Bismillah [IslamCity] Identity And Religious Conversion
By Tomichan Matheikal Countercurrents.org We did not convert because we are poor. If I am poor but accepted by my community, there is no [social] terror in that poverty We did not convert for money. We converted because of the society that saw us as lesser, not worthy. We were 'lower caste', 'untouchable', 'lowly'. Now we are Christian. Our god wants us. We can walk into his temple. We are worthy. You understand? [Spoken by a Dalit convert in Orissa. Quoted in Violent Gods by Angana P. Chatterji, Three Essays Collective, Gurgaon, 2009] The driving force behind religious conversions is, more often than not, a desire to live a worthy life, to have an identity that one can be proud of. The caste system being practised even today in Hinduism, despite all governmental efforts to eradicate it, is a major cause of religious conversions in India. Poverty and attendant exploitation is also another cause. But it appears that poverty and exploitation are intertwined with the caste system. The caste system in India was seen by Dr Ambedkar, principal author of India's Constitution, as the country's greatest evil since it treated millions of people as subhuman by the simple fact of their birth. The man who tried his best to replace the discriminatory caste system with an egalitarian society, the Buddha, ended up as yet another god among the millions of deities in India. His teachings were suppressed by the Brahmins who feared that their stranglehold on society would be undermined. Orissa is a state in India which witnessed much terrible violence in the name of religion and religious conversions. The violence still continues. The Sangh Parivar organisations are opposed to the alleged mass conversions into Christianity of Oriya adivasis (tribal people) and others belonging to the lower castes. Many acts of outrageous violence have been perpetrated on the Christians and thousands of them are displaced from their hometowns. The Hindutva organisations allege that Christian missionaries allure the poor people with money and other enticements. How much water does the allegation hold? Angana P. Chatterji, from whose book the introductory quote has been taken, has done a commendable job researching into the violence in Orissa. According to her, the adivasis and other lower caste people of Orissa seldom considered themselves Hindus. In her words, The Paika Bidroha of 1817-1825, the Kol insurrection of 1831-1832, the Kanika agitation of 1921-1922, the Praja Mandal (peasant) Movement of the 1930s and 1940s speak powerfully of Adivasi and subaltern refusal to submit to cultural colonialism and Brahminical imposition (199). Even in the 1990s there were conflicts between the adivasis and the exponents of Hindutva including Lakshmanananda Saraswati (who claimed to be working for the welfare of the adivasis and the lower caste people of Orissa). For example, the RSS and Lakshmanananda Saraswati opposed the adivasis when they fought for indigenous child rights (359). These Hindutva leaders did not want the adivasis to be organised. They opposed the adivasi struggle for Kuidina (a state for themselves). They tried to suppress the Kandhamal Nari Jagaran Samiti and the Kuidina Ekta Samiti. They (the RSS and Lakshmanananda Saraswati) are dangerous people, Chatterji quote some Kui people. They want to kill our people like animals. They do not understand religious differences. They do not understand our connection to our land. We are neither Christians nor Hindus. We are Adivasi. We worship the Earth. There are Christian Kui's. The Mission [church] never forced us to convert. Not in Kandhamal, before or after 1947... (359) Chatterji exposes the myth that the adivasis considered or were eager to consider themselves Hindus. In May 2006, at a convention attended by about 50,000 adivasis, the Bisu Sendra Tribal Council, which serves the tribal communities in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa, determined to ban Hindu customs and rituals, representations and priests from Adivasi spiritual and religious ceremonies (96). Not different is the case with the lower caste people. Caste oppression has been a bone of contention for long in Orissa as in other parts of India. In Orissa, says Chatterji, Dalit students and teachers have been denied employment and entry into schools and community events, and Dalit community members have been assaulted for participating in Hindu religious ceremonies (69). Chatterji lists a number of incidents to show the disaffection between the people belonging to the higher and lower castes. Such incidents led to the conversion into Buddhism of about 3000 Dalits in Dec 2006. Poverty Poverty also plays its role in this complex issue. Orissa is one of the most backward states in India. In the words of Ramachandra Guha, In 1999 Orissa overtook - if that is the word - Bihar as India's poorest state [India After Gandhi, Picador India, 2007, p.707]. The adivasis and the lower caste people were exploited economically in
Bismillah [IslamCity] Indian Army Fears China Attack by 2017
Rahul Singh, Hindustan Times The Indian military fears a 'Chinese aggression' in less than a decade. A secret exercise, called 'Divine Matrix', by the army's military operations directorate has visualised a war scenario with the nuclear-armed neighbour before 2017. Read Full Article : http://jenniferandrew6.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/24/2860311-indian-army-fears-china-attack-by-2017
Bismillah [IslamCity] India-China Border Dispute
Globalsecurity.org The McMahon Line boundary dispute is at the heart of relations between China and India. China has land and sea boundary issues with 14 neighbors, mostly for historical reasons. The Chinese have two major claims on what India deems its own territory. One claim, in the western sector, is on Aksai Chin in the northeastern section of Ladakh District in Jammu and Kashmir. The other claim is in the eastern sector over a region included in the British-designated North-East Frontier Agency, the disputed part of which India renamed Arunachal Pradesh and made a state. In the fight over these areas in 1962, the well-trained and well-armed troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army overpowered the ill-equipped Indian troops, who had not been properly acclimatized to fighting at high altitudes. In the early 20th Century Britain sought to advance its line of control and establish buffer zones around its colony in South Asia. In 1913-1914 representatives of China, Tibet and Britain negotiated a treaty in India: the Simla Convention. Sir Henry McMahon, the foreign secretary of British India at the time, drew up the 550 mile (890 km) McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet during the Simla Conference. The so-called McMahon Line, drawn primarily on the highest watershed principle, demarcated what had previously been unclaimed or undefined borders between Britain and Tibet. The McMahon line moved British control substantially northwards. The Tibetan and British representatives at the conference agreed to the line, which ceded Tawang and other Tibetan areas to the imperial British Empire. However the Chinese representative refused to accept the line. Peking claimed territory in this far north down to the border of the plain of Assam. The land is mostly mountainous with Himalayan ranges along the northern borders criss-crossed with mountain ranges running north-south. These divide the state into five river valleys: the Kameng, the Subansiri, the Siang, the Lohit and the Tirap. High mountains and dense forests have prevented intercommunication between tribes living in different river valleys. The geographical isolation thus imposed has led different tribes to elove their own dialects and grow with their distinct identities. Nature has endowed the Arunachal people with a deep sense of beauty which finds delightful expression in their songs, dances and crafts. A slow forward move towards the McMahon Line was begun on the ground, to establish a new de facto boundary. The McMahon Line was then forgotten until about 1935 when the British government decided to publish the documents in the 1937 edition of Aitchison's Collection of Treaties. The NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was created in 1954. On 7 November 1959, Chou En-lai proposed that both sides should withdraw their troops twenty kilometres from the McMahon line. The issue was quiet during the decade of cordial Sino-Indian relations, but erupted again during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. During the 1962 war, the PRC captured most of the NEFA. However, China soon declared victory and voluntarily withdrew back to the McMahon Line. China is in occupation of approximately 38,000 sq. kms of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, under the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan ceded 5,180 sq. kms. of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China. China claims approximately 90,000 sq. kms. of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and about 2000 sq. kms. in the Middle Sector of the India-China boundary. Beijing has stated that it does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh. The border between China and India has never been officially delimited. China's position on the eastern part of the border between the two countries is consistent. Not a single Chinese government recognizes the illegal McMahon Line. For China, the McMahon Line, stands as a symbol of imperialist aggression on the country. The so-called Arunachal Pradesh dispute is China's most intractable border issue. Because the gap between the positions of China and India is wide, it is difficult for both nations to reach consensus. The area of this disputed region is three times that of Taiwan, six times that of Beijing and ten times that of the Malvenas islands, disputed by Britain and Argentina. It is flat and rich in water and forest resources. Arunachal Pradesh is the only issue which has a potential for conflict between India and China. If ever, India and China go to war one day, it will be on this issue. India considers recurring Sino-Indian border clashes a potential threat to its security. Since the war, each side continued to improve its military and logistics capabilities in the disputed regions. China has continued its occupation of the Aksai Chin area, through which it built a strategic highway linking Xizang and Xinjiang autonomous regions. China had a vital military interest in maintaining control over this region, whereas
Bismillah [IslamCity] Degradation of Congress
Ramachandra Guha (INDIA) One of the forgotten heroes of Indian democracy is Kumaraswamy Kamaraj. This withdrawn, monosyllabic, self-educated man from a backward caste background was instrumental in building a base for the Congress party in South India. Later, as President of the national party, he helped mediate between different factions of the Congress. But perhaps his greatest service to his party and nation was to successfully oversee two major transitions. First, when Jawaharlal Nehru died in May 1964, he consulted the party's MPs before arriving at the conclusion that Lal Bahadur Shastri would be the best choice to take over as Prime Minister. Eighteen months later Shastri died suddenly of a heart attack. Now Kamaraj again moved swiftly to contain the damage, by helping choose Indira Gandhi as Shastri's replacement. Growing up as an only child, with a sick mother and a father frequently abroad or in jail, Indira Gandhi did not allow herself to easily trust anybody. Least of all the Congress Old Guard. Thus, the very men who had helped make her Prime Minister were the men she broke away from, soon after assuming the top job in Indian politics. In 1969 Indira Gandhi divided the Congress party. The faction that stayed with her was soon recognised as the real Congress, especially after it won an authoritative victory in the General Elections of 1971, riding to power on the backs of the slogan of 'Garibi Hatao'. To retain control over party and government, Indira Gandhi adopted four different strategies. First, she built a core of loyal advisers outside the Congress. She increasingly took her counsel not from her fellow Cabinet Ministers but from civil servants and technocrats in the Prime Minister's Office, which was headed by her fellow Allahabadi P. N. Haksar. Second, she disbanded the old, decentralised structure of the Congress - where district and state units had substantial autonomy - and placed individuals who were personally loyal to her at the head of Pradesh Congress Committees. Third, at Haksar's inspiration, she floated the idea of the 'committed' civil servant and the 'committed' judge, so that key positions in the bureaucracy and the judiciary were also now occupied by individuals known to be loyal and subservient to the Prime Minister. Fourth, at election time she appealed directly to the voters, asking them to place their trust in her as an individual rather than in her party or its programme. The dangers of Indira Gandhi's brand of politics had been anticipated by the chief draughtsman of the Indian Constitution, Dr B. R. Ambedkar. In his final speech to the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar warned his compatriots against an unthinking submission to charismatic authority. He quoted John Stuart Mill, who had cautioned citizens not 'to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions'. From the time she split the Congress in 1969, Indira Gandhi worked systematically to dismantle the institutions and procedures of constitutional democracy. This she did by privileging loyalty over competence - in her party, in her Council of Ministers, in the legislative and judicial branches of government. Ministers, Congressmen, bureaucrats, judges, and in time even ordinary citizens - all were encouraged to lay their liberties at the feet of this Great Woman, the submission conveyed in the slogan 'Indira is India, India is Indira'. It is important to note that this undermining of democratic institutions was well under way before the imposition of the Emergency in 1975. By suppressing freedom of expression and jailing opposition politicians, the emergency completed a process begun in the late 1960s. Shortly after its imposition, Indira Gandhi introduced a further departure from democratic functioning, by naming her second son, Sanjay, as her heir apparent. The locus of decision-making now shifted from the Prime Minister's Office to the Prime Minister's House. When Sanjay died in an air crash in 1980, Mrs Gandhi immediately drafted her other son into the Congress party. When she was herself killed in October 1984, this son, Rajiv, was sworn in as Prime Minister. One of his first acts was to bring his old school friends into politics. Like his mother, he could not bring himself to trust his own party men. While promoting his friends, he behaved arrogantly towards senior leaders of the Congress, and towards senior bureaucrats. Jawaharlal Nehru did not hope or desire that his daughter should succeed him as Prime Minister - a fact that is not as widely known as it should be. On the other hand, Indira Gandhi worked to make first Sanjay and then Rajiv her political successor. Sonia Gandhi has followed her mother-in-law scrupulously in this respect, for she has likewise ensured that her own son would head the party, and, perhaps in time, the government. The example set by India's greatest political party has been followed by
Bismillah [IslamCity] Countering the Counter-Terrorists: Senior Jihadis Offer Advice on Security Techniques
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 11 By: Abdul Hameed Bakier In a quest to spread security and military knowledge that is vital for successful Salafi-Jihadi terror operations, jihadi internet forums intermittently release training lessons in all kinds of subjects. This article will examine two types of jihadi security training materials. The first training episode, published by al-Qaeda in the South Arabian Peninsula, tutors jihadis on ways to resist interrogation. The group published three training episodes entitled Triumph over Interrogators in their monthly e-magazine, Sada al-Malahim (malahem.maktoobblog.com January, February, March, 2009). A second security training episode was prepared by an Ingush jihadi nicknamed Abu Anas of Khacharoy (it does not appear that this individual is the same as Commander Abu Anas [a.k.a. Muhannad, a.k.a. Khalid Yusuf Muhammad al-Emitat], an Arab field commander operating in Chechnya). This posting discusses intelligence and security techniques in an article entitled Security Advice from an Ingush Jihadi. The material is based on the experiences of Salafi-Jihadi fighters operating in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia. Triumph over Interrogators The anti-interrogation lessons, prepared by an al-Qaeda operative nicknamed Abdulaziz al-Abini, discuss two methods of interrogation aimed at eliciting confessions and intelligence from imprisoned jihadis and ways to counter them. The first method is psychological manipulation and the second method is physical torture. The lesson starts with the psychological methods used by security forces, which begin on day one of imprisonment when the jihadi is restrained with chains as a show of authority. This is typically followed by further manipulative techniques: •Intimidation versus Endearment - This method is applied by two interrogators. One plays the good guy and the other the bad guy. The good-guy interrogator will promise to help the jihadi if the latter confesses and provides intelligence on the terror cell. The training warns jihadis not to fall for the false promises of this interrogator. The bad-guy interrogator will use obscene language while threatening the jihadi with all kinds of torture. The counter-measure suggested by the training is to simply ignore the interrogators' threats - easier said than done. •Empathy - Interrogators use empathy, pretending to care for the jihadi's fate in an attempt to build rapport with the subject. Building rapport achieves short-term and long-term objectives for security forces. The long-term objective is to recruit the jihadi and release him to penetrate the terror cell. Even though the technique is a very common and crucial instrument in counterterrorism operations, the training fails to explain how the jihadi is supposed to counter this technique. •Indifference - Leaving the imprisoned jihadi for long intervals without interrogation is another technique used by interrogators when no timely intelligence is required in the given case. In this case, the jihadi is instructed to pretend to be coping well with prison conditions and spend the time reciting the Holy Quran. •Exaggeration - The interrogators will question the jihadi about a very serious case, implying his involvement, such as a conspiracy to assassinate a head of a state. This technique is designed to manipulate the captive into confessing a lesser evil and to study his reactions when he is being honest and compare them to his reactions when he lies. To fend off this technique, the jihadi should answer sarcastically to all allegations. The training relates the experience of a fellow jihadi who was accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The accused told his interrogators that he was in one of the planes used in the attacks. •Simplify - The interrogators try to convince the jihadi that his case is not serious, unless he keeps denying the charges. The training reminds the jihadi that denying the charges will not exacerbate the case legally. •Wear Out - The jihadi is repeatedly questioned about a single incident. •Insult - Obscene language may be used in the interrogation to break the jihadi's morale. Interrogators may curse God and religion to shake up the pious jihadi who is ordered by God not to tolerate blasphemy and to try and stop it in any way possible. In this case, the jihadi might think its better to confess than to let the blasphemy continue. •The Bombshell - After long sessions of trivial conversation, the interrogators will surprise the jihadi with questions related to terror activities, hoping to catch him off guard. The training relates other bombshell techniques from actual experience, such as awakening the suspect and immediately posing questions. •Uncertainty - The training warns the jihadi not to believe allegations that security forces have penetrated the terror cell using one of the amirs. The attempt to cast doubt in the jihadi's mind and weaken his loyalty to his
Bismillah [IslamCity] Gujarat Carnage-Role of Narendra Modi
Ram Puniyani In the worst ever communal carnage of this century, the post Godhra Gujarat violence, over 2000 innocents lost their lives. Most of the survivors not only lost their livelihood and shelter but also have been degraded to the status of second class citizens. Most of the perpetrators of violence, have not only gone scot-free; many of them had an upward political mobility. The efforts of the victims and human rights activists had yielded very few results and majority of the victims are grieving and living with the scars of their losses. In the whole process, the direction of Apex court to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the role of Modi, his cabinet colleagues and other top functionaries of state and those involved in violence, has come as a sigh of hope. The court gave the direction (April 27, 2002) in response to appeal by Jakia Ahsan Jafri, the widow of slain Congress MP, Ahsan Jafri. One complements the courage and doggedness of Jakia Jafri for all her efforts. This comes in the backdrop of the arrest of Maya Kodnani, Modi's cabinet colleague who instigated and led the carnage in Naroda Patia. Just to recall, Ahsan Jafri ex Congress MP had made frantic calls to all those concerned but the police help was not forthcoming to save him from the mob assembled by the VHP-Bajrang Dal and others, the lead players in Gujarat carnage. So far the official inquiry committees have not pointed its finger on the role of Modi, while the Human Rights Commission report (2002) pointed out that state machinery failed to protect the innocent people. Most of the citizen's inquiry committees by human rights activists have pointed out about the role of state administration and Modi in particular in the violence. In the major such report of 'Citizens tribunal' headed by retired Justice Krishna Ayer and Justice P.B.Sawant, (Crime against Humanity), a Minister in Modi's Government Haren Pandya gave description of the meeting which Modi had called on the evening of Godhra train accident. As per Pandya Modi instructed all the top state officials to let the Hindu anger not be curtailed in the aftermath of Godhra. Modi popularized the thesis that Godhra train was burnt in a pre planned manner by the international terrorism, in collusion with the ISI and local Muslims. Infamously, he announced that every action has an opposite reaction, meaning that now Hindus will take revenge and state should sit back and let the opposite reaction take its course. Same Harem Pandya was murdered later and his father stated that his murder had taken place on the instance of Modi. While the carnage was on, the Central government, NDA led by BJP, kept watching and barring some stray noises by PM Vajpayee and Home Minister Advani, the carnage went on spilling the rivers of blood. Despite Modi's claim that he controlled the violence in 72 hours, it took months for the din to settle. Modi's acts of omission were more than obvious. Now as matters stand our legal system has lots of loopholes and most of the guilty are not punished. On the contrary, in the case of Gujarat, Modi 'succeeded' in splitting the Gujarat society along religious lines, and he took advantage of the communal divide by riding back to power and strengthened his vice like grip on the administration and state as a whole. And now, In Gujarat the matters are not seen as guilty versus innocents, they are seen as Hindu versus Muslim. While on one hand Modi is being projected as the future Prime minister of India, not only by many captains of industry but also by the party sustaining on the fodder of communal divide, the BJP. While most of the people with plural values and concern for national integration are welcoming the direction of Apex court, the others doing electoral calculations point out that this investigation will enhance the standing of Modi. BJP spokesman also pointed out that this direction of Apex court will be helpful to the BJP in electoral arena. The nation is standing on a tragic point where the communal polarization brought in by communal violence and anti-minority propaganda has resulted in the loss of sensitivity of a section of society towards the miseries and travails of large part of our own country, our own nation. In response to court directive, Modi asserted that he is ready to go to jail. This assertion is the outcome of his knowledge that in the polarzed state he will benefit despite his ciminal acts. The observation so far has been that Modi has shown no remorse for what happened in Gujarat, forget apologizing for the same. The path to power for the practitioners of divisive politics is through the rivers of blood, and they know it. So should we press for justice or fall in the trap of electoral arithmetic? The point is if we loose our basic human morality, if we compromise on the issue of rule of law, what is the worth of values of Constitution? Tragedy is not that the nation is knowing the guilt of the ilk of Modi and is watching
Bismillah [IslamCity] Zardari's challenge in Washington
By Shamshad Ahmad It is good news. President Zardari is a changed man and is said to have improved as a leader. This is the breaking news story emanating after a group of notable journalists and columnists had a two-hour discussion-cum-dinner meeting with our president this last Monday in Islamabad. According to an eminent journalist, he found the president a totally different person compared to his earlier impressions of him as he no longer talks in first person, and now admits mistakes and sounds practical. Another prominent journalist captioned his banner-line story saying: The president is learning on the job, and is learning well. In his assessment, the president has started changing himself somewhat and is now willing to listen to others and register their viewpoint. But he would still not relent on what he thinks is the correct course for him. He did admit, albeit after lot of argument, that the government was suffering governance problems and had become weak because of its policies. It was indeed a well-choreographed curtain raiser before President Zardari goes to Washington to join Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai at a tripartite summit which US President Obama has convened on May 6 and 7 to discuss the operationalisation of his new AfPak strategy. Whether or not the president is now a changed person is immaterial for us as far as the intent or importance of the Washington summit is concerned. What will be important for him in Washington is not whether he listens to the other side well and whether he admits his mistakes or does not relent on what he thinks is the correct course for him. Nor would anyone there be interested in what Pakistan's president has been learning on the job. Obama and Karzai would only expect of him to guarantee them security from their albatross. Both would also like to have assurances of Pakistan keeping India free of terrorism. This is a tall order for someone whose own country is on fire, and is standing on the apocalyptic brink. The foremost challenge for President Zardari in this situation is not what we are required to do for others' interests; it is what we ought to do to serve our own national interests and to safeguard our sovereign independence and national dignity. This will be the real test of President Zardari's maturity as a leader of this country and his ability to present our case meaningfully at the Washington summit. Zardari is an elected head of state, and unlike his predecessor, he should not be taking arbitrary decisions on the fate and future of the nation. General Musharraf claimed in his book In the Line of Fire that in all difficult moments, he felt so lonely that the fateful buck really stopped with him. For an elected president, the buck must not stop with him. In a democratic spirit, he should have at least met with major political leaders, both within and outside the National Assembly and sounded them out on what should be our own strategy on Obama's AfPak strategy. That would have reinforced his hands in making Pakistan's case to his interlocutors more effectively. Obama recognises that military force alone is not a solution to the problems in this region. It is a welcome departure from the Bush-Mush policy of relying solely on military option. But there are other aspects that cannot be ignored in pursuing this new strategy. Pakistan is now seen as the real Afghan issue. It is the single greatest challenge facing the new American president. The US cannot afford to see Pakistan fail, nor can it ignore the extremists operating in Pakistan's tribal areas. Vice-President Joe Biden has himself summed up our case well. He says no strategy for Afghanistan will work without Pakistan's assistance, and the US must strengthen its cooperation with the people and government of Pakistan, help them stabilise their tribal areas and promote economic development and opportunity throughout the country. President Zardari should simply ask Obama to heed to his vice president's advice and also not forget that Pakistan has already staked everything in supporting this war. Pakistan, however, is perturbed by America's indifference to its legitimate concerns. The US in recent years has been targeting Pakistan with military incursions and drone attacks in our tribal areas without realising that a country cannot be treated both as a target and a partner while fighting a common enemy. Drone attacks and military incursions across the Durand Line must stop lest they further deepen anti-American sentiment in Pakistan with greater sympathy for the Taliban in the affected areas. Our problems are further aggravated by a complex regional configuration with ominous Indo-US nexus, India's growing influence in Afghanistan with serious nuisance potential against Pakistan's security interests in the very heart of its backyard. Pakistan has been complaining for some time that India was using its presence in Afghanistan to foment trouble in Balochistan and its tribal
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hindu extremists attack Pakistani journalists in India
By Emaad Qureshi The extremists of a Hindu religious organization, Shri Ram Sene attacked a group of Pakistani journalists here on Wednesday INDIA :NEW DELHI: In a very unfortunate incident today Hindu extremists of Shri Ram Sena swarmed Delhi's International center and manhandled Pakistani journalists who were attending meeting of Indo-Pak forum. According to reports these Hindu attackers were also chanting Anti-Pakistan slogans like Pakistan is global problem so war is the only solution Shockingly enough ,rather than feeling ashamed of this incident top brass leadership of Shri Ram Sene proudly owned this incident by saying'Everything was pre-planned as we wanted to disrupt the seminar Noted author Arundhati Roy, columnist Swapan Dasgupta, Nirupama Subramanian, Hindu correspondent in Islamabad and Amit Baruah,Hindustan Times foreign editor were also present there. These types of incidents are clear demonstration of what actually is happening behind the soft image of India and what is the thinking of Hindu extremists about Pakistan. India is a big proponent of secularism but this incident is a black spot on the face of Indian secularism which proves that India is a country where Hindu radicals can't even tolerate peaceful congregation of Pakistani journalists. Writer is Chief Editor of the magazine Article Source : http://www.risethemag.com/viewarticles.aspx?aid=164
Bismillah [IslamCity] The Minority Perspective On The BJP Manifesto
By Firdaus Ahmed Countercurrents.org A party's manifesto is not taken too seriously since the compulsions of power impact the promises in it considerably. In the coalition era, this is even more so. Therefore to assess the BJP's position on security through its manifesto may be neither fair nor accurate. However, the exercise needs to be done if only to point out that the manifesto in its references to national security shows a remarkable insensitivity to minority concerns. The very first reference to national security is on the Congress' 'abysmal failure to protect citizens from terrorism'. The verdict on counter measures is that 'this is clearly not enough.' Understandably the very first section after the Introduction is on national security. In this the first point is on terrorism. Unsurprisingly excluded from the list of terrorist activity in the Congress' tenure is missing Malegaon. The overall impression is that the major instances of terror have been Muslim perpetrated, culminating in the 26/11 attacks by Pakistani terrorists. Clearly, this bracketing of all terror instances is untenable as insufficient evidence exists of a minority linkage with the pattern of blasts in major cities last year. Since Malegaon investigations have not progressed adequately and the other possibilities with regard to BAD (Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi) have been buried with the Batla House 'encounter'. As intended by perpetrators other than the 'usual suspects', the trail has not been picked up. A canard thus takes on the status of a truth or 'common sense'. It bears reflection as to why these attacks have mysteriously stopped since the Malegaon revelations. That the manifesto propagates the error as a given is explicable in light of the ideological orientation of the party. Having deliberately misperceived the problem, the solution can only be persistence in error. The manifesto is keen that Afzal Guru hang. That this has not already happened, despite the strong incentive for the Congress to have wanted to profit from the action, indicates there is more to the Parliament attack case than meets the eye. Afzal Guru is perhaps an innocuous victim of a larger conspiracy which in media reports spread to the considerably autonomous 'dirty tricks' department of JK police. Since invoking national security can help legitimize anything, one Indian less in keeping its secrets secure is really no big deal. That Afzal Guru lives bespeaks of substance to the book '13 December: The strange case of the attack on the Indian Parliament'. Illegal immigrants are seen as the unwitting foot soldiers of terror with their 'vulnerability…exploited by the ISI and its jihadi front organisations as well as local terror cells to carry out bombings and provide logistical support to foreign terrorists (italics added).' Securitisation of the problem of economic migration as an 'internal security' issue helps focus attention on the need for their eviction. Its yet another handle on the minority since the party intends to in 'Launch a massive programme to detect, detain and deport illegal immigrants' in its very first hundred days. There is an element that has been missed in reflection on this issue thus far. It is the possibility of such a targeted drive arousing Bengali nationalism. Nationalism is multi dimensional with one or other identity facet coming to the fore. The break up of Pakistan in which religion was trumped by ethnicity is an example. The Bengali ethnic group is the largest on the subcontinent. Presently it is divided on lines of religion. It would be prudent to preserve the status quo from point of view of Hindu nationalism. That this possibility has not entered the discourse points to the religion tainted limitation of cultural nationalism. More disturbing is that reference to a reversion to 2002, despite its lesson. The Manifesto states: 'Coercive measures, including diplomacy, will be used to deal with countries which promote cross-border terrorism.' This is accentuated in the linkage drawn between the global war on terror and internal security in its very next sentence: 'India will engage with the world in the global war on terror while not compromising on its domestic interests, primarily protecting citizens from the ravages of terrorism.' This portends a more proactive engagement with GWOT as it unfolds with greater potential for violence in wake of the Riedel-Holbrooke-Petraeus 'Af-Pak' strategy recently unveiled by President Obama. The contrived linkage with India's internal security makes for a continuing overhang over India's largest minority. That peace would continue to prove elusive with Pakistan is a given if the manifesto were to guide its actions when in power. It maintains that, 'There can be no 'comprehensive dialogue' for peace unless Pakistan…hands over to India individuals wanted for committing crimes on Indian soil.' This eminently avoidable condition gives out the agenda of using Pakistan as the threatening
Bismillah [IslamCity] Subtle ways of Indian propagandists
By Asif Haroon Raja One of the most read English newspaper of Pakistan, The News , controlled from Karachi projects mainly the views of liberals and so-called enlightened moderates. The bearded Muzaffar Iqbal is one of the lucky ones to find space in this prestigious paper. Articles of Masooda Bano are published under sub-heading ‘dissenting note’. Writers like me who at times show mirror to the liberal brigade cannot think of getting even one article published particularly after Omar Qureshi took over the charge of editorial wing in mid-2006. Conversely Indian authors keen to convey their loaded messages from across the border are encouraged. Col (R) Harish Puri is among the selected ones whose articles appear off and on, each one with a tinge of sarcasm. Indian writers convey the message in a very subtle manner which appeals to the sensibilities of the liberal class and pro-Indian segment in Pakistan. His latest article published in this paper on 14 April is captioned ‘An open letter to Gen Kayani’. To begin with, he first refreshes the memory of Pakistanis about the surrender of Pak soldiers at Dacca on 16 December 1971 which he says that no Pakistani has been able to get over that humiliation. Having scored his point he then suddenly turns to the incident of a teenage girl flogged by the Taliban in Swat which he terms as an abject surrender by Pak army, much more disgraceful than 1971 debacle. He takes a dig at Gen Kayani by saying that the girl could have been his daughter, or the author’s. In his bid to project himself broad minded and affable, he hastens to eulogize Pak army that it had fought valiantly in the three Indo-Pak wars and had performed commendably in UN missions. In the next breadth he makes an about turn by recapitulating an incident of an infantry unit led by a Lt Col meekly laying down arms before 20 odd militants in South Waziristan. He had mentioned about this incident in one of his earlier articles and had sarcastically stated that Pak army had reduced itself to Gainti-Belcha party. He used this belittling term by referring to the article of his friend Ejaz Haider of Daily Times, espousing the cause of liberals only. Having said what he wanted to say he then prods Gen Kayani as to what restrains him from going hell for leather against the Taliban and annihilating them. He reminds him that Pak army had inflicted immense atrocities on the Bengalis without any remorse or inhibitions. To incite the sentiments of people of Bangladesh in which Indians are past masters, he quips “Is it because Bengalis were never considered as Pakistanis, or your troops are terrified by the Taliban”. He urges him that before the Taliban drag Pakistan back into the Stone Age, the Taliban which are an equal threat to India must be defeated at all costs without any further delay. Let us now carry out a dispassionate analysis of his write up. His theme revolves around the threat of Taliban which in his view is too dangerous having grave ramifications for both Pakistan and India. He has belittled Pakistan army by insinuating that it has got scared of the Taliban and is reluctant to grapple with them. He has tried to arouse Gen Kayani to show courage and save the Swatis from the cruel clutches of barbarian Taliban and get counted in history or earn life long ignominy. Had this letter come from Swat, it might have had some impact, but a letter from devious India could not have been written with noble intentions. The purpose is to further stimulate the liberal brigade within Pakistan, tarnish the image of the army and overturn Swat peace deal. His article will give an idea how flabbergasted and disgusted the Indians are feeling after seeing their sinister scheme of pitching Pak army against its own people failing. India had successfully implemented this scheme in former East Pakistan in 1971. It had worked strenuously in creating bad blood between the Bengalis and West Pakistanis and is keen to repeat the same story. India has invested heavily in stoking insurgencies in Balochistan, FATA and Swat and is now eager to reap the harvest it had sown in 2002. The bravado and professionalism of Indian security forces was put to severe test in Mumbai on 26 November when 12 terrorists had made the whole city of Mumbai hostage and it took 4000 troops including 1200 elite force three days to get rid of them. Conversely, similar attack on Sri Lanka team in Lahore could not last more than 27 minutes and the coach driver and the escort police saved the lives of visitors; attackers of Manawan police academy were overpowered within six hours by a small force. With regard to casual mention about Kargil by Harish that Nawaz Sharif had badly let down Pakistani soldier, let me remind him that the entire might of Indian army had been brought on its knees by a few hundred ill-equipped Kashmiri Mujahideen backed by few Pakistan irregular Northern Light Infantry units and India had to seek US intervention to bail itself out of
Bismillah [IslamCity] Help find these missing children
Missing Two Children in Gulshen-e-Iqbal, Help us to search these little Kids. Dear All, My 11 year old girl, Noha Waleed El Hoseiny and my little boy 7 year old son Seif El Din Waleed El Hoseiny, are missing. They have been missing for 8 months now. Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see those children. That is how many missing children were found by circulation of their pictures on TV or means of media. The Internet circulates everywhere even overseas, Please pass this to everyone in your address book. With GOD on their side they will be found. 'I am asking you all, begging you to please Forward this email on to anyone and everyone You know, PLEASE. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone Knows anything, please contact me at: helpfindnohaandseif @yahoo.com I am including their pictures All prayers are appreciated! ! ' It only takes 2 seconds to forward this. If they were your children, you would want all the help you could get! Their desperate mum Article Source : http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topics/missing-children attachment: Pic.JPG
Bismillah [IslamCity] Obama ready to cut Karzai adrift
As support for Afghan leader wanes, rivals go to Washington for meeting with new President By Jerome Starkey and Kim Sengupta in Kabul Barack Obama's arrival in the White House and the wind of change sweeping through Washington could lead to the ousting from power of Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, The Independent has learnt. International support for Mr Karzai, who was once the darling of the West, has waned spectacularly, amid worsening violence, endemic corruption and weak leadership. But until very recently, diplomats insisted there were no viable alternatives even as fighting has intensified and the Taliban insurgency in the south has grown. But four key figures believed to be challenging Mr Karzai have arrived in Washington for meetings with Obama administration officials this week. There is now talk of a dream ticket that would see the main challengers run together to unite the country's various ethnic groups and wrest control away from Mr Karzai. The Americans aren't going to determine the outcome of the election, but they could suggest to people they put their differences aside and form a dream ticket, said a senior US analyst in Kabul. Mr Obama has already started getting to grips with the challenge of Afghanistan; he received a briefing on the coming American troop surge from General David Petraeus on Wednesday, his first full day in the Oval Office. Last night, Mr Obama appointed the veteran US diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, as his new special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The unofficial delegation to Washington was made up of three ex-ministers and a serving governor. Dr Abdullah Abdullah was the foreign minister, Dr Ashraf Ghani served as finance minister, Ali Ahmad Jalali was interior minister and Gul Agha Sherzai is the governor of the eastern province of Nangahar, where US troops are based. When Mr Obama visited Afghanistan in July he met Governor Sherzai in Jalalabad, even before he saw President Karzai in Kabul. They are not going to blindly back President Karzai like the Bush administration did for so long, said John Dempsey, head of the United States Institute of Peace in Kabul. On the ground in Afghanistan, Camp Bastion in Helmand province is already becoming the symbol of the Americanisation of the war in the south. US forces have started arriving and will be joined by many more. Airfields are to be built to bring in transport and warplanes in preparation for a coming offensive with the dispatch of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Karzai officials had hoped Hillary Clinton, now the US Secretary of State, would prove their ally in White House. But those hopes were dashed last week when she branded Afghanistan a narco-state with a government plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption during her confirmation hearing. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's brother, was named last October in leaked US intelligence reports as a major narco-trafficker. The allegations, vigorously denied by both men, are widespread in Afghanistan but, until then, Western officials had refused to corroborate them. But the leak was seen as a shot across Mr Karzai's bows from the Bush administration, to make him clean up his act and rein in his brother. The flurry of criticism suggests the international community is less than happy with his response. Mrs Clinton's remarks coincided with stinging criticism from Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who said corrupt and inefficient government was as much to blame for instability as the insurgents. Writing in The Washington Post, he said: The basic problem in Afghanistan is not too much Taliban; it's too little good governance. Individually, Mr Karzai's rivals risk splitting their support base. Together, diplomats are optimistic they could win the election, expected next summer, and reinvigorate a jaded population. We need to create a new momentum, like in 2001, said Haroun Mir, co-founder of the Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies. Change will bring hope, because right now the momentum is with the Taliban. The planning for new policies on Afghanistan has been going on for months by Pentagon and State Department staff in anticipation of Mr Obama's inauguration. One official said: We have to come up with fresh innovative ideas on counter-insurgency, counter-narcotics, governance, development. Now they are drafting in people from other departments. There is no doubt we neglected Afghanistan after the Taliban fell but there is a worry that we may be trying to do too much, too fast now. A slew of initiatives are on the way. They include the arming of local groups to fight the Taliban, in the way Sunni militias were used against insurgents by General Petraeus in Iraq. US, British and Nato forces will also play a much more direct role in counter-narcotics operations in an effort to tackle Afghanistan's heroin trade which provides 93 per cent of the world's supply of the drug. Some policy analysts
Bismillah [IslamCity] Pope to reflect on persecution of Christians in India
Vatican City, 7 April (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI will reflect on the plight of Christians in India this Easter when he leads the Way of the Cross ceremony on Friday at the Colosseum in Rome. The Vatican has asked Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil to write the meditations for the ceremony, which depicts Christ's final hours leading up to his crucifixion. Archbishop Menamparampil's reflections will focus on the question of evil in the world, on pain and on the various forms of suffering which are, he writes, a symbol of the presence of the cross of Christ in our lives. Menamparampil will refer to Christians who suffer persecution in India and in other countries, as well to the violence that destroys ethnic and religious groups, and to conflicts fuelled by economic interests, the Vatican said in a statement. Attacks by suspected Hindu extremists on Christians and their churches in the eastern Indian state of Orissa last year left at least 35 people dead. The violence also spread to other states, including the western coastal state of Karnataka, a state on India's west coast, where at least 150 churches were destroyed. India is officially secular but most of its one billion-plus citizens are Hindu. Christians make up about 2.5 percent of the population and Muslims, 13.4 percent. Article Source : http://www.persecution.in/node/3911
Bismillah [IslamCity] Crusade against ISI
By Sajjad Shaukat On January 20, 2009, in his first address, President Barack Obama had stated: To the Muslim World, we seek a new way forward, based upon mutual interest and mutual respect. But instead of reversing the anti-Muslim policies of ex-president Bush who had used the term 'crusade', a few days after the 9/11 events, Obama is acting upon a similar policy, though the tactics are different. Although he has decided to end the use of the phrase, Global War On Terror replacing it with the Overseas Contingency Operation, yet in reality anti-Muslim strategy continues. Notably, despite more cooperation with Pakistan, the main aim of the US including its allies remains to de-nuclearise Pakistan which is the only Islamic country, having nuclear weapons. Besides, its geo-strategic location, Gwadar Port, linking Central and South Asia, Islamabad's close ties with China irk the eyes of the US, India and Israel who are in collusion to destabilise Pakistan for their common interests. However, being an obstacle in their way and being vital for our survival as the first pillar of the country, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) has become a special target of the external crusade. On March 26, The New York Times accused that Pakistan's ISI is directly assisting militant groups fighting against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. In the recent past, US Admiral Mike Mullen and Defence Secretary Robert Gates blamed the ISI for close connections with the Taliban. All these biased statements have been appearing in wake of the US' new strategy, which has taken Afghanistan and Pakistan's FATA as single theatre of war. And President Obama said that he was determined to dismantle and defeat Al-Qaeda and the safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas from where a plan to attack the US and Europe could be in the making. On the one hand, US administration has increased the aid of Pakistan, while on the other, drone attacks on the tribal regions continue unabated without bothering for any internal backlash inside our country. Meanwhile, on March 31, Bailtullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack at the Manawan Police Training Center in Lahore, and threatened to carry out similar operations in various parts of Punjab. As regard Mehsud, reports suggest that the ISI had provided information to the US military commanders about Mehsud's exact location several times, but the CIA-operated predators could not hunt him. He plays a key role in instigating the peace-loving Taliban against Islamabad. With the help of RAW and CIA, like his patrons, while, playing a double game, Mehsud's main purpose is to create unrest in Pakistan. On the other side, the US military and high officials accuse Pakistan's army and ISI of close links with Mehsud. Nevertheless, revival of blame game against ISI is not confined to US war in Afghanistan. On December 15, 2008, US Senator John Kerry, while putting pressure on Islamabad in the aftermath of Mumbai carnage of November 26 remarked that all the gunmen came from Pakistan, and that ISI must be brought under control. Before him, US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Boucher had stressed the need to reform ISI. Under the cover of insurgency, US, India and Israel have intensified their collective covert strategic game by exploiting Pakistan's present multiple crises which they have themselves created through their secret agencies. While acting upon anti-Pakistan plot, they, sometimes, take new turns in their propaganda campaign in tarnishing the image of the ISI. In fact, US-led powers have badly failed in crushing the stiff resistance of Afghan Taliban and Kashmiris who have been fighting against the occupying forces. Hence, senseless accusations against ISI are essential for them to divert the attention of their public from their frustrated misadventure. Just like the sole superpower, it has become a fashion in India to blame the ISI for every mishap in order to conceal RAW-backed Hindu terrorism. In the recent past, concrete evidence surprised the world regarding a number of developments such as murder of Indian Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare during the Mumbai terror attacks, involvement of Hindu extremists in the Malegaon blasts, confession of Indian serving Lt Col Purohit in relation to the bombing of Samjhota Express and massacre of Muslims in Gujrat. Inaction by the US-led west over RAW-supported Hindu terrorism undoubtedly indicates that America and major European states have their common interest in India. Therefore, they blindly favour New Delhi's shrewd diplomacy against Islamabad. Their silence over two major terror-events in Lahore in March might also be cited as an example. The misdeeds of anti-ISI agencies are known to everyone. In this context, Ramzi Yousaf who was well-aware of the activities of the American and Israeli secret agencies had stated in the US court in 1997: You are butchers, liars, and
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hamid Karzai And The Cancer Of Corruption
Virginia M. Moncrieff International Correspondent President Hamid Karzai has blamed foreigners for exaggerating the amount of corruption in Afghanistan. Last week he reiterated the dastardly plot, sounding like a Burmese general fulminating against foreign stooges. The government is not what they [foreigners] say, he said. Some of the things they say is just political pressure on us, saying 'Karzai, follow us otherwise we will defame you'. Such protestations do President Karzai no favors. He is either gob-smackingly ignorant or wildly dishonest and neither option is particularly attractive. The kindest you could say about Karzai is that he has shown a tolerance of corruption that is deeply inappropriate. Anyone who lives in Kabul knows that corrupt payments are a daily transaction, from keeping your electricity connected, paying a teacher to let your child stay in class, or paying a toll at an impromptu roadblock, erected for eliciting bribes. For all the many problems that Karzai faces - not easily counted on the fingers of two hands - corruption could well be the biggest. It eats away at everything in Afghanistan, and has created despair and anger all over the country. Karzai's government - from the most senior ministers to the lowly rural clerk - is loathed, sometimes feared, but always deeply disrespected. There's not an ideological opposition to the Karzai Government, analyst Sarah Chayes told Australian radio last week. The opposition to the Karzai Government is because of the way it treats its people. [Y]ou basically cannot interact with a government official without it causing you pain or damage. The population feels helpless in the face of constant fleecing, and has no means of seeking justice. A trip to the cop-shop will cost you a bribe, any legal action must be covered with corrupt payments and you may end up in jail yourself because the system is so rotten. Hamid Karzai last week announced that he makes $487 per month as president, has no debts and does not own a house, land, car or any other assets. His wife owns about $10,000 worth of jewelry. There's also $10,000 in a German bank account but the President says he hasn't checked the account for over ten years. He then announced a new decree that government employees must declare their assets: I hope all the government employees and high-ranking officials will fill this form and register their property to show the public more transparency and an accountable government, he said. And the new form, which you hope people will fill out, seems more embarrassing than meaningful. Hamid Karzai is no lay down misére for the August elections and for all the violence and insecurity in Afghanistan, it may well be his tolerance for corruption that seals his fate. Article Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/virginia-moncrieff/hamid-karzai-and-the-canc_b_181008.html
Bismillah [IslamCity] Lack of trust
AS long as the mutual suspicions persisting between Washington and Islamabad are not removed, it will be hard to root out terrorism from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Islamabad rightly thinks it has rendered vital help to the US in the War On Terror, but is still being not trusted. Pakistan's intelligence agencies have nabbed and handed over to the US the largest number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders and operatives, while well over a thousand Pakistani soldiers have died fighting the militants in the tribal areas. Pakistan has subsequently been punished by the militants for being a US ally. Thousands of Pakistani citizens have died in rocket attacks, bomb blasts and suicide strikes conducted all over the country. The US, on the other hand, continues to accuse the ISI of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. While conceding that intelligence agencies do keep contacts with those involved in organised crime, including terrorist networks, US generals accuse the ISI of going a step further by funding, arming and sharing intelligence with certain militant groups, enabling them to avoid attacks by US and allied troops in Afghanistan. The US is resorting to the carrot and stick policy now. President Obama, we are told, plans to propose $2.8billion in aid for the military, which would be in addition to the annual $1.5 billion civilian aid that has already been proposed. Meanwhile, Senator Carl Levin, Chairman Armed Services Committee, has said he would oppose financial aid or weapons for Pakistan until Islamabad is willing to take on extremists within its own borders. Despite wide-ranging talks held in Washington when the AfPak policy review was under process, both sides continue to stick to their positions. Gen Petraeus insists that collaboration between Taliban members and individuals in Pakistani agencies continues, and the US military is putting additional focus on rooting out these ties. On the other hand, Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani has once again contradicted the perception of ISI collaboration with terrorist groups. Pakistan's military and security agencies maintain that they are wary of the US strategy in the region and fear that with the US again leaving the region abruptly after fulfilling its agenda, a vacuum in Afghanistan could be filled by those opposed to Pakistan, and a collaboration between them and India would put Pakistan in a nutcracker. There are many who think there is a need on the part of Washington to address Pakistan's reservations by helping to resolve the regional disputes, which include the core issue of Kashmir and the recognition of the Durand Line as the international border. Article Source : http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Editorials/02-Apr-2009/Lack-of-trust
Bismillah [IslamCity] Hate speech are not new in Indian politics
By Abdul Hannan As election temperature increases across India, political parties and their candidates are trying to use new political stunts to catch public's attention. Earlier, in Utter Pradesh Mulaym Singh joined hands with Kalyan Singh, in Bihar RJD and LJP came closer, in Jharkhand former Chief Minister Shebu Suren is searching for the allies to strength his hand on power, Ms Mayawati, Chief Minister of Utter Pradesh agrees to support Third Front if it is ready to support her demand to become the Prime Minister of India. The real political situation will come out after the election but so-called secular and none secular parties are busy in political stunts. Varun Gandhi's hate speech against Muslims in an election campaign in Pilibhit, Utter Pradesh, also is the part of the politics. An interesting thing is that BJP, which is famous on its fundamentalist ideologies and Varun Gandhi is the BJP candidate from Pilibhit, initially distanced itself from Varun's statement. Election Commission (EC) found that Varun violated the code of conduct during election campaign and asked BJP to not present him as its candidate from Pilibhit, BJP charged EC of biased action, Rajnath Singh, BJP president, has said that Varun Gandhi is the BJP's candidate from Pilibhit. Reacting on Varun's remark, Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi advised Varun to read Gita to avoid passing such comments. After making hate speech, Varun Gandhi is on the lips of every one, may be that he belongs from Gandhi family, and such ideas is against of Nehru/Gandhi family ideology, but if Varun Gandhi passes such comments, he has a reason behind it. His mother Menaka Gandhi contested polls from Pilibhit and won in 1989, in 2004 she joined BJP, probably Varun Gandhi cannot prevent himself from the Hindutva effects. Since 2004 Varun Gandhi is in BJP. Though he is graduate and an educated person, it was necessary for Varun to speak something in the favor of BJP, he spoke well in Pilibhit election campaign and tried to bring out his and BJP's communal hardcore image before the people, now he is a Hero in Hindutva ideological class. Hate speech or communal politics is not new in post independence India. It is very old trend, particularly during the election or nearing the time of election. Two years ago, at the time of UP assembly elections, a CD was lunched by BJP in which Muslims was targeted, at that time, an FIR was longed against few BJP leaders, after that BJP alleged that it is not involved in such activities and this is work of low rank workers. Kalyan Singh, Bal Thackray, Advani, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Rethambra, Vinay Katiyar and various other BJP or the leaders of its sisters organizations are famous for their hate speeches. It is unfortunate that in Indian politics votes not taken on development, on elimination of poverty, on non-violence which was the historical slogan of Mahatma Gandhi or against exploitation. Last time BJP used India Shining slogan to get public votes and NDA government not only got defeated but central government gone out of their hands, because India was shining in televisions, in newspapers, in films, in cinema theaters, though in reality, the people of India were suffering for basic necessities. The ground situations were very different than advertisements in which India was shining. Later BJP conceded that India Shining slogan was its mistake. Communal politics always recharged BJP and boosted it to emerge as national level party. If Varun Gandhi seeks to win the votes on communal ground, it is nothing new. EC's decision against Varun my force him to not to contest in election but it is no guaranty that in future such incidents will not take place. The real power is in the hands of the public, if they decide to reject such communal comments and force BJP to leave such politics, surly a new era will start in which all community in India to take the real juice to enjoy the real freedom of democracy. Question is - those days will come? Article Source : http://www.twocircles.net/2009mar25/hate_speech_are_not_new_indian_politics.html
Bismillah [IslamCity] Analysis: General Shankar's threat to Bangladesh
Bangladesh Open Source Intelligence Monitors Grassroot Open Source Intelligence can include information we get from books, magazines, the Web, music, movies and other open sources. These information sources often overlap and intermix. Valuable intelligence can be found in a very wide range of people, media and other sources. Keep your eyes and mind open for good grassroots intelligence. The human race needs all the intelligence we can get our hands on. Steve Hammons Analysis: General Shankar's threat to Bangladesh by Dr. M.T. Hussain 1. General Shankar's clear threat to Bangladesh Indian former Army Chief General. Shankar's interview published originally in the Indian daily Asian Age on the 24th and lifted in Bengali translation in the daily Noya Dignata on the 26th March in Dhaka though an unofficial viewpoint from the stalwart may not be seen by some as anything serious, but certainly gives a clear danger signal for the sovereignty of Bangladesh. However, his frank opinion in the matter should be appreciated. 2. Shankar's verbatim His verbatim, DELHI CAN'T AFFORD TO LET DHAKA SLIP OF ITS RADAR THIS TIME not only gave a very clear ominous message in its clarity but also for the timing Bangladeshis have been mourning the brutal massacre of over five dozens of brilliant patriotic army officers of the country on the 25-26 mayhem in full knowledge of the P.M. and her colleagues in the cabinet at the BDR Peelkhana head quarter. Thus Gen. Shanker has further added to the account of critical worry for Bangladesh's sovereignty. 3. Ominous signals from Delhi and now from Shankar Since the very inception of the mayhem ominous signals had been pouring in Dhaka from Indian government and their media, Shankar's one being the latest of the tirades against the smaller peaceful neighbor Bangladesh. Was it of any dignity of Shanker that he threatened Dhaka, on the one hand, and advised Delhi to keep Bangladesh in her full control, on the other? One must wonder if the same BDR massacre had been planned and engineered for Delhi by Delhi to make an excuse of the control over Bangladesh's sovereignty tighter than as had been ever? How should the government having overwhelming majority member in the Parliament need Delhi's support for management of its own affairs? Or did India make a ploy of the mayhem to destroy Bangladesh's patriotic army and the BDR? 4. Great Game The General has referred to the 'great game' of India Pakistan rivalry. He was right in this assertion, but that goes back in history not just of the post 1947 period, much less of the post 1971 period. The rivalry was there in historical elements embedded in faith, culture and day- to- day way of life of two main peoples of the Indian subcontinent. Incidentally, Bangladesh shares little from the caste ridden Indian Brahmanism. Instead Muslim egalitarianism is the main essence of Bangladeshi people that made them somewhat closer to Pakistani people, but not less with the Indian Muslims, as well. 5. 1975 August coup misrepresented Gen Shankar's open mind need be appreciated first for the fact that 1971 was a winning game for his own country India. But it is curious and mysterious to know from him that the August 1975 coup of Dhaka was a defeat for India and victory for Pakistan. Pakistan had nothing to do in August 1975 political change in Dhaka. That was India's defeat in the sense that India's lackey had been ousted but in no way was victory of Pakistan. The victory was for Bangladesh. The successful coup of August was brought about not by anybody from outside but by the heroic freedom fighters of 1971 and by the Bangladesh Army followed immediately by jubilation by the common people in Bangladesh. Because, Mujib by then in little over three years of misrule had become a liability for Bangladesh's freedom and sovereignty. His becoming liability had many onus of Delhi that the people confused in 1971 but finally discovered the real hegemonic designs of the Brahmanist Indians who never ever accepted the 1947 partition of the then British India, and so stood against the existence of Pakistan after 1947 and then particularly, Bangladesh in post 1971 period now nearly four decades. 6. Indemnity was inherent in the August coup The August coup of 1975 have not failed but was a victorious one, and so had no liability of any wrongdoing in the coup operation according legal maxim of FACTUM VALET. That was how the coup operators enjoyed indemnity and freedom. After 21 years, in 1996 Sheikh Hasina getting saddled in power of the country went in frenzy to hang those heroes of 1975 August coup. She could not finish the job in deep vengeance though engineered in the process gross miscarriage of justice by abuse of power in her extreme vengeance during 1996-2001 that she now has undertaken to accomplish in the second term. 7. Bangladesh's sense of identity misrepresented Bangladesh is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation not only by population strength but also for
Bismillah [IslamCity] Sayeeda Warsi Britain's most powerful Muslim woman
Baroness Warsi named Britain's most powerful Muslim woman AFP LONDON (AFP) - Britain's most powerful Muslim woman is Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who notably helped rescue a Briton jailed in Sudan for calling a teddy bear Mohammed two years ago, a panel of judges said Wednesday. Warsi, a 38-year-old member of the House of Lords, said her Pakistani origins and her strong faith contributed to her career success, highlighted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Other names in the top five of the Muslim Women Power List, chosen by a panel of the commission's judges, were BBC News presenter Mishal Hussain, Grange Park Opera chief executive Wasfi Kani and Farmida Bi, a banking partner for law firm Norton Rose LLP. I personally come from a family of all girls and was brought up to believe that anything was possible and being a Muslim woman should in no way be seen as a barrier but as an asset to achievement, Warsi said. I'm extremely proud to be named as the most powerful British Muslim woman and I'm sure my Pakistani origins, my strong faith and my Yorkshire upbringing has played a huge part, she added. Trevor Phillips, head of the commission, said, Our list of female Muslim high achievers challenges many stereotypes, celebrating some truly impressive individuals. Warsi was one of two British peers who secured the release of Gillian Gibbons in 2007. Gibbons, a 54-year-old teacher from Liverpool, was arrested in November 2007 and sentenced to 15 days in prison for insulting religion by allowing children at an English school in Sudan where she worked to name a teddy bear Mohammed. Article Source : http://watandost.blogspot.com/2009/03/sayeeda-warsi-britains-most-powerful.html
Bismillah [IslamCity] BJP minister, charged with inciting riots, surrenders
By IANS, Ahmedabad/New Delhi : Maya Kodnani, who resigned Friday as Gujarat's minister for higher education, surrendered later in the day before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that has named her as among those who led mobs in the Naroda Gaam and Naroda Patiya localities here in which 106 people were killed during the 2002 communal riots in the state. Kodnani quit from her post Friday morning after the Gujarat High Court rejected her anticipatory bail plea. She was joined by former Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Jaideep Patel who also surrendered before the SIT. The BJP immediately distanced itself from Kodnani, saying the law would take its own course, while the Congress said the party had it coming. Once the decision has come from the Gujarat High Court, the party asked her to resign. She resigned. Rest, the law will take its own course, BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj told reporters in New Delhi. It was coming. Slowly, slowly, the crimes in Gujarat will unravel, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said in New Delhi. Kodnani and Patel arrived together at the SIT office at the Old Secretariat in adjacent Gandhinagar and surrendered to a senior official. While Kodnani refused to comment, Patel told reporters: I have faith in the judiciary regarding the decision taken by it. I respect the Gujarat High Court's decision. In its plea to the Gujarat High Court, the Supreme court appointed SIT stated that Kodnani was evading arrest even after being named by witnesses who submitted that they saw the minister in the localities on that day. Witnesses in the Kodnani case also told SIT that they were being harassed over the phone and told to drop charges against the minister. The Godhra train burning led to widespread attacks on Muslims in the state, leading to 1,180 people, mostly Muslims, being killed. Earlier Friday, the Gujarat High Court rejected Kodnani's anticipatory bail plea, stating that her role in leading mobs during 2002 sectarian violence was nothing less than organised crime. In his order, Justice D.H. Waghela said: Maya Kodnani was leading a mob but still did not control them (mob). This is nothing less than organised crime. He also rejected the plea of Kodnani's defence lawyer who sought more time for her to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Kodnani's surrrender came on the day the BJP's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi were to address a public meeting here to kick off the party's Lok Sabha campaign in the state. Advani will contest the election from Gandhinagar. The state government put up a brave face, saying the court ruling against Kodnani was not an embarrassment to the BJP. This is not at all an embarrassment, said a Gujarat government spokesperson, adding that nobody could be pronounced guilty till the last word had been spoken. Article Source : http://www.twocircles.net/2009mar27/bjp_minister_charged_inciting_riots_surrenders.html
Bismillah [IslamCity] India battles its urban wild
By Priyanka Bhardwaj NEW DELHI - Often it becomes apparent that India's slow-to-move government agencies are caught in a time warp, struggling to catch up with the efficient private sector rooted in high-tech paperless functioning. Take the case of the state of Haryana that adjoins Delhi and boasts of modern cities such as Chandigarh and Gurgaon, the hub of multinational, global outsourcing and software firms, operating out of state-of-the-art office spaces. Saddled with reams of hard copy files, the Haryana police, which does not boast the best anti-crime record, has been grapplingwith rats devouring official records stored in usually dilapidated conditions. To deal with file eating rodents, Haryana officials have arrived at a solution that may seem rather offbeat. Rather than spruce and clean up the place, the police are experimenting with white mice to take on the numerous black rats. A senior police official in the Haryana city of Karnal was quoted as saying: We have brought two white rats in on a trial basis. We have been told that white mice do not eat paper and cloth and are a deterrent for the black ones. The Haryana case follows the instances of the income tax office in New Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority (that deals with land allotment and real estate development), which are officially allowed to keep cats. They have been doing so for years to keep mice from nibbling the mountains of stored paperwork in the face of the slow computerization of government offices. This, of course is also a reflection of overall lax government functioning, whether in education, law and order, health or infrastructure such as roads and power, Though India has been plague-free from 1966, in 1994 there was an outbreak that affected Maharashtra and Gujarat. The city of Surat was badly impacted. Indeed, even as India transitions as an emerging economy and global business hub, the intermeshing of high growth pockets with arenas that still need reform creates its own set of peculiarities. Though the government has been one of the slowest to change and move with the times, there are other outfits battling rodents too. The state-owned Indian Railways, the biggest network in the world, has been fighting a losing battle with rats for a while now. Over a million rats are estimated to infest the extremely dirty and busy four acre area of the New Delhi railway station, a contrast from the glitzy malls that sprinkle the city and the spotless metro train service. The rodents have been causing a nuisance gnawing at cables, stores and even affecting signaling systems. Earlier this month, following several failed attempts, desperate rail officials handed a contract of Rs1.7 million (US$33,000) to a private firm to exterminate the menace. All our earlier attempts failed miserably to control the rats. We have handed over the area to the firm and hope for a radical change in the next one month itself,'' said a senior railway official. Indeed, although India is changing there is a long way to go. For example, first time foreign visitors to New Delhi are shocked to witness animals that freely roam the streets, alongside traffic jams, modern expressways, flyovers and the world class metro. It is estimated that more than 50,000 cows and buffaloes crowd the roads along with armies' of monkeys, pigs, stray dogs, camels and an occasional elephant, often causing chaos and accidents. Traffic routinely comes to a halt on highways to allow animals to walk, sleep, defecate and procreate. Animals are sometimes injured, with stinking carcasses lying in the streets for days given lax municipal authorities. All of this is due to a rapidly spreading urban sprawl that devours erstwhile open, rural areas and villages where the animals once roamed freely. The courts have been waging a losing battle to rid Delhi roads of its animals. Apart from the usual lethargy in implementation, cows are revered by Hindus, the majority Indian population, so any strong arm action is a politically sensitive move. Dogs, meanwhile, proliferate as they are readily adopted by people, who do not have the space to keep them inside the house, but generally feed, pamper them and resist attempts by authorities to act. Such is the nuisance of monkeys in the national capital that a couple of langurs (bigger-sized white monkeys) continue to be leashed every day at the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's House) and the adjoining north and south blocks that house the prime minister, top administration and military offices. The langurs scare off the smaller Indian brown rhesus monkeys that are a menace in the area, biting officials, running away with secret files and entering the inner precincts of offices and president's quarters. There are also reports that for some time stray dogs moved in and out of the highly protected residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There were fears that the strays could easily be fitted with remote
Bismillah [IslamCity] Seekers of Indian citizenship have personal agenda: Hindu community
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Busy preparing for the colourful religious festival of Holi
on Wednesday, the Hindu community from across the NWFP alleged the
Hindus seeking Indian citizenship in Amritsar had a “personal agenda”
as there was no threat to their lives and families in Pakistan.
“Around 400 Hindu families living in Peshawar are celebrating Holi
today and there is no restriction or threat to our youth, men, women
and elders. We have never been approached by any Hindu family with
complaint of threats to their lives or families,” Ram Lal, president
of the Balmik Samaj Sabha (BSS) and provincial general secretary of
the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF), told The News.
I think, he added, a few individuals who have claimed threats to their
lives would be having personal problems. “Had there been any complaint
or threat, they would have contacted me or our minority MPA,” Ram Lal
opined.
As cheerful celebrations by thousands of Hindu families in this
country were on, the Indian media had reported that 35 members of five
Hindu families from the NWFP had reached Amritsar with citing threats
to their lives in Pakistan. These minority members, reported to be 16
each men and women and three children, have sought Indian citizenship,
citing threats to their lives in Pakistan’s Frontier province as the
major reason.
“They have probably done it to seek Indian citizenship because we
never faced any problem in performing our religious, political or
social activities in any part of Pakistan. The Hindus of Dera Ismail
Khan are celebrating Holi and they are as happy as they could be in
any other part of the world,” Businessman Ashok Kumar, told The News
from Dera Ismail Khan. His cousin, Kishor Kumar, is the lone Hindu
lawmaker from the province.
There are three Hindu temples in Peshawar and two in Dera Ismail Khan.
Several such temples exist in the remaining 22 districts of the NWFP.
“We perform our religious rituals freely. As far as the law and order
situation is concerned, mostly Muslims are being killed in violent
incidents and not members of the minority community,” Ashok argued.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=166655
***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy
Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I
am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--
Recommended:
http://www.ikhwanweb.com
http://www.islamonline.net
http://www.islam-guide.com
http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org
--
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Bismillah [IslamCity] Indian Muslims need constitutional support not promises
By S G Haque, The Indian Government has admitted that the cases of human rights violation against minorities have increased and Indian Muslims, the largest minority community are the worst sufferer. Several communal riots instigated by Hindu nationalists, have caused heavy damages to the Muslims. Riots and violence against them have become a common feature. The Muslims are slaughtered mercilessly in communal riots and women raped and the agencies responsible for protecting the lives and modesty of women remain a silent spectator during communal riots. Today the global fever of terrorism is badly haunting the community. The innocent people of productive ages of the community are easy target of unscrupulous and communal elements. The broad daylight killings of Muslim youths by security agencies have become a routine job today. The number of Muslims in jails increases day by day. When person like Justice Sachar talks about backwardness among Muslims and suggests doing special effort to educate Muslims, the communal elements brand the highly educated like IT and management graduates as terrorists and virtually closes the door of academic and employment opportunities for Muslim youths. Indian Muslims have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy rates and irregular lower-paying jobs. Today, hardly 1 % Muslims is in government services, while this figure was about 30 % before partition. These are the findings of government's own national sample survey. The socio-economic status of Muslims is worst than the Dalits, the most backward community of India. Several studies and surveys have revealed the fact that the Indian Muslims, the second largest community are lagging behind and they cannot get rid of their poverty, illiteracy and other social ills without special and proper support. Every one of the nation is aware that the persons belonging to the Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribe communities were considered as most backward and downtrodden. Nevertheless, the constitutional support helped them to improve their condition. Today they are in a better position as compared to their fore fathers. Of course, the atrocities against them have not come to a complete halt and they are yet to join the billionaires club. But it is also a fact that besides constitutional provisions for reservation in education and jobs, there are special legal enactments to check the violence and atrocities against Dalits. The Government made a provision of separate courts for anti-Dalit cases. Unfortunately, there are no such constitutional and legal measures to protect or safeguard the interest of Muslims. While, the violent attack on Muslims are common. Several committees and commissions have studied the social and economic status of Indian Muslims since independence. But their reports failed to bring any material change in their lives. Because, no government showed the courage to implement the recommendations of such committees. The Sachar committee report was tabled and debated in the parliament with much fanfare. The UPA government made very tall promises to bail out the Muslim community from their worst and desperate plight. Several announcements were made to ensure the educational needs of the community. However, their promises failed to become reality. The UPA government did not make any concrete effort. There are enough historical and documentary evidence, which show that the Indian Muslims felled prey to famous divide and rule policy of the British. They created an atmosphere of hatred and distrust between two largest communities of India by using the vested and communal elements and spreading rumors of forced conversion and demolition of temples in much planned manner, which has already been denounced by several eminent Hindu intellectuals and historians. The post 1857 era was worst for the Muslim elites. The British held Muslims responsible for the start of the freedom struggle. The aggressive and vigorously active role of Indian Muslims in the freedom struggle forced the British to teach a lesson to the community. They blatantly targeted Muslim religious leaders and intellectuals. Indian Muslim bore the brunt of British rage. They coloured the streets of Delhi with the bloods of Ulemas. They closed the doors of opportunity upon Muslims. The physical and economic insecurity marginalized the community. They introduced English as official language that led to the further marginalization of Muslims. The literacy rate of Muslims fell significantly to 20 % with in half-century span due to their anti- Muslim policies. They were deprived of all administrative and judicial jobs in the government. The discriminatory policies of the British showed the door of deprivation and backwardness to the Indian Muslims. The Muslims are facing multi pronged hurdles. In this peculiar and desperate situation of victimization and exploitation, no one seems willing to bail out the community from the crisis. Needless to say that the
Bismillah [IslamCity] Bush Policy or Obama Policy?
By Adnan Gill Despite what some American foreign policy hawks, like Kim Holmes (Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies) suggest, Obama-Biden team was spot on when they set “Restoring Our Standing” to be one of the prime objectives of formulating the American foreign policy. Thanks to almost a decade long coercive Bush-era foreign policy; today, America is viewed as a maverick on war path. Survey after survey shows a global decline of American popularity among both friends and foes. Even an association with Bush policy cut short political fortunes of many. British Prime Minister Toney Blair and President Pervez Musharraf are among the few who were sidelined for toeing Bush policy. With the exception of few successes, like Libyan pledge to denounce terrorism and reverse its nuclear program, rest of the Bush policy is fraught with disasters. Iraqi invasion was a direct manifestation of failed Bush Doctrine. The invasion cost America hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands in human lives. Indian nuclear deal is another example of shortsighted Bush foreign policy. It envisioned a onetime Soviet and now Russian ally India to be its linchpin. Now, some pro-India American hawks are aggressively lobbying the Obama Administration for an extension of Bush policy. They argue: to check the rise of China and the common democratic values make India a natural American ally. Though in reality, India is more of a pseudo-socialist democracy; a far cry from the Jeffersonian democracy. The lobbyists go as far as, wanting to share American national security jewels, like nuclear technology and the land-based laser defense system with India. At the same time, a concerted effort is in full swing to change Obama’s Pakistan policy. They insist on de-hyphenating India from Pakistan; which will remain a pipe dream as long as India and Pakistan remain entangled over one or the other issue. Most experts believe the two will remain in a belligerent relationship till the root cause of their rivalry, the Kashmir issue, is amicably resolved. India’s huge population with equally impressive middleclass makes it an attractive trade partner. However, neither its humongous population nor its growing economy is meaningful enough to qualify it to become a strategic ally; especially at the cost of its time tested ally Pakistan or its largest trading partner China. In 2008 India imported only $17.4 billion worth of goods from the US. In contrast, China with far better human rights record and business friendly government imported $67.1 billion worth of goods from the US. In addition, American business giants like Walmart and Boeing are impatiently waiting for Obama administration to reverse the restrictive sanctions Clinton administration placed on China. Even in the 21st century, India is frequently cited for the worst religious persecution and gross human rights abuses by the human rights organizations and US State Department. In fact, Indian record is far worst than what is attributed to China. Indian conservative cum nationalist parties like BJP have been charged for aiding and abetting the religious extremists in caring out communal violence. These parties openly campaign on anti-minority and nationalist slogans. Their ‘akhand Bharat’ (larger India) rhetoric dominates their political ideology. India is one of the few notable countries that still hold border disputes with virtually all of its neighbors. India’s neighbors accuse its intelligence agency RAW for malicious interference in their internal affairs. The Indio-US nuclear deal was widely criticized even within the Bush Administration. India has a well known nuclear proliferation record, especially in vertical and onward proliferation. In a 2003 interview, the former Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed his reservations over the deal, We also have to protect certain red lines that we have with respect to proliferation. However, former Secretary Condoleezza Rice was the driving force behind the hurriedly concocted nuclear deal. It was a brainchild of Secretary Rice's counselor and longtime colleagues Philip Zelikow and (Bombay-born) Ashley Tellis. Experts like David Albright, President of Institute for Science and International Security, in a 2005 testimony before the US House Committee described Indian proliferation, India's extensive military and civil nuclear programs are often connected, sharing personnel and infrastructure. In addition, some facilities currently have both a military and civilian purpose. Indian scientist Raja Ramanna also confirmed, India diverted plutonium from the American-Canadian supplied civilian nuclear reactor (CIRUS) for its first nuclear device. Again, in an October 26, 2005, testimony before the House Committee Dr. Albright warned, This [nuclear deal] could pose serious risks to the security of the United States. If fully implemented, it could catapult India into a position as a major supplier
Bismillah [IslamCity] India - South Asian Don
By Zaheerul Hassan On 8 March, 2009 Ronald Noble along with Interior Advisor, Rahman Malik while addressing a Press Conference said that Mumbai attacks were partially planned in Pakistan. He revealed that seven countries including India were used for Mumbai attacks. On this occasion, interior Advisor of Pakistan has urged upon India to reply soon the 30 questions relating to the Mumbai investigations put forward. It is notable here that Pakistan government has fully cooperated with India in relation to Mumbai Drama but some how New Delhi failed to provide the solid evidences. The dossiers forwarded to Islamabad government are not even worth presenting as material evidence in the court. Ronald Noble very rightly said that Pakistan and its people were more hit by terrorism and the world community was with Pakistan in war against terror. He also praised FIA for carrying out investigations and termed their report as comprehensive and complete. Interpol Sectary confirmed that India didn't provide any report to international police. According the reports Indian investigation agencies few days earlier has presented Mumbai Drama's Charge Sheet to court without mentioning the nationalities of the characters involved in the attack. It means that Indian agencies failed to ascertain the nationalities of culprits took part in Mumbai attack. Therefore involving Pakistan in the issue is not under stood. The whole episode reveals that Indian agencies, diplomatic pundits and rogue armed forces have terribly failed in maligning Pakistan and its security agencies in Mumbai Drama. The terrible defeats on national and international fronts have frustrated Indian government and its intelligence agencies. New Delhi through and its world notorious intelligence set ups are madly busy in planning and obliterating peace by carrying out terrorist activities in the regional countries. On February 24, 2009 Bangladesh Border Force carried out a mutiny against their superior officers, which resulted into the death of more than 200 individuals including a major General and his wife. The act of mutiny was planned and instigated by RAW with a purpose of weakening the Bangladesh Armed and Border Forces since they have inflicted heavy losses and pushed the Indian forces back to their territory in a border conflict with India. The Bangladesh Rifles are often involved in border skirmishes with their counterparts from India. Thus she dented Bangladesh Armed Forces and Bangladesh Rifles while launching clandestine operation. Just after few days on March 3, 2009 a group of 12 individuals trained by the RAW have carried out terrorist attacks on cricket team of Sri Lanka near Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. According to the government officials the masked gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers started an organized and ruthless firing on the team. As result several players wounded and six individuals of police have been killed. The reasons of carrying out assault against Lankan's are quite obvious because she rejected Indian demand of not dispatching her cricket team to Pakistan. Other reason is that New Delhi faced horrible defeat on diplomatic front in the case of Mumbai Drama. Her intelligence agencies and government is being criticized inside the country as well as at international level. She also failed to provide the solid evidence to FBI and Interpol in the past. At many occasions Indian Foreign minister and army Chief threaten that they have various open options to attack Pakistan. There are reports that these terrorists have entered into Pakistan from the river side and stayed in various areas of Lahore few days earlier of launching the attack. They have carried out the rehearsals and observed the movement of the team a day prior to assault. Pakistan Rangers and troops deployed on border should keep themselves alive and alert because the terrorists might use the border while falling back to India. Lahore attack would also been taken as repercussions of Mumbai Drama. Indian army never spared any chance of pressing, murdering and raping women in Kashmir. So called secular country remained butchering Sikhs, Christen and Tamils. On March 8, 2009 hundreds of people staged anti-Army demonstrations in Sallar village of South Kashmir after Army arrested a youth during a cricket match. According to the Kashmir Watch in a match between the teams of Sallar and Livar village in South Kashmir's Islamabad an Army Major Rohit Sharma of 3 Rashtriya Rifles, who was playing for the Sallar team, when bowled out by the opposite team shortly after he came on the pitch was hooted by the spectators witnessing the match. Eye witnesses revealed that the hooting infuriated the Army major who turned furious and whisked away one of the youth identified as Shoaib Ahmad Khan son of Abdul Razak to the Army camp .As the Army detained Khan hundreds of people of Sallar and adjoining villages came on the streets and staged anti-Army demonstrations. The protesters were
Bismillah [IslamCity] Russia Now 'Top Heroin Consumer'
Victor Ivanov, head of the Russian anti-narcotics service, has made some extraordinary comments - which amount to an admission that the country is experiencing a devastating heroin epidemic. While conceding to the press that Russia is now the world's absolute leader in the opiate trade and the number one heroin consumer, Ivanov also claimed that Drug trafficking has become a key negative factor for demography and a blow to our nation's gene pool or even a challenge to Russia's civilisation. Russia is now lining up behind calls for an aerial fumigation campaign in Afghanistan, bad news for Afghan farmers. Yet it is also a challenge to the U.S., many of whose allies in Afghanistan fund their counter-insurgency operations via the drug trade. In pictures: Battling heroin in Russia Russia says it has become the world's biggest consumer of heroin. The head of Russia's anti-narcotics service, Victor Ivanov, said that seizures of Afghan heroin were up 70%. Speaking ahead of a meeting in Vienna of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, he called on the UN to do more to fight the problem. Mr Ivanov, a former KGB officer and senior Kremlin official, said the flood of the drug from Afghanistan posed a threat to Russia's national security. He painted a grim picture, says the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow. He said the drug was partly to blame for rising crime and a fall in Russia's population. Afghanistan is thought to be the source of 93% of the world's heroin In recent years Russia has not just become massively hooked on Afghan opiates, it has also become the world's absolute leader in the opiate trade and the number one heroin consumer, he said in a report made available to reporters. Drug trafficking has become a key negative factor for demography and a blow to our nation's gene pool... [and] a challenge to Russia's civilisation. The Russian health ministry says Russia has up to 2.5 million drug addicts out of a population of some 140 million, most of them aged between 18 and 39. Mr Ivanov did not give details about which country Russia was thought to have displaced as the main heroin consumer. The CND's World Drugs Report for 2008 reported that China was estimated to have about 2.3 million users of opiates, though how many of those used heroin was unclear. War factor Mr Ivanov said that in the first two months of this year, Russia had seized 400kg (880lb) of heroin - a 70% increase on the same period last year. He said it was time for the international community to take action against Afghan narcotics by spraying poppies and offering farmers incentives to grow other crops. Afghanistan is estimated to produce 93% of the world's heroin. While not directly blaming the US-led coalition in Afghanistan for the worsening problem, Mr Ivanov said that Afghan farmers had used the tense military and political situation to plant opium poppies. He also said patrolling the 7,000-km (4,375-mile) border with Kazakhstan, through which drugs arrive, was an impossible job.
Bismillah [IslamCity] The Battle Of Azamgarh
By Amaresh Misra Right now, a new kind of a battle is going on in India. For the first time since Independence, Muslims of a whole region right in India's heartland-the district of Azamgarh in Poorvanchal (East Uttar Pradesh)-have launched an Independent mass movement. Till date, from its own resources, the Ulema Council, an umbrella organization of leading Muslim clerics of the district, has succeeded in bringing hundreds and thousands of ordinary Muslims to Delhi, and then Lucknow in protest rallies. Several of the young boys and men from middle, lower and working classes arrived in trains booked in advance by the Ulema Council. For the first time in the history of mass movements in India, railways were used as a means and a mode of protest. The issues the protestors raised included a judicial enquiry into the Batala House encounter, an end to Police atrocities and terror, picking of boys without warrants by the UP-ATS from villages of the district, the maligning of boys from a whole district as terrorists, and the refusal of `civilized' citizens in Mumbai and Delhi to give houses on rent to students and residents of Azamgarh. It is difficult to conceive that any other district of India would have risen en masse on these issues-in Azamgarh, till October 2008, just a month after the Batala House encounter, and two months after Abu Bashar, the main accused in the July 26thAhmedabad Blasts was picked up from the Sarai Meer village, the situation was so bad that any ATS man in plainclothes could enter a village and harass and torture Muslims at will. Azamgarhis were practically lynched in Delhi by blood thirsty fascist crowds on at least two occasions. Formed in September 2008, the Ulema Council fought back and in a very short time, by December 2008, the tide began to turn. The aggressive stance taken by the Ulema Council leaders forced the local Police and the ATS to put a stop to the open beating and harassment of Muslim youth. At several places, where the ATS arrived to take boys into custody, villagers came out in hordes-the ATS had to retreat. The issue against police atrocities became one of self-respect and human dignity. Poorvanchal is the area where the BJP-VHP-RSS saffron brigade has also unleashed a reign of anti-Muslim terror. Presenting a deadly mixture of Hindutva politics and mafia activities under police protection, Adityanath and his son Yoginath, the BJP MP from Gorakhpur, are virtually a law unto their own. Recently, they even had the gumption to kill a Muslim Police Inspector in broad daylight. After the Batala House encounter, BJP leaders of Azamgarh were talking openly about turning Azamgarh into another Gorakhpur or even Gujarat. In fact, the BJP and VHP leaders gave a slogan-Azamgarh shuruaat karega, UP Gujarat banega. To counter this, the Ulema Council gave the slogan:Azamgarh shuruaat karega, poora Bharat swarg banega. This basic spirit of Muslim led Indian secular nationalism, in which instead of a Hindu-Muslim or even a police Vs Muslim fight the Azamgarh battle has become part of the larger war for secularism in India, has surprised armchair liberals-unlike other such initiatives undertaken by other social forces, the Azamgarh phenomenon has some very specific features. For one, it is in tune with the post 26/11 mood of national secular unity and decline of communal feeling. It has nothing to do with Muslim League type exclusive Muslim assertion. It includes a vast majority of Pasis, Chamars, Rajbhars, Musahars and Nonias, other Most Backward Hindu Castes and poorer sections from amongst the upper castes, who too have borne the brunt of police and mafia-Hindutva atrocities. Secondly, this movement has deep roots in Azamgarh's history. In 1857, this was the district which provided the British with one of the fiercest resistance in Eastern India. Most of the sepoys of the East India Company Bengal Army came from Avadh and Poorvanchal (east UP). An entire infantry regiment, the 17th BNI, which remained in the frontline during the battles in Avadh and Lucknow, was made up of Muslims, Rajputs and Yadavs of Azamgarh. The Pulwar Rajputs of Azamgarh and Muslims of the Belariagunj, Sarai Meer and Beni Para (the upsurge areas of the current movement) are mentioned in British records as one of the toughest anti-colonial resistance fighters. During the 1942 Quit India movement, one of the first attacks on Police stations and Kotwalis were reported from Azamgarh. One by one, all districts of Poorvanchal followed Azamgarh's lead-soon the entire region from Jaunpur to Ballia was out of British hands, the police fleeing almost to a man. In the post-Independence era, one of the first anti-Congress opposition party MLA was elected from Azamgarh. In the 1960s, when the notion of independent Muslim assertion was unheard of, Azamgarh was home to Muslim Majlis, a secular movement of Dalit-backward-Muslim elements started by Dr. Faridi of Lucknow. In the 1970s and 1980s, upwardly mobile and
Bismillah [IslamCity] Israel's military supplies to India
By Hari Sud Column: Abroad View Published: February 27, 2009 Toronto, ON, Canada, - India's main supplier of advanced military hardware is Israel. In the 1990s India took a major decision to procure arms from Israel after its much-touted Defense Research and Development Organization failed to develop any high-end weapons systems. To keep abreast of its neighbors, from 1965 till 1997 India purchased weapons from the Soviet Union, and later Russia - the preferred choice for the last 40 years as its weapons were cheap, reliable, rugged and direct copies of advanced weapons in the West. Almost 70 percent of India's weapons are of Russian origin. The fall of the Soviet Union halted its secret development and sales of weapons, thereby letting the West develop countermeasures. Short of cash, the new Russian Federation from 1990 to 2001 sold its trade secrets to anybody who wished to buy them. In short, India lost its advantage with Russian hardware, as China bought everything that India already had. Also, countermeasures developed by the West for Russian hardware became available to Pakistan. In short, India was at a disadvantage on both fronts. A lot of technology that India wanted from the West was unavailable because the West viewed India and the Soviet Union as allies, due to the Cold War attitude prevalent in Washington. Israel stepped in to fill the breach, as it had enough influence to change U.S. policy on this issue. It was a win-win situation for Israel and India. India negotiated its first large-scale contract with Israel in 1997 for the Barak-1 weapons system. This was meant to knock down Pakistan's Harpoon anti-ship missiles, supplied by the United States. Since its initial supply of six Barak systems, eight more have been added and negotiations on a multi-billion-dollar Barak-2 system is in progress. Prior to the contract, India's defense scientist and former President Abdul Kalam paid a number of visits to Israel to get help in missile development. Later India tested its Prithvi and Agni missile systems to counter Chinese and Pakistani moves. During the Kargil War in 1999, India received from Israel unmanned aerial vehicles, laser-guided bombs and other hardware to knock out Pakistani hilltop bunkers. Israel's support helped India appreciate its sophisticated electronics and weapons systems. Russia's former President Vladimir Putin, noting India's declining interest in Russian weaponry, made offers to sell it more sophisticated weapons like T-90 tanks, advanced destroyers, an aircraft carrier and upgrades to existing air force hardware. India accepted the offers, but Israel had already secured a foothold in India's lucrative military hardware market. End-user agreements between the United States and Israel limited the transfer to India of any U.S.-developed or assisted military hardware - but Israeli political interests in Washington made short work of all U.S. objections. Showing great interest in the Indian market, Israel in 2002 transferred the highly sophisticated Green Pine Radar to India, despite U.S. objections. Today this radar is a key component of India's ballistic missile defense tracking system. The United States, realizing that Israel will find ways to sell India its military technology, have now folded up their objections. It took them more than 50 years to throw out their Cold War-era attitude; now they are bidding for a US$10-billion Indian fighter contract. In the last 10 years India's military imports from Israel have included: • Barak -1 anti-ship missile system • Unmanned aerial vehicles of various types • Laser-guided bombs • Technology for ballistic missile systems • Green Pine radar • AWACS • Spyder surface-to-air missile system • Aerostat radars • Service contract to upgrade MIG fighter aircraft • Electronic countermeasures and air-battle support electronics The total contract value of these and other purchases is close to US$9 billion. This is a huge amount given that India and Israel established diplomatic and trade relations only in 1992. The two countries' intelligence agencies have had contacts for much longer, however. Military contracts under negotiation between India and Israel include the development of Barak -2, worth US$2.5 billion; additional AWACS at $1.8 billion; UAVs worth $500 million; the Arrow anti-missile system at $4 billion; and miscellaneous electronics worth $2 billion. Why did India turn to foreign weapons suppliers? Fifty years ago former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in establishing the Defense Research and Development Organization, envisioned 80 percent self-sufficiency in arms by the turn of the century. That dream never came true. The DRDO had difficulty marrying high concepts with sound engineering. Thus many major systems on the drawing board did not become potent weapons. Although it had a staff of 30,000, 51 laboratories and a US$2.5-billion budget, the organization operated under technical and
Bismillah [IslamCity] Terrorists Aim For Destabilisation, Media Attention
Article link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45961 By Beena Sarwar 04 March, 2009 Inter Press Service KARACHI, Mar 4 (IPS) - South Asia seems to be caught in a vortex of violence as the countries that form this region - from Sri Lanka at the southern-most tip, Bangladesh to the east, Nepal crowning the north, Pakistan along the west and India in the middle - deal with internal nightmares that their governments routinely blame on neighbours. Wednesday's armed attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the historic city of Lahore in Pakistan has sent shockwaves through a country already racked by regular suicide and other attacks. Eight Pakistani policemen died and several were injured saving the Sri Lankan cricketers, eight of whom were wounded in the attack. At the other end of the sub-continent, Bangladesh is still reeling from the shock of a border guards' mutiny over pay and working conditions, resulting in soldiers massacring over 70 officers, including some of their wives. Some analysts fear that the horrific incident might elicit copycat responses elsewhere too, where soldiers are unhappy with the tasks they are made to do. Meanwhile, India has yet to recover from the horror of the attacks in Mumbai that claimed some 180 lives. New Delhi had, as a direct result of the attacks, called off participation of the Indian cricket team in the Pakistan tests. Sri Lanka, in the last stages of a heavy-handed army operation against the Tamil separatists who have been fighting a guerrilla war against the state for over two decades, could hardly have imagined that its cricket team would come under fire in Pakistan, a friendly country. Still, as the Sri Lankans told journalists after the Lahore attack, they had come here well aware of the risks. Analysts point out that Tamil separatists are unlikely to be responsible for the attack, given the back foot that they are operating from. The Sri Lankan team, in Lahore for a five-day test match where they already played for the first two days, were en route from their hotel to the stadium early in the morning on Mar. 3 when the gunmen attacked. The firing reportedly began from three directions as the van slowed down near a roundabout close to the red-brick cricket stadium. Shaky television footage showed men with guns and backpacks taking position and firing. Their first target was the police escort. According to the van driver, one of them flung a hand grenade which rolled under the van without damaging it. He said that the cricketers flung themselves to the floor of the van as he accelerated to escape the gunfire, managing to get the bullet-riddled van with the cricketers to the stadium. There is universal condemnation for an act which many believe is an attempt to further discredit and isolate Pakistan. Many are praying for the quick recovery of the injured cricketers who were airlifted to Sri Lanka. They were our guests, they came to Pakistan when most people were not willing to come, one man in Peshawar told a television journalist. We are a friendly and cricket-loving nation, said another passer-by. Now no cricket team will want to play here. The incident has more or less put paid to Pakistan's aspirations of hosting the next World Cup in 2011, say observers. The attackers struck at a sport that is hugely popular across South Asia, a quick throwback to a common colonial past (for all the countries except Nepal which was never under British rule), a legacy that includes the English language, administrative systems and railways. In normal times, India and Pakistan's cricket teams on the wicket pitch elicit responses akin to surrogate battlefields. A Pakistan-India game is referred to in parts of India as 'Qayamat' (doomsday). Despite the keen rivalry, love of the sport is a unifier. 'Cricket diplomacy' has featured among the permissible people-to-people contacts that have grown immensely over the past decade or so. Cricket is not the bone of discord between the two countries, Gul Hameed Bhatti, group editor sports of the country's largest media group, Jang told IPS. Basically the problem is the tensions between both countries, and cricket becomes the casualty. This incident has thrown cricket and other sports back into the dark ages. I don't see anyone agreeing to come and play here now. Bhatti added that he had long feared that this was a disaster waiting to happen because the situation in the rest of the country is so volatile. It was unrealistic to think that sportsmen could remain isolated from it''. Nor, say analysts, can other areas of society, like culture. In early November, explosions on the penultimate night of a major international performing arts festival in Lahore caused panic. There were no casualties although some people sustained minor injuries. Artists, foreign and local, defiantly rallied around to make the festival's last day a resounding success. Ironically, the festival was held in the cultural complex next to the
Bismillah [IslamCity] Indo-Israel collaboration Mumbai attacks
February 24, 2009
Col Ghulam Sarwar (R)
India and Israel have been hobnobbing with each other for the past
many decades but the world at large has been unmindful of their hush
hush activities. Likewise, hidden ties with both USA and Israel have
not seen light of the day and only recently details of these ties have
been unravel lest. It will be recalled that on November 25, 2008,
Mumbai terrorists did their job meticulously well by provoking every
possible ally in the world.
By killing foreigners in addition to many Indians, they enlisted the
support of all western terrorist nations against Islam and Muslims. As
a result, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir and Muslims in India have been
put on high alert as USA, UK and Israel are determined to strike a
stunning blow on their entity. Pakistan, as expected is feeling rather
perplexed on the presumption that Muslims might have been involved in
the Mumbai carnage. These are however; far fetched apprehensions as in
view of their religious beliefs, Muslims would not perform this
dastardly act with such precision. As things stand, the Mumbai attacks
may have chosen to target whatever comes in their way, be it the
railway shorts or luxurious hotels, like “The Taj or Obroi Trident, or
any community centre (Nariman House.
However reports released recently have revealed that the assault on
Nariman House was carried out deliberately with ulterior motives.
Presumably, the terrorists had wanted to involve Israel also to join
Indo-US strategic killings of Muslims. According to a retired Indian
Admiral, Das, the aims of the attack on the Jewish Centre was to tell
India that it’s growing links with Israel were not acceptable to the
terrorist groups. Nariman House attack was to tell the Indians clearly
that India’s growing linkage with Israel was not what India should be
doing. Seen in this background, India wanted to use terrorism ploy to
get military concessions from other anti-Islamic nations.
India, for quite some time, had been making desperate efforts to
develop relationships with both USA and Israel and it has been quite
successful in its efforts. Interestingly, due to its clever
machinations, it has also successfully maintained economic relations
with the Muslim World - mainly the Gulf States. Apart from acquiring
military wares from USA, Europe and Russia in recent times, India has
become one of the largest customers of Israeli military techniques and
arms which are considered more advanced and lethal in the world. India
acquires weapons of about 1.5 billion dollars every year from Israel.
Only Russia sells more arms to India than Israel. India believes that
terrorism ploy could help advance its military interests in USA and
Israel and its calculations seem to be absolutely precise and
faultless. It may not be amiss to mention here that India seeks
advance military equipment and technology at concessional rates by
using Russia’s bargaining chips, but now Mumbai’s November 26, 2008
incident has given an extra advantage to New Delhi to obtain more
privileges from Tel Aviv. Israel let loose hell in Palestine by using
cluster bombs, killing thousands of innocent Palestinians including
women and children. India, however, has not said a single word of
sympathy for the hapless Palestinians. Instead, it is planning to sign
more agreements in days to come with the Jewish state.
To conclude, India and Israel thinks alike for damaging the interests
of Muslim countries. However, it is a matter of deep egret that
Muslims are not aware of the dangers that are currently facing them.
How sad it is to see that when Palestine was under terror attacks from
fascist Israel, the Muslim world was watching these ghastly scenes on
their TV screens and displaying no discomfitures?
***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy
Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I
am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
Bismillah [IslamCity] A Sikh Leader Begs Clinton To Intervene In India
Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh reminds Hillary Clinton that her husband has condemned the murder of Sikhs during his visit to India in the year 2000, and accuses the Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the country. February 6, 2009 The Honorable Hillary Clinton Secretary of State Government of The United States 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Figure 1: A Sikh passerby burned alive by Indians during riots Dear Secretary of State Madam Clinton, Congratulations on becoming the U.S. Secretary of State. Yours is a very important job, protecting the people of the United States by carrying out diplomacy and foreign policy to protect our national security. I know that you are aware of the troubled situation in South Asia. As you know, India and Pakistan have had a longstanding dispute. You may remember when an Indian official was quoted as saying that Pakistan should be made part of India. You may also remember that it was India that set off the nuclear arms race in South Asia. You may also have noted that India opposed your action sending Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to the region and that it publicly told President Obama to stay out of the situation in the region. You are also aware of the repression of minorities in India. Your husband, former President Clinton, wrote in the foreword to Madeleine Albright's book about the massacre in Chithisinghpora: During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold blood. If I hadn't made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive. If I hadn't made the trip because I feared what militants might do, I couldn't have done my job as president of the United States. The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the country, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, and others. A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 52,268 political prisoners under the repressive Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) even though it expired in 1995. Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political prisoners. MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as writing if we add up the figures of the last few years the number of innocent persons killed would run into lakhs [hundreds of thousands.] The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs worse than genocide. I urge you to use your influence as Secretary of State to end the repression of minorities in India. As you know, many minorities, including the Sikhs of Khalistan, the Christians of Nagalim, the Muslims of Kashmir, and others throughout the subcontinent, are fighting for their freedom from India. In all, there are 17 freedom movements. I call for the release of all of India's political prisoners. In addition, I respectfully urge the Administration to support a free and fair plebiscite on the issue of independence for Khalistan. There should also be similar plebiscites for Kashmir, Nagaland, and every other nation that seeks its freedom from Indian rule. It is essential that the United States use its influence to promote its ideals of freedom. Thank you for your attention and congratulations again on becoming Secretary of State. Sincerely, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh President Council of Khalistan CC: Secretariat, G-8 member countries.
Bismillah [IslamCity] How to Kill a Palestinian
What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can't criticize Israel. How to Kill a Palestinian Dr. Elias Akleh, thepeoplesvoice.org Jan 29, 2009 Commenting on the latest Israeli one-directional onslaught against the Palestinians of Gaza Strip, the Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed that the Israeli genocidal forces had used half of its air force and had launched at least 2500 air raids against Gaza Strip. The television military correspondent stated that the Israeli warplanes had dropped more than a thousand tons of explosives, including white phosphorous and DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs, during three weeks on the virtually unarmed densely populated 360 square Kilometers Strip. He added that the shells fired by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and infantry were not included in those fired by the air force. After a whole week of continuous air bombardments Israel sent in its elite foot soldiers; 30,000 of them, and called in 10,000 of its reservists. Armed with the latest weapons of mass murder, covered with an umbrella of free reigning air force, and accompanied with raining shells of heavy artilleries, they drove their tanks into the civilian towns murdering civilians and destroying every structure in their path. Living outside of Gaza one cannot fully understand the barbarity of this genocide especially when the Western media had barely covered any of its atrocity. To gain a slight idea of its enormity one should remember that, during the 6-days war of 1967, this same Israeli army was distributed on four fronts; Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, and Lebanese, and it was fighting regular armies. Now the whole brunt of this army is concentrated on a small strip against unarmed and untrained civilian population. Latest official count was 1350 murdered, 40% of them were children, and 5300 were injured; mutilated and amputated. It was reported that 80% of the injured were the victims of burning phosphorous bombs. More dead are being discovered under the rebels, and many seriously injured are expected later on to die. Israeli tanks had left several city blocks completely destroyed without any homes or structure standing. The tanks shelled homes and apartment towers. Due to the small size of Gaza Strip Palestinians had to build vertically. Many apartment towers went up 15-20 stories high with each story containing 6-8 apartments. A total of 20,000 buildings were completely or partially burnt and damaged. The UN has reported that more than 50,000 Palestinians are left homeless and are now crowded into 50 emergency shelters. An estimated of 50,000 more are living with relatives and in tents they erected on the ruins of their homes. The Israeli bombardment targeted everything in Gaza including government buildings, police headquarters, banks and business offices, the main university, 67 schools sheltering civilians, shopping centers and market places, factories, water, sewer, and electricity infrastructures, private homes and apartment towers and charity organizations. Farms, including their animals, were also targeted and hundreds of acres of crops and fruit groves were incinerated. Religious buildings, where civilians usually seek shelter, were specifically targeted. Israeli fighter planes had completely destroyed 41 mosques, and partially damaged 51 others. One church was also targeted. Even cemeteries were not spared; 5 of them were bombed. Although the Israeli army was given the exact GPS co-ordinates of every UN structure, as asserted by Christopher Gunness, the UNRWA spokesman, Israeli F-16 planes had repeatedly dropped phosphorous bombed on UN schools knowing very well that hundreds of civilians had taken shelter there. At least 45 children and women were burnt and murdered there. The UN headquarters in Gaza City was also hit with three, not just one, phosphorous bombs burning tons of humanitarian aid and food stuff. The fire kept on burning for three days. UN-flagged humanitarian convoy was also shelled killing one driver. Medical centers and paramedics were not spared. The Red Crescent Al-Quds hospital in Tal el-Hawa neighborhood was hit by Israeli shells and caught on fire. Other two hospitals; Al-Wafa and Al-Fata hospitals, were also
Bismillah [IslamCity] Counterproductive drone attacks
IF ever the Pak-US co-operative alliance against terrorism would crumble it will under the unbearable weight of drone attacks ordered by the CIA into the Pakistani territory. Invariably, these predators kill more innocent non-combatant civilians than suspected terrorists. It is not that the so-called terrorists use civilians as human shields; these pilotless machines have greater destructive capacity than the ability to differentiate between friends and foes. So there is this greater collateral damage. In some 22 drone attacks since last August the civilian losses have been overwhelming. But about losses the terrorists suffered reports are conflicting; however the very fact that despite Pakistan's serious objections the United States still needs them is an indication of their failure to make any significant change on the war-front. In fact, just the opposite is happening. In the wake of mis-directed drone attacks which cause mostly civilian casualties the traditional comradeship called 'Pushtunwali' comes into play. A kind of severe resentment builds up against the 'coward enemy' which employs un-manly surreptitious means to kill old and young, men, women and children. Aptly correct then is Prime Minister Gilani's assertion at the World Economic Forum's special session on 'Pakistan and its neighbours' that drone attacks are counterproductive as they unite them, the tribes and the militants. These attacks are counterproductive as they fuel militancy, he said and added: We are separating militants from public but when there is a drone attack they get united. In case the Americans have credible and actionable intelligence they should share that with Pakistan and we will take action, he said. Understandably, in the wake of drone strikes anti-Americanism is growing. There was the general feeling in Pakistan that with Barack Obama becoming the US president drone attacks would end - so much so that Prime Minister Gilani went on record to claim that with change of presidency in Washington drone attacks would be halted. This has not happened, causing not only embarrassment to the prime minister but a visible dent to the reputation of a person who has been catapulted to world's most powerful position on a promise of 'change'. Not only that; the Obama administration started off with bigger and deeper drone hits. Then came along Robert Gates, a follower of Bushism that President Obama has inherited, who claimed the attacks have the consent of Pakistani authorities. That is adding insult to injury. Practically at all levels, from the presidency to the foreign office Pakistan has denied having cut such a deal with the United States. The issues of collateral damage and counterproductive effect of drone attacks are no doubt contentious and deserve review in order to keep the anti-terrorism alliance on track. But more important and of greater concern to every Pakistani is violation of their country's airspace by the American drones. If our government has not permitted, which it insists it has not, the drone attacks then clearly fall in the category of blatant violations of Pakistan's sovereignty. If not today then tomorrow or the day after the government will be constrained to take up this issue at appropriate international fora. Before that happens the US government is expected to review its drone campaign to bring it in line with the anti-terrorism cooperation understanding. Not surprisingly, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Erdogan, who was a participant in that special session, endorsed Prime Minister Gilani's position by maintaining that such a move just helps terrorists and does not serve any purpose.
Bismillah [IslamCity] The silence of the Gujarati Muslims
While Muslims from Azamgarh demonstrated in New Delhi against random arrest of Muslims in the name of terrorism, Gujarat Muslims avoid any democratic agitation against indiscriminate arrest. While some say it is `fear psychosis' others hold community's 'mercantile culture' responsible for it. By TwoCircles.net special correspondent, Ahmedabad: When hundreds of innocent Muslim youths were arrested indiscriminately for interrogation into the Ahmedabad July 26, 2008 serial bomb blasts, there was not even a whisper of protest from Muslims in Gujarat. None of the Muslim NGOs or human rights organisations came forward nor any religious organization raised voice against random arrest of the Muslim youths. All of them remained confined to their cocoons as if nothing had happened with the community in Gujarat or what had happened was too minor a thing to disturb them and did not deserve any attention. There were a few organizations that had even instructed their volunteers to avoid any contact with the relatives of those rounded up by the police. But their efforts to distance themselves could not protect them from police highhandedness. The top office-bearers of a well-known organization claiming to be the champions of the community, who had maintained distance from the relatives of the arrested persons, were called to the police station and grilled intensively for more than 24 hours. However, when two Muslim youths from Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh in North India were shot dead in Batla House area of New Delhi on the pretext of them being terrorists, Muslims in Delhi as also Azamgarh, 800 KMs from New Delhi, came out on streets and lodged strong protest against targeting educated Muslim youths by the police. Over 3000 people from Azamgarh led by their political, social and religious leadership converged in New Delhi on January 29 to protest the hounding out of Muslims all over the country by the police in the name of tackling terror. From the physical appearances of those coming from Azamgarh and the clothes put on by them indicated that they were not financially very well off, yet each of them spent Rs. 700 from their own pocket to reach the nation's capital to protest the tyranny the Muslims are being subjected to by the state machinery in open defiance of the secular and constitutional laws of the country. A question arises why the police excesses all over Gujarat did not stir a similar reaction from Muslims in this Western Indian state though Gujarati Muslims are considered to be the richest among Indian Muslims? While sleuths of Ahmedabad crime branch indiscriminately arrested more than 500 Muslim youths for their interrogation into July 26 serial blasts, the Muslims here remained totally indifferent. Police finally arrested 51 of them and booked them in different blast cases. Among them also include a neo-Muslim, who had converted to Islam five years ago with his wife and three children and shifted to a Muslim locality in Ahmedabad after he and his family was subjected to social boycott by his relatives and neighbours in the Hindu locality. But what accounts for such indifference of the Gujarati Muslims to resort to democratic means of agitation like staging protests and taking out rallies to demand an end to the police highhandedness? ``While fear psychosis owing to extremely harsh methods used by the police and law order machinery used to suppress Muslims in 2002 and even prior to that in 1992-93 anti-Muslim riots has resulted in an attitude of indifference of Muslims to police excesses, `mercantile culture' of the community is mostly responsible in shaping their existing behaviour and cold responses to such outrages'', opines Dr. Hanif Lakdawala, a medico-turned-activist representing Ahmedabad-based NGO Sanchetna. The mercantile culture in which one gives more importance to profit and gains, according to Dr. Lakdawala, generates fear and awe about those wielding the power to cause harm. When he went around various localities in Ahmedabad and questioned the local community leaders about arrests, he was told that police had promised to release them in a day or two and hence, there was no need to organize any protest. ``while gross violation of human rights was taking place, the local and state community leaders exhibited a reaction as if nothing wrong was being done with the community'', Dr. Lakdawala, himself a Gujarati, said. ``This is really very obnoxious'', he commented. Ibrahim sheikh, another social activist, had called a meeting of some local leaders, businessmen and activists at his residence to organize a protest against detention of innocent Muslims. ``But a well known businessman and a politician attending the meet warned not to organize any protest as he expressed fear they will also be harassed by the police'', sheikh narrated, saying that fear of state apparatus runs very deep among Gujarati Muslims and it was the reason for Muslims not to take part in anti-police
Bismillah [IslamCity] This is secular India!
INDIA claims to be the biggest democracy of the world and a champion of human rights but frequent incidents of violence against minorities, their exploitation and their status expose the myth of Indian secularism. All minorities in India are exposed to almost similar dangers and threats but the plight of Muslims is all the more deplorable. It was in this backdrop that thousands of Muslims rallied in New Delhi on Thursday to protest killing and imprisonment of Muslims, saying innocent members of the community became targets after bomb attacks in India in recent years. The constitutional and legal measures for the protection of rights of the minorities do provide protection to minority population against the exploitation and violation of their rights as well as equal opportunities for their advancement and development, however, the plight of Muslims in India is found to be grim which has been well depicted in the report of high power committee under the Chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar. In terms of numbers, the Muslims are only next to the Hindus, constituting about 20 per cent of the population, yet they are considered by the Hindus even less important than the Jains and Buddhists who are only 0.43 and 0.41 per cent of the population respectively. The representation of Muslims in Parliament, state legislatures, administrative services, armed forces, police and paramilitary forces, educational institutions and the private and public sectors is far below their proportion. A prominant Hindu writer S. Harrison admits that the dominant note in the Hindus attitude towards Muslims today is that, Hindus have a natural right to rule in modern India as a form of long overdue retribution for the sins of the Mughal overlords. The cumulative outcome of all this is that according to Jai Prakash Narayan, The Muslim population has been so much cowed and demoralized that they are not acting according to their convictions. They are afraid that if they expressed their real feelings, their loyalty will be suspected. These are just glimpses of how Muslims have been treated in India since long but their conditions are highly pathetic because of growing Hindu extremism and terrorism. Apart from being made to suffer a host of disabilities, political, cultural and economic, the Indian Muslims are subjected to a campaign of interference with their religion as well. It usually takes the form of slanderous attacks on Islam made in school text books, or in the press, desecration of mosques and shrines, or deliberate incitement of feelings of religious hatred against the Muslims. Despite the fact that most of the bomb blasts and terrorists attacks in India are carried out either by Hindu extremists or sponsored by state intelligence agencies, the wrath falls on the Muslims. The latest admission of Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit, who carried out bombing of Samjhota Express, that he had active links with Hindu extremists also confirms it beyond any doubt that extremism in India is on the rise and the prime targets are Muslims. The world community should, therefore, also take notice of what is happening to minorities especially to Muslims in India. Extremists, Hindu Militants, IncredibleIndia, Secular, Violence
