India-Pakistan Peace Solidarity March, San Francisco, May 15
2005
Statement
of Clarification by the Friends of South Asia, on Pakistan American
Alliance's co-sponsorship
From:
Friends
of South Asia
San
Francisco, CA, USA
mail@friendsofsouthasia.org
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org
Date:
June 01, 2005
We, the Friends of South Asia (FOSA)
organized a mini peace march in San Francisco on Sunday May 15, 2005.
The purpose of the march was to mobilize the South Asian community in
the SF Bay Area, and show solidarity with the participants in the
India-Pakistan Peace March [New Delhi to Multan, Mar 23 thru May 11],
who marched across the subcontinent with the goals of establishing
people-to-people contact, negating the tendencies of distrust, hatred
and enmity, and spreading the message of peace and harmony. The event
in San Francisco was co-sponsored by other allied organizations in
the SF Bay Area, who lent their support by participating in the march
and by spreading the word about the event amongst their members and
well-wishers.
Given that the purpose of the event was
to mobilize the community, FOSA welcomed a broad array of
organizations that expressed interest in co-sponsoring the event.
FOSA felt that it was important to host this event as a broad-based
coalition in order to spread the word as widely as possible and to
bring a diverse set of organizations who were working on allied
causes, into the conversation on India-Pakistan peace.
One of the organizations that lent its
name as a co-sponsor of the event was Pakistan American Alliance
(PAA). FOSA has had no history of working with PAA, and was not fully
aware of PAA’s politics, but considered this request since it was
made by a senior member of the PAA, who
also happens to be a well-known activist in the SF Bay Area, having
worked
on civil liberties issues and special registration, and a member
of various other peace and justice organizations. This request came
less than a week before the event, and hence didn’t allow enough
time for the verification of PAA’s credentials – instead
FOSA
decided to accept the co-sponsorship in good faith.
Since the conclusion of the march, FOSA has become aware of
PAA's website, and has developed serious misgivings
about some of the content on this website
(http://www.pakalliance.org). FOSA is
deeply disturbed by these contents, including pictures currently on
the front page, and a report on a rally in New York on Oct 2004.
Very centrally and prominently visible
in the picture of the PAA home-page, is a gentleman holding a sign
that says: "Allah will destroy the terrorist state of India". This
sentence is extremely offensive to FOSA’s
members
and partner organizations. FOSA also has serious issues with someone
claiming either to "know the mind of
Allah" or wishing the destruction of a nation that is a sixth of
humanity.
The PAA’s report of the Oct 27th
rally in New York and associated photographs (as found on their
website) has led FOSA to surmise that in the PAA’s opinion, the
sole responsibility and blame for the issues in Kashmir rest on the
Indian state and its people. FOSA disagrees with this opinion, and
believes that, at the very least, there also needs to be a critique
of the role played by Pakistani state in fomenting the problem.
Having said this, FOSA does respect the right of PAA to have a
different political stand on this issue. What it finds most
troubling is that the messaging used in the aforementioned rally
seems to condone and encourage behavior bordering on hatred.
FOSA wishes to clarify that it has no
issues with the mission of PAA and many of their activities as
mentioned on their website – these are not in any conflict of
interest with FOSA – the primary sources of confusion/misgivings
are
the PAA’s report of the Oct 27th rally, and associated
pictures. FOSA has requested the PAA to provide a
clarification on the disturbing content on their website, and to
consider removing the offensive material, and is currently
awaiting a response. In the meantime, FOSA has chosen to dissociate
itself from the PAA, including dropping it from the list of
co-sponsors for the solidarity march.
FOSA regrets any misrepresentation that
its supporters and fellow-co-sponsoring organizations may have
suffered as a result of the PAA’s association with the solidarity
march, in light of the disturbing content on their website. FOSA is
thankful to its fellow co-sponsoring organizations for their support,
and believes that by endorsing this solidarity event, they have
endorsed the movement for peace in South Asia, and not the agendas of
other co-sponsoring organizations. FOSA wishes to assure its well
wishers and supporters that it will exercise greater due diligence when
partnering with organizations in the future.
FOSA's
Indo-Pak Peace March mainpage
