by GREG DOWNEY
Pakistani activist Sabeen Mahmud was shot dead by gunmen on April 24, 2015 PHOTO/Flickr/Express Tribune
After he circulated his address to the UN Security Council on extremism (available here), Prof. Scott Atran received the following response from Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy of Pakistan. Prof. Hoodbhoy is a nuclear physicist, essayist, national security advisor, and social activist. A prize-winning scientist with a PhD from MIT, Prof. Hoodbhoy teaches at Forman Christian College University in Lahore and the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
In addition to has activism around environmental, social and cultural issues, Prof. Hoodbhoy has also been an outspoken advocate against the development of nuclear arms, including in Pakistan. As Prof. Atran writes about Hoodbhoy, ‘We do not always agree on what are the causes or possible solutions to political violence, but he is one of the most courageous people I know.’
My thanks to both Profs. Hoodbhoy and Atran for the opportunity to share this exchange.
Greg
Subject: Address to the UN Security Council on Youth and Violent Extremism
Scott:
I listened to every word you said and disagreed with nothing. You said it well, and before important people. But there was nothing new I learned from it, and nothing you said gave me any hope.
You see that I am very depressed, having lost a friend last night to an assassin’s bullets.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1178152/rights-activist-shot-dead-after-seminar-on-baloch-issue
Last night in Karachi, after hosting a meeting, Sabeen Mahmood and her mother were returning home. Two armed men on a motorcycle pulled up next to her car and pumped Sabeen and her mother full of bullets. Sabeen is no more, her mother is in critical condition in hospital. Sabeen was her only child.
I have not heard of Gulalai, who you mentioned in your speech, as a beacon. But Sabeen was widely known in Pakistan, and even more in Karachi. She created The Second Floor (https://www.facebook.com/t2f2.0), a unique meeting ground in Karachi for artists, musicians, activists, and everyone who still cares about a society that is hell-bent upon self-destruction.
As you said the evil of the Islamist narrative needs a counter-narrative. And indeed her goal was to expose young people to a wider set of cultural and political issues, perhaps subtlety and sometimes openly. She enthusiastically helped me set up my little initiative: http://eacpe.org/
Neuroanthropology for ore