"All Lives Matter"

On 25^th May 2020, George Perry Floyd Jr., African American, resident of Minneapolis was arrested for giving counterfeit $20 bill in one convenience store. A white police officer, Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck dangerously for a prolonged period and Floyd died on the spot. US wide protest and loot started after that under the banner of “Black Lives Matter”. The protest was definitely not spontaneous as US has long history of discrimination against African American population. This incidence triggered the simmering unrest among American black population. The communist/Left in US instigated it further and made it a nationwide protest. But the wider question comes in mind that racial discrimination, apartheid, inter religion conflicts, inter race conflicts, conflicts between sects of the same religion, smaller religion persecution by bigger religion, caste conflicts are common across the globe and hardly any country is an exception to it. Love, peace, compassion, harmony, brotherhood, equality, mutual respect, secularism, liberalism, so called tolerance are just words. Floyd was a black Christian and Derek was a white Christian. But is there any harmony between black and white Christians in the US? Remember Rwanda genocide which happened in 1994. 70% of the Tutsi tribe was massacred by the Hutus tribe. Both these African tribes are Catholic Christians but Christianity could not bring in respect, brotherhood and harmony within them. The whole world closed their eyes on this just 26 years old genocide and today it is completely forgotten. Few days back, huge anti Shia rallies were organized by majority Sunni Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan. Both are sects of Islam and their feud goes back to the inception of Islam.

History of a few thousand years is full of such tribes, caste, religious, racial, ethnic conflicts, genocide, forced conversions. Several such examples can be cited. However, I still strongly feel that modern history of the world especially post World War 2 is relatively peaceful than ~2000 years of history before WWII. The world has seen complete eradication or genocide of some ethnicities by major religion during that period. The Pagans were living in Middle East, Eastern Europe for thousands of years. Today, there is not a single Pagan living on this earth. Some religious, ethnic groups were fortunate and could manage to protect, flourish their religion and belief system. There are still over hundreds of such sects, religion, ethnicities across the globe which are not part of top 4 or 5 religions of the world. They are still trying to protect themselves onslaught from larger religion, race or ethnicity. I am highlighting 3 such religious/ethnic groups in this blog.

Samaritan, people of Samaria (current day West Bank and/or Israel) is pre Christianity, pre Islamic and contemporary religion to Judaism. Some say it is part of Judaism. There are few similarities between them. But Samaritan is different from Judaism and they still maintain that difference. Their estimated population in the Samarian region before Christianity was over 1 Million. Earlier, they were persecuted by the Jews and then by Muslims and Christians.

Today, this religion is on the verge of extinction. Total population of this religious group is just ~800 people. They grew from ~100 in 1900 to present day ~800. Today they live in two cities of Israel and under the protection of Israel. Their holiest place is Mount Gerizim in present day Israel. Israel has set up a town there for them called Kiryat Luza and some people are living in Holon near Tel Aviv.

(Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran built by Indian Parsis and their main Fire temple in India is at Navsari)     

The next such religion is Zoroastrians (Parsi in India). We Indians know them very well. The Tata’s, Godrej, Poonawala, Aga and the list goes on. Parsis of India have made a profound impact on India’s freedom fight, Military, Judiciary, Industry, Art, Literature, Music, Films etc. In short, there is no sphere remained untouched by the Parsis of India. The great emperor Xerxes (4^th century BC), Cyrus (5^th century BC) who expanded their Kingdom to Europe and Middle East were Zoroastrian emperors. It was one of the major religion of East Asia, Middle East ~1500 years before Christianity and ruled Persia (present day Iran and Iraq) for almost for a thousand years.  Their main religious text is Avesta and Gatha which includes the teaching of Zoroaster. Their religious philosophy believes in Ahura and Daevas. Water and fire have important significance in this religion.

These fire worshipers fell to religious persecution since Islamic invasion from 6^th to 7^th century in Persia. The religious persecution is still continuing in Iran. After Islamic revolution in Iran 1979, atrocities against Zoroastrians increased once again. As a result, there are hardly ~25,000 Zoroastrians live in Iran today. Once the emperors of Persia are now minuscule religious minority in their own land. We all know that Indian Parsis have migrated to protect themselves from Islamic persecution and landed in Gujarat from 7^th to 9^th century. It is believed that they first settled in Sanjan (in Valsad district) under the protection of Raja Jadi Rana. They assimilated with Hindus while keeping their traditions and religious teaching. Today, 1.2 to 1.5 lacs Zoroastrians remained in the world and majority are still in India.

(Yazidi Temple Entrance. See the Snake at the entrance)

Another such religious group is Yazidi. Ethnically similar to other religious groups in Mesopotamia (present day part of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait etc). But many believe that they are ethnic Kurd. There are estimated 1 Million Yazidis in the world mostly in Iraq, Syria, Armenia and even in Russia and Germany (probably fled community). Today, most of them live in northern Iraq under the Kurdish control areas like Nineveh and Dohuk district. The origin and founder of this religion is unknown. But many believe that it may be ~7000 years old faith even before Zoroastrian religion of Persia. Yazidism is a monotheistic faith similar to many other religions originated in Eastern Asia or Middle East region. They believe that there are seven angels who take care of the world. The first one among them is Melek Taus (pronounced as Malik Taus) means Peacock Angel.

The Yazidi template in Lalish in North Iraq is their Holiest pilgrimage site. They have recently built one more temple in Armenia.

The symbol of peacock angel is a Lamp post shown in the photo. It is called as Sanjak. Yazidi parades this Sanjak during their holy season. It is interesting to see the similarities between this lamp post with our Hindu lamp post. Peacock and cobra are not native to their region but then they are their holy symbols. Their temple has similar architecture as Hindu temples. Yazidis worship Sun three times a day. They believe in reincarnation. Religious traditions are transferred by oral tradition and no one knows who is the founder of this religion. This leads some Indians to assume that Yazidi may be some ancient Hindu sect in Mesopotamia region. Anyways, that is not the topic of this blog.  Yazidi believes that they are the direct descendants of Melek Taus who refused to bow down to Adam as he was made by God himself.

This is where it has some similarities with Quranic story of Iblis. Therefore, Muslims of that region believe that Yazidis are devil worshipers and hence are subjected to atrocities, persecution for centuries. The latest one started since inception of ISIS in Iraq. Genocide of Yazidis by ISIS is a major concern in that region and the world must take a note of it. They have experienced 74 such genocides throughout the history. Once one of the major religion of Mesopotamia, now a tiny persecuted minority who are trying to keep their identity, culture, belief and religion preserved. 

Genocide of religious minorities or ethnic minorities do not stop here. Romas of eastern Europe, Lakotas and Mayas of the American continent, Maoris of New Zealand, Yorubas of Nigeria and the list goes on. All are victims of Conquer and Convert policy of the two major Abrahamic monotheistic religions viz. Christianity and Islam. Black lives definitely matter but more importantly ‘All Lives Matter’ is more encompassing theme world must practice. This will happen only when people, sect, religion, ethnicity who believe in ‘वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम’ and ‘एकम् सत् विप्राः बहुधा वदन्ति’ lead this world. There is a good news! Bringing all such small sects, religions, ethnicities together started in 1994 by International Center for Cultural Studies (https://www.iccsglobal.org/) which was started in Nagpur. ICCS is now a global movement under the leadership of Bharat. These groups meet in India in every three years. The first such conference was held in Mumbai in 2003 and the 6^th conference and gathering of elders was held in Mumbai in 2018. I wish these collective efforts will help these groups to retain and flourish their religion, believes, culture and traditions and the world will learn a lesson of “All Lives Matter!” 

Satish Gundawar
27-Sep-2020

Simmering Islamic World

When India was celebrating her 74^th independence day, superstar Amir Khan was busy in meeting with first lady of Turkey Emine Erdogan. Netizen reacted as expected because Amir Khan choose to stay away from meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu when he was visiting Mumbai in 2018. But when I saw photo of Amir Khan with Emine Erdogan, I thought, does it connect with various events happening in Islamic world since last few months?

In the beginning of July-20, Turkish top courts reverted Hagia Sophia from museum to mosque. It was converted into museum by democratic Turkish parliament in 1934. History of Hagia Sophia is not a topic of this blog. But it is a significant event as it shows the intentions of Islamic Turkey under Erdogan. Democratic and secular country is now slowly moving towards political Islamism.

In first week of Aug-20, Saudi Arabia did not extend the agreement with Pakistan of deferred payment on oil supplies and forced them to return $1 Billion immediately. Pakistan had to take loan from China and return Saudi’s $1 Billion. Similar action was taken by UAE. But it did not catch headlines in newspaper. UAE also withdrew their assistance to Pakistan in the deferred oil supply payment.

But Pakistan’s reaction to Saudi’s action was little amusing. On 5^th of Aug-20, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi threatened OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) that Pakistan will arrange a separate Foreign Minister’s conference of Islamic countries, if OIC does not arrange a conference to reject/boycott India’s action of abrogation of article 370 and 35A in Kashmir. This statement did not go well with Saudi monarchy. Pakistan’s General Qamar Bajwa and ISI Chief had to visit Saudi Arabia in the beginning of this week to ease out the strained relations with Saudis. Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman (popularly known as MBS) had earlier refused to meet General Bajwa and ISI chief during this visit and sent his younger brother to meet them. When General Bajwa and ISI chief were meeting with younger brother of MBS, FM Qureshi was meeting with Saudi’s arch rival Qatar’s ambassador in Islamabad. It is difficult to comprehend why Qureshi is acting like this and on who’s behest?

We need to go little in the past to find out where Saudi and Pakistan’s relations started going south. Pakistan refused to provide military support to Saudi Arabia and UAE in their war against Yemen in 2015. Sushma Swaraj attended OIC in March-19 as ‘Guest of Honor’ and addressed the gathering. Pakistan opposed it vociferously but OIC didn’t give any heed to Pakistan. Pakistan boycotted the OIC meet. UAE gave their highest civilian award “Order of Zayed” to Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister, in Aug-19. Pakistan reacted strongly against this.

In Dec-19, many Islamic countries including Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Indonesia met in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Most of the Arabic countries did not attend except Saudi’s arch rival Qatar. Head of the states of Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia attended this meet. Imran Khan decided to attend it but did not attend on the last moment after pressure from Saudi Arabia.

On 13-Aug-20, Trump declared historic agreement between Israel and UAE. Although, UAE is not the first Islamic and Arabic country (Egypt established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1979 and Jordan in 1994) who has established diplomatic relations with Israel. But it is significant as it can’t happen without blessings from Saudi Arabia. India also took very significant position and welcomed this agreement.  All these events (and many more) are hinting many things especially what is simmering in Islamic world in the last few years. Muslim’s most holy cities Mecca and Medina are located in Saudi Arabia. Naturally, SA has been garnering huge respect in Islamic world using their petrodollar power. OIC has been largely controlled by Saudi Arabia past so many decades and enjoyed control over Islamic world. But lately their influence is waning.

Iran’s expansionism was very much in check until Iraq was a strong nation. Fall of Iraq became a huge opportunity for Iran to propel their ambition of Shia expansionism. Today, Iran is playing a major role openly or secretly in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Iran’s proxies are fighting with SA and UAE forces in Yemen for the last few years.

There is strong wave of neo-Ottomanism in Turkey under the leadership of Erdogan. Ottoman empire which was established in 1299 lasted till 1923 until it was completely demolished in World War 1. The geographic area of Ottoman empire was spread across parts of Europe, Middle East, and north of Africa. This mighty empire ruled over 600 years and became the longest ruling dynasty. The Sharif of Mecca used to rule the holy city of Mecca under the rule of Sultan of Ottoman. This mighty empire broken into pieces just 100 years back. Many Turks now believe that Erdogan can fulfill their dreams of regaining the glory of Ottoman empire. One can see that Erdogan’s recent actions arise from that desire.

The feud between Shia Iran and Sunni Arab is historical and centuries old. Their reconciliation is almost impossible. Now with the emergence of Shia Iranian camp, Saudi sees a challenge to their unilateral control over Islamic world. Emergence of neo-Ottomanism under Erdogan has fueled that fear further more. Monarchies in Middle East are threatened by movements like Muslim brotherhood. This is the precise reason why Saudi Arabia, UAE etc.  severed relationship with Qatar. They feel that Qatar is financing Muslim Brotherhood movement. Muslim Brotherhood which overthrew many Islamic governments in recent history is product of political Islamism primarily patronized by Turkey, Egypt. The Islamic world began to polarize under political Islamism and Islamic monarchy.

In summary, Islamic world which was largely under the control of Saudi Arabia until recently now sees 3 distinct camps. Camp 1 of Monarchies of Middle East under the leadership of Saudi Arabia. They are trying to keep countries of OIC with them. Iran has created Camp 2 with countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen. Turkey is trying to create Camp 3 primarily with Sunni Islamic countries. The enemy’s enemy is a friend. Therefore, Iran, Qatar and Turkey are joining hands together and collaborating with Malaysia and Indonesia to counter the leadership of Saudi Arabia. The Kuala Lumpur summit, in Dec-19, was direct attack on Saudi’s leadership. The picture of Camp 3 is just emerging. It is difficult to predict whether Malaysia and Indonesia will join in Camp 3 or not or they will remain nonaligned as they have been in the past.

Pakistan sees a very pivotal role in these camps as it is only a nuclear armed Islamic nation and a strategic location it has. Pakistan will keep away from Shia Iranian Camp. But Sunni SA and Turkey will both want to get Pakistan into their camp. Remember, Turkey and Iran had issued a statement against abrogation of article 370 and 35A. One of the common behavior within Islamic countries is that they show a lot of brotherhood (Muslim Ummah) outwardly. But they have deep mistrust and acute contempt for each other. Pakistan will continue to support Saudi Arabia as long as SA grease Pakistan’s hand with handsome alms. Action or no action on Shah Mehmood Qureshi, FM of Pakistan, will indicate where Pakistan is leading towards camp 1 or camp 3.

Monarchies in Middle East want to keep their control over their territories and they see Camp 2 and Camp 3 as a major threat to their existence. They see Muslim Brotherhood movement is a major threat to their monarchy. Which are those countries who can protect them from these potential threats? It is only US and its close ally Israel. It is expected that Oman, Bahrain, Morocco to follow suit and establish diplomatic relationship with Israel very soon. Saudi will wait for success of this pilot. But they will eventually follow UAE and establish relationship with Israel in the near future.

But how do the Muslims of Indian subcontinent see towards Turkey? History tells us that all Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent have always paid their reverence and got approval from Ottoman empire. Therefore, Muslims in Indian subcontinents have big respect towards current day Turkey. Indian Muslims were front runner when Pasha decided to abrogate post of Calipha and started Khilafat movement in 1919 in undivided India. Who were the leaders of the Khilafat movement? Where are their families now? India’s first Human Resources Minister (HRD) Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad was also the President of All India Khilafat Movement for some time. Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad is great grand uncle of superstar Amir Khan. When Erdogan is trying to carve out space for himself in the Islamic world, an invitation to great grandson of the leader of the Khilafat movement to his palace is a good opportunity. I see Amir Khan’s photo with Emine Erdogan as a small effort towards larger expansionism of Turkey in India. Is it the beginning of revival of the Khilafat movement and influence of Turkey in India?

 

Satish Gundawar

21-Aug-2020