Bismillah through the Motions

For some years now I have been going to protest demonstrations and meetings and seminars to take photographs which can then be used on the Internet and in other ways. In this work I try not to be sectarian: I go where I find myself agreeing with the issues being raised and pay no attention to personal and narrow political disagreements. My reasoning is that I must contribute time and labour to causes with which I am in sympathy, and that this is the most logical way to do that at a time when publicity is both central and simpler than ever before. Besides, at my age there is not a great deal more that I can do.

Two recent experiences have made me ask if what I do is in fact in support of constructive actions. The personal disappointment of which I shall speak has, I suggest, larger implications which need to be thought about.

I received word, from one of the organisers, of a protest demonstration by the AISA on March 17. The time stated was 11 am. Only a few individuals had gathered by 11.30, and at 11.45 the organiser said to me that they were waiting for the banners and placards. I left for home at noon, having reached the venue 15 minutes before time. Later I found on my cell phone a text message asking where I was and saying: “We are about to begin.” The time recorded was 12.27 pm. Does a 90-minute delay speak of commitment?

Does it speak of sound basic organisational ability? Just who will be liberated by slap-dash activities which waste the time of many people? To me this seems much like going through the motions, rather like the governmental body which, in the last fortnight before they lapse, rushes to use up the funds it has been allotted to buy sewing machines or to construct latrines. That is, activity solely for the annual report. Rote activity without concern for what is accomplished.

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ON March 26 there was a rally called by several Muslim organisations to protest the criminal behaviour of the State towards young Muslim men, who are arrested without reason, without even reasonable suspicion, and are eventually set free by courts of law years later after their and their families’ lives have been ruined. Here too, nothing was in readiness at the scheduled time: another bout of going through the motions, I thought.

What was far more distressing, though, was the evident confounding of issues. Many of the placards spoke of Israel and the US. The people who had been brought to the rally did not seem to know what it was about. They marched in shouting: “Allahu Akbar”, which is perhaps what they are programmed to do on all occasions. The rally itself began with a cleric intoning: “Bismillah al rahman al rahim”, which to me is as objectionable as a concert of Hindustani classical music beginning with the lighting of oil lamps.

What I ask myself is this. When I photograph people going through the motions in this way, am I not assisting pathologists by taking pictures of the faecal matter that they spread out?

I make no apology for mixing the metaphorical with the literal: I am hopelessly confused and can only think up awful puns.