Reading Matters, Even If It's Only One Book

A lovely photo of a boy reading a hefty tome in a bookstore in Afghanistan grabbed my attention recently on social media, and without thinking I typed my comment: "He is reading the Koran." Someone promptly responded saying that my remark was hateful, and that it did not matter what the book was as long as the boy was reading. I can see why someone could consider the comment mean, but it was not meant to be. The picture of the Aghan boy reminded me of a visit to the Darul Quran Madrasa Azmatia in Kolkata, India, more than 15 years ago.

About 150 boys were attending classes at the madrasa attached to Kolkata's largest mosque. When I saw the students during the break they seemed reticent and looked at me as I imagine they would look at a Martian. But within minutes their natural curiosity and friendliness won over, and some of them were even ready to make silly poses for the camera.  

The imam told me through an interpreter that poor families from all over India sent their boys to the madrasa. Their tuition, board and lodging was paid by the charity. The school was more than 100 years old and the number of students was growing.

"Two reasons," Imam Qari Fazlur said, "one is the population growth and the other: people are bending toward religion. People like to see that their children learn the Koran and the Koranic teachings and the practices followed by the Prophet Mohammed."

But there were other reasons, I learned. India's constitution guarantees children's education in their mother tongue, but speakers of minority languages, such as Urdu and Bengali, often complain that the official language Hindi, spoken by the Hindu majority, is enforced in schools throughout the country. So when possible, speakers of other languages send their children to private schools.  But the vast majority of Muslims in India are poor and instead of sending their children to any school, they are sending them to work. Some families who cannot feed their offspring feel lucky if at least one child is accepted at a madrasa where it will get a clean bed, food, clothes and education free of charge. 

The education at a madrasa consists largely of learning to read and recite the Koran.  By the time they finish school, most boys know the holy book by heart.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The problem is that they learn little else and once out of the madrasa, these young men are not prepared for gainful employment, and the cycle of poverty continues.  

More than 120 million people aged 15 to 24 in the world cannot read or write. Close to a half of them live in only nine countries: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Poor education is linked to poverty in these countries, regardless of religion.

So, as my angry commenter remarked, it is important to read, or to be precise: to be able to read. With a literacy rate of 28 percent, Afghanistan is the second most illiterate country in the world after South Sudan. Therefore, the picture of the barefoot Afghan boy in a library, engrossed in a book, is heartening. What is disheartening is learning - as I have at a Library of Congress event - that bookstores are disappearing from the neighboring Pakistan. The only "reading" available to ordinary citizens are tape-recorded sermons by local imams, sold outside the mosques. One can only hope that Afghanistan has many bookstores like the one in the charming photo with a young reader.

China's Vulnerable Muslim Minority

Islamist terrorism is surging in many places worldwide, despite bombing raids and efforts to influence moderate Muslim communities. In its latest tactics extremist group Islamic State is using foreign recruits to stage attacks wherever they are instead of joining the fight in Syria.  The recruits are increasingly disgruntled young men from Muslim minorities, such as Russia's Chechens and China's Uighurs.  Several Uighurs have been arrested in Indonesia on terrorism charges in the past year,  one just a day before Christmas. Extremists may not be the only ones exploiting Muslim discontent, according to reports claiming that Turkey is transporting Uighurs  from Southeast Asia to Syria to fight  against the Assad regime. I paid close attention to China's Uighurs during the 2009 riot in Xinjiang and am posting here my report from that time for those interested in the origins of Uighur discontent.

Washington,  2 July 2009

In the 6th century, Uighur-Turkic prince Aprin Chor Tigin wrote the following verse:

I desperately long for my woman.

With her lovely eyebrows, she is the fairest of all. 

I yearn to be with her again.

Immersed in deepest thought, I miss her.

I burn with the desire to kiss her.

Prince Tigin lived and loved in Central Asia, a region where more than eight million Uighurs still make their home. In his time Uighurs shared their kingdom with other Turkic peoples of Central Asia and Southern Siberia. But they were far more advanced than most because they lived along the Silk Road, which served as a major route of commercial, cultural and religious exchange throughout history.

At the turn of the 20th century, scientific and archaeological expeditions to East Turkistan led to the discovery of numerous Uighur cave temples, monastery ruins, wall paintings, miniatures, statues, valuable manuscripts, documents and books.

German explorer Albert von Lecoq said the medieval "Uighur language and script contributed to the enrichment of civilizations of the other peoples in Central Asia. Compared to the Europeans of that time, the Uighurs were far more advanced. Documents discovered in Eastern Turkistan prove that a Uighur farmer could write down a contract, using legal terminology. How many European farmers could have done that at that period?"

When the Uighurs embraced Islam in the 10th century, they started to build mosques, religious schools and libraries. Remnants of the medieval Islamic architecture can still be found in cities such as Kashgar, Urumqi, Turpan and Gaochang.

In recent years, Uighurs have become better known as China's separatists, often labeled as terrorists. Even before this year’s riots in Xinjiang, the Chinese government had blamed various Uighur groups for 200 violent attacks in the past decade, including more than 160 deaths. Bejing says Uighur separatists are part of a network of international Islamic terrorism with funding from the Middle East, training in Pakistan and getting combat experience in Chechnya and Afghanistan. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, the United Nations added many separatist groups to its lists of terrorist organizations. Among them was the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM. The US also has labeled this mostly Uighur group as terrorist.

But Xinjiang separatists say China is using the international anti-terrorist campaign to justify its long-standing repression of non-Chinese minorities. Washington-based Uighur-American attorney and activist Nury Turkel said the Chinese government has consistently enforced cultural assimilation of Turkic people with the majority Han Chinese culture. “They are using all the possible tactics, such as banning the Uighur language, banning the Uighur names -- they come up with a Chinese version of the Uighur names -- encouraging the Chinese people to marry the local people,” he said. But he said the Uighurs have never been religious extremists and that most of them do not practice Islam.

Uighur boys in Kashgar, Xinjiang

Several human rights groups have condemned China's crackdown on Uighurs. In a recent statement, Amnesty International said the ethnic identity of Uighurs in western China is being systematically eroded. Earlier reports have said the crackdown on suspected terrorists includes restrictions on religious freedom, closure of mosques and mandatory "political education" of academics, key personnel in the media and arts, and Islamic clergy.

But some analysts warn that even though the Uighurs' connection to international terrorism may be minimal, it has to be watched. Graham Fuller, former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council and one of the authors of a new study on China's Uighur Autonomous Region, said examples of Russia, Sri Lanka, Serbia and other countries with large ethnic minorities show that frustrated independence movements may resort to terrorist acts.

He said religion plays an increasing role in supporting these movements. "There is militant Judaism, even militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka. So we are witnessing the phenomenon of religion coming in and bolstering, if you will, ethnic minority. So political Islam is involved here. How much will political Islam become a dominant force in the Uighur struggle? Today it has been a lesser force, but I would bet that if the rest of the Muslim world is any indicator, Islam will be growing in its role in China, supporting and cheering this nationalist struggle," said Fuller.

China has made efforts to develop Xinjiang, fueling funds into industrialization, education and employment, but Uighurs say the Han Chinese have benefited the most from it. Frederick Starr, founder and chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, said China’s economic success will not necessarily improve the Uighurs' lot. He said some political change is essential to avoid violence. According to Starr, China is more likely to avoid conflict by allowing greater local initiative, communal self-government at various levels, and some expression of oppositional sentiment by Turkic and Uighur and Muslim people within the system.

The northwestern province is predominantly agricultural and pastoral, but it is also rich in mineral resources and energy. The oil fields in the far north are among the largest in China. The region has extensive deposits of coal, silver, copper and lead. It is clear that people who have called this land home for thousands of years must have more say in how these resources are to be used. 

Why I Like Classics

Morocco is as spectacular in real life as it is in the movies and books, whether you visit the Mediterranean Coast, the Atlas Mountains, or the Sahara, or places in between.  It is nigh impossible to imagine that people in this gorgeous country where every house, door and window, every kaftan, bag and shoe is an object of art, and all of them in balance with nature,  could be anything but content.  Indeed, nowhere have I seen so many warm, hospitable, helpful and smiling people in such a short time as I did in Morocco this year.  So why is this seemingly tranquil country the fourth largest provider of foreign fighters for Islamic State in Syria?

The only hint that things may not be as serene as they seem is the ubiquitous presence of the police and troops - even in the small mountain-pass trading posts - and the strict ban on taking photos of the uniformed personnel.  

After my return from Morocco I picked up The Spider's House, a novel by Paul Bowles, set in the city of Fes during the 1954 nationalist uprising. Its central character is Amar, an illiterate Arab boy, a son of a healer and a devout Muslim.  He believes that everything happening to him is God's will which makes it possible to bear his father's merciless beating or receive a huge amount of money with equal passivity.  Amar also possesses strong intuition and can predict how people will act in certain circumstances.  He does not have qualms about using this gift to manipulate people and situations to his advantage. 

Amar's thoughts as he interacts with the French, Americans and local Muslims offer an insight into what many Moroccans must be feeling today. He thinks the American woman is a prostitute because she wears a sleeveless dress and looks a man in the eye while they talk. He hates the French, and the Nazarenes (Christians) in general, but despises the Muslim freedom fighters even more for violating Islamic traditions.  

A boy in southern Morocco

Photos of the Moroccan royal family are displayed in public places all over the country.  King Mohammed VI and his wife Salma wear western clothes and her long wavy hair is not covered.  One wonders if all Moroccans condone that.  Protests in Rabat in recent years indicate that some discontent may be simmering under the smooth surface. 

The expressions of anti-American sentiment in The Spider's House were a surprising revelation.  The book was published in 1955 and set in the time when Morocco was still under the French rule. But in a scene set at an Istiqlal (independence party) meeting, which Amar is forced to attend by a set of circumstances, a student says: "France would like to leave Morocco, but America insists on her staying, because of the bases. Without America there would be no France.... All we need is one good attack on each American base." The American classic written more than 60 years ago clearly has some answers to our questions about North Africa and the Middle East today.

Years ago I saw the British movie My Son the Fanatic, based on a short story by playwright Hanif Kureishi.  The 1997 film is one of the earliest works I came across that made me aware of the radicalization of Muslims in Europe. I almost said "nascent" radicalization, but after reading Bowles, I am beginning to suspect these developments may have much deeper roots than most of us ever knew.  

At the time, I saw Kureishi's movie as a fun depiction of a perpetual generation gap teenagers and their parents, one that reverses the real-life situation in which the parents are conservative and the children progressive into a fictional one in which the father is trying to be progressive while the son wants to return to the family's Pakistani roots.  In his search for his true identity the son becomes a devout Muslim, or as his father says, a religious fanatic. Like Amar in The Spider's House, he is put off by what he considers corrupted western ways: drinking, smoking, prostitution, and secularism. But unlike Amar who believes that Allah will punish the sinners, Kureishi's young Muslim believes it is his duty to eradicate the sins (and the sinners), using violence if necessary.  If I had taken the work more literally when I first saw it, perhaps the 2005 London bombings would have been less of a surprise.

One question most of us ask today is why Muslims kill each other. Despite the anti-American and anti-western rhetoric, the vast majority of victims of the terrorist attacks committed in the name of Islam are Muslims. Last week's bombing of two mosques in Yemen's capital were just the latest in the long series of horrifying examples.

Journalists report events and facts, pundits analyze them and offer interpretations. But it is the writers delving into people's minds that present their innermost thoughts and feelings and help us understand why people act as they do in certain situations. The thoughts may be fictional, but coming from a good writer, they get closer to the heart of the matter and much earlier than any newspaper report.

Take for example Tolstoy's Hadji Murad. The classic short novel is one of the best works I have read on the roots of the violence in Chechnya and Dagestan. Based on historic events and Tolstoy's own experience while serving in the Caucasus, Hadji Murad tells the story of an Avar rebel commander from the 19th century. Between 1811-1864 the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya were fighting against the incorporation of their lands into the Russian Empire. A feud between Murad and rival leader Shamil led to a conspiracy to kill Murad. Alerted to the plan, Murad escapes, but his mother, wife and son are held hostage by Shamil.  

Interestingly, Murad's son admires Shamil, perhaps not knowing that he threatened to gauge his eyes out if his father does not return. Murad surrenders to the Russians and offers his experience to help defeat the rebels in exchange for arms and troops to rescue his family. The Russians admire the great warrior's mind and his physique, but also mistrust him. A Russian commander delays the decision about Murad, making the Avar realize he cannot count on help there.  So he flees the Russian fortress with the intent of gathering some loyal tribesmen for a desperate effort to save his family from Shamil's clutches. The Russians fear treachery and follow in hot pursuit, eventually killing Murad with the aid of many local tribesmen.

The Cossacks of Caucasus

Hadji Murad

                                              
Tolstoy's short novel brings home the point that political and other rivalries, as well as desire for revenge can quickly turn one tribe against another, and that a tribal leader may side with an enemy if his family is at stake.

Another Tolstoy story, The Cossacks, deals with the inability of a stranger to gain acceptance into an ethnic community in which he was not born.   Young Russian officer Olenin seeks relocation to a southern outpost where he hopes to find tranquility in a rural Cossack community.  He eats and drinks with them, wears their clothes, helps a young Cossack get a horse, and even wants to marry a Cossack girl.  Through Maryanka's attitude toward this outsider Tolstoy shows the impossibility of Olenin's dream. The young girl toys with the man of "white skin" and "fine hands", but considers him weak and pampered. Even if she mulls a union with him for a while, it all vanishes when her former admirer Luka, a village rogue and drunkard, gets severely wounded in a skirmish with the Chechens. She cruelly rejects Olenin and sends him on his way because all her thoughts are now on saving or mourning a Cossack life. Like Bowles, Tolstoy conveys that in the time of crisis, people of different cultures ultimately fail to connect.

Great writers are great thinkers and great observers.  They have given me the best answers to the questions about people's behavior, culture and history. They have helped me understand the remotest of strangers. Good classical works deal with universal truths and that's what makes them as meaningful today as at the time when they were created. And they make me worry about Morocco.  The attack on the museum in neighboring Tunisia is a loud wake-up call.

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For my photos of Moroccan doors, please check this earlier post:

http://zlaticahoke.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-doors-of-morocco.html

After posting this blog, I learned that Moroccan authorities announced they had conducted raids in several cities, and detained 13 suspected members of an Islamic State-linked group.

http://www.voanews.com/content/morocco-claims-dismantling-of-is-linked-terror-cell/2693572.html