Re: The following article Another Left-wing "take" on the election. I would send along Right-wing views except, so far, there aren't any. Why not ? I can't be certain but my best guess is that the major reason is because Hindus are not monotheists and the Right in America mostly consists of conservative Jews and conservative Christians and they viscerally dislike non-monotheistic religions. They also have a West-o-centric view of the world, hence if it isn't American or at least European, or at least concerns Israel, it does not count, it doesn't matter, and basically so what? Which is altogether different than my outlook which is multi-centric even though, yes, I also play favorites. But my favorites include a number of Asian cultures, plus some others like Ethiopia and Brazil, and there isn't excessive privilege given to West-o-centric nations. That is, Hindus (vis-a-vis Muslims) should be natural allies of the American Right. But that is not the case at all. And the same is true for anti-abortion Buddhists who are also nearly universally shunned by the Right. Another reason why I'm a Radical Centrist. My interests are parallel to many on the Left -its just that my conclusions often are 180 degrees the opposite. But the Right is so damned parochial and is habitually narrow minded and that is not some place I can go, either. The article regards anti-Muslim views as baaaad. I regard anti-Muslim views as gooooooood. If I was a landlord I would not rent to Muslims either. Why should I? Their religion -the Koran at its center- tells them to kill me if they have the chance. It would be insane for me to rent to them. Hell, I want to outlaw Islam entirely, not merely deny them accommodations. Few people on the Left have any clue at all about what Islam actually teaches because, as in the article, all things must be economic in nature and religion is merely a smokescreen. So you can see one reason why I hate and detest the Left. With regard to the Right my feelings don't rise to that level and merely consist of loathing and contempt. Conservative Christians have a point though, about anti-Christian sentiments on the part of Hindu Rightists. Some of this, probably most of this, is wholly unjustified and morally dubious. However, as I have learned, there are reasons why many Hindus are anti-Christian as well as anti-Muslim. There are several factors but one has to do with alliances that some Christians have made with Muslims in India against Hindu interests. Let me emphasize the word "some." The St Thomas Christians get along very well with Hindus and obviously are not regarded the same way as other Christians. But the St Thomas Christians are Assyrians and are realists about Muslims, they know that any alliance with Islam is suicidal. Anglicans and Catholics do not (or not necessarily) share that outlook. Personally I think that Evangelicals in India get a "bad rap" : By association, in the minds of Hindus, with European (mostly British) Christians. And at least to consider the 20th century past, a worse lot of stuffed shirts as missionaries could not be found anywhere. Besides, previous generations of missionaries regarded all things Hindu as "evil." This sentiment has not gone over so well with the general population. I mean, what would be the reaction here to Hindu missionaries who preached that Biblical religion is evil? We already know the answer, don't we? My preference is for an E Stanley Jones approach, this being a reference to a hero of mine and of many Baptists, someone whose attitude was openness to anything Hindu that could be regarded as valid and valuable in the quest for faith. As much as possible. Which has, all along, also been the attitude of the St Thomas Christians. For the narrow-minded among Christians the opposite "strategy" has been normative -reject 100% of Hindu culture and views and demand that people in India repudiate it all. Anyway, there could be major changes ahead in relationships among religions in India. But don't expect the Left to be honest about it and don't expect the Right to be informed at all. Billy NYT For India’s Persecuted Muslim Minority, Caution Follows Hindu Party’s Victory
By _GARDINER HARRIS_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/gardiner_harris/index.html) MAY 16, 2014 NEW DELHI — Like real estate agents the world over, Rahul Rewal asks his clients if they have children or pets, since both limit options. But there is another crucial but often unspoken question: Are they Muslim? “I tailor the list of places that I show Muslims because many landlords, even in upper-class neighborhoods, will not rent to them,” Mr. Rewal said. “ Most don’t even bother hiding their bigotry.” Discrimination against Muslims in India is so rampant that many barely muster outrage when telling of the withdrawn apartment offers, rejected job applications and turned-down loans that are part of living in the country for them. As a group, Muslims have fallen badly behind Hindus in recent decades in education, employment and economic status, with persistent discrimination a _key reason_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/world/asia/india-eyes-affirmative-action-for-muslims.html?pagewanted=all) . Muslims are more likely to live in villages without schools or medical facilities and less likely to qualify for bank loans. Now, after a _landslide electoral triumph_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/world/asia/india-elections.html) Friday by the Bharatiya Janata Party of Hindu nationalists, some Muslims here said they were worried that their place in India could become even more tenuous. “Fear is a basic part of politics, and it’s actually how politicians gain respect, but for us fear also comes from the general public,” said Zahir Alam, the imam of Bari Masjid, a mosque in East Delhi, in an interview Friday. “The meaning of minority has never been clearer than it is today.” The B.J.P. is led by Narendra Modi, who is widely expected to become India’ s next prime minister. Mr. Modi — a Hindu, like a majority of Indians — has a _fraught relationship_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/world/asia/indias-muslims-wary-of-rising-political-star.html) with Muslims, who make up about 15 percent of the country. He was in charge of the western state of Gujarat in 2002 when uncontrolled rioting caused 1,000 deaths, mostly among Muslims. He has also been linked with a police assassination squad that largely targeted Muslims. But Mr. Modi ran a campaign that focused on promises of development and good governance, and that largely avoided religiously divisive themes. His allies say there is no reason for Muslims to fear a national government led by him, and in interviews on Friday, many Muslims said they believed that. B.J.P. candidates won in 102 constituencies where Muslims make up at least one in five voters, up from just 24 of these seats in 2009, according to a _Reuters analysis_ (http://www.trust.org/item/20140516141420-3yq8o) . Mohammad Sabir, 25, who supplies parts for fans at a business in Varanasi, said that while he did not vote for Mr. Modi, he did not fear an administration led by him. “He is now a national leader, and he needs to focus on nation building,” Mr. Sabir said. “If he cannot take everyone along, then he cannot succeed.” Mr. Modi’s victory came in large measure from India’s aspirational urban electorate, who yearn for a better future for themselves and their children. Christophe Jaffrelot, a professor at King’s College London, said that rapid urbanization and a growing middle class were softening barriers among Hindu castes, but that the same forces had increased divisions between Hindus and Muslims. “In the village, you are bound to meet Muslim families because it’s such a small universe,” he said. “In the cities, you have these vast ghettos.” Mr. Modi won a huge majority in the electorally critical state of Uttar Pradesh, in part because of deadly riots last year that broke a traditional voting alliance between low-caste Hindus and Muslims. But now that he has won, Mr. Modi must reassure India’s Muslims, said Neerja Chowdhury, a political commentator. “Many people in India and around the world will be watching whether he reaches out to minorities in the coming days,” Ms. Chowdhury said. Tavleen Singh, an Indian author and admirer of Mr. Modi, said that critics of Mr. Modi focused on his ties to rioting and assassinations without pointing out that such violence has long been part of Indian society. India was born in 1947 amid the blood-soaked horror of partition, which split British India into Muslim-dominated Pakistan and largely Hindu India. Riots in New Delhi in 1984 after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards led to the killing of thousands of Sikhs, with leaders of the Indian National Congress participating. Violence among castes has long been a regular feature of rural life in India. “It’s an ugly Indian reality,” Ms. Singh said. But that is exactly why Mr. Modi is such a poor choice as prime minister, said Siddharth Varadarajan, the former editor of The Hindu, a leading Indian newspaper. Many among India’s liberal intelligentsia see Mr. Modi as a threat to India’s secularism, which is enshrined in its Constitution. It is a characteristic that distinguishes India from Pakistan and binds a nation of extraordinary diversity. “Many of the things that are evil about India are not going to find their solution with Mr. Modi,” Mr. Varadarajan said. “If anything, they’ll get worse.” In recent months, residents of a well-to-do Hindu neighborhood of a small city in Gujarat have protested outside a home purchased in January by a Muslim, _saying his presence_ (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/bhavnagar-model-muslim-buys-house-cant-move-in/) would disturb the peace and lower property values — the same arguments used for decades in the United States to exclude blacks from white neighborhoods. In Mumbai this year, a ship captain credited with helping to rescue about 722 Indians from Kuwait after the 1990 Iraqi invasion said he was _unable to buy_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/No-flats-for-Muslims-says-Bandra-to-saviour-of-Indians-stuck-in-Kuwait/articleshow/31125991.cms) an apartment in an affluent section of the city because no one would sell to a Muslim. Zia Haq, an assistant editor at The Hindustan Times, said it had taken him nearly a year to find an apartment in New Delhi several years ago because he kept looking in neighborhoods dominated by Hindus who refused to rent to him. He finally found an apartment in a Muslim slum. “This is the story of every middle-class Muslim who moves to a city in India,” Mr. Haq said. “Sometimes landlords are very upfront and say they won’ t rent to Muslims. Others have excuses, like they have decided not to rent the place at all.” But some Muslims say that such experiences demonstrate that Mr. Modi is hardly unusual in his difficulties with Muslims, and that his economic credentials make him worthy of leading the nation. At Hyderabad’s Moazzamjahi Market, a crenelated stone complex with a mix of businesses run by Hindus and Muslims, Syed Jaleel, 56, the owner of a fruit and vegetable stand that sells produce from his farm, said he was delighted by Mr. Modi’s victory. “Riots don’t matter because they happen all the time,” he said, clutching a lemonade to help cool off in the heat. “What matters is business development — just look at how Modi developed Gujarat. They don’t even have power cuts. He’ll do the same for the country now.” -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
