When India was attacked on 26th November 2008, news anchors and journalists started calling it ‘India’s 9/11.’ This film examines this terminology and the links between 9/11, 26/11 in Mumbai, Iraq, Afghanistan and Modern terror. The conversations between taxi drivers and their passengers in Mumbai taxis delve into these larger issues. A tragic terrorist attack, a lapse in security, the loss of the top Anti Terrorist Squad officials who were investigating the so called ‘Hindu terrorist’ attacks in Malegao lead the people to voice their notions of larger conspiracy theories at a time when the Mainstream media mentions none of this. These are not authoritative voices but perspectives like yours and mine on the events which affect and shape our lives. They are short takes, 140 characters long tweets in taxis, between real people riding in a taxi, in a city that experienced extreme violence, terror and loss.

The current poll on The Taxi Takes has a majority of 50% who say it should not be termed India’s 9/11 and 34% in favor of the Mumbai attacks being termed ‘India’s 9/11. However there are also a small 8 % who are not sure which hence makes this a rather balanced undecided poll.

Watch the film and cast your vote. But more importantly I urge you to listen to the common voices on the streets of the Mumbai Metropolis and gather a sense of where the Mumbai terrorist attack of might figure in the larger scheme of current happenings in the world. Please give your take and comments below.

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker issued an anti terrorism fatwa in London this Tuesday. It stated that suicide bombing was banned by Islam “without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions.” This is a great stand and one that many other organizations have taken before. Even recently after the incident at Fort Hood, The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations released ‘their fatwa.’ The NCSO consists of over twenty organizations who had issued this strong statement after the tragedy in Fort Hood. It is not any different from most of the voices I heard in the Mumbai taxis. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Parsis and Jews traveling through bustling Bombay commented on this unfortunate misconception between Islam and Terror and voiced the same concern as Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and The Quilliam Foundation.

When will mainstream media truly pay attention to all the voices of dissent? Like I said , a great stand but one which has been stated by the common man for decades. May this fatwa enter the domain of pop culture and be talked about on twitter, blogs, backyards in Alabama, streets of Kabul, Mc Donalds kitchens and headlines of every big publication Worldwide as much as it was talked about in the Mumbai taxis. Inshallah!

I woke up this morning to a text message, ” Terrorist attack in Pune just now! Bombay on high alert.” Later I checked Facebook expecting to see more news scribbled all across people’s walls.I found only a few. The attack wasn’t big and spectacular enough to capture our imagination and interest for long I guess. There was no plane flying into any tall building, no posh World heritage site under seige or even hostages. Instead what caused the attack was a small package maybe like the one displayed by the MTA in New York under the sign,’ If you See Something, Say Something’, probably a brown box tied up in string. Who knows. A well meaning waiter probably trying to do his job, touched the package and today was his last day working at the German Bakery. As of now 9 people have been reported killed and 45 injured.

A lot of talk is going on about if this is a terrorist attack or not. India has witnessed years of ‘bombs being left in packages’ type of blasts. Back then they were not termed terror attacks, just a bomb blast. Now with talks between India and Pakistan scheduled for February 25th 2010, authorities are trying to get more evidence and different departments are scrambling from New Delhi to get paper work going and official press releases prepared.

But at this time I think of the German Bakery. As an engineering student in Pune my brother used to live in Koregaon Park, 5 minutes away from German Bakery. I went there when the wooden seats and tables were literally on the road itself and the only thing that divided the open road from the sweet bakery was a bamboo like fence and a makeshift roof which sheltered us from the scorching sun. With growing popularity the owners decided to put up a bamboo wall and paint it green in keeping with all the healthy snacks and drinks they sold. A Bamboo wall is a bit like a sky roof. Nothing very imposing and barricading about it. A soft target with zenned out folks from the Osho Ashram with musical instruments and granola bars, tie and dye skirts and wooden beads. The Bamboo wall splintered into smithereens when the package went off today. Many people have lost their lives and many more have lost brothers, sisters, hope, maybe a livelihood, maybe a dream of coming to India on a spiritual journey……who knows.

If the German Bakery ever re-opens it will never have a bamboo fence again but probably a big metal door and many security guards. Bags might be searched and forget about taking a guitar inside to sing and strum. A story similar to the warm and lively Leopold Cafe in Bombay that was targeted. Terror strikes to induce cold hostility and calculated caution. Maybe that’s why India is getting hit again and again. Someone wants the ever welcoming hospitality to cow down and put up its big metal walls. But I hope it never does. Who knows.

I had the great fortune of meeting Malalai Joya, a wonderful voice against the occupation in Afghanistan. She is against the warlords and drug lords in Afghanistan who she says are just as bad as the Taliban and are becoming stronger and more corrupt with the support of the US. A good account of the talk, written by Ellora Derenoncourt can be read here on the South Asia Solidarity Initiative site.
It was an honor to stand by this incredible human being.

In solidarity with Malalai Joya at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

On a separate but related note, this Sunday The South Asian International Film Festival SAIFF is screening ‘Made in Pakistan’ which appears to be an interesting documentary posing a fresh un-stereotyped view on what Pakistanis themselves feel and are doing in their country. Possibly some good post Halloween realism.
Tickets can be purchased here

Malalai Joya is speaking tomorrow at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

This extraordinary woman and her story of courage and spirit is just what the World needs! During the Taliban rule Malalai Joya started underground schools in defiance of the oppressive militants. She spoke out against the war criminals and drug Lords of Afghanistan and at the age of 27 stood for parliament elections while facing death threats. Her enemies call her a ‘dead woman walking’. “I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: ‘I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.” The Independant has done a great story on her while The Gaurdian features her message to the British people. After being deposed in 2007 for publicly denouncing the corrupt war Lords in the Aghani Parliament her voice sounds a signal of truth and justice at a time when words like democracy and freedom are being misused to send more troops into Afghanistan.

Malalai Joya

Watch Wide Angle’s documentary about this Woman Among Warlords. It’s an incredible story about about one woman’s conviction and strength to stand against deadly wrongs and believe in her power as an individual. If this doesn’t move you and Hollywood’s heroic tales do, then we all might as well ask Will Smith to save the World. Because according to me the cards are on the table and increasing troops in Afghanistan is America trying to star in Hollywood’s next version of ‘The Declaration of Independence.’

Come hear these women raise their voices.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH, 2009

THE SKYLIGHT ROOM, 3 PM—5 PM

CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, 365 FIFTH AVE @ 34TH ST.

Malalai Joya, Minister of Parliament in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. She is the author of A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice (Simon and Schuster, 2009).

Awista Ayub fled Afghanistan in 1981 for the U.S. After the fall of the Taliban, she returned to Kabul and founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, dedicated to nurturing Afghan girls through soccer. Her work is the subject of However Tall the Mountain (Hyperion 2009).

Nasrine Gross, founder of The Roqia Center for Women’s Rights, Studies and Education in Afghanistan. Professor Gross’ work is profiled in Walking the Precipice: Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan (Feminist Press, 2009).

Moderated by: Laura Flanders, GritTV

I just heard Rory Stewart on Channel Thirteen talk about his views on if the US is doing the right thing by increasing troops in Afghanistan. Mr. Stewart is currently the Ryan Family Professor of the Practice of Human Rights and the Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. As a former British soldier he walked across Afghanistan in 2002 getting to know the Afghan people, understanding its culture and studying the country. He writes about his experiences in his book, The Places in Between
He eloquently spoke about how he believes that the US goal of creating a Nation State in Afghanistan with the indirect goal of added US security from the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorist outfits was impractical.

He goes on to add that it might take several decades for Afghanistan to have basic education, infrastructure, a judicial and military system etc. institutions that Pakistan has. However in my mind, this does not necessarily imply security against terrorism.

Unlike Mr. Stewart I am not an authority on such issues, but I do firmly believe that Pakistan’s current political instability and situation should be of greater concern to the US than Afghanistan. A new documentary called RethinkAfghanistan is currently online to be viewed. I’m personally not in favor of another war, this time Obama’s war!

An excerpt from Rory Stewart’s Irresistible Illusion :

“Furthermore, there are no self-evident connections between the key objectives of counter-terrorism, development, democracy/ state-building and counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgency is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for state-building. You could create a stable legitimate state without winning a counter-insurgency campaign (India, which is far more stable and legitimate than Afghanistan, is still fighting several long counter-insurgency campaigns from Assam to Kashmir). You could win a counter-insurgency campaign without creating a stable state (if such a state also required the rule of law and a legitimate domestic economy). Nor is there any necessary connection between state-formation and terrorism. Our confusions are well illustrated by the debates about whether Iraq was a rogue state harbouring terrorists (as Bush claimed) or an authoritarian state which excluded terrorists (as was in fact the case).

It is impossible for Britain and its allies to build an Afghan state. They have no clear picture of this promised ‘state’, and such a thing could come only from an Afghan national movement, not as a gift from foreigners. Is a centralised state, in any case, an appropriate model for a mountainous country, with strong traditions of local self-government and autonomy, significant ethnic differences, but strong shared moral values? And even were stronger central institutions to emerge, would they assist Western national security objectives? Afghanistan is starting from a very low base: 30 years of investment might allow its army, police, civil service and economy to approach the levels of Pakistan. But Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. He chooses to be there precisely because Pakistan can be more assertive in its state sovereignty than Afghanistan and restricts US operations. From a narrow (and harsh) US national security perspective, a poor failed state could be easier to handle than a more developed one: Yemen is less threatening than Iran, Somalia than Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan than Pakistan.”