8min @theeconomist clip - Why #India ’s #election has stoked conflict

Text from youtube "India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has galvanised voters with an appeal to Hindu nationalism. But rising Hindu-Muslim violence is putting India’s historic secularism at risk.

India, the world’s biggest democracy. 29 states, seven territories, 900m voters and one age-old fault line – nationalism.

It’s pitting Hindus against Muslims and other minorities, and putting India’s long tradition of secularism under threat. Anamika is one of the 1bn Hindus living in India. She’s 23 and studying for a degree in physics. Today she’s leading a rally to get students to vote in the country’s upcoming general election. But Anamika doesn’t want these students to vote for just anyone. She’s actually the modern face of a vast Hindu nationalist group.

Anamika lives in Uttar Pradesh. It’s one of the most socially divided and religiously diverse states in India. Alam is one of the 190m Muslims living in India. A father of three, his family have been butchers in Uttar Pradesh for generations. Hindu-Muslim tensions are on the rise in 2019. But they’re by no means new.

These tensions run deep into the country’s history. In 1947, with India preparing for independence from British rule, the country was hastily partitioned into two separate nations. The creation of Pakistan was a response to Muslim nationalists anxious about living under a Hindu majority. Millions were killed or displaced as people fled to the new Muslim state or to India which portrayed itself as a secular alternative.

Today that secular alternative is under pressure. Not least in a conflict embodied by the Hindu faith’s most sacred animal. Over the past few years India’s Hindu-led government has pressed for strict enforcement of laws against anyone slaughtering cows or selling beef. The more hardline approach has hit Muslim and minority communities hard. Businesses that deal with any kind of beef have been shut down. They’ve been accused of flouting the law and some have faced even worse consequences. Across the country cow vigilante gangs killed 44 people, 38 of them Muslim, between 2015 and 2018.

Last year India saw a rise in hate-crime attacks against minorities. It was the largest number of incidents in a decade.

Then early in 2019, another historic flashpoint stoked tensions further. In February a Pakistan terror group claimed it launched an attack in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers. India responded by bombing what it said was a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

It had a profound effect across India. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and his party the BJP have nurtured the sense of threat to Hindu security and culture. Ahead of the national election, Modi was trying to galvanise Hindus who make up 80% of India’s population.

Anamika and the Hindutva nationalist movement that provides Modi’s powerbase are taking that message out. In Uttar Pradesh, Alam’s now trying to run a fruit-juice business where his butcher shop once stood. But he’s struggling to pay the bills. He’s recently had to take his sisters and children out of school.

Modi first came to power as a moderniser with the promise of jobs and prosperity for India. But as the economy slowed, unemployment began to rise, so too did his support for the nationalist agenda.

Where he leads India next, to further division or back towards the country’s historic secularism, remains to be seen.

I fell over this Nasser vid on #hijabs & now I'm unsure whether I'm being manipulated or am just too cautious - how would you check out the truth on this?

found via rocker13666 on reddit

#10 things you may not know about #Voting & #Values & #Religion in #Britain

ht microsoft clipart for the image

This excellent @theosthinktank report - Voting & Values in Britain - Does Religion Count? by Ben Spender and Nick Clements has just come out and an Executive Summary is online to download on their research page 

In summary what it says is:



1) Self-identifying Anglicans are more likely to vote Conservative;

2) Self-identifying Catholics prefer to vote Labour;

3) Self-identifying Non-Conformists have a marginally stronger association with the 3rd party;

4) The Muslim vote favoured Labour;

5) The Jewish vote was more Conservative;

6) The Hindu vote tended to Labour but in 2010 was more balanced;

7) The Sikh vote was evenly split between the 2 main parties;

8) The Buddhist vote was disproportionately for the Liberal Democrats;

9) Values voting issues like sexuality, abortion or family were mentioned by few respondents;

10) Public opinion is: firmly against more tax and spend; more authoritarian than libertarian; moving away from welfarism to individualism.



For the various caveats and nuances around these statements please see the Executive Summary

inside islam - what a billion #muslims worldwide really think

 via larry ferlazzo

- the most comprehensive and complete poll of muslim opinion ever done
- interviews were done face to face 
- covered a full range of issues
- within authoritarian and other states

so .. here are some headlines from some of the data from the gallup poll and the 2009 video (where it is clear in the video that what is being said is from the gallup poll then I have attributed it to such - where this is not clear I have merely attributed it to the video)  

- gallup poll - does the western world respect the muslim world - majority in muslim countries said no - but so did 54% of USA
(,palestine 84%, egypt 80%, turkey 68%, iran 62%, usa 54%, malaysia 42%)

- video - 57% of those portraying islam in US news media are militants but they only make up a faction of 1% of muslim global community

- video - in usa press photo's of muslim women 75% are portrayed as passive victims (its 15% for men)

- gallup poll - vast majority of muslim women think a women should be allowed to work at any job she is qualified for (lebanon 96%, malaysia 92%, sudan 85%, saudi arabia 82%, jordon 89%, iran 84%, egypt 83%)

- gallup poll - in most muslim countries majority of men think women should be allowed to work at any job she is qualified for (lebanon 92%, malaysia 90%, sudan 80%, saudi arabia 74%, jordon 82%, iran 67%, egypt 62%)

- video - wearing hijab - takes emphasis away from what a women looks like - and majority who wear do so because they believe it is a religious mandate

- video - sharia/islamic law - muslim's view - rule of law drawing on islamic context and koran values - in a positive and constructive way it protects human rights like dignity given by the divine - so these religious rights and values are often not those of the preachers whose message is hate and who use religion to oppress and suppress

- gallup poll 2002 - 54% of usa people asked knew not much or little about muslim beliefs - same question in 2007 after much more exposure in news to muslims - 57%

- video - on terrorism the majority of muslims not only are'nt involved in violence but also condemn those who are - and in doing so often condemn the violent in the name of their faith

- gallup poll - when asked what they would include in a constitution a very high % said a guarantee of freedom of speech (usa 97%, egypt 94%, pakistan 82%, indonesis 90%, iran 92%, turkey 88%)

- video - admire western democracy and liberty and associate with usa but don't see usa as working to let them (especially in the arab world) have the same - so how they see themselves being treated is a sign that the usa don't see them as equals

- gallup poll - opinions on other countries is driven by view on their policies - so for egyptians with unfavourable responses - 74% USA, 69% UK but on on france their unfavourable score is 21% and for pakistan its 30%

- gallup poll - 67% of kuwaitis have unfavourable view on usa - on canada it is 3% - its not our culture its our policies that they don't like

- gallup poll - iraq war did more harm than good - 57% in iran, 94% in egypt
(iran 57%, lebanon 71%, kuwait 76%, saudi arabia 83%, pakistan 86%, turkey 88%, west bank & gaza 93%, egypt 94%)

- gallup poll - how justified were the 9/11 attacks - on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is completely unjustified and 5 is completely justified the majority - 55% went with 1 and 7% went with 5. (2=12%, 3=11%, 4=7%, no response = 8%) and of the 7% "5's" not one cited a verse from the koran to justify their view

- video - what jihad mean - struggle to be good, to fight corruption and poverty,  a military struggle against oppression - notice how all positive in that it is fighting a wrong - it is not terrorism

- gallup poll - majority of muslims reject tactic of terrorism - attacks on civilians
(indonesia 71%, lebanon 83%, turkey 88%, pakistan 71%, iran 57%, usa 68%)

- video - looked at 7% who thought 9/11 totally justified (7% is terrorist - those are less than 1% - more like terrorists cheering section) - what found? no more religious than mainstream.  it was their politics that really distinguished them - they are politically radical - revolutionaries who will use violence

- gallup poll - so almost 50% thought sacrificing their own life for a cause they believed in was completely justified (scale 1 to 4 answers ='d 10 to 25%) and 25% thought attacking civilians is completely justified (scale 1 to 4 answers ='d single digit %)

- video - and this 7% are better educated, do better on jobs, more internationally aware - and are much more likely to hold negative opinions about usa policies - and indeed of their own governments