, has already felt the heat. Its dynastic ruler King Abdullah has dismissed his government and appointed Marouf Bakhit, a conservative former army general with deep tribal roots, as the new prime minister. Abdullah's father, King Hussein, changed prime minister 45 times in his 47-year reign and successfully placated any challenge to his monarchic rule.

Khaled Lamada is convinced that the Egyptian crisis will have domino effect in the region and will transcend Egyptian borders into countries like Jordan and Syria.

While it is too early to calculate the implications of regime change in Cairo on the peace process, many foreign policy experts are warning that these are bound to impact the process.

Linda Sarsour, who is of Palestinian parentage, echoed these sentiments. "We feel it will have impact on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It will have good implications for the region," she said, adding that Israel could come under renewed pressure if its biggest supporter in the region, Hosni Mubarak, is ousted from power.

Khaled Lamada agreed but said that the impact will be limited. He said Egypt is a stable country and has good institutions. "I think any future government in Egypt will honor its commitment to peace and international treaties." They will respect Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Sarsour, who feels the United States should help Egypt and Israel rebuild their mutual relationship if the Mubarak regime falls, says the United States needs to restart the peace process and bring greater stability to the region.

Khaled's biggest fear is that the popular revolt against Mubarak regime could be hijacked by any group or a country, although he did not elaborate which they could be. He also brushed aside fears that the protests could increase anti-American sentiment in Egypt, saying most of Egyptians admired the United States.

Jehangir Khattak testifies before New York City Council

Bill seeking TPS status for undocumented Pakistanis reintroduced in U.S. Congress

By Jehangir Khattak, NYCMA, 19 January 2011.

A bill seeking Temporary Protected Status for thousands of undocumented Pakistanis in the United States was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 12. Pakistani Temporary Protected Status Act of 2011, introduced by Al Green, a Democratic Congressman from Houston, TX, has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill says last year's floods in Pakistan, which inundated 62,000 square miles of its area, killed almost 2,000 people and significantly damaged the infrastructure, qualifies Pakistan to be designated for the TPS. Under the proposed legislation, applicants would be eligible for TPS if they had been continuously physically present in the United States since July 22, 2010, which is the date when the floods began.

"Concerns are growing about the enduring toll of the disaster on Pakistan's overall economy, food supply, and political stability," says the text of the Bill. "Granting temporary protected status to nationals of Pakistan is consistent with the interests of the United States and promotes the values and morals that have made the United States strong," it goes on to say. If approved, the bill will grant TPS to undocumented Pakistanis for 12 months.

A similar bill introduced by Al Green last year lapsed in the 111th Congress, disappointing thousands of undocumented Pakistanis across the United States.

"The people of Pakistan have suffered a very traumatic tragedy and I think providing this TPS is necessary to help them attain a sense of stability in the United States while their country recovers. Furthermore, Pakistan is our military ally, as well as an important trade partner and I believe those are also factors which reinforce the merit of this bill," Al Green had said in comments posted on his website after he introduced the bill in Congress for the first time last year. Al Green's Houston, TX, constituency has a sizeable population of Pakistani immigrants.

Temporary protected status (TPS) is an immigration status for foreign nationals residing in the United States whose home countries are temporarily unsafe or overly dangerous. Situations that can make a country unsafe and lead to temporary protected status include: wars, political turmoil, earthquakes, floods, or other natural disasters.

The TPS Action Committee, a body of Pakistani community activists that has been running a consistent campaign for the past several months, is apprehensive about the latest legislative move in Congress. "We feel that legislation is unnecessary for designating Pakistan as TPS country," Saleem Rizvi, a leading attorney and chairman of the Committee, told NYCMA. He explained that legislation was needed to tackle certain issues only when there were no relevant laws. "Here the laws – both substantive and procedural – to designate Pakistan as TPS country are available," he added.

Furthermore, the TPS Action Committee questions the prospects for passage of HR 285 in Congress, which does not enjoy bipartisan support. The current bill has not been co-sponsored by any other member of Congress whereas the one Al Green introduced in December was co-sponsored by eight Democrats. For some Action Committee members, the latest bill is a waste of time because it stands little chance of a congressional approval.

Rizvi sounded these apprehensions saying that the bill could face serious challenges in the House Judiciary committee headed by Congressman Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas, who is often accused of promoting an anti-immigrant agenda.

The Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with U.S. Department of State and other agencies, can issue a notification designating TPS status to a country. Under section 244(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the DHS Secretary is authorized to designate a foreign state for TPS or parts of such state upon finding that such state is experiencing ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or "extraordinary and temporary conditions.'' 

The request for TPS usually comes from a foreign government hit by natural calamities that feels that they fulfill the criteria for the status. However, Pakistani community leaders are not sure if such a request has formally been made by the Pakistan government.

"We have been verbally informed by the Pakistani government officials that the request has been made," Saleem Rizvi said. However, he added it was unclear as to how the Pakistani government made the formal request and the response by the Obama Administration.

To date, the Obama Administration hasn't responded publicly to the Pakistani demand, but there are indications that the reception so far has been lukewarm. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not react to Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's demand for TPS for Pakistan during their joint press conference in Washington D.C. last October.

The TPS Action Committee says it is determined to keep pressing for its demand to designate Pakistan under existing law for TPS and will expand its campaign during the upcoming official visit of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to the United States. The committee organized protests in four cities on January 15 to coincide with Zardari's four-day private visit to the U.S. Its supporters staged pro-TPS rallies in front of Pakistani consulates in New York, Chicago, Houston and embassy in Washington DC, where community activists demanded that Islamabad press the Obama administration on the TPS issue.

No authentic figures are available about the exact number of undocumented Pakistanis in the US but TPS Committee Chairman believes that the figure could be as high as 100,000. Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, and Sudan are countries currently designated for TPS.

Where’s the leadership?

By Jehangir Khattak
Published in Dawn on Thursday, 19 Aug, 2010

A TIMELY response by the government could have minimised the human and material losses suffered in Pakistan’s greatest flood disaster. The effectiveness of any relief outreach is directly linked to the quality of governance.

Available figures pertaining to the government’s relief outreach are alarming, as apparently little more than 40 per cent of the flood-affected population is receiving relief from the government, mainly from the military.

Pakistan was deficient on two vital counts when the disaster struck. It lacked leadership and resources. The two became a deadly combination when nature let loose its fury on the country’s choked waterways and badly managed flood protection system. The massive cutting of forests in the upper reaches of the mountainous north and north-west increased the ferocity of the flashfloods.

The disaster has lead many politicians to rediscover their lost love for Kalabagh dam, forgetting their collective failure to evolve an effective water management system to secure waterways and conserve resources. Nations across frontiers are using technology and modern irrigation tools to attain water security and safeguard communities against floods. The US has conserved its water resources and minimised the flood threat by building 100,000 dams. China, which witnessed the worst floods for centuries, has met the threat by building 85,000 dams across the country. It has also created separate entities for maintenance of its seven river systems and introduced tough laws, regulating construction in flood-prone regions.

Leadership and governance have always been Pakistan’s biggest problems. Many in Pakistan and the US are calling the calamity President Asif Ali Zardari’s ‘Katrina moment’. It may or may not be, but it should alert Pakistanis to the difference a more competent and sensitive leadership could have made in the crisis. The administrative breakdown and chaos that followed the floods did not surprise anyone; in fact it added to the frustration and misery of everyone.

Response to such calamities itself is a subject that has not received much attention in countries vulnerable to disasters. Nations across the world have evolved national disaster response mechanisms. In Pakistan, no such system is in place even after the 2005 killer earthquake in the north. All that came out of the leadership’s introspection was the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), a toothless relief coordination agency, with no real power or assets to deploy in times of crises.

The key ingredients of an effective response system are almost universal. These are: integrated institutional arrangements, state of the art forecasting and early warning systems, failsafe communication systems, rapid evacuation of threatened communities, quick deployment of specialised response forces and coordination and synergy among various agencies at various levels in dealing with any disaster.

Pakistan’s response to this national emergency is chaotic and incoherent. The leadership has failed to inspire national mass mobilisation for rescue and relief. The ministers who bravely defended President Zardari’s ill-timed pleasure trips to France and Britain failed to realise that leaders inspire nations in times of crisis. When leaders become a bad example, they demoralise the nation. Little wonder that government appeals for public donations received a lukewarm response. People have little trust in the government and are donating to private charities.

The apathetic response of the government and most of the international community to the unfolding disaster has created a void that is being filled by some shady charities accused of being linked to extremist groups. These charities may be partially filling the critical void. But there is no guarantee if their activities will be limited to relief efforts. Many in western and Pakistani security establishments fear that these charities could give the militants a new foothold in areas such as Swat, and threaten military gains. These fears are not ill-founded.

The disaster offers a unique window of opportunity to the international community, particularly the US and other western powers, to make good on their claim of friendship with Pakistanis. Public opinion polls released by the PEW research institute recently revealed that a majority of Pakistanis consider the US an enemy. According to the poll, the worst flood-hit provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the highest level of anti-American sentiment, at 69 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

These figures represent a daunting task for US diplomacy to improve America’s image in a country it calls a strategic partner. This may be the moment to start building a relationship with the people of Pakistan by helping them rebuild their lives.

Long-term international help will be needed to rehabilitate the uprooted people, rebuild damaged and decimated cities, towns, villages, communication infrastructure, schools and hospitals. Generous international help in rescue, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation will go a long way in not just mitigating the sufferings of those who lost everything but also in building up an image of friends of those now deemed foes.

No one should discount the prospects of a more radicalised Pakistan if its government, the US and the rest of the international community fail to win back the ground already lost to charities with questionable credentials in the relief effort. It is a race against time to save lives, preserve hope and deny space to those who may capitalise on the situation.

The writer is a US-based freelance journalist.

mjehangir@aol.com

Saving life and hope in marooned Pakistan

By Jehangir Khattak

Pakistan remains in the eye of nature’s fury. Thousands are feared dead and the casualty count is mounting by the hour in much of the mountainous northwest and central plains. The culprit this time around is not a faceless terrorist wearing explosive jackets, rather it’s the swollen rivers bursting their banks that are marooning, displacing and killing Pakistanis. The disaster is humongous in the terrorism-hit north western province of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, half of which is marooned. The rich, the wealthy and the powerful remain as indifferent to the unfolding disaster as they have always been. The country’s President is yet again enjoying his European yatra at the marooned tax payers’ expense. His administration is swept by lack of imagination, inaction, corruption, inefficiency and the raging river water.

Many in Pakistan are still making sense out of President Asif Zardari accepting hospitality of British Prime Minister David Cameron, whom many in Pakistan call a brash for his insensitive remarks in India (that Pakistan is exporting terrorism). Pakistanis are amazed to see Cameron proving the notion wrong that politicians in Pakistan alone receive on-job training to learn the statecraft and diplomacy. His boorish comments about Pakistan have stirred an unusual wave of public condemnation and a firestorm at least in the country’s most powerful military establishment that has already cancelled a high level security delegation’s visit to UK. Cameron must feel happy that if not military, at least Pakistan’s clinically retarded President (remember American doctors’ findings that Zardari was suffering from severe depression, dementia and post-traumatic stress disorder as early as 2007 --- Check out Independent’s report at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/questions-raised-over-zardari-mental-health-909373.html) has chosen to pay his respects to him. Instead of visiting the victims of nature’s fury in KP and Punjab, Zardari has proved an entire nation wrong and a few American doctors correct in their diagnosis about his mental condition. Many analysts are questioning his ability to lead a nation of 170 million people.

It’s not just Zardari who may need medical attention. His pliant deputy and a known Oaf – Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani – is also competing for greater public scrutiny of his questionable conduct when the nation looked for leadership from him. He failed yet again -- preferring first to win votes for his party candidate in a by-election in the Punjab province and then enjoying a helicopter ride over disaster-stricken areas.

The marooned Pakistan presents two contrasting pictures. One is a portrayal of extreme human misery, government breakdown, death and destruction while the other shows a self-centered opulent class that demonstrates a remarkable disconnection with their compatriots and the realities. The Chief Minister of worst-hit Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province says floods have pushed his province back 50 years in terms of development and yet Pakistani leaders do not see enough reasons to help their people in distress.

The scale of destruction in the worst affected regions, especially mountainous Swat, warrants urgent action at the government level. It’s race against time to save hundreds of thousands of people. If they don’t get immediate help, shady groups, including terrorist recruiters, could step in to fill the vacuum. The over-stretched Pakistan’s military knows it well and is handling the relief operation almost single-handedly. Pakistan government and the international community must not give shady groups a walkover in areas such as Swat and wake up to the humanitarian disaster that is taking an ugly shape in Pakistan. They must move fast to save lives and hope.

The Flat World?

By Jehangir Khattak, July 25, 2010

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s best-selling book The World is Flat explores the metaphor that the 21^st century globalization has virtually flattened the world for commerce. Friedman identifies ten "flatteners" that he sees as leveling the global playing field:

Flattener # 1: Collapse of the Berlin Wall: The November 9, 1989 collapse of the wall dividing capitalist West Germany from the Communist East since World War II not only symbolized the end of the Cold War, but also allowed people from the Communist East to join the economic mainstream.

Flattener #2: Netscape and the web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by "early adopters and geeks" to something that made the Internet accessible to everyone.

Flattener #3: Workflow Software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved. Friedman believes these first three forces have become a "crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration". Software protocols such as SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol); HTML (the language that enabled anyone to design and publish documents that could be transmitted to and read on any computer anywhere) strengthened this global platform and gave it stunning outreach.

Flattener #4: In-forming: Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people – on their own – had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people," writes Friedman. The growth of search engines is tremendous; for example take Google, in which Friedman states that it is "now processing roughly one billion searches per day, up from 150 million just three years ago".

Flattener #5: Open Source or communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers this phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all".

Flattener #6: Offshoring: The internal relocation of a company's manufacturing or other processes to a foreign land to take advantage of less costly operations there. China's entrance in the World Trade Organization allowed for greater competition in the playing field.

Flattener #7: Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components which can be subcontracted and performed in the most efficient, cost-effective way. This process became easier with the mass distribution of fiber optic cables during the introduction of the World Wide Web. Fiber optic technology revolutionized telecommunication sector and attracted massive investments. By the mid-1980s, all told, a trillion-dollar corporate capital investment had been made in information technology, including telecommunications, and it went up from there. The massive investments drastically cut down the data transfer costs, making the concept of global village a reality.

Flattener #8: Insourcing: Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's employees perform services – beyond shipping – for another company. For example, UPS repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.

Flattener #9: Supply-chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.

Flattener #10: "The Steroids": Personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual – all analog content and processes (from entertainment to photography to word processing) can be digitized and therefore shaped, manipulated and transmitted; virtual – these processes can be done at high speed with total ease; mobile – can be done anywhere, anytime by anyone; and personal – can be done by any one.

Friedman’s award-winning work has placed the globalized and flattened world in a new perspective. It reflects a paradigm shift of analyzing technology shaping a new global commerce order, which is working well for the techies sitting in Madras, India, or Chinese linguists working for Japanese companies in a distant province in central China.

Abundance of opportunity for development in a shrinking world aside, the new revolution may have its flip sides as well. Fiber optics may be connecting the world for opportunity and growth, but it is also exposing this development to new and unheard of economic and security threats. Outsourcing may be spurring a new middle class in India and China, but it is taking away bread and butter from workers in the developed West, forcing them to live on unemployment checks.

Humanity, especially the one submerged in abject poverty, may be the limited beneficiaries of flatteners such as outsourcing and offshoring, its ultimate beneficiaries are the big corporations that are becoming fatter, gaining unmatched political power both in the US and overseas. It has become a shortcut to multiply profits of multinationals. Outsourcing has become the sole vehicle to fatten corporate profits and flatten room for innovation in communities or even countries facing higher production costs. There is no dearth of innovation when it comes to cutting operational cost. Jet Blue is a glaring example of innovation when it comes to cutting cost and keeping jobs at home. Jet Blue has been successfully running home-based customer support system since its inception.

Globalization thus has landed the mankind in a new era where many of the rules of commerce, trade and even international politics of the last century no longer hold good. Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has also been critical of Friedman's book. In "Making Globalization Work", Stiglitz writes: “Friedman is right that there have been dramatic changes in the global economy, in the global landscape; in some directions, the world is much flatter than it has ever been, with those in various parts of the world being more connected than they have ever been, but the world is not flat […] Not only is the world not flat: in many ways it has been getting less flat.”

Richard Florida expresses similar views in his 2005 Atlantic Monthly article, "The World is Spiky". However, Hans Rosling's statistical data (2006–2009) and numerous presentations have shown that significant global progress continues to be made, so growing spikes does not mean deflating valleys.

Globalization may have created level playing field in many areas of international commerce but it is flattening or has already flattened ideas and innovation in many other areas of global economy.

With media’s poor portrayal, Pakistani Americans must speak up on Times Sq. incident

By Wakeel Ansari, Urdu Times, 13 May 2010. Translated from Urdu byJehangir Khattak.

Words are not enough to describe the emotional and psychological stress the Pakistani-American community is undergoing after Faisal Shahzad's failed attempt to bomb Times Square. It's the topic of discussion everywhere, from living room gatherings to community social events. Everyone is searching for words to condemn Shahzad's action and everyone seems to be looking for reasons that lead an educated person to commit such a despicable act. There are as many reasons coming to the forefront as there are mouths. The mainstream American media, on its part, is making every effort, through its "experts", to prove the existence of the Taliban within the Pakistani-American community. Americans are being advised to stay vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the police. Usually such actions, as was seen immediately after 9/11, lead to the targeting of the Pakistani-American community.

Faisal Shahzad's true story, or the one presented by the government, will soon be out. But for now, every American of Pakistani origin is embarrassed and ashamed. The term "guilt by association" seems more appropriate to describe this situation. Muslim- and Pakistani-American community organizations have vehemently condemned this cowardly act. However, the mainstream media is not framing the Muslin and Pakistani community's condemnation properly. Little wonder anti-Muslim politicians are stating publicly that Muslims do not condemn Faisal Shahzad's action just like they did not condemn the 9/11 terrorist attacks—and the mainstream media ends up reporting these provocative statements.

The media molds both public and government opinion on issues and sets the stage for policymaking and societal attitudes. I can gather from the current trend that efforts to formulate special policies to scrutinize Muslims, particularly Pakistanis, are not far behind. One can only say, in the face of such possibility, that the majority of Americans, who are supporters of justice, will raise their voice against the targeting of an entire community for the sins of an individual.

Personally, I am also of the opinion that the Pakistani-American community must unite and join mainstream politics. We should tell the world the truth: Pakistan is the epicenter of international intrigues. Afghan extremist groups and the drug mafia are using Pakistan's soil for their objectives; areas such as North Waziristan, historically "no-go areas" for Pakistani governments, remain impossible to govern; powers that want to see a weak Pakistan also support the terrorists, with the drug mafia and India topping the list. The terrorists, who are slowly coming to urban centers of Pakistan, have no religion but justify their nefarious acts in the name of religion. It's a shame that some officers of Pakistan's intelligence agencies are also emerging as supporters of terrorists. But the Pakistani government is after these black sheep, just like the U.S. government went after Soviet agents who infiltrated the CIA.

No one can deny that Pakistani Americans are straight-talking and honest. If we speak with our local political leaders, they will understand that Pakistani and Muslim Americans share the same dreams as other Americans – such communication will promote broader understanding and greater social harmony. We must not shy away from an honest self-explanation to our neighbors and leaders in America.

Another ‘unpopular’ American war

By Jehangir Khattak, August 20, 2009

President Barack Obama is passing through the first major test of his presidency. With dwindling approval ratings, Obama is finding it hard to sell his health care reform program to Congress and the Afghan war to the American public.

While the American public wishes to extend health insurance to every citizen through major reform in the country's health delivery system, special interest groups are actively promoting the status quo in the reform debate. The Democratic Party itself seems to be divided on the issue. Congress is to take up the reform program in the coming days, but members of Congress have continued an extensive outreach to their electorate on the issue. Most congressmen are holding town hall meetings to gauge voters' opinions about the proposed reform, expected to be the most sweeping in recent years. However, victims of unfair health insurance practices are giving elected representatives a hard time. Some town hall meetings, where health care was discussed, turned into tense exchanges of arguments between upset electorates and their representatives.

The United States spends 16 percent of its gross domestic product on health care and it is projected to reach a whopping 31 percent of its GDP in the next 25 years. Despite this massive expenditure on health care, more than 45 million Americans remain uninsured. Obviously, such a huge investment with such poor results would not be acceptable to any government anywhere in the world, especially in a country already in the middle of two wars and whose economy is in a recession. Thus, fixing the health care delivery system is as important for President Barack Obama as winning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, much seems to be desired on both fronts. Progress on health care reform is possible through a bipartisan compromise, but a military standstill in Afghanistan, considered to be Obama's signature war, could have damaging consequences for the administration. Like health care reform, the handling of the Afghan war is emerging as another threat to Obama's leadership.

The very impression of Iraq being Bush's war and Afghanistan being Obama's may not go well with Obama's approval rating. Obama will not be alone in facing the negative consequences of such an impression. The Democratic Party could also sustain considerable political damage in the coming months particularly if the war in Afghanistan loses public support; there are signs that support is indeed waning.

Fifty-one percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month said that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting. The war is becoming even more unpopular within the Democratic Party itself, with seven out of ten Democrats saying that the war is not worth the cost. However, support for the war in the Republican Party remains high. According to the same survey, 58 percent of Republicans support the war in Afghanistan.

Will Americans adopt the same attitude towards the war in Afghanistan as was witnessed in 2006 with the Iraq war, when Republicans not only lost the people's confidence but also control of the U.S. Congress, and ultimately the presidency? Will history repeat itself, this time with the war in Afghanistan loosening the Democrats' grip on power?

These questions might sound premature, but they are not impossible to consider. Much depends on the administration's strategy in Afghanistan. It is yet to be seen if President Obama, like his predecessor, will try to defeat terrorism in Afghanistan using just military power, or will use political instruments as well – especially facilitating a clean and effective government in the war-torn country. Will bringing a corruption-free government in Afghanistan be possible, and should Hamid Karzai be declared the winner of last month's elections?

Keeping past experiences in mind, bringing a clean government to Kabul will be a great challenge for the Obama Administration. Signs from Washington suggest that Obama's evolving Afghan strategy could include political elements too – offering dialogue to "correctable Taliban" who are willing to surrender and join the mainstream. Such a strategy of peeling away the so-called "correctable Taliban" could be one effective way of cornering and defeating these militants.

This strategy could have direct implications for Pakistan as well. Islamabad has been pursuing a military campaign against the Taliban on its side of the porous border with Afghanistan. It has yet to be determined how far Pakistan is ready to go for a possible change in United States policy towards Afghanistan and its impact on the region. But for now, public sentiment in America does not appear very positive for President Obama.

U.S. Census 2010 and Pakistani community

By Jehangir Khattak, March 11, 2010

Preparations are in full swing for the Census 2010. The Census Bureau has launched its most expensive three-phase media campaign in its history. In the first stage, informational ads were released to the press, in the second stage motivational ads are sent out, and the third stage call for action ads will go into newspapers, magazines and electronic media outlets across the country. People are being informed about the importance of Census through these campaigns. They are being reminded that participation in the census is not just an obligation to their community, but it's the law.

Millions of households across the nation will receive the census forms, carrying 10 questions, by 18th of this month. The Census Bureau says it won't take more than 10 minutes to fill the form; however, those 10 minutes will have impact for the next decade on their neighborhoods since the data is used for the allocation of $400 billion in development funds. Not only this, it can also lead to re-demarcation of electoral constituencies, which could increase the number of seats in the state legislatures as well as the U.S. Congress. The biggest concern for the Census Bureau is an undercount.

Some pro-immigration groups have started doing politics over the Census as well, with some advocating that one way to force the Administration to fulfill its promise of comprehensive immigration reform is to boycott the Census. Same is true for undocumented immigrants who are shy to come out of the shadows and be counted. A widespread fear haunts the undocumented immigrants that the Census Bureau could share their information with immigration authorities, which in turn could jeopardize their future in this country. Several advocacy groups, along with the Census Bureau, have targeted immigrant communities with the message that the Bureau does not share its data with any other government departments. Even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come up with a categorical statement in recent days indicating that the PATRIOT Act – which gives the government sweeping powers for access to personal information of the people – does not apply to the Census, thus DHS cannot have access to census data. But despite all these explanations and assurances, the Census Bureau and advocacy groups report that suspicions amongst undocumented immigrants remain deep seated.

Immigrant communities have paid a heavy price for this ill-founded suspicion of government and the resultant undercount. A visit to the public schools in the neighborhood of these communities reveals the extent of this suffering, where enrollment is far higher than the intended capacity. It's not just the schools that are reeling under the pressure of overcrowding. The civic infrastructure is also crumbling under the pressure of having to service undercounted and unregistered population.

The main reason for this sorry state of affairs in such neighborhoods is the paucity of funds for education and physical infrastructure, which are allocated on the basis of population figures drawn from Census data. Thus, those who shy away from participating in the Census cost their neighborhood very dearly in terms of development and civic amenities. The undercounting also affects the communities socially, economically and politically, since Census data play a critical role in the formulation of policies in all these spheres of life.

Little wonder that when the Pakistani-American community complains of lack of political weight in the mainstream politics, it conveniently forgets that it is also facing a very serious undercounting problem. The Pakistani community in New York knows that its population here is in the tens if not hundreds of thousands, but in the Census Bureau figures, its number is just a few thousand. Once again, the level of indifference towards the Census among Pakistani Americans is so high that the Census Bureau has designated it as a "hard-to-reach" community.

It appears as if Pakistani community organizations are not realizing the gravity of the situation and are unwilling to play a role in mobilizing the community. Regrettably few Pakistani activists or organizations are visibly doing anything in this regards. So far there is only one Pakistani community organization – Council of People's Organization – that has shown responsibility and activism to mobilize the community for the Census. Though encouraging, this is not enough to overcome the community's undercount problem.

The Pakistani community's indifference towards the Census 2010 will hurt the community in the long run. Participation in Census 2010 is not just an obligation that each Pakistani American owes to the community, it's a national duty. Are Pakistani-American community organizations cognizant of the importance of the task before them and ready to do it? Apparently not. But there is no choice. If they don't swing into action and convince the community to fully participate in the Census now, they will become instrumental in making their community invisible, which will be nothing less than a crime.

Net Neutrality & Social Justice for NYC’s Immigrant Communities

By Jehangir Khattak, November 23, 2009

New York City is home to more than 3.5 million immigrants, about 1.8 million of whom either have limited or no knowledge of English and whose primary source of information is ethnic and community media in their own languages. This is one of the reasons for the mushrooming growth of this media sector in this part of the country. Today, there are more than 350 ethnic and community publications that come out of New York, including 26 foreign-language dailies. Print and electronic media are thus an integral part of the lives of immigrant New Yorkers.

We at the New York Community Media Alliance are working very closely with this media sector to catch up with the emerging technology curve in the information sector. We have been organizing training sessions for more efficient use of Web-based tools for reporting and have been encouraging publications in this sector to better organize their Web presence. And we believe that Network Neutrality demands an open and free Internet that fosters competition and innovation, and gives people access to the content and services of their choice.

However, there is a lack of awareness about Net Neutrality among immigrant communities. The Federal Communications Commission and advocacy groups have largely failed to connect with these communities on the subject. The level of understanding about Net Neutrality in these communities is far below the mark.

We feel that there are social justice implications for these communities when they cannot connect the dots between their realities and access to the Internet. For example, what does it mean if Skype is no longer available at a low cost? And what does it mean for the academic success of students who lack Internet access? Also, what does it mean if news from a home country can only be accessed through the Internet and is no longer available because it is no longer affordable to go online? These are not simple questions. These are the possibilities that will adversely impact immigrant communities if Net Neutrality is lost.

Net Neutrality is the beginning of a larger conversation on the future of the Internet. The larger goal is affordable and open Internet access for everyone, everywhere. Net Neutrality recognizes that the Internet is an essential infrastructure for economic, social and political activity and not just a private commodity to be controlled by corporations.

That’s why we not only support the calls for new FCC regulations to break the monopoly of a few companies, but also want more serious efforts to create greater understanding of Net Neutrality. We appreciate and support the New York City Council’s resolution that calls on the FCC to codify strong Net Neutrality principles in order to ensure that the Internet will continue to foster innovation, increase competition, and spur economic growth, as well as make the Internet faster and more affordable for all.

We feel that Net Neutrality is the benchmark for the free flow of information and must be protected.

Jehangir Khattak is the communications manager for the
New York Community Media Alliance. This post was originally testimony in support of the New York City Council's proposed Net Neutrality resolution.

Click here to watch testimony video http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/30827489