The other side of Sufism
By R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd)
A reappraisal of the role of Sufis working as missionaries of Islam
For centuries the Sufi creed and Sufi music have been tom tomed as great symbols of spiritualism and promoters of peace and harmony between the Hindus and the Muslims. The cleverly marketed concept of Sufi spiritualism has been unquestioningly accepted as the hallmark of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is time we studied the history of Sufis, tried to track the narrative of their coming to India and analysed their explicit missionary role in promoting conversions to Islam. More importantly, it needs to be assessed how did the Sufis conduct themselves during reckless killings and plunders by the Muslim invaders ? Did they object to the senseless mass killings and try to prevent unremitting plunder of Hindu temples and innocent masses? Did the Sufis ever object to the capture of helpless men and women as slaves and the use of the latter as objects of carnal pleasure ? These are some of the questions to which answers have to be found by every genuine student of Indian history.
...
In the above mentioned treatise on Sufi philosphy, Fuwaid al-Fuad, a very interesting instance of enslaving the kaffir Hindus for monetary gain has been cited which shows how another Sufi, Shayakh Ali Sijzi, provided financial assistance to one of his dervishes to participate in the lucrative slave trade. He had advised the dervish that he should take “these slaves to Ghazni, where the potential for profit is still greater”. And it was confirmed by Nizamuddin Auliya that “the Dervish obeyed”. Obviously therefore, neither spiritual ethics and nor justice to all, including the infidels, were the strong points of Sufi saints.
If the narrative of the preachings and acts of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer are taken as indication of his religious philosophy and deeds, he emerges as a sufi master who nursed a deep hatred against the infidel Hindus and showed utter contempt for their religious beliefs. As elaborated by S.S.A. Rizvi in ‘A History of Sufism in India, Vol. 1 (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978, p. 117), there is a reference in the book, Jawahar-i- Faridi, to the fact that when Moinuddin Chishti reached near the Annasagar Lake at Ajmer, where a number of holy shrines of Hindus were located, he slaughtered a cow and cooked a beef kebab at the sacred place surrounded by many temples. It is further claimed in Jawahar-i-Faridi that the Khwaja had dried the 2 holy lakes of Annasagar and Pansela by the magical heat of Islamic spiritual power. He is even stated to have made the idol of the Hindu temple near Annasagar recite the Kalma. The Khwaja had a burning desire to destroy the rule of the brave Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, so much so that he ascribed the victory of Muhammad Ghori in the battle of Tarain entirely to his own spiritual prowess and declared that “We have seized Pithaura alive and handed him over to the army of Islam”. [Source: Siyar’l Auliya, cited by Rizvi on page 116 of ‘A History of Sufism in India’].
Throughout the Muslim rule all Sufis enjoyed full confidence, royal favour and patronage of the cruel Muslim rulers. Though foolishly accepted as “secular” by most Hindus seeking spiritual solace after being battered, bruised and marginalised, almost all Sufi saints dogmatically followed the commandments contained in the Quran, the Hadith and Sharia. Historians have recorded that many Sufi saints had accompanied armies of the Muslim invaders to use their spiritual powers in furtherance of Islam’s conquests. Not one of them raised even a little finger to forbid slaughter of the innocents, nor did they question the imposition of jiziya by Muslim rulers. In fact, most of them guided the
Muslim rulers in carrying forward their mission of conquest and conversion by furthering their campaigns of plundering the wealth of Hindus of which many Sufis willingly partook share. It was almost a taboo for Sufis, the so-called saints, to accept a Hindu ascending the throne of any kingdom during the heydays of the Muslim rule. . In an example narrated by S.A.A. Rizvi on page 37 of his well researched book, The Wonder That Was India (Vol.II, Rupa & Co, 1993, New Delhi) it is pointed out that when the powerful Bengali warrior, king Ganesha, captured power in Bengal in the year 1415 A.D., Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, attacked his kingdom at the request of outraged ulema and numerous Sufis of Bengal. In the ensuing strife, the leading Sufi of Bengal, Nur Qutb-i-Alam, interceded and secured a political agreement to the benefit of the Muslim community and satisfaction of Sufis. Under dire threat King Ganesha was forced to abdicate his throne in favour of his 12 years old son, Jadu, who was converted to Islam and proclaimed as Sultan Jalaluddin - to the satisfaction of the Sufi masters. Similarly Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (1411-42), though a practitioner of Sufi philosophy, was a diehard iconoclast who took delight in destroying temples, as stated in the same tome, by S.A.A. Rizvi. The Sultan also used to force the Rajput chieftains to marry their daughters to him so that they would become outcastes in their own community. And the endgame of the Sultan could as well be that perhaps some of the outcaste Rajputs might then opt to become Muslims.
Unfortunately due to relentless colonization of the Hindu mind during 1000 years long oppressive Muslim rule, the Hindu masses till date have failed to realise that the so-called Sufi philosophy of religious harmony is a one-way street. This trend of Hindus praying at tombs and dargahs has been nurtured by the strong undercurrent of belief in spiritualism among Hindu masses, even educated classes. That is the crux of the matter. Deeply steeped in their traditional belief in spirituality and mysticism, the Hindus have developed the custom of visiting dargahs and continue to pray at the tombs of Sufis, no Muslim, nor any Sufi, has ever agreed to worship in a Hindu temple, nor make obeisance before the images of Hindu Gods and Godesses. For them it would be an act of grossest sacrilege and unacceptable violation of the basic tenets of Sufism. That is the truth about the Sufi saints and their philosophy of inter-religious harmony.
Make sure to read it all ! ! !
Pertinent Links:
1) The other side of Sufism
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: TASLIMA NASRIN'S HEAD ON A SILVER PLATTER IS WORTH 500,000 RUPEES ($12,710)
Sarkozy not to present award to Nasrin, still a target of Islamic fundamentalism
by Nirmala Carvalho
New Delhi tells Paris not to present the Bangladeshi writer with the Simone de Beauvoir Award on Indian soil. For years she has been the target of Islamic fundamentalists for her action on behalf of women.
The government of India has prevented France from honouring Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin with a prestigious literary award. Ms Nasrin, who is a refugee in India, is at centre of a controversy with Muslims and has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists for her work on behalf of women.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is on an official visit to New Delhi for the celebrations of the founding of the Indian Republic, was supposed to personally present the prize to the writer.
The Simone de Beauvoir Award for Ms Nasrin was announced on 9 January and was supposed to be presented on Beauvoir’s 100th birth anniversary. But the ceremony was postponed to a date to be decided.
“We have no objections to the award being given to her anywhere else in the world”, an anonymous French official said.
In August of last year the writer was attacked by a mob as she came out of the press club in Hyderabad where she attended the launching of the Telugu edition of one of her novels, Shodh (Getting Even).
After a writing an editorial article in favour of women’s rights that was published in a weekly paper an Indian Muslim group put a price on her head worth half a million rupees.
Nasrin, 46, a medical doctor by training, left her native country in the 1990s and fled to Europe after a fatwa or religious edict was issued against another of her novels, Lajja (Shame). Her books are banned in Bangladesh.
For the past three years she has found refuge in India and lives in Kolkata, which she considers her second home.
She has also applied for Indian citizenship, a request that was turned under pressures from Indian Muslim groups.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Sarkozy not to present award to Nasrin, still a target of Islamic fundamentalism
Prior Story:
1) Taslima Nasreen, the anti-veil author, once again seeks refuge
by Nirmala Carvalho
New Delhi tells Paris not to present the Bangladeshi writer with the Simone de Beauvoir Award on Indian soil. For years she has been the target of Islamic fundamentalists for her action on behalf of women.
The government of India has prevented France from honouring Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin with a prestigious literary award. Ms Nasrin, who is a refugee in India, is at centre of a controversy with Muslims and has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists for her work on behalf of women.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is on an official visit to New Delhi for the celebrations of the founding of the Indian Republic, was supposed to personally present the prize to the writer.
The Simone de Beauvoir Award for Ms Nasrin was announced on 9 January and was supposed to be presented on Beauvoir’s 100th birth anniversary. But the ceremony was postponed to a date to be decided.
“We have no objections to the award being given to her anywhere else in the world”, an anonymous French official said.
In August of last year the writer was attacked by a mob as she came out of the press club in Hyderabad where she attended the launching of the Telugu edition of one of her novels, Shodh (Getting Even).
After a writing an editorial article in favour of women’s rights that was published in a weekly paper an Indian Muslim group put a price on her head worth half a million rupees.
Nasrin, 46, a medical doctor by training, left her native country in the 1990s and fled to Europe after a fatwa or religious edict was issued against another of her novels, Lajja (Shame). Her books are banned in Bangladesh.
For the past three years she has found refuge in India and lives in Kolkata, which she considers her second home.
She has also applied for Indian citizenship, a request that was turned under pressures from Indian Muslim groups.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Sarkozy not to present award to Nasrin, still a target of Islamic fundamentalism
Prior Story:
1) Taslima Nasreen, the anti-veil author, once again seeks refuge
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: "DAUGHTERS OF THE FAITH" STAND AGAINST VALENTINE'S DAY - IT'S IMMORAL & CONTRARY TO ISLAM
Kashmir: Islamic group called the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ comes out against Valentine’s Day
Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a Muslim women’s separatist group in Indian-held Kashmir, calls on people not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, an event they deem immoral and contrary to Islam. Many a conservative-minded Kashmiri agree.
A Muslim women’s separatist group in Indian-held Kashmir has urged the population not to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it is un-Islamic and promotes “immorality.” The group, known as Dukhtaran-e-Millat or ‘Daughters of the Faith,’ issued a statement appealing to “Kashmiri Muslims to avoid celebrating such events which have been prohibited by Islam.”
In their statement the ‘Daughters’ singled out young people, telling them not to fall into the devil’s trap that tries to “spread immorality.”
The group, which has campaigned for years “to eradicate social evils from society,” has openly expressed its support for Kashmiri separatists.
Its statement also targeted shopkeepers and restaurant owners, warning them against making money from selling “Valentine cards and other gifts related to this un-Islamic event,” or organising any functions on Valentine’s Day.
In the past the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ have acted on their threats, attacking stores that sold Valentine’s Day cards.
...
Never forget that in islam:
FREEDOM = PERFECT SLAVERY where
ALLAH = MASTER &
MAN/WOMAN = SLAVE...
...
“Hurriyya”, Arabic for freedom, and the uniquely Western concept of freedom are completely at odds. Hurriyya “freedom”, as Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) the lionized “Greatest Sufi Master”, expressed it, “being perfect slavery”. And this conception is not merely confined to the Sufis perhaps metaphorical understanding of the relationship between Allah the “master” and his human “slaves.” The late American scholar of Islam, Franz Rosenthal (d. 2003) analyzed the larger context of hurriyya in Muslim society. He notes the historical absence of hurriyya as “a fundamental political concept that could have served as a rallying cry for great causes.” An individual Muslim “was expected to consider subordination of his own freedom to the beliefs, morality and customs of the group as the only proper course of behavior…” Thus politically, Rosenthal concludes, “…the individual was not expected to exercise any free choice as to how he wished to be governed…In general, …governmental authority admitted of no participation of the individual as such, who therefore did not possess any real freedom vis-à-vis it.”
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Kashmir: Islamic group called the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ comes out against Valentine’s Day
2) Is Freedom "Perfect Slavery?"
Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a Muslim women’s separatist group in Indian-held Kashmir, calls on people not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, an event they deem immoral and contrary to Islam. Many a conservative-minded Kashmiri agree.
A Muslim women’s separatist group in Indian-held Kashmir has urged the population not to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it is un-Islamic and promotes “immorality.” The group, known as Dukhtaran-e-Millat or ‘Daughters of the Faith,’ issued a statement appealing to “Kashmiri Muslims to avoid celebrating such events which have been prohibited by Islam.”
In their statement the ‘Daughters’ singled out young people, telling them not to fall into the devil’s trap that tries to “spread immorality.”
The group, which has campaigned for years “to eradicate social evils from society,” has openly expressed its support for Kashmiri separatists.
Its statement also targeted shopkeepers and restaurant owners, warning them against making money from selling “Valentine cards and other gifts related to this un-Islamic event,” or organising any functions on Valentine’s Day.
In the past the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ have acted on their threats, attacking stores that sold Valentine’s Day cards.
...
Never forget that in islam:
FREEDOM = PERFECT SLAVERY where
ALLAH = MASTER &
MAN/WOMAN = SLAVE...
...
“Hurriyya”, Arabic for freedom, and the uniquely Western concept of freedom are completely at odds. Hurriyya “freedom”, as Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) the lionized “Greatest Sufi Master”, expressed it, “being perfect slavery”. And this conception is not merely confined to the Sufis perhaps metaphorical understanding of the relationship between Allah the “master” and his human “slaves.” The late American scholar of Islam, Franz Rosenthal (d. 2003) analyzed the larger context of hurriyya in Muslim society. He notes the historical absence of hurriyya as “a fundamental political concept that could have served as a rallying cry for great causes.” An individual Muslim “was expected to consider subordination of his own freedom to the beliefs, morality and customs of the group as the only proper course of behavior…” Thus politically, Rosenthal concludes, “…the individual was not expected to exercise any free choice as to how he wished to be governed…In general, …governmental authority admitted of no participation of the individual as such, who therefore did not possess any real freedom vis-à-vis it.”
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Kashmir: Islamic group called the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ comes out against Valentine’s Day
2) Is Freedom "Perfect Slavery?"
Friday, January 25, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/INDIA/IRAN: STOP THE LAUNCH OF THE ISRAELI SATELLITE BID BY IRAN HAS FAILED
Iran Attempted to Sabotage Israeli Spy Satellite Launch
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) The launch Monday of Israel’s cutting-edge spy satellite from a site in India, set originally for September 2007, was delayed for months due to pressure on Indian opposition parties by Iran, according to Western sources quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
The attempted sabotage by Iran carried out through its Muslim and Communist political contacts in the Indian government was ultimately unsuccessful.
Nonetheless, it is another indication of the ongoing effort by the Islamic Republic to do what it can to block Israeli and other intelligence agencies from acquiring up-to-date information on its nuclear development and other activities.
...
The DHIMMFIED WEST wrings its hands & looks away, hoping & praying that if it grabs its ankles often enough it shall be enough...
It will never be enough...
How much longer must WE wait for the majority of Westerners to realize that they will need to wage all out no holds barred war against islam & its followers?!?!?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran Attempted to Sabotage Israeli Spy Satellite Launch
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) The launch Monday of Israel’s cutting-edge spy satellite from a site in India, set originally for September 2007, was delayed for months due to pressure on Indian opposition parties by Iran, according to Western sources quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
The attempted sabotage by Iran carried out through its Muslim and Communist political contacts in the Indian government was ultimately unsuccessful.
Nonetheless, it is another indication of the ongoing effort by the Islamic Republic to do what it can to block Israeli and other intelligence agencies from acquiring up-to-date information on its nuclear development and other activities.
...
The DHIMMFIED WEST wrings its hands & looks away, hoping & praying that if it grabs its ankles often enough it shall be enough...
It will never be enough...
How much longer must WE wait for the majority of Westerners to realize that they will need to wage all out no holds barred war against islam & its followers?!?!?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran Attempted to Sabotage Israeli Spy Satellite Launch
Thursday, August 09, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - PESHAWAR: CONVERT OR DIE IN A SUICIDE ATTACK
Threatening letters make their way to Peshawar
by Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Members of Christian and Hindu communities settled in the city have been threatened by the so-called militants through a stunning letter to convert to Islam or face suicide attacks, sources confided to The News here on Wednesday.
The intimidation sent the alarm bells ringing at the headquarters of law-enforcement agencies as well as among the senior government functionaries.
The threats, according to reliable sources, were hurled to the Christian community settled in different parts of Kohati, interior city and cantonment through a number of letters. Similar letters, it is learnt, were also dispatched to the elders of Hindu community scattered in jurisdiction of West Cantonment police station.
“You are invited to embrace Islam and make your home in heaven. If you did not comply, you will be eliminated till Friday August 10,” read a letter dispatched to members of the Christian community in interior city. The dispatchers introduced themselves as members of previously unheard organisation, Al-Jihad. “It is a sensational letter that shows the non-seriousness of the dispatcher or dispatchers. The heading of the letters is ‘knock of the death’ while the rest of the text carried dialogue-like words that are generally used in films,” a senior government official, requesting anonymity, told The News about the letter received by a Hindu community member.
The senior official admitted the matter was in the knowledge of the Frontier Police high-ups who have ordered to further beef up security around the worship places and colonies of minorities in Peshawar.
“The worship places of minorities are being strictly guarded. We have now further beefed up security around these buildings as well as residential colonies where people belonging to minorities are living in a chunk,” a police officer, who also requested not to be mentioned, told The News.
The elders of the Christian community held an emergency meeting in Kohati to discuss the situation. Some participants briefed the rest of the members about the measures being taken by the police for the security of minorities. “Many members expressed satisfaction over the arrangements but also asked for doing more for their security,” sources disclosed.
It is to be mentioned that similar threats were also hurled at the Christian community in Charsadda. Later the police nabbed a young boy who confessed to have written the threatening words on a wall just for fun.
Pertinent Links:
1) Threatening letters make their way to Peshawar
by Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Members of Christian and Hindu communities settled in the city have been threatened by the so-called militants through a stunning letter to convert to Islam or face suicide attacks, sources confided to The News here on Wednesday.
The intimidation sent the alarm bells ringing at the headquarters of law-enforcement agencies as well as among the senior government functionaries.
The threats, according to reliable sources, were hurled to the Christian community settled in different parts of Kohati, interior city and cantonment through a number of letters. Similar letters, it is learnt, were also dispatched to the elders of Hindu community scattered in jurisdiction of West Cantonment police station.
“You are invited to embrace Islam and make your home in heaven. If you did not comply, you will be eliminated till Friday August 10,” read a letter dispatched to members of the Christian community in interior city. The dispatchers introduced themselves as members of previously unheard organisation, Al-Jihad. “It is a sensational letter that shows the non-seriousness of the dispatcher or dispatchers. The heading of the letters is ‘knock of the death’ while the rest of the text carried dialogue-like words that are generally used in films,” a senior government official, requesting anonymity, told The News about the letter received by a Hindu community member.
The senior official admitted the matter was in the knowledge of the Frontier Police high-ups who have ordered to further beef up security around the worship places and colonies of minorities in Peshawar.
“The worship places of minorities are being strictly guarded. We have now further beefed up security around these buildings as well as residential colonies where people belonging to minorities are living in a chunk,” a police officer, who also requested not to be mentioned, told The News.
The elders of the Christian community held an emergency meeting in Kohati to discuss the situation. Some participants briefed the rest of the members about the measures being taken by the police for the security of minorities. “Many members expressed satisfaction over the arrangements but also asked for doing more for their security,” sources disclosed.
It is to be mentioned that similar threats were also hurled at the Christian community in Charsadda. Later the police nabbed a young boy who confessed to have written the threatening words on a wall just for fun.
Pertinent Links:
1) Threatening letters make their way to Peshawar
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: MOSLEMS ASSAULT TASLIMA RASEEM - SHE HAD THE NERVE TO CRITICIZE ISLAM
Muslim lawmakers attack Taslima Nasreen
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Muslim protesters assaulted the exiled Bangladeshi author and feminist Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in Hyderabad on Thursday, incensed by her repeated criticism of Islam and religion in general.
Some radical Muslims hate Nasreen for saying Islam and other religions oppress women.
On Thursday, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels.
An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair, according to a Reuters witness and television pictures.
Some of the mob shouted for her death.
Other men tried to shield her and catch the projectiles. She ended up with a bruised forehead, and described the attack as barbaric before being taken to safety by police.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim lawmakers attack Taslima Nasreen
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Muslim protesters assaulted the exiled Bangladeshi author and feminist Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in Hyderabad on Thursday, incensed by her repeated criticism of Islam and religion in general.
Some radical Muslims hate Nasreen for saying Islam and other religions oppress women.
On Thursday, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels.
An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair, according to a Reuters witness and television pictures.
Some of the mob shouted for her death.
Other men tried to shield her and catch the projectiles. She ended up with a bruised forehead, and described the attack as barbaric before being taken to safety by police.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim lawmakers attack Taslima Nasreen
Thursday, August 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./INDIA/IRAN: INDIA HAS NO INTENTION OF 'TOWING THE LINE' OF THE UNITED STATES CONCERNING IRAN
India says no quid pro quo over U.S. nuclear pact
India will not be pressurized into supporting the United States on issues like Iran in return for a nuclear pact with Washington, New Delhi's envoy said in an interview with a local magazine.
The pact, which has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress, would allow India to access U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years.
U.S. officials say there is strong bipartisan support in Congress for the deal but India's ties with its old friend Iran remain a source of concern to Congress in the run up to the vote.
But Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States, told Outlook magazine that India would not tow Washington's line on Iran.
"Linking this agreement with any other issue -- today it be Iran, tomorrow it can be some other issue -- will be counterproductive," a press release from the magazine quoted Sen as saying in the interview to be published on Saturday.
"It would be totally unrealistic to expect a large and vibrant democracy like India to give up its independence of judgment and action."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) India says no quid pro quo over U.S. nuclear pact
India will not be pressurized into supporting the United States on issues like Iran in return for a nuclear pact with Washington, New Delhi's envoy said in an interview with a local magazine.
The pact, which has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress, would allow India to access U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years.
U.S. officials say there is strong bipartisan support in Congress for the deal but India's ties with its old friend Iran remain a source of concern to Congress in the run up to the vote.
But Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States, told Outlook magazine that India would not tow Washington's line on Iran.
"Linking this agreement with any other issue -- today it be Iran, tomorrow it can be some other issue -- will be counterproductive," a press release from the magazine quoted Sen as saying in the interview to be published on Saturday.
"It would be totally unrealistic to expect a large and vibrant democracy like India to give up its independence of judgment and action."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) India says no quid pro quo over U.S. nuclear pact
Friday, July 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: ENFORCEMENT OF SHARI'AH LAW CONCERNING MARRIAGE LEADS TO SUICIDE
Re-marriage norm prompts woman suicide
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Malda, July 24: Unable to bear the pressure to re-marry a stranger in order to get back to her former husband, a woman here has committed suicide.
Tarzina Khatun was allegedly told by her family that in order to reunite with Motiur Sheikh, who had given her talaq three months ago, she had no other option but to spend at least one night with somebody else, divorce him and then re-marry. The couple’s families are from two adjoining villages in the Chanchol area of the district, 75km from here, and they felt that they should stick to the shariat norms as explained by the Muslim clerics.
Bablu Sheikh said his sister had married Motiur, a worker in a lathe factory, six years ago.
“At first they were a happy couple but she was under tremendous pressure to bear a child. When she failed, her in-laws chided her and three months ago, her husband gave her talaq,” Bablu said.
Tarzina returned to her parents’ house but after a few days Motiur wanted her back.
“We sat together and decided after conferring with the clerics that Tarzina would have to stay all by herself for three months and then marry a different person and spend at least one night with him. According to the shariat, she could then divorce the new husband and remarry Motiur. But she refused,” Bablu said.
Tarzina had also approached the Chanchol police and in a written complaint said she was not willing to marry anyone else except her former husband.
Police sources said they had gone to the village and sat with the couple’s families, asking them to sort out the matter amicably. Both families then decided that the shariat had to be followed.
“No Muslim can shun the religious law and Tarzina had to abide by it,” said Farizuddin Ahmed, a resident of Imampur.
Bablu said his family had even convinced a youth from the village to marry Tarzina for a day. “All she had to do was spend one night with him and divorce him the next day. But my sister refused to consider the proposal and killed herself,” an inconsolable Bablu said.
This morning Tarzina’s body was found in a room in her parents’ house. She had consumed pesticide meant for eggplants.
Malda police superintendent Dilip Mondol said a case of suicide has been registered.
Pertinent Links:
1) Re-marriage norm prompts woman suicide
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Malda, July 24: Unable to bear the pressure to re-marry a stranger in order to get back to her former husband, a woman here has committed suicide.
Tarzina Khatun was allegedly told by her family that in order to reunite with Motiur Sheikh, who had given her talaq three months ago, she had no other option but to spend at least one night with somebody else, divorce him and then re-marry. The couple’s families are from two adjoining villages in the Chanchol area of the district, 75km from here, and they felt that they should stick to the shariat norms as explained by the Muslim clerics.
Bablu Sheikh said his sister had married Motiur, a worker in a lathe factory, six years ago.
“At first they were a happy couple but she was under tremendous pressure to bear a child. When she failed, her in-laws chided her and three months ago, her husband gave her talaq,” Bablu said.
Tarzina returned to her parents’ house but after a few days Motiur wanted her back.
“We sat together and decided after conferring with the clerics that Tarzina would have to stay all by herself for three months and then marry a different person and spend at least one night with him. According to the shariat, she could then divorce the new husband and remarry Motiur. But she refused,” Bablu said.
Tarzina had also approached the Chanchol police and in a written complaint said she was not willing to marry anyone else except her former husband.
Police sources said they had gone to the village and sat with the couple’s families, asking them to sort out the matter amicably. Both families then decided that the shariat had to be followed.
“No Muslim can shun the religious law and Tarzina had to abide by it,” said Farizuddin Ahmed, a resident of Imampur.
Bablu said his family had even convinced a youth from the village to marry Tarzina for a day. “All she had to do was spend one night with him and divorce him the next day. But my sister refused to consider the proposal and killed herself,” an inconsolable Bablu said.
This morning Tarzina’s body was found in a room in her parents’ house. She had consumed pesticide meant for eggplants.
Malda police superintendent Dilip Mondol said a case of suicide has been registered.
Pertinent Links:
1) Re-marriage norm prompts woman suicide
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
DAR AL HARB - U.S.A./INDIA: ISLAM DOES INDEED ROT THE BRAIN & IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF MOSLEM JIHAD
A Professor Praises Terrorism
“I was very happy, excited, on September 11th. Someone called me to switch on BBC and I saw the aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center and I saw it crumbling down -- down like the United States and I was laughing… Osama Bin Laden gave Americans back what they had done to the world. It was a wonderful thing! What else can a helpless people do? There should be more of it [terrorism] in U.S. Why not?”
P. Koya is one of the 13 Supreme Council members of the National Democratic Front (NDF), an Islamic organization based in Calicut, Kerala. He is also one of the founding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was banned by the BJP government in 2001 for supporting terror and was accused of involvement in the 2003 train bombings in Mumbai.
But Koya doesn’t look radical. He sits in a small wood-paned office behind a desk stacked with Western magazines like Time and The Economist. He looks like Richard Pryor with a bushy mustache, wearing a checked brown button-down shirt. And he addresses me casually, as though we’d met many times before.
He was once an English professor and speaks English authoritatively, adjusting his thin metal-framed glasses after finishing each point -- reminding me of my college professors. And he loves to talk about books: Arundhati Roy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Charles Dickens. Chomsky, Sartre, Camus, Pilger.
But why this violent hatred? I ask him.
“Understand this,” Koya begins, “I grew up loving America. I thought it was the single greatest nation…I was enamored by Kennedy. He was so handsome. Just like a film star. I wept when he died.” Koya was keen on visiting the U.S. one day. Aat age 15 he entered college and studied English language and literature. It was 1965, and Koya says he was an independent-minded atheist despite two dull hours a day of after-school Qur'anic study.
Koya's family was religious but not fervently so. His childhood lack of faith bothered his father, but no action was taken against it. He came from an upper-middle-class home; his father owned a clothing store in the small town of Kunnamangalam, ten kilometers from Calicut. Koya's siblings are now spread out across Kerala and the Gulf working as engineers, doctors and scientists. His parents are dead, but they lived long, healthy lives.
From what Koya tells me, he has had a remarkably stable life. He lived in the same house since he was born and attended schools in the vicinity first as a student and then a teacher. Even after an arranged marriage at 29 and the birth of his three children, he remained in his childhood home. He’s now 57 and likes writing, teaching and watching American movies with his children. Aladdin, A Bugs Life, The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean are his favorites.
Koya tells me that his attraction to religion began at age 20 while he studied at St. George’s Christian College. Every afternoon after class, he’d relax by sipping tea with friends in the town bazaar. In a local tea-stall, he made many older friends, one of whom was 20 years his senior who worked at his neighborhood mosque with Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, an Islamic organization spun off from the more radical Pakistan original.
The mentor, who Koya didn’t name, would sit chatting with him and his friends for hours. “We all became close friends,” says Koya. “Of course, there were heated arguments. I would say to him, you cannot prove God through science, but he would say you cannot prove atheism either."
“Slowly, slowly he took me into the fold…My return to the faith was something very gradual. I can’t say why. It happened to me.” By Koya’s account, it took two years before he was visiting the mosque regularly. Soon after, he joined Jamaat-e-Islami as a student activist. His father was pleased.
Koya believes that the organization opened up a new world for him. “My circle enlarged, I had many more friends, Islamic friends, I knew them better than before. I belonged more than before.” After graduating college he decided to join a weekly Muslim magazine run by Jamaat-e-Islami. Through it, he interacted with party members across the country. On the Jamaat-e-Islami dime, he left Kerala for the first time in his life and journeyed from Delhi to Calcutta dozens of times.
Life on the road increased his sense of purpose, he says. He encountered disenfranchised Muslims up north, and felt a growing responsibility to aid them, to “establish an Islamic society in India” and “spread justice for the Muslims.”
He also paid closer attention to history and current global events, feeling a growing sense that his Islamic community was at odds with America. “Gradually I moved from love to love-hate to pure hate for the U.S.” He and his friends talked about Israel’s 1967 war, saw the struggles of Muslims in India, read news reports and thought of themselves as part of a global quest to aid Muslims around the world. They grew more radical in their views, and eventually Koya and others broke off from the parent organization and formed SIMI.
Koya says that he then left the magazine and joined Kozhikode College as a full-time English professor, working four hours each morning teaching English and using his free afternoons to develop SIMI. He traveled throughout the Gulf to meet with like-minded people (and reportedly to collect funds, which Koya denies).
After the Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1993, many SIMI members -- who’d outgrown the organization's 30-year-old age cap -- and others broke off to form the National Development Front to fight against what Koya calls a “nexus of interests coming together: Hindutva extremists, America, Israel, the Indian elite and all of their neo-liberal policies.” He says that these forces were bent on undercutting the Islamic way of life.
NDF found support in northern Kerala and now has 30,000 active members and over 100,000 more supporters, according to Koya. It is chasing the more moderate Muslim League in the north of Kerala to become the dominant Muslim political force in the state.
“You praise Bin Laden, but would you encourage your youth to kill Americans?” I ask Koya.
“I wouldn’t encourage it. How can you encourage it?” he begins, and then changes course, “But dying is not a bad thing either. It depends on how you view things. Americans eulogize their soldiers after they kill children in Iraq. Young African Americans die for their country. Young Muslims die for their belief.”
“Should America worry about Kerala?” I ask.
“There will be no terrorism here. India is a democracy so we can protest and vote when we disagree. We don’t need to kill. But India is coming after Muslims slowly and if we lose our rights, our right to think even, we will be left with no other choice. Islam is not hypocritical in that way. Violence can be justified. But India is a democracy so we have other means for now, don’t worry.” He raises his eyebrows again, smiles and asks, “Are you worried?”
Pertinent Links:
1) A Professor Praises Terrorism
“I was very happy, excited, on September 11th. Someone called me to switch on BBC and I saw the aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center and I saw it crumbling down -- down like the United States and I was laughing… Osama Bin Laden gave Americans back what they had done to the world. It was a wonderful thing! What else can a helpless people do? There should be more of it [terrorism] in U.S. Why not?”
P. Koya is one of the 13 Supreme Council members of the National Democratic Front (NDF), an Islamic organization based in Calicut, Kerala. He is also one of the founding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was banned by the BJP government in 2001 for supporting terror and was accused of involvement in the 2003 train bombings in Mumbai.
But Koya doesn’t look radical. He sits in a small wood-paned office behind a desk stacked with Western magazines like Time and The Economist. He looks like Richard Pryor with a bushy mustache, wearing a checked brown button-down shirt. And he addresses me casually, as though we’d met many times before.
He was once an English professor and speaks English authoritatively, adjusting his thin metal-framed glasses after finishing each point -- reminding me of my college professors. And he loves to talk about books: Arundhati Roy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Charles Dickens. Chomsky, Sartre, Camus, Pilger.
But why this violent hatred? I ask him.
“Understand this,” Koya begins, “I grew up loving America. I thought it was the single greatest nation…I was enamored by Kennedy. He was so handsome. Just like a film star. I wept when he died.” Koya was keen on visiting the U.S. one day. Aat age 15 he entered college and studied English language and literature. It was 1965, and Koya says he was an independent-minded atheist despite two dull hours a day of after-school Qur'anic study.
Koya's family was religious but not fervently so. His childhood lack of faith bothered his father, but no action was taken against it. He came from an upper-middle-class home; his father owned a clothing store in the small town of Kunnamangalam, ten kilometers from Calicut. Koya's siblings are now spread out across Kerala and the Gulf working as engineers, doctors and scientists. His parents are dead, but they lived long, healthy lives.
From what Koya tells me, he has had a remarkably stable life. He lived in the same house since he was born and attended schools in the vicinity first as a student and then a teacher. Even after an arranged marriage at 29 and the birth of his three children, he remained in his childhood home. He’s now 57 and likes writing, teaching and watching American movies with his children. Aladdin, A Bugs Life, The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean are his favorites.
Koya tells me that his attraction to religion began at age 20 while he studied at St. George’s Christian College. Every afternoon after class, he’d relax by sipping tea with friends in the town bazaar. In a local tea-stall, he made many older friends, one of whom was 20 years his senior who worked at his neighborhood mosque with Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, an Islamic organization spun off from the more radical Pakistan original.
The mentor, who Koya didn’t name, would sit chatting with him and his friends for hours. “We all became close friends,” says Koya. “Of course, there were heated arguments. I would say to him, you cannot prove God through science, but he would say you cannot prove atheism either."
“Slowly, slowly he took me into the fold…My return to the faith was something very gradual. I can’t say why. It happened to me.” By Koya’s account, it took two years before he was visiting the mosque regularly. Soon after, he joined Jamaat-e-Islami as a student activist. His father was pleased.
Koya believes that the organization opened up a new world for him. “My circle enlarged, I had many more friends, Islamic friends, I knew them better than before. I belonged more than before.” After graduating college he decided to join a weekly Muslim magazine run by Jamaat-e-Islami. Through it, he interacted with party members across the country. On the Jamaat-e-Islami dime, he left Kerala for the first time in his life and journeyed from Delhi to Calcutta dozens of times.
Life on the road increased his sense of purpose, he says. He encountered disenfranchised Muslims up north, and felt a growing responsibility to aid them, to “establish an Islamic society in India” and “spread justice for the Muslims.”
He also paid closer attention to history and current global events, feeling a growing sense that his Islamic community was at odds with America. “Gradually I moved from love to love-hate to pure hate for the U.S.” He and his friends talked about Israel’s 1967 war, saw the struggles of Muslims in India, read news reports and thought of themselves as part of a global quest to aid Muslims around the world. They grew more radical in their views, and eventually Koya and others broke off from the parent organization and formed SIMI.
Koya says that he then left the magazine and joined Kozhikode College as a full-time English professor, working four hours each morning teaching English and using his free afternoons to develop SIMI. He traveled throughout the Gulf to meet with like-minded people (and reportedly to collect funds, which Koya denies).
After the Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1993, many SIMI members -- who’d outgrown the organization's 30-year-old age cap -- and others broke off to form the National Development Front to fight against what Koya calls a “nexus of interests coming together: Hindutva extremists, America, Israel, the Indian elite and all of their neo-liberal policies.” He says that these forces were bent on undercutting the Islamic way of life.
NDF found support in northern Kerala and now has 30,000 active members and over 100,000 more supporters, according to Koya. It is chasing the more moderate Muslim League in the north of Kerala to become the dominant Muslim political force in the state.
“You praise Bin Laden, but would you encourage your youth to kill Americans?” I ask Koya.
“I wouldn’t encourage it. How can you encourage it?” he begins, and then changes course, “But dying is not a bad thing either. It depends on how you view things. Americans eulogize their soldiers after they kill children in Iraq. Young African Americans die for their country. Young Muslims die for their belief.”
“Should America worry about Kerala?” I ask.
“There will be no terrorism here. India is a democracy so we can protest and vote when we disagree. We don’t need to kill. But India is coming after Muslims slowly and if we lose our rights, our right to think even, we will be left with no other choice. Islam is not hypocritical in that way. Violence can be justified. But India is a democracy so we have other means for now, don’t worry.” He raises his eyebrows again, smiles and asks, “Are you worried?”
Pertinent Links:
1) A Professor Praises Terrorism
Thursday, July 12, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: INDIA'S MOSLEMS BEGIN ENTERING THE RANKS OF MOSLEM TERRORISTS
India's Muslims enter ranks of terrorist recruits
`Why should anyone be surprised?' analyst says of arrests in U.K. plot
by Y.P. Rajesh
NEW DELHI–India had long boasted its huge Muslim population had never provided recruits for global Islamic extremist groups, but that belief seems shattered after Indian Muslims were arrested in an attempt to bomb Britain.
The country is home to more than 140 million Muslims, the world's third-largest Islamic population, and U.S. President George W. Bush was reported as saying two years ago that its democratic credentials were proven by the fact that none of them had joined Al Qaeda.
Even when that comment was made, the writing was apparently on the wall.
Islamic radicalism, which had spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan and Kashmir, was finally finding root in India.
Some blame Pakistan for fanning the fire, but just as important was the alienation many Indian Muslims felt after communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
At the same time, television was beaming images of conflicts around the world where Muslims seemed to be victims of the West.
"Every concentration of Muslims in the world today is being actively targeted for recruits by Islamist radicals," said Ajai Sahni of New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management.
"Each nationality would have come into play at a certain point of time in history and this is our turn, that's it. Why should anyone be surprised?"
Indian Muslims had already been providing recruits for Pakistan-based militant groups and been implicated in last year's serial bombing of commuter trains in Mumbai, Sahni said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) India's Muslims enter ranks of terrorist recruits
`Why should anyone be surprised?' analyst says of arrests in U.K. plot
by Y.P. Rajesh
NEW DELHI–India had long boasted its huge Muslim population had never provided recruits for global Islamic extremist groups, but that belief seems shattered after Indian Muslims were arrested in an attempt to bomb Britain.
The country is home to more than 140 million Muslims, the world's third-largest Islamic population, and U.S. President George W. Bush was reported as saying two years ago that its democratic credentials were proven by the fact that none of them had joined Al Qaeda.
Even when that comment was made, the writing was apparently on the wall.
Islamic radicalism, which had spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan and Kashmir, was finally finding root in India.
Some blame Pakistan for fanning the fire, but just as important was the alienation many Indian Muslims felt after communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
At the same time, television was beaming images of conflicts around the world where Muslims seemed to be victims of the West.
"Every concentration of Muslims in the world today is being actively targeted for recruits by Islamist radicals," said Ajai Sahni of New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management.
"Each nationality would have come into play at a certain point of time in history and this is our turn, that's it. Why should anyone be surprised?"
Indian Muslims had already been providing recruits for Pakistan-based militant groups and been implicated in last year's serial bombing of commuter trains in Mumbai, Sahni said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) India's Muslims enter ranks of terrorist recruits
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: A NEW FATWA RESTRICTING GIRLS' SCHOOLING
Islamic seminary restricts girls' schooling
By Biswajeet Banerjee
LUCKNOW, India -- One of South Asia's most influential Sunni Muslim seminaries has issued a religious edict against teaching girls and boys at the same schools past age 10, claiming it is against Islamic law, an official said Sunday.
"Coeducation is against Islam and therefore Muslims should refrain from sending their children, particularly girls, to coeducational schools," Mohammed Asumin Qazmi, an office bearer of the Dar-ul-Uloom Sunni seminary in northern India, told The Associated Press.
The edict, or fatwa, said boys and girls can study together until they are 10.
"Islam forbids women to meet men who are not their father or close relatives. Therefore, how can one expect that Islam allows for coeducation," he said.
The fatwa was issued last week following an e-mail from a follower asking whether Islam allows a female to attend coeducational institutions after reaching puberty. The seminary routinely receives e-mail questions, especially those pertaining to the Islamic way of life. It did not disclose the name of the e-mail sender.
While the fatwa is only a religious guideline that cannot be legally enforced, it's likely to pressure some conservative Muslim parents into removing their daughters from coeducational schools.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamic seminary restricts girls' schooling
By Biswajeet Banerjee
LUCKNOW, India -- One of South Asia's most influential Sunni Muslim seminaries has issued a religious edict against teaching girls and boys at the same schools past age 10, claiming it is against Islamic law, an official said Sunday.
"Coeducation is against Islam and therefore Muslims should refrain from sending their children, particularly girls, to coeducational schools," Mohammed Asumin Qazmi, an office bearer of the Dar-ul-Uloom Sunni seminary in northern India, told The Associated Press.
The edict, or fatwa, said boys and girls can study together until they are 10.
"Islam forbids women to meet men who are not their father or close relatives. Therefore, how can one expect that Islam allows for coeducation," he said.
The fatwa was issued last week following an e-mail from a follower asking whether Islam allows a female to attend coeducational institutions after reaching puberty. The seminary routinely receives e-mail questions, especially those pertaining to the Islamic way of life. It did not disclose the name of the e-mail sender.
While the fatwa is only a religious guideline that cannot be legally enforced, it's likely to pressure some conservative Muslim parents into removing their daughters from coeducational schools.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamic seminary restricts girls' schooling
Thursday, July 05, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: MOSLEMS IN INDIA UPSET - "NOTHING IS PROVEN, IT'S AS IF THEY'RE ALREADY INCRIMINATED"
Arrests in bomb plots upset Muslims in India
Many were already worried by growth of Islamic radicals
by Henry Chu
New Delhi -- The arrests of two Indians in connection with the al Qaeda-style bombing plots in London and Glasgow have sparked surprise and consternation here in their homeland, where Islamic radicalization is a relatively small but increasing concern.
News of the arrests was splashed on front pages across the country Wednesday, raising fears among India's millions of Muslims that they could fall under greater suspicion at home and abroad. Community leaders appealed to the public not to rush to judgment concerning Mohammed Haneef, a doctor arrested in Australia, and Sabeel Ahmed, a trainee physician detained in northern England, where he reportedly had worked with Haneef.
A spokesman for the Indian government said Wednesday that it was working with Australian authorities to confirm Haneef's nationality. Police nabbed him in Brisbane as he was about to board a flight to India with a one-way ticket.
His family, in Bangalore, has told reporters that Haneef is innocent and that he was on his way back to India to visit his infant daughter.
Ahmed is also from Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state.
"The community is a bit shocked. You don't expect young doctors to be connected with such incidents," Mohammed Belgami, a urologist who is president of the local chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a national Muslim organization, said by telephone from Bangalore.
"Secondly, I'm a doctor and I do know most students here. And from what I know, they are very upright and very morally sound doctors," Belgami said of the two young men, both in their 20s. "Nothing is proven. It's as if they're already incriminated."
Police in Britain have arrested or detained at least eight suspects in what they say were related plots to set off two car bombs in the heart of London, which were discovered last Friday, and carry out a fiery assault on the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, a day later. Investigators are investigating potential links to al Qaeda.
How Haneef and Ahmed might have been involved in the plots has not been detailed.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Arrests in bomb plots upset Muslims in India
Many were already worried by growth of Islamic radicals
by Henry Chu
New Delhi -- The arrests of two Indians in connection with the al Qaeda-style bombing plots in London and Glasgow have sparked surprise and consternation here in their homeland, where Islamic radicalization is a relatively small but increasing concern.
News of the arrests was splashed on front pages across the country Wednesday, raising fears among India's millions of Muslims that they could fall under greater suspicion at home and abroad. Community leaders appealed to the public not to rush to judgment concerning Mohammed Haneef, a doctor arrested in Australia, and Sabeel Ahmed, a trainee physician detained in northern England, where he reportedly had worked with Haneef.
A spokesman for the Indian government said Wednesday that it was working with Australian authorities to confirm Haneef's nationality. Police nabbed him in Brisbane as he was about to board a flight to India with a one-way ticket.
His family, in Bangalore, has told reporters that Haneef is innocent and that he was on his way back to India to visit his infant daughter.
Ahmed is also from Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state.
"The community is a bit shocked. You don't expect young doctors to be connected with such incidents," Mohammed Belgami, a urologist who is president of the local chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a national Muslim organization, said by telephone from Bangalore.
"Secondly, I'm a doctor and I do know most students here. And from what I know, they are very upright and very morally sound doctors," Belgami said of the two young men, both in their 20s. "Nothing is proven. It's as if they're already incriminated."
Police in Britain have arrested or detained at least eight suspects in what they say were related plots to set off two car bombs in the heart of London, which were discovered last Friday, and carry out a fiery assault on the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, a day later. Investigators are investigating potential links to al Qaeda.
How Haneef and Ahmed might have been involved in the plots has not been detailed.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Arrests in bomb plots upset Muslims in India
Monday, July 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: DALITS & THEIR STATUS AS "POLLUTERS OF HIGHER CASTE PEOPLE"
Muslim, Christian backwards seek Scheduled Caste tag
PATNA — Hundreds of Muslims and Christians of the backward class joined hands here yesterday to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to accord Scheduled Caste (SC) status to them.
The backward class Muslims and Christians, including many women, attended a rights conference jointly organised by members of both communities at S.K. Memorial Hall in support of their decades-old demand of removing various restrictions on their reservation under Article 341 of the Indian Constitution.
"It is high time that UPA government should accord SC status to Muslim Dalits and Christian Dalits by removing the restriction of reservation for them under Article 341," Mohammed Ejaj Ali, president of All India United Muslim Morcha, said in his address.
"It (the move) is bound to give a new direction to socio-economic empowerment of Muslim and Christian Dalits," Ali, who has been spearheading a movement for the last 15 years for Muslim backwards, said. Franklin Seazer, leader of National Council of Dalit Christians from Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh Bishop Conference secretary Father A.X.J. Bosco attended the conference. "It will strengthen our demand," Father Bosco said. He described the conference as a "new beginning" for the rights of the both the communities.
and
Who are Dalits?!?
Caste system One of the more confusing mysteries of India is her caste system. The caste system, which exists already for more than 3000 years, seems to have been developed by the Brahmins (priests) in order to maintain their superiority. Eventually, the caste system became formalised into 4 distinct classes (Varnas).
At the top are the Brahmins, the priests and arbiters of what is right and wrong in matters of religion and society. Next come the Kshatriyas, who are soldiers and administrators. The Vaisyas are the artisan and commercial class, and finally, the Sudras are the farmers and the peasant class. These four castes are said to have come from Brahma's mouth (Brahmin), arms (Kshatriyas), thighs (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras).
Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the Scheduled Caste. They literally have no caste. They are the untouchables, the Dalits, which means oppressed, downtrodden and exploited social group.
The Dalits
A Dalit is not considered to be part of the human society, but something, which is beyond that. The Dalits perform the most menial and degrading jobs. Sometimes Dalits perform important jobs, but this is mostly not socially recognised. Dalits are seen as polluting for higher caste people. If a higher caste Hindu is touched by an untouchable or even had a Dalit's shadow across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.
In India there are approximately 240 million Dalits. This means that nearly 25% of the population is Dalit. It also means that in a country, where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, 1 out of 5 persons is condemned to be untouchable.
In general one can say that being a Brahmin means that you are more privileged. This can imply having a good education and, accordingly, a more powerful position in the society. Being born as a Dalit you will be less off and because of less education you will have a less good job. In daily life it has a lot of consequences of being a Dalit.
Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Poor means that they do not have access to enough food, health care, housing and/or clothing (which means that their physiological and safety needs are not fulfilled). They also do not have access to education and employment. With deprived we would like to underline the injustice they face in every days life. Officially, everybody in India has the same rights and duties, but the practice is different. Social backwardness, lack of access to food, education and health care keeps them in bondage of the upper castes.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim, Christian backwards seek Scheduled Caste tag
2) Who are Dalits?!?
PATNA — Hundreds of Muslims and Christians of the backward class joined hands here yesterday to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to accord Scheduled Caste (SC) status to them.
The backward class Muslims and Christians, including many women, attended a rights conference jointly organised by members of both communities at S.K. Memorial Hall in support of their decades-old demand of removing various restrictions on their reservation under Article 341 of the Indian Constitution.
"It is high time that UPA government should accord SC status to Muslim Dalits and Christian Dalits by removing the restriction of reservation for them under Article 341," Mohammed Ejaj Ali, president of All India United Muslim Morcha, said in his address.
"It (the move) is bound to give a new direction to socio-economic empowerment of Muslim and Christian Dalits," Ali, who has been spearheading a movement for the last 15 years for Muslim backwards, said. Franklin Seazer, leader of National Council of Dalit Christians from Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh Bishop Conference secretary Father A.X.J. Bosco attended the conference. "It will strengthen our demand," Father Bosco said. He described the conference as a "new beginning" for the rights of the both the communities.
and
Who are Dalits?!?
Caste system One of the more confusing mysteries of India is her caste system. The caste system, which exists already for more than 3000 years, seems to have been developed by the Brahmins (priests) in order to maintain their superiority. Eventually, the caste system became formalised into 4 distinct classes (Varnas).
At the top are the Brahmins, the priests and arbiters of what is right and wrong in matters of religion and society. Next come the Kshatriyas, who are soldiers and administrators. The Vaisyas are the artisan and commercial class, and finally, the Sudras are the farmers and the peasant class. These four castes are said to have come from Brahma's mouth (Brahmin), arms (Kshatriyas), thighs (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras).
Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the Scheduled Caste. They literally have no caste. They are the untouchables, the Dalits, which means oppressed, downtrodden and exploited social group.
The Dalits
A Dalit is not considered to be part of the human society, but something, which is beyond that. The Dalits perform the most menial and degrading jobs. Sometimes Dalits perform important jobs, but this is mostly not socially recognised. Dalits are seen as polluting for higher caste people. If a higher caste Hindu is touched by an untouchable or even had a Dalit's shadow across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.
In India there are approximately 240 million Dalits. This means that nearly 25% of the population is Dalit. It also means that in a country, where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, 1 out of 5 persons is condemned to be untouchable.
In general one can say that being a Brahmin means that you are more privileged. This can imply having a good education and, accordingly, a more powerful position in the society. Being born as a Dalit you will be less off and because of less education you will have a less good job. In daily life it has a lot of consequences of being a Dalit.
Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Poor means that they do not have access to enough food, health care, housing and/or clothing (which means that their physiological and safety needs are not fulfilled). They also do not have access to education and employment. With deprived we would like to underline the injustice they face in every days life. Officially, everybody in India has the same rights and duties, but the practice is different. Social backwardness, lack of access to food, education and health care keeps them in bondage of the upper castes.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim, Christian backwards seek Scheduled Caste tag
2) Who are Dalits?!?
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: "ANY STATEMENT AGAINST THE VEIL MEANS AN OPINION AGAINST ALLAH & THE QUR'AN WHICH NO MOSLEM WILL TOLERATE"
Muslim leaders criticize presidential nominee for asking Indian women to stop using veil
LUCKNOW, India: Muslim leaders demanded Tuesday that India's governing coalition replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils, which she said were introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.
Several Muslim leaders called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president, accusing Pratibha Patil, a moderate Hindu, of insulting Islam.
The controversy over Patil's remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination for the presidential election, due in July. The cutoff for nominations is June 30.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Quran, the Muslim holy book. The board is the highest body of Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.
"Any statement against the veil means an opinion against Allah and the Quran which no Muslim will tolerate," Rashid told The Associated Press.
...
and
'Pratibha Patil insulted Islam'
Muslim leaders demanded on Tuesday that the UPA-Left combine replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils, which she said were introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.
Several Muslim leaders called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president, after accusing Pratibha Patil of insulting Islam.
The controversy over Patil's remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination for the presidential election, due in July. The cut-off for nominations is June 30.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Koran, the Muslim holy book. The board is the highest body of the Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim leaders criticize presidential nominee for asking Indian women to stop using veil
2) 'Pratibha Patil insulted Islam'
LUCKNOW, India: Muslim leaders demanded Tuesday that India's governing coalition replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils, which she said were introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.
Several Muslim leaders called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president, accusing Pratibha Patil, a moderate Hindu, of insulting Islam.
The controversy over Patil's remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination for the presidential election, due in July. The cutoff for nominations is June 30.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Quran, the Muslim holy book. The board is the highest body of Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.
"Any statement against the veil means an opinion against Allah and the Quran which no Muslim will tolerate," Rashid told The Associated Press.
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'Pratibha Patil insulted Islam'
Muslim leaders demanded on Tuesday that the UPA-Left combine replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils, which she said were introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.
Several Muslim leaders called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president, after accusing Pratibha Patil of insulting Islam.
The controversy over Patil's remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination for the presidential election, due in July. The cut-off for nominations is June 30.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Koran, the Muslim holy book. The board is the highest body of the Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim leaders criticize presidential nominee for asking Indian women to stop using veil
2) 'Pratibha Patil insulted Islam'
Monday, June 18, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - INDIA/KASHMIR/PAKISTAN: IF YOU DON'T GET THE TROOPS OUT OF THE KASHMIR/JAMMU AREA, THERE WILL BE CONTINUED JIHAD
Pakistan Minister Tries To Justify Terrorism In Kashmir
Demanding "total" pullout of troops from Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has warned of continued activities by 'jihadi' groups if "there is no tangible move forward" on resolving the vexed issue.
Pakistan's Kashmir Affairs Minister Tahir Iqbal also said that President Pervez Musharraf's four-point formula to resolve the Kashmir problem was "not the final proposal" and "there might be a better proposition for arriving at a mutually acceptable solution of the Kashmir dispute."
"Nevertheless, President Musharraf has provided valuable suggestions to end the 60-year-old dispute and bring about peace between the two countries that would lead to overall peace and prosperity in the region," he said in an interview to 'Pakistan Observer' newspaper. Also, he said, 'jihadi' organisations should have to be associated with the dialogue process between Pakistan and India. He, however, did not name any specific groups. Pakistan-based militant groups active in Kashmir included Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
"If India moves forward towards the solution of Kashmir dispute, there is no reason why the jihadi terror organisations should not end their operations to seek 'independence' from India," the Pakistani minister said.
"At the same time if there is no tangible move forward towards solution of Kashmir dispute, the 'jihadi' organisations would again resort to terror to get the right of self-determination," Iqbal, a retired Major, said.
He also said that India "must" pull out its forces from Kashmir in "totality" and come to some sort of understanding to arrive at a solution to Kashmir issue that is acceptable to all stakeholders. Such a move on part of India would certainly lead to peace in Kashmir and a just and honourable solution to the issue, he said. Notwithstanding a clarification issued by Pakistan Foreign office here that Islamabad considered Northern Areas part of the united Jammu and Kashmir state which came in the ambit of the overall "disputed" Kashmir territory, Iqbal said it is not a disputed territory.
"The people of Northern Areas had announced their accession to Pakistan as far back as 1948," he said, adding a number of amendments in LFO (Legal Framework Ordinance) suggested by Northern Areas have been accepted. These would give the people of the area more powers and privileges.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Pakistan Minister Tries To Justify Terrorism In Kashmir
Demanding "total" pullout of troops from Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has warned of continued activities by 'jihadi' groups if "there is no tangible move forward" on resolving the vexed issue.
Pakistan's Kashmir Affairs Minister Tahir Iqbal also said that President Pervez Musharraf's four-point formula to resolve the Kashmir problem was "not the final proposal" and "there might be a better proposition for arriving at a mutually acceptable solution of the Kashmir dispute."
"Nevertheless, President Musharraf has provided valuable suggestions to end the 60-year-old dispute and bring about peace between the two countries that would lead to overall peace and prosperity in the region," he said in an interview to 'Pakistan Observer' newspaper. Also, he said, 'jihadi' organisations should have to be associated with the dialogue process between Pakistan and India. He, however, did not name any specific groups. Pakistan-based militant groups active in Kashmir included Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
"If India moves forward towards the solution of Kashmir dispute, there is no reason why the jihadi terror organisations should not end their operations to seek 'independence' from India," the Pakistani minister said.
"At the same time if there is no tangible move forward towards solution of Kashmir dispute, the 'jihadi' organisations would again resort to terror to get the right of self-determination," Iqbal, a retired Major, said.
He also said that India "must" pull out its forces from Kashmir in "totality" and come to some sort of understanding to arrive at a solution to Kashmir issue that is acceptable to all stakeholders. Such a move on part of India would certainly lead to peace in Kashmir and a just and honourable solution to the issue, he said. Notwithstanding a clarification issued by Pakistan Foreign office here that Islamabad considered Northern Areas part of the united Jammu and Kashmir state which came in the ambit of the overall "disputed" Kashmir territory, Iqbal said it is not a disputed territory.
"The people of Northern Areas had announced their accession to Pakistan as far back as 1948," he said, adding a number of amendments in LFO (Legal Framework Ordinance) suggested by Northern Areas have been accepted. These would give the people of the area more powers and privileges.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Pakistan Minister Tries To Justify Terrorism In Kashmir
Thursday, June 14, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: UNEDUCATED & BACKWARD INDIAN MOSLEMAH'S ARE THE REASON FOR THE BACKWARD UMMAH IN INDIA
Educate women, Advani tells Muslim community
Pune, June 14: Educational backwardness of Indian Muslim women was the main reason behind stifled progress of the community as a whole, senior BJP leader L K Advani said.
"I must make a special mention of the need for propagation of education among Muslim women who are lagging behind due to various social and historical reasons. The initiative of their education has to come mainly from within the community itself, although the rest of the society also has a crucial role to play," he said.
Advani, who was inaugurating a memorial of Maharishi Dhondo Keshav Karve, the pioneer of women's education in the country, however, noted that the hunger for education, including professional training, was rapidly growing among Muslim women.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Educate women, Advani tells Muslim community
Pune, June 14: Educational backwardness of Indian Muslim women was the main reason behind stifled progress of the community as a whole, senior BJP leader L K Advani said.
"I must make a special mention of the need for propagation of education among Muslim women who are lagging behind due to various social and historical reasons. The initiative of their education has to come mainly from within the community itself, although the rest of the society also has a crucial role to play," he said.
Advani, who was inaugurating a memorial of Maharishi Dhondo Keshav Karve, the pioneer of women's education in the country, however, noted that the hunger for education, including professional training, was rapidly growing among Muslim women.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Educate women, Advani tells Muslim community
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: STOP GOING TO COLLEGE, ALLAH & MOHAMMAD SAID WOMEN ARE MENTALLY DEFICIENT
Just in case someone wants to argue the statement about women being mentally deficient, according to mohammad & allah here are reference to both the qur'an & hadith:
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MENTAL CAPACITY
The Qur'an says that the testimony of a woman is not equal to that of a man. It says that the testimony of two women is required to be equal to the testimony of one man.
Why is it that the testimony of a woman is only worth half that of a man? Muhammad explains in the following hadith.
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Sisters harassed for going to college
Two Muslim sisters received a protective order from a Mumbai, India court Tuesday when they alleged they were terrorized and threatened by neighbors for attending college. The sisters, Samina and Zarina, alleged that on one occasion the orthodox Islamic neighbors manhandled the entire family, including their parents and seven siblings.
The police refused to lodge a complaint saying it was a minor neighborhood quarrel, so they felt compelled to file a petition in the court, ANI reported Tuesday.
Earlier, the court directed Mumbai police to arrest a perpetrator named Ansari and provide protection to the girls after they filed a petition seeking protection. The girls said they are scared although their determination to continue studies remains unshaken.
"It has definitely affected us. We are shocked by their behavior. But we have to complete our studies, our graduation at least. We are frightened and that's the only reason why we moved to High Court. We don't want to discontinue our studies," said Zarina.
Pertinent Links:
1) Sisters harassed for going to college
2) Women in Christianity and Islam
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MENTAL CAPACITY
The Qur'an says that the testimony of a woman is not equal to that of a man. It says that the testimony of two women is required to be equal to the testimony of one man.
Call in two male witnesses from among you, but if two men cannot be found, then one man and two women whom you judge fit to act as witnesses. (Qur'an 2:282, Dawood)
Why is it that the testimony of a woman is only worth half that of a man? Muhammad explains in the following hadith.
Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: The Prophet said, "Isn't the witness of a women equal to half that of a man?" The women said "yes". He said "This is because of the deficiency of the women's mind." (Sahih al-Bukhari: volume 3, book 48, number 826, Khan)
...
Sisters harassed for going to college
Two Muslim sisters received a protective order from a Mumbai, India court Tuesday when they alleged they were terrorized and threatened by neighbors for attending college. The sisters, Samina and Zarina, alleged that on one occasion the orthodox Islamic neighbors manhandled the entire family, including their parents and seven siblings.
The police refused to lodge a complaint saying it was a minor neighborhood quarrel, so they felt compelled to file a petition in the court, ANI reported Tuesday.
Earlier, the court directed Mumbai police to arrest a perpetrator named Ansari and provide protection to the girls after they filed a petition seeking protection. The girls said they are scared although their determination to continue studies remains unshaken.
"It has definitely affected us. We are shocked by their behavior. But we have to complete our studies, our graduation at least. We are frightened and that's the only reason why we moved to High Court. We don't want to discontinue our studies," said Zarina.
Pertinent Links:
1) Sisters harassed for going to college
2) Women in Christianity and Islam
Saturday, June 09, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: AN OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF JIHAD ON INDIA?!?
Jihad threat against India sent on VCD
Al-Qaeda is back in Kashmir if the contents of a video compact disc (VCD), which reached Current News Service (CNS), a local news agency in Srinagar, on Friday, are to be believed.
The VCD carries a 15-minute statement in Urdu from Abu Abdul Rehman, who claims to be the chief of the Indian chapter of Al-Qaeda. The “chief” declares “Jihad” against the “infidels” of India and seeks the support of the “true believers of Islam” in his mission. “We declare true Jihad in India for which Kashmir has the position of a gateway (to India),” the statement says.
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Gopal Sharma told PTI that the police were aware of the CD. “We are in the process of verifying its authenticity,” he said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Jihad threat against India sent on VCD
Al-Qaeda is back in Kashmir if the contents of a video compact disc (VCD), which reached Current News Service (CNS), a local news agency in Srinagar, on Friday, are to be believed.
The VCD carries a 15-minute statement in Urdu from Abu Abdul Rehman, who claims to be the chief of the Indian chapter of Al-Qaeda. The “chief” declares “Jihad” against the “infidels” of India and seeks the support of the “true believers of Islam” in his mission. “We declare true Jihad in India for which Kashmir has the position of a gateway (to India),” the statement says.
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Gopal Sharma told PTI that the police were aware of the CD. “We are in the process of verifying its authenticity,” he said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Jihad threat against India sent on VCD
Sunday, May 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: POSTERS OF BIN LADEN APPEAR IN INDIA, RAISE CONCERNS
Bin Laden's posters raise concern
VADODARA: While communal riots and demonstrations over issues that hurt religious sentiments are not out of place in the Gujarat, it was probably for the first time that posters of Osama bin Laden — the Al Qaida chief, who is the most wanted terrorist around the world — were used for the purpose.
The development has left the city police concerned. It is now believed that mischief mongers had deliberately prepared the posters in an attempt to instigate people.
The city police is probing a conspiracy angle to the demonstrations using the Bin Laden's posters that were followed by rioting in the Mandvi area on Friday afternoon.
Police sources said it was probably for the first time in the state that a public display of Laden's posters was made for a protest.
"There were stray incidents where posters of former Iraq president Saddam Hussain were displayed in communally sensitive areas such as Dariapur and Kalupur in Ahmedabad. I do not remember any incident of Laden's posters being displayed in the state,"said state IB chief, additional DGP Sudhir Sinha.
While the display has raised several eyebrows, officers believe that it was a handiwork of those who were up to create trouble and were not getting any opportunity so far.
"Some elements who have a reputation of fomenting communal passions tried to take advantage of the situation,"said Vadodara police commissioner P C Thakur.
Thakur said some accused in the rioting case were arrested on the spot. "These include Salim Single, who has been previously booked under the Prevention of Anti-social Activities Act and was recently released. We are probing his role in the incident,"Thakur said.
Several Muslim leaders too are not happy with the flashing of the Bin Laden's posters. "We want to tell these insane people that they should learn lessons from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where fundamentalists hold siege over the liberty of people and judiciary.
They do not believe in justice, but the Indian Muslims respect the Constitution and the judiciary, "said Yousuf Sheikh of the All India Qaumi Mahaz (AIQM). Sheikh and leaders of five other organisations condemned the incident.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bin Laden's posters raise concern
VADODARA: While communal riots and demonstrations over issues that hurt religious sentiments are not out of place in the Gujarat, it was probably for the first time that posters of Osama bin Laden — the Al Qaida chief, who is the most wanted terrorist around the world — were used for the purpose.
The development has left the city police concerned. It is now believed that mischief mongers had deliberately prepared the posters in an attempt to instigate people.
The city police is probing a conspiracy angle to the demonstrations using the Bin Laden's posters that were followed by rioting in the Mandvi area on Friday afternoon.
Police sources said it was probably for the first time in the state that a public display of Laden's posters was made for a protest.
"There were stray incidents where posters of former Iraq president Saddam Hussain were displayed in communally sensitive areas such as Dariapur and Kalupur in Ahmedabad. I do not remember any incident of Laden's posters being displayed in the state,"said state IB chief, additional DGP Sudhir Sinha.
While the display has raised several eyebrows, officers believe that it was a handiwork of those who were up to create trouble and were not getting any opportunity so far.
"Some elements who have a reputation of fomenting communal passions tried to take advantage of the situation,"said Vadodara police commissioner P C Thakur.
Thakur said some accused in the rioting case were arrested on the spot. "These include Salim Single, who has been previously booked under the Prevention of Anti-social Activities Act and was recently released. We are probing his role in the incident,"Thakur said.
Several Muslim leaders too are not happy with the flashing of the Bin Laden's posters. "We want to tell these insane people that they should learn lessons from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where fundamentalists hold siege over the liberty of people and judiciary.
They do not believe in justice, but the Indian Muslims respect the Constitution and the judiciary, "said Yousuf Sheikh of the All India Qaumi Mahaz (AIQM). Sheikh and leaders of five other organisations condemned the incident.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bin Laden's posters raise concern
Sunday, May 20, 2007
DAR AL HARB - INDIA: "THE FACE OF TERROR"
Muslims against objectionable paintings
By Our Staff Reporter
Bhopal, May 20: While the saffron brigades have termed the painting exhibition as freedom of expression, the Muslims in Bhopal have started objecting to the paintings that depicted Muslims as terrorists. The Muslims raised objections to some paintings at an exhibition by Kailash Tiwari.
Muslim groups staged protest outside the venue of the exhibition, which began on Tuesday, and shouted slogans against the painter, Kailash Tiwari. The paintings, which features Osama bin Laden and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf also shows people in beard and wearing religious cap attacking India and the Parliament.
A local Muslim leader Mohammad Riyaz said, "Several exhibitions of Osama bin Laden have been shown in the past but we have never raised any kind of objection but these painting showing beard is just made to target a specific community. We object to this. All Muslims are opposed to terrorism, terrorism is not allowed in Islam." The controversial painter, however, claims the exhibition titled "The Face of Terror" depicts the truth.
The painter Tiwari a couple of days ago told media persons, "I am not talking about Muslims, but unfortunately all terrorists turn out to be Muslims. I cannot do anything about it. Bamiyan Buddha statues were destroyed by the Muslims, the World Trade Centre and even the Parliament was attacked by them, what I can do if the attackers have a Khan or Mohammad in his name." The painter has removed 10 paintings from the exhibition, after Muslims raised objections to it. Sensing trouble, local authorities had asked him to wind up the exhibition. Meanwhile, radical Hindu organisations have come in support of the painter.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslims against objectionable paintings
By Our Staff Reporter
Bhopal, May 20: While the saffron brigades have termed the painting exhibition as freedom of expression, the Muslims in Bhopal have started objecting to the paintings that depicted Muslims as terrorists. The Muslims raised objections to some paintings at an exhibition by Kailash Tiwari.
Muslim groups staged protest outside the venue of the exhibition, which began on Tuesday, and shouted slogans against the painter, Kailash Tiwari. The paintings, which features Osama bin Laden and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf also shows people in beard and wearing religious cap attacking India and the Parliament.
A local Muslim leader Mohammad Riyaz said, "Several exhibitions of Osama bin Laden have been shown in the past but we have never raised any kind of objection but these painting showing beard is just made to target a specific community. We object to this. All Muslims are opposed to terrorism, terrorism is not allowed in Islam." The controversial painter, however, claims the exhibition titled "The Face of Terror" depicts the truth.
The painter Tiwari a couple of days ago told media persons, "I am not talking about Muslims, but unfortunately all terrorists turn out to be Muslims. I cannot do anything about it. Bamiyan Buddha statues were destroyed by the Muslims, the World Trade Centre and even the Parliament was attacked by them, what I can do if the attackers have a Khan or Mohammad in his name." The painter has removed 10 paintings from the exhibition, after Muslims raised objections to it. Sensing trouble, local authorities had asked him to wind up the exhibition. Meanwhile, radical Hindu organisations have come in support of the painter.
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslims against objectionable paintings
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