Bismillah [IslamCity] Only in Gujarat: cheques for riot victims go to riot accused; probe ordered
The Ahmedabad district administration, instead of issuing compensation cheques to the victims, issued as many as 21 cheques worth Rs. 20 lakh to one Prabhashankar Pandit, an accused involved in the loot and killing of Muslims in this locality. Pandit is out on bail Only in Gujarat: cheques for riot victims go to riot accused; probe ordered Submitted by mumtaz on 2 June 2009 - 8:24pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009jun02/only_gujarat_cheques_riot_victims_go_riot_accused_probe_ordered.html By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent Ahmedabad: A scam in the distribution of compensation to the riot victims of 2002 in the worst hit Naroda Patia has come to light. A senior official of the Ahmedabad district administration P R Patel has been asked to look into the scam. The Ahmedabad district administration, instead of issuing compensation cheques to the victims, issued as many as 21 cheques worth Rs. 20 lakh to one Prabhashankar Pandit, an accused involved in the loot and killing of Muslims in this locality. Pandit is out on bail. Prabhashankar claimed over Rs. 15 lakh as compensation from the state government. The latest cheques issued in his name are from the union government’s compensation package announced for the Gujarat riot victims of 2002 on the pattern of Sikh victims of 1984. The Muslim dominated Naroda Patia, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city, had several clusters with Muslim population. One of the clusters was known as Pandit-ni-Chali where 28 Muslim families lived. When the riots broke out, Muslims left the place to save their lives, leaving behind their home and hearth. Their houses were looted and damaged by the miscreants. When they were still taking shelter in Shah Alam Dargah and were not able to return due to security reasons, the administration began survey of the damaged property. In connivance with the local talati (land revenue official) and the government surveyor, Prabhashankar’s father Shivshankar Pandit forged the documents showing that he was the owner of all the 28 houses in Pandit-ni-Chali. This helped Shivshankar to get compensation from the state government amounting to Rs. 15 lakh approximately. According to locals, the Pandit-ni-Chali houses were constructed on a piece of land belonging to Dhanush Dhari Mata Trust with Hukumsih Bhagwansinh as its trustee. However, Shivshankar was mentioned as a caretaker in the records. “But after the death of Hukumsinh, Shivshankar declared himself as owner of the land’’, says Nazir Pathan, a riot victim and a school teacher. According to him, the ownership of the land should either go to the government or to the Muslim occupying the houses and not to the Shivshankar. However, the state government officials did not give any attention to these things and paid compensation to Shivshankar after the riots though Shivshankar was not the victims. When the security situation improved, Muslims returned and occupied their houses after repairing them. But no one could question Shivshankar about the compensation he illegally claimed for their houses because of an undercurrent of communal tension. Meanwhile Shivshankar died. However, the Muslim victims raised their voice when the Ahmedabad district administration handed over as many as 21 cheques of compensation to Shivshanker’s son Prabhashankar after the Gujarat High Court issued an order to expedite the compensation payment to the riot victims recently. The victims are now demanding that the administration must take the cheques back from Prabhashankar. On June 1, victims led by Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) representative Shamshad Pathan complained to the district officials. City Mamlatdar Mamta Sojitra, in-charge of compensation distribution in Ahmedabad city, told Pathan and victims that the compensation was given to Prabhashankar because the talati and surveyor report mentioned Prabhashankar’s father as owner of the houses. However, district collector Hareet Shukla has asked additional collector P R Patel to inquire into the matter. Pathan said that his organization would move the court in case justice was not done by the district officials. With Regards Abi It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. - Voltaire
Bismillah [IslamCity] Karnataka: BJP started celebrations!
Victory celebrations turn violent in Karnataka village http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/18/stories/2009051859091000.htm Three persons sustain injuries; four people have been arrested A pregnant woman also targeted by the mob Houses of four Muslim families ransacked MANGALORE: A group of people celebrating the victory of Nalin Kumar Kateel of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha election allegedly barged into and ransacked houses of four Muslim families and assaulted many people at Nettrakere in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district on Saturday evening. A pregnant woman was also targeted by the mob. The attackers allegedly took away gold jewellery and cash from the houses. Three persons who sustained injuries have been admitted to a hospital here. Aboobaker, a shopkeeper, was passing by Navodaya Mitra Kala Vrunda building where a group of people was bursting crackers and dancing. Damodar and Santu, who were in the group, allegedly caught him by the collar without any provocation and accused him of making false claim that a borewell had been sunk in the area by a Congress leader, according to Mr. Aboobaker. When Mr. Aboobaker managed wriggle himself out of their clutches and was running towards the house of his relative Shamshir, around 50 to 60 people came after him. Mr. Aboobaker told The Hindu that Mr. Shamishir locked the front door of the house as soon as he went in. But the BJP supporters allegedly broke the back door and entered the house. “They carried lathis, soda bottles, cricket bats and cycle chains,” Mr. Shamshir said. “They damaged the refrigerator, TV, voltage stabiliser, a fan and an emergency light and attacked me and my uncle (Mr. Aboobaker),” he said showing a bruise on his thigh. When Mr. Shamshir and Mr. Aboobaker ran towards houses of Shameem and Imtiyaz, the attackers allegedly went after them. Mr. Aboobaker managed to escape from the locality. The attackers reportedly caught hold of Mr. Imtiyaz and Mr. Shameem and his brother, Mohammaed Haneef, and started beating them, Mr. Aboobaker said. They also damaged a TV, a refrigerator and an aquarium in Mr. Shameem’s house, he alleged. “They attacked me with a rod and smashed my leg with a big stone. They also assaulted Mr. Haneef and Mr. Imityaz,” Mr. Shameem told The Hindu from the hospital bed. Mr. Haneef and Mr. Imityaz have also been admitted to the hospital. Mr. Shameem’s mother-in-law, Asiyamma, said: “They kicked me on my chest.” She alleged that the attackers threw stones and soda bottles at her neighbours’ houses when she went their to save herself from them. Shameem’s sister who is pregnant, said that one of the attackers threw a tile on her stomach from a window. Her relative Ayesha said that the attackers threatened to rape women if they came out of the houses. Meanwhile, the Bantwal police have registered a case under various sections of the IPC. Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao said four persons have been arrested in this regard With Regards Abi It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. - Voltaire
Bismillah [IslamCity] Vote for party not candidate - Mayawati
Vote for party not candidate, Mayawati tells Saharanpur Muslims Submitted by admin4 on 5 May 2009 - 4:54pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009may05/vote_party_not_candidate_mayawati_tells_saharanpur_muslims.html By IANS, Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) : Muslims should vote for a party and not a candidate to ensure that their votes are not divided, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said here Tuesday while alleging that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were working against her BSP. Appealing to the 39 percent Muslims in this Lok Sabha constituency, about 400 km from the state capital Lucknow, the Bahujan Samaj Party chief said: You (Muslims) have to ensure that the BJP and the SP are not able to split your votes. For this, you should vote for a party and not for candidates on the basis of their religion. Saharanpur, which goes to the polls in the last phase on May 13, is seeing a four cornered contest with the SP fielding a Muslim candidate, Rasheed Masood, against the BSP's Jagdish Singh, the Congress' Chaudhry Gaje Singh and the BJP's Jaswant Saini. Mayawati alleged that the BJP and SP were working together to defeat the BSP. For fighting against the BSP, both the parties (SP and BJP) are working together as part of their pact to mutually benefit each other in this election. SP's decision to field a Muslim candidate from Saharanpur and its decision to not field a candidate from Ghaziabad against BJP president Rajnath Singh were examples of the pact between the two parties. Accusing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of not taking significant steps for the development of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said: The UPA government has never been serious about all-round development of UP. If the BSP was voted to power at the centre, it would take immediate steps to solve the power crisis in the state and ensure that even rural areas get uninterrupted power supply throughout the day, the chief minister promised With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] CBI questions Purohit in Nanded blasts case
It was on the intervening night of April 4-5, 2006 that a bomb went off at the residence of Laxman Rajkondwar, an alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, while it was being assembled. Naresh, Rajkondwar’s son Naresh and Himanshu, alleged Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist, were killed in the blasts. The investigating agencies reportedly recovered from the blast site skull caps, fake beards and other Islamic attires along with a plan according to which a mosque in Aurangabad, nearly 200 km from Nanded, was to be targeted CBI questions Purohit in Nanded blasts case Submitted by admin4 on 5 May 2009 - 2:46pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009may05/cbi_questions_purohit_nanded_blasts_case.html By TwoCircles.net staff reporter, Mumbai: In a further development in the Nanded 2006 blasts case the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recently secured the custody of the tainted army officer lieutenant Srikant Purohit and questioned him about his role in it. Purohit, an accused in the Malegaon September 2008 blasts, is the second person after Rakesh Dattatraya Dhawade, another accused in the case, whom CBI took into remand and questioned about Nanded blasts. It was on the intervening night of April 4-5, 2006 that a bomb went off at the residence of Laxman Rajkondwar, an alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, while it was being assembled. Naresh, Rajkondwar’s son Naresh and Himanshu, alleged Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist, were killed in the blasts. The investigating agencies reportedly recovered from the blast site skull caps, fake beards and other Islamic attires along with a plan according to which a mosque in Aurangabad, nearly 200 km from Nanded, was to be targeted. As per the media reports Purohit whose remand was taken from a designated court was examined by the detectives of the Special Crime unit of CBI to verify whether he played any important role in providing training to the cadre of Abhinav Bharat. The voluminous charge sheet Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) filed in September 2008 Malegaon blasts case named Purohit and Rakesh Dattatraya Dhawade among 14 others as accused. Dhawade had allegedly made arrangements and facilitated training to the accused persons in the Nanded 2006 bomb blasts. During Malegaon 2008 investigations for the first time the face of Hindu extremists was unveiled and it had raised question on the nature of the CBI probe in the Nanded explosions which may have ignored the early signs of self-styled right wing groups getting armed. However, with the decision of the present CBI director Ashwani Kumar the CBI reopened probe in Nanded blast case in December last year after the revelations of the Malegaon investigation. The reports quoting the sources in the central security agencies read that one of the accused, whose voice had to be restored after operating upon his vocal chords damaged in the blast, had told the investigators that the Bajrang Dal activist Naresh had allegedly planned three blasts taking place outside the mosques in Jalna and Parbani in Maharashtra in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Claiming that a very important call made from the mobile of Naresh was traced to a significant saffron outfit functionary in Ayodhya the central security agencies also asked CBI why the call details of his mobile were not investigated properly. After investigating the Nanded blasts case the CBI had filed a charge sheet on March 15, 2008 against ten people; some alleged associates of Bajrang Dal including Sanjay Chowdhury, Yogesh Deshpande, Maruti Wagah, Gunniraj Thakur and Mahesh Pandey besides the two who died in the explosion. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] Why Should Hindus Vote For BJP ?
In the history of Hinduism there were only two most demoralisingly deplorable instances of sacrilegious crimes, which would make any self respecting and committed Hindu to bury his head in shame. The first was demolition of a worship centre, ( building for prayer ) Babri Masjid of Ayodhya in December 1992. The second was the anti-minority genocide in which over 2000 , mostly innocents were brutally killed. Both these Satanic acts were the handiwork of miscreants , owing allegiance to BJP, going by the presence of well known BJP leaders on the scene of these crimes Why Should Hindus Vote For BJP ? By R.B. Sreekumar 30 April, 2009 http://www.countercurrents.org/sreekumar300409.htm An open letter to Shri L.K.Advani Member of Parliament, Gandhinagar. From Mr R.B.Sreekumar IPS Most Respected Shri L.K.Advani, Sir,I am a voter in Gandhinagar Loksabha constituency . I am a Hindu by birth and practitioner of the tenets of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, popularly called –Hinduism, in my own humble way ,in personal life. The conceptual and philosophical framework of Hinduism is enshrined in three fold treatises- Prasthanathrayam- namely, Brahmasutras, Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita. Equal adoration to all varieties of divinity and paths towards them and recognition of the right to salvation/liberation to all living beings , including plants and animals are deemed to be the most ennobling and elevating feature of Hinduism. Ill will towards even non –believers is also not permitted , not to speak of people professing non-Hindu faiths. Any deviation or aberration by any individual or group of persons or an organisation of Hindus ,away from the four walls of these ideals make them unacceptable and condemnable for real Hindus. Applying this yardstick , BJP supported by its sister bodies in the Sangh Parivar would be quite undeserving for getting votes from Hindus , who are intrinsically practising quintessence of Hindu ontological ideals. In the history of Hinduism there were only two most demoralisingly deplorable instances of sacrilegious crimes, which would make any self respecting and committed Hindu to bury his head in shame. The first was demolition of a worship centre, ( building for prayer ) Babri Masjid of Ayodhya in December 1992. The second was the anti-minority genocide in which over 2000 , mostly innocents were brutally killed. Both these Satanic acts were the handiwork of miscreants , owing allegiance to BJP, going by the presence of well known BJP leaders on the scene of these crimes. The Bhagvad Gita is quite explicit about one's approach to any form of worship. In three slokas the relevant principles are unambiguously laid down. In Chapter 4 Sloka 11 , Lord Krishna proclaims , In whatever way men identify with Me, in the same way do I carry out their desires; men pursue My path ,in all ways Again in Chapter 6-30 , the Lord preaches , He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, he never becomes lost to Me , nor do I become lost to him Finally in Chapter 7-21 , the Lord promulgates , Whatever form any devotee with faith wishes to worship , I make that faith of his steady. The brigands who razed the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya to the ground actually acted against the letter, spirit and ethos of the above stipulations by Lord Krishna that is why those great Hindus , who lived and enriched my religion from 1529 A.D. , the year of construction of Babri Masjid to 1992, the year of demolition, did not care to move even their little finger against this monument, during their lifetime. We have a galaxy of Hindu giants , who left laudable foot prints on the sands of time , in this period, from Goswami Tulsidas to Mahatma Gandhi. Can we consider the marauders and their leaders , who knocked down the masjid, by insulting even the pious name of Lord Shiva( those rogues shouted Jai Shiv Shankar, during demolition and the word meaning of Shankar is ' One who blesses everybody with peace, Sham Karoti Iti Shamkaram)', as greater champions and 'brave sons of Hinduism ' than those model Hindus like Mahatma Gandhi, whose life and deeds brought greatness and glory to the Sanatana Dharma.? Honourable Advaniji , if there is scriptural justification for the liquidation of Babri Masjid, kindly convey it to all Hindus , so that they will not have any hesitation to vote for BJP. In case the BJP views the bulldozing of the Babri Masjid as an unHindu act , why no legal or organisational penal action to punish those destroyers of the centre of worship- Kshetradwamshas, as prescribed for Aathathais(criminals) in the dharmashastras was taken so far ? Since no such move is visible from BJP it will be quite impossible for a Hindu voter to accept BJP as a party which adheres to the principles and practice of the scriptural ideals of Hinduism . The story is similar in case of anti-minority genocide in Gujarat, in which over 2000 innocents lost their lives. Never in
Bismillah [IslamCity] In Gujarat, 38% BJP candidates are criminals!
Of the 359 candidates in the fray in 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat, 69 have criminal records 69 of the 359 candidates in the fray in Gujarat have criminal records Manas Dasgupta http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/26/stories/2009042654752000.htm BJP tops list with 11 of its 26 candidates having such records AHMEDABAD: Of the 359 candidates in the fray in 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat, 69 have criminal records. According to data compiled by the Gujarat Election Watch, a part of the National Election Watch organisation monitoring the candidates in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, all the parties have candidates with criminal records; topping the list was the BJP with 11 of its 26 candidates having criminal records, followed by the Congress with a close 10. The Bahujan Samaj Party, which fielded 24 candidates, has four. Three come from the newly-formed Mahagujarat Janata Party, which has put up candidates in 16 constituencies. The 69 candidates together have 136 criminal cases registered against them, of which 48 cases were of a serious nature, including charges of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion and such others. Though Gujarat had a reasonablly good record in law and order compared to many other States, 19.22 per cent of its candidates have criminal records. Among the individual candidates, Vithhalbhai Radadiya, with 16 cases listed against him, topped the list of candidates with criminal records. While he has five cases of a serious nature, Janata Dal (united) nominee for the Broach parliamentary seat Chhotubhai Vasava has 13 such cases against him. The GEW considers as “Red Alert constituencies” those which have three or more candidates with criminal records; there are 16 such constituencies; Junagadh tops the list, with six of its candidates figuring in police records, followed by five in Navsari, four each in Rajkot, Broach, Porbandar, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad east, and three each in Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Banaskantha, Surat, Bulsar, Vadodara, Kutch and Ahmedabad west. According to the Association for Democratic Reforms and the GEW, which compiled the data furnished by the candidates in their affidavits while filling their nomination papers, 47 candidates in the fray have wealth over Rs. one crore, with the highest being the BSP nominee for the Surendranagar seat, Khimjibhai Patadia, with assets of over Rs. 514 crore. But incidentally, though Mr. Patadia is a builder, he does not have a PAN number. Of the 47 “crorepatis,” the Congress has fielded 17, the BJP 12 and the MJP four, but incidentally 204 of the 359 candidates do not have PAN numbers. The brighter side is that 115 of the total candidates are graduates or above. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] What is a vote to a starving man?
Every four minutes, a child is born dead in Madhya Pradesh. Of those that survive, over 14 per cent die before they turn six. In the seven months from July 2008 to January 2009, 676 children died here of malnourishment. That’s three a day. Empty kitchens, leafless trees and ration shops that are as barren as the landscape are visible proof that there is precious little to eat in northern MP. A chronic, pervasive hunger that lay hidden till a few years ago now screams for attention in newspaper headlines. It is not surprising that, in December 2008, the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chauhan became Chief Minister against a poll promise of subsidised rice. With no actual food to be had, the mere hope of food is what people subsist on. Lok Sabha aspirants have realised that here, the promise of food security is a profitable one to make and a convenient one to break A Famished Franchise What is a vote to a starving man? What does the world’s largest election mean to the world’s largest group of forsaken people? ROHINI MOHAN finds out. Photographs by SAYANTAN BERA http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Ne020509a_famished.asp Threadbare Sadan Nayak wanted to sit up to receive his guests, only to tearfully tell us he was too weak. Kashipur, Orissa ‘Five people in my family have died of starvation. The only thing I have left is the privilege of a vote’ DHIRU KAKA Kottali village, Kashipur, Orissa. His wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren died of starvation in 2008. He stays with his two-yearold grandson, the only surviving family member ‘I’ve lost three children. Nothing will bring them back. I still vote. If I don’t, the government will pay even less attention to my only child that is alive’ KALUNA SINGH Radep village, Sheopur, MP Lost three children in five days. They were six months, two years, and five years old. All were malnourished ‘Why? Why shouldn’t I vote? I don’t get anything in return, but I must do my duty as a citizen. I must vote out the netas who let my mother die’ HALADAR MAJHI Pengdusi village, Kalahandi, Orissa 20 people died of diarrhoea in his village in 15 days. His mother and sister were among them. After a week of no food, dire hunger drove them to eat poisonous leaves from the jungle A VOTE IS often a product of mixed motives — the result of generations of unshakeable loyalty, or the last-minute epiphany of a frustrated finger hovering over multiple EVM buttons. A vote sometimes rewards jobs provided, children schooled, identities recognised. Other times, it punishes pleas unheard, bulbs unlit, bruised faiths. It is a bargaining chip that negotiates a better life for you. But what if you were forgotten? Even in the shower of attention that elections bring, what if the convoy drove past your village for the nth time? What is a vote to you, if for the third time, a child in your family was dying of hunger, and you had no hospital to take her to, and no earnings to buy her food with? From places that governments have long ignored come shocking stories of the complete failure of government and unbelievable deprivation. Not a morsel to eat, not a drop safe to drink. What does the world’s biggest election mean to the largest group of forsaken people in that country? What is a vote to a starving man? It takes a stinging swarm of mosquitoes to wake little Maya from her tired sleep. Immediately, she bursts into tears. She thrashes her bony legs; her ribs visible under her skin. There are angry rashes and bleeding sores all over her body. Exhausted from crying, Maya’s eyes shut again. The wailing is now soundless, the tears flow quietly. Maya looks about one year old, but is actually three. “She doesn’t seem to grow,” says Rasali, her mother. “She hasn’t been able to walk or crawl and most of the time, just lies in an unconscious sleep.” Maya has Grade-4 malnutrition, the severest degree, which means that she has only a few months left to live. She is from Nichikhori village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, where locals recognise villages not by name, but by the number of children that have starved to death there in the past few months. Nichikhori is known by the number 6. Not one of the children here who stare at us shyly from behind walls and trees looks well, let alone well-fed. Without exception, they are underweight and have distended abdomens, reed-thin limbs, bulging eyes. Almost all have had a sibling starve to death. Every four minutes, a child is born dead in Madhya Pradesh. Of those that survive, over 14 per cent die before they turn six. In the seven months from July 2008 to January 2009, 676 children died here of malnourishment. That’s three a day. Empty kitchens, leafless trees and ration shops that are as barren as the landscape are visible proof that there is precious little to eat in northern MP. A chronic, pervasive hunger that lay hidden till a few years ago now screams for attention in
Bismillah [IslamCity] Communalism in coastal Karnataka
Between the 2008 and 2004 Assembly elections, the party’s support base eroded by about three percentage points in the three districts of coastal Karnataka (down to 40.71 from 43.56 per cent). The Sangh Parivar obviously wants to arrest this trend in the region. Mr. Bhat promised return of peace to the region if the BJP is elected as in Gujarat. On the other hand, “a vote against the BJP would lead to disintegration of the country,” he cautions Communalism in coastal Karnataka Govind D. Belgaumkar http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/25/stories/2009042550501400.htm Hatred based on religion is not limited to organised groups of fundamentalists but has spread across the social canvas File PHOTO: JEEVAN CHINNAPPA Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik speaking to the media. I will not need a single minority vote to win, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada constituency, Anant Kumar Hegde, had said in March. The statement reflected the aggressive brand of majority politics for which coastal Karnataka is known. The sitting MP escaped with a warning from the Election Commission of India against saying such things. But the citizens, and the minorities in particular, have been bearing the brunt of communal violence and moral policing by Hindutva fringe groups. The January 24 pub attack in Mangalore was just one of a series of acts of moral policing in the region. To make matters worse, fundamentalists from the Islamic and Christian fold, have begun to follow suit. While they are no match for their Hindutva counterparts, Islamist organisations such as the Karnataka Forum Dignity and a Christian group, the Social Action Committee, are involved in violently curtailing interaction between boys and girls belonging to different communities.Vigilante groups An act of moral policing in Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district brought Hindu and Muslim vigilante groups face to face on March 17 leading to a communal flare-up. Communal violence rocked Bhatkal, and Mundagod in Uttara Kannada district and Kaup in Udupi district after elections to the Lok Sabha were announced. The region witnessed a series of attacks on churches since September 2008 in protest against alleged conversions by evangelical groups. There is now a heightened sense of alienation among Christians, who were earlier not targeted by communal forces. Hatred based on religion is not limited to organised groups of fundamentalists. It has spread across the social canvas and enveloped large sections of the police, bureaucracy and media. It is not difficult to find voters on the street who say religion will be a factor while voting. Everyone seems to have a story about friends breaking up because of religion. The same evening when over one lakh frenzied people turned up for the Hindu Samajothsava on March 15 at Mangalore, communal violence flared at Kaup in Udupi district, landing many in hospital. A Hindu youth among a group of cricketers had to show his sacred thread and his pierced ears to save his life from a group returning from the Samajothsava.Mute witnesses Policemen are often accused of being mute witnesses to the gross violation of law. There are instances of police failing to register complaints, let alone conducting a fair probe. Gripped by fear psychosis, Christians and Muslims seem to be seeking relief in religion-based extremism. “A majority of Muslims and Christians have become communal,” declares Umar U.H., vice-president of the Komu Sauharda Vedike (Communal Harmony Forum). The situation is heading from bad to worse, he says. For once, Muslims and Christians in the region plan on asserting themselves politically in this election. Their religious leaders are encouraging them to register as voters cast their votes for “secular” forces. They may rally behind the Congress en masse. Many Hindus have expressed their disgust over the Hindutva moral policing. The belief of RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat that all Hindus will support the BJP will be severely tested. Between the 2008 and 2004 Assembly elections, the party’s support base eroded by about three percentage points in the three districts of coastal Karnataka (down to 40.71 from 43.56 per cent). The Sangh Parivar obviously wants to arrest this trend in the region. Mr. Bhat promised return of peace to the region if the BJP is elected as in Gujarat. On the other hand, “a vote against the BJP would lead to disintegration of the country,” he cautions. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] Chavez orders army to take over rice companies
Chavez again With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali --- On Sun, 3/1/09, basit abdul tisab2...@yahoo.com wrote: From: basit abdul tisab2...@yahoo.com Subject: Chavez orders army to take over rice companies To: tisab2...@yahoo.com Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 1:18 AM For the people.. This Government is here to protect the people, not to protect the bourgeoisie or the rich, Hugo Chavez http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/01/2504307.htm?section=world Chavez orders army to take over rice companies Posted 6 hours 33 minutes ago Updated 6 hours 34 minutes ago Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the army to seize control of rice-processing companies due to a spat with the industry over prices. Mr Chavez has accused the companies of overcharging and refusing to produce rice at prices set by the Government. He says he will not hesitate to expropriate them permanently if they continue to ignore the price controls. In a televised address, the Venezuelan leader said the Government was making the move to protect ordinary Venezuelans, not wealthy companies. This Government is here to protect the people, not to protect the bourgeoisie or the rich, he said. Commander in General of the national guard, immediately contact the agricultural minister, the head of the operational strategic command and the commanders of the barracks to support the national guard in the takeover of all these companies that process rice in Venezuela. The situation with basic food stuffs in Venezuela is becoming ever more complicated. The Government provides basic food for the poor in state-run markets called Mercal. But many producers of rice, wheat and meat complain that the price regulations leave them without a profit and that many are facing bankruptcy. Abdul Basit +965 97225537
Bismillah [IslamCity] Food For Thought - a short film by Jayesh Dave
Food For Thought Director: Jayesh Dave | Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2008 http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1249/Food-For-Thought Synopsis: The film is dedicated to the people who don't even get one time food just because we waste the food of about Rs. 58000 Crore every year only in India. The film has won the HONORABLE MENTION at the Script 2 Screen film festival held at Oklahoma, USA this year. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] Marriage is the only solution - sex too is part of life
I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me... I want people to know how I have suffered, she told The Independent last night, speaking from the town of Kozhikode. People say that everything is OK, but I was in the convent and I want them to know what goes on. I have concerns for others. Amen: Autobiography of a nun has infuriated Kerala Former nun tells of sex and suffering inside Indian convent Catholic Church stung by autobiography recounting harassment and abuse By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi Friday, 20 February 2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/former-nun-tells-of-sex-and-suffering-inside-indian-convent-1627077.html ALAMY Kerala nuns at prayer. An ex-nun who wrote about life in a Kerala convent says she fears for those still living there A former nun's tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala. In Amen – an autobiography of a nun, Sister Jesme says when she became a nun she discovered priests were forcing novices to have sex with them. There were also secret homosexual relationships among the nuns and at one point she was forced into such a relationship by another nun who told her she preferred this kind of arrangement as it ruled out the possibility of pregnancy. I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me... I want people to know how I have suffered, she told The Independent last night, speaking from the town of Kozhikode. People say that everything is OK, but I was in the convent and I want them to know what goes on. I have concerns for others. Sister Jesme, who quit last year as the principal of a Catholic college in Thrissur, alleges senior nuns tried to have her committed to a mental institution after she spoke out against them. In her book, she says that while travelling through Bangalore, she was once directed to stay with a purportedly pious priest who took her to a garden and showed me several pairs cuddling behind trees. He also gave me a sermon on the necessity of physical love and described the illicit affairs that certain bishops and priests had. The priest took her to his home, stripped off his clothes and ordered her to do the same. She also alleges that while senior staff turned a blind eye to the actions of more experienced nuns, novices were strongly punished, even for minor transgressions. She was not allowed to go home after she learnt her father had died. I was able to see [the body of] my father barely 15 minutes before the funeral, she writes. The [response] of the superiors was that the then senior sisters were not even lucky enough to see the bodies of their parents. When she resigned as a college principal, she claimed convents had become houses of torture, saying: The mental torture was unbearable. When I questioned the church's stand on self-financing colleges and certain other issues, they accused me of having mental problems. They have even sent me to a psychiatrist. There are many nuns undergoing ill-treatment from the order, but they are afraid of challenging it. The church is a formidable fortress. The allegations are not the only controversy to rock the Catholic Church in Kerala. Last summer, a 23-year-old novice committed suicide and left a note saying she had been harassed by her Mother Superior. Reports suggest there have been a number of similar suicides. And in November, police in Kerala arrested two priests and a nun in connection with the killing of Sister Abhaya in a notorious 1992 murder. Last night, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Dr Paul Thelakkat, dismissed Sister Jesme's allegations as a book of trivialities. It's her experiences, but these are things that might creep into a society of communal living, he said. Asked if the church would be shocked by the allegations, he replied: Absolutely not. The church knows about these things. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] Gujarat Govt. agrees to court it's Minister's role in the Gujarat Genocide
The affidavit said, from one of the statements of witnesses it has been revealed that she had fired from her pistol, as well as, from another statement it has been revealed that she had come to the spot in a car with other persons and had distributed swords among the mob. Minister Maya led mob to carry out riot: Guj Govt to HC Press Trust of India Posted: Feb 21, 2009 at 1741 hrs IST http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kodnani/426495//Ahmedabad: The Government in an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court has said that state minister Maya Kodnani led the mob, instigated them and distributed weapons to carry out Naroda riot which left 95 people dead in 2002. The affidavit was filed in the court on Thursday on the basis of findings of Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court challenging anticipatory bail given to Kodnani by the lower court. She was the leader of mob and was an MLA and allegations against her is she was instigating the mob to commit crime and therefore she was playing the main role, the affidavit said. The affidavit said, from one of the statements of witnesses it has been revealed that she had fired from her pistol, as well as, from another statement it has been revealed that she had come to the spot in a car with other persons and had distributed swords among the mob. Kodnani is a Minister of State for Higher Education in the Gujarat government and is regularly attending the ongoing Assembly session. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] Jehad and the truth - Book review by A. G. Noorani
“Azad gave some of his most eloquent depositions on jehad as Islamic ethics in the service of Congress’ anti-colonial politics. The Indian national struggle was a jehad because the British were waging a war to exterminate Muslims. If Muslims had any spark of faith left in them, they would befriend snakes and scorpions rather than make peace with the British government, he asserted. Referring to the Prophet’s constitution at Medina, in which Muslims and non-Muslims were described as one nation, Azad asked Muslims to perform their religious duty by uniting with Hindus.” BOOKS Jehad and the truth A.G. NOORANI A fascinating survey of the evolution of the concept of jehad. THE HINDU PHOTO ARCHIVES THE highest form of jehad is to speak the truth in the face of an unjust ruler.” This one saying of Prophet Muhammad suffices to demolish the myth about jehad, fostered, alike, by the fundamentalists and very many in the West and, not to overlook, in India. Ijtihad (reason) is one of the recognised sources of Islamic law, the sharia. Ijtihad is jehad of the mind. Jehad means exertion. Ayesha Jalal renders a service by her erudite study of jehad in Islam; the perversion of the concept by the ulema (clergy) in the service of rulers as they embarked on military campaigns of imperialist expansion, armed with fatwas (rulings) sanctioning them as jehad in the cause of Islam; the invocation of jehad in the struggle for freedom from colonial rule; and its cynical revival in our times by bodies such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda. The focus is on South Asia. The author, born in Pakistan, is the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University in the United States. She is a highly respected historian of South Asia. Unlike some expatriate scholars, including many from India, who act as apologists for their country, Ayesha Jalal rightly prides herself on her detachment and objectivity. It would, however, be unjust to her work to concentrate on her strictures on the Lashkar and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and neglect her thesis, which constitutes its core. It was in the desire to gain a deep understanding of religion as faith that she launched her research for the book: “My exploration of the literature on the subject immediately brought home to me the intrinsic connection between the concept of jehad as endeavour and the Muslim faith. Far from being a passive and mindless activity, submission (Islam) assumes dynamic effort and reasoned self-control against the personal inclinations and social tendencies preventing a believer from heeding God’s commands, and thereby destroying any internal or external sense of balance and proportion…. It is commonplace to assert that the sacred and the temporal in Islam are inextricably intertwined. However, the interplay of ethics and politics in the unfolding of Muslim history has not been subjected to critical scrutiny. One way of remedying that oversight is to train the spotlight on the much-contested idea of jehad and its practice. To what extent was a concept that is at the heart of Islamic ethics transformed in shifting historical contexts as a consequence of temporal imperatives?” The author discusses jehad in pre-colonial South Asia: the jehad waged by Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Bareilly (1786–1831), jehad in colonial India and as anti-colonial nationalism. The last chapter is on the subversion of the concept as a justification for terrorism. With her familiarity with the primary sources in Urdu, she brings to life the debates conducted by the adherents and the critics. Particularly useful for the English reader is her discussion of Sayyid Ahmed, who fell in battle at Balakot, about 18 miles (29 kilometres) from Manshera in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Among the first militant groups that surfaced in Kashmir in 1989 was Operation Balakot of Azan Inquilabi. Such was the hold that Sayyid Ahmed’s example had come to acquire over the minds of the jehad-prone. It is, however, to the very first chapter, “Jihad as Ethics, Jihad as War”, that the reader must pay particular attention. Even in the early years of Islam, “some Muslims questioned the application of the concept of jehad to wars fought by temporal rulers that had nothing to do with struggle for the cause of God. One popular tradition justified the reservation. Upon returning from one of the early wars in defence of the newly established community, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have told his companions that they had come back from waging jehad al-asghar, or the lesser war, to fight the jehad al-akbar, or the greater war against those base inner forces which prevent man from becoming human in accordance with his primordial and God-given nature. This tradition was not included in any of the authoritative collections of hadith during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, an omission that in itself reveals the mindset of the compilers
Bismillah [IslamCity] 7 years on, 50,000 riot victims still in relief camps in Gujarat
This hostile approach of the state government towards the Muslim community is keeping the situation from getting completely normal. Had these things been done, people would have forgot their wounds 7 years on, 50,000 riot victims still in relief camps in Gujarat Submitted by admin4 on 16 February 2009 - 11:39pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009feb16/7_years_50_000_riot_victims_still_relief_camps_gujarat.html By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net, Even seven years after Gujarat 2002 pogrom, 50,000 people are in relief camps, state government is sitting on its share of compensation package, 650 religious places are awaiting restoration; so situation is far away from being completely normal, says Ahmedabad resident and director of Islami Relief Committee of Gujarat in an interview with Mumtaz Alam Falahi of TwoCircles.net. How do you recall the Gujarat 2002 pogrom today after seven years? By just recalling what happened in the communal riots in those days in Gujarat I get frightened. I and my Gandhian friends were very anxious. We wanted to help people but were helpless. Those were horrific days of lawlessness and mayhem – a nightmare better to forget. In Juhapura area in Ahmedabad 17 Muslims were killed and about 500 houses of Muslims were put on fire. A non-Muslim was also killed in that area. Juhapura is described as a Muslim ghetto and a mini Pakistan, yet the destruction there was one-sided. The pogrom had vertically divided the society on communal lines. How are the present relations between Hindus and Muslims? Situation is getting normal as in some matters human beings are bound to have interaction with each other. But what should have been done for complete normalization of the situation has not yet been done. Of 1.5 lakh people uprooted during the pogrom, around two-third are still not in position to return to their homes. About 50,000 people are still living in relief camps and there has been no proper arrangement for their rehabilitation. About 650 religious places were destroyed or desecrated but the government has not done anything to restore them. The central government has given its share of the compensation package for the riot victims but the state government is silent about its share. This hostile approach of the state government towards the Muslim community is keeping the situation from getting completely normal. Had these things been done, people would have forgot their wounds. How common Hindus and common Muslims take each other in common places like in buses or trains? Not much hostile situation there. But fear still persists. Hindus and Muslims do not prefer to send their children in schools in each other’s areas. But Muslims have little options as they are forced to go to schools in Hindu areas. They fear while sending their girls to schools and colleges in those areas. Today the gap created between the two communities by the pogrom has got a little narrowed but the situation cannot be said completely normal. It is said that most of those arrested in connection with Godhra train burning and POTA imposed on them are innocents but real perpetrators of the riot are still at large. Godhra train burning incident was projected as a conspiracy and scores of Muslims were arrested only to justify the pogrom that followed the incident. Our Cell for Legal Help Guidance, other NGOs, Human Rights Commission and Minority Commission have worked to prove that what was told by the government about Godhra train fire was not true. And we are hopeful that all the accused of the incident will be proved innocent and will be acquitted. On the other hand the policemen and politicians who were involved in the riot are being nabbed and sent to jail. But the state government is creating hurdles. First they made perpetrators as public prosecutors and helped the guilty and now when Supreme Court-appointed SIT wants to arrest some of the perpetrators the government is shielding them. What are the Islami Relief Committee and other organizations doing for the families of Godhra train accused and others languishing in jail? We are helping the families of Godhra train accused. We have also secured bail for 30-40 accused. We represented them in POTA Review Committee. Other groups like Action Aid are also coming up to help. How much hopeful are you about justice? Given the situation in India we cannot be fully sure of justice. We are making our best efforts and we have got some favorable verdicts from the Supreme Court. But even if, for example, the Godhra accused get acquittal after spending 7-8 years in jail, we cannot say they got justice. Because there is no system for the rehabilitation of those people who lost everything – families, homes and source of livelihood. With Regards Abi Knowledge is the best gift, and manner is the best transaction - Ali
Bismillah [IslamCity] The Wounds of Gaza - Dr Swee Ang, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah
Dr Ang Swee Chai is the author of the famous work FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM which is an Eye Witness account to SABRA-SHATILA MASSACRE - Abhiyya The Wounds of Gaza Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack. http://www.thelancetglobalhealthnetwork.com/archives/608 The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead? We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000. Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008, Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza Strip. Gaza is 25 miles by 5 miles and home to 1.5 million people. This makes it the most crowded area in the whole world. Prior to this Gaza has been completely blockaded and starved for 50 days. In fact since the Palestinian election Gaza has been under total or partial blockade for several years. On the first day of the invasion, 250 persons were killed. Every single police station in Gaza was bombed killing large numbers of police officers. Having wiped out the police force attention was turned to non government targets. Gaza was bombed from the air by F16 and Apache helicopters, shelled from the sea by Israeli gunboats and from the land by tank artillery. Many schools were reduced to rubble, including the American School of Gaza, 40 mosques, hospitals, UN buildings, and of course 21,000 homes, 4,000 of which were demolished completely. It is estimated that 100,000 people are now homeless. Israeli weapons The weapons used apart from conventional bombs and high explosives also include unconventional weapons of which at least 4 categories could be identified. Phosphorus Shells and bombs The bombs dropped were described by eye witnesses as exploding at high altitude scattering a large canopy of phosphorus bomblets which cover a large area. During the land invasion, eyewitnesses describe the tanks shelling into homes first with a conventional shell. Once the walls are destroyed, a second shell - a phosphorus shell is then shot into the homes. Used in this manner the phosphorus explodes and burns the families and the homes. Many charred bodies were found among burning phosphorus particles. One area of concern is the phosphorus seems to be in a special stabilizing agent. This results in the phosphorus being more stable and not completely burning out. Residues still cover the fields, playground and compounds. They ignite when picked up by curious kids, or produce fumes when farmers return to water their fields. One returning farming family on watering their field met with clouds of fumes producing epistaxis. Thus the phosphorus residues probably treated with a stabilizer also act as anti-personnel weapons against children and make the return to normal life difficult without certain hazards. Surgeons from hospitals are also reporting cases where after primary laparotomy for relatively small wounds with minimal contamination find on second look laparotomy increasing areas of tissue necrosis at about 3 days. Patients then become gravely ill and by about 10 days those patients needing a third relook encounter massive liver necrosis. This may or may not be accompanied by generalized bleeding , kidney failure and heart failure and death. Although acidosis, liver necrosis and sudden cardiac arrest due to hypocalcemia are known to be a complication of white phosphorus it is not possible to attribute these complications as being due to phosphorus alone. There is real urgency to analyze and identify the real nature of this modified phosphorus as to its long term effect on the people of Gaza. There is also urgency in collecting and disposing of the phosphorus residues littering the entire Gaza Strip. As they give off toxic fumes when coming into contact with water, once the rain falls the whole area would be polluted with acid phosphorus fumes. Children should be warned not to handle and play with these phosphorus residues. Heavy Bombs The use of DIME (dense inert material explosives) were evident, though it is unsure whether depleted uranium were used in the south. In the civilian areas, surviving patients were found to have limbs truncated by DIME, since the stumps apart from being characteristically cut off in guillotine fashion also fail to bleed. Bomb casing and shrapnel are extremely heavy. Fuel Air
Bismillah [IslamCity] Israel overtakes Russia as main defence supplier to India
There is close cooperation and the Indians respect Israeli systems and our experience in fighting terror Israel overtakes Russia as main defence supplier to India Press Trust of India Sunday, February 15, 2009, (Jerusalem) http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090083666 Israel has emerged as India's largest defence supplier, overtaking Russia, as Tel Aviv has signed defence deals worth a whopping $9 billion with New Delhi during the past decade, a media report in Jerusalem said on Sunday. There is close cooperation and the Indians respect Israeli systems and our experience in fighting terror, a defence official was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post. Russia had averaged sales of $ 875 million annually to India for the past 40 years. In the wake of recent Mumbai terror attacks, India has also purchased from the Jewish state the aerostat radar system to help defend the country's coastline in a deal valued at $600 million, the daily said. The radars will be deployed in strategic points to provide advance warning against incoming enemy aircraft and missiles, the report said. The EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars are a simpler version of the Green Pine radar, made by Israel Aerospace Industries, and used by the Arrow missile defence system. The phased-array radars are mounted on blimp-like balloons tethered to the ground and capable of detecting intrusions earlier than ground based radar systems. With Regards Abi The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing - Albert Einstein
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hugo Chavez wins Venezuela referendum
Dear Hugo, congratulations for you and for your people for a victory that, by its size, is impossible to measure, - Fidel Castro Chavez wins Venezuela referendum http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200921602959722265.html Chavez celebrated from his palace balcony in front of thousands of supporters [AFP] Venezuela's president has won a referendum to scrap term limits for elected officials, allowing him to seek re-election indefinitely. Hugo Chavez greeted cheering supporters at the presidential palace in Caracas on Sunday, moments after the country's electoral commission chief declared victory for the yes vote. Long live the revolution, shouted Chavez, as he stood pumping his fist on the palace balcony in front of thousands of flag-waving supporters. After leading supporters in singing the national anthem, he said: Today we opened wide the gates of the future. Venezuela will not return to its past of indignity. Tibisay Lucena, the chief of the national electoral council, said that with 94 per cent of the vote counted, 54 per cent had backed the president's proposal - an unbeatable lead. Festive mood There was a festive mood on the streets of the capital, as Chavez supporters began celebrating the result. In depth Caracas split over Chavez changes In pictures: Venezuela votes QA: Chavez referendum Profile: Hugo Chavez Join the debate on Venezuela's referendum Video: Venezuelans to vote on Chavez Students battle over Venezuela vote Video: Venezuela votes amid economic woes People here are ecstatic, Al Jazeera's Rob Winder, reporting from Chacao district in Caracas, said. There are hundreds of people in the street - people are riding around on motorbikes and dancing on the roofs of cars. Chavez said he received a first message of congratulations from Fidel Castro, Cuba's former president and a mentor of Chavez. Dear Hugo, congratulations for you and for your people for a victory that, by its size, is impossible to measure, Castro wrote, according to Chavez. Venezuela has been divided by the referrendum, which seeks to ammend five articles of the country's constitution to grant the president, mayors, local councilors, legislators and governors unlimited bids for re-election. The vote was Chavez's second attempt to remove the two-term cap for presidents. The win means he can seek re-election when his second term in office ends in 2013 and hold the presidency for as long as he continues to win elections. Without the ammendments, the president is only allowed to hold two consecutive terms, which would mean that Chavez, elected in 1998 and again in 2006, would have to step down at the end of his second mandate. Opposition defeated The result is a huge blow for Venezuela's opposition which had made gains in city and state elections last year. Opposition parties had pinned their hopes on a student movement spearheading the No is No vote, a reference to Chavez's failed effort in 2007 to push through constitutional changes to extend his presidency. Chavez supporters poured on to the streets of Caracas to celebrate the win on Sunday [AFP] Chavez had previously described winning the vote as key completing his transformation of Venezuela into a socialist state. His supporters say he has given poor Venezuelans cheap food, free education and quality health care and empowered the poor, after decades of US-backed governments that favored the rich. But analysts warn that Chavez's social programmes could be hard hit by tumbling oil prices. Independently from this referendum Chavez is facing a very acute financial and political crisis in the very near term, Gustavo Coronel, a former board member of the Venezuelan state oil company and an opponent to Chavez, told Al Jazeera. So far he has been instituting a policy of handouts that have been very good for him. He is very popular among the poor because he has received more than $700bn in the last 10 years, he said. [But] the oil prices have plummeted ... I doubt this referendum really means a victory for him in the longer term. I think that, in fact, he might be fighting for his life before the end of the normal term of 2012. About 100 international observers monitored the vote, but neither the Organisation of American States (OAS) nor the European Union had official observers in Venezuela. For more on Hugo Chavez: Global Financial Crises And Hugo Chavez http://www.countercurrents.org/basit020209.htm With Regards Abi The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing - Albert Einstein
Bismillah [IslamCity] Muzaffar, only missing person found in 7 yrs
Muzaffar, only missing person found in 7 yrs
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ahmedabad/Muzaffar_only_missing_person_found_in_7_yrs/articleshow/4133281.cms
AHMEDABAD: Muzaffar Shaikh, lost in 2002 riots from Gulbarg Society when he was
only two-and-a-half-year-old, was found alive after over six years
and was brought up by a Hindu mom as Vivek. This is perhaps the most heartening
tale among all examples of human composure revealed in connection with this
grim incident.
This boy is the only one of all missing persons found during these seven years,
when at least 31 missing persons will be added to the official list of the dead
at Gulbarg Society.
Salim Shaikh and his wife Jebunnisa continued their search for six years for
their lost son, and ultimately found him in Vivek at Veena Patni's house in
Rakhial. Veena claimed that someone had come to her husband Vikram during
rioting at Meghaninagar and left the little kid with him. Vikram brought the
boy home, and he not only adjusted in this family, but also became a darling of
other siblings.
Not having courage to claim the boy's custody from Patnis, this Muslim couple
took the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team's help to get their
son back.
DNA tests confirmed that Vivek was the lost Muzaffar. The couple approached a
lower court last year to obtain custody of the child, but the kid was not ready
to leave his Hindu mom. Courtroom drama compelled magistrate to conclude that
the boy should not forcibly be taken away from the woman who has looked after
him for so many years.
However, biological parents got an opportunity to meet the boy when Jebunnisa
moved high court, as judge helped the two families to reach to a compromise.
From last November, there has been an arrangement wherein the boy spends one
evening with his biological parents at their home in Vatwa, where they have
shifted after Gulbarg was destroyed.
In the last order, court made a provision for biological parents to keep the
boy from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon. However, even after this
sanction, Shaikh religiously takes out his motorcycle every Sunday afternoon
and reaches Veena's house at Rakhial, where they spend some time with the boy.
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Bismillah [IslamCity] JNU approves madrasas for BA First Year admission eligibility
JNU approves madrasas for BA First Year admission eligibility Submitted by admin4 on 9 February 2009 - 8:12pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009feb09/jnu_approves_madrasas_ba_first_year_admission_eligibility.html By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net, New Delhi: In a move that will lessen the deprivation of madrasa students from mainstream higher education, India’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi has further widened its door for madrasa students as it will now admit them in first year of BA courses. Earlier JNU, a central university, would take madrasa students only in the second year of three-year BA courses after candidates completed first year from any other UGC-recognized college or university. The university will now accept certificates of certain madrasas equivalent to intermediate and the candidates will be eligible for JNU entrance examination and take admission in all BA courses if selected. JNU offers all major language courses in BA like French, Japanese, Chinese, German, Arabic, Korean, Spanish etc. These languages have career benefits. The list of madrasas approved by JNU administration is given below. (i) Certificate of Alimiah with at least 45% marks issued by any of the following madrasas subject to the condition that the candidate has passed English language at the level of Senior Secondary from a recognised Board/University or a three year course conducted by Darul-Uloom Deoband. 1. Darul Uloom Deoband, U.P. 2. Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur, U.P. 3. Darul Uloom Mau, U.P. 4. Miftahul Uloom, Mau, U.P. 5. Jamia Athria Darul Hadith Mau, U.P. 6. Jamia Faize Am Mau, U.P. 7. Madrasa Alia Mau, U.P. 8. Madrasa Muhammadia, Mau, U.P. 9. Madrasa Faizanul Uloom Bahadurganj, Ghazipur, U.P. 10. Madrasa Ihyaul Uloom Mubarkpur, Azamgarh, U.P. 11. Tauhid Education Trust Ma'hadabad-Khagra Kishan Ganj, Bihar 12. Jamia Imam Ibn Taimiya, Madinatussalam, E. Champaran, Bihar (ii) Certificate of Alimiah with at least 45% marks issued by the following Madrasas 1. Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow, U.P. 2. Jamiatul Flah, Bilariaganj, Azamgarh, U.P. 3. Certificate of Fazilah from Madrasatul Islah, Sarai Mir, Azamgarh, U.P. 4. Madrasa Jamia Islamia, Muzaffarpur, Azamgarh, U.P. 5. Madrasa Eram Convent for Girls and Boys Indra Nagar, Lucknow, U.P. (iii) Certificate of Maulvi with at least 45% marks issued by the Bihar Board of Madrasa Education Omair Anas, who is doing M. Phil at School of International Studies, JNU, told TwoCircles.net that madrasa students should not lose the chance and grab the opportunity. He said he and his friends have decided to help madrasa students to get all information, guidance and coaching for the entrance test. Since entrance examination in JNU is very competitive and it requires a lot of preparation, the group of senior madrasa students already studying at JNU has decided to offer help madrasa students aspiring to take admission in the university this year. The group will arrange one month entrance preparation classes from April to May. For further enquiry following persons can be contacted: Mohammad Araif: 09718200830 Mohammad Rizwan: 09868325829 Omair Anas: 09868068370 http://www.jnu.ac.in/main.asp?sendval=Prospectus With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] The other side of Slumdog Millionaire
The poor man replied “It is the rich who are embarrassed at showcasing poverty. For us it is a reality and we have no objection to its portrayal.” Are we, the middle class, behaving like ostriches fooling ourselves into believing that something that we do not see does not exist? The other side of Slumdog Millionaire By KR Ravi, 6th February 2009 GS_googleAddAdSenseService(ca-pub-6511877444227512); GS_googleEnableAllServices(); GA_googleAddSlot(ca-pub-6511877444227512, 4-1-468X60-blog-post-start); GA_googleFetchAds(); GA_googleFillSlot(4-1-468X60-blog-post-start); window.google_render_ad(); http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/the-other-side-of-slumdog-millionaire/ The film Slumdog Millionaire has aroused strong emotions in both India and the U.S. Let me start with India. Amitabh started it all with his blog in which he despaired at the film showing the dark underbelly of India, a tradition that goes back to Satyajit Ray. The star said that in contrast to this ‘poverty porn’ [my words not his] he found much admiration for the Bollywood fare that is often derided as ‘masala’. He writes that crowds throng the cinema halls in many parts of the world where typical Bollywood films are premiered and shown. Hence he took exception to films like Slumdog Millionaire which draw attention to our poverty. The star’s comments were followed by an avalanche of responses for and against his views. Those who did not agree with him said that poverty was a reality in India and one cannot deny this. Some slum dwellers took exception to being called ‘dogs’. I have always felt that in order to form a considered opinion there are a few requirements of which the following are critical: • delay forming opinions till emotions have run their full course • obtain full facts on the topic • seek the opinions of all the affected parties. I did just that and waited for the dust to settle, for sanity to prevail and for the director’s sake I also waited to see what Americans had to say since the Oscars – which many of us are eagerly waiting for - are based in the U.S. ‘Time’ magazine which to some extent reflects American public opinion has a few interesting things to say about the film. The director Boyle says that the title of the film was not a reference to the canine species at all. It was not a derogatory reference to slum people. It was simply a combination of ‘slum’ and ‘underdog’. Hence came the word ‘slumdog’! As for poverty American audiences see the story as one of a small guy making it big, of the underdog [again no canine implications] fighting great odds, of the rags to riches phenomena - these are all values dear to and at the heart of the great American dream. Hence the audiences saw their dreams being played by a slum dweller from India. At this time of serious economic crisis the theme struck a chord. It is not that American audiences saw the film like voyeurs to poverty in India, as some have alleged - they know enough about it without having to pay hard earned dollars for it. Film critics in the U. S have for years expressed dismay that a country as talented as India does not make movies that have a universal appeal. Shockingly countries like Turkey, Iran, and Poland - which we in India do not have in our periphery of consideration, cinematically speaking, have won critical acclaim in the west simply because they dealt with human experiences that anyone can relate to. I believe this is a fair view. Some of my Indian friends say that audiences in the West must learn to accept Indian films at our terms - meaning that the west must accept the song and dance escapist movies that we make. I ask them why do not the Bollywood audiences accept a Tamil or Malayalam film [with subtitles] at THEIR terms? My understanding is that Bollywood audiences want to see films with a North Indian cultural ambience. I have no complaints with this because most of us cannot empathise with people with different cultural sensibilities. All I ask is that we ought to agree that western audiences are even more understanding of Indian cinema than Bollywood audiences are of South Indian cinema. The west does not say that Indians ought to make films with American or western sensibilities in mind. They simply ask that if we aspire to win an Oscar we stand a better chance of winning one if we make films with a UNIVERSAL APPEAL not necessarily with a western appeal. Like Turkey and Iran! What is universal about Slumdog Millionaire? Today Americans appreciate India better than ever before. They respect us and marvel at our development, at our love of democracy, of our secularism, and our innate genius. However flawed we may be we are a better bet for the future than many of our neighbours. Slumdog Millionaire is our answer to the west that we also want the underdog to become the top dog. It stands to reason that people everywhere have
Bismillah [IslamCity] Iran launches homegrown satellite
Iran launches homegrown satellite Iran has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state media reports. TV commentary said Monday's night-time launch from a Safir-2 rocket was another achievement for Iranian scientists under sanctions. The satellite was designed for research and telecommunications purposes, the television report said. to read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7866357.stm With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Global Financial Crises and Hugo Chavez - by Abdul Basit
He also successfully initiated several reforms aimed at improving the social welfare of his people including land transfer program, a free government funded health care system and free education up to the University level. Due to his reforms, family income among the poorest stratum grew more than 150% between 2003 and 2006. According to official sources, the percentage of people below the national poverty line has decreased significantly during the Chavez years, from 48.1% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2007. Global Financial Crises and Hugo Chavez 2 02 2009 Abdul Basit http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/global-financial-crises-and-hugo-chavez/ The Financial Crises that has gripped the globe resulting in the growing unemployment, poverty and hunger that will further aggravate during the coming months and years have created great uncertainty. While the global political and financial leaders and the media and establishment that support them, are groping in darkness about the solution to overcome this crises that has gripped the world community, it is futile to maintain expectation on the ability of these leaders to retrieve the situation as they themselves are the basic reason for this crises. This has been proven during the just concluded World Economic Forum meeting in Davos where empty discussions and debates was held, that lacked any concrete ideas to fix this crisis. The Davos Forum failed to find any answer and they stressed more about the problems instead of finding solutions. The current crises is due to the wrong policies that were hitherto pursued by the so-called dominant leaders led by the United States and its allies, whose aim was to serve the corporate military establishment instead of addressing the crises as a whole. Most of the efforts of these leaders were to bailout the banks and corporate that paid huge bonuses and incentives to its executive at the expense of the taxpayers and common people. This is because the capitalist and consumerist policies pursued by these nations relied heavily on these financial institutions, corporations and Stock Exchanges. The recent ILO report has predicted a frightening scenario in which 51 million more jobs could be lost by the end of 2009, leading to a 7.1 percent global unemployment rate and those who manage to keep a job, earnings and other conditions of employment will deteriorate. The world has been continuously deceived by theses leaders and we have repeatedly fallen into the same trap again and again. After the disastrous eight years of Bush administration, the world is looking forward to the Barack Obama, who might either be one of the highly sophisticated among the these traps or an initial source of future change. The coming months and years will provide the answer. What Do We Require from the Leadership? To this point, the arrogant and exploitative policies of the world’s sole superpower and its allies at least temporarily benefited them and their allies. But since the last two years after the financial crises and the climatic crises that have engulfed the world, these leaders and nations can no longer continue these arrogant policies as they have also started facing the brunt of their policies that earlier ruined third world countries. We cannot solve the impending crises with the existing leadership that is part of the problem and is more interested in igniting new conflicts, instead of solving the existing financial and existential issues that are haunting the humanity as a whole. While searching for new leadership and new solution to overcome the serious financial consequences, we must discard the current economic and financial system and terminologies associated with it as it has only brought sufferings to humanity. We must also discard the ideological confines and arrogance and open minds and hearts to formulate the new route that we have to take to rescue the humanity from the current crises and for building a better future. While criticizing the current leadership and their short sighted and arrogant policies, taking into consideration the dire consequences that we are about to face in the coming years, it is important to understand what kind of leadership is required and what are the policies to be implemented to overcome the serious challenges. Some of the immediate measures that the world requires to take to face the challenges are as follows: 1) With the global financial collapse and the ensuing bankruptcy and shut down of many corporations and companies that will result in job cuts and unemployment, we will face growing poverty, hunger and homelessness. This consecutively will result in financial and economic breakdown, social evils, crimes, chaos and civil wars. In order to prevent this situation, it is essential that the governments take necessary steps by taking over and controlling the public distribution system and other essential and life sustaining
Bismillah [IslamCity] Abortion
A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: 'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 yr. old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.' So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?' She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.' The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.' She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request. Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms. The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child! 'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be ok with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution. The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point. He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same! With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] New IMAX Film - Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta
Narrated by Oscar® award winning British actor, Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List), Journey to Mecca stars Chems Eddine Zinoun (The Objective) as Ibn Battuta and Hassam Ghancy (Traitor, Rendition) as the Highwayman. This remarkable film will be distributed to Giant Screens worldwide by SK Films in association with National Geographic http://www.journeytomeccagiantscreen.com/ Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta ~ New IMAX Film Opens February 7, 2009 http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/imax/default.asp?filmdetail=Journey+to+Mecca Journey to Mecca tells the story of a young scholar, who leaves Tangier in 1325 on an epic and perilous journey, travelling alone from his home in Morocco to reach Mecca, some 3,000 miles to the east. lbn Battuta is besieged by countless obstacles as he makes his way across the North African desert to Mecca. Along the route he meets an unlikely stranger, a highwayman, who becomes his paid protector and eventual friend. During his travels he is attacked by bandits, dehydrated by thirst, rescued by Bedouins and forced to retrace his route by a war-locked Red Sea. lbn Battuta finally joins the legendary Damascus Caravan with thousands of pilgrims bound for Mecca for the final leg of what would become his 5,000 mile, 18 month long journey to Mecca. When he arrives in Mecca, he is a man transformed. We then experience the Hajj as he did over 700 years ago and, in recognition of its timelessness, we dissolve to the Hajj as it is still performed today by millions of pilgrims in some of the most extraordinary and moving IMAX® footage ever presented. lbn Battuta would not return home for almost 30 years, reaching over 40 countries and revisiting Mecca five more times to perform the Hajj. He would travel three times farther than Marco Polo. His legacy is one of the greatest travel journals ever recorded. A crater on the moon is named in his honour. An SK Films Release in association with National Geographic of a Cosmic Picture Film. With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Bolivia to take Israel to The Hague
The Andean state says it is intended to make regional allies take a unified stance against the Israeli political and military leaders responsible for the offensive on the Gaza Strip and make it to stand trial at the international body in the Hague, said Sacha Llorenti, whose portfolio covers civil society With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email. --- On Sun, 1/25/09, Iqbal Soofi iqbal...@yahoo.com wrote: From: Iqbal Soofi iqbal...@yahoo.com Subject: Bolivia to take Israel to The Hague To: Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 9:38 PM Bolivia to take Israel to The Hague Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:35:31 GMT http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=82554sectionid=351020202 Israel ignores international calls to end Gaza invasion.Bolivia is seeking to take Tel Aviv to International Criminal Court over the brutal atrocities the Israeli forces have committed in Gaza. The Andean state says it is intended to make regional allies take a unified stance against the Israeli political and military leaders responsible for the offensive on the Gaza Strip and make it to stand trial at the international body in the Hague, said Sacha Llorenti, whose portfolio covers civil society. Moves to begin the legal process will begin probably next week, Bolivia's deputy justice and human rights minister Wilfredo Chavez told journalists during the visit to Geneva, AFP reported on Friday. Bolivia followed in the steps of its ally Venezuela and severed diplomatic ties with Israel over its massacre of the Gazans and snubbing the international calls for an 'immediate' and 'durable' truce, said the Latin American governments. The Bolivian president Evo Morales told a group of diplomats in the administrative capital of La Paz that he will request the International Criminal Court (ICC) to file genocide charges against Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The ICC is competent to adjudicate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed after 2002. Israel and its closest ally, the United States, are not among the 108 signatories of the Rome Statute creating the Hague-based court in 2000 to investigate and prosecute war crimes. After 21 days of non-stop bombardment and aggression, the Israeli invasion of Gaza has left 1,133 Palestinians killed and more than 5,200 wounded. RB/MMN -- -- Iqbal Soofi o State of Kuwait o Voice Mail: +1 51 6620 9920 o Do not Forward or Print unless the need is felt
Bismillah [IslamCity] Unseen Gaza
Unseen Gaza Channel 4 Video Report - Broadcast - January 22, 2009 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21833.htm Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries? With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story. Featuring images that haven't before been aired on mainstream television, Jon also examines the difference between the coverage at home and that in the US, Europe and the Middle East. He compares the coverage available on terrestrial channels with satellite TV and the internet and investigates the extent to which some British Muslims are by-passing the mainstream British media and looking elsewhere for their information. To what extent does the choice of news outlet affect opinion of the conflict? Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Embedded With Gaza Medics http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21811.htm With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: MORE TRUTH ABOUT ZIONIST
on holocoast With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email. --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Zaras Kitchen zaraskitc...@googlemail.com wrote: From: Zaras Kitchen zaraskitc...@googlemail.com Subject: MORE TRUTH ABOUT ZIONIST Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 5:45 AM This 6 minute video packs more truth in it then anything I have heard in mainstream media on this issue! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUFLpP9Prxo
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: Israel's deliberate attack on UNRWA school in Beit Lahia
Israel attacking a school which was seltering civilians. Attacked with white phosphorous bombs. With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email. --- On Wed, 1/21/09, Mukhtar-e-Saqafi mukhtaresaq...@gmail.com wrote: From: Mukhtar-e-Saqafi mukhtaresaq...@gmail.com Subject: A must see sequence of photos: Israel's deliberate attack on UNRWA school in Beit Lahia To: mukhtaresaq...@gmail.com Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 7:03 PM Hi All To get a visual feeling of what it means for a school -- sheltering civilians -- to be subjected by Israeli white phosphorous bombs ... rain of inextinguishable fire balls falling from the sky in all directions, deliberately designed to cause maximum death and destruction. No wonder it is illegal to use white phosphorous as a weapon of war, particularly in civilian settings, let alone a UN shelter! In this criminal attack children were killed, one mother lost her legs, and dozens of children and women were injured --(some from inhaling the phosphorous smoke -- the effects of which will only be revealed with time ) Forward these photos for all those who call for JUSTICE (UNRWA SCHOOL IN BEIT LAHIA, GAZA, PALESTINE)
Bismillah [IslamCity] Chomsky Speaks: Undermining Gaza
There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it's a very rational theme: Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.' So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what's left of the indigenous population Chomsky: Undermining Gaza Sameer Dossani | January 16, 2009 http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5802 Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. Sameer Dossani interviewed him about the conflict between Israel and Gaza. DOSSANI: The Israeli government and many Israeli and U.S. officials claim that the current assault on Gaza is to put an end to the flow of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. But many observers claim that if that were really the case, Israel would have made much more of an effort to renew the ceasefire agreement that expired in December, which had all but stopped the rocket fire. In your opinion, what are the real motivations behind the current Israeli action? CHOMSKY: There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it's a very rational theme: Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.' So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what's left of the indigenous population. I think one of the reasons for popular support for this in the United States is that it resonates very well with American history. How did the United States get established? The themes are similar. There are many examples of this theme being played out throughout Israel's history, and the current situation is another case. They have a very clear program. Rational hawks like Ariel Sharon realized that it's crazy to keep 8,000 settlers using one-third of the land and much of the scarce supplies in Gaza, protected by a large part of the Israeli army while the rest of the society around them is just rotting. So it's best to take them out and send them to the West Bank. That's the place that they really care about and want. What was called a disengagement in September 2005 was actually a transfer. They were perfectly frank and open about it. In fact, they extended settlement building programs in the West Bank at the very same time that they were withdrawing a few thousand people from Gaza. So Gaza should be turned into a cage, a prison basically, with Israel attacking it at will, and meanwhile in the West Bank we'll take what we want. There was nothing secret about it. Ehud Olmert was in the United States in May 2006 a couple of months after the withdrawal. He simply announced to a joint session of Congress and to rousing applause, that the historic right of Jews to the entire land of Israel is beyond question. He announced what he called his convergence program, which is just a version of the traditional program; it goes back to the Allon plan of 1967. Israel would essentially annex valuable land and resources near the green line (the 1967 border). That land is now behind the wall that Israel built in the West Bank, which is an annexation wall. That means the arable land, the main water resources, the pleasant suburbs around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and the hills and so on. They'll take over the Jordan valley, which is about a third of the West Bank, where they've been settling since the late 60s. Then they'll drive a couple of super highways through the whole territory — there's one to the east of Jerusalem to the town of Ma'aleh Adumim which was built mostly in the 1990s, during the Oslo years. It was built essentially to bisect the West Bank and are two others up north that includes Ariel and Kedumim and other towns which pretty much bisect what's left. They'll set up check points and all sorts of means of harassment in the other areas and the population that's left will be essentially cantonized and unable to live a decent life and if they want to leave, great. Or else they will be picturesque figures for tourists — you know somebody leading a goat up a hill in the distance — and meanwhile Israelis, including settlers, will drive around on Israeli only super highways. Palestinians can make do with some little road somewhere where you're falling into a ditch if it's raining. That's the goal. And it's explicit. You can't accuse them of deception because it's explicit. And it's cheered here. DOSSANI: In terms of U.S. support, last week the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a
Bismillah [IslamCity] Ahmadinejad's letter to Saudi Arabia
Ahmadinejad's letter to Saudi Arabia Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:59:53 GMT http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=82432sectionid=3510304 The following is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, urging him to take a clear stance on the unfolding crisis in Gaza: In the Name of God the Compassionate and the Merciful To the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud Peace be unto you and so may the mercy of Allah and His blessings As you well know, in the past 19 days, the innocent and defenseless people of Gaza have been victimized by the savage and horrific attacks of uncivilized Zionists. While under full aerial, ground, and naval blockade they have had to endure the heaviest bombardments and are going through the most difficult of times. Women, children, the elderly and ordinary civilians are being slaughtered in their homeland. The scenes of cruelty and violence that are being played out in Gaza tear every free man's heart apart, and set it afire. Aggressive powers that claim to be the upholders of democracy and human rights, have armed Zionist assassins to the teeth and have established this forged regime for the sole purpose of committing crimes, abuse, and occupation; not only do they support its actions but also use their power over international organizations to buy this regime time to carry out such massacres. Their actions are not far from expectation but it is unfortunate to see a number of Islamic and Arabic governments in the region condone this unprecedented genocide with their silence and smiles of satisfaction. These governments are waiting to see the heroic resistance of a defenseless nation, God forbid, fall to the savagery and repression of the occupiers. It is common knowledge that no future awaits the Zionist regime; its actions today show its despair, as it clings to its existence in the region. As all free men and nations have raised their voices in protest of the Zionist regime and the atrocities it is committing in Gaza, it is expected of you as the Saudi Arabian King and the Custodian of the Two Holy Places, i.e Makkah and Medina, to break your silence on the catastrophic events and the massacre taking place in Gaza and take a clear stance on the murder of your children, who are dear to the Islamic Ummah. I trust that your stance will shatter the remaining hopes of the corrupt powers of the world to sow discord in the world of Islam. I pray to God for the victory of free nations and the brave resistance in Gaza, and I look to Him for the annihilation of oppressors such as the Zionist regime. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Muslims are the new 'coolies'
As I waited for my luggage I was reminded of Gandhi and his predicament 116 years ago. The Muslims are the new 'coolies' to be harassed and abused with impunity by one and all. Muslims are the new 'coolies' Submitted by admin on 16 January 2009 - 10:09pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2009jan16/muslims_are_new_coolies.html By Mohammed Ayub Khan It was 1893 and a young Indian lawyer, dressed in an impeccable European dress, was travelling first class in a train from Durban to Pretoria in South Africa. All was well until the train reached Pietermaritzburg in the province of Natal. A European passenger had summoned the railway officials who ordered that the young lawyer vacate the compartment since 'coolies' and non-whites were supposedly not allowed in first class compartments. When the lawyer protested he was pushed out of the train along with his luggage. The lawyer, who went on to attain fame as the apostle of nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi, was forced to stay in a cold waiting room. It was winter, he later wrote in his autobiography, and the cold was extremely bitter. My over-coat was in my luggage, but I did not dare to ask for it lest I should be insulted again, so I sat and shivered. It was exactly how I felt when I was told by Air Canada officials in London's Heathrow Airport that I won't be allowed to board my flight to Toronto. I had flown in from Mumbai and was to connect to an Air Canada flight. Despite the fact that I arrived two hours ahead of departure the airline officials rudely told me that the flight has closed and that I might be able to fly in the next flight in another three hours. The reason being that because of my first and last names they will do a security check. All other passengers who came along with me on the flight were given their boarding passes in Mumbai itself and zipped through to the aircraft. I waited in an immensely crowded waiting area with stiff chairs, rude staff, and dirty washrooms. As the departure time neared for the next flight I was told to board it at the last moment. When I finally, reached Toronto I was shocked to find that my luggage is missing. I was told that it will be delivered to me in the next few days. I prayed that it reaches me as it contained several research documents, rare photographs, several books, and most of my clothes. The Air Canada call centre representatives in India said repeatedly that they are working on locating it and still haven't found it. I do not understand why they can't find when all checked bags have a computerised number tag on them. As I waited for my luggage I was reminded of Gandhi and his predicament 116 years ago. The Muslims are the new 'coolies' to be harassed and abused with impunity by one and all. There was only one difference. At least Gandhi had his luggage intact with him. I got my bag back after sixteen days of waiting. With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] 'Hamas fighters kill 12 Israeli soldiers'
'Hamas fighters kill 12 Israeli soldiers' http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=82068sectionid=351020202 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/14/content_10653284.htm With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Palestinian Government Open Letter to Chavez
The following is the full text of an open letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on January 12, 2009. The Gaza government was deposed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. However, the elected Hamas government in Gaza considered Abbas' decision unlawful, and continues to operate, despite the siege and the intense Israeli military onslaught, which killed, to date, nearly 1,000 Palestinians and wounded over 4,500 more. Chavez condemned the Israeli attacks and threw the Israeli Ambassador out of Caracas. Palestinian National Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Office, Gaza January 12, 2009 In the Name of God; the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful President Hugo Chavez, Your Excellency, President Hugo Chavez, We, the people of Palestine, commend your courage to speak and act upon your conscience regardless of your detractors' criticism or cowardice. Mr. President, we have watched death rain upon our families and children in Gaza for weeks; and yet we stand proud and ready for any outcome. We are a resilient people who wish for peace but will fight rather than bow to injustice. We live and die by the codes of our forefathers – codes of honor, integrity, truth and bravery. Throughout history, in a just conflict, there always emerges a champion, a single hero who, by his actions, embodies all the virtues the masses aspire to. You have demonstrated that you are such a man. We have observed your commitment to the destitute and disenfranchised since you first took office. The Americas are fortunate that your presidency has not only survived but emerged as a paradigm to be emulated. You have boldly said what the world's masses feel – from speaking out against the sulphur of imperialism at the United Nations in 2006 through to the recent expulsion of the devil's minion. Mr. President, we were eager to meet you in the summer of 2007; but unfortunately yet another blockade by the Israelis, who control our ports and borders, suspended our plans. As we began the truce which we initiated, they were already planning the destruction of our infrastructure. The Israelis slowly and deliberately began reducing the presence of journalists and denying humanitarian groups access to Gaza over the past 6 months. They reduced the number of trucks bringing supplies from several thousand to a handful each month. And since they began their bombing campaign, food and fuel are scarce. In fact, only 9 of 47 bakeries produce bread, only 5% of industrial operations function and wastewater pumping stations have shut down, flooding raw sewage into populated areas, farmland and the sea. We do not know who among us will remain alive once this barbaric onslaught is ended. But we remain, as a people and a government, undeterred in our belief that justice will reign. We can ask no more of you than you have already done – for you have proven that a nation cannot be cowed simply because it drives its own destiny, nor will a leader lose his throne for challenging imperialism. We salute the citizens of Venezuela for choosing President Chavez; and we commend you for being among the few leaders of this age who put people before politics. I may not live to honor our commitment to meet you; but our people will not rest until they have sent a delegation to meet the man who put politics aside, spoke with honor and acted with courage. Very Truly Yours, Dr. Ahmed Yousef Deputy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Former Political Advisor to the Prime Minister Ismael Hanniya With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Unending brutality: Israel Kills 40 Palestinian At UN School
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing - Albert Einstein Israel Kills 40 Palestinian At UN School By Aljazeera Earlier in the day, two people were killed when an artillery shell hit a school in the southern town of Khan Yunis and three people were killed in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medics said. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21650.htm === Uncensored Video Report From Dr. In Gaza Hospital This is an all-out war against the civilian Palestinian population Must Watch - Video and Text Dr . Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21654.htm === 'As I Ran I Saw Three Of My Children. All Dead' By Hazem Balousha in Gaza City and Rory McCarthy - Must Watch - Video and Text The small dead bodies were laid next to one another on the tiled floor of the morgue corridor, the blood drained from their cheeks. One had a bandage still wrapped around his head, another lay with his mouth half-open in his oversized, bloodstained clothes. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21652.htm === Israel Censors the Media Not the conduct of a democratic state I Minute Video Report A report on the restrictions faced by the Media on the reporting of Israeli actions inside the Gaza Strip. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21659.htm === Live Video Report From Gaza Al Jazeera English Live Video Coverage Of Israel's Attack On Gaza. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21629.htm === The Bloodbath In Gaza Separating the Truth from the Hype By Mike Whitney It wouldn't make a bit of difference if Hamas surrendered tomorrow and handed-over all its weapons to Israel, because the problem isn't Hamas; it's Zionism, the deeply-flawed ideology which leads to bombing children in their homes while clinging to victim-hood. Ideas have consequences. Gaza proves it. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21663.htm === The Real Real Reason Behind The Attack On Gaza ANALYSIS / The Unspoken Goal of Bringing Down Hamas in Gaza By Amir Oren Hamas must agree to a coexistence in Gaza - of the Hamas government, stripped of its rockets; the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas along the Philadelphi Route ?(the two battalions trained in Jordan by the United States?); and perhaps also an inter-Arab or international force at the border crossings. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21651.htm === The Real Estate War in Gaza The History and Morals of Ethnic Cleansing By Victoria Buch I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21660.htm === Ann Frank Alive In Gaza Genocide in the Gaza Ghetto By michael Inside this tiny enclave i have heard that Ann Frank is alive and well Ann is hiding from the bombs and the door-to-door search looking for her and her kind As they blast holes in the walls from house to house They shoot at anything that moves or anyone with a rock in their hand. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21662.htm === What Silence Says Gaza is Still Waiting on Obama By Tami Sarfatti and Yonatan Mendel Your silence Mr. President Elect Obama is ringing very loud in the ears of the people of this region. It creates despair in those who had the audacity to hope for change. And despair is a dangerous engine. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21661.htm === Where's Osama? By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich It seems that the outgoing Christian President and his gang of neocon thugs were so busy giving the green light to the Israelis to commit genocide that they forgot a minor detail: OBL. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21657.htm === Have Bush and the Neocons Ruined it for the Israelis? By Juan Cole The Israeli propaganda blitz around their attack on Gaza has been greeted with uncharacteristic skepticism by the American public and even by some of the mainstream US press. - If it is true that Americans are greeting Israeli talking points with more criticism this time, is it because we have been intensively exposed for the past 8 years to precisely this sort of mental manipulation by Bush-Cheney and their stable of Neoconservatives? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21653.htm === With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Re: Bismillah [IslamCity] Boycott Israeli products: Terrorism of Israel
Say Boycott US. It's only because of US support Israel dare to attack Gaza. And without their support, nothing would have happened. With Regards Abi --- On Wed, 12/31/08, za...@yahoo.com za...@yahoo.com wrote: From: za...@yahoo.com za...@yahoo.com Subject: Bismillah [IslamCity] Boycott Israeli products: Terrorism of Israel To: eGroup For Muslims Around The World islamcity@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 7:20 AM Visit www.inminds. co.uk/ boycott-israel. html http://www.hiroshim a- remembered.com/ http://www. boycottisraeligoods .org/ http://www.boycotta merica.org/ More than 345 Palestinians are killed and more than 200 are injured in recent air strikes: (Dont forget to visit above given links: Pepsi Co., Coca-Cola, Mc Donald, Nestle, Johnson Johnson, e.t.c. are American companies. Products of Pepsi Co are Pepsi, 7up, e.t.c. Products of Coca-Cola Co. are Coca Cola, Thumps up, e.t.c. (Products of Pepsico and Coca Cola company can be recognized from the advertisements and labels of soft drinks) Profit of Each Bottle of Pepsi and Coca Cola; or of any other products we purchase here, goes to America. From this, America gives million and billions of dollars to Israel to purchase arms and ammunition(war planes, tanks, missiles, guns, bullets, e.t.c.), which are used for killing Muslims. Israel has captured some parts of Palestine like, Baitul Muqaddas(Previous Kibla of Muslims), Gaza Strip, West Bank, e.t.c. Like any other country, Palestine is fighting for its freedom with Israel. Muslims of Palestine are fighting for the freedom of Baitul Muqaddas, Gaza Strip, e.t.c. America uses the profit got from Pepsi Co., Coca Cola, e.t.c to Support Israel. America gives this millions of dollars to Israel, so that it can use these million and billion of dollars against the Muslims who are fighting to free Baitul Muqaddas. Many freedom fighters, including children and women are killed each year in Israeli bombardment and firing. Statistics of the Palestinian losses during 29/9/2000 to 31/7/2004 in Israeli attack: No. of Palestinian children(below 18 years) killed: 643 No. of killed females: 239 Total No. of killed people: 3473 Total No. of wounded Palestinians: 41,424 No. of houses completely demolished: 6,757 No. of houses partially demolished: 59,107 (For statistics of children, females and total no. of people killed, in Palestine, and other parts of the world, visit www.google.com) Lets we 1.6 Billion Muslims, Boycott American and Israeli products and slap their economy. Visit http://www.hiroshim a- remembered.com/ http://www. boycottisraeligoods .org/ http://www.boycotta merica.org/ Please try to print this article in your Local Islamic Magazines LETS WE ALL WORK FOR THE FREEDOM OF PALESTINE
Bismillah [IslamCity] Chavez: The Israel US Presidents should be taken to International Criminal Court
'The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza,' Mr Chavez said in televised comments earlier on Tuesday. 'The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States.' Venezuela expels Israel envoy Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez (pictured) called the attacks a Palestinian 'holocaust'. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_322916.html CARACAS - VENEZUELA expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian 'holocaust'. The socialist Chavez, a harsh critic of Israel and the United States, in recent years has frequently withdrawn Venezuela's diplomatic envoys amid bilateral disputes and last year kicked out the US ambassador over a conflict involving allied Bolivia. The Opec nation's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel's campaign constituted 'flagrant violations of International Law' and the use of 'state terrorism'. 'For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the Ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the Embassy of Israel,' the statement said. The Israeli embassy did not respond to phone calls requesting comment. Mr Chavez in 2006 threatened to break ties with Israel over its military campaign in Lebanon in a war of words that led both nations to withdraw their envoys. On Monday he accused Washington of poisoning the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to destabilize the Middle East and justify US-backed Israeli incursions into Arab countries. Israel is under international pressure to reach a ceasefire with Hamas militants and halt an offensive that has killed nearly 600 Palestinians, including more than 40 in a UN school sheltering civilians. 'The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza,' Mr Chavez said in televised comments earlier on Tuesday. 'The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States.' The United States, which Mr Chavez describes as a decadent empire, firmly backs Israel - its principal ally in the region. -- REUTERS With Regards Abi P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: Hamas in the eyes of an expert - Al Jazeera
As received
With Regards
Abi
--- On Sun, 1/4/09, Abdul Salam N. Muhammed sa...@infobhan.net wrote:
From: Abdul Salam N. Muhammed sa...@infobhan.net
Subject: Hamas in the eyes of an expert - Al Jazeera
To:
Date: Sunday, January 4, 2009, 12:38 AM
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Hamas in the eyes of an expert
Hamas fighters are said to have learned a lot from Hezbollah's war with Israel
in 2006
Khaled Hroub, author of several books on Hamas, including Hamas: A Beginner's
Guide, talks to Al Jazeera about the organisation's social and political
strengths and explains why he believes Hamas is looking forward to an
Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera: Two senior Hamas leaders were recently killed in Israeli air
strikes. How will this impact the organisation's leadership?
Khaled Hroub: Hamas' leaders are very used to hiding and escaping Israeli
attacks. I can't see this affecting Hamas much. Israel succeeded in
assassinating very senior Hamas leaders including Sheikh [Ahmed] Yasin himself,
the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, then followed by Abdel Aziz
Al-Rantissi who was the main figure in the Gaza Strip.
And yet Hamas continued to rise and succeeded in winning the elections. So I
can't see Hamas being weakened by killing one or two or three or even more
leaders in the Gaza Strip.
Nizar Rayyan, one of many Hamas leaders, was killed on January 1, 2009 [AFP]How
does the Hamas leadership work, given that Hamas is not so much an organisation
but a deeply rooted ideology amongst the Palestinians in Gaza?
Hamas's strength is based on the very broad social and political base that it
has in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, so what we are seeing as the leadership is
only the tip of the iceberg.
Hamas's leadership is decentralised between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the
Israeli jails and the leadership outside of Palestine.
This kind of power of decentralisation of Hamas makes the whole movement
stronger in terms of not caging the leadership in one single area, and because
of this they keep producing leaders from the third and second rankings to the
highest echelons of the movement.
Hamas doesn't have the military resources to match Israel. If the ground
incursion does happen, how do you see Hamas operating?
I can't see any success, strategically speaking, on the side of the Israeli
aggression. That is because Israel declared that their one main objective is to
disarm Hamas and stop rockets from being launched from the Gaza Strip. Even
after one month of this aggression, if one single rocket was launched from the
Gaza Strip this means the whole Israeli strategy has failed.
If any land incursion takes place into the Gaza Strip, I think this makes the
whole Israeli strategy even more difficult. Everybody knows that Hamas is
well-entrenched now in the Gaza Strip because they have a network of tunnels -
they hide very well. And maybe even they hope that at one point this Israeli
land invasion takes place so that they can deal the Israeli army some strong
defensive attacks.
Would Hamas have learned lessons from Hezbollah's war against Israel in
southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006?
Hamas learned lessons from Israel's war with Hezbollah in the summer of
2006 [EPA] One can tell of so many lessons Hamas has learned from the
experience of Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. First of all, this tunnel
strategy that has taken place in the Gaza Strip, secondly even the sloganeering
and rhetoric - rather than producing threats that they can't match, what they
are doing and what they are saying is something they can achieve.
The Israeli side knows very well that Hamas has unseen and unknown capabilities
within the Gaza Strip and this is why they are still reluctant to do the
invasion.
Is the war likely to galvanise support behind Hamas?
In my view, Hamas will most likely emerge victorious out of this because on the
one hand, it's akin to impossible to eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
I can't imagine any way of finishing this movement in the Gaza Strip. Even if
Bismillah [IslamCity] The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant - By TARIQ ALI
‘Nobody can reject or condemn the revolt of a people that has been suffering under military occupation for forty-five years against occupation force’: the words of General Shlomo Gazit, former chief of Israeli military intelligence, in 1993. December 30, 2008 Official Apathy The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant By TARIQ ALI http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq12302008.html The assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the Right and the Far Right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon a few years, sit back and watch. Washington, as is its wont, blames the pro-Hamas Palestinians, with Obama and Bush singing from the same AIPAC hymn sheet. The EU politicians, having observed the build-up, the siege, the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza, the targeting of civilians, etc [See Harvard scholar Sara Roy’s chilling essay in the latest LRB] were convinced that it was the rocket attacks that had ‘provoked’ Israel but called on both sides to end the violence, with nil effect. The moth-eaten Mubarik dictatorship in Egypt and NATO’s favourite Islamists in Ankara, failed to even register a symbolic protest by recalling their Ambassadors from Israel. China and Russia did not convene a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the crisis. As result of official apathy, one outcome of this latest attack will be to inflame Muslim communities throughout the world and swell the ranks of those very organisations that the West claims it is combating in the ‘war against terror’. The bloodshed in Gaza raises broader strategic questions for both sides, issues related to recent history. One fact that needs to be recognised is that there is no Palestinian Authority. There never was one. The Oslo Accords were an unmitigated disaster for the Palestinians, creating a set of disconnected and shrivelled Palestinian ghettoes under the permanent watch of a brutal enforcer. The PLO, once the repository of Palestinian hope, became little more than a supplicant for EU money. Western enthusiasm for democracy stops when those opposed to its policies are elected to office. The West and Israel tried everything to secure a Fatah victory: Palestinian voters rebuffed the concerted threats and bribes of the ‘international community’ in a campaign that saw Hamas members and other oppositionists routinely detained or assaulted by the IDF, their posters confiscated or destroyed, us and EU funds channelled into the Fatah campaign, and US Congressmen announcing that Hamas should not be allowed to run. Even the timing of the election was set by the determination to rig the outcome. Scheduled for the summer of 2005, it was delayed till January 2006 to give Abbas time to distribute assets in Gaza—in the words of an Egyptian intelligence officer: ‘the public will then support the Authority against Hamas’. Popular desire for a clean broom after ten years of corruption, bullying and bluster under Fatah proved stronger than all of this. Hamas’s electoral triumph was treated as an ominous sign of rising fundamentalism, and a fearsome blow to the prospects of peace with Israel, by rulers and journalists across the Atlantic world. Immediate financial and diplomatic pressures were applied to force Hamas to adopt the same policies as those whom it defeated at the polls. Uncompromised by the Palestinian Authority’s combination of greed and dependency, the self-enrichment of its servile spokesmen and policemen, and their acquiescence in a ‘peace process’ that has brought only further expropriation and misery to the population under them, Hamas offered the alternative of a simple example. Without any of the resources of its rival, it set up clinics, schools, hospitals, vocational training and welfare programmes for the poor. Its leaders and cadres lived frugally, within reach of ordinary people. It is this response to everyday needs that has won Hamas the broad basis of its support, not daily recitation of verses from the Koran. How far its conduct in the second Intifada has given it an additional degree of credibility is less clear. Its armed attacks on Israel, like those of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade or Islamic Jihad, have been retaliations against an occupation far more deadly than any actions it has ever undertaken. Measured on the scale of IDF killings, Palestinian strikes have been few and far between. The asymmetry was starkly exposed during Hamas’s unilateral ceasefire, begun in June 2003, and maintained throughout the summer despite the Israeli campaign of raids and mass arrests, which followed, in which some three hundred Hamas cadres were seized from the West Bank. On 19 August 2003 a self-proclaimed
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: Pirates Of The Mediterranean: Yvonne Ridley
NOT content with committing war crimes and human rights atrocities in full view of the world, Israel has now confirmed itself as a rogue state by launching into international piracy With Regards Abi --- On Tue, 12/30/08, Iqbal Soofi iqbal...@yahoo.com wrote: From: Iqbal Soofi iqbal...@yahoo.com Subject: Pirates Of The Mediterranean: Yvonne Ridley To: Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 10:14 PM Pirates Of The Mediterranean By Yvonne Ridley December 31, 2008 Information Clearinghouse --- - NOT content with committing war crimes and human rights atrocities in full view of the world, Israel has now confirmed itself as a rogue state by launching into international piracy. Barely had dawn broke over the Mediterranean waters in which the SS Dignity was sailing when an Israeli naval gunboat rammed the aid-bearing ship. The act of aggression on a peace mission was launched in international waters 90 miles off Gaza, without any warning to the captain of the Dignity or the crew. Israel claimed the incident was an accident and that its naval officers had made numerous attempts to communicate with the Dignity. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP press agency that the naval vessel tried to contact the aid boat by radio for identification and to inform it that it could not enter Gaza. After the boat did not answer the radio, it sharply veered and the two vessels collided, causing only light damage, Palmor said. I wonder how many traffic cops around the world have heard that line from a drunken or reckless driver in the wake of a crash. The Israeli spokesman then went on to accuse the international activists of seeking provocation more than ever. Isn’t it amazing how Yigal and Co suddenly go belly up and adopt a victim mentality. I wonder how he will react to the news that onboard the ship, among the cargo of much-needed medical supplies and humanitarian aid were TV crews from CNN and Al Jazeera as well as other media. For goodness sake, the Dignity was on a peace mission, armed with nothing more than humanitarian aid - hardly a match for the tooled up, hi-tech Israeli Navy and its deadly arsenal. Sorry to be so direct, but Palmor is a purveyor of deceit, a liar - and a very unconvincing one at that. You see all sea-faring people know that there is a certain radio channel and frequency which remains open 24 hours a day. I know myself, because the Israeli Navy used that exact same frequency on one of the two Free Gaza boats as they set sail back in August 2008 to break the siege of Gaza by sea. That emergency frequency carried messages of threats and intimidation as clear as a bell. Radio communications were used without any difficulty on the Israeli Navy several times by human rights activists from the Free Gaza Movement warning the gunboats to back off when they fired at Gazan fishermen. The westerners were on the tiny fishing ships to stop the naval bully boys terrorise the unarmed fishermen. And by the way, what the hell is Israel up to by banning or trying to prevent boats from entering20waters not in its territory? This is the Mediterranean. Just when did Israel assume complete authority of the Med? It is also worth pointing out that SS Dignity was clearly flying the flag of Gibraltar, and was piloted by an English captain with a passenger list including revered politician Cynthia McKinney from the US. The Israeli Government Press Office director was faxed the entire passenger list and press release shortly after Dignity set sail. Cynthia is a former Congresswoman from Georgia, and the 2008 Green Party US presidential candidate. She was travelling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict. I know her and I can tell you she is one sassy lady. If the Israel Navy thinks this little incident is going to sink without trace then they truly are in for one rude awakening. She was joined by another woman of substance, Dr. Elena Theoharous, MP who is a surgeon and a Member of the Cypriot Parliament. She was going to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict, assist with humanitarian relief efforts, and volunteer in hospitals. Furthermore, the attack was filmed by the journalists, and crew and passengers and no doubt we will see the full extent of that footage and the damage caused by Israel. Of course Israel is always using the “Oo-er, sorry it was an accident” routine. That’s the excuse the Zionist State used when it hit the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967 with a flurry of bombs, murdering 34 American servicemen in cold blood. In the 40 years since, those with the blood of those shipmates on their hands have gotten away with murder. But try as they might to rewrite what happened onboard the Dignity and the Liberty, there are some memories which will not die. And what Israel has done to Gaza in the last few days will become an epitaph for the Zionist State. Today’s piracy just underlines the fact that no one in the international community
Bismillah [IslamCity] Israel's failure to learn
The most plausible theory, however, is that reported by the Haaretz, which states Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been planning this operation, known as Operation Cast Lead, into the Gaza strip well over six months. Those six months of relative peace were used by the IDF for information gathering, in order to understand Hamas’s security infrastructure completely and destroy it when ready. Israel's failure to learn By Nir Rosen When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada. Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine. The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive. An Israeli general recently threatened to use military force to set Gaza back decades in much the same language used before the invasion of Lebanon in 2006. But despite the Israeli devastation of Lebanon, Hezbollah emerged victorious and the Shia resistance and social movement emerged a hero to the Arab world. Israel is about to make the same mistake with Hamas. Its notion of a truce with Hamas was that the Palestinians would quietly accept the siege. Israel would deny them the basic means of survival, let alone the basic means to create a functioning society. If the Palestinians attempted to resist, they would be crushed. As in Lebanon, Israel should have learned years ago that military might cannot crush Palestinian resistance movements. Media matters While the Israeli military again bombs the starving and imprisoned population of 1.5 million Gazans, the world watches their plight live as Western media scrambles to explain and, in some cases, justify the ongoing carnage. Even some Arab outlets have attempted to equate Palestinian resistance - and homemade rockets - with the might of the Israeli military machine. However, none of this is a surprise; the Israelis just concluded a global public relations campaign to gather support for their assault, even gaining the collaboration of some Arab states. An American periodical once asked me to contribute to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be justified. This is a question for the weak, such as the Native Americans 150 years ago, the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Palestinians today, to answer. Terrorism is a normative term which is used to describe what the 'other' does, not what 'we' do. Powerful nations such as Israel, the US, Russia or China will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism. However, they fail to acknowledge as acts of terror the destruction of Chechnya, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the repression of Tibetans, and the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Normative rules and what is legal and permissible are determined by the powerful. They formulate the concept of terrorism in normative terms and make it appear as if a neutral court derived such definitions instead of the oppressors. For the weak to resist becomes illegal by definition. This excessive use of legal jargon actually undermines the fundamentals of what is truly legal and diminishes the credibility of international institutions such as the UN. The law becomes the enemy of those who struggle. It becomes apparent that the powerful - those who make the rules - insist on legality merely to preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and colonialism. Desperate resistance Colonial powers use civilians strategically, settling them to claim land and dispossess the natives, be they indigenous populations in North America or Palestinians in what are today Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Attacking civilians, then, becomes the last, most desperate and basic method of resistance in the face of overwhelming odds and imminent eradication. The Palestinians do not attack Israeli civilians with the expectation that such violence will destroy or defeat Israel. When the native population understands that there is an irreversible dynamic stripping them of their land and identity with the support of an overwhelming power then they are forced to resort to whatever methods of resistance they can muster. PLO, then Hamas In 1948, when Israel was being established as a new state, 750,000 Palestinians were deliberately cleansed and expelled from their homes, and hundreds of their villages were destroyed. Their lands were settled by colonists who even today deny their very existence and wage a 60-year war against the remaining natives and the national liberation movements the Palestinians established around the world. Israel, its allies in the West and
Bismillah [IslamCity] Stop Gaza Slaughter
Resistance to Israeli occupation – a right? Posted December 29, 2008 Palestinians are a people under occupation who has the right to self-determination under the UN Charter, the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations from 1970, and Article 1 of both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The right to self-determination Palestinians possess a specific history in an identifiable territory, a distinct culture, and a will and capability to gain self-governance. The right to self-determination was acknowledged by the international community in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947, and recently by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its Advisory Opinion on the Wall (section 118). The ICJ stated that: …construction, along with measures taken previously, thus severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self‑determination, and is therefore a breach of
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: History of Israel
As received With Regards Abi --- On Mon, 12/29/08, Burhan Abro burhan...@gmail.com wrote: From: Burhan Abro burhan...@gmail.com Subject: (SPN) History of Israel To: Date: Monday, December 29, 2008, 2:30 PM Israel is to become the watchdog. There is no fear that Israel will undertake any aggressive Policy towards the Arab states when this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the US and Britain. But if for any reasons the Western powers should sometimes prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or several neighbouring states whose discourtesy to the West went beyond the bounds of the permissible. The Israeli paper Ha'aretz, 30 September 1951 Dear friends, While we look at the devastating news that is coming out of Gaza with disbelief, I think it is imperative that we know the full background of Zionism and how Israel was armed by the US and Britain to become the 3rd biggest military power. For this purpose I thought of sharing with you friends a pamphlet that was published by the Socialist Workers Party of Britain in 1986, written by John Rose. It is called, Israel: The Hijack State America's Watchdog in the Middle East (1986) by John Rose http://www.marxists .de/middleast/ rose/index. htm I read it a few months ago and found it a fact-based-eye- opener, even though it was published 20 years ago, its still very relevant. The complete text is available on the above link. If anyone wants the bounded book form, then its is available with us at Int'l Socialists for a very very reasonable price. Burhan International Socialists Pak. .
Bismillah [IslamCity] Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
“We had one meal today - khobbeizeh,” said Abu Amra, 43, showing the leaves of
a plant that grows along the streets of Gaza. “Every day, I wake up and start
looking for wood and plastic to burn for fuel and I beg. When I find nothing,
we eat this grass.”
Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
Marie Colvin
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5338014.ece
#yiv2018794131 div#related-article-links p a, #yiv2018794131
div#related-article-links p a:visited {
color:#06c;}
AS a convoy of blue-and-white United Nations trucks loaded with food waited
last night for Israeli permission to enter Gaza, Jindiya Abu Amra and her
12-year-old daughter went scrounging for the wild grass their family now lives
on.
“We had one meal today - khobbeizeh,” said Abu Amra, 43, showing the leaves of
a plant that grows along the streets of Gaza. “Every day, I wake up and start
looking for wood and plastic to burn for fuel and I beg. When I find nothing,
we eat this grass.”
Abu Amra and her unemployed husband have seven daughters and a son. Their tiny
breeze-block house has had no furniture since they burnt the last cupboard for
heat.
“I can’t remember seeing a fruit,” said Rabab, 12, who goes with her mother
most mornings to scavenge. She is dressed in a tracksuit top and holed jeans,
and her feet are bare.
Conditions for most of the 1.5m Gazans have deteriorated dramatically in the
past month, since a truce between Israel and Hamas, the ruling Islamist party,
broke down.
Israel says it will open the borders again when Hamas stops launching rockets
at southern Israel. Hamas says it will crack down on the rocket launchers when
Israel opens the borders.
The fragile truce technically ends this Thursday, and there have been few signs
it will be renewed. Nobody knows how to resolve the stalemate. Secret talks are
under way through Egyptian intermediaries, although both sides deny any contact.
Israel controls the borders and allows in humanitarian supplies only
sporadically. Families had electricity for six hours a day last week. Cooking
gas was available only through the illegal tunnels that run into Egypt, and by
last week had jumped in price from 80 shekels per canister (£14) to 380 shekels
(£66).
The UN, which has responsibility for 1m refugees in Gaza, is in despair. “The
economy has been crushed and there are no imports or exports,” said John Ging,
director of its relief and works agency.
“Two weeks ago, for the first time in 60 years, we ran out of food,” he said.
“We used to get 70 to 80 trucks per day, now we are getting 15 trucks a day,
and only when the border opens. We’re living hand to mouth.”
He has four days of food in stock for distribution to the most desperate - and
no idea whether Israel will reopen the border. The Abu Amra family may have to
eat wild grass for the foreseeable future.
With Regards
Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Nellie: India’s forgotten massacre - Harsh Mander
Six hundred and eighty eight criminal cases were filed in connection with Nellie organised massacre and of these 310 cases were charge-sheeted. The remaining 378 cases were closed due to the police claim of “lack of evidence”. But all the 310 charge-sheeted cases were dropped by the AGP government as a part of Assam Accord; therefore not a single person has even had to face trial for the gruesome massacre. Some lives are clearly deemed by the State of being of little worth compared to others. BAREFOOT Nellie: India’s forgotten massacre HARSH MANDER http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/12/14/stories/2008121450100300.htm A weak and partisan State leaves each of its citizens weak and vulnerable, as the Mumbai attacks and the gruesome Nellie massacres demonstrate… And so the stories flowed, like a deluge of muddied waters of grief — long unaddressed and denied — gushing from a breached dam. The burden of memories: From left, Noon Nahar Begum, Alekjaan Biwi and Hazara Khatun. A lifetime is much too short to forget. It was November 26, 2008, the day that was to become etched in India’s history for the audacious and traumatic terrorist commando attack on the country’s commercial capital Mumbai. I happened to be on that day at a location as distant as possible from Mumbai — psychologically, politically and socially — at Nellie in Assam, the site of one of free India’s most brutal forgotten massacres in 1983. I had been invited by the survivors to sit with them as they recalled and commemorated the events that had unfolded in this distant impoverished corner of the country 25 years earlier.Journey into the past We gathered in the soft sunshine of early winter in an open courtyard. A crowd quickly gathered: the older men with checked lungis and beards could easily be distinguished as people of East Bengali Muslim origin. The women and younger men dressed like anyone from an Assamese village. There were the initial courtesies of traditional welcome, as they offered us customary white Assamese scarves with exquisite red embroidery. Senior officials of the State government who accompanied me had gently dissuaded me from the visit, questioning the wisdom of re-opening wounds of painful events of such a distant past. People have moved on long ago, they assured me. What purpose then would our visit serve? It would only revive memories that have long been buried. The same advice came from many non-official friends who worked in development organisations in the State. They added that the visit would stir issues that were too bitterly contested in the region. But the survivors persisted in their resolve that they wanted to be heard. It was impossible for me to refuse them.Enormous suffering On February 18, 1983, in the genocidal massacre organised in Nellie, just 40 km from Guwahati , 2,191 Muslim settlers originally from Bangladesh were slaughtered, leaving 370 children orphaned and their homes in 16 villages destroyed. As the survivors spoke one by one before our gathering a quarter century later, all of us who heard them — including officials, academics, social workers — were completely stunned, and shamed, by the enormity and immediacy of their suffering today, which retained an urgency as though they had only very recently suffered the unspeakable cruelties that they gave words to, not 25 years earlier. The bodies of many were twisted and deformed by inadequately treated injuries from the assaults by machetes and daggers; others pulled back their clothes to expose frightening scars of the attacks of a generation earlier. Hazara Khatun, with scars of a dagger attack on her face that she survived in 1983, sat on the ground before us and pointed to her empty lap. “I was cradling my child here”, she said in a low voice. “They chopped him into two, down the middle”. Another widow Alekjaan Biwi, was far less calm. Her body was twisted, and we could all see that she had lost her psychological equilibrium. Eleven members of her family were slaughtered in the massacre, and she acted out for us how the mob had attacked them, how she had cowered and hidden herself, how she was discovered and wounded, and how she survived even though scarred and deformed for life. “I have no one in the world,” she concluded quietly.Deluge of grief In his early thirties, Mohammed Monoruddin began to cry inconsolably as soon as he sat before us. “My brothers, sisters were all killed, hacked into pieces,” he recalled. “I was seven years old then. I saw my parents slaughtered in front of me. I saw another woman being killed and her child snatched from her hands and thrown in fire. I wept in terror all day. The CRPF came in the evening and rescued me. Later we came to know that our house was torched. Nothing was left. All our belongings and stores of rice were gone in the fire. My elder brother, who was in Nagaon, brought me up. But I feel so lonely.” Many others spoke of their
Bismillah [IslamCity] Are those working for intelligence agencies above the law? - Amaresh Misra
This again brings the question of who would benefit from Karkare's death and the timing of the Mumbai attack―it is important to emphasize that all contractual terrorist operations are, and I am quoting a CIA manual here (the CIA and the Mossad excel in contract terrorism as can be seen from several books, especially on CIA-Mossad operations in Beirut and Lebanon) in essence a question of gamble. We do it to achieve multiple objectives. But it is almost impossible that all those objectives will be met; even if one or two are met, the operation is a success. The Mumbai attack has the appearance of a `multiple objective' strike, in which some objectives like Karkare's death were met and some, like BJP's winning elections in Delhi and Rajasthan were not. Did Mumbai terrorists work through Bona-fide Indian Police Informers? Amaresh Misra http://www.unnindia.com/english/story.php?Id=3641 A new revelation, which actually repeats a pattern seen before, casts its own shadow over the Mumbai terror attack. A report, appearing on several Indian and International news agencies claims that, persons who probably brought SIM cards used by Mumbai terrorists could have been Police informers and people working for different Indian State Police or intelligence forces: One of the two Indian men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks was a counterinsurgency police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said Saturday, demanding his release. The arrests, announced in the eastern city of Calcutta, were the first since the bloody siege ended. But what was touted as a rare success for India's beleaguered law enforcement agencies, quickly turned sour as police in two Indian regions squared off against one another. Senior police officers in Indian Kashmir, which has been at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan, demanded the release of the officer, Mukhtar Ahmed, saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri militant groups. Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links to Kashmir, trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks that left 171 people dead after a three-day rampage through Mumbai that began Nov. 26. The implications of Ahmed's involvement - that Indian agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied the SIM cards used in the attacks added to the growing list of questions over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for not thwarting the attacks. Earlier Saturday, Calcutta police announced the arrests of Ahmed and Tauseef Rahman, who allegedly bought SIM cards by using fake documents, including identification cards of dead people. The cards allow users switch their cellular service to phones other than their own. Rahman, of West Bengal state, later sold them to Ahmed, said Rajeev Kumar a senior Calcutta police officer. Both men were arrested Friday and charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy, Kumar said, adding that police were still investigating how the 10 gunmen obtained the SIM cards. But the announcement had police in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, fuming. We have told Calcutta police that Ahmed is our man and it's now up to them how to facilitate his release, said one senior officer speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Other police officials in Kashmir supported his account. The officer said Ahmed was a Special Police Officer, part of a semiofficial counterinsurgency network whose members are usually drawn from former militants. The force is run on a special funding from the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. Sometimes we use our men engaged in counterinsurgency ops to provide SIM cards to the (militant) outfits so that we track their plans down, said the officer. Police said Ahmed was recruited to the force after his brother was killed five years ago, allegedly by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants for being a police informer. About a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting in Kashmir since 1989, seeking independence from mainly Hindu India or a union with Muslim-majority Pakistan. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, which is divided between them and claimed by both in its entirety. The Calcutta police denied the claims from Srinagar. This is not true, said Kumar. The bungling and miscommunications among India's many security services comes as police said they were re-examining another suspected Lashkar militant who was arrested nine months before the attacks carrying hand-drawn sketches of Mumbai hotels, the train terminal and other targeted sites. It is a standard and understandable practice of Indian security forces to use captured militants or ex-militants with grievances for
Bismillah [IslamCity] NDTV Simi Agarwal says that the flags she sees in slums are Pakistani flag
Dear Simi Agarwal, All that's green is not a Pakistani flag!! With Regards Abi --- On Sun, 11/30/08, Vinod wrote: From: vinod Subject: NDTV Simi Agarwal says that the flags she sees in slums are Pakistani flag To: Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 11:34 PM Please listen to the last part of the program which came on NDTV. We need to protest it with NDTV. If not they will soon close down all muslim organisations and institutions which have green flag on it. She thinks all green flags are Pakistani. Please note that there was a similar incident which would have almost resulted in comunal riots in karnataka if it was not for Vaartha Bharathi (Kannada Daily). They carried an article showing both the flags- pakistani and the one under question http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/video/video.aspx?id=45860
Bismillah [IslamCity] Who Benefits From Mumbai Terror Attacks? - Binu Mathew
And now to the question that is on everybody's mind. Who did this dastardly act? Although, this is not the topic of this article and also it is for the investigation agencies to decide, and as I dont want to engage in wild guesses I can suggest only this much, those forces who destroyed the twin towers in New York might be behind the Mumbai terror attacks too. Whoever benefitted from 9/11 will benefit from the Mumbai terror attack internationally and the Hindutva forces will benefit from it locally. Who Benefits From Mumbai Terror Attacks? By Binu Mathew 29 November, 2008 http://www.countercurrents.org/mathew291108.htm Mumbai terrorist stand off is almost over. More than 200 civilians and about 20 police and army officials lost their lives. Taj Mahal palace, a symbol of India's business and commercial well being bears a ghostly look. The terror stricken populace slowly limp back to life. Will Mumbai be the same again? Will India be the same again? There are talk in the media that the Mumbai terror attack is India's 9/11. The similiarities may be far fatched, but there are so many things that bears stark resemblances to each other. Both attacks are carried out apparently by muslim terrorist organisations. Both New York and Mumbai are commercial and business centers of the respective nations. Although the magnitude of the attacks may look dissimilar, the sheer psychological impact on the populace of both the nation and the world in general is comparable in dimension. 9/11 was an earth shattering event that unleashed a chain of reactions that changed the world irremediably, both inside the USA and around the world. And what about India's 9/11? It's very possible that the chain of reactions that followed the US 9/11 are likely to follow here as well. The leader of the opposition and a prime ministerial candidate of the Hindu right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for stringent anti terror laws. A patriot act may not be far behind. That gives us a clue to who is going to benefit from these terror attacks. The BJP has been calling for new anti-terror laws ever since the Congress led UPA government repealed the much reviled Prevention of Terrorist Atrocities Act(POTA). The UPA repealed the law as there were many complaints, especially from minority communities that it has been used selectively to frame innocents from a particular community. In the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks, a new terror law is imminent. One other tragedy of the terrorist attack is that the chief of Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Mumbai, Hemant Karkare, lost his life to terrorist's bullets. He was a brave and upright official who was probing the link between Hindu fascist organisations and terror blasts in several parts of India. The ATS under Karkare had arrested a Hindu Sanyasin and an army Lt. Colonel. Several other retired army personnel and retired Intelligence Bureau officials were also named in the affair. Indian news papers had carried pictures of the Sanyasin sitting with the president of the BJP and the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Prithvi Raj Chauhan. Then came the startling revelation that the International General Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), had donated money to Abhinav Bharat the organisation that master minded the September 29 Malegaon blast. The investigation was reaching such a stage that more top functionaries of Sangh Parivar (a general denomination for the various Hindu supremascist organisations) were likely to be named. Now, that Karkare is gone, and the nations attention is turned elsewhere, the enquiry may face a slow death. Yesterday, a hindu colleague (who is a level headed moderate man himself) text messaged me saying, 'you people will make us terrorists'. He was suggesting that Muslims and Christians (the minorities in India) will make the majority Hindus terrorists! This is another fall out of India's 9/11. To put it simply, the position of minorities in India, especially Muslims has become more precarious. India will be communally more divided. It will only strengthen the Hindutva forces and their political wing, BJP. India is going to polls next year. These blasts are going to weaken the ruling Congress and strengthen the BJP. And then the big international picture. The 'War on Terror' has come to India! Even though Indian Muslims had been demonised by the Hindutva forces in India, it had only a local impact. They were not part of the bigger war on Muslims perpetrated by the Israel- Neocon promoted George W. Bush regime. Diplomatically also,India kept a safe distance from the US war on terror fearing the backlash of the strong domestic muslim population. Now with the Mumbai terror attacks they have come under the radar of the 'War on Terror.' Now that the Obama regime is intending to spread this war into Pakistan and expand its operation in Afghanistan, India could be a willing strategic partner in the region. And now
Bismillah [IslamCity] Mumbai attack: Terrorists spoke Marathi?
Te newspaper said the terrorists who targeted ATS chief Hemant Karkare, police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were speaking Marathi fluently Mumbai attack: Terrorists spoke Marathi? Submitted by mumtaz on 29 November 2008 - 2:26pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008nov29/mumbai_attack_terrorists_spoke_marathi.html By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net Mumbai: It is somehow surprising to learn that the terrorists in Cama hospital in Mumbai were fluently speaking Marathi. The terrorists who are said to have fired in Cama hospital talked to an employee clad in civil dress in Marathi, reports a Marathi daily 'Maharashtra Times'. The newspaper said the terrorists who targeted ATS chief Hemant Karkare, police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were speaking Marathi fluently. The newspaper claims the terrorists having fired at two watchmen in uniform asked the other beside them on gunpoint in Marathi, 'You are here an employee?' The employee caught the legs of the terrorist and said, 'I am not working here. My wife has suffered from heart attack and I have come here to admit her.' The terrorist asked him again in Marathi, 'You are speaking true or false?' The employee answered, 'No, by God I am speaking true.' On this the terrorist let him go. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Suspects were trained to lie
“With his military intelligence background and knowledge of interrogation procedures, this strategy to derail investigation in the event of being arrested was designed by Purohit,” said a police officer involved in the probe Suspects were trained to lie // Stavan Desai Presley Thomas, Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePageid=e7f26f40-accf-4ddb-84fe-7b6c5fcdce2dHeadline=Malegaon+blast+suspects+were+trained+to+lie Mumbai, November 26, 2008 “Injure yourself if you have to”; “complain of torture”; “make personal, embarrassing allegations against the police in court.” These are some instructions members of the radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat – under investigation for its involvement in the Malegaon blast – were given at a training camp conducted by Lt Col Prasad Purohit at Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, earlier this year. The September 29 blast in a crowded marketplace in Maharashtra’s powerloom town claimed six lives. Investigators found details of these training sessions in Purohit’s laptop, which was recovered after his arrest on November 5. Hindustan Times had access to the armyman’s detailed lecture notes. Officials said at least 30 senior Abhinav Bharat members attended these sessions, referred to in the laptop as personality development workshops. The allegations made by Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and the other co-accused at the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Monday are very similar to the instructions in Purohit’s sessions. “With his military intelligence background and knowledge of interrogation procedures, this strategy to derail investigation in the event of being arrested was designed by Purohit,” said a police officer involved in the probe. Maharashtra Director General of Police A.N. Roy said these are delay tactics. “It is becoming common to level allegations against investigators, to slow down the probe and to make investigators wary,” he said. The court on Monday denied the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) custody of seven of the 11 accused, a major setback and embarrassment for the police. The sadhvi was the first to file an affidavit that the ATS had tortured her. “It’s a procedure straight out of the Al Qaeda manual. Once a precedent is set, everybody follows suit,” said advocate Raja Thackeray, who specialises in criminal matters. The allegations are similar to those made by the July 11/7 train blasts accused and Indian Mujahideen members, arrested for their links with the blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] The first Abdullah Yusuf Ali memorial lecture
2:45 pm | Sunday 14 December 2008 | 16 Dhu al-Hijjah 1429 Conference Hall, International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia, Jalan Elmu, off Jalan Universiti, Kuala Lumpur This inaugral lecture in memory of Abdullah Yusuf Ali is being held 55 years after his death on 10 December, 1953. Organised by Islamic Book Trust, it is the first of its kind to commemorate the man who gave one of the most widely distributed works in the English-speaking world, The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary, first published in 1934. The lecture will be delivered by Dr M A Sherif from the United Kingdom, author of Searching for Solace: A Biography of Abdullah Yusuf Ali. A collection of various English translations of the Qur’an will be on display, as well as an exhibition on the life and times of Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Admission is free and open to public. To attend, please register using the online form. http://www.ibtbooks.com/lecture/ With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Mumbai Terror Attack: an observation
I personally belive it's too early to rush into any conclusions. At the same time, no possibilities should be ignored. And that's why I'm forwarding this opinion of Mr. Amaresh Misra With Regards Abi Thursday, 27 November 2008 Mumbai The Mossad Angle GAUTAM ADHIKARI SPEAK UP… DO SOMETHING…SAY OPENLY THAT THE RSS-MOSSAD ARE RESPONSIBLE–OTHERWISE BE DAMNED AND CONSIDER THE NATION DOOMED. THEY KILLED KARKARE TO SEND A MESSAGE THAT YOU CANNOT INVESTIGATE THE MOSSAD-RSS ANGLE. Mumbai and India Under Attack - Amaresh Misra http://top-secret-at.blogspot.com/search/label/Mumbai%20The%20Mossad%20Angle It is 4AM in India right now. I am in Mumbai reporting from the ground. I have not slept a wink. Mumbai is under attack. People and forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj, Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. The Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed. These were the same people who were investigating the Malegaon Blasts–in which Praggya Singh, an army officer and several other noted personalities of the BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP were arrested. Karkare was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several quarters. LK Advani, the BJP chief and several other prominent leaders of the so-called Hindu terrorism squad were gunning for his head. And the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead–gone–the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House–which is the only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels–they openly said that the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one took notice. Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries. It is not possible for one single organization to plan and execute such a sophisticated operation. It is clear that this operation was backed by communal forces from within the Indian State. The Home Minister Shivraj Patil should resign. The RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal should be banned. Advani and others ought to be arrested. Today is a day of shame for all Indians and all Hindus. Muslims and secular Hindus have been proven right. RSS type forces and Israel are all involved in not only destabilizing but finishing India. India should immediately snap all relations with Israel. We owe this much to Karkare and the brave ATS men who had shown the courage to arrest Praggya Singh, Raj Kumar Purohit, the army officer and several others. A photograph publushed in Urdu Times, Mumbai, clearly shows that Mossad and ex-Mossad men came to India and met Sadhus and other pro-Hindutva elements recently. A conspiracy was clearly hatched. This is a moment of reckoning especially for Hindus of India. The killers of Gandhi have struck again. If we are true Sanatanis and true Hindus and true nationalists and true patriots we have to see this act as a clear attack by anti-national deshdrohi forces. Praggya Singh, Advani and the entire brand is anti-national. They ought to be shot. Any Hindu siding with them is hereafter warned of serious consequences. This is a question of nationalism. If no one else, the Indian army will not take this lying down. Communal, anti-national forces have attacked the very foundation of the Indian constitution and the nation. We will fight a civil war if need be against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers. Amaresh Misra
Bismillah [IslamCity] Several Days in Afghanistan as an Unembedded Journalist - YVONNE RIDLEY
“The only winners emerging from Afghanistan these days are the drug barons who preside over the world’s largest heroin trade and the pimps who control the Chinese prostitutes operating from the scores of bordellos and brothels which have emerged since the US military occupation.” Several Days in Afghanistan as an Unembedded Journalist YVONNE RIDLEY in Afghanistan on 08 November, 2008 http://www.dailymuslims.com/Columns/Yvonne-Ridley/Yvonne_Ridley_in_Afghanistan.html THE day after US war planes bombed an Afghan wedding party killing more than 30 women and children, I drove from Pakistan ’s troubled tribal areas to the border crossing. Feeling rather sensitive towards my own security as a white westerner, I decided to throw on an all-enveloping burka and make my way across in the anonymity this garment gives women travelers. As I walked across the border at Torkham towards the Afghan passport control office I heard someone barking in a loud, aggressive American accent at one of the drivers held up at the US-controlled checkpoint. I looked up and watched as a heavily armoured, helmeted soldier pointed his gun and continued screaming in a rude manner for the driver to get in line. It obviously did not occur to him that most of the people in earshot could only understand Pashto. I really despaired and felt sorry for those Afghans who were being greeted by this obnoxious alien in uniform as they entered their own country. Now I know most Americans don’t do humility, but a little sensitivity should have been called for on that day … it was the day after nearly 90 wedding guests had been wiped out in yet another US airstrike. I have now spent several days in Afghanistan as an unembedded journalist, traveling around freely without an armed or military escort. Yes, it’s risky and at times nerve-wracking but if I want to find out what is really happening on the ground I’m not going to get it hiding in some hotel compound or army barracks being briefed by an army spokesman who knows even less than me. So far I’ve spoken to men and women from all backgrounds, cultures and Islamic ideologies and without exception they’re hacked off with the American presence. All the goodwill I saw after the fall of the Taliban has been squandered by the military presence of the US as well as the British (no one really distinguishes between the two) and it is crystal clear they have overstayed their welcome. The Taliban are in control of large swathes of the country and are now bordering on Kabul having already carried out several raids on the capital where Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is under virtual siege. Since his installation as president he has often been accused of being a US puppet, but even he is attempting to break free from those in Washington pulling the strings. Without a doubt, the continued presence of US and British forces has swung violently from being regarded as the solution to becoming the cause of most of the problems. And promises by various army chiefs to bring in more troops to enforce a Baghdad-style surge causes one of two reactions depending your political stance. Peacemakers view the arrival of more troops with spiraling despair while the Taliban and their supporters rub their hands with glee reckoning a larger enemy presence will make an easier target. Of course moronic comments by the likes of Commander Jeff Bender, a US forces spokesman, don’t help. After the Kandahar wedding attack he said: The coalition and Afghan authorities are investigating reports of non-combatant casualties in the village of Wech Baghtu . If innocent people were killed in this operation, we apologise and express our condolences to the families and the people of Afghanistan . What does he mean “if innocent people were killed”. It seems this US insensitivity isn’t just confined to the uniformed grunts at the Torkham border. Does Commander Jeff Bender think that the 33 dead women and children his warplanes wiped out were enemy combatants? Scores of Afghans have been killed in American air strikes this year, fuelling the resentment against the presence of foreign troops and widening the rift between President Karzai and his western puppet masters. The only winners emerging from Afghanistan these days are the drug barons who preside over the world’s largest heroin trade and the pimps who control the Chinese prostitutes operating from the scores of bordellos and brothels which have emerged since the US military occupation. So there you have it – Afghanistan a country in the grip of reckless soldiers, slappers and smack. Yvonne Ridley is a British renowned journalist, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, while on assignment with the London ’s Sunday Express in 2001. She subsequently converted to Islam and now works for the Iranian-based 24-hour English language news channel Press TV, where she fronts her own London-based current affairs show, The Agenda. She was a regular contributor and
Bismillah [IslamCity] Convocation, Jamia Milia Islamia
Greetings! Please find attached the Convocation Address that I delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi on October 30th. The address was delivered in the august presence of celebrated artistes and dignitaries like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Askhar Ali Engineer, and Kapila Vatsayan. It may be recalled that Gurudev Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi had blessed this great institution. This address is all the more significant in the present, turbulent times that the country is passing through. I request you to kindly give wide publicity to the address by publishing it prominently in your columns. Thanks in advance and Warm Wishes. U.R.Ananthamurthy http://www.siasat.com/english/index2.php?option=contentdo_pdf=1id=307076 Convocation, Jamia Milia Islamia 30 October 2008 U.R. Ananthamurthy Dear Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, Deans of faculties, Teachers and Students, When I say it is an honor for me to be the chief Guest in this convocation of Jamia Milia Islamia, it is not a formal statement prefacing all such addresses. I mean it because in these difficult times for most of us, the Vice-chancellor of this great University has shown the courage to act properly, and humanely that would have been the correct action by a head of an institution in normal times. But the hysterical attack on him by his critics prompts me to say that he has defended the ideals that our constitution upholds and nothing more. Nobody who is sane can defend the terrorists. Let us not forget that Gandhiji was killed because he was perceived to be a friend of the Muslims, and an enemy of the Hindus while he strived against the violent actions of both Hindus and Muslims, and fasted to make his own disciples in power to give to Pakistan what was its due, legally. The stridency with which some top political leaders speak now a days makes one feel that Nathuram Godse's way of thinking is yet alive and influential in our country. We want not only the terrorists to be punished for their inhumanity, but the political and cultural malaise that gives succor to terrorism to end. I studied in the great Maharaja’s college of Mysore University which had a British Principal. This living legend who was opposed to the quit India movement, did not allow the police to raid the College without his permission. That was the story handed down by generations of students. In his eyes, the “erring” students were under his care. He was of the opinion that all students were under the care of the head of the University, and s/he must play the role of a parent. I cannot make this point better than my friend and fellow writer Sri Mukul Keshavan: “I have a son who, in less than two years, will go to university. If, god forbid, he finds himself in police remand for whatever reason (murder, armed robbery, menacing the faculty, fraud), I'd want his university to behave as if it were acting in my place, *in loco parentis*. I would expect the proctor of the university to liaise with the station house officer to make sure that such rights of visitation as he might have in that ghastly circumstance were given him, to hire a lawyer to see if he could be released on bail, and if the nature of the alleged offence didn't allow that, to try to have him transferred to judicial custody. Police remand is a dreadful form of imprisonment in India; unlike judicial custody where the procedural restraints of prison manuals apply, the police in their station-house lockups have a free hand in working suspects over. Any university that washes its hands of its students the moment they are arrested by the police because it doesn't want to be associated with notoriety or (as in this case) the taint of terrorism is a cringing and wretched institution undeserving of a citizen’s respect or a parent’s trust.” Prof. Mushirul Hasan as vice-chancellor has stood by the traditions of this great university. The founding fathers of this institution were inspired not only by the anti-colonial Islamic activism of Khilafat, but some of them belonged to the politically radical section of Western educated Indian Muslim intelligentsia. It is important for me that both Gurudev Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, who were skeptical of the European ideal of a strong, centralized nation-state, built on the notion of ‘one language, one religion, one race’, imagined India as a great civilization of multiple cultures and religions and yet united in an advaitic sense: they blessed this institution. Let me quote again Mukul Keshavan to make clear what is at stake in our times now: “When people, policemen and political parties buy into the narrative of *a priori* Muslim guilt, they run the risk of turning this remarkable republic into an ordinary, ugly, majoritarian State.” I know how some of my Muslims friends have begun to feel these days. The media is largely responsible
Bismillah [IslamCity] Education - Kerala: Reforms in question
The findings of the 18-member group of academicians led by the Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, Dr. K.N. Panikkar, is, however, an unexpected outcome of the bitter political controversy and related violence that rocked the State recently over the contents of a few new schoolbooks, among them a social science textbook for Standard VII EDUCATION Failing to deliver R. KRISHNAKUMAR in Thiruvananthapuram http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20081121252303500.htm An expert committee review suggests that all is not well with the decade-long school curriculum reform in Kerala. S. GOPAKUMAR K.N. Panikkar, Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, handing over the report of the Expert Committee on Textbook Review to Education Minister M.A. Baby on October 7. THE report of the Expert Committee on Textbook Review is a revealing commentary on the gap between theory and practice in the making of the curriculum, syllabi and textbooks and in the training of teachers in Kerala under an ambitious teaching reform programme introduced in State schools from 1997. The findings of the 18-member group of academicians led by the Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, Dr. K.N. Panikkar, is, however, an unexpected outcome of the bitter political controversy and related violence that rocked the State recently over the contents of a few new schoolbooks, among them a social science textbook for Standard VII (“A lesson to learn”, Frontline, July 8, 2008). The violence subsided only after it led eventually to the death of a schoolteacher in north Kerala at the hands of a group of students trying to unsettle a teacher training programme, and the government accepted an interim report of the committee to revise the most contentious lesson in the Class VII social science textbook and agreed to introduce other changes that addressed the immediate concerns of the agitators. Perhaps uniquely for such an issue of public importance, the State unit of the opposition Congress, too, decided to appoint an Expert Committee on Education of 11 prominent academicians, led by the historian Professor M.G.S. Narayanan. Its criticism of the curriculum has also been published, and, in spite of the political import of its conclusions, many of its findings have been reiterated – though in a different way – in the final report of the government-appointed committee.Quality of education It has now been more than a decade since the radical “learner-centred, activity-oriented and constructivist pedagogy” was introduced in stages from the primary school level in Kerala as a solution to the growing concern about the quality of education in state-run institutions. Thus, from 1997, under a Left Democratic Front (LDF) administration committed to improving the quality of education, curbing dropout rates, upgrading teaching skills and making textbooks contemporary, government schools were forced to discard the traditional method of teaching and learning in one clean sweep. Instead, the emphasis fell on activity-oriented teaching and learning; shifting learning away from the rote method; connecting education to life outside the school; development of the child’s natural inclination to learn from his/her surroundings; offering greater freedom; making learning more fun than work; making examinations more flexible; creating natural learning experiences; and reducing the stress on results. The purpose was to provide a total learning opportunity for students to help them relate critically and democratically to everyday events and to understand these events from different perspectives and in terms of their political, social, economic and ethical implications, and to appreciate how they are connected to their own lives and the lives of their fellow beings. The potential benefits of the new pedagogy were immediately obvious in many schools. But, simultaneously, the enormous burden that the new curriculum placed on the tradition-bound State Education Department and its teachers was also evident, because of the significant shift away from the textbook-oriented method to a more socially relevant and activity-oriented teaching and learning process. The new curriculum demanded responsible and motivated teachers and quite a lot of “minimum academic requirements” and adequate infrastructure facilities. Initially, at least, these were made available to some extent in six of the 14 districts in Kerala where a World Bank-funded District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was being implemented. But in schools elsewhere in the State, the absence of these preconditions, including well-trained teachers who could deliver on the new, continuously revised, teaching and learning materials and the radically revised (continuous) evaluation process, began to be felt immediately. Moreover, the government schools in which the new curriculum was sought
Bismillah [IslamCity] The world's next oil superpower? Brazil
Four miles under the ocean's surface off Brazil's lush coast lie billions of barrels of recently discovered light crude -- a treasure that could transform the country into an oil superpower The world's next oil superpower? Brazil Country plans to share riches, once it reaches remote fields Tuesday, October 21, 2008 3:14 AM By Bradley Brooks ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/10/21/Brazil_Oil_Bonanza.ART_ART_10-21-08_C10_N3BLI3V.html?sid=101 ERALDO PERES | ASSOCIATED PRESS President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promises that the find will benefit all Brazilians. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Four miles under the ocean's surface off Brazil's lush coast lie billions of barrels of recently discovered light crude -- a treasure that could transform the country into an oil superpower. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called it a gift from God and pledged to end chronic poverty and narrow the country's broad gap between the rich and the poor. But before rhetoric becomes reality, Brazil first must get to the underwater reserves, among the world's deepest, and then manage a massive influx of wealth. It's a formidable task that has left other national economies awash in corruption and even greater gaps between the rich and poor. The nine fields discovered in the past year are thought to hold 50 billion to 80 billion barrels of light crude, more than four times Brazil's current proven reserves. With the find, Brazil could supply all its own needs for nearly a century or become one of the world's top oil exporters. Even getting to that point will test the state-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, which has experience in deep-water drilling. The fields will be the most complicated and costly it has developed. Analysts say the project will require at least a $600 billion investment over 30 years. The deep-water reservoirs lie 185 miles offshore in the Atlantic, more than a mile below the ocean's surface and 2 1/2 miles further under earth and corrosive salt. The salt beds can break loose and shear off piping, making it one of the toughest substances to drill. Given those conditions, rough ocean currents and floating rigs, the technology required to tap Brazil's pre-salt oil is on par with that needed to land a man on the moon, said Eric Smith, a drilling expert at the Entergy-Tulane Energy Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans. If you were doing this with a drill from atop the Empire State building, about 1,000 feet up, you'd be trying to hit a target on 34th Street the size of a quarter, Smith said. But there are logistical problems beyond engineering. The recent record prices for oil have led to global shortages of drilling equipment just when Brazil needs it most. The country will have to rent 138 drilling platforms -- or build them for as much as $1.7 billion each -- and find at least 200 ships to transport oil and gas over the next 30 years, a study by Brazil's national development bank found. The financial spillover could begin with Brazil's dormant shipping industry and create tens of thousands of jobs, Silva has said. Petrobras will have to work with private partners, more likely through production-sharing deals than the current concession contracts it now favors, said Christopher Garman, head of Latin America research for the Eurasia Group consulting firm in New York. Garman called fears of nationalism that once dominated Brazil's energy industry overblown. Laws passed in 1997 broke the government's monopoly over Petrobras, allowing foreign investors to buy stakes in 60 percent of the company. About 1 million Brazilian citizens hold shares, too. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] The real travesty - Harsh Mander
They found (and surreptitiously photographed with mobile phone cameras) half a dozen or more bullet injuries on the top of 17-year-old Sajid’s skull. It is evident that he was held down and shot many times into his head. This could not be the “encounter killing” of a beleaguered police force defending itself against dreaded terrorist fire. It is deliberate, cold-blooded killing. Eye-witnesses say that Atiq’s body had many marks of injury apart from bullets, including the peeling off skin from near his waist. Date:19/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2008/10/19/stories/2008101950100300.htm Barefoot The real travesty HARSH MANDER Calling for a judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter is a not a travesty. Denying the need for one is… The boys have been killed, and then charged post-facto of heinous terrorist outrages. They have no way now of defending their names or their lives. Photo: R.V. Moorthy Unanswered questions: Protestors in Delhi demanding an enquiry. These days, there is much to mourn in the national capital of Delhi. I mourn the slaughter of a child who ran helpfully behind two men on a motor-cycle who left behind a package, and his head was blown away because the package contained a bomb. I mourn the death of a police inspector on duty in the Jamia Nagar “encounter”. But I mourn no less the shooting of two young boys in the hands of the police, with no chance to defend themselves from charges that they “masterminded” terror bomb blasts not just in Delhi, but also in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bangalore. One of the boys, Sajid, was all of 17 years old, and had come to Jamia to prepare for an entrance examination for Class XI. Atiq had voluntarily sought police verification when he took the small room on rent. He gave his accurate details when he took a driving licence. He was preparing for his examinations, and a documentary filmmaker, Ameeq, who knew him for many years, said he met him a week before the killing, and he said he dreamed of becoming an Air Force pilot. He posted his face on a social networking website, and said his favourite films were “Mother India” and “Rang de Basanti”. He could afford to rent only a tiny room in the Muslim ghetto of Batla House where students from many parts of the country who cannot get hostel rooms hire cramped apartments. He shared this with Sajid and three other friends. One of them was appearing for an examination in a management school the morning of the killings.Presuming innocence On the face of it, any of these boys could have been my son or your brother. It is, of course, possible as the police claim, that this is the technique of “sleeper terrorists” to appear to be ordinary, law-abiding citizens, and thereby escape detection. But, it is equally possible that they were innocent, and were framed in an illegal encounter staged by a government which felt under great duress to demonstrate results after public anger was high in the wake of a series of bomb explosions. The law of the land, as guaranteed by our democratic constitution, requires the presumption that a person is innocent until proved guilty. But the boys have been killed, and then charged post-facto of heinous terrorist outrages. They have no way now of defending their names or their lives. We have only the police’s word that they are terrorists. But, in all democracies, because the police is known to be fallible but also to extract “confessions” under duress including torture, statements before the police are not admissible as evidence. In all other cases, the media and the public at large are uniformly sceptical of police versions of events. In innumerable high profile criminal cases in recent times, the confident claims of the police have fallen by the wayside. This time there were contradictory and competitive claims from other police establishments, unwilling to let Delhi seize the thunder, that they had found “masterminds” and one police chief even claimed to have found the mastermind of masterminds! But in our rage and fear of terrorist attacks, and our willingness to believe the worst about young men of the “guilty” Muslim community, we have wilfully suspended our disbelief in the police claims in this encounter. Community leaders had insisted that the body of the two slain boys be given the ritual bathing before their hasty burial under the shadow of the police. They found (and surreptitiously photographed with mobile phone cameras) half a dozen or more bullet injuries on the top of 17-year-old Sajid’s skull. It is evident that he was held down and shot many times into his head. This could not be the “encounter killing” of a beleaguered police force defending itself against dreaded terrorist fire. It is deliberate, cold-blooded killing. Eye-witnesses say that Atiq’s body had many marks of injury apart from bullets, including the peeling off skin from near his waist. Even assuming that
Bismillah [IslamCity] Are we living in the period of mob justice ?
Are we living in the period of mob justice where it is not the principles of Truth and Justice which rule the judicial system but the collective conscience of society? - Shiva Sunder, Journalist Hindu intellectuals' take on terrorism, serial blasts Submitted by Tarique Anwar on 8 October 2008 - 5:18pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008oct08/hindu_intellectuals_take_terrorism_serial_blasts.html By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net, Patna: It is not that only Muslims are critical of probes of serial bombings and terrorist attacks in the country and media coverage thereof; there is a big silent majority that includes Hindu intellectuals who have the similar views. TwoCircles.net talked to some academicians and intellectuals in Delhi, Patna and Bangalore to get their views on the probes of serial blasts, spread of terrorism, faltering judicial system and vanishing journalistic ethics. Probe of bombings R K Dwivedi, a Reader in Delhi University, rejects allegations that only Muslims are involved in every blast and terrorist attack in the country. As far as the recent blasts or the terror attack on the Parliament are concerned, tell me, has there been any impartial enquiry, Dwivedi asks and himself answers in negative. Then how can one say that a particular community is involved when none of them have been proved guilty in a court of law except in certain cases on the basis of confessions in the police custody? he questions adding that it very difficult for us to believe police claims. Bangalore-based Journalist Shiva Sunder demands thorough probe of all blasts in the country and terrorist attacks starting from the attack on the Parliament. All the blasts and attacks right from the attack on the Indian Parliament need to be thoroughly investigated. What is very problematic is that there hasn't been any judicial enquiry into these blasts, nor has there been any conviction in these cases Sunder says. He demands that the Judiciary and Executive should expose the real culprits behind these blasts through impartial investigation but doubts whether the government will ever conduct such enquiries. Principal of a college in Patna (who wanted to remain anonymous, given his position) says: As far as the investigation of the recent blasts is concerned what is happening is that the suspicion is being given the status of evidence both by the investigative agencies and the media. Instead of hard evidence and proofs cases are built on mere suspicion which is more a prejudice and is the result of demonization of a particular community, he says. Terrorism Dwivedi is critical of all kinds of terrorism either by religious fanatics or others. He says what Hindutva extremists are doing is a clear case of terrorism and blames them and the media for helping Muslim extremists in legitimizing their share of acts of terror in the name of Islam. Whose terrorism are we talking about? One by the Hindutva goons who don't have anything to do with the Sanatana Dharma that Hinduism is? By RSS, Shiv Sena and their affiliates like VHP and Bajrang Dal who have terrorized all the minorities across the country in the name of Hinduism which ironically is tolerant to the differences and allows diversity of viewpoints? he asks. Or the terrorism by a few people who try to gain legitimacy in the name of Islam as M. J. Akbar talks about in his article Fasadi, not Jihadi. And the irony is that it is not the Indian Muslims but the media and the Hindu right wing which provide them legitimacy and recognition by terming it as Islamic Terrorism, he argued. Terrorism takes birth from injustice and socio-economic oppression to the point when you don't leave any peaceful means of expressing for any group or individual to express their views, he says. But by saying this I am not at all implying that Muslim community is behind these blasts. My precise point is that why there are two rules of law, one for the minority and another for the majority, he points out. On the purpose of Hindutva terrorism, he said: They have their own political interests which they achieve by terrorizing and causing killings of innocent and marginalized minorities as they did in Indore this May or as they have been doing in Karnataka and Orissa for two months. Bangalore-based journalist Shiv Sunar says terrorism is a media generated political term which doesn't have a generic meaning. If it means to terrorise then various Hindutva organizations should also be termed as terrorist organizations, he says. But the point is that it has been put to its selective use only to demonise a particular community. There is a politics in its selective use which is guided by Hindutva interests in the national context, he argues. The Patna principal sees deprivation and oppression at the root of terrorism. Terrorism breeds when an individual or a group is driven to the point of death and desperation, when s/he is denied their constitutional rights and when one wants
Bismillah [IslamCity] Media, Muslims and Mujahideen - Mubasshir Mushtaq
India’s 160 million Muslims have a problem: fear. And nobody is willing to even listen to them. They are the in-betweens of India’s fight against terrorism. They want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. India needs to integrate them. A Muslim friend put it bluntly, “Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Where the mind is without fear’ no longer adorns my wall.” Sunday, September 21, 2008 Media, Muslims and Mujahideen - Mubasshir Mushtaq A bomb does not discriminate between a Hindu or a Muslim (File Photo) Now that the Delhi Police has “cracked” the bomb blasts, I can make my own confessions. Suspicion is not a fundamental right enshrined in Indian Constitution but it is an unalienable right in a flourishing democracy. Suspicion is the fundamental premise on which the edifice of our intelligentsia stands. Therefore, intelligence agencies cannot be denied the right to suspect. The same right to suspect cannot be denied to ordinary Indians. Equality is the hallmark of a true democracy. The journalist in me has a problem when an official declaration, a chronological monologue, is treated as the gospel. It is not the job of a journalist to arrive at conclusions. The job of a journalist is to stand outside the circle and communicate nuances and niceties taking place inside the circle. When a journalist jumps into the circle, he becomes part of the story. Proximity breeds bias. Bias breeds bigotry. A true journalist can be anything but he can never be a bigot. Journalistic bigotry is dangerous for it plays a vital role in shaping public opinion. Each such story leaves an imprint on public consciousness. In each blast, media, the fourth estate, behaves like fourth mistake. The needle of suspicion automatically swings towards Muslims whether it is Mecca Masjid blast or Malegaon blasts in which devout Muslims were specifically targeted inside their mosques. Every time there is a blast, Muslims find themselves in the no man's land. They are caught in the crossfire between intelligence agencies and terrorists. Neither of them will trust Muslims. The day-today Muslim problem is bread and butter rather than the bomb. Each blast is viewed from the green lens of Islam although saffron lens is equally making India red. One of the reasons for these blasts is to put the entire Muslim community in the defensive mode by systematically manipulating Islam. The trick is like a psychological warfare before the beginning of actual war. It is true that a minuscule minority among Muslims has become radical. It is equally true that a minuscule minority among Hindus has gone on the extreme. SIMI, RSS and Bajrang Dal, are competing identities, each one claiming to represent their respective community. It is competitive extremism at work which can be summed up in one-line: My version of extremism is better than yours! Media plays safe when RSS and Bajrang Dal are involved in bomb blasts while it indulges in triumphant journalism when SIMI comes under the scanner. The reason for this differential approach is commercial: No businessman would want to antagonize the majority Hindu readers. Media, therefore, claims to be nationalistic but it only practices majoritarian nationalism. From a journalistic point of view, I have a problem when Police changes the names of ‘alleged’ (it is one adjective which we in the media have abused and used at will) masterminds overnight. First it was Abdus Subhan Qureishi (alias Tauqeer), now it is Atif, the “terrorist” who has been gunned down. The journalist in me finds it hard to digest that Mufti Abul Bashar, the alleged mastermind of Ahmedabad blasts, is linked to Delhi blasts. If Bashar is really connected to Delhi blasts, the bomb blasts should never have taken place since he was in police custody when the blasts took place. How can Bashar, a poor madrasa-educated person mastermind Ahmedabad blast with such precision? When did Indian Madrasas start producing tech-savvy Muslims? Indian government would love that to happen! There won’t be any need for Central madrasa board for modernization then! Police says that the educated Muslims are involved in the blasts yet they arrest who will not be termed ‘educated’ by worldly standards. Mufti Bashar is just one example. A section of the mainstream media is extremely behaving like the nautch girl of Indian intelligent agencies. Instead of investigating the police claims, media is promoting self-contradictory journalism. The journalist in me has a problem when a TV correspondent spits out the intelligence feed that there was a meeting of SIMI in 2001 where 200 youth were recruited to wreak havoc across India. What was our intelligence agency doing for the last 8 years? Muslim accused are being branded as terrorists before the proper investigation and filing of the chargesheet. The actual trial by a court of law is yet to begin but the trial by media has already passed its judgement.
Bismillah [IslamCity] Is there a Muslim mindset?
Some sociologists say Muslims are treated like pariahs in many places. Nobody knows this better than Vadodara-based scholar-activist J S Bandukwala. After he miraculously escaped a frenzied mob during the Gujarat riots of 2002, Bandukwala's university allotted him a government house in a block of four. “The moment I shifted there, all the occupants of the three houses in the block left. I felt as if I was an untouchable,” says Bandukwala, who has done a study on Juhapura, India's biggest Muslim ghetto with a population of over three lakh. Is there a Muslim mindset? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3507711.cms Mohammed Wajihuddin Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan Qasmi comes from a family of freedom fighters. As a hakim (Unani doctor) and head of Anjuman Minhajul Rasool, a socio-religious organisation, he is highly respected in Mograpada, a Muslim ghetto in Andheri, Mumbai. In the small hours of September 1, roughly 50 plainclothes policemen, members of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), came looking for Subhan Qureishi alias Tauqeer, the alleged mastermind of the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi. The cops woke the maulana and began to interrogate him. When the cleric denied all knowledge of Qureishi or Tauqeer, they dragged him like a common criminal to his bakery, a few minutes walk from his house. Qasmi was not allowed even to wear a pair of slippers and don his customary skull-cap. It was only later that a police search of the maulana's house yielded a photograph album showing the cleric with several senior Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi. The police realised he was probably well-connected. They left in a hurry, issuing dire warnings of hell to pay if Qasmi spoke out about the raid. Though ATS Chief Hemant Karkare later apologised to the residents of Mograpada, especially its much respected cleric, the damage had been done. Random searches. Arbitrary arrests. Fake encounters. Muslims in India today live in fear. Fear of a state they think is becoming increasingly communal, and a media they regard as biased (except the Urdu press, also called the Muslim press). “It is tough to be a Muslim today. The main concern is security,” says Mumbai-based activist and Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer, who is currently travelling around the country. “Everywhere I go, I see how upset the Muslim intelligentsia is with the way the community is being treated.” It is not hard to figure out why. It was Faiz Ahmed Faiz who described Independence after the pain of Partition with the memorable line: “ Yeh daagh daagh ujala, yeh shabguzida sehar/Woh intezar tha jiska, yeh woh sehar to nahi (This black-smeared light, this night-ridden morning/This is not the morning we had waited for).” Tragically, the darkness seems only to have spread over the years. Urdu-language columnist Hasan Kamal says, “Just after Independence, Muslims were afraid to keep Urdu books in their homes lest they were labelled Pakistani sympathisers. After the 1971 war, the community shook off the guilt it had been carrying from the days of Partition. Now Muslims are once again being made to feel guilty — this time they're seen as sympathetic to the bombers.” What has made matters worse is that the community hasn't benefited from India's rapid economic progress. Just recently, the Rajinder Sachar Committee report reinforced a truth many of us knew: Muslims are worse off than most other Indians. According to the committee, the literacy rate among Muslims in 2001 was 59.1%. This is far below the national average of 65.1%. The percentage of Muslim graduates from poor households going on to study further is lower than SCs/STs: 16% and 28% respectively. Shockingly, the only place where Muslims are “over-represented” is the country's prisons. In Maharashtra, the percentage of Muslim prisoners in all categories (17.5%) was way above their share of population (10.6%). In Gujarat, the ratio of Muslim population to jail inmates was 9 to 25. “If the trend continues, we will have to soon build idgahs in jails,” says Pasha Patel, the BJP's lone Muslim MLC in Maharashtra, with ironic emphasis. But there is little sign that anything will change for the better. Most Muslims know the Sachar report is unlikely to be implemented in full. “The backward castes get reservations. Muslims get commissions,” commented a senior journalist in a recent column. The cause of Muslim anger is not deprivation alone. It is also the sense of justice discriminating against them. “The conviction rate in Mumbai's 1993 blasts was over 80%, while in the post-Babri demolition riots in the city it was not even 0.8%. Many police officers whom the Srikrishna Commission found guilty were promoted,” says Javed Anand, co-editor, Communalism Combat and general secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy. When the state discriminates against a section of its citizens, it prepares fertile ground for
Bismillah [IslamCity] Eid Mubarak
Dear Friends, With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fasting banned in China?
source: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/asia/09china.html?hp The following article is from The New York Times. Basically, Communist Chinese governments are cracking down on Muslims practicing Ramadan. The following things have been put in place: 1. A ban on teaching Islam or Koran. 2. No students may fast. 3. No teachers may fast. 4. No Hijabs. 5. No Beards. 6. No out of town guests in Muslim homes. 7. No closure of restaurants for prayer or for fasting purposes. 8. No visits to Muslim gravesites. 9. Muslim school students are 'educated' not to fast. 10. Muslim government employees are forced to 'sign' an agreement not to pray, fast, or visit Mosques. ARTICLE Ramadan Curbs Imposed in China http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/asia/09china.html?hp By EDWARD WONG NEW YORK TIMES Published: September 8, 2008 BEIJING - Local governments in a Muslim desert region in western China have imposed strict limits on religious practices during the traditional Muslim fasting month of Ramadan , which began last week, according to the Web sites of four of those governments. The rules include prohibiting women from wearing veils and men from growing beards, as well as barring government officials from observing Ramadan. One town, Yingmaili, requires that local officials check up on mosques at least twice a week during Ramadan. The local governments administer areas in the western part of Xinjiang, a vast autonomous region that is home to the Uighurs , a Muslim Turkic people who often chafe under rule by the ethnic Han Chinese. In August, a wave of attacks swept through Xinjiang, the largest surge of violence in the region in years. Some local officials blamed the instability on separatist groups, and the central government dispatched security forces to the area. The limits on religious practices put in place by local governments appear to be part of the broader security crackdown. The areas affected by the new rules are near Kuqa, a town struck by multiple bombings on Aug. 10. It was unclear whether the rules would be relaxed after Ramadan, a holiday that some Islamic extremists have used elsewhere as a symbolic backdrop for attacks on their perceived enemies. It was also unclear how the Chinese authorities intended to enforce the rules, which appeared to run the risk of antagonizing devout Muslims who present no obvious security threat. The Web site of the town of Yingmaili lists nine rules put in place to 'maintain stability during Ramadan.' They include barring teachers and students from observing Ramadan, prohibiting retired government officials from entering mosques and requiring men to shave off beards and women to doff veils. Mosques cannot let people from outside of town stay overnight and restaurants must maintain normal hours of business. Many restaurants close in daytime hours during Ramadan because of the sunrise-to-sunset fasting. In nearby Xinhe County , the government has decreed that Communist Party members, civil servants and retired officials must not observe Ramadan, enter mosques or take part in any religious activities during the month. Worshippers cannot make pilgrimages to tombs, so as to 'to avoid any group event that might harm social stability,' according to the Xinhe government's Web site. Also Watch: Fasting banned in China http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6EU0EQlmfDY With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Two Articles on Forced Conversion
The government has been pressurizing the Muslims to convert to the Hindu religion or face eviction from their land Forced Conversion In Gujarat By Shabnam Hashmi 17 September, 2008 Countercurrents.org Today morning a battery of Forest officers and police descended on the village of Nandapeda near Ahwa in the Dangs, Gujarat. They pulled out the doors and the windows, pulled out the wooden ballis which support the roof; they pulled out wood from the roof of the huts of the villagers. The forest department decided late night that it was illegal wood and they must recover it. The ATS meanwhile rounded up a few people. Nandapeda is the only village with majority Muslim population in the Dangs district, considered the poorest district in the whole of India. The government has been pressurizing the Muslims to convert to the Hindu religion or face eviction from their land. Some of the residents of this village moved the Gujarat High Court against the government's pressure of converting and changing their religion. The families have been living in the village for over 100 years. On June 13th 2008 a senior officer had called a meeting in Ahwa and asked them to change their religion or vacate the land. After this meeting police and forest officers had been harassing them. Police have been searching old cases registered against any person of the community and asking them to furnish bail papers. The police targeted 33 people against whom some petty crime or a scuffle with the neighbors was registered. Claiming that repeated representation before authorities for regularization of their land has been in vain, petitioners requested the court to restrain the government from pressurizing them to convert from their religion. Justice Jayant Panchal had in July sought explanation in this regard from the secretary in-charge, district collector and the village sarpanch. After hearing all parties, Justice Anant Dave admitted the case on September 11, 2008 and ordered to maintain status quo on the disputed land. On the next day the police captured approximately 80 villagers for transporting cattle into Maharashtra and also apprehended some villagers who were going on motorcycles using the reason of cow slaughter, though there were no cattle in the tempo. The villagers gathered. There was a clash between the villagers and the police. People were beaten on both the sides. One policeman was also beaten up. Police then opened fire and a number of villagers got bullet injuries. They were taken to Ahwa civil hospitals. The relatives were not allowed to meet them. Police apprehended eight villagers for beating a policeman and though a local lawyer went for their bail, it was not given. Next day the police came and in the name of combing operation attacked and ransacked the village. Villagers were beaten up brutally including women and children. All men fled to the jungles. The police not only took away all the goods but before going they poured kerosene into the eatable good so that they could not eat anything too. VHP proposed a rally on 15th. After a lot of pressure the VHP rally was stopped but they declared a Bandh on 16th. The VHP gave a deadline to the collector it is heard to get the village vacated. Today morning as already mentioned the forest department swooped in. The villagers need urgent help and intervention. I have been personally informing various state politicians and centre about the developments http://www.countercurrents.org/hashmi170908.htm I am a living example, representing 2.5 million Manipuris, where my forefathers were forcibly converted to Hinduism in 19th century, which is known as PUYA MEITHABA (burning of Meitei Script) by Hindu missionary Who Really Does Conversion? By Madhu Chandra 17 September, 2008 Countercurrents.org Hindutva fundamentalists have chosen Conversion as a yardstick to kill missionaries, rape nuns, and vandalize churches. Who actually does fraudulent conversion? Charges are given to Christians and made it as real to whole nation through saffron sponsored media. I am a living example, representing 2.5 million Manipuris, where my forefathers were forcibly converted to Hinduism in 19th century, which is known as PUYA MEITHABA (burning of Meitei Script) by Hindu missionary. Ever since then, every Manipuri (Meitei) has Singh at the end of every name, although many youngsters are abandoning it by returning to indigenous Meitei religion. The casteism and untouchability emerged after migration of Hinduism to the Manipur society where caste or creed never existed earlier. The saffronisation of Hindutva, which is purely the proselytizing movement, does not end with my people there. The ongoing conversion of tribal communities to Hinduism is still in full swing in different parts tribal dominated areas. We have witnessed the saffronising of Dang district of Gujarat during Sabri Kumbha Mela in 2006. The tribal of Jhabua in MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhan,
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: An Open letter to Prime Minister
With Regards Abi --- On Mon, 9/15/08, Prof Ram [EMAIL PROTECTED] Prof Ram [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA September 15, 2008 New Delhi Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, The blasts in Delhi (September 12, 2008) are another in the series of tragic blasts in which scores of people have been killed. We strongly condemn the blasts and demand a proper, unbiased investigation into the same. We demand that the guilty be punished. At the same time it seems that our investigating agencies are ignoring some thing very crucial in the matters of investigating the acts of terror. The acts of terror have been occurring and Home Ministry is watching helplessly. While the current investigation is totally focused around SIMI, many an alleged culprits have been put behind the bars, despite which now some unknown entity Indian Mujahideen seems to have been projected as being responsible for the current ones. At the same time another stark truth is being deliberately sidelined and undermined. And that relates to the blasts done by Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Samiti. We fail to understand as to why the investigation authorities are turning a blind eye to some of the well established facts. 1. In a serious case of blasts in Nanded in April 2006 two Bajarang Dal workers died when making bombs. Similar incidents of bomb blasts were witnessed in many places around that time, Parabhani, Jalna and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Most of these were in front of the mosques. The Nanded investigation 'leads' were not followed. On the contrary the investigation in that direction was not pursued at all. The attitude of police in this investigation has been totally lax. Social activists made the complaint about this to Human Rights commission. The commission summoned the Superintendent of police, Nanded, in its hearing held on 17th June. The SP failed to turn up for hearing! There seems to be a deliberate cover up of this important finding of Maharashtra Anti terrorist Squad. ATS did investigate the links of the dead with Bajrang Dal, an RSS affiliate. At the same time the injured were visited in the hospital by the top brass of local BJP and associates. Local BJP MP told the police not to harass those related to the culprits in the wake of the Bajrang Dal involvement in the bomb making. In Nanded, ATS also found fake moustache and pajama kurta, the idea being that the culprits will dress like a Muslim while doing these black deeds. 2. A bomb blast took place at the RSS office at Tenkasi, in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu on January 24. After a thorough investigation, the Tamilnadu Police had arrested 7 persons belonging to Sangh Parivar outfits. They had confessed that they indulged in this terror act to instigate the local Hindu population against the Muslims. On further investigation, the Tamilnadu Police arrested Siva Alias Sivanandam, who is the General Secretary of Hindu Munnani at Kadayanallur, a neighbouring town of Tenkasi. Formed in 1980, Hindu Munnani is a frontal organisation of Sangh Parivar operating in Tamilnadu. Siva, who has earlier worked in quarries in the neighboring state of Kerala had supplied the ammonium nitrate and other raw materials for preparing the bombs. 3. The bombs which exploded in Gadkari Rangayatan on 4th June 2008 injured seven people. Again Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad succeeded in nabbing the culprits. The culprits were part of Hindu Janjagaran Samiti (HJS), an outfit of Sanatana Ashram in Panvel. These culprits were also involved in other blasts, in Vashi, Panvel and Ratnagiri. We have not heard anything about the further tracing of this very important lead. 4. On 24th August, in Kanpur two Bajrang Dal workers died while making bombs. Rajiv alias Piyush Mishra and Bhupinder Singh were killed while making crude bombs on Sunday afternoon. On 25th August, Monday, police recovered some crude hand grenades, lead oxide, red lead, potassium nitrate, bomb pins, timers and batteries from the spot, inside a hostel in Kalyanpur area of Kanpur, about 80 km from Lucknow. No further investigation, why? Every time there is a bomb blast immediately the agencies and the media declare that it is done by some Muslim organization without any proof. Hundreds of innocent young boys are picked up, what follows are illegal detentions, torture, arrests, harassment of families, forcing the families and victims to sign blank papers. For years these helpless victims are tortured in jails, denied legal aid, even lawyers who try and fight their cases are attacked openly in courts. Their images tarnished for life time. If they are lucky they get let off after years as neither the agencies or the police have any proof against them. The cacophony of stricter laws rises so that a police can extract a confession by third degree torture and present that as evidence. Through this systematic
Bismillah [IslamCity] Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008
True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries. Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008 By Bill Quigley 11 September, 2008 http://www.countercurrents.org/quigley110908.htm (Answers Below) 1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism? 2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition? 3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker. In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker? 4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment? 5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour. How much would the minimum wage be today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968? 6. True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries. 7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less? 8. How many people in the world do not have electricity? 9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year. How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat? 10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.? 11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol? 12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income? 5%? 10%? 15%? 20%? 13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day? 14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children? 15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night? 16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world? 17. The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined? 18. Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it. How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico? 19. India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people. Which country is first and how many guns do they own? 20. What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens? Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008 1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims. Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. “Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007.” 2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International. 3. Today’s average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general. Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute. 4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US. Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs. Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition. 5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. 6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria,
Bismillah [IslamCity] Paradise Found
Paradise Found: A Documentary on Islamic Architecture http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8018912082115778034 With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Muslims organs urges Govt. to stop witch hunting, demand thorough and transparent investigation
Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam also condemns the trend of putting the blame on Muslims even before the commencement of preliminary investigations in the blasts. In Tamilnadu Muslims were not responsible for the Bomb blasts at the RSS office in Tenkasi. In Maharashtra on two occasions, Bajrang Dal activists have lost their lives while assembling bombs at Nanded. When bombs exploded at Thane, Panvel and Varshi in last July, Maharashtra Police arrested activists of an Hindu extremists group Santhan Sanstan. Very recently two Bajrang Dal activists were killed while manufacturing Bombs at Kanpur. In this background, suspecting only a particular group as being responsible for the blasts would not bear necessary results. US Muslim group suspects communal hand in Delhi blasts Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on 14 September 2008 - 4:43pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008sep14/us_muslim_group_suspects_communal_hand_delhi_blasts.html New York, Sep 14 (IANS) Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA), the largest advocacy group of Indian Muslims in the US, has denounced the bomb blasts in Delhi while suspecting that it could be the handiwork of communal forces bent upon polarising society in the run-up to the parliamentary polls next year. IMC-USA condemns this heinous act of mindless violence by cowards. Our sympathies are with the victims and their families, said Rasheed Ahmed, president of the advocacy group with 10 chapters across US dedicated towards safeguarding India's pluralist and tolerant ethos. He added in the statement Saturday that increasing incidents of terrorism in the recent past with the general election around the corner raises suspicion of such blasts being orchestrated by communal forces bent on polarising the society to reap electoral gains. A thorough and transparent investigation should be made to bring the culprits to the book instead of rushing to hasty conclusions, he said. Urging the police to not ignore Kanpur bomb blasts in their investigations, the statement said three weeks ago, the police found a large stash of bomb-making materials including explosive powder, timers, batteries and pellets when two Bajrang Dal men were killed in Kanpur while manufacturing bombs. If the police exclude incidences like Kanpur and Nanded bomb blasts, in which Bajrang Dal militants were either killed or injured making bombs, it will amount to a wilful cover-up, Ahmed said. IMC-USA called upon the Indian government and police authorities to put the welfare and security of people ahead of communal politics and demonstrate political will in nabbing the perpetrators of the latest heinous crime in Delhi. Preventing future acts of terror is possible only by conducting transparent and honest investigations to bring the culprits to book and not through indiscriminate arrests and brutalisation of young Muslims as reported by media, the statement read. Following the recent blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, the statement added, there has been an outcry by minorities and human rights activists that police officials were quick in scapegoating innocent Muslim youth than in seriously solving the growth of terror networks. Terrorists are disciples of Satan: CIM-UK Submitted by kashif on 14 September 2008 - 11:00am. http://www.twocircles.net/2008sep14/terrorists_are_disciples_satan_cim_uk.html By TwoCircles.net news desk New Delhi: Council of Indian Muslims—UK (CIM) has urged the Indian government to launch independent inquiry into the dastardly series of bomb blasts in Delhi in which 20 people have died and many more are injured. “Unfortunately all the reports of such tragedies start with some gruesome scenes of human blood and wanton destruction and end up with condemnations and random arrests later their files being sent into the police archives. Unless and until there is a resolve on the part of the government and intelligence agencies to hunt the real culprits down, regardless which community they come from, unmask their identity and make them a lesson for anyone who is planning to walk on their foot steps, we won’t get anywhere.” CIM’s chairman Mohammad Munaf Zeena said in a statement issued here today. “We urge the Indian government to stop the Indian police from its age old practice of witch hunt and control its temptation to implicate Indian Muslims in each tragedy. Let not anyone forget the deaths in Kanpur of two members of the Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal while preparing bombs. Prior to this there have been other incidents that were covered up by the “ever watchful” intelligence agencies who are over efficient in linking Muslims to each such incident. After previous blasts in Jaipur and Ahmadabad Indian police went on an arrest spree and harassed and detained innocent Muslim youths. It claimed to have unearthed the master mind of these blasts. If their claims were true, why did they fail in stopping reoccurrence of the same crime only three weeks later in the
Bismillah [IslamCity] Not One Cent For Gaza - By Yvonne Ridley
Gaza is the world's largest open air prison and its infrastructure, emergency services and day to day operations have been crippled by the brutal Israeli-led siege. Yet despite this, Hamas - since it kicked out the corrupt Fatah fat cats last year - has managed to try and hold things together for its 1.5m citizens on the Gaza Strip. They are living a hand-to-mouth existence and innocent men, women and children are dying in this collective punishment because they are being denied vital medicines and access to the outside world, but their support of Hamas is growing by the day. I've seen it with my own eyes and so, unlike most of the outside politicians including the Quartet's Peace Envoy Tony Blair, I am coming from a point of knowledge. Not One Cent For Gaza It seems the Palestinian leader is overseeing the brutal siege of his own people in Gaza without a care or thought for them. By Yvonne Ridley http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20713.htm JUST when you think the Zionist leaders have peaked in arrogance and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has peaked in ignorance, a new scheme comes along that is almost beyond belief, prompting me to wonder if they are all taking crack cocaine. Apparently Defence Minister Ehud Barak and the Pharonic Mubarak opened serious discussions about the deployment of an Arab force in the Gaza Strip consisting largely of Egyptian and some Saudi troops. Apparently the two said they would eventually like to expand the deployment of Arab and international forces to the West Bank as well, with those troops consisting largely of Jordanian forces, according to the Israeli plan. The reason for this nonsense? Well I believe it is because Hamas, the democratically elected government (certainly in Gaza) is doing such a good job of maintaining law and order and are growing in popularity with ordinary Palestinians that their continued rise is viewed as a huge threat ... not just to the Zionist interlopers but to the rest of the leadership in the Arab world. Gaza is the world's largest open air prison and its infrastructure, emergency services and day to day operations have been crippled by the brutal Israeli-led siege. Yet despite this, Hamas - since it kicked out the corrupt Fatah fat cats last year - has managed to try and hold things together for its 1.5m citizens on the Gaza Strip. They are living a hand-to-mouth existence and innocent men, women and children are dying in this collective punishment because they are being denied vital medicines and access to the outside world, but their support of Hamas is growing by the day. I've seen it with my own eyes and so, unlike most of the outside politicians including the Quartet's Peace Envoy Tony Blair, I am coming from a point of knowledge. I, along with more than 40 other international peace activists, went to Gaza recently by boat to smash the seaborne part of the siege, and we saw for ourselves the dreadful situation imposed on the Gazans. But I was also able to wander and move around freely and discovered Gaza to be among one of the safest cities in the world ... certainly much more safe than the streets of London or New York. Crime is down more than 80 per cent since Hamas police took over - the statistics are available. One day myself and film-maker Aki Nawaz wandered down on to the beach and took part in a lively, political discussion with ordinary Palestinians ... and some of them made it clear they did not like or support Hamas. But what we did was taken part in a full and frank discussion and such freedoms of speech are not allowed or encouraged in the rest of the Arab world. The fact is, there is so much irrational hatred for Hamas from Israel, America and Europe that the politicians just refuse to accept the truth and the truth is the majority of Gazans love and support Hamas. And here's why. The Hamas leadership and members are suffering just as much as the ordinary citizens of Gaza. They endure the hardship of the siege, they have their power supplies cut off, they have to put up with Israel switching off the tap water when it chooses. They, too are suffering and the people can see this with their own eyes. It really does appear as if the Hamas leadership can not be bought or corrupted. Millions of dollars and Euros are pouring in to the Palestinian Authority's coffers controlled by Abu Mazen and NOT ONE CENT reaches the people of Gaza. Sadly, it seems the Palestinian leader is overseeing the brutal siege of his own people in Gaza without a care or thought for them. I've previously met both Abu Mazen and Yassir Arafat and I can tell you the former is a pale imitation of the latter. Arafat suffered daily alongside his own people and I witnessed firsthand when I went to his HQ in Ramallah in 2003. The only financial interest Abu Mazen has in Gaza is his own obscenely luxurious Hollywood villa which nestles in uneasy splendour next to crumbling
Bismillah [IslamCity] Two articles on the health of heart and kidneys
Every sixth patient with heart attack is below 40 years of age. Young Indians have a five to 10 fold higher rate of heart attacks and deaths as compared to Western population. Indians all over the world have the highest rate of mortality and morbidity for heart attacks whereas the incidence of heart attack have halved in the West during the past 30 years. Heart health DR. J. SHIV KUMAR With heart disease assuming epidemic proportions, it is essential to do what we have to save ourselves. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/09/07/stories/2008090750250600.htm Photo: M. Vedhan Sedentary habits: Exercise regularly to protect your heart. One Sunday morning a 24-year-old executive went to a fitness centre for the first time. After working for half an hour, he complained of pain in the left shoulder. The trainer asked him to continue, as it was his first day. After about 20 minutes this young executive suffered severe chest pain when he was rushed to hospital. He collapsed and cardiac resuscitation was done. His ECG showed Extensive Heart Attack for which an emergency angioplasty was done and patient survived. After investigations his LPA levels were 130mg. Hence a word of caution for all fitness freaks. Heart disease and heart attacks have assumed epidemic proportion in India over the past two decades. It is one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability. Based on the evidence, heart diseases will double by 2015 and become the single largest contributor to mortality, accounting for almost one-third of all deaths. Early manifestation Not only is the incidence of heart attacks increasing significantly, but the blockage of coronary arteries manifests at least a decade earlier. Every sixth patient with heart attack is below 40 years of age. Young Indians have a five to 10 fold higher rate of heart attacks and deaths as compared to Western population. Indians all over the world have the highest rate of mortality and morbidity for heart attacks whereas the incidence of heart attack have halved in the West during the past 30 years. Irrespective of gender, religion and social class, the high rates of heart attacks in Indians are in sharp contrast to very low rates in other Asians such as Japanese and Chinese. The most important reason is a combination of nature and nurture — genetic pre-disposition (nature), urbanisation with affluence (nurture). Genetic pre-disposition is reflected by levels of Lipoprotein–A (LPA), which is higher in Indians. Sedentary habits and western lifestyle leads to decreased physical activity, increased consumption of junk food results in obesity, insulin resistance and atherogenic lipid abnormalities. High LP (A), high triglycerides, high levels of bad cholesterol and low levels of good cholesterol predispose heart diseases and heart attacks.What you can do Lifestyle modification is of prime importance. One should walk about five kilometres in 45 minutes at least five days a week. Unaccustomed exercises should be avoided. Preventive measures should be undertaken in those with risk factors but without established disease i.e., counselling for tobacco use, early diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and dietary measures to treat lipid abnormalities. All these are important in those individuals who have a family history of heart diseases. The family physician should be trained to recognise signs and symptoms and ECG evidence of heart attacks and institute first aid measures and prompt referral to a hospital where definite therapy can be given. The writer is a Consultant Cardiologist based in Secunderabad. Save your kidneys DR. S.C.TIWARI http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/09/07/stories/2008090750270600.htm Warning signs: Burning or difficulty during urination An increase in frequency of urination, nocturnal Passage of bloody urine Puffiness around eyes Swelling of hands and feet Pain in back just below ribs High blood pressure Advances over the past three decades have improved the ability to diagnose and treat those who suffer from kidney disorders. Photo: S. James Removing waste from the body: Dialysis is crucial for a person with kidney failure. The twin bean-like organ located on either side of the spine is better known as the biochemist of the body. The kidneys filter about 200 litres of fluid every 24 hours and return it to the blood stream. Approximately 1.5-2 litres is eliminated from the body in the form of urine, and the rest is retained. The production of urine involves highly complex steps of excretion and re-absorption, which is necessary to maintain a stable balance of body chemicals. Kidneys perform crucial functions, which affect all parts of the body. But the kidneys are also vulnerable to a range of problems from a minor urinary tract infection to progressive kidney failure. Advances over the past three decades have improved the ability to diagnose
Bismillah [IslamCity] Being a Dalit in India: Facts and Figures
Being a Dalit in India: Facts and Figures Posted by samathain on August 26, 2008 http://samatha.in/2008/08/26/being-a-dalit-in-india-facts-and-figures/ Every 18 minutes: A crime is committed against a Dalit Every day: 3 Dalit women are raped 2 Dalits are murdered 2 Dalits Houses are burnt in India 11 Dalits are beaten Every week: 13 Dalits are murdered 5 Dalits home or possessions are burnt 6 Dalits are kidnapped or abducted Social and Economic condition of Dalits: 37 percent of Dalits living below poverty in India More than half (54%) of their children are undernourished in India 83 per 1000 live birth children born in Dalit community are probability of dying before the first birthday 45 percent of Dalits do not know read and write in India Dalits women burden double discrimination (gender and caste) in India Only 27 percent of Dalits women give institutional deliveries in India About one third of Dalit households do not have basic facilities Public health workers refused to visit Dalit homes in 33% of villages Dalits were prevented from entering police station in 27.6% of villages Dalit children had to sit separately while eating in 37.8% of Govt. schools Dalits didn’t get mail delivered to their homes in 23.5% of villages Dalits were denied access to water sources in 48.4% of villages because of segregation untouchabilty practices Half of India’s Dalit children are undernourished, 21% are severely underweight 12% DIE before their 5th birthday Literacy rates for Dalit women are as low as 37.8% In Rural India Status of Prevention of Atrocities Act: The conviction rate under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is 15.71% and pendency is as high as 85.37%. This when the Act has strict provisions aimed as a deterrent. By contrast, conviction rate under IPC is over 40% On actual crime committed against Dalits “Even the reports prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and placed before Parliament contain merely factual information received from States about registration and disposal of cases; various administrative arrangements made for the function of the Act and funds spent, without any meaningful analysis of the performance of the States which could form the basis for making corrective interventions.” ”Under-reporting of Atrocities Act cases is a very common phenomenon and therefore the decline in the number of registered cases does not provide a true picture of the incidence of atrocities.” “A large number of cases which deserve to be registered under Protection of Civil Rights Act or the SCs STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act are not actually registered under these Acts, either due to ignorance of law or under pressure from the interested parties. Investigations in even those limited number of cases is often earned out in a slipshod manner and with considerable delay.” Source: National Human Rights Commission Report on the Prevention and Atrocities against Scheduled Castes fhttp://www.nhrc.nic.in/Publications/reportKBSaxena.pd With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Anwar rises above allegations of immorality to challenge the foundations of UMNO rule in Malaysia
Anwar rises above allegations of immorality to challenge the foundations of UMNO rule in Malaysia By Abdar Rahman Koya in Kuala Lumpur http://www.muslimedia.com/my-anwarwin.htm If the trend of powerful political parties expiring after fifty years’ rule is anything to go by, then Malaysia ’s ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), in power since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957, had better be prepared. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is thought to be close to carrying out his now-familiar threat to engineer a mass-defection of government MPs and show UMNO the door long before the next general elections, which are due in 2012. His threat seems to be real, especially now that he has embarrassed the government and grabbed a resounding victory in a by-election on August 26, barely six months after the setbacks suffered by the UMNO-led National Front coalition in the last general elections. PIC: Anwar with wife Wan Azizah, casting their ballots on August 26. The by-election on August 26, called the “mother of all elections” by both opposition and government supporters, followed a gruelling multi-million-dollar campaigning by UMNO in Permatang Pauh, a semi-urban multiracial town in the northern state of Penang . Anwar obtained a majority bigger than that won last March by Dr Wan Azizah Ismail, his wife, who resigned the seat she had held while Anwar was in prison to pave the way for her husband’s official return to Malaysia ’s political stage. The result shows that the Malays’ political loyalty – and indeed the respect they have for the ruling UMNO – was affected badly by Anwar’s dismissal and his launch of the reformasi movement, and indeed it now seems to be lost almost permanently. But all that was more than ten years ago; such a loss in Malay support is worse now because of the almost complete desertion of the ruling coalition by the non-Malays, namely the Chinese and Indians, caused by a number of factors, the most important of which is the perceived discrimination against them in the distribution of the socio-economic pie. No amount of assurance by government leaders that judicial and economic reforms will take place has removed the suspicion that change can only come through Anwar and the coalition of parties he leads. That the larger show of support comes at a time of intense propaganda against Anwar’s character also confirms how little credibility (scarcely any) the ruling party has managed to retain since 1998/99, which is when Mahathir orchestrated the campaign to destroy his deputy’s political career. This time around even an oath sworn upon the Qur’an by the accuser in the latest sodomy allegation against Anwar, which was broadcast repeatedly during television news bulletins almost every day throughout the campaign, had failed to persuade voters to forsake Anwar. The result is that a clear line has been drawn, and for the first time in Malaysia ’s history the government, despite all the machinery on its side, has found its match. Although Anwar could not have pulled off such a feat without the full support of the Islamic Party (PAS) and the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), the fact is that neither could the opposition have achieved the kind of political storm that is now rapidly changing Malaysia . The by-election marks Anwar’s return to active politics. But Anwar, a shrewd politician whose rise from student leader to the number-one man in the government has been meteoric, had returned to politics the day he was released in September 2004. This by-election victory, more than filling up the void left by Dr Wan Azizah, not only brings Anwar back to parliament, but also answers the question of whether he can really get a decisive margin with which to implement his plan to take over power by means of defections in Parliament. Now, with that endorsement in hand, the one-time prime-minister-in-waiting has never been any closer to the seat he was supposed to occupy ten years ago. The proximity is also true literally: as the parliamentary opposition leader, he now sits in parliament face-to-face with prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But being an opposition leader has never been his intention, something he indirectly made clear days after the opposition coalition denied the UMNO-led government its traditional two-thirds parliamentary majority, in the general elections on March 8. He had then already started talking about toppling the ruling coalition. At that point, the thought was met with cynicism by both friends and foes. Even if he was bluffing then, however, his recent election victory looks set to prove the cynics wrong, especially when it has become clear that support for him has peaked in spite (or because) of the latest campaign to vilify him with yet more allegations of sodomy. Anwar may be on the verge of once again climbing up the final rungs of the prime ministerial ladder, a
Bismillah [IslamCity] Let The Hindus Also Do Missionary Work - Kancha Ilaiah
Let The Hindus Also Do Missionary Work By Kancha Ilaiah Yoginder Sikand 31 August, 2008 http://www.countercurrents.org/ilaiah310808.htm Kancha Ilaiah, Professor of Political Science at Osmania University, Hyderabad, is a leading ideologue of the Dalit-Bahujan movement. He is a prolific writer, and among his best known works are ‘Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Critique of Hindutva From a Dalit-Bahujan Perspective’, ‘God as a Political Philosopher: The Buddha’s Challenge to Brahminism’ and ‘Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism’. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his work and reflects on the role of religion in the Dalit-Bahujan struggle. Q: All of your major works deal with the Dalit-Bahujans, but they are in English, a language that few Dalit-Bahujans can read. So, then, whom do you write for? A: My English works are, of course, addressed primarily to a middle-class readership, but I also write for several Telugu papers. My works have also been translated into several Indian languages. ‘Why I am Not a Hindu’, for instance, has come out in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Marathi. Q: What about Urdu? Do Muslim papers also publish you? After all, most Indian Muslims are descendants of oppressed caste converts and count among the Dalit-Bahujans. A: Some of my articles have been published in Urdu newspapers, but no one has yet taken any initiative to translate my books into Urdu. Perhaps that is because of some sort of resistance that I perceive among many Muslims to certain critical ideas and social issues. That, in turn, has probably to do with the fact that while Muslims were once carriers of an evangelical ideology, today that evangelical spirit, of seeking to reach out to oppressed communities, to the oppressed castes, is now almost lost. We in the Dalit-Bahujan movement have been shouting hoarse for Muslim-Dalit-Bahujan unity for the last thirty or forty years, but the elite Muslim leadership does not take this seriously. Instead of joining hands with us, they want to dialogue with ‘upper’ caste Hindu-led parties—the Congress and the Left—and even with various Shankaracharyas! They aren’t even very concerned about their own fellow Muslims who live in the ghettos and slums, most of who are descendants of Dalit-Bahujan converts. I, for one, am all for Muslims to take to missionary work among the Dalit-Bahujans in a major way. In that way, they would revive the tradition of the Sufis of the past, who reached out to the oppressed caste victims of Hinduism, and won their hearts and their allegiance with their love and message of equality and liberated them. Islam became attractive to the labouring castes of India when the Sufis went and lived among them, ate with them, spoke their languages. They invited them inside their mosques and Sufi hospices, and allowed them to touch the Quran. Imagine what a revolution this was for the oppressed castes, who were forbidden by the Brahmins, on pain of death, from entering temples, forbidden even from so much as listening to, leave alone touching, the Vedas! Only when that evangelical spirit of the past is revived can the critical ideas of the sort that I am seeking to advance on issues related to caste and Brahminism win serious attention in Muslim circles. Further, interacting with and living with the Dalit-Bahujans in this manner can help bring Muslims out of the ghettoes into which they have been forced. They would solidify fraternal bonds with the Dalit-Bahujans and this can go a long way in curbing anti-Muslim violence, where, routinely, Dalit-Bahujans are instigated by the oppressor castes into attacking hapless Muslims. Let me elaborate on this. I am not a Muslim, but I have read about Islam. The Quran exhorts Muslims to tell others about their socially liberating faith, and also to practically exert themselves in seeking to liberate them from oppression. In the Indian context, this means that Muslims must take this task earnestly in reaching out to the oppressed castes, the Dalit-Bahujans, who are victims of Hinduism, which is another name for Brahminism or what I call spiritual fascism. They must present before them genuine Islamic spiritual democracy as an alternative, as a source of liberation. Q: Isn’t that what Babasaheb Ambedkar also said, about how every socio-political revolution of the oppressed castes in India was preceded by a spiritual revolution? A: Exactly. And this has been the case not just in India. The black struggle for liberation in America started in the black churches and in the mosques. There are four major spiritual cultures in the world today: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. The first three are what I call democratic spiritual cultures. They preach the fundamental equality of all believers. Hinduism is what I call spiritual fascism, for caste, caste oppression and caste-based inequality is ingrained in it. All the Brahminical
Bismillah [IslamCity] Fw: Shabnam Hashmi's letter to the Prime Minister
Gujarat 2002 is being repeated in Orissa right now. The minority under attack has changed from the Muslim to the Christian. The perpetrators remain the same. The Vishva Hindu Parishad and various other Sangh outfits. With Regards Abi --- On Wed, 8/27/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 9:56 AM The Hon'ble Prime Minister of India 27.8.2008 Dear Dr Manmohan Singh, Gujarat 2002 is being repeated in Orissa right now. The minority under attack has changed from the Muslim to the Christian. The perpetrators remain the same. The Vishva Hindu Parishad and various other Sangh outfits. Knowing their track record of violence from earlier in Orissa as well as in other parts of the country there is nothing which could not be foreseen. The kind of violence and mayhem which they have done in the past and which they are capable of organising is an open secret. Every Bandh call given by the VHP, RSS and the whole Sangh combine has always resulted in large scale violence any where in the country. Every time a new excuse is created and used by the Sangh outfits as a reason to attack either the Muslims or the Christians. Sangh is a past master in creating enough reasons to attack the minorities is an established fact. The Sangh is wreaking havoc in Orissa. Schools, orphanages, churches are being attacked, damaged, vandalised. Pastors and priests are being killed and nuns raped and set ablaze. Properties of hundreds of Christians have been burnt down, looted, vandalised. People are hiding in the forest and are witnessing their homes and businesses being burnt. Smoke is rising from all over. We are witnessing on one hand total failure of the government machinery to control the violent Sangh outfits on the other hand we are witnessing the connivance to save the Sangh. Every past incident has seen the minorities being attacked by the Sangh and then all the cases being filed against the minorities. There is a conspiracy of silence by the government on how minorities are being hounded in India. Golwalker's agenda of reducing the minorities to second class citizens in this country is in full swing and everyone is partnering in this agenda. Hundreds of innocent people are being picked up, tortured in the name of fighting terrorism. I am writing to you with the request to intervene immediately, deploy enough central forces to stop the mayhem and violence in Orissa. With regards Shabnam Hashmi Social Activist anhadnational@ gmail.com
Bismillah [IslamCity] Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish nomore
Where should we go after the last frontiers, where should the birds fly after the last sky? Mahmoud Darwish - The Earth Is Closing on Us The predominant Palestinian poet, whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and won numerous international awards, died following open heart surgery at a Houston hospital. Palestinian 'national poet' dies Darwish won many international prizes for his work http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7551918.stm Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died after surgery at the age of 67, hospital and Palestinian officials say. He suffered complications after undergoing open-heart surgery in Houston, Texas, said a spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Darwish was the most recognised Palestinian poet in the world, using his words to try to draw attention to the Palestinian cause. He also delivered harsh criticism of the infighting by Palestinian factions. Even though he became iconic he never lost his sense of humanity - we have lost part of our essence Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi During a reading in 2007, Mr Darwish denounced the violence in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah, describing it as a public attempt at suicide in the streets. He said that the two warring factions had made the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state far more unlikely. Poet of conscience Mr Darwish is famous throughout the Middle East and is regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He is said to have given voice to the Palestinian dreams of statehood, crafted their 1988 declaration of independence and helped to forge a Palestinian national identity. He started out as a poet of resistance and then he became a poet of conscience, said Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, quoted by AP news agency. He embodied the best in Palestinians... even though he became iconic he never lost his sense of humanity. We have lost part of our essence, the essence of the Palestinian being. His poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages, and he has won many international prizes for his work. Also read: Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile By Nathalie Handal, http://www.progressive.org/mag/darwish0502.html Absent, I come to the home of the absent, the leading Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, writes. No other poet captures the Palestinian consciousness and collective memory the way he does. At sixty-one, whether he is giving a reading in Paris or Palestine, he draws crowds of thousands, from government officials to schoolteachers, taxi drivers to students. In his latest collection, Judarieh (Mural), the poet finds himself in between love and death, wondering which of the two will conquer. After the stranger's night, who am I? Darwish writes. So, when I speak to him by phone on March 22, I ask him who he is. He rapidly responds, I still do not know. On many occasions he has expressed the notion that only poetry can bring harmony to a world devastated by war: Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by, he has written. I ask him if he still believes that. I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, he responds, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet. Darwish has published twenty books of poetry, five books of prose, and his books have been translated into more than twenty-two languages. He has won numerous awards, including the Lotus Prize (1969); the Lenin Peace Prize (1983); France's highest medal, the Knight of Arts and Letters (1993); and this April he will be honored with the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom. I am still not a poet, and sometimes I regret I chose this way, he tells me. Still, he is finishing his forthcoming book of poetry, State of Siege. His work speaks of his internal exile and uprootedness, his meditations on his historical, collective, and personal past. Many of his poems mirror the loss of homeland, the frustrations of being under siege, of being occupied. Here is a couplet from The Earth Is Closing on Us: Where should we go after the last frontiers, where should the birds fly after the last sky? Other poems allude to myths, draw parallels between the Native American and the Palestinian experiences, speak of his mother, or address a Jewish lover. In Rita and the Rifle, he writes: Between Rita and my eyes There is a rifle. . . . Ah, Rita! What before this rifle could have turned my eyes from yours. In A Soldier Dreaming of White Lilies, he writes to his Jewish friends: I want a good heart Not the weight of a gun's magazine. I refuse to die Turning my gun my love On women and children. He describes Palestine as a metaphor--for exile, for the human condition, for the grief of dislocation and dispossession. In Eleven Planets
Bismillah [IslamCity] UN warning on India child health
Sri Lanka - which has one of the longest running civil wars in the region - has managed to cut down on child deaths by half since 1990 because it has emphasised on health care, Unicef says UN warning on India child health http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7542521.stm Millions of children in India are malnourished The world will fail to reach millennium development goals unless India improves its record on health and child protection, a UN report says. Unicef, the UN children's agency, says India is failing to provide basic healthcare for its poorest children - despite robust economic growth. India and China account for nearly a third of the world's child deaths, the vast majority of them in India. The country had 2.1m child deaths in 2006 - more than any other state. The corresponding figure for China was more than 400,000. Growing divide The Unicef report examined the latest trends in child and maternal health in Asia. It said the region's robust economic growth had lifted millions out of poverty, but deepening disparities between the rich and the poor had meant that health care often failed to reach those at the very bottom. It is a fundamental truth that unless India achieves major improvements in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, gender equality and child protection, global efforts to reach the millennium development goals (MDGs) will fail, Unicef says in the State of Asia-Pacific's Children 2008 report. The divide between rich and poor is rising at a troubling rate in the region, the report says. This is leaving vast numbers of mothers and children at risk of increasing relative poverty. Underweight babies are more likely to die than a healthy ones Unicef recommends that both countries increase spending on public health by at least two per cent while also involve communities in order to strengthen the system. Unicef says avoidable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea and a high rate of malnutrition are the major causes of child death in the region. The report says that in India one out of every three women is underweight which puts them at risk of having low birth weight babies. These babies are 20 times more likely to die in infancy than healthy babies. Experts say poverty, ignorance and poor feeding practices often result in high rates of malnourished children. Conflict Rising global food prices in the last few months have also had an impact. The report says the gender discrimination prevalent in South Asia ensures that life expectancy of girls is lower than boys. In Pakistan, boys are more likely to be immunised than girls and have better access to health care, says Unicef. Conflict also affects a child's chance of survival and Pakistan and Afghanistan are two countries in the region where children have to struggle hard to survive, the report says. However, Sri Lanka - which has one of the longest running civil wars in the region - has managed to cut down on child deaths by half since 1990 because it has emphasised on health care, Unicef says. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Muslim Women: The Dangerous Triangle - Nigar Ataulla
When discussing women's rights, there is sometimes the underlying agenda of bashing men and snatching our rights. I somehow find this sometimes unnerving, making me somewhat uncomfortable in the circle of firebrand Muslim feminists. My question is: Why should a woman beg for her rights? When God has bestowed rights on women, why cannot men give those rights gracefully to women? Muslim Women: The Dangerous Triangle By Nigar Ataulla Over four years ago, I was invited to an inter-faith dialogue programme in Bangalore organised by a Christian human rights group. Speakers from different religious communities were on the panel and they were to talk about the concept of social justice in their own religious traditions. After my brief talk on the notion of justice in Islam, I was handed a long list of questions, some of which, predictably, read like this: Why cannot a Muslim have four husbands? Why aren't Muslim men required to wear veils? Doesn't a Muslim woman feel suppressed in a burkha? How can a man declare triple talaq in one sitting? And, curiously enough, why did Jemima Khan marry Imran Khan? Think of a Muslim woman and the things that immediately flash across in the minds of many Muslims and non-Muslims alike are triple talaq, polygamy and the veil. Is that all a Muslim woman is known for? Does not a Muslim woman have her own identity, her own individuality? Why cannot society look upon a Muslim woman as just another human being, like everybody else, and not a marked out, exoticised or specially branded creature? In the Indian context, when one talks of the status of Muslim women, the focus invariably falls on triple talaq in one sitting, polygamy and hijab. I choose to call this the dangerous triangle. Last month, the Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and the Institute of Islamic Studies organised a training programme on The Rights of Muslim Women in the Quran—Theory and Practice. Over 50 participants from various states across India came together to share their experiences, views and thoughts. While the majority were women activists (Muslims as well as others), there were a sprinkling of male activists too. Most of the activists at the training programme worked at the grassroots level, in slums and villages. The key presenter at the workshop was the noted writer, Islamic scholar and social activist Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, who is also the chairperson of the CSSS. His discussion focused on the position of women before Islam, references to women in the Quran and evolution of Islamic jurisprudence. He stressed that women should read the Quran from what he called a 'feminist' point of view. The Quran has innumerable verses in favour of women. But men sometimes misinterpret verses related to polygamy and hijab to suit their whims and fancies, he said. Maulana Mohammad Shoaib Koti, a well-known Islamic scholar based in Mumbai, talked about the freedom of expression for women in Islam. He recalled how Muslim women during the days of the Prophet asked questions directly to him without any male intervention. He also referred to the high status enjoyed by women scholars of Hadith and Quran during those days. Qutub Jehan Kidwai, convenor of the Institute of Islamic Studies, shared her observations of Muslim personal law reforms in Muslim countries. Mehmood Hasan, a film maker from Bangladesh, presented an engaging (and disturbing) documentary film on the practice of arbitrary triple talaq. The story, woven around a Bangladeshi family, ends on a positive note, proclaiming that triple talaq has no sanction in Islam. A noted advocate from Mumbai, Nilofer Akhtar elaborated on Supreme Court judgments in favour of Muslim women. She lamented the fact that many Muslims were not sufficiently aware of numerous laws relating to maintenance after divorce. Mufti Inamullah Khan, a scholar and activist, supported the call for codification of Muslim Personal Law in India. In her presentation, Naish Hasan, founder of the Lucknow-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, spoke about her experiences of working with Muslim women in different parts of the country. Women in rural areas were most victimized through violation of their rights and also domestic violence. With no access to education, most rural Muslim women have no idea about the courts and the laws and even what the Quran says about women's rights. The need of the hour is to take up these cases and help women get their due rights. They become easy victims, and run from pillar to post when men desert them, dump triple talaq on them and irresponsibly use polygamy as their birthright, she said. * While activism against these violations is gaining momentum, there is still a long way to go. Educational and economic empowerment of Muslim women is an important factor to be taken into consideration while talking about
Bismillah [IslamCity] Need for a neutral panel to oversee investigations into terror attacks: Majlis-e-Mushawarat
Dr. Khan asked the central government to form a high powered neutral panel of retired judges, human rights activists, top lawyers and journalists to oversee the investigations into all terrorist acts. Need for a neutral panel to oversee investigations into terror attacks: Majlis-e-Mushawarat Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on 28 July 2008 - 11:46am. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul28/need_neutral_panel_oversee_investigations_terror_attacks_majlis_e_mushawarat.html By TwoCircles.net news desk, New Delhi: The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan has expressed deep pain and concern over the bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Offering his sincere condolences to the family members of the innocent victims, he said that no effort should be spared to nab the real culprits behind these dastardly crimes against the country and the people of India. Dr Khan cautioned the police, security and intelligence agencies not to hurry to make statements or leak information until proper investigations are completed. He called upon these agencies and the central and state home ministries to probe all possible suspects and all possible beneficiaries from such crimes. Dr Khan said that a certain political party which has usurped the common plank of fighting terrorism is a sure beneficiary of such incidents in view of the forthcoming elections. He noted that these terrorist incidents are taking place in states ruled by this particular party and the chief minister of another state ruled by this party has already predicted that the next target of these crimes will be his state. Dr Khan specifically said that Hindutva criminal and terrorist gangs, responsible for similar crimes in the recent past in places like Nanded, Parbhani, Tenkasi and Thane, should be included within the purview of the current and future probes into all terrorist acts in the country. Dr Khan observed that such criminal gangs have received support from the Shiv Sena supremo and his newspaper “Samna” but the Maharashtra state authorities have failed to take any action to date against him or his newspaper for openly supporting and encouraging terrorism. Dr Khan asked the central government to form a high powered neutral panel of retired judges, human rights activists, top lawyers and journalists to oversee the investigations into all terrorist acts. Such a neutral panel is needed to restore the Muslim community’s faith in the investigations by security and intelligence agencies which, due to their consistently one-sided probes after each such criminal act, have totally forfeited the confidence of the Muslim community. Dr Khan also asked the central government to keep a sharp eye on the dubious activities of foreign intelligence agencies which are operating freely in our country. He asked the central government to immediately close down the offices of all such foreign intelligence agencies as their presence on our soil is not in the interest of the peace and security of the country. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] STATEMENT on THE BLASTS IN AHMEDABAD
--- On Sat, 7/26/08, PRASHANT Ahmedabad [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: PRASHANT Ahmedabad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: STATEMENT on THE BLASTS IN AHMEDABAD To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Saturday, July 26, 2008, 9:51 PM We condemn .in no uncertain terms the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Bangalore..and the other senseless acts of violence in other parts of the country.. We sympathise with all those affected very specially those who have lost their near and dear ones..May the departed souls rest in peace.. We earnestly plead with all those who indulge in such heinous acts to eschew any act of violence immediately. .These acts serve no purpose We call upon the State and National Government and other concerned authorities to deal with the situation firmly, but not to demonise any particular community or randomly arrest any one..We also call upon these officials to ensure that there there is justice and equity for all Finally we call upon evey section of civil society (very specially the leaders) to play a responsible role and to do all it can to maintain communal peace, harmony and calm in these moments of crises Fr Cedric Prakash sj Director PRASHANT.. 27 July 2008 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Terror's New Face..
Pls. read the forwarded message. With Regards Abi --- On Sat, 7/26/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Worth reading in the context of the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts.. Rebecca. - - - - - - Herald, Panjim, 19 June 2008 TERROR'S NEW FACE Editorial The arrest of sevaks of the Sanatan Sanstha, a religious group that is behind the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti for planting bombs in theatres at Thane and Vashi brings a new dimension to terrorism. Seven people were injured when one of the bombs the sevaks planted exploded in the parking lot of Thane's Gadkari Rangayatan theatre on 4 June. Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari, Mangesh Nikam, Santosh Angre and Vikram Bhave, the four bombers, are all full-time activists of the Sanatan Sanstha, living in ashrams run by the organisation. Their arrest at the end of a 10-day investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Cell exposes what many have suspected for a few years now; that not all terrorists are Muslim, and there are Hindu terrorists too. Police say that they had planted a bomb outside a mosque or dargah on the Pen highway last Diwali, to check its intensity, but it did not explode. Nikam had earlier set off a bomb in the house of a family in Ratnagiri that had converted to Christianity, and was on bail awaiting trial. Ever since there was an accidental bomb blast at a flat in Nanded rented by Bajrang Dal activists a few years ago, there has been suspicion that extremist Hindu organisations were also carrying out terrorist attacks. However, police forces in India never seriously investigated this phenomenon, blaming the Malegaon blasts, the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, the blasts in the Jaipur dargah, etc, on 'Islamic terrorists'. Now, they need to have a fresh look, and see who was really responsible. The Sanstha has said it had no knowledge of these activities and that the sevaks did it 'on their own'. But the police say it is very clear that at least one of the bombs was assembled in the ashram premises, though no bomb-making materials were found in Gadkari's room. Protestations of innocence cannot be taken at face value, and the organisation must be investigated thoroughly. Its literature talks of 'elimination' of 'evildoers', and though no doubt they will claim that the words are used in a figurative and not literal sense, the police need to rigorously look into its voluminous literature and check out its activities with a fine tooth comb. This is because the Sanatan Sanstha and the Bajrang Dal, two Hindu fundamentalist organisations that are both linked to bomb blasts, are the main constituents of the broad joint front called the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti, which has been holding public meetings all over Goa claiming Hinduism is in danger, and making provocative speeches. Besides, the leader of the Sanstha, Dr Jayant Athavale, lives mostly in Goa at Mangueshi, and directs the organisation' s activities from this state. What is especially troubling is the editorial written by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in yesterday's 'Saamna', his party's newspaper. He has advocated the creation of 'Hindu suicide squads', saying that the only way to counter the threat of Islamic terror is by 'Hindu terror'. This threat cannot be taken lightly. Terrorists typically target innocents, and with two varieties of terror 'taking on' each other with bombs, it is ordinary people who will be blown to bits. _ _ __
Bismillah [IslamCity] Enlightening Words
He is not strong and powerful who throweth people down; but he is strong who witholdeth himself from anger: Muhammad = Do not say, that if the people do good to us, we will do good to them; and if the people oppress us, we will oppress them; but determine that if people do you good, you will do good to them; and if they oppress you, you will not oppress them: Muhammad = To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace: Bible = Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.: Buddha === With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Help the poor, pleads Mandela as he turns 90
Glory to you Nelson, for 25 years from a solitary prison you defended human
dignity! Fidel Castro wrote in a brief note to Mandela that was published in
the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde and appeared in other
state-controlled media. You knew how to resist and, without wanting to or
trying to, you became a symbol of humanity's highest nobility.
Help the poor, pleads Mandela as he turns 90
5:00AM Sunday July 20, 2008
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2objectid=10522464
Photo / AP
Nelson Mandela sat beaming, his legs propped up and covered with a blanket as
10 grandchildren sang Happy Birthday and smothered him with hugs and kisses as
he celebrated his 90th birthday on Friday.
At his home in rural south-eastern South Africa, elders in traditional dress
came to pay their respects, sheep were trucked in and bare-breasted young women
sang and danced.
The man himself still found time to read a pile of newspapers, to keep up with
local and international affairs.
Mandela told a small group of reporters he was fortunate to have reached 90,
but remains troubled by the demoralising poverty still faced by so many of his
countrymen.
His message was simple - the wealthy must do more.
There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those
riches with those not so fortunate, who have not been able to conquer poverty,
he said.
Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years for fighting apartheid and after his
release in 1990 lead negotiations to end racist white rule, before being
elected president in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.
He completed his term in 1999 and did not run again, but has continued to take
a leading role in the fight against poverty, illiteracy and Aids in Africa.
Birthday messages have been pouring in, including from US President Bush, who
applauded Mandela as a great example of courage, hope, and the power of
freedom.
A variety of birthday celebration events are planned in Mandela's honour this
weekend, including a lunch with 500 dignitaries, a soccer festival and a pop
concert.
- AP
Fidel Castro hails Mandela at 90 as 'symbol of humanity's highest nobility'
The Associated Press
Published: July 20, 2008
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/20/news/CB-Cuba-Castro-Mandela.php
HAVANA: Fidel Castro on Sunday hailed Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, calling
the Nobel Peace Prize winning icon a symbol of humanity's highest nobility.
Glory to you Nelson, for 25 years from a solitary prison you defended human
dignity! Castro wrote in a brief note to Mandela that was published in the
Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde and appeared in other
state-controlled media. You knew how to resist and, without wanting to or
trying to, you became a symbol of humanity's highest nobility.
Mandela turned 90 on Friday. Imprisoned for nearly three decades for fighting
apartheid, he was release in 1990 and went on to be elected president in South
Africa's first democratic elections.
Castro, who is suffering from an unknown illness and will tun 82 next month,
has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in
July 2006. His younger brother Raul succeeded him as president in February,
becoming Cuba's first new head of state in 49 years.
Fidel Castro won the gratitude of many Africans by sending 350,000 troops to
battle the former white-dominated South African government in Angola's civil
war, draining resources from the apartheid system.
When Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president in 1994,
he made Castro a guest of honor and praised Cuba's selfless support for the
struggle to free all of South Africa's people.
Castro wrote to Mandela Sunday that you will live on in the memories of future
generations and with you, so will the Cubans who fell defending liberty and
their brothers in other parts of the world.
With Regards
Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Book review: Mapilla Muslims-A Study on Society and Anti-Colonial Struggles
The book's treatment of the period of Mapilla history till the exit of the British is excellent, dealing with critical aspects of Mapilla history and culture in a summarized and easily readable form. However, a detailed post-1947 history of this fascinating Muslim community still waits to be written, a period that is equally fascinating, for it was then that the Mapillas took in a major way to modern education, which has made them among the most literate and economically prosperous Muslim communities in India today Book review: Mapilla Muslims-A Study on Society and Anti-Colonial Struggles By Yoginder Sikand http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul15/book_review_mapilla_muslims_study_society_and_anti_colonial_struggles.html The Mapillas of Malabar in Kerala are one of the oldest Muslim groups in South Asia. They also happen to be among the most well educated and economically prosperous Muslim communities in India today. The history of the Mapillas and the role of numerous various individuals and movements that shaped Mapilla identity and fortunes are neatly encapsulated in this well-researched book. The book begins with a discussion about the history of Islam in Kerala. The author admits that the veracity of the traditional legend about a local Hindu king converting to Islam and then traveling to Arabia to meet the Prophet Muhammad is open to question, but, quoting from numerous early Sanskrit and Arabic texts, he shows that Islam arrived on the Malabar coast well before it reached other parts of India. He describes the evolution of the Mapilla community as resulting from conversions among Arabs who had settled in Malabar in pre-Islamic times, intermarriage of Arab traders with local women, and conversions, especially from the 'low' castes, as a result of the missionary efforts of a number of Arab traders, scholars and Sufis, whose egalitarian message served as a clarion call for liberation for those enslaved by the caste system and the Brahminical religion. The author raises the interesting question of the rapid spread of Islam in Kerala (where Muslims account for over a fourth of the population today) despite the virtual absence of Muslim political rule in the region. One of the key factors for this, he says, were the cordial relations that the Arab traders settled in Malabar enjoyed with many local Hindu Rajas, especially the Zamorins of Calicut. The Rajas treated the Arabs with respect, for they played a crucial role in the local economy. They allowed them full religious freedom, and some of them even encouraged conversions of local fishermen to Islam in order to man their navies, given that, at that time, orthodox Hindus were forbidden to cross the seas on pain of being excommunicated from their caste. Testifying to the harmonious relations between the early Muslims in Malabar and the local Hindus, the early medieval Portugues traveler Barbosa, the author tells us, writes that the Zamorins gave each Muslim trader a Nair guard and a Chetty accountant to help manage his business. Vasco da Gama, who invaded Calicut in the late fifteenth century, primarily to oust the Muslims from the Indian Ocean trade and to spread Christianity in the region, noted that the Muslims of Calicut, the principal Muslim-dominated trade centre in Malabar, 'lived in the city not like foreigners, but as natives', and that from them the Zamorin 'received much profit'. Scores of Sufi missionaries also played a central role in the spread of Islam in Malabar, the author tells us. The first of these, Malik bin Dinar, was a disciple of the noted Sufi Hasan al-Basri. He is credited with having set up a number of mosques in the region. While Sufi orders such as the Chisthtiyya and the Suhrawardiyya were also active in Malabar, a central missionary role was played by the Qadris, particularly Syeds of the noted Makhdum family who were originally from Yemen, but, in addition to Malabar, had spread to south-east Asia as well, serving as traders, religious scholars and spiritual guides. These Sufis were among the pioneers of literature in the Arabic-Malayalam dialect, and, in contrast to much of north India, used mosques, instead of Sufi hospices or khanqahs, as centres of Islamic instruction. The author devotes considerable space to the evolution of a unique Mapilla Muslim culture that combined Arab and local elements. Hindu and Buddhist converts to Islam in Malabar, as elsewhere in India, did not wholly abandon their pre-Islamic practices and institutions. Thus, caste rules continued to be followed, although with much less severity. Several customs associated with the Sufi shrines betrayed local influences, and many Hindus, particularly from the 'low' castes, regularly visited these shrines. Hindu influence was (and still is) readily visible in Malabari mosque architecture and several life-cycle rituals of the Mapillas. A major turning point in the history of the Mapillas was the arrival
Bismillah [IslamCity] Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace - discussion on Indo-US Nuclear Deal
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Invites you for discussion on *Indo-US Nuclear Deal:* *The Dangerous Deception* On Saturday July 19th, 2008, 02.30 p.m. At Deputy Speaker's Hall Constitution Club, V. P. House Rafi Marg, New Delhi *Chief Guest: * Mahasweta Devi *Chair: * Prabhash Joshi *Speakers: * M. V. Ramana Achin Vanaik Praful Bidwai * Contact:* CNDP A 124/6 Katwaria Sarai New Delhi-110016 Phone: 65663958 Telefax: 26517814 With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hitler's avatar seeks US visa - Muqtedar Khan
Modi is a self-styled disciple of Adolf Hitler. He has often expressed his admiration for Hitler and even members of his own party sometimes refer to him as the Hitler of India. In Gujarat, Adolf Hitler is glorified in higher secondary school textbooks. Modi and the state of Gujarat's growing admiration for Hitler has even spooked Israel. Former Israeli Councilor General David Zohar Zonshine has made significant efforts to rectify the matter, including holding exhibitions to educate Modi's followers about the holocaust. But textbooks printed before Israeli protests are still being used in schools. Hitler's avatar seeks US visa Submitted by kashif on 14 July 2008 - 4:26pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul14/hitlers_avatar_seeks_us_visa.html By Muqtedar Khan Nishrin Hussein, a resident of Delaware since 1989, suffered immeasurable trauma in February of 2002. Her father, Ehsan Jafferi a former member of the Indian national parliament and a poet was dragged out of his house and burned alive by a rampaging mob. In that week over 2000 members of a religious minority were killed and burned, over 150,000 were rendered homeless and many women were raped; often as police watched and stubbornly refused to protect religious minorities in Gujarat, a state in India. According to human rights organizations, Indian government commissions and even US government, the man ultimately responsible for this state facilitated genocide was Narender Modi, the current and then Chief Minister of Gujarat. Modi is now seeking a US Visa to come and speak to his supporters and admirers in New Jersey in the month of August. His visit also forces victims like Nishrin Hussein to relive their trauma. Narendra Modi Narender Modi belongs to a Hindu fascist movement that seeks to make India a global power by first religiously and culturally purifying it through elimination of religious minorities. International Religious Freedom Reports, prepared by the US State Department, implicate Narender Modi's political party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its religious affiliates in systematic killings of Muslims and Christians and burning of their homes and businesses; year after year. Modi is a self-styled disciple of Adolf Hitler. He has often expressed his admiration for Hitler and even members of his own party sometimes refer to him as the Hitler of India. In Gujarat, Adolf Hitler is glorified in higher secondary school textbooks. Modi and the state of Gujarat's growing admiration for Hitler has even spooked Israel. Former Israeli Councilor General David Zohar Zonshine has made significant efforts to rectify the matter, including holding exhibitions to educate Modi's followers about the holocaust. But textbooks printed before Israeli protests are still being used in schools. Modi frightens me. I think he is sowing the seeds of hatred and preparing the people of Gujarat for a bigger and more ominous genocide in the future. Modi now wishes to mobilize his supporters in New Jersey. Fortunately a broad spectrum of Indians in America, American academics, human rights organizations and members of the US Congress, like Betty McCollum (D- Minnesota) have come together to forge a coalition against genocide (CAG) and are pressing the State Department to reject this Avatar (re-incarnation) of Hitler. The Indian elite, empowered by recent economic successes, wish to piggy back on the US to superpower status. They wish to forge a new strategic alliance with the US that will facilitate the transfer of critical military technology, attract financial investments, open US markets to Indian businesses and enlist US' diplomatic support for Indian ascendance. Modi seeks to increase his influence in the US. He also wishes to increase fund raising from the rich Indian American community to finance his politics in India. It is vital to his cause that he has intimate access to the U.S. At the moment, Hindu nationalist cannot have both; Modi as a national leader and the US as vehicle to global power. As long as Modi is shunned by the US he is ineligible for national office. It is therefore essential for his supporters to purify his image, and they hope to do so by bullying the US government into allowing him entry in to the US. If he was received in the U.S., he will be projected in India as a leader of global stature. US law on international religious freedom (section 604) prohibits the State Department from allowing people who commit egregious violations from coming to the US. Modi is now enforcing a new law against religious conversions in Gujarat which primarily targets Christians. This single act of curbing religious consciousness triggers section 604 and alone makes him ineligible for a US visa. The US Commission on International Religious Freedoms has also asked the State department to deny Modi. The Bush administration has been excellent on this issue, so far. In 2005 it not only denied Modi a
Bismillah [IslamCity] From Triumph To Torture - John Pilger
The Israelis were trying to punish me for the work I am doing and getting the message out, Omer told IPS from his bed in the European Hospital in Gaza. But they won't break me. As soon as I am better, and my limbs are working properly, I will be back on the beat and reporting what is happening. They have made me more determined than ever. - Mohammed Omer, IPS Gaza correspondent From Triumph To Torture By John Pilger 02 July, 2008 http://www.countercurrents.org/pilger020708.htm Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or official drivel, as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless. The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel. Getting Mohammed to London to receive his prize was a major diplomatic operation. Israel has perfidious control over Gaza's borders, and only with a Dutch embassy escort was he allowed out. Last Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel's infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over his luggage, picking through his documents. Where's the money? he demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. Where is the English pound you have? I realised, said Mohammed, he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn't have it with me. 'You are lying', he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: 'Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.' He said, 'This is nothing compared with what you will see now.' He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, 'Why are you bringing perfumes?' I replied, 'They are gifts for the people I love'. He said, 'Oh, do you have love in your culture?' As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror. An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was suspected of smuggling and lost his balance during a fair interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday. Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation. Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC's Alan Johnston. The Dutch government says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer's treatment. The former ambassador Jan Wijenberg said: This is by no means an
Bismillah [IslamCity] Terrorism - How not to combat it - Ashgar Ali Engineer
The remedy for this terrorist violence is also simple. Declare war against terrorism, do away with concept of humans rights, find some puppets to fight its war against terror, put some suspected youth in jails and torture them till they die or go mad and feel safe from further terrorist attacks. Who commits sins and who pays? What do authorities care? They care only for their lust for power and money. Terrorism - How not to combat it Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on 2 July 2008 - 1:59pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul02/terrorism_how_not_combat_it.html By Asghar Ali Engineer, Terrorism today is engaging attention of whole world though we are more concerned with terrorism in our own country. There is hardly any country, which is not affected by terrorism today though reasons are widely different. In many countries terrorism is fired by separatist fire. Many regions were included in colonized countries by imperial powers to suit their own convenience least knowing that increased awareness and democratic movements in future would ignite separatist movement and when their aspirations for autonomy or independence are denied violence would be used. Basque in Spain, South Ireland, North and North East in Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Nagaland and Assam, Tripura and Manipur in India and in several other regions in other countries separatist violence would break out claiming large number of lives and destruction of properties. What colonial powers did for their convenience in nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, present generations are paying price for the same. Add to this list the sins committed by American imperialists in 20th and 21st century to satisfy their lust for raw materials and oil in the third world countries and Middle East and we know the violence it has resulted in and the price thousands of innocent people are paying for it. The powerful media, however, sees Islam as the root of violence and ascribes genesis of terrorism to Islam. What an easy way out of ones own guilt. The remedy for this terrorist violence is also simple. Declare war against terrorism, do away with concept of humans rights, find some puppets to fight its war against terror, put some suspected youth in jails and torture them till they die or go mad and feel safe from further terrorist attacks. Who commits sins and who pays? What do authorities care? They care only for their lust for power and money. A survey was done recently by an international agency WorldPublicOpinion.org of several countries to find out how many people support torture as an effective method to combat terrorism. The survey was to gauge how many people support abolition of torture by the sate as it is totally against human rights and human dignity. Largest number of Indians, though not surprisingly, supported retaining of torture to 'save innocent lives. 59% Indians said torture is necessary to combat terrorism. People of 14 countries favour abolition of torture, even in the case of terrorists who have information that could save lives of innocent people. But four nations, including India lean toward favouring an exception in the case of terrorists, according to the WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 19,063respondents, released ahead of 'International Victims of Torture Day' tomorrow. Majorities in India (59%), Nigeria (54%), and Turkey (51%), and a plurality in Thailand (44%) want exception for terrorists. Among all nations polled in both 2006 and 2008, India also has the largest increase in support of making exception for torture in the case of terrorism – 32% two years ago to 59% now. But it is also to be noted that those who believe torture should be totally abolished also has risen in India from 23% in 2006 to 28% in 2008. But large majorities in all 19 nations favour a general prohibition against torture. On average across all nations polled, 57% opt for unequivocal rules against torture. Thirty five percent favour an exception when innocent lives are at risk. Just 9% favour the government being able to use torture in general. It is also interesting to note that support for unequivocal abolition of torture was highest in Spain (82%), Great Britain (66%) and France (66%), followed by Mexico (73%), China (66%), Palestinian Territories (66%), Indonesia (61%) and the Ukraine (59%). Here the question is why support for torture is so high in case of terrorist violence? Answer is not very difficult to find. In India the Hindu right wing or Hindu communal forces constantly propagates that terrorism can be effectively fought only by implementing laws like TADA or POTA and using torture as an effective tool. Leaders like Bal Thackaray even said that the Hindu youth should become human bomb and get away with it as the government has no moral courage to take any action. The second reason is also connected with this. It is generally propagated by the media that it is Islam which is responsible for terrorism, being
Bismillah [IslamCity] Ahmedabad pays tributes to martyrs of Hindu-Muslim unity
When they reached Khand-ni-Sheri in Jamalpur area to save a Dalit family, the mob threatened to kill them but they did not budge and lied down on the road to prevent the rioters from going ahead. The fanatics killed Vasant and Rajab but spared the Dalit family. The pair of a Hindu and a Muslim became martyrs and an icon of communal harmony Ahmedabad pays tributes to martyrs of Hindu-Muslim unity Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on 1 July 2008 - 12:02pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul01/ahmedabad_pays_tributes_martyrs_hindu_muslim_unity.html By IANS, Ahmedabad : Leading citizens of Ahmedabad Tuesday paid rich tributes to Vasant and Rajab who sacrificed their lives for communal harmony 62 years ago. A memorial programme, organised by the Movement for Democracy (MSD) and other organisations, was attended by mayor Kanaji Thakor, deputy mayor Kalpanaben Bhatt and civic officials. A number of activists from NGOs like Sanchetna, Aapnu Mandal, Rashtriya Seva Dal, Drishti Media, and St. Xaviers Social Centre also participated. MSD convenor Prakash N. Shah recalled the supreme sacrifice of Vasantrao Hegishte and Rajab Ali Lakhani who on July 1, 1946 - a rath yatra day - were killed by a mob during communal skirmishes. These martyrs are to be remembered as icons of struggle for justice, equality and socialism. The responsibility of fulfilling their unfulfilled dreams is to be carried by us, the present generation, he said. Shah recalled Ahmedabad was up in flames that day and Vasant and Rajab were engaged in saving Hindu and Muslim families and their houses and properties throughout that day. They rescued a Muslim driver from a rioting Hindu mob and a Hindu owner of a washing company from a Muslim mob. When they reached Khand-ni-Sheri in Jamalpur area to save a Dalit family, the mob threatened to kill them but they did not budge and lied down on the road to prevent the rioters from going ahead. The fanatics killed Vasant and Rajab but spared the Dalit family. The pair of a Hindu and a Muslim became martyrs and an icon of communal harmony, Shah said. A street play on communal harmony, Kem, kyan sudhi (Why, to what extent), was also staged by activists of Drishti Media on the occasion. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Investigations of terror attacks lack fairness
It may be noted that the Jaipur blast happened just before the final phase of election in Karnataka, and this has clearly helped the BJP. - Abhiyya There are strong possibilities and reasons as many civil right groups argue that the hindutva organizations are behind this blast and many other terror blasts in India, as per the recent arrest of five activists of the Hindu Jan Jagriti Samiti is anything to go by. They were arrested in connection of Thane theater blast case. Investigations of terror attacks lack fairness Submitted by Tarique Anwar on 28 June 2008 - 7:33pm. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jun28/investigations_terror_attacks_lack_fairness.html By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net, In a revealing statement, the Union Home Minister of state Prakash Jaisawal admitted to media that there has not been any progress in the investigation of terror blasts in the country including that of the recent Jaipur bombings. This acceptance by the representative of the central government is key to any understanding of the way government approaches the investigation of the cases of terrorism in India. The frank confession by the union minister is an indirect acknowledgement of the utter incompetence of the Indian investigative agencies. One month after the powerful serial blasts ripped through prime locations in the walled city of Jaipur, the investigative agencies are still groping in the dark to nail the terrorists responsible for the killing of 67 persons on 13th May. Despite working on several leads the agencies have not reached anywhere near the architects of the bloody crime. The Special Investigative Team (SIT) has not only completely failed to find any evidence to support its initial claim of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJi) of Bangladesh being involved in the blasts, but also retracted its earlier theory that RDX was used to trigger the explosion. The claim made by a hitherto unknown outfit, Indian Mujahidin, taking responsibility for the blasts through an e-mail sent to media organization remains unverified. The SIT is still not in a position to confirm or deny the existence of this group, raising the suspicion that the e-mail could have been a ploy to mislead the investigators. The sketches of the seven suspects released by the police have not elicited any useful information from the public. After harassing dozens of Bengali speaking Muslims and questioning or detaining about 500 people across the state the police have only arrested a cleric, from Bharatpur, Md. Illyas, on the charges of possessing fake passport and having disproportionate assets. However the SIT could not establish his involvement in the blasts. In the background of these failures, what is very much baffling is that SIT’s attempts to gather evidence is aimed solely at pinpointing the blame on “Islamist” outfits, instead of looking into a host of other possibilities. There are strong possibilities and reasons as many civil right groups argue that the hindutva organizations are behind this blast and many other terror blasts in India, as per the recent arrest of five activists of the Hindu Jan Jagriti Samiti is anything to go by. They were arrested in connection of Thane theater blast case. This frank acceptance by the Union Minister, admits the loopholes in the present approaches adopted by the investigative agencies toward the cases of terror blasts, and indirectly admits the need for them to look into other more probable and likely possibilities. One only hopes that the investigative agencies will read the covert message of the minister about their performance. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Mohammed's Sword - Uri Avenry
Why did the Pope utter these words in public? And why now? There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of Islamofascism and the Global War on Terrorism--when terrorism has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade. The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences? The Pope's Evil Legend Mohammed's Sword By URI AVNERY http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery09262006.html Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes. Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306--exactly 1700 years ago--encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his superiority. The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in European history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, walked to Canossa, standing for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication. But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide storm, went well with Bush's crusade against Islamofascism, in the context of the Clash of Civilizations. * * * IN HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Allah. As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this war of civilizations. In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul? To support his case, the Pope quoted--of all people--a Byzantine Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had--or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt)--with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to himself) flung the following words at his adversary: Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Emperor say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present Pope quote them? * * * WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat. At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. In 1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the Turks, putting an end to the Empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years. During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving politics. In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim Axis of Evil. Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is
Bismillah [IslamCity] Rape Victims Greedy Father; Pitfalls in criminal justice system - Ravinder Singh
Rape Victims Greedy Father; Pitfalls in criminal justice system Unlike in developed countries victims of criminal assault get substantial compensation that bankrupted Mike Tyson, in India they get almost nothing by way of compensation and poverty of the victim’s family over rides the desire to seek justice and victims compromise for money and with draw the case. Compromises in criminal cases clandestinely result in low conviction rate serve no deterrent to the criminals. In BMW case kin of dead victims knew they will get little or nothing by way of compensation in convicting influential and super rich Nandas and they prefer ILLEGAL procedure to sabotage the Criminal Justice System For Money. But the biggest pitfall for which I hold Chief Justice of India responsible why the statement of the victim is not recorded within a day or two of the incident and slow criminal trial. Judiciary and the Law Ministry must find ways to award sufficient financial compensation to victim either from states account in case accused are poor or from severe penalties realized from convicts. These steps will firstly prevent “Corruption” in criminal justice administration and secondly deliver speedy justice. Ravinder Singh [EMAIL PROTECTED] June27, 2008 Patan rape victim dumps greedy father, gets NGO protection http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Patan_rape_victim_dumps_greedy_father_gets_NGO_protection/articleshow/3170056.cms AHMEDABAD: A day after she wrote a suicide note, complaining that she was fed up with her life, the Patan gangrape victim fled home and took refuge with the police in Visnagar town. The victim left home following a major row with her father after the family dragged her home from the hostel where she wanted to stay till the crucial deposition in the case coming up in court on July 1. The victim had written a suicide note in her hostel room on Wednesday, which her room-mate happened to notice, and reported the matter to the principal of district institute of education and training (DIET). College authorities said the victim was having a troubled relationship with her father, a landless farm worker, ever since the case came to light in February — an incident which has put six teachers of the DIET behind bars. On Thursday morning, the girl blew her top when her father, in a fit of rage, broke her cellular phone. She walked out of home along with her two police escorts and took refuge with the police in Visnagar, about 20 km from her village, Jetalvasna. The police took her to the chief judicial magistrate in Mehsana which gave an NGO, Navsarjan Trust, her custody for three days. Manjula Pradip of Navsarjan Trust, which has been taking up the issue in the court, said: Father of the girl had become abusive of late and wanted her to stay at home during the time when the court will take up her deposition. The father had even moved the court demanding removal of the victim’s lawyer, whose name was suggested by the Trust. The victim is reported to have told DIET principal Jamnaben Taral, when she was asked to explain the suicide note, that her father was trying to make money out of the case. There have been reports in the past that allurements were being offered to the girl’s family so that the victim does not stand by the statement she had given before a magistrate. var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); var b2 = ' '; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2;
Bismillah [IslamCity] Teesta on communalism, minority rights and politics
Teesta on communalism, minority rights and politics Submitted by kashif on 26 June 2008 - 1:48am. http://www.twocircles.net/2008jun25/teesta_communalism_minority_rights_and_politics.html By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net No one term can describe her activism. Her area of work is vast and very risky also. Initially a full time journalist attached with newspapers including The Indian Express, she took the road of activism after being appalled by the horrors of the Bombay riots. She is Teesta Setalvad, a relentless campaigner for the rights and privileges of minorities- Dalits, Muslims and women. In an exclusive interview with TwoCircles.net, she spoke on matters as diverse as communalism, gender rights, pseudo- secularism of political parties in India, minorities’ rights. Muslim women the community But the only common thing present in all these areas is her praiseworthy and courageous work which she has done in the last fifteen years or so. She mentions some of the cases in Uttar Pradesh on which she is working, particularly the Shravasti mass rape case where the Muslim women of the village were attacked and raped on 10th July 2007. The case is pending in Allahabad High Court. She points out that the issue of minority rights in a democracy is very important that is why they are constitutionally guaranteed, but “as important as that are the rights of the minority within the minority,” referring to Muslim women. Women are doubly marginalized not only in the socio-political power equations, but also in the areas very essential for the progress of any community, education for instance. She says the Muslim community will have to realize that half of its part is women and these women are tremendous potential for that community. You see the merit lists of all state board examination: Muslim girls are doing well; they are doing well in every field. They want to go ahead, and ready to compete with everyone. So Teesta points out the urgent need for the community elders, the religious leaders, and the family to seriously encourage the participation of women in the affairs of the community. Because, she points out, no community in the world history has ever been able to progress without its women standing on its side. Ghettoisation She says her organisation has experimented with this idea in Gujarat. In a city like Himmat Nagar, it has formed a joint force in which Muslim, Dalit and Hindu women have worked together side by side. Teesta Setalvad says that this intermingling is also very important today because it helps rebuild the traditional linkages between the communities, because these linkages and cultural bridges between different faiths negate the communalist sentiments. Communalism has broken the old associations and cultural linkages between different communities which have been replaced by hatred, suspicion and prejudice. So Teesta argues that when one is working for the minority rights one should also keep thinking of rebuilding those bridges, because today the cities have been ghettoized. And ghettoisation is very dangerous, because they are vulnerable to be easy targets, she says. In this context Teesta refers to the recent statement made by Bal Thackeray, in which he exhorted to the hindutva extremists to get in the “mini Pakistans” (Muslim ghettos) and explode bombs there. Teesta points out that if there is intermingling of people at the residential levels and school level, for instance, then it will not allow the prejudices and hatred to build up as easily as when they are ghettoized. Emerging Muslim middle class: a threat to commuanlists? And that is one of the reasons why the communalists and the communal violence push people back in the ghettos, because after the partition, for the first time, Muslim middle class has emerged very strongly in the last 20 -25 years. In every profession, be it legal profession or medical, the class has made their presence felt. Teesta further explains “and it wants its place under the sun, it also wants its share of the cake, naturally. And it is this which is the threat [for the communal forces].” Because suddenly one sees Muslim not as a typical Maulana (as they have always been represented in the popular and mainstream narratives, although not even five percent of the Muslims are Maulanas). But today people find a Muslim who is a woman, a lawyer , a doctor, a software professional, an engineer, and who could be anybody like you and me “but not the specimen out of your overheated imagination” and that is what is the threat, because in today’s growing India every section needs to have their share out of it. After listening to Teesta Setalvad, one cannot help think that one of the aims of the communalists behind the Gujarat riots of February-March 2002 was to crush that threat posed by the emergence of the strong Muslim middle class. And to a large extent they became successful in their purpose. Housing laws
Bismillah [IslamCity] On 7th Grade School Text Book
On 7th Grade School Text Book Actually I was thinking that the present public outrage against the social studies book for 7th standard was unnecessary. However, after reading the page no. 24th of the book, I changed my mind. A translation of the said page is given below: All this don’t affect me Which religious group gets most affected by the different problems mentioned below? a) Price Rise b) Drought (Shortage of Drinking water) c) Infectious Diseases d) Earthquake My finding:……. The child is advised to write their findings on the above question! Other than simply provoking the sentiments of mostly religious people of the state, what message this question convey? Remember, you are asking this nasty question to the students of the most secular state of India! Sure, political parties are fishing from the filthy water for political gain. But why to create a situation for them to do this? This, combined with other ‘objectionable’ contents, the various religious groups finds it as a deliberate attempt to inject Marxian / atheist ideology through the text books. Postscript: replace the word “religious group” with “political party” (select answer from: Congress, Marist, IUML, BJP) or with “non-religious group” and try to give ‘my findings…….’
Bismillah [IslamCity] The World�s Top 20 Public Intellectuals
A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers, reported Guardian. Gülen, the author of more than 60 books, won a landslide triumph after the survey - which is organised by the British magazine, Prospect, and Foreign Policy, a US publication - attracted more than 500,000 votes. The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/turkey.islam The Worlds Top 20 Public Intellectuals http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4349 Page 1 of 2 July/August 2008 Rankings are an inherently dangerous business. Whether offering a hierarchy of countries, cities, or colleges, any such listat least any such list worth compilingis likely to generate a fair amount of debate. In the last issue, when we asked readers to vote for their picks of the worlds top public intellectuals, we imagined many people would want to make their opinions known. But no one expected the avalanche of voters who came forward. During nearly four weeks of voting, more than 500,000 people came to ForeignPolicy.com to cast ballots. Such an outpouring reveals something unique about the power of the men and women we chose to rank. They were included on our initial list of 100 in large part because of the influence of their ideas. But part of being a public intellectual is also having a talent for communicating with a wide and diverse public. This skill is certainly an asset for some who find themselves in the lists top ranks. For example, a number of intellectualsincluding Aitzaz Ahsan, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ignatieff, and Amr Khaledmounted voting drives by promoting the list on their Web sites. Others issued press releases or gave interviews to local newspapers. Press coverage profiling these intellectuals appeared around the world, with stories running in Canada, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Spain, and elsewhere. No one spread the word as effectively as the man who tops the list. In early May, the Top 100 list was mentioned on the front page of Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper closely aligned with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Within hours, votes in his favor began to pour in. His supporterstypically educated, upwardly mobile Muslimswere eager to cast ballots not only for their champion but for other Muslims in the Top 100. Thanks to this groundswell, the top 10 public intellectuals in this years reader poll are all Muslim. The ideas for which they are known, particularly concerning Islam, differ significantly. Its clear that, in this case, identity politics carried the day. FETHULLAH GÜLEN Religious leader Turkey An Islamic scholar with a global network of millions of followers, Gülen is both revered and reviled in his native Turkey. To members of the Gülen movement, he is an inspirational leader who encourages a life guided by moderate Islamic principles. To his detractors, he represents a threat to Turkeys secular order. He has kept a relatively low profile since settling in the United States in 1999, having fled Turkey after being accused of undermining secularism. MUHAMMAD YUNUS Microfinancier, activist Bangladesh More than 30 years ago, Yunus loaned several dozen poor entrepreneurs in his native Bangladesh a total of $27. It was the beginning of a lifetime devoted to fighting poverty through microfinance, efforts that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Over the years, his Grameen Bank, now operating in more than 100 countries, has loaned nearly $7 billion in small sums to more than 7 million borrowers97 percent of them women. Ninety-eight percent of the loans have been repaid. YUSUF AL-QARADAWI Cleric Egypt/Qatar The host of the popular Sharia and Life TV program on Al Jazeera, Qaradawi issues w .eekly fatwas on everything from whether Islam forbids all consumption of alcohol (no) to whether fighting U.S. troops in Iraq is a legitimate form of resistance (yes). Considered the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi condemned the September 11 attacks, but his pronouncements since, like his justification of suicide attacks, ensure his divisive reputation. ORHAN PAMUK Novelist Turkey Part political pundit, part literary celebrity, Pamuk is the foremost chronicler of Turkeys difficult dance between East and West. His skillfully crafted works lay bare his native countrys thorny relationship with religion, democracy, and modernity, earning him a Nobel Prize in literature in 2006. Three years ago, Pamuk was put on trial for insulting Turkish identity after mentioning the Armenian genocide and the plight of Turkeys Kurds in an
Bismillah [IslamCity] Criminalising Activism
If you stand with the poor, redress their grievances, raise their issues, support their causes and fight for their rights; be ready to face the consequences, because all these come under the purview of crime in democratic country like India. You can be abused, alleged, tortured, booked under the false cases and finally thrown behind the bars at anytime. A noted public health specialist Dr. Binayak Sen, a well known development economist Prof. Jean Dreze and a human rights activist Kirity Roy are paying the prices for their passion, courage and extraordinary work for the poor and marginalized people of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Criminalising Activism If you stand with the poor and fight for their rights, be ready to face the consequences this seems to be the States message, writes GLADSON DUNGDUNG http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Ws280608Criminalising.asp If you stand with the poor, redress their grievances, raise their issues, support their causes and fight for their rights; be ready to face the consequences, because all these come under the purview of crime in democratic country like India. You can be abused, alleged, tortured, booked under the false cases and finally thrown behind the bars at anytime. A noted public health specialist Dr. Binayak Sen, a well known development economist Prof. Jean Dreze and a human rights activist Kirity Roy are paying the prices for their passion, courage and extraordinary work for the poor and marginalized people of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Dr. Binayak Sen has been in Raipur Jail for more than one year. His only crime was being a doctor; he was much involved in redressing the grievances of the poor adivasis (tribals) of Chhatisgarh and also raised his voice against the illegal killings of adivasis in the name of Salwan Judum (peace mission). He was alleged of violating the provisions of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, and detained in May 2007. The Supreme Court of India had also rejected his bail petition in December 2007. In the meantime, Dr. Binayak Sen was declared as the first winner from South Asia of the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, which generated the global support for him. 22 Nobel laureates wrote letters to Smt. Pratibha Patil, the President of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister and Dr Raman Singh, the Chief Minister of Chattisgarh for his release so that he can collect his award and continue his valuable work for adivasis but their voices were not heard. Another person Prof. Jean Dreze has been fighting against corruption in NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) to ensure 100 days work for Dalits, Adivasis and Poor so that their right to food can be secured. He had organized a Social Audit on May 26, 2008 at Chatarpur of Palamu district in Jharkhand, where huge numbers of villagers had participated and spoken out publicly about how they were cheated in NREGA by the contractors, development mafias and the government officials. After the social audit, Jean Dreze was alleged by the Collector and the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamu district. Though Jean Dreze is a member of the NREGA Council and is mandated to help in auditing the scheme by the law of the land but the reports of the responsible Collector and SP accuse him of attempting to malign the state government, falsifying the statements and assaulting the government officials. After seeing his passion of work for the poor; the villagers consider him like a living God for them but the district administration coined him as a violator of laws but his fight for poor is on. Similarly a human rights activist from West Bengal Kirity Roy was alleged, his office was raided and a criminal case was filed by the police at Taltolla Police Station under sections 120[B] (criminal conspiracy); 170 (personating a public servant); 179 (refusing to answer public servant authorized to question); and 229 (personation of juror or assessor) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was charged for organizing a Peoples Tribunal against Torture in Moulali, Kolkata on 9 and 10 June, 2008. Though Kirity Roy had invited all the relevant officials, including the Police Commissioner of Kolkata but they refused to accept it and asked him for giving them a written explanation on the legality of the public event. During the hearings a jury of human rights defenders, jurists and medical personnel sat on the panels, which were co-chaired by the former Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, Justice Malay Sengupta and the Former Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Dr Mohini Giri. 82 cases related to police torture, rape and illegal killings in West Bengal including Nandigram cases were heard in the tribunal. After the tribunal the police coined him as a criminal for his
Bismillah [IslamCity] Where temple, masjid coexist
Where temple, masjid coexist B. Madhu Gopal http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/20/stories/2008062058190400.htm - 26-year-old Anil Kumar has created a replica of Makkah Masjid on the first floor of Ramalayam near Poorna Market - Photo: K.R. Deepak Worthy effort: Gatti Anil Kumar with the replica of Makkah Masjid in Visakhapatnam. - Visakhapatnam: A masjid atop a temple of Lord Rama in Visakhapatnam! Sounds unbelievable? Head straight to the Ramalayam at Periki Veedhi near Poorna Market. The first floor of the ancient temple houses a replica of Makkah Masjid, which is considered to be the holiest shrine of Muslims. While the skill of Gatti Anil Kumar in creating the masterpiece is coming in for all-round appreciation, the temple committees gesture in allowing him to use its terrace is being seen by Muslim brethren as a move that helps in narrowing down the cultural divide. The cherished dream of every Muslim is to visit Makkah during his/her lifetime. But not many can afford to visit the holy place spending thousands of rupees. It was this thought that made 26-year-old Anil Kumar create the replica of the grand mosque. Muslims can have a feel of the mosque in all its grandeur and those going there for the first time can have first-hand knowledge of the places of historical and religious importance and make sure that they do not miss them. Eye for detail His in-depth knowledge of the holy shrine and the legends associated with its various structures, apart from his eye for detail in making the model, has earned him the appreciation of Muslim religious leaders. It took two years for Anil Kumar to build the 8 x 10 replica that is 20 high. I have used soft metal and teakwood in making this model. Unlike my earlier model that was made with sand, sawdust and plaster of Paris, this is a permanent one. His father Suryam assisted him by getting details and pictures of the mosque from his friends. His ambition is to shift the present replica to the Haj House in Hyderabad. Exact model I had been to Makkah on five occasions. This is an exact replica of the original structure and I am sure that Saudis would be prepared to pay any amount to airlift the model to their country, says Aziz. Anil cherishes the appreciation of his earlier model by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He met Dr. Kalam during his visit to the city for the Presidential Fleet Review. Anil has been making models for nearly a decade now. He considers making the grand mosque as his toughest and most satisfying experience With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Skewed Media Approach to Terrorism
My point is simple: we need an even-handed approach in discussing (and dealing
with) 'terrorism'. Turning a blind eye to one form of it, just because it
claims to speak for the majority of Indians, can only make the situation even
more precarious for all of us.
Skewed Media Approach To Terrorism
By Yoginder Sikand
20 June, 2008
http://countercurrents.org/sikand200608.htm
The arrest of some activists associated with the
Sanatan Sanstha, a radical Hindu group, for planting
bombs in theatres in two towns in Maharashtra
recently, has barely been given any attention in the
Indian media. Had the men behind these planned attacks
been Muslims, obviously the Indian media would have
reacted very differently-furiously, fervently. This
clearly shows the sharply skewed manner in which the
debate on 'terrorism' is being conducted. That the
routine killings of Muslims, such as in pogroms
orchestrated by Hindu groups, are never attributed by
the media to Hindu 'terrorists' but simply to faceless
and nameless 'emotionally charged mobs' is yet another
illustration of this greatly skewed perspective.
Bomb attacks that have occurred in numerous Indian
cities in recent years are, without proper or full
investigation, somehow automatically assumed to be the
handiwork of Muslims. But, as the attacks that the
Sanatan Sanstha volunteers had planned, as also the
earlier attack planned by members of the Bajrang Dal,
also in Maharashtra, clearly show, the range of those
who might be behind the wave of bomb attacks in the
country has to be expanded some Muslim ultras to
include their Hindu counterparts as well, who have
obviously have a vested interested in promoting
communal clashes and thereby consolidating Hindu
votes. And, in addition, as numerous Urdu papers have
been repeatedly suggesting, the possible role of other
forces, such as the Israeli and American secret
services, behind some of these attacks must also be
investigated, for, clearly, these attacks aim at
further dividing Hindus and Muslims and thereby
promoting inflaming anti-Muslim passions in the
country, something that Israel and the
neo-conservatives in America would probably warmly
welcome as it would force India to enter more tightly
into their deadly embrace.
Yet another clear instance of the completely warped
way in which the Indian media and policy-making
circles discuss terrorism is evident from their
reaction to Shiv Sena supreme Bal Thackeray's recent
pronouncement calling for Hindus to set up killer
suicide squads. The 'mainstream' media is not branding
him a 'terrorist' for this, although he openly
advocates terrorism, and nor will the state take any
action against him under the draconian anti-terrorist
laws that it has framed. Imagine if a Muslim leader
had issued a similar call. That would have hit the
headlines for well over a week and would have led to
numerous arrests, but Thackeray's outpourings merit
just a corner in the middle pages of our 'national'
newspapers.
My point is simple: we need an even-handed approach in
discussing (and dealing with) 'terrorism'. Turning a
blind eye to one form of it, just because it claims to
speak for the majority of Indians, can only make the
situation even more precarious for all of us. And,
although of late most religious leaders have begun to
depress me no end, here I take inspiration from an
essay I recently read by an Indian Muslim cleric whose
passion for the welfare of his country, irrespective
of religion, is something that every Hindu, Muslim or
other sort of Indian could certainly emulate, and
whose approach, if seriously adopted, could go a long
way in countering all forms of terrorism, be it by
radical Hindus or Muslims or others or by the state
itself..
A recently reprinted Urdu booklet, titled 'Hamara
Hindustan Aur Uske Fazail' ('Our India and Its
Glories'), contains a brilliant essay o by the late
Maulana Syed Muhammad Miyan, who served for many
years, before and after 1947, as the general secretary
of the Jamiat ul-Ulema-e Hind, a leading body of
Indian maulvis primarily associated with the Deobandi
school of thought (It is the same organization that
vehemently opposed the Partition of India and that, in
recent months, has organized literally dozens of
public rallies against terrorism). The essay was first
published sometime in the early 1940s in order to
oppose the Muslim League's demand for a separate
Muslim state and to counter the claim of many Hindus
leaders that Indian nationalism was necessarily
synonymous with Brahminical Hinduism.
Miyan's essay, titled 'Sarzamin-i Hindustan Ke Fazail'
('The Blessings of India'), argues that Muslims are
bound to 'love' and 'serve' India primarily because
Islam commands them to do so. Miyan claims that India
has been accorded a special status by God Himself.
Hence, he argues, Muslims are required by their faith
to work for India's unity and welfare.
Miyan's's thesis is based on an Arabic text written by
the eighteenth century north
Bismillah [IslamCity] 45-day deadline on gas pipeline ends
45-day deadline on gas pipeline ends Sujay Mehdudia India, Iran, Pakistan yet to discuss key issues - LNG, IPI pipeline deal inter-linked Pranab scheduled to visit Tehran on July 29-30 - NEW DELHI: With India, Pakistan and Iran failing to resolve their differences, the 45-day deadline to sort out the safety and security issues concerning the $ 7.4-billion gas pipeline project has expired. During his one-day visit to India on April 29, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set the deadline to sort out all issues pertaining to the 2,700-km pipeline. However, there have been no talks with Iran on the safety and security of the pipeline raised by India during Mr. Ahmadinejads visit. Nor has the transit fee issue with Pakistan been resolved. The early clearance for the $ 22-billion Liquefied Natural Gas supply deal has been inter-linked with the gas pipeline and is hanging fire for almost three years now. Risk of transit Informed sources said India handed over some points to Mr. Ahmadinejad. It wanted Tehran to hand over the custody of gas at the India-Pakistan border and not at the Iran-Pakistan border, as suggested by Iran, to cut down the risk of transit through Pakistan. India also opposed a price revision clause that Iran is seeking to insert in the Gas Sales Agreement. New Delhi wanted Tehran to dedicate a particular gas field like South Pars for the gas pipeline and sought third party certification of its reserves. It sought to know the alternative supply sources in the event of depletion of reserves. India has been boycotting the pipeline talks since August 2007 over Pakistans transit fee demand. Talks between New Delhi and Islamabad are stalled, with India offering to pay 15 cents per million British Thermal Units (mmBtu) against Pakistans demand of 42 cents per mmBtu. Although it was decided that the oil Ministers of the three nations would meet soon to resolve the issues concerning the pipeline, no progress has been reported till date. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to visit Tehran on July 29-30 to attend the India-Iran Joint Commission meeting and is likely to take up the pipeline issue. It is time to give final shape to the project, which is very important from Indias energy security point of view and the continued deficiency in natural gas supplies, commented a senior Indian official. Printer friendly page With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hindu radicals behind Thane theatre blast
Hindu radicals behind Thane theatre blast Stavan Desai Sweta Ramanujan-Dixit, Hindustan Times Mumbai, June 17, 2008 http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=427cfc03-eb0a-4f6a-8157-063d60b86d2fHeadline=Hindu+radicals+behind+Thane+theatre+blast Two persons were arrested late on Sunday for allegedly planting explosives in two auditoriums and a movie hall in Mumbais extended suburbs over the past four months. Two of the three attempts had failed and live explosives were recovered from Vashi and Panvel, but the most recent effort on June 4 in the parking lot of a Thane theatre paid off, injuring seven people. The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police, which made the arrests, identified the duo as Ramesh Gadkari (50) and Mangesh Nikam (34), both Panvel residents. The ATS said the two are active members of Hindu fundamentalist organisations called Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and its offshoot, Sanatan Sanstha. ATS officials said the two had planned crude, low-intensity blasts to protest against the film Jodhaa Akbar and the staging of the play Amhi Pachpute, a Marathi satire based on the Mahabharat. They say the film and play have hurt their religious sentiments as they showed Hindu gods in poor light, said ATS chief Hemant Karkare. The role played by HJS, a self-proclaimed protector of Hindu traditions, is yet to be established. The group had earlier protested against the play Yada Kadachit, of which Amhi Pachpute is an adaptation. Our protests have always been peaceful, through dialogue, said Dr Uday Dhuri, coordinator of HJS Mumbai chapter. Sanatan Sanstha, an organisation that practises and preaches scientific spirituality, held a press conference on Monday on behalf of HJS and denied their involvement. However, it admitted that Gadkari was its member. He carried out the blast on his own, spokesperson Abhay Vartak said at the press conference. He added that the Sanstha handed Gadkari over to ATS. We have cooperated with the police even when they wanted to interrogate our members at 2.30 am, he said. The second accused, Nikam, was allegedly involved in a February 2006 case in which a bomb was planted outside the home of a Catholic family in Ratnagiri. ATS officials said Nikam had learnt how to assemble explosives and had in turn taught Gadkari, who procured the explosives. With Regards Abi
Bismillah [IslamCity] Target Iran: Christian Fundamentalists' Road To The End Of The World - By Yoginder Sikand
It is not only because of insatiable greed for oil, or because of America's addiction to war or because of Bush's obvious mental instability that America and its allies now seem hell-bent on attacking Iran, although these factors are certainly important. These blood-thirsty votaries of the cult of unmitigated violence consider Iran to be the major challenge to American and Zionist imperialism, which they regard as enjoying divine blessing. Insisting that America and Israel should invade Iran at once, they regard this as a Christian necessity. Target Iran: Christian Fundamentalists' Road To The End Of The World By Yoginder Sikand 11 June, 2008 Countercurrents.org It is not only because of insatiable greed for oil, or because of America's addiction to war or because of Bush's obvious mental instability that America and its allies now seem hell-bent on attacking Iran, although these factors are certainly important. Equally crucially, the current wave of fervent war-mongering in the West directed against Iran owes to the enormous clout wielded by Western Christian fundamentalist organizations who, following the invasion and destruction of Iraq, which they had so fervently abetted, are now calling for a repeat performance, this time in Iran. These blood-thirsty votaries of the cult of unmitigated violence consider Iran to be the major challenge to American and Zionist imperialism, which they regard as enjoying divine blessing. Insisting that America and Israel should invade Iran at once, they regard this as a Christian necessity. They also believe that this would herald a global war of cosmic proportions that would, so they believe, usher in the end of the world and Jesus' Second Coming, something that they passionately await. A key American Christian fundamentalist ideologue is the Texas-based televangelist John Hagee. He is no insignificant crank, although his views are, to put it mildly, wildly outlandish. He is said to be close to top leaders of the American Republic Party as well as Israeli intelligence officers and politicians. He is the pastor of The Cornerstone Church based in San Antonio, and also heads the multi-million dollar Global Evangelism media company that broadcasts his daily programmes on 172 television and 82 radio stations throughout the USA and around the world. His fervent appeals to Christian simplicity obviously are not intended to apply to himself: he is said to be one of the wealthiest men in his city, and the trust that he has named after himself, The John Hagee Rabbi Trust, includes among its various assets a ranch spread over almost 8000 acres. Hagee is one of the principal ideologues of what is called Christian Zionism, which is said to be the fastest growing religious cult in America today. Hagee is known for his fervent support for Israel, for he considers this a Biblical duty binding on Christians, and has been opposed to any peace deal that might cause Israel to give up back any occupied land to the Palestinians. He works closely with several American and Israeli Jewish groups, and is one of the architects of a Christian evangelical-Zionist alliance. Recently he was in the news for bringing together 400 Christian evangelical leaders, representing as many as 30 million Christians, for a 'Summit on Israel', which resulted in the formation of a new pro-Israeli lobbying group called Christians United for Israel, which intends to establish a 50-state rapid-response network that aims to reach every senator and congressman in America. Author of numerous Christian fundamentalist texts, Hagee's latest book, 'Jerusalem Countdown: A Preclude to War' encapsulates the Christian fundamentalists' case for a joint American-Israeli invasion of Iran. In order to build up his argument, he portrays Iran in the most lurid colours. 'Iran', he insists, without adducing any evidence (for in Christian fundamentalist circles-and in the West more generally-such evidence is not needed) 'is the command post for global terror' (p.vii). Under President Ahmadinijad, Hagee argues, Iran is building up a nuclear stockpile, which it intends to share with the rest of the Islamic world. Since Iran, so he claims, is motivated by hatred for Israel and America 'without limitation', it might use these weapons to attack both these countries and their allies and to completely destroy Western civilisation (pp.4-5). Hence, before this can happen, America and Israel, he insists, must invade Iran and destroy the nuclear bombs that it supposedly possesses. As Hagee and his ilk see it, Iran's opposition to America and Israel has nothing whatsoever to do with American aggression and imperialism or to Zionist occupation and Israeli crimes against humanity. Rather, this opposition is attributed squarely to the fact that most Iranians are Muslims. It is, Hagee claims, Islam as a religion that is the cause of the supposed hatred of Muslims (including Iranians) towards America and Israel. Here, he
Bismillah [IslamCity] Muslims in Euro FootBall 2008
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_Ccid=1212666068097pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout http://www.islamonline.net/English/Multimedia/Library/Euro-Muslims/2008/06/muslimplayers/index.shtml With Regards Abi __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Bismillah [IslamCity] Innovative NGO-Ulema collaborative effort for Muslim Education - By Yoginder Sikand
'As this illustrates, true religion means that one should work for the welfare of all needy people, irrespective of caste and religion' The Jeevan Talim project in rural Kutch in northern Gujarat represents a pioneering and innovative effort to bring Muslim ulema or religious scholars to work along with secular NGOs for Muslim community development. The teachers and the villagers recognize the fact that the work that the Jeevan Talim project aims to do is actually the responsibility of the government, which is bound by the Constitution of the country to provide free and accessible education to every child. Innovative NGO-Ulema collaborative effort for Muslim Education Posted June 6th, 2008 by Mudassir Rizwan http://www.twocircles.net/2008jun05/innovative_ngo_ulema_collaborative_effort_muslim_education.html The Jeevan Talim Project in Kutch By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net, The Jeevan Talim project in rural Kutch in northern Gujarat represents a pioneering and innovative effort to bring Muslim ulema or religious scholars to work along with secular NGOs for Muslim community development. A joint project of the New Delhi based Jamiat-e Ulema-e Hind and the Ahmedabad-based Janvikas, through its initiative Udaan, a resource centre working on primary education, it started in 2004 with a grant from Misereor, a Germany-based Catholic relief and development agency. Hitherto, the Jamiat focused mainly on providing religious education to Muslim children through a vast chain of madrasas and maktabs, and providing relief in the event of natural disasters and anti-Muslim violence. In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Kutch in 2001, the Jamiat played a crucial role in relief and reconstruction efforts. This, says Ahmad Shaikh, a senior Jamiat leader based in Ahmedabad, marked a significant change in its policies and priorities, because its activities in the state had till then been restricted largely to providing religious education and constructing and maintaining mosques. It was for the first time, in the course of its relief work in Kutch, that the Jamiat had the chance to work with some secular NGOs. The almost complete loss of faith in the system of the Muslims of Gujarat in the wake of the genocidal anti-Muslim pogroms in 2002 provided the context for the Jamiat, as well as a few other Muslim groups in Gujarat, that were earlier concerned almost wholly with issues of religious education and identity, to become more involved in practical efforts to address the pathetic educational, economic and social conditions of large sections of the Muslim population of the state. This set the ground for collaboration between the Jamiat and Janvikas to work together to devise and launch the Jeevan Talim project. Jeevan Talim madrasa Janvikas has been working with marginalized communities in Gujarat, including Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims, for several years now, mainly on issues of education, economic empowerment and human rights. In the wake of the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat, it played an active role in relief work, in highlighting widespread human rights abuses and in fighting legal cases on behalf of a number of innocent Muslims who had been arrested on false charges. The menacing rise of Hindutva fascist forces and the consequent escalating enforced ghettoisation of Muslims across Gujarat were viewed by Janvikas activists as a dangerous phenomenon that urgently needed to be tackled on various fronts. One of these fronts was the educational sector. In many cases, Muslims were barred from studying or working in private Hindu-owned schools, faced increased discrimination in government schools and continued to be neglected in government-funded educational programmes. To add to this was the tendency on the part of some Islamic groups who sought to promote insular tendencies among the community, particularly through the madrasas. Many of these Muslim groups and their educational institutions focused only on Islamic education, lacked inner democratic functioning, paid little or no attention to issues of Muslim girls' education and had few or no links with non-Muslims, including even secular groups. Hence, Janvikas felt it imperative to work in the field of Muslim education and to interact closely with traditional Muslim religious and other community leaders in order to promote a new sort of Muslim leadership that would address the community's economic and educational marginalization and work with secular, non-Muslim forces on issues of common concern, such as the struggle against communalism, fascism, and mounting social and economic inequalities and exclusion. It was in 2002, in the wake of the state-sponsored campaign of horrific violence unleashed against Muslims in Gujarat, that activists from Janvikas and the Jamiat first met. This was in the course of seeking to provide relief to the victims of this unprecedented
