This year’s Malmo Arab Festival in Sweden will screen more than 100 Arab films in a bid to facilitate cross-cultural exchange, it is set to run from September 2-8.
Directed by Mohammed Keblawi, the festival will showcase films from countries around the region including Palestine, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The festival will also honor a number of Arab actors and industry experts for their contributions to the world of Arab cinema, television and theatre. Egyptian actress Lebleba and Palestinian actor Mohamed Bakri are both set to be awarded for their role in developing the arts, reported Egyptian news outlet Al-Bawaba this week.
The event will feature a number of workshops under the theme “Feminism in Arab cinema” which will see 10 female filmmakers from Sweden and Egypt participating in seminars, lectures and networking events.
(Courtesy: Al Arabiya)
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Prejudice based on their religious clothing and faith is creating extra barriers for workers in the UK
Muneera, a 19-year-old art student from London, wants to set up her own business selling her paintings. But she wears a headscarf, and she is concerned that it might be difficult. "I don't know if it'll be a real problem, or if it's all in my head. I want to know how to deal with it if people in the business world act differently towards me because of my scarf."
Muneera's friend Nour, meanwhile, wants to be a doctor. "I don't really get career advice at college," she says. "So talking to other Muslim women helps. When I see them doing their own thing and getting on with their careers, it's really motivating."
Muneera and Nour went to the Urban Muslim Woman Show, an annual networking event that took place earlier this summer, in order to meet new contacts who might guide them in their careers. Like many Muslim women, they fear their professional identity may be distorted by the hijab and the presumptions people have about it.
Some of the barriers facing them affect all women, such as unequal pay and gender discrimination. But many Muslim women face extra difficulties, such as prejudice based on their religious clothing and faith, while others feel sidelined in terms of career advice or guidance.
In December last year, an all-party parliamentary report found Muslim women of south Asian origin are susceptible to triple discrimination because of their gender, ethnicity and religion. The report, published by the Runnymede Trust, expressed concern that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women were more likely to be made redundant in comparison with other women and found employers made generic stereotypes about them, such as expecting them to want to stop working after having children. Many Muslim women interviewed for the report spoke of disparaging comments made about their dress. Others, including second-generation, highly-educated graduates, said job offers only materialised after they removed their hijabs; many felt written off by recruitment companies.
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"They used to refer to me as 'the girl with the sheet on her head'. They thought it was funny, but it was incredibly hurtful," says Fauzia. "I felt belittled every day. It was like they didn't want to acknowledge me as a real person by using my name."
Sara Khan from the Muslim women's rights group Inspire says: "The glass ceiling is incredibly low for Muslim women. The Muslim women I work with say that they don't understand why they aren't given the same chances as other women. They question whether it's their name or the way they dress."
Numerous recommendations were put forward after the publication of the Runnymede Trust report, such as increasing the take-up of "blankname" job application forms. But few, if any, of the report's recommendations have been implemented.
"It's incredibly complex," says Khan. "The transition from leaving education to entering the labour market is where Muslim women can find themselves disadvantaged. There's an assumption that Muslim women will marry younger and have children younger whereas, really, there are so many Muslim women who want to work. Recruitment agencies could do a lot more with graduate Muslim women in terms of putting them forward for positions, but job centres also have a role to play in helping women with writing their CV and basic interview skills."
Many Muslim women, like Muneera and Nour, are looking elsewhere for career advice. Initiatives like the Muslim Women's Network, which offers training schemes and highlights female role models, and the Urban Muslim Woman Show are proving popular.
Nuna, a 38-year-old banker, says she has never encountered discrimination in her career (she does not wear a headscarf). But she feels it is important for Muslim women to support each other: "What's missing for me is simply having a concentration of like-minded Muslim women in the workplace. So surely it can only be a good thing to bring women who share similar beliefs together."
(Courtesy: The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2013/aug/13/glass-ceiling-muslim-women-uk
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By Huma Yusuf
London: On Saturday, while Muslims were celebrating Id-al-Fitr to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, four windows of the Tonna Mosque in Neath, Wales, were smashed by vandals. This is the latest, and by no means the most violent, incident in a series of anti-Muslim assaults across Britain. According to a report released in June, approximately half of Britain’s mosques and Islamic centers have been attacked since 9/11.
Anti-Muslim acts soared following the May 22 murder of a British Army soldier, Lee Rigby, who was hacked to death in Woolwich, south London, by two Muslim men claiming to avenge the killing of Muslims by the British military.
The Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella body of 500 mosques and other Islamic groups, swiftly condemned the murder, but the backlash has been severe anyway.
According to Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), a monitoring project, more than 120 anti-Muslim incidents — including attacks but also instances where hijabs were pulled off women’s heads — were reported in the week after Rigby’s murder, up from an average of about 20 incidents per week. Some 26 mosques and Islamic centers have been attacked since his death.
Earlier this summer, explosions went off outside three mosques in the West Midlands; the one in Tipton was targeted with a nail bomb. Also in the past couple of months, a mosque and Islamic school in London were set on fire, a mosque in Redditch was spray-painted with swastikas, Muslim graves were desecrated in Newport, and bacon was left at the entrance of a mosque in Wales.
Although the number of reprisal attacks has tapered off, said Fiyaz Mughal, director of Tell MAMA, “a high rumbling of Islamophobic incidents continues in the background.” Like others in Britain’s Muslim community, Mughal is worried that, after the surge in retaliatory assaults following Rigby’s death, a broader kind of anti-Muslim sentiment may be setting in, stronger than existed before.
The growing popularity and online presence of far-right anti-Muslim groups like the English Defense League suggests that the threats will continue: Graffiti bearing the group’s acronym has been found at several attack sites.
The West Midlands police has advised more than 200 mosques on how to improve security, and officers elsewhere are investigating attacks and vandalism. But calls by Muslim groups that the government acknowledge Islamophobia as a problem and devise a national strategy to counter it have not been heeded. And the government’s recent drives against illegal immigrants have fueled hostility toward people perceived as outsiders.
Increasingly, it seems as if British Muslims will have to push back on their own. But they are ill-prepared. Earlier this year, the directors of mosques throughout the country were advised to implement better security measures, including fencing, panic alarms and safe rooms. But 1,300 out of the country’s 1,500 mosques continue to take no precautionary measures.
This is partly because of a lack of resources. Talha Ahmad, committee chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, told me, “People running mosques do so on a volunteer basis, and often lack the professional and social skills needed for community activism.” But Mughal, of Tell MAMA, said that the Muslim community hasn’t learned from recent incidents. “No one is asking what needs to change after Woolwich,” he said.
One thing that needs to change is how Muslims engage with other Britons. For now, they support few monitoring or advocacy projects in Britain. Some 80 percent of the community’s charitable donations go abroad. In the 18 months since its launch, Tell MAMA has received just over £50, or about $80, from local Muslims.
British Muslims should focus their energies closer to home. According to Ahmad, some mosques responded to this summer’s spike in anti-Muslim incidents by including non-Muslims in Ramadan-related festivities. It’s a welcome gesture: Getting together seems like a fine first step toward getting along.
[Huma Yusufis a columnist for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn and was the 2010-11 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.]
(Courtesy: The New York Times)
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By Tariq A. Al-Maeena
A mistake once committed is rarely repeated by a rational entity. However such is not the case with the government of Sri Lanka. It is becoming increasingly obvious that following the 30-year war with the Tamil minority, the Sri Lankan rulers have not learned their lesson.
Today, they are busily spreading the seeds of discord against another minority; the island’s Muslim Sri Lankans. They are clever enough not to openly support a reign of terror directly. Instead, they quietly look the other way while terrorist Buddhist groups like the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) do their dirty work.
Comparable to the purges that prevailed during the height of Nazi fascism of yesteryear, Buddhist militancy in Sri Lanka has lately begun to rear its ugly head of intolerance and violence toward the island’s minorities. A distinction must be made here in that although 70 percent of the population is Sinhalese Buddhist and by and large peaceful, it is a growing minority of militants who are currently guiding its no-tolerance aggression toward the Muslim minority, undoubtedly fueled by the silent encouragement of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has reportedly tried to get the country’s media to downplay or not report incidents of violence toward minorities.
In an ominous statement of bravado, the BBS had publicly announced that, ‘This is a government created by Sinhala Buddhists and it must remain Sinhala Buddhist. This is a Sinhala country, Sinhala government. Democratic and pluralistic values are killing the Sinhala race.”
Buddhist monks have denounced Muslim practices, such as their use of conservative clothing referring to it as ‘gorilla’ outfits, and have called for a total ban on halal products for the community. Clad in white or t-shirts bearing a ‘No-Halal’ slogan, the supporters carried Buddhist flags and cheered enthusiastically when extremist Bodu Bala Sena monks denounced particular Muslim practices. They have also vented their anger against evangelical Christians who, they claimed, were attempting to perpetuate Christian extremism in the country.
Such fermenting and unchecked statements by the leaders of these terrorists have whipped up a frenzied crowd to go on a rampage against minority communities and individuals. Homes, business, and now mosques are rapidly becoming the targets of destruction for these militant crowds, while the government looks on pretending that nothing untoward is actually taking place.
The attack on the Molawatte mosque in Grandpass during maghreb prayers on August 10 in the capital city is an indication of how serious the problem has become. While Muslims were offering prayers in the sanctity of the house of worship, a mob of Buddhist militants numbering over 70 by eyewitness estimates began and destroying the mosques with metal poles and rods and stones and bottles. Chants could be heard saying that “this was a Sinhala Buddhist country and that the Muslims and Mosques should be thrown out.” This is yet another page in a rapidly filling dossier of criminal activity against Sri Lankan minorities by Buddhist terrorists.
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While the majority of Sinhalese Buddhists is indeed peace-loving and has been living in harmony with other minorities over the centuries, the plague of militant Buddhists in recent days is gaining a strong foothold throughout the country. These are dangerous times. History is full of pages of how the good conscience of a silent majority has been overcome by the vicious rhetoric and actions of a militant minority.
In sharing a common religion with the island’s minority Muslims, GCC countries have a vested interest in ensuring their safety and security. The persecutions that have begun to form against them cannot in no certain terms be tolerated. The benign tolerance exhibited by the Sri Lankan government toward these militant groups must be addressed firmly and the OIC must also spring into action before militancy turns into large-scale massacres.
Sri Lanka is a recipient of a sizable mass of its national budget from the remittances of its workers in GCC countries. The GCC also provides most of the island’s energy needs. Many in the Gulf have been frequent visitors for tourism and business. So far relations have been harmonious. But neo-fascism is unacceptable.
Gulf leaders must get a clear message across to the Sri Lankan president: Quit playing games! Act decisively against the militants. The island must not embark on the perilous road of violent racial and ethnic divisions that could lead to unrestrained violence against not only the Muslims, but the other minorities on the island as well. We will not tolerate such actions!
[Tariq Al-Maeenacan be reached at talmaeena@aol.com and followed at @talmaeena]
(Courtesy: Saudi Gazette)
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This book brings to life hitherto unknown and unexplored aspects of the cultural and social life in the Delhi Sultanate.
Author: Iqtidar Husain SiddiquiPublisher: Primus BooksPages: 191Price: Rs.795
By Kuldeep Kumar
The Sultanate of Delhi has been the focus of many studies for over a century but historians have been concerned mainly with its political history. We do know about the Sufi saints such as Hazrat Nizam u’ddin Auliya and poets such as Amir Khusrau, but not much attention has been paid to studying this crucial period in Indian history in order to explore its multiple cultural dimensions.
The Aligarh-based historian Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui’s book Composite Culture under the Sultanate of Delhi aims to fill these gaps in our knowledge and offer a detailed, yet succinct, view of the cultural life in the lands ruled by the Delhi sultans. This study also brings into sharp relief the various linkages between the policies pursued by the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal dynasty which succeeded it after the fall of the Lodis.
Siddiqui feels that the paucity of relevant evidence that can be found in conventional sources may be the reason why not much has been written about the life and culture under the Delhi sultanate. He has tried to rectify the situation by tapping into unconventional sources from the vast corpus of pre-Mughal Indo-Persian literature for his study. These include poetry, dastan (fiction or romance) literature and Sufi literature, including Mulfuzat (collection of utterances) and Maktubat (letters and epistles). They offer new information about and insights into the progress of the intellectual culture during the Delhi sultanate period. With characteristic modesty, the author has called his work “a preliminary inquiry”, hoping that it might lead to further research by scholars into the process of acculturation in India and the pivotal role played by Delhi in it.
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Siddiqui informs us that before its conquest by Malik Qutbuddin Aibak in A.D. 1193, Delhi was merely a military post and a pargana headquarters of little importance. When Sultan Qutbuddin Aibak died in 1210, his capital was Lahore. After his untimely death, the walis (governors) became independent rulers in their respective khittas (territorial units). The Delhi nobles invited Iltutmish, the wali of Badaon territory, and enthroned him as Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish. This heralded the process of Delhi emerging as the largest and most beautiful city of the Islamic world, next only to Khansa in China in population and size.
In Central Asia and Iran, the prefix Hazarat was added to the name of a sultan’s capital as a mark of respect. Soon, Delhi too began to be called “Hazarat-i-Delhi” and began to perform an important role in promoting sultanate culture in the surrounding regions. This was the period when scholars, poets, scientists, merchants, military men and slaves trained in different crafts came from various countries and settled in Delhi and turned it into an important urban centre. This gave rise to a multicultural ethos that gradually evolved into a composite culture, thus enriching India’s cultural heritage and making Delhi a repository of the finest knowledge that had developed in the eastern Islamic countries following their conquest by Ghengiz Khan and his successors.
It was in the sultanate period that Delhi witnessed the building of new forts, grand palaces, big mosques and colonies for the immigrants (such as the Arab ki Sarai near the shrine of Hazrat Nizam u’ddin Auliya) that provided an impetus to the new city’s socio-economic growth.
The capital was linked with outlying towns and territorial units through a network of thanas (police posts) to provide safety and security to merchants and other travellers. Karkhanas (workshops-cum-storehouses) were opened to produce items for the Sultan and his nobles, and this gave a boost to the cottage industry and led to the emergence of new skills and techniques. Trade flourished as the ruling elite was fond of items of luxury. The nobles lived in such great style that they were sometimes forced to take loans from moneylenders. According to Zia u’ddin Barani, during the reign of Sultan Ghiyas u’ddin Balban, moneylenders and bankers acquired great wealth. In 1351, the moneylenders of Sirsuti (present-day Sirsa in Haryana) extended a loan of several lakh tankas to Sultan Firuz Shah as he needed money to pay his army men.
This was also the period when Sufis, who had entered India in the beginning of the 13th century and settled down in various towns of north India, played a significant role, through their exemplary conduct and lifestyle, in raising the social consciousness against the caste system among Hindus. As they believed in the mission of service to mankind, there was no social discrimination at their khanqahs. Although slavery was no stranger to Islam, Shaikh Farid u’ddin Ganj-i-Shakar and his spiritual successor Shaikh Nizam u’ddin Auliya developed an abhorrence towards the institution. Siddiqui dispels the widely held notion that Sufi saints quietly converted a great number of low-caste people into Islam and thus made a huge contribution to the spread of the new religion in India.
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Bridging the divide
Another widely held view is that the policy of building bridges with the Hindu ruling houses and turning them into pillars of the empire began with the Mughal emperor Akbar. However, Siddiqui offers a detailed account of similar policies having been followed by Sultan Qutbuddin Aibak —who appointed a Hindu Rana (chief) from the Banaras territory the Sahib-i-barid (head of the intelligence service), disregarding the opposition from his Muslim courtiers—and his successors such as Sultan Ghiyas u’ddin Balban. The sultans also adopted a policy of non-interference in the religious and cultural affairs of Hindus although they were often under pressure from the immigrant ulama to offer the Hindus only two options: Islam or death.
There is also evidence that the Hindu places of worship that were damaged during military campaigns were repaired and restored and that the state made land grants for their upkeep. Significantly, Hindus were also absorbed into the bureaucracy, and certain castes such as the Khatris and Kalals seem to have risen in official hierarchy under the Delhi sultanate. Hindu land chiefs called Rai, Rawat and Rana were loyal supporters and allies of the Ghaznavid sultans.
The book under review also throws light on the process of synthesising that led to the fusion of Ilm-ul-Tib (commonly known as the Yunani, or Unani, system of medicine) and Ayurveda in the 13th century. The doctors who came from Central Asia did not know how to treat diseases that were specific to India and for that they had to interact with the local practitioners of Ayurveda. Several treatises on medicine were written in Arabic, drawing liberally from the Ayurveda classics in Sanskrit.
The Delhi sultans had no interest in founding a theocratic state. In fact, Zia u’ddin Barani, who was associated with Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq Shah as his nadim (counsellor), emphasised the need for the sultan to formulate rules and regulations regardless of the Sharia but in accordance with the requirements of changed time. Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq was interested in rationalist science (Ilm-ul-Maqul) as well as the history of Islam and held the second caliph, Umar bin Khattab, as his role model. In this respect, the Delhi sultans offer a direct contrast to the present-day Muslim politicians and clergy who never tire of invoking the Sharia with monotonous regularity and regrettable consequences.
The residents of Delhi, a city whose grandeur was unparalleled in the entire Islamic world in the 14th century, dispersed to various places and settled there as a consequence of Timur’s invasion. They took Delhi’s culture with them and planted its saplings in these places, thus spreading its influence far and wide. When Sultan Bahlul Lodi came to power in A.D. 1451, the situation changed for the better, ushering in a new epoch of cultural progress and economic recovery.
Siddiqui regrets that the social and cultural life of this period has not attracted the attention of present-day medieval historians and tries to fill this lacuna by offering a detailed chapter on it. He draws our attention to the fact that Sultan Sikandar Lodi had a refined taste in classical music and employed many musicians in his court. Siddiqui offers us an interesting piece of information, that on every occasion the musicians would begin with the raga Malegora and switch to Kalyan, while Kanra and Husaini were sung later.
Civil engineering, too, flourished, and fountains were constructed for the first time during this period. Festivals such as Nauroz and Jashn-i-Bahar were celebrated with great enthusiasm by the sultan and his nobles. Architecture, too, got a fillip, as is evident in the monuments of the Lodi period.
Women in power
In the 13th and 14th centuries, Hindu and Muslim women in royal households were not passive spectators of events. They took up responsibilities and played an important role in the social and political life. In A.D. 1278, Naika Devi, the mother of Bhim Deo of Gujarat, became the regent as her son was a minor. She took Sultan Muiz u’ddin Muhammad bin Sam, the Ghurid ruler of Ghazna who had marched on a raiding expedition towards Gujarat, by surprise near Mount Abu and defeated him. After the death of Sultan Iltutmish, his widow Shah Turkan took over the reins of government as her son Sultan Rukn u’ddin Firuz Shah did not pay much attention to the affairs of the state and showed a proclivity to overindulge in pleasure. Had she not been consumed by her overpowering ambition that led her to get her son’s potential rivals killed, she could have continued in her position of power.
However powerful Shah Turkan might have been, she was not the reigning monarch. This fell to the lot of Sultan Raziya, the daughter of Iltutmish from Sultan Qutbuddin Aibak’s daughter Turkan Khatoon. That Muslim theologians approved her ascension to the throne is proof enough that under Delhi sultans, the spirit of ijtihad (reinterpretation of the Muslim canon law in accordance with the needs of the changed times) was kept alive. Sultan Razia discarded the veil, rode an elephant and held her court just like her father. Had she not favoured non-Turks, including the black Amir-i-Akhur (in-charge of the royal stable) Yaqut, the history of the subcontinent would have been different, as the Turk nobles brought about her downfall.
Women singers, too, had a pride of place in the court and enjoyed royal patronage. Zia u’ddin Barani mentions the names of Nusrat Khatoon, Nusrat Bibi and Mahar Afroz as excellent singers and dancers. Unfortunately, those were the days when the slave trade flourished and the demand for female slaves was on the rise.
Shaikh Ali Hujwari’s book Kashf-ul-Mahjub and Shaikh Shihabuddin Suhrawardi’s Awarif-ul-Marif were the two most important treatises on Sufism in the period of the Delhi sultans. Ali Hujwari considered marriage a hurdle in the path of spiritual progress and advocated celibacy. But only the Qalandars followed this precept. The Chishtis, the Suhrawardis and the Firdausis were not opposed to matrimony.
Although Shaikh Nizam u’ddin Auliya never married, he did not advocate celibacy either. All his chosen disciples to spread his mission in different parts of the country were married men. Siddiqui draws attention to the Chishti saints’ preference for gender equality. Shaikh Farid u’ddin Ganj-i-Shakar and his spiritual successor, Shaikh Nizam u’ddin Auliya, admitted both men and women into the circles of their murids and did not differentiate in providing spiritual instruction. The humanism of the Sufis was such that they did not flinch from disregarding the Muslim canon law if the need arose. The teacher of Shaikh Nizam u’ddin Auliya once escorted a Hindu woman back to her family although she had been forcibly converted to Islam.
It is not possible to do justice to a book of this nature in a short review. Those interested in the social and cultural life under the sultans of Delhi will find this book a must-read. However, one cannot help pointing out that this happens to be a beautifully produced but awfully edited book.
(Courtesy: Frontline)
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Book: Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not EnoughAuthor: Dr Javed JamilPages: 364Price: Rs 500/-US$ 50Publisher: Mission Publications214-K, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-76Ph: 91-8130340339
Reviewed by Syed Adil
This is now becoming increasingly clear that the so-called New World Order is an ugly product of the ugly designs of the forces of economics that are located in West. These forces have no other aim except attaining economic supremacy and political hegemony in the world, and to achieve these aims they can do anything, from killing people, destroying family and social values to redefine morality to suit their own ends. One man who has perhaps been on the forefront in unveiling these designs more than anyone else is Dr Javed Jamil whose relentless campaign against New World Order, Westernism and Economic Fundamentalism is going on for well over a decade now. His latest work, “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough”, should be rated as the most remarkable work in recent times, especially in terms of challenging Westernism and its allies.
In this book, Dr Jamil has produced massive statistics showing that in terms of the criteria of civilized existence, Western countries are far behind Muslim countries. He has used the following as the criteria of civilization:
• Security: incidence of murders (all types, not any particular category), sexual assaults, killings in other parts of the world (wars), abortions (all categories)• Social peace: alcohol, gambling, prostitution, promiscuity, pornography,• Personal: suicides, religiosity• Family: Divorces and separations, Promiscuity, Children born out of wedlock, issues related to single parenthood; abuse of women and children; domestic violence;• Human Development: Life Expectancy (both at birth and at conception), Education, Economic conditions
Taking one criterion in each chapter as the yardstick, he has produced international statistics to prove how bad the West is in terms of Security, Social Peace, Personal Happiness, Family Peace and Human Development. Muslims in comparison are far better on the basis of almost all criteria related to security, Social peace and family peace and are catching fast in the human development criteria including life expectancy, education and economic development.
Dr Jamil enumerates the aims of the study as follows:
• To contest the claim of the Western propaganda of its being civilized and Muslims being uncivilised;• To highlight the issues that are largely buried under the carpet by the motivated interests despite their playing havoc with the peace and security of human beings as individuals, families and society;• To bring Muslims out of inferiority complex in which they are being perpetually pushed by both friends and foes;• To make them realise that they need not blindly follow the Western models; and that qualities like education, good health and comfortable life are not the monopoly of any ideology;• To make them realise that despite their many qualities and admirable achievements at various levels, there are still many shortcomings, some of them very big, which they have to understand and address; they have to find their solutions within the parameters of Islam;• To make them realise that though they must try to achieve power in all rightful ways, they must never use that power to threaten, subjugate and control the mankind or monopolise human resources; and last but not least’• To make them convinced that their duties, assigned by their religion, are not limited to the improvement of their own lot; they must work for the benefit of the whole mankind; and it is their foremost duty to fight against the evils, injustices, exploitations and disparities at every possible level; and to develop programmes and policies that lead to prosperity without evil effects.
Some of the interesting findings of Dr Javed Jamil’s work are as under:
1. The rate of murderous assaults in USA is more than 10 times that of major Muslim countries. Top fifty countries in terms of murder rates are mostly Western countries. It can also be seen from the list that the rate of murders in Muslim countries is lesser than that of the other important systems like Russia, China, India and African countries.
2. Out of top 50 nations in terms of the incidence of rape, the US, South Africa, France,Germany and Australia feature among the top 10. Out of about three hundred thousand incidences of rapes committed in top 50 countries, which is more than 95% of all the rapes committed all over the world, more than 210 thousand are committed in the “most advanced”, “peace loving” and “women-loving” nations of the world.
3. Out of the total number of around 160 million dead, more than 135 million have been killed in or by countries that are now the five big powers of the world, namely China, the US, the UK, France and Russia. The killings by or in Muslim countries form a very small percentage of the total killings, despite the fact that Muslims form about one fifth of the world population. Community-wise, 90% of violence has involved Christians, Buddhists and Atheists. While China and Russia hold the distinction for murdering their own people in maximum numbers for political ends, the credit of killing most people abroad goes to the US, especially during last 60 years. Contrary to the lie propagated by Western media, Muslims have been subjected to violence by others rather than the vice versa. Russia killed millions of Muslims in Afghanistan, America killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Israel killed thousands in its conflict with Arabs. In all of these resistance movements or liberation struggles, Muslims were killed in very large numbers, while they killed much less.
4. A total of 5529 Westerners including 2883 on 9/11 have been killed in all the attacks alleged against al-Qaeda. At least 919,967 people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraqsince the U.S. and coalition attacks, based on lowest credible estimates.
5. In US about 40.6 percent of children were born to an unmarried mother in 2008, an increase from 39.7 percent the previous year. While teenage mothers accounted for 52 percent of extramarital births in 1975, they made up only 22 percent in 2008. More than 6 in 7 births to teenagers were non-marital. In Europe, the average has risen from one out of four in 1997 to one out of three children born outside wedlock. Nowadays, national figures in Europerange from 5% in Greece and 9% in Cyprus to 58% in Estonia and 64% in Iceland. In Britain the rate increased to 44% (2006) and further to 46 % (2009). In Muslim countries, unwed mothers are almost negligible if any.
6. Nearly 50-70 million babies are aborted annually, mostly due to the vagrant sexual behaviours of their parents — and yet the claim of being civilised. The total abortion rate in most of the Muslim countries is less than 20 percent, and an overwhelming percentage of abortions in Muslims are within families with the consent of both parents. Not a single Muslim country features in the list of countries with highest rates of teenage pregnancies, which proves the success of family system in Muslim societies. The success of family system can very well be regarded as the biggest indicator of civilization because its failure leads to such a large number of health and social problems as are caused by no other reason.
7. According to surveys, in the US about one in three children live in one-parent families and nearly 40 per cent live away from at least one biological parent. Out of 23 countries listed in terms of Single Parent families, all but South Korea are the proud members of the Western World. The level of Family civilisation in their societies is extremely low compared to most of the Muslim world.
8. An estimated 325000 US children of age 17 or younger are prostitutes, performers in pornographic videos or have crumbled to commercial sexual exploitation (University of Pennsylvania, Muslim societies are much more civilised in their treatment to children: They do not abort them as often as Westerners; most of the times they do it, it is for medical reasons; hardly if ever their children are the products of their lust rather than legitimate love; They do not leave them to live in single parent families; if at all they do it on account of the divorce or the death of a parent, the extended families provide them love and security; They do not sexually abuse children to the extent and degree of the West; They breastfeed them more often for the medically advisable period of two years, which is also what is prescribed in the Qur’an; There are rare chances of children in Muslim countries being pushed in sex trade.
9. This latter study put the average life expectancy of male homosexuals nearly 30 years less than the general male population. Another study showed that, on average, ever-married men outlived the ever-homosexually-partnered by 23 years in Denmark (74 yr. v. 51 yr.), and 25 years in Norway (77 yr. v. 52 yr.). Obviously, homosexuality is a threat to the whole mankind, and it is the biggest threat to the life of homosexuals themselves. Pure permanent homosexuality is extremely rare in Muslims. There is no possibility of Same Sex Marriages; Owing to severe legal punishments, gay movements cannot prosper in Muslim societies;
10. While modern ideologies accept and promote prostitution and pornography despite their being the greatest threats to survival of humans, particularly women and children and family peace and social order, Islam has no place for them; Despite prostitution existing in several Muslim countries, it is nowhere, in terms of the number of brothels, revenues involved, number of prostitutes and number of customers, near the level that exists in most of the non-Muslim countries including Western countries;
11. According to another study, more than 95% of Americans are promiscuous. Teenage birth rate list shows that all the 18 countries listed belong to the so-called “Civilized World”. Not a single Muslim country appears in the figure. It is clear that: Islam as a system does not accept promiscuity while the so-called Free World not only accepts it and legally protects it but also commercializes it despite huge health and social hazards associated with it. The promiscuity rate in Muslim countries is negligible compared to Western countries; the rate of polygamy in Muslim countries can be described only as extremely low compared to the rate of promiscuity in the Western Countries.
12. About 140 million people throughout the world suffer from alcohol-related disorders. 100000 die in the US alone. In most of the Islamic countries, the problems related to alcohol are exceedingly low. Out of the 30 countries that have maximum consumption of alcohol, only Turkey appears at the end of the table..
13. Gambling related problems are much lower in Muslim countries. All top 10 gambling nations are Western countries.
14. The overall Life Expectancy of Muslims is high. It can be seen that the True Life Expectancy of top 25 Muslim countries is more than those of all the big powers. Even from the commonly followed definition of life expectancy at birth it is on the higher side, but with the changed definition (at conception), they beat almost all the fancied nations of the world including the big powers and countries like Japan, Australia, Canada and Singapore. This is despite the fact that the health infrastructure in Muslim countries is not as excellent as in Western countries. High life expectancy at birth as well as at conception along with a higher growth rate indicates that the system in Islamic countries, with Islamic prohibitions and permissions, which are naturally health-protective, is much more health friendly than in Western countries. —- The Life Expectancy at birth is good in most Werstern Countries; but it is almost nearly as good in top Muslim countries. In as many as 19 Muslim countries, the life expectancy at birth is more than 70 and it is more than 75 in 5 countries.
15. It can be seen that the literacy rates in the Muslim countries is generally very good with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan having about 99 pc literacy rate and ranked ahead of the US and UK, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Kuwait, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates have all a literacy rate of more than 90, Lebanon, Bahrain, Turkey, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and Oman have the percentage of more than 80…. The per population number of secondary school students in Indonesia is better than the United States and almost as good as India. The same is true with Iran, which has a better percentage than almost every country in the list… A 2010 report by Canadian research firm Science-Metrix has put Iran in the top rank globally in terms of growth in scientific productivity with a 14.4 growth index followed by South Korea with a 9.8 growth index.[126] Iran’s growth rate in science and technology is 11 times more than the average growth of the world’s output in 2009 and in terms of total output per year,
16. In top 5 ranking countries in terms of per capita income, there are 2 Muslim, both Arab countries, Qatar and UAE whose per capita income is more than the big economies like US, Australia, UK, France and Germany. There are 8 Muslim countries in the top 50 list. These include Saudi Arabia and Libya….The list shows Qatar at the top of the table with a growth rate of more than 16 and ahead of highly growing economies like China and India.Turkmenistan is at 7th place, Uzbekistan at 14th, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Turkey and Yemenon 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th. Other Muslim countries are also showing good rates. Western countries are not doing well. By 2025, Indonesia will be among six major emerging economies to account for more than half of all global growth, says a new World Bank report
17. All 17 countries in terms of highest suicide rates are typical Western countries. Suicide is almost negligible among Muslims, which speaks highly of their mental calm as well as family peace and social equanimity. Most of the factors leading to suicides like extramarital sex, family disintegration, alcohol, gambling and sex related diseases are minimal if not totally absent in typical Islamic societies. Added to this, an unshakeable faith in God and Hereafter armour them with incredible patience, which helps them in facing even the most depressing situations. Mental peace has direct relation with the level of religiosity and the kind of religion.
The study has shown that Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are among the top contenders for being the most civilised nation of the world. Qatar has in fact emerged as the most civilised country, with the third highest per capita income and the highest growth rate in the world, very high life expectancy and literacy rates, very little rate of crimes, with no involvement in any war, very low level of social vices and a strong family system. The performance of Turkey, Iran, Indonesia and Malaysia is also admirable. The Muslim countries that need attention are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sudan.
What is still more remarkable is that the author has taken care not to show disrespect to any religion, community or country and instead focuses on the system that governs the world today. While he has criticised Western forces, he has been candid enough to pay tributes to Western scientists who have provided numerous means of comfort to the mankind. His complaint is that the great services of the scientists to humanity have been undone by the economic fundamentalists to use these researches for economic and political hegemony.
Furthermore, he has been realistic enough to also focus on the shortcomings of Muslims, individually as well as collectively, and pays considerable attention on trying to find out solutions of the problems that afflict the Muslim world. He rightly argues that if Muslims have to emerge as a formidable force, they will have to think beyond sectarian and parochial issues. While he has contributed a full chapter on the age-old question of Shia-Sunni divide, he has argued that the real answer to the problem lies in Muslims realising the true and larger aim of Islam, which is to bring peace to the whole mankind. He has exhorted them to unite against the forces of chaos and has shown considerable sensitivity in discussing the need of all religions coming together in this struggle.
All said and done, this work has the potential of unveiling an intellectual and social revolution, led by Islamic philosophy of Natural World Order. The author deserves not one but repeated rounds of applause for accomplishing a task that will be remembered for a long time to come. The book is a Must-Read not only for Islamic intellectuals but also thinkers and commentators belonging to other religions and ideologies, as it introduces several new concepts, indices, phrases and terms. It is this holistic, ideologically aggressive, unapologetic approach that makes it an unparalleled work the like of which is hard to find in recent history.
[The author of the book can be contacted at: doctorforu123@yahoo.com]
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[After Chetan Bhagat, here is another 'sympathiser' of Indian Muslims who has followed the footsteps of Mr. Bhagat and wrote an Open Letter in North America's largest circulated weekly newspaper India Abroad. The 'sympathiser' gentleman couldn't muster courage ala Mr. Bhagat and preferred to conceal his identity. The gentleman has written under a Muslim pseudonym 'Zafar Shah Alam' (And, who knows he is a Muslim or not feeling the pains of the beleagured community!). The Indian Muslim Observer is reproducing the reply written by prominent U.S.-based community activist Kaleem Kawaja. The response by Mr. Kawaja is appropriate and eye-opener. -- Danish Ahmad Khan, Founder-Editor, IndianMuslimObserver.com]
About two weeks ago an article entitled "What India's Muslims Really Want" written by someone who used the pseudonym (assumed name) 'Zafar Shah Alam', appeared in 'India Abroad', the largest circulation weekly newspaper of the Indian community in North America. The article made many mischievous/ negative comments about India's Muslims and was similar to a similar recent article by Chetan Bhagat published recently in newspapers in India.
I wrote a response to that which has been published by India Abroad this week. Herebelow I am reproducing that article.
Thanks for your attention.
Kaleem Kawaja
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Letter to the Editor, India Abroad:
What India’s Muslims Really Want
The column with the above title in IA of August 2 by an individual who used the pseudonym ‘Zafar Shah Alam’ surprised me. First, I wonder why the person who wrote on such a sensitive issue has concealed his identity? Second, in contrast to the title of the essay, the writer said almost nothing about what India’s Muslims want.
The writer has completely ignored the numerous positive actions that many Muslim organizations in India have taken over the last four decades to bring the community in the national mainstream, to improve communal harmony, to improve education and skills in the youth, and has instead spent a lot of words to vent his negative view of Muslims, and to rehash several decades old derogatory allegations that have already been proved false. Today Muslims definitely do not want to go back into acrimonious public disputes of the past decades.
What India’s Muslims want foremost is help to develop the currently very poor infrastructure in their communities in various cities, namely roads, sanitation, schools, medical clinics, parks and opportunities for education and employment. The OBC Muslims and Dalit Muslims want that they should be given the same affirmative action help, like reservation in education and jobs, that their counterparts in the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities have been given since 1950, but which they have been denied unfairly.
Muslims want that the government implement the recommendations of the Government’s Sachar Committee report which highlights specific areas of socioeconomic uplift that the community acutely needs. They want security from the violence of anti-Muslim forces and police brutality, and just treatment from the government institutions in their daily lives. Muslims want to enthusiastically participate in the nation’s political processes at all levels. Muslims have full faith in the nation’s secular and democratic structure and its secular citizens who are no less than at least three-fourth of the majority Hindu community.
The writer has alleged that honor killings are not uncommon in the Muslim community, but there has not been even a single instance of honor killing in the Indian Muslim community at least since 1947. The writer makes the mischievous allegation that Muslims hold themselves apart from the rest of the country, but ignores the fact that everywhere in India Muslims mingle freely with others in schools, colleges, places of work, sporting and entertainment events, government events etc.
Browse the Indian newspapers, electronic media etc. and you will find adequate number of Muslim faces in every mix of Indians in proportion to their population. In higher level positions there is a shortage of Muslims based on the fact that Muslims do not have as much access to higher education as others.
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On the issue of Babri mosque the writer is again repeating the false allegation of the anti-Muslim forces that the Babri mosque was not a place of worship for Muslims; it was so until government stopped Muslims from praying there in 1949. As to the demolition of Babri mosque, the Liberhan Enquiry Commission report of 2009 has clearly indicted several senior leaders of anti-Muslim political parties for this crime and has recommended that they be tried in a court of law.
The writer again repeats the provocative allegation that during the 600 year long Muslim rule, Muslim rulers demolished Hindu temples and built mosques on them. Research by several reputed non-Muslim historians, including Prof Richard Burton and Prof Paul Brass has proved conclusively that barring a couple of such incidents by a couple of rogue rulers in six centuries, as a rule Muslim kings did not desecrate Hindu temples. In fact the same research shows that in the era before the Muslim rule some victorious Hindu kings demolished temples of the favorite deities of the other Hindu kings whom they defeated.
The writer’s calumny against the Muslim Personal Law Board is galling indeed. This Board established in 1973 with the assistance of the Indian government simply conducts advocacy that Muslims be allowed to live their lives according to the precepts of their religious scripture. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians have their own religious panels to oversee the implementation of their respective personal laws. Why does the writer want to force the Muslims alone to abrogate the guidance to them from their scriptures?
The allegation that the Board supports child marriage and opposes the right of children for free and compulsory education is patently false. Why should the Board endorse Salman Rushdie who has identified the wives of Prophet Mohammad with whores in a brothel in a desert in Arabia? Have any Hindu or Buddhist or Christian organizations in India ever applauded any authors who insulted their deities in such an obscene manner?
It is strange that in applauding Narendra Modi of Gujarat, and questioning Muslims as to why they do not support him, the writer does not even mention the killing of 2000 Muslims in central Gujarat towns in 2002 abetted by the Modi administration, including several key ministers in Modi’s cabinet and his top police officials from that period, who have been convicted in Indian courts- of- law by Hindu judges and have been jailed.
Additionally, since 2002 Modi administration has systematically cut off most municipal services like sanitation, transportation, repair of roads etc. in various Muslim majority areas in various cities in Gujarat, and has throttled the previously thriving economy of the Muslim community by imposing sanctions. Does any community anywhere vote for its oppressor? So why should Muslims be an exception?
Indeed today the biggest political opponents of Modi’s attempt to revive the sectarian and divisive politics in India are secular Hindus, many senior Hindu politicians including top political leaders in more than a dozen major states in India and even senior BJP leaders like LK Advani, Yashwant Sinha etal.
Today, India’s Muslims are focusing on resolving their core issues of backwardness in education and socioeconomic status by working closely with the majority Hindus and with the government. Today, Muslims are cooperating with Hindus and others and are contributing to the building of a modern and prosperous India. They have no desire to get entangled in the relegion based politics of the past.
Kaleem Kawaja
Association of Indian Muslims of America
Washington DC
August 2, 2013
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An open letter: What Muslims really want
If you are more than your rhetoric about a strong and united country, give us our due -- treat us as countrymen, says an ordinary Muslim in this open letter.
Dear Epistolarians,
I thank you for your concern about my community, and felt it would be rude not to reply Now to be clear, I do not claim to speak for India's 150 million Muslims but of them. No doubt, my own socio-cultural and economic biases will seep in frequently, but I do hope you are not still under the illusion of perfect objectivity.
To explain the lay of the land, you must first understand that Islam is not a centralised religion -- we have no Pope, even if we do have a fixed text like the other Abrahamic faiths. Islamic law, therefore, varies widely from region to region, and there are four schools of legal thought. Decrees from our clergy are only as binding as the acceptance of the particular qadi pronouncing judgment. In personal matters, that faith is high, but in matters of geopolitics, that trust runs much shallower.
Secondly, Muslims, like every other community, come in all hues -- some are conservative, while others are orthodox; some are liberal, while yet others are indifferent; some are spiritual, while a fringe are, admittedly, radical. If this spread is not repeated in every community whether you divide people based on religion, ethnicity, or something else, I will eat your taqiyah! So when you write "Dear Muslims," rest assured, most of us are looking around wondering, "Who, me?"
Now, let us start with the question on most of your minds: terrorism. I am sure most of you will agree that there has been a spurt in Islamic militancy, particularly in the last 15 years. Now, I am not sure if you noticed, but that violence carried out in the name of religion has less to do with its stated reason and more to do with power. Most terrorists have been dismal failures in expressing their cause, but US support of totalitarian regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc, overthrow of democracy in Iran, Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories, and other such political reasons have fuelled the upsurge in terrorism; tragically, its leaders use the ambiguous category of religion as a means of luring followers.
My explanation is not a defence of terrorist methods; in fact, the version of Islamic society these monsters envision -- beheading, capital punishment, stoning, extreme gender discrimination -- is abhorrent to many Muslims and goes against the most basic Islamic tenet of social justice (remember zakaat?). All but the radicals would agree that terrorists, whatever religion they claim to fight for, are enemies of society that should be resisted and defeated. just be wary of primitive social profiling based on ungrounded suppositions.
Muslims have fought Muslims from the earliest days of Islam just as much as they have fought non-Muslims. To this day, you see inter-sect as well as inter-faith conflict involving Islam, clearly indicating that religion is not necessarily the motivating factor in everything we do. To some, religion is important and to others, less so; yet to assume it is our only identity, even our prime identity, is about as sensible as assuming that someone buying a Tata Nano is expressing his or her solidarity with Narendra Modi because the factory is in Gujarat.
To turn this around a bit, let us ask you -- are you Hindu, Tamil, or Indian? Can you be all? Can you be motivated by just one of those in certain tasks, two of those in others, and all three in yet others? I suspect you can, so why do I have to choose between being Muslim, Tamilian, and Indian?
Then comes the issue of the crude stereotypes -- if you see all Muslims as Osama bin Laden or Hafiz Saeed, then by the same logic, are all Catholics like Tomás de Torquemada, Protestants like Anders Breivik, Jews like the first-century Kanaim or Yigal Amir, and Sikhs like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale? Are all Hindus traitors like B K Sinha or Madhuri Gupta and assassins like Madan Lal Dhingra or Nathuram Godse? Or perhaps you think A P J Kalam, Altamas Kabir, Idris Hasan Latif, Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi, and Asif Ibrahim are also terrorists? You can harbour such essentialist thoughts, but do not be surprised if we treat you as quacks.
Please don't misunderstand me -- there are indeed many problems with the Muslim community, and you are absolutely right that no one is taking on the fanatics out of fear. Yet to see this as a purely Muslim problem again misses the texture of the issue. For example, honour killings are not uncommon in Islam; yet they are not unheard of among Hindus either, particularly in the case of inter-caste or inter-faith relations.
While the anti-religious lobby brigade like to find fault with religion itself, the fact is that it is a cultural problem, and there have been cases of honour killings even among atheistic families due to their cultural influence. Similarly, with female genital mutilation, it is an abhorrent custom that has tried to creep into religion but remains largely restricted to Africa more than to all Muslim lands and communities.
Some of you wonder why we hold ourselves apart from the rest of India like partially immiscible liquids; Muslim ghettoes exist in every nook and cranny of India. Yes, it is true that we have our own communities. It is also true that many of us have mingled quite freely with our Hindu and other neighbours during festivals and other occasions for celebrations such as marriages and births. Again, the reasons for this need not be religious -- people segregate themselves based on caste, class, dietary habits, ethnicity, and various other criteria. You might not know this, but some Muslims refuse to live in certain Muslim areas for class reasons!
Personally, I have enjoyed the fruits of a liberal education in England, France, and the United States. I love my Faiz and Ghalib as much as I adore Balzac and Petrarch. However, very few people in the world -- of any religion -- have that sort of fortune. Imagine an Indian family of four earning Rs 69,000 per annum -- they would probably have to rely on state welfare and poor government schools to make ends meet.
In this intellectually stultifying environment, there is the added burden of quotidian life in India -- electricity and water shortages, corruption, poor infrastructure, and all those other problems successive governments have promised to solve since 1947. In the midst of these pressures, what do you think would be the impact of being asked repeatedly to prove one's patriotism? Of being asked to officially accept that one's ancestors were Hindu? Of being put in the spotlight for refusing to sing the Vande Mataram despite an explicit religious injunction on iconography? Of having to fight to eat whatever one wants? Of all those snide, covert and not-so-covert comments about one's ancestors having voted for the formation of Pakistan in 1947 and the suggestion that perhaps one ought to go there? Does a free citizen of a democratic country have to put up with such haranguing?
Before you all collectively jump down my throat, it ought to also be conceded that the recent walkout by the Bahujan Samaj Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq during the playing of Vande Mataram in Parliament was deplorable -- as a country of multiple communities, the respectful thing to do would have been to stay but not sing. I am glad to see that Barq's action has been criticised by voices from most segments of the political spectrum, the BJP, Congress, as well as the Communists. Such pandering to the radical votebank must have strong negative consequences.
Another issue that pops us when the "M" word is mentioned is the Babri Masjid. Hindus are right that the mosque was not of particular importance to Muslims, and that it was rarely used. However, any building that is over 450 years old is a part of Indian history and it ought to be of value for at least that reason. The merits of the case can be decided by the courts, but what is hurtful is the venomous Rath yatra led by L K Advani and the crowd mobilisation for the destruction of the structure. As if that were not enough, a year later, the Bombay riots orchestrated by Bal Thackeray in celebration only added salt to the wound.
While Advani has since said that his role was unintentional in the demolition and expressed regret for 6/12 his loss of control over the crowd, the Shiv Sena was allowed to disband the Srikrishna Commission. Reconvened with a skewed mandate that included the Bombay blasts of 1993, the report it produced was nevertheless rejected and no action has been taken to punish the guilty.
Muslims might eventually come to terms with Advani's and the Babri Masjid incident, but the unabashed revelry and criminal inaction of the BJP's ally in Maharashtra casts doubt on the sincerity of their outreach to the Muslim community.
The destruction of Indic religious structures and the erection of mosques upon those very sites is, no doubt, a grievous offence Muslim rulers of yore gave local populations, and a human tragedy. Yet is there no statute of limitations on these sorts of civilisational crimes? Should we exterminate the Israelis for killing and chasing out the Philistines from Judea some 3,500 years ago, or perhaps the Europeans and Americans for their intrusion into the New World?
Even among Muslims who are not particularly attached to the Babri Masjid issue, the question arises up to what point one can go back to settle old scores. Furthermore, what does it mean to be an Indian? In a multi-cultural society like India, short of genocide, these questions will continue to haunt unless a commonsensical approach is taken.
The greatest irony in all this Hindu-Muslim acrimony is importance you give to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The body is a private non-governmental organisation whose views are taken as largely representing all Indian Muslims. They threatened political action against the high court ruling on Babri Masjid, objected to Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival, disagreed with the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Act, opposed gay marriage, supported child marriage, and resisted change in divorce law for Muslim women.
Interestingly, while the government accepts this non-elected organisation's claim to represent all Indian Muslims, it is Muslims who have problems with the board -- there have already been two splinters, the All India Shia Personal Law Board and the All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board.
For all the talk of Shariah, how many Indian Muslim men actually have more than one wife? Most Muslims, in India or elsewhere, do not apply each and every facet of of Islamic law to their lives. By focussing on the AIMPLB, in essence, the Indian government has made, as Prayaag Akbar pointed out, a more regressive faction of the Muslim community the voice of all Muslims.
For all the hungama you raise about Muslims, how many politicians have challenged the AIMPLB's position as the sole voice of Indian Muslims? Would you allow, say, the Art of Living Foundation to represent all Hindus in religious matters? More importantly, why has my personal relationship with God become a matter of national policy?
No conversation on Muslims in India, particularly around elections, ends without mentioning the other "M" word -- Modi. Many of you would like to know why we do not support Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate. I am not sure if you noticed, but many did vote for him in the Gujarat assembly elections last year, and there are some Muslims in his party. So make up your minds -- did he win from Muslim-majority districts or do Muslims not vote for him? It cannot be both. As Zafar Sareshwala points out in an interesting article, (external link) most of Modi's critics are actually Hindu.
Non-support has many reasons -- disagreement with economics, distaste for others in the party, and yes, the unease many feel over the whole Godhra issue. You can score political points with the Congress about 1984 and whatever else, but as far as many Muslims are concerned, even those who acknowledge his governance record, there is a black mark against his name that will take time to fade away.
All this started with Chetan Bhagat's letter. There were issues with his letter, as many have pointed out, but the letter was really not as bad as people have made it out to be. Bhagat appealed to our better instincts, did not play up fault lines, and talked of Muslims as part of the Indian whole. Despite whatever analytical weaknesses exist in his letter, his intentions were, in all probability, noble. What we need is more reassuring Chetan Bhagats and fewer fear-mongering and hate-spouting Praveen Togadias or Subramaniam Swamys.
If you genuinely want to work towards a congruence of visions between India's two largest religious communities, learn about us with an open mind: historical flexibility and half-baked notions about civilisational friction are best left to demagogues. If you are more than your rhetoric about a strong and united country, give us our due -- treat us as countrymen.
Yours sincerely,
Zafar Shah Alam
[Zafar Shah Alam is the pseudonym of an education industry professional in the United States.]
(Published in Rediff.com, July 22, 2013 14:18 IST)
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By Bharati Dubey
Mumbai: A Dadar-based institute has discovered two ghazals in Urdu written by freedom fighter Veer Savarkar during his 11-year imprisonment in the Andaman Cellular Jail.
The ghazals, patriotic in character, are part of a notebook kept by Savarkar in prison, and there is much surprise that Savarkar has written in fluent Urdu, a language considered unlikely for the champion of political Hindutva. A ghazal is a sublime form of Urdu poetry.
The notebook was found in the collection of books handed down by the late S P Gokhale, an associate of Savarkar, to his daughter Manjiri Marathe, a trustee of the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak, who made the discovery.
The notebook is currently on display at the Smarak opposite Shivaji Park maidan.
Savarkar's grandson and chairman of the Smarak Ranjit Savarkar said, "Nobody knew of Savarkar's proficiency in Urdu till this manuscript was found." The two ghazals, running into five pages, portray Savarkar's hope for the freedom of his motherland, a hope he fervently nursed even while incarcerated in the Andamans, better known as Kaala Pani, from 1910 to 1921.
Notebook also contains a Hindi poem
The notebook containing Savarkar's Urdu ghazals also has a Hindi poem written by him, which runs into three pages, Savarkar's grandson said.
He added that except for certain Persian words, the ghazals can be understood by anybody, and the facing pages have their lyrics in Devanagri script.
Noted Urdu poet Nida Fazli, who saw the ghazals, reportedly commented, "Looking at their content and quality, it is clear that you cannot discriminate between languages on the basis of religion. Savarkar learnt and studied Urdu while serving a life imprisonment term in the Andamans. He was a great patriot, which is evident from his poetic creations."
Ranjit Savarkar said the notebook is a hand-made one, its cover fashioned by sticking jail records together. "During the last few months of his stay in the Andamans, Savarkar was made foreman of the oil godown in jail. There, for the first time, he had access to ink and paper. His earlier poems were written on the walls using nails and were memorised by him and then sent via prisoners returning to India. The prisoners too had to memorise the poems to carry them all the way to India."
The first part of the notebook is a scrapbook that includes pictures of personalities such as Rama, Krishna, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Shivaji, Lokmanya Tilak, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. "Savarkar was allowed to receive a few books/magazines from home once in a year. These pictures seem to be taken from those. The cover page is the cover of the Marathi magazine Chitramay Jagat," Ranjit Savarkar said.
Talking of how the discovery happened, he said, "The manuscript was sent to 'Wrangler' R P Paranjpe by Pyaremohan, who handed it over to the late S P Gokhale, an associate of Savarkar. Gokhale passed away in 2006. Manjiri Marathe, his daughter and trustee of the Savarkar Smarak, was informed by Ninad Bedekar, a historian, that he had seen a manuscript having Urdu writings of Savarkar in her father's collection. As his collection of documents and books runs into thousands, Manjiri Marathe, after many futile visits to Pune for the search, finally succeeded in finding this manuscript."
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
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Lathi-wielding men of Mahabir Akhada carried placards mocking Sonia, Manmohan and Nitish suggesting they were catering to ‘minority votes’
By Prashant Jha
On Sunday night, a traditional Hindu religious procession on the occasion of Nag Panchami at Bettiah in north Bihar turned violent. There were stone-pelting and clashes between sections of Hindus and Muslims. Local government vehicles, of the District Magistrate and the Superintendent, were burnt down. And curfew had to be imposed.
While there were multiple versions of the exact trigger for the incident, The Hindu now has in its possession photographs, which show that the procession had a strong, explicit, political subtext, with provocative political messages. This, it is alleged, infuriated sections of Muslim residents in a particular area, leading to clashes.
Lathi-wielding men of the Mahabir Akhada led a convoy of tractors, which had individuals carrying political placards, mocking United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suggesting they were all catering to ‘minority votes’.
In one tractor, a man, identified as ‘Nitish government’ is seen holding a placard with the message: “We are even ready to make minority voters our son-in-law.” Another man, pretending to be the ‘Congress government’, holds a placard stating, “For minority votes, we will put the country at stake.” And a third man is dressed in a lungi and a skull-cap, obvious markers of a Muslim identity, with a sheet plastered on his chest, identifying him as “minority vote-bank.” A man pretending to be Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is sitting in a chair, clad in kurta-pyjama with a slash of saffron, watching the other three figures.
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Traditionally, these processions are aggressive, with participants displaying their martial arts skills and carrying sticks and other traditional arms. But this kind of ‘blatantly provocative political content’, according to local observers, is a new element.
When the motley crowd of policemen on the beat saw the posters, an officer apparently asked the Hindu activists to remove them but they were snubbed and the crowd moved on.
When it entered Jora Innar chowk, a densely-populated area with a mixed settlement of Hindu trading castes and Muslims, very close to the Kalibagh temple — an area traditionally believed to be a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stronghold — the situation turned tense and stone-pelting began.
Abhay Mohan Jha, a senior journalist based in the town, told The Hindu on the phone, “This is a clear sign of politics getting married to religious festivities. This is an obvious result of the recent split of the National Democratic Alliance in Patna and the social schisms developing on the ground. But it was highly avoidable since the potential for trouble was obvious. The police should have been more alert.”
(Courtesy: The Hindu)
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IMO News Service
Mumbai: Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) launches its e-Newsletter on Independence Day, 15th August 2013. The objective of this e-Newsletter is to share key updates about AMP and its activities across the country and to motivate people to contribute with their efforts as well.
Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), a fast growing NGO which aims towards working for Peace and Progress within the society, in a short span of 6 years, has already become one of the well-recognized NGO at the National level. The idea of launching the e-Newsletter is to provide key updates regarding the various projects being implemented by AMP and the various activities being undertaken by its different Chapters spread across India, so that people are not just informed but are motivated as well to contribute with their efforts for the welfare and benefit of the society by replicating these various welfare initiatives at their respective locations and bettering on the same.
The e-Newsletter was launched at a small but meaningful function at Dr. M. A. Patankar’s spacious residence at Worli, Mumbai. Dr. Patankar is a great philanthropist and a well-known social figure who is very much concerned about and committed to the cause of community welfare. The function was also attended by a select list of some other well-known dignitaries from the Social circle. Mr.Aamir Idrisi, and Mr. Syed Najeeb briefed the gathering about AMP and its various activities, elaborating on the groups’ Mission, Vision, Aims & Objectives.
Addressing the gathering during the launch Dr. Patankar said, “I am very committed to the cause of community well-being and available 24 hours for this purpose. I have heard a lot about AMP and have been observing the kind of good work they have been doing. The eNewstletter is a great initiative and it would be wonderful to have organizations such as AMP who are well spread on the National level to come and join hands with us to further the cause of community welfare through this initiative. Organizations such as AMP are a great asset for the community and the nation. My support is always there for AMP.”
Habib Fakih, senior leader in the political arena and a social thinker, said while applauding AMP, “It is good to see the kind of wonderful activities being carried out by AMP. Through their flagship program ‘SDL’ it would be great to see them create more awareness among the masses in certain fields such as judiciary, Public Services etc. where we have minimal Muslim representation. I am sure the e-Newstletter would also work as a great impetus to create such awareness as well and indeed a revolution.”
A very famous and respected figure Maulana Hassan Nadvi was also present during the event said, “It is wonderful to see these young professionals working selflessly for the cause of community welfare. The Almighty has chosen these young men for this wonderful objective and I am sure they will go a long way in benefitting mankind. My good wishes and blessings are always with them.”
Haroon Rakhangi, President of Ideal Education Movement, who was also present during the event said, “I appreciate the good work being done by AMP. We have an infrastructure of 37 locations available where we work for the welfare of students. All these are at AMPs disposal and we would like to see how well AMP can utilize the same and extent its benefit to more such students.”
Sarfaraz Arzoo, Chief Editor, Hindustan Daily said that, “The well-planned manner in which AMP is executing its task is a great way to benefit the community and do greater good to the society and the e-Newsletter is another feather in its cap and is a great source of creating awareness among people.”
Iqbal Munir Khan, Senior Manager with ADCB Bank who was also present during the event said, “It is great to know about AMP’s other flagship programs as well namely the Mentorship program and with the launch of this wonderful initiative ‘AMP Connect’ I can foresee how well it is going to benefit the community in the long term.”
Moiz Miyajiwla, Finance Secretary of Anjuman Islam said, “I have been following AMP and its activities since quite some time and now I am really impressed with this new initiative as well which can create a revolution. It is great to see organizations such as these which are a great asset to the community.
The gathering also included Dr. Imtiyaz Kondkari, Mr. Mobin Syed, Dr. Khalid and Dr. Aabid from Sai Group of Hospitals among other dignitaries who applauded AMP and its work.
Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Aamir Idrisi said, “Our Independence Day is always a very special day for every Indian and we have deliberately timed our launch on this day. What better day to reach out to the public than this honorable day and we are surely proud to have the eNewsletter launch coinciding with this wonderful day. This will be a great medium for us to make not just every AMPian but every individual we reach, realize his rights and duties towards the community and the society and work for the betterment of the same.” He declared further, “Our forefathers have made huge sacrifices to gift us a free country, and through our humble and sincere efforts we intend to pave the path to create a better society.”
Syed Najeeb-Ur-Rahman, said,” As a responsible organization, we have always believed in the importance of reaching out to people and keeping them connected with the kind of constructive and fruitful work we have been doing and some interesting activities we have undertaken over the period of time. People around have always been fascinated by AMP and have wanted to be kept apprised of various developments taking place.” He further emphasized, “And mind you it is not just people within India but quite a few Social welfare groups abroad who have continuously shown interest in us and the kind of work we have done and shall be doing in future, Almighty Willing! And through this endeavor we intend to not only keep the people informed but also motivate and encourage them to do their bit for the welfare of the society.”
‘AMP Connect’ is presently being published as a Quarterly eNewsletter which will be published monthly over a period of time. The AMP eNewsLetter is being designed and created completely in-house. It is being compiled by a very hard working and efficient team of AMP members led by Ms. Fouzia Khursheed Ahmad, an educationist and researcher based in Delhi and having Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Associate Professor from Jalna, Ms. Asma Khan, Asst. Professor from Solapur, Ms. Mehek Kazi, Co-Founder, Astin Studios, Pune, and Habib Siddiqui from Doha, Qatar ably assisting her as part of the editorial team. Javed Sayed, AMP’s Design Head will oversee the creatives and designs.
Through the e-Newsletter, the group will apprise people about the exciting events that have keep on transpiring within AMP from time to time. It will also include details about AMP and its milestones achieved and further educating the reader about its various projects. The ultimate objective is to create better awareness and to galvanize more and more people to work for the benefit of the community, the society, the nation and the entire mankind.
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By Hanif Murad
The heretical triple talaq is sanctioned neither by the Quran nor by the Prophet's precepts
Talaq, talaq, talaq — the three dreaded words — if uttered by a husband in quick succession could, in less than a blink of an eye, unilaterally bring to an end the marital life of a Muslim woman. However, in what may come as a shock to numerous Muslims and others, the Quran — the holy book of the Muslims — does not prescribe this form of divorce at all.
In fact, the Quran has specifically laid down a formula of a three-tiered calibrated divorce, keeping in mind human frailties. The first two stages give an opportunity to the estranged couple to reconsider their decision and, if possible, reconcile and resume their married relationship.
But it is only the third and last step, if traversed, that would make the talaq irrevocable. Therefore, the most important injunction in the Quran, in this regard, is that after each pronouncement of talaq there has to be compulsorily a period of waiting or iddat that provides a timeout to reflect on the alternatives to a divorce.
And, neither the uttering of talaq, talaq, talaq in one sentence nor a single pronouncement to indicate an intention of irrevocably dissolving the marriage had the approval of Prophet Muhammad. A relevant Hadith on the subject, quoted in Islamic Research Foundation International, USA, would make it clear. "Maulana Usmani quotes from Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal that once Rukanah pronounced three divorces against his wife but later he was very sorry for it. When the Prophet (peace be unto him) asked him, 'How did you divorce your wife?' Rukanah replied that he had pronounced three divorces. The Prophet asked, 'Did you pronounce it in one sitting?' When he said, 'Yes,' the noble Prophet said, 'Treat it as one divorce only and, if you want, you can take your wife back.' And Rukanah took his wife back."
Hence, the triple talaq in one sitting is called talaq-ul-bidaat — a heretical talaq. The triple talaq, which Muslims are made to believe is based on divine revelation, is nothing but a man-made legal evasion created by a pliant Muslim clergy during the second century of the Muhammadan era.
This was done at the behest of the Omayyad monarchs who "finding that the checks imposed by the Prophet...interfered with the indulgence of their caprice, endeavoured to find an escape from the strictness of the law..." A G Noorani, the well-known Sup-reme Court lawyer, says with authority, "There is not a single verse in the Quran sanctioning the triple talaq or a single precept of Prophet Muhammad in its support."
The procedure of a Quranic divorce is civil even in time of turmoil. Allah recognises that there could arise disharmony in the married life of a couple wherein a separation may appear to be the only option. However, Allah is also aware of the disruption a divorce can cause in a family. Thus, it is prescribed in Verse 4.35 of the Quran: "And if ye fear a breach between them twain (the man and wife ), appoint an arbiter from his folk and an arbiter from her folk. If they desire amendment, Allah will make them of one mind..."
Thus, as a first step, even before the first talaq is uttered, the Quran ordains a meeting of arbiters, representing both the sides, to try to repair the relationship. However, if for any reason, they do not succeed, the Quran says in Verse 65.1: "...When ye do divorce women, divorce them at their prescribed periods, and count (accurately), their prescribed periods: and fear Allah your Lord: and turn them not out of their houses..."
The waiting period pres-cribed for women with menstrual cycles is three cycles, for those who do not have menstrual cycles (because of age or sickness), is three months and for pregnant women, until the delivery of child.
Once the first talaq is uttered, during the waiting period or thereafter, the separated couple can resume their marital relationship with a fresh nikaah. However, if after a period of time, friction again arises between them, they can opt for a second talaq following the same sequence as the first.
After having gone through, over a phase, the process of remarrying the same spouse twice, should further discord or strife arise between them, then the third talaq can be uttered. This time it is irrevocable. As the Quran says in Verse 2.229: "A divorce is only permissible twice: after that, the parties should either hold together on equitable terms, or separate with kindness."
Therefore, only the talaq, as prescribed by the Quran, rather than the talaq-ul-bidaat, should be made applicable to all Muslims in India. This idea is also supported by former chief justice of India R C Lahoti who had approvingly quoted the pronouncement of justice Baharul Islam that the triple talaq "is based on the concept that women were chattel belonging to men, which the holy Quran does not brook".
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
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The political rise of India's anti-Muslim Modi could spell danger for the region. Approval by British MPs bolsters his position
By Savitri Hensman
The far-right Gujarat nationalist, Narendra Modi, is one of the world's most controversial politicians. In 2002, when he was chief minister, Muslims were horrifically massacred in the western Indian state. He is now aiming to become prime minister of India, a huge country with nuclear weapons. It is disturbing that the Labour Friends of India, closely followed by the Conservative Friends of India, have invited him to address MPs in the House of Commons.
Modi is a key figure in the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), part of a Hindu supremacist movement that many moderate Hindus regard as opposing the core values of their faith. Eleven years ago, Gujarat police stood by or joined in as rioters burnt down homes, raped and killed, supposedly in retaliation for an attack on a train in which Hindus were killed.
The legal system has been slow to bring to justice those responsible for leading the violence, though some have now been convicted. Zakia Jafri, a survivor of a massacre in which her husband and 68 other Muslims were murdered, has been pursuing Modi himself through the courts. Human rights organisations have also raised concerns about dozens of unlawful killings by police in Gujarat.
His admirers are campaigning to make him appear respectable in the eyes of Indians and the international community, allowing him to pursue his ambition to take charge of India. Yet their efforts have been undermined not only by the persistence of human rights supporters, but also by his abrasive personality and defiant extremism. This year he made it clear he feels no guilt about the 2002 riots, comparing the killings to being in a car when a puppy is run over.
Days later he accused the rival Congress party of hiding behind a "burqa of secularism" to cover its failings. His party is also promoting his stance as an unashamed Hindu nationalist. Dissatisfaction with the current government's weaknesses, and a fragmented democratic opposition, may lead sizeable numbers of voters to turn to the BJP. India has the world's second largest population, with 1.2 billion people. Minorities and dissidents would be highly vulnerable if Modi were to become prime minister.
In addition it is a regional power and armed with nuclear weapons. If an anti-Muslim fanatic took control there, this could also destabilise neighbouring Pakistan, with which it has long had a tense relationship. An escalation of hostilities could have devastating consequences for the world.
A visit to the UK and approval by MPs could bolster Modi's international prestige, increasing his chances of winning power. After all, some voters may think, if British leaders regard him as a good choice to lead India, surely his critics must be exaggerating his failings?
Certainly the MPs who have invited him, including Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, and Shailesh Vara, Conservative MP for North West Cambridgeshire, do not seem deterred by his grim record and ongoing extremism. Their enthusiasm may prove embarrassing for their parties.
He is the "chief minister of the state in India with which Britain does the most business," Gardiner declared. "He is obviously a key player in Indian politics, and as such he is somebody British politicians need to hear from." The more such invitations he receives, the greater his chances of rising to the top.
The rest of us may be less keen to see him in charge of India, including its armed forces made up of 1.3 million men and women in uniform and an additional million in reserve, and with his finger on the nuclear button.
(Courtesy: The Guardian)
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By Muqtedar Khan
On 15th of August, India celebrated its independence from British Colonization. Congratulations to India. For nearly 200 years the British occupied and exploited India and its resources. But we all know this aspect of the British culture first hand and it does not need much elaboration here.
India too has emerged as a democracy after independence. It used to be a great civilization, now it is on its way to becoming a great world power. India is not only a successful democracy and an emerging fountain of knowledge for the World; it is also the other Holy Land. There are only four religions with over a billion adherents, two come from the Middle East (Islam and Christianity) and the other two were made in India (Hinduism and Buddhism).
Whether it is Indian software engineers, doctors, or professors, Indians are not only scripting a phenomenal story of growth in India, but are also driving growth everywhere in the World.
In the U.S. too Indians and their progeny are making an incredible impact. Bobby Jindal the Governor of Louisiana, Fareed Zakaria and Sanjay Gupta of CNN, Deepak Chopra, 11 Nobel Laureates, and thousands of scientists and entrepreneurs are making America a more scientific and prosperous nation. Kalpana Chawla the brave astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle accident was an Indian-American. And then there is yours truly.
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Maulana Azad was a remarkable man by any standards. He was a freedom fighter, a journalist, a scholar, a politician and a statesman. He was born in Mecca in 1888 in a family of Islamic scholars, who taught Islam in Mecca and Calcutta. He received a traditional education in Islamic sciences but in his early teens he recognized that much of his education was religious indoctrination. So he rebelled against it and declared his intellectual freedom and took the nom de plume - Azad. Azad means free.
He became a prominent player in India’s freedom struggle, motivated millions of Muslim Indians to join the movement through his various magazines and led the Indian National Congress during the crucial years from 1940-1946. He was an Indian Muslim leader and Islamic scholar who believed in Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the partition of India on religious grounds. He believed that a secular, democratic India would safe guard the freedoms of both Muslims and Hindus.
Azad’s faith in communal harmony came from his belief in the fundamental unity of all religions. Based on his reading of the Quran which claims that God has sent prophets with the divine message to all people, some of them known to Prophet Muhammed others he was not aware of (Quran 40:78) and that all religions are but one (Quran 23:52). It was this belief that made him reach out to Hindus, Christians, and Parsees, successfully.
In spite of his political responsibilities, Azad found time to write books on India and on the Quran. His magnum opus was a thirty-volume commentary on the Quran and several other treatises on the Quran and a history of India’s struggle - India Wins Freedom. No leader in the Indian subcontinent, Hindu or Muslim, could match him in erudition and scholarship. No contemporary leader in the entire Muslim World is able to combine political leadership and Islamic scholarship like Azad.
Muslims who live as minorities need leaders like Azad who emphasize respect for pluralism, believe in democracy and eschew mental and social ghettoes. Leaders who use religious identities as political instruments not only undermine the social harmony of societies but also do more harm than good for the very minorities whose interests they claim to advance. We live in an age of globalization, where boundaries are gradually losing their salience, in this age, politics of religious boundaries are artificial and counter productive.
I hope that American Muslims will discover Azad and learn how to live and lead in a secular democracy; and non-Muslim Americans learn that not all Muslim leaders in history were divisive and partisan. Many like Azad, seek political and religious unity.
[Dr. Muqtedar Khanis Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and a Fellow of the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (www.ijtihad.org).]
(Courtesy: IViews.com)
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By Danish Ahmad Khan
The Council of Indian Muslims (UK) has recently written an Open letter to British MPs decrying the invitation to Narendra Modi, Gujarat Chef Minister and prime suspect of 2002 pogrom.
Munaf Zeena, Chairman of Council of Indian Muslims (UK), has written the letter under his signature on 14th August 2013 and addressed to William Jefferson Hague MP, Foreign Secretary; Ms Theresa May MP, Home Secretary; Grant Shapps MP and Andrew Feldman MP, Chairmen Conservative Party; and ED Milliband MP, Chairman Labour Party. The letter has also been circulated among all British Members of Parliament.
The open letter has expressed utter disgust at the invitation by Labour and Conservative MPs to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to visit UK. Modi is considered to be one of the most controversial and polarising Indian politician. The letter said that this move would further encourage extremism in India and set a dangerous precedent in the British politics. The letter said that the invitation "will go down in history as yet another shameful blunder by British politicians— and by the British Government if a visa is issued to Modi — to please and encourage a fascist as was committed by Prime Minister Chamberlain who tried to appease Hitler in 1939".
Munaf thus wrote: "We, the British Indian Muslims, are writing this open letter to you, sirs and Madam, in utter disgust at the invitation by Labour and Conservative MPs to one of the most controversial and polarising Indian politician, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, to visit UK.
"This move will encourage extremism in India, will set a dangerous precedent in British politics and will go down in history as yet another shameful blunder by British politicians— and by the British Government if a visa is issued to Modi — to please and encourage a fascist as was committed by Prime Minister Chamberlain who tried to appease Hitler in 1939.
"In case this comparison is attributed to our emotionalism and is interpreted as farfetched please allow us to quote from the leaked report of British High Commission in India according to which the pogroms in Gujarat in 2002, “had all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and that reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims is impossible while the chief minister remains in power.” It further said, “far from being spontaneous” this massacre, “was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government.” (Emphasis added) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1951471.stm )
"This may sound very undiplomatic but the seriousness of the matter impels us to say that through this gesture a very wrong message is being given that might is right and economic interests come before principles.
"We are not unaware of a powerful BJP lobby, supported by Barry Gardiner the Labour MP from Brent North, doing PR work for Modi in UK. In fact in his election campaign Mr Gardiner even shamelessly published a testimonial from Modi on his website claiming, “Gujarat has no greater friend in Britain than Barry Gardiner.”
"Let us ask a blunt question if the attitude of Labour party, Conservative party and of the British Government had been the same if a Muslim MP had acted in such an unashamed fashion and lobbied and supported a figure with the record of allowing and supporting the massacre of minorities in a his country? And through this open letter this is an open question to every conscientious British politician to give a serious thought to.
"Please allow us to quote from the letter of Minister of State Rt. Hon Hugo Swire MP sent to us in response to our communiqué to Foreign Secretary William Hague in which he said, “...our policy is clear that entry shall be refused for immigration purposes or to any individual who may present safety or security risk; where their presence in the United Kingdom would not be conducive to the public good; or if there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that they have committed human rights abuses [emphasis added]...”
"In this context and in the light of the requirement of, “independent, reliable and credible evidence” we request you to refer to the above mentioned leaked report compiled by none other than our own British High Commission in India.
"Since Modi’s appointment as Chairman of BJP’s Campaign Committee for 2014 general elections, inter-communal situation in two northern Indian states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, has already worsened and there should be no doubt in the mind of anyone about the harm that the visit and presence of such a hate monger will do to race relations in UK.
"We fail to express our utter sense of disappointment and disgust at these overtures by British MPs and earnestly request you to review your policies and restrain these MPs from supporting the Neru and Hitler of our time."
Modi belongs to the principal opposition party in India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and has recently been appointed as Chairman of Election Campaign Committee for 2014 parliamentary elections. Modi widely sees himself as a prime ministerial aspirant and has left his senior party leaders like Lal Krishna Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Ms. Sushma Swaraj and others highly displeased and cut off from the party in the run up to the elections. Modi is bending over backwards and has been trying to woo Western powers in every way possible to allow him visas to visit the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. U.S. government considers Narendra Modi as a violator of human rights and continues to deny him visa for the past several years. Recently, BJP President Rajnath Singh had visited the U.S. seeking visa for Modi, but was rebuffed and had to return empty handed.
Narendra Modi being Chief Minister of Gujarat had presided over the worst ever pogrom orchestrated against Indian Muslims in 2002. The riots saw thousands of Muslims killed, pregnant Muslim woman's womb being cut open and foetus displayed on a sword as a trophy, thousands of Muslims burnt alive, displaced and their properties completely destroyed.
Narendra Modi continues to remain remorseless and refuses to openly apologize to Muslims for the 2002 riots. On several occasions he has tried to enact dramas to court Muslims. On one such occasion during Sadbhavna Mission fast, Modi refused to wear a skull cap given by a 'hired' Muslim albeit as a symbolic gesture, while accepting all kinds of headgears from different people. Modi recently rubbed Muslims the wrong way by expressing sadness over the riots and treating those killed at par with dog's puppy.
[Danish Ahmad Khan, a New Delhi-based Journalist, is Founder-Editor of IndianMuslimObserver.com. He can be contacted at danishkhan@indianmuslimobserver.com]
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August 20, 2013, 10:01 pm
Many Dalits enter the media because they believe it can empower their community. But discrimination against them is rampant in the Hindi and other language media. It is less pronounced in the English media, finds Ajaz Ashraf in an Independence anniversary feature. This is a Hoot special report.
Dalit participation in the media has been pathetically poor, despite reservation for them in media institutes. Why do they keep away from the media? Is it because they encounter discrimination, as they do in many other avenues? To study their negligible presence in the media, Ajaz Ashraf identified 21 Dalits who are or were journalists and spoke to them extensively about their childhood, their experiences in media institutes, and their disenchantment with journalism. In this first of the three-part series, they describe how their Dalit identity was formed and its link to their wish to enter the media world.
It is considered a miracle if you can prick the calloused conscience of journalists in Delhi and prompt them to introspect. Yet this is what journalist BN Uniyal achieved through a piece – In Search Of a Dalit Journalist – he wrote for The Pioneer on November 16, 1996. Uniyal’s was in fact a veritable odyssey that he embarked upon in response to a request from a Delhi-based foreign correspondent. Could he, asked the correspondent, recommend him a Dalit journalist to whom he could speak on the squabble between the media and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshi Ram?
In that moment Uniyal realized that in all the 30 years he had worked as a journalist he had never met a fellow journalist who was a Dalit. “No, not one,” he wrote. He took the foreign correspondent’s request to friends, editors, and columnists. None knew of a Dalit journalist. Uniyal then leafed through the Press Information Bureau’s booklet listing the names of 686 accredited journalists. Of them, 454 had caste surnames, none of which suggested he or she was Dalit; he called at random 47 of the remaining 232, and still drew a blank. Distraught, he wondered, “What would journalism be like if there were as many journalists amidst us from among the Dalits as were among the Brahmins.”
Four months ago, I stood waiting to have my passbook updated at the Central Bank of India branch located on the verdant campus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in Delhi. As I wondered over the employment prospects of students whom mushrooming media institutes were turning out in numbers beyond the capacity of the slowing market to absorb, Uniyal’s piece unspooled out of memory. IIMC is a government institute, I thought, which must therefore have reserved seats for Dalits from its inception in 1965. Questions assailed me: Why couldn’t Uniyal identify a single Dalit journalist in 1996? Where do Dalit students disappear after securing post-graduate diploma in journalism from IIMC, arguably among the best media institutes in the country?
I requested the office of Sunit Tandon, Director-General, IIMC, to provide me a list of Dalit students who had been admitted in the reserved category over the past few years. (Dalit, or downtrodden, is a broad category but Dalit in this piece means Scheduled Caste and both terms have been used interchangeably). As I waited for the names to be collated, I trawled the internet to read articles on Dalit representation in the media. The picture these readings conveyed was dismal.
I met journalist Anil Chamadia, chairman, Media Studies Group (MSG), which along with political scientist Yogendra Yadav conducted in 2006 a survey of 37 media organisations boasting a national presence. Not a single Dalit held the top 10 positions in any of the organisations. The MSG also surveyed 116 IIMC-trained correspondents and found that, till June 2011, only six of them were Dalit.
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I also realised that Uniyal’s piece, contrary to my belief, hadn’t prompted editors to introspect. To celebrate the dawn of the new millennium, The Pioneer invited Uniyal to write for its eight-page Dalit supplement. He asked them to run the piece he wrote in 1996 with the following lines: “The article…was totally ignored by our journalistic establishment… None felt aghast or alarmed at the situation described in the article…No one felt there was a need for making special efforts to draw qualified Dalits into the media." These anecdotal accounts and Uniyal’s expression of dismay deepened for me the mystery of where Dalit students passing out from the IIMC wind up. Do they all choose not to enter the media? Where do they go, then?
In the third week of May, I was forwarded a list of over a hundred Scheduled Caste students who had passed out of IIMC over the last five years. I began calling them, randomly choosing phone numbers from the list. A substantial number were no longer in operation; a couple took my call but accused me of encroaching on their privacy, which I was and for which I apologised profusely; there were a few who promised to meet me, but subsequently refused to take the umpteen calls I made to them.
A good many, though, were willing to narrate their stories of what made them harbour dreams of working in the media and discuss their experiences in it. Yet, most of them said they could meet me only in the week following June 2, busy as they were preparing for a competitive examination. What they told me was news to me: on June 2, Prasar Bharati was conducting a written test for recruiting 1166 Programme Executives (PEX) and Transmission Executives (TEX), who constitute the backbone of AIR and Doordarshan stations around the country. I was a tad bewildered, having been weaned on the idea that real, free, untrammelled journalism, despite the erosion of these values over the years, is practiced in the non-government realm. This idea now stood challenged.
Over the weeks, I met those who had passed out from IIMC in the recent past, and they led me to their seniors as also to those who did not study at their alma mater but are journalists. Altogether I met or interacted over phone or email with 21 who were or are journalists, of whom one was an OBC, included here for a particular reason. Ten of them are in Hindi journalism, eight were or are in English, two in Telugu, and a clutch of them in Prasar Bharati, whom I am counting as one, for they preferred their problems to be articulated by the general secretary of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Union, fearing victimisation.
Only two of the 21 wished to have their names changed.
Lengthy conversations with them broadly suggest the following:
-- Many Dalits enter the media because they believe it can empower their community and help focus on issues hobbling them.-- Dalits have a greater presence in the Hindi or other Indian language media than in the English media.-- Discrimination against and antagonism to Dalits is rampant in the Hindi and other language media; it is less pronounced in the English media.-- Nonetheless, discrimination is a principal factor behind their decision to leave the private sector media and opt for government jobs.-- Apart from discrimination, they feel a career in the media is a risky proposition.-- Their weak economic base makes them fear job insecurity which is a defining characteristic of the private sector.
This bland list conceals tales both tragic and inspiring, of oppression and discrimination and humiliation deeply felt, including by those who are middle class, and their struggle to overcome impoverishment and social inequality. Through their experiences was constructed their Dalit identity and the manifold meanings it held out for them and others. Often, the process through which their identity was created spawned in them the desire to enter the media. Indeed, a study of the experience of Dalits in the media without linking it to their childhood or teenage years is an incomplete picture.
Identity in the crucible of conflict
Santosh Valmiki is a principal correspondent in the Lucknow bureau of Hindustan. (He also reads news on Lucknow Doordarshan) His designation will not tell you of the poverty he grew up in, and how it defined his identity. His father was a driver and alcoholic and mother a manual scavenger. From an early age, Santosh accompanied her as she went from house to house cleaning toilets. Keen to ensure an education for her son, she would set aside a portion of her earnings, pawn jewellery or incur debts to pay his school fees.
When Santosh entered Lucknow’s Christian College, expenses mounted overnight to outstrip her indefatigable spirit. Refusing to let penury cow him down, he began to sit on the pavement across Akashvani Bhawan, selling newspapers, as also reading them, and contributing to the children’s supplement of Swatantra Bharat. You could say journalism and his Dalit identity were knitted together seamlessly.
At the IIMC interview, for which he qualified after clearing a written test, he was asked how many newspapers he read daily. Nine, he said. Nine, exclaimed the interviewers, not aware of how newspapers sustained him economically and stimulated him intellectually. When he was to leave Lucknow for the nine-month course in post-graduate diploma in Hindi journalism, his mother handed him 90 notes of Rs 10 denomination, divided into three equal bundles. Son, she said, you are to spend a note daily. This amount was in addition to the Rs 15000 the family had raised for Santosh’s tuition fees.
Success’s steps are often small, taken one at a time. Santosh won a scholarship and consequently the Rs 15000 was returned to him. He went on to top IIMC, and the photograph of the convocation ceremony showing him receiving the award from then Union Minister KR Narayanan was published in a newspaper. He was the talking point of the Valmiki community: a son had risen from amidst them to even stir Delhi. You would think Santosh would be satisfied in having catapulted, Amitabh Bachchan style, from the pavement into the bureau of a major national daily. Judge him not from the obstacles he surmounted to achieve what he has, but against his own potential. Still a principal correspondent after having worked in the media for over two decades ago, he said, “Those junior to me in the profession have become editors.”
It is not just through poverty and supposedly polluting nature of their jobs Dalits begin to fathom who they are. Ask Ved Prakash, currently assistant producer in Total TV, who first learnt about his socially defined inferior status through the tone in which upper castes spoke to Dalit elders, and because, as a child, he’d be reprimanded for retaliating against upper caste children in fights they would trigger. There were also other realities fashioning his idea of self – for instance, his father, who was a clerk in Bihar’s revenue department, had brothers who climbed palm trees to bring down taadi (toddy) and his mother’s brother was a mason.
I met Ved at night, on the sprawling campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and sat on the floor of a building, under a fluorescent tube. Close to midnight, knots of students were still huddled around Ganga dhaba or seated on boulders dotting the open space across it. Their chatter drifted across to us in the sultry night, telling us they were planning their future. “I wanted to increase Dalit participation in the media, to use it to challenge the social structure,” Ved said.
This desire was born in Ved because he experienced the cutting edge of caste at the time he was appointed a teacher in the primary school of Kashichak block, Nawadah. During his tenure there he completed his M. Com and then enrolled for Masters in Mass Communication at the Nalanda Open University. A village should have feted a master so accomplished. It was in fact just the reverse – upper castes resented that their children had a Dalit teacher.
One day, Ved pointed to the errors in the notebook of a pupil who took tuition from an upper caste teacher of the same village. In Bihar’s matrix of caste, Ved was deemed to have crossed a red line. The upper caste teacher accosted him in the local market, rubbished his educational qualification, and began to push him around until others intervened. But the hurt upper caste pride demanded vengeance. Subsequently, an infamous upper caste bully accused Ved of spanking an ironsmith’s son, and publicly beat him up. Ved invoked the Scheduled Caste and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the assailant, and also decided to take the IIMC entrance examination, which he successfully cleared last year. He is now in Total TV, drawing a salary of Rs 8000, an amount he thought he could earn driving a three-wheeler, and on which he finds hard to live in Delhi.
To IIMC also came, years earlier, from Bihar’s district of Gopalganj, Ashok Das, who edits a little magazine, Dalit Dastak. His life, you could say, was lived simultaneously in two separate compartments – his friends in school and college were all upper caste, but in the Brahmin colony his family resided in, his father, a clerk, was served tea in a tumbler different from others. The prasad, or offerings, of the satsang his mother organised at home, and which Ashok would distribute in the colony, was invariably found in the litter bin.
“I joined the media because I realised early the power of pen,” he told me, as we sat in the Costa Coffee shop in Delhi’s Bengali Market, the aroma of coffee, the glass-paneled walls, and pastries and patties providing a contrasting backdrop to the reality of his youth. When in Class XII, perturbed at the floods ravaging Gopalganj district every year, he wrote to the director of a Delhi-based NGO, wondering what measures the people could take to alleviate their plight. Not only did the director reply, he even came down to Gopalganj and handed him at a public ceremony a cheque of Rs 15000. Hail the Power of Word, through which you can sway people whom you have never met or spoken to. It inspired Ashok to take the IIMC entrance examination after graduation.
When Ashok came to Delhi in 2005, his official documents gave his surname as Kumar. He was not Ashok Das then. Perhaps his father had registered the surname as Kumar in the hope of concealing his caste. In years to come, the ambiguous surname would elicit suspicious inquiries, as also invite discrimination in the media, goading him into rediscovering the activist lurking inside him.
On the map of India, from Delhi, push west to reach Mahwa tehsil,Dausa, Rajasthan, where Satyendra Murli, who passed out from IIMC this year and has been recently recruited by Hindustan, grew up. In his hometown’s bucolic surroundings he witnessed caste-related discrimination and oppression: his mother and sister were dragged by their hair out of the local temple; and those of dominant castes would call Dalits by their caste names in abusive ways. It was here he and his schoolmates drank water from the pot reserved for the headmaster, but it was only he who was singled out for punishment, which entailed him squatting on his haunches for 30 minutes, lace his arms between his thighs and calves, and hold his ears. He was, to use the colloquial term for it, made a murga.
It was because of these experiences he became inclined towards organisations engaged in the issues of human and civil rights. Exposure to them inspired him to enroll, after completing his graduation, for Masters at the Centre for Mass Communication, Jaipur. Simultaneously, Satyendra began to work for the media in Jaipur, and encountered in the newsroom the deadly virus of discrimination.
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Through his writings he exposed atrocities and the deplorable condition of the Dalit communities. Yet he also realised the pervasive presence of antagonism in the media against Dalits and issues pertaining to them, developing a theory of his own on why certain stories are played up and others ignored. “The media,” he said, “has five Cs governing it.” He listed these as Controversy, Crime, Cinema, Cricket, and Corporate. Only a story falling in one of these five categories is covered. He added sardonically, “Violence against Dalits comes under Crime and is consequently covered. All other aspects of their life don’t make for a story.”
“The media,” Mallepalli Laxmaiah said, “has five Cs governing it.” Controversy, Crime, Cinema, Cricket, and Corporate. “Violence against Dalits comes under Crime and is consequently covered. All other aspects of their life don’t make for a story.”
In Hyderabad also lives Chanti Kranti Kiran, who is the Input Editor of V6 News, a TV channel that Dalit Congress MP G Vivek owns. Its world is the inverse of media outlets you find generally. For instance, you can count in V6 News Brahmins and Kamma employees on your fingers and perhaps still not reach the number 10. But Kiran’s wasn’t a smooth, straight journey to V6 and, as is true for so many other Dalits, he too encountered speed-breakers and precipitous turns.
Imparting lessons in courage to Kiran was his father, a schoolteacher and social activist who worked with SR Shankaran, the legendary IAS officer. Among the tasks entrusted to Papa Kiran was to click photographs for documenting evidence against public places practicing untouchability. On these field trips Kranti Kiran went for the first time when in Class XI, learning that segregated social arrangements were neither legal nor humane. Considering his background, it seemed natural for him to participate in movements for Dalit and civil rights, and then to enter the media, which lull the conscionable into believing that their efforts are a blow, however light, for social justice. Till then, Kiran had fought for the dignity of others; in the media he was to fight for his own.
These six men of different ages, growing up in different decades, residing in different regions of the country, were led through their interface with the society to accord infinitely greater salience to one of the many identities they, as all of us, have. That was their Dalit identity, and the consciousness it engendered propelled them inexorably towards the media.
But ask the question: would these men have had a different sense of their selves had their fathers been clerks or officers in a metropolis? Would the city-life have facilitated their escape from the web of caste with their wings fluttering? Would they have still joined the media? And for what: money, glamour, the need to have a livelihood and career? I pondered over these questions and then tried to locate journalists whose background was predominantly urban and middle class. The first such person I encountered was one whose perceptions were different from those who I had met.
Do class, urban anonymity provide protection?
Dalit identity and discrimination are perhaps mere footnotes in the life story of Sanghpriya Gautam, whose sartorial elegance, etiquette, and style of conversation could have you slot him with the swish crowd of urban Delhi. Son of a government official based in Delhi, he knew life for his family wasn’t always comfortable – his grandfather, after all, had retired as clerk from the Combined Defence Services canteen. No doubt, he had heard stories about the family’s hard days in the past. But then, as they say, seeing is believing, and what he didn’t experience he couldn’t consider it as his lot. Sanghpriya didn’t encounter caste biases in the Kendriya Vidyalaya he studied, and definitely not in Jawaharlal Nehru University from where he graduated in Russian.
Yes, he was interested in social issues, but the primary motivation for him to take the IIMC entrance examination was to remain, as he said, close to JNU, which abuts the media institute. Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t dreaming of a Communist revolution and waging war on Capitalism; he was besotted with JNU for its bewitchingly liberating ambience. Over the phone I had told him about Uniyal’s piece and he had googled it to read it, eager to critique it as soon as we sat in at Café Coffee Day on Tolstoy Marg. “Uniyal’s piece is outdated. Journalism is a passion-driven profession. Our motivations are now different. Economic liberalisation offers us new opportunities.” Sanghpriya lasted all of ten days in a premier national TV network, his spirit dampened by their definition of news, and has no regret for opting for another career as journalism wasn’t an obsession with him.
The bustling city of Delhi may have embraced Sanghpriya with the warmth of egalitarianism, but it did not his batchmate, Naveen Kumar, who walks with a bounce, and has a touch of insouciance about him. His father is an engineer and Class I officer in Delhi, but because he was the first in the family to leapfrog into the middle class, he had to shoulder a disproportionate share of familial obligations – there was, for instance, family debts to be repaid. “It takes two-three generations for a family to become financially secure,” Naveen said to me as we sat sipping tea in a corner of Delhi’s Press Club.
Perhaps the need to save every paisa, or because of the sense of entitlement, Naveen availed of the facility Kendriya Vidyalas extended to Dalits – they paid a monthly fee of Rs 25, against the Rs 200 others did. It caused much heartburn among students, who would ask loud and clear: why do they pay only Rs 25? Invariably, someone would snigger and answer: “They are Chura-Chamar and even Naveen is an SC”, singling him out because he dressed well. Deeply hurt, he complained to his father about the taunt he was constantly subjected to. Ignore them, his father said.
Years later, while studying in an evening college affiliated to Delhi University, Naveen momentarily flattened the rigid social hierarchy through a relationship with an upper caste girl, who, horror upon horror, had earlier turned down the overtures of a boy from her community. The incensed Jat Sikh students picked a fight with Naveen, and issued a fatwa barring him from entering the college. He didn’t turn to his father for help. Instead, he complained to Delhi University’s Ambedkar Students Organisation (ASO), which threatened to invoke the Scheduled Caste and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the guilty students. The ban was promptly rescinded. A fiery ASO activist was born.
From stage to stage he hopped delivering passionate speeches, and also harboured the wish to undertake a comparative study of Ambedkar and Gandhi. He cleared the Delhi University entrance examination for MA in philosophy, but found the classes conducted in English difficult to comprehend. He took the suggestion of a friend: “Take the IIMC examination,” the friend said, “you can continue your activism through journalism.” In 2007, Naveen entered IIMC. Caste sneaked in with him there as well.
I turned to journalists from cities not counted among the five metros. Vipashana Kamble, today, works in Mumbai as a senior copy editor on the city desk of The Times of India, but much of her early life entailed skipping from Akola to Aurangabad to Kolhapur, where her father, a lawyer from Latur, was selected as a member (judge) of the industrial court. His selection changed her class, but not her caste identity, of which she and her brother were already aware of before they joined their father in Mumbai.
This awareness was partly because of the stories their parents narrated about their own childhood. Invariably, at least in her father’s account, there were details of distressing experiences he had encountered, emanating from who he was: a Dalit. Her Dalit identity was reinforced because the neighbours in those three towns never forgot to remind her mother about her caste. Her mother resented the surname of Kamble which was substituted for her earlier, more ambiguous family name of Jagatkar on her marriage. So when Vipashana was asked for the first time in school about her caste, she said, “I don’t know.”
You’d think cities in the Hindi heartland would bear severely on their Dalit residents. But then, providence provides protection againstdiscrimination through inconceivable ways. Animesh Biswas belongs to Bengal’s Namashudra community, but he grew up in Kanpur, to where Indian Railways posted his father 20 years ago. In the perpetually simmering caste cauldron of Uttar Pradesh, Animesh was identified as a Bengali. He was not deemed to have a caste. Munching on a plate of crisp honey potato in a Chinese restaurant at Connaught Place, Animesh said he didn’t encounter discrimination in school, in Delhi’s Hans Raj College or IIMC.
He spoke of his Scheduled Caste background at a decibel audible to others at adjoining tables, in contrast to some who chose to converse in a low voice at public places. Not one instance of discrimination, I asked to jog his memory. He laughed and said, “Only now. When I respond to ads under the category of Caste No Bar on Shaadi.com and tell them about my Namashudra background, communication ceases at once.” He said he took the IIMC examination because he thought his BA degree in history would be a useful resource for media studies. A few years later, though, Animesh was to veer away on a course different from journalism.
The ten stories you have read so far can’t be extrapolated to build a theory. Nevertheless, Dalits who experienced caste-based discrimination and oppression in its more severe forms were inclined to view the media as a tool of resistance or reform, as against those whose Dalit identity was built predominantly upon the narratives of elders. The latter tended to view the media as the site for building a professional career.
Stumbling upon identity
The vital role parents play in how a person constructs his or her idea of self inspires some Dalits living in a metropolis to emphasise on the class rather than the caste identity. Yet, such attempts unravel as caste pops out inadvertently. Take Divya (name changed), whose father, a Junior Warrant Officer in the Indian Air Force, decided to settle his family in Ghaziabad, into which the city of Delhi has now merged seamlessly. (Divya uses a surname but it has been deliberately held back to ensure her identity isn’t revealed accidentally)
The vital role parents play in how a person constructs his or her idea of self inspires some Dalits livingin a metropolis to emphasise on the class rather than the caste identity..
Divya lives in a typical middle class colony. Typically too, neighbours bicker and engage in arguments there. When Divya was in Class X, her mother and their neighbour had an argument, and as neither relented, it turned into a nasty quarrel. Upset, Divya’s mother remarked aloud, “They only have to find an excuse to trouble us.” It seemed an irrational statement to Divya, who ticked off her Mom: why would you say that? Perhaps discerning the tone of disapproval in her daughter’s voice, she spilled out the truth, upset and angry as she was. “Because we are Scheduled Caste,” said the mother.
This statement had Divya reeling under shock. Her initial response was: why didn’t you tell me earlier? Later, Divya began to join what she called “the dots in my life.” There were children of her age in the colony who had been averse to befriending her. To her mother, Divya said, “All my life I thought there was something wrong with me. But now I know it was all because of my caste.” Subsequently, Divya’s father lectured her on the grating intricacies of the caste system, the status of Dalits, and the philosophy of reservation.
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Belated discovery of her Dalit identity was also the case with Ankita Kumar, who did her diploma from IIMC in English in 2011 and now handles the social media account of an insurance company. Both her parents are Air India executives. Perhaps they did not want caste to wriggle into their middle class existence, or perhaps they were waiting to tell Ankita the truth at the time it was absolutely necessary – for instance, before she was to seek college admission that requires those applying for seats in the reserved category to submit caste certificates.
It was Ankita’s cousin who told her who she was. It numbed her with fright. Discussions on caste would freeze her into silence, as these invariably reminded her about the identity she had kept secret from others. When questioned by her friends about her caste, Ankita would stonewall them, “The only thing I know is that I am from Uttar Pradesh.” Ankita didn’t want to own up to her identity because she was apprehensive of losing her friends, believing they wouldn’t want to associate with Dalits.
So then, why did she agree to interact with me? She said her worldview had changed. “I am dating a Pandit, a ‘high caste’ boy according to society,” she wrote to me, choosing to interact over the email as she said she would feel uncomfortable answering my questions in a face-to-face meeting. “He loves me deeply. My caste doesn’t matter to him. I guess this explains my confidence,” Ankita explained. For a person who hadn’t glimpsed the menacing visage of caste, other than the anxiety her cousin induced in her through his revelation, it wasn’t surprising she chose to join IIMC because it was what others around her too were doing.
It is also paradoxical that affirmative measures for Dalits can shatter the comfortable anonymity city-life offers them, and lead to their stigmatisation. Earlier, as we have seen, Naveen Kumar’s first brush with caste prejudices was because of the concessional school fees he paid. In some ways, it was the also the experience of D Karthikeyan, The Hindu’s principal correspondent in Madurai.
Born in a remote village of Kanyakumari district, he shifted to Coimbatore, where he went to a government-aided Christian school. He knew he was Dalit, but not what it symbolised to others. This knowledge seeped into him every time the office clerk called out the “names under the SC list” for collecting scholarships. This differential treatment, meted out insensitively, made him feel “bad”, as it did other Dalit students.
Affirmative measures for Dalits can shatter the comfortable anonymity city-life offers them, and lead to their stigmatisation.
Over the years, Karthikeyan read Periyar and Ambedkar and organised students to fight for their rights on caste basis. He subsequently went to the Centre for the Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, to pursue his M.Phil, where to him was underscored the importance of participating in the intellectual sphere. Unable to secure a fellowship for PhD in the London School of Economics, he entered journalism, going on to hunt stories pertaining to the Dalit issue for his newspaper.
Ultimately, as the example of Karthikeyan demonstrates, what you make of what happens to you – ranging from the unbearable to the terrible to the insignificant – also depends, perhaps crucially, on the sensibilities of the individual, whether he or she struggles for their rights or merges into the quiescent mass.
Remember some of these people mentioned here. They are going to pop in and out in subsequent sections.
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Cast of Characters
1) Santosh Valmiki
Mother was a manual scavenger; he sold newspapers for a living. He’s now a principal correspondent, Hindustan, Lucknow
2) Ved Prakash
As schoolteacher, he was beaten up by upper castes. He works as assistant producer, Total TV.
3) Ashok Das
Clerk’s son, upper caste colleagues didn’t want to live with him. He publishes and editsDalit Dastak, a monthly.
4) Satyendra Murli
Mother, sister evicted from temple, experienced caste biases in the media. Now withHindustan.
5) Mallepalli Laxmaiah
His uncle was killed, and he was picked up under TADA. Columnist with Telugu newspapers, founded Dalit Study Centre.
6) Chanti Kranti Kiran
Helped father collect evidence against untouchability, he is now Input editor, V6 News, Hyderabad.
7) Sanghpriya Gautam (English)
A JNU student; never faced discrimination. He left a premier TV channel to join PR.
8) Naveen Kumar
Barred from a Delhi college on account of caste, in media taunted for his caste, he is now in a Hindi daily.
9) Vipashana Kamble
Daughter of an industrial court judge, she is now a senior copy editor, The Times of India, Mumbai.
10) Animesh Biswas
Grew up in Uttar Pradesh, he never faced discrimination. Left journalism for PR.
11) Divya
Discovered she was Dalit late in life, she worked in a Delhi newspaper for two years Wants to go for higher studies.
12) Ankita Kumar
Discovered her caste late, she hid her identity from friends. She currently handles a social media account of an insurance firm.
13) D Karthikeyan
Felt bad when his name would be announced for SC scholarship in school. He’s now the principal correspondent, The Hindu, Madurai.
[The author, a Delhi-based journalist, thanks Sunit Tandon and Anil Chamadia for their invaluable assistance and guidance in this project. He can be reached atashrafajaz3@gmail.com]
(Courtesy: The Hoot)
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August 20, 2013, 10:09 pm
By Maroosha Muzaffar
Few Indian politicians evoke dislike and admiration as intense as that inspired by Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. Mr. Modi is the de facto prime ministerial candidate for India’s leading opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the 2014 parliamentary elections. Mr. Modi has been remodeling himself as a pro-business, pro-development leader who can bring about economic growth and make difficult decisions. Yet the ghosts of the 2002 sectarian violence, in which more than 1,000 Muslims were killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes under his watch in Gujarat, along with his continuing use of derogatory language to refer to India’s Muslims, has raised concerns about his political rise.
In 2005, the United States government denied Mr. Modi a diplomatic visa and revoked his existing tourist/business visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes a foreign government official who is responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom ineligible for an American visa. The decision placed Mr. Modi in the company of, among others, associates of Slobodan Milosevic and an Indonesian Army general who was suspected of torture. Mr. Modi has been lobbying to have the decision reversed.
Maroosha Muzaffar spoke to Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chairwoman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan government commission that reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress about the commission’s insistence on keeping Mr. Modi off American soil.
Q. On a recent panel, you requested the U.S. State Department to continue the visa ban on Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Mr. Modi is the de facto prime ministerial candidate for India’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the country’s national elections in 2014. How does the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom see these developments?
A. For the people of India, I think it is important for them to consider very carefully who it is who they want to be their next prime minister. It is no outside nation’s or no individual’s role to tell them who should be the next leader of India. But I think it is a bit of information that will help them as they go through that electoral process. It is our view and view of many others that Mr. Modi shall not be granted the privilege of U.S. visa because of the very serious doubts that remain and that hang over Mr. Modi relative to his role in the horrific events of 2002 in Gujarat.
The International Religious Freedoms Act, under which we were created, provides very specifically for the requirement that our government should not issue visas to officials that are implicated in serious abuses of religious freedom rights. That provision absolutely applies in this instance. While it is impossible to project down the road, we feel it is important to stand up for the principle involved here, which is that really terrible things happened during his leadership in Gujarat. There are many, many unanswered questions that remain, there are at are many grave allegations, there are huge doubts.Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressing a youth convention in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday.Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressing a youth convention in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday.
Q. Indian courts have not yet found any evidence of Mr. Modi’s involvement in the 2002 violence in Gujarat. You say that there are still some grave allegations, some doubts hanging over his role in the 2002 riots.
A. As you know, one of his ministers (Maya Kodnani) was recently convicted for her role in these events. Given the nature of the way the governments function, it is highly unlikely at the very least that this minister would have been engaged to the degree that she was without the knowledge, without the direction from Mr. Modi. There is of course the very damning sworn notarized affidavit of former deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Bhatt, which is really an eyewitness account. He is not simply providing sworn testimony as to events that happened on the streets. His testimony is also regarding things that were said by Mr. Modi in his presence. There are very powerful letters that were signed by 65 members of the lower house and upper house and they cite a number of grave concerns.
And let’s set aside, just for a moment, whether or not Mr. Modi was directly complicit in the events of 2002. There is a lot to be troubled about what has happened since or what has failed to happen. Legal accountability, you know, when you think of the numbers that were killed, the incredible number of rapes, the vast displacement, the burning and trashing of property, there should have been by now significant numbers of people held legally accountable. We find that that really hasn’t happened.
There have been very few convictions. One of the things that concern us is that Mr. Modi seems more concerned with rehabilitating his own reputation than with providing recompense and rehabilitation for the surviving victims of those terrible events. Where are the reparations that have been paid? Where are the public apologies, public accounting for what went on? These to me are all indications that to some degree we are seeing a very ambitious man more focused on his political rehabilitation than on really righting the wrongs.
I think there is a difference between whether or not one can be held legally liable or accountable for something and going so far as to say a clean bill of health, a clean chit. Certainly in our system of justice you can be found not guilty, which is not the same thing as found innocent.
Under these circumstances we should follow our laws, which say that we should not give a visa. Of course Mr. Modi wants us to reverse our position because that would be part of his rehabilitation process. But perhaps it would be more instructive for observers and analysts and voters in India to have that piece of information as they evaluate whether or not he is the man who should lead India.
Q. Your critics say that International Religious Freedom Act is selectively invoked.
A. India is a great democracy and we tend to expect more of democracies than we do of dictatorships. That is not to say that your question is not a valid one. But I do see it as a compliment to India that we hold India to a very high standard because India is the world’s largest democracy. I would say that maybe India is held to that higher standard because you have shown that you embrace the values that we embrace in terms of democracy.
Q. Are the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and the State Department on the same page? A spokesman for the State Department said in April that Mr. Modi is welcome to apply for a U.S. visa. What does that mean?
A. I think it was an intentionally ambiguous statement. It is one of the reasons we went public with a (November 2012) letter to Secretary Clinton asking for continuation of the decision to deny a visa to Mr. Modi to influence the State Department. We are independent but we work closely with the State Department, especially its international religious freedom office. But there are plenty of policy conclusions where we come down in a somewhat different place from the State Department.
Q. What motivates the State Department to ignore some of your recommendations?
A. The State Department has a more difficult job than we do because they are balancing American security interests, American commercial interests, American cultural interests, American exchange interests, a whole range of diplomatic interests, and one of the things that they are putting into that mix is the defense of our fundamental values, human rights and religious freedom and other such things. Because of its much larger portfolio the State Department cannot be as single-minded as we are.A policeman taking aim with his rifle from the roof of a building during a riot in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on Apr. 22, 2002.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A policeman taking aim with his rifle from the roof of a building during a riot in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on Apr. 22, 2002.
Q. After the 2002 riots in Gujarat, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that India be on the “countries of particular concern” list (a global list of the worst offenders of religious freedom) but the State Department ignored it. In your latest report, you have placed India on the Tier 2 list of countries, which includes Afghanistan, Russia, Cuba, Nigeria, Laos, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
A. India merits being on the Tier 2 list for the state of its religious freedom.It is sometimes frustrating to see some of the countries we are critical of on the grounds of religious freedom. For instance, in Burma, there has been some real progress and real development in terms of democracy and many other criteria, but there have been some disconcerting developments when it comes to religious freedom and sectarian violence.
Q. Is it true that the State Department does not view the 2005 visa denial and revocation as a religious freedom issue?
A. Well, that’s one dimension of it. Obviously what happened in 2002 in Gujarat was sectarian violence on a really massive scale. I don’t think you can say that that wasn’t a religious issue. It was a religious issue and the 2005 visa denial harks back to that. I am not quite sure why they would have said that. There is no ignoring of the central role of the violence and the destruction that took place. And there is no avoiding the sectarian nature of it. It was by all accounts religiously based.
Q. If Mr. Modi were to apply for a visa now, what are the chances of the U.S. Department of State denying him the visa?
A. I don’t think I am in a position to answer that question, and I think if you ask the State Department the same question, you will get a polite “no comment.” I would say there probably are different camps within the State Department. This is being debated in a lively way. If you go to the Congress, you will find members of Congress who are saying we have got to give this guy a visa, and you will find an equal number of congressmen saying that it would really be a betrayal of our values.
Q. In the U.S. Congress, are the supporters and opponents of Mr. Modi’s visa divided along party lines?
A. I don’t think it breaks along partisan lines. I think it breaks down along which congressmen prioritize human rights versus who don’t. We met recently Cynthia Lummis and she has asked for more information. Not only did I testify before her and made a strong case for why the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has taken the position it had on it, but after that she did request additional information from us. She said something to the effect that somebody is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. I pointed out that we were not talking about us passing a judgment of guilt or innocence, but whether or not we would extend a privilege. To get a visa to this country is not a right but a privilege. It is not a matter of standards of proofs in a court of law but whether or not the privilege should be extended to someone.
[Maroosha Muzaffar, a Fulbright scholar at New York University, is interning with The New Republic in Washington. Ms. Muzaffar has worked as a reporter for The Indian Express in New Delhi.]
(Courtesy: The New York Times)
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August 20, 2013, 10:15 pm
Tribute to Allama Mashriqi on his 50th death anniversary
“I grew up learning from my family and the Khaksars about the role of Allama Mashriqi, Mahatma Gandhi, Quaid- e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and other leaders in the freedom movement of the Indian sub-continent. And I have dedicated the last seventeen years to research on this topic. In this book, I seek to share this knowledge with the world. My goal is to help unite the human race, a vision inspired from the ideals of my beloved grandfather, Allama Mashriqi.” - Scholar and Historian Nasim Yousaf
IMO News Service
A long awaited book entitled “Mahatma Gandhi & My Grandfather, Allama Mashriqi” – a groundbreaking narrative of India’s partition – has been published in the USA to mark the 50th death anniversary of respected Allama Inayatullah Khan Al-Mashriqi. This is written by the distinguished scholar and historian, Mashriqi’s grandson, Nasim Yousaf.
In “Mahatma Gandhi & My Grandfather, Allama Mashriqi,” Mr. Yousaf brings together seventeen years of exhaustive research of historical documents as well as firsthand knowledge and insights gained from Allama Mashriqi’s wife, sons, daughters, and the Khaksars, who were part of the freedom movement and witnessed the division of India. His research included reviewing and analyzing a large number of historical newspapers from the pre- and post- partition of India eras, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s published papers, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, and Khaksar Tehrik and Allama Mashriqi’s papers, including Khaksar Movement’s weeklies “The Radiance” and the “Al-Islah” (most historians have limited or no access to Allama Mashriqi’s documents/papers).
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Allama Mashriqi and Mahatma Gandhi shared many similarities — both men left their professions behind and dedicated their lives to liberating India from British rule. Both adopted a life of simplicity and began their grassroots campaigns in the streets and villages of the country. Both were nominated for the Nobel Prize (Mashriqi for his monumental work, “Tazkirah” and Gandhi for his non-violence) and shared a common objective of achieving independence for the nation. Yet despite all their similarities, they could not reach agreement on Mashriqi’s “The Constitution of Free India, 1946 A.C.” nor were they able to work together to achieve a united, independent India. Why? The answers are contained in this book.
The book, printed and published in the USA by AMZ Publications, revisits the time period ![]() |
| Nasim Yousaf |
prior to independence and examines the actions of these two revered leaders in the years leading up to partition. Could British India’s partition have been avoided? This is the compelling question that the author discusses as he examines the roles of Allama Mashriqi and Mahatma Gandhi.
The book is one of the prime additions to the literature on Pakistan, India and Bangladesh’s history. It is also a unique publication, as this is the first time the comparative role of these two leaders – Allama Mashriqi and Mahatma Gandhi – has been discussed in detail. This publication shall be of excessive interest to journalists, academia, students, and research institutes as well mainstream public not only in South Asia but the rest of the world.
The author, Nasim Yousaf, has been in research since 1996. He is an out of the box thinker and is known for his courageous style of writing. Coming from a political family, he understands behind the scenes politics. Mr. Yousaf has written extensively on Allama Mashriqi and the Khaksar Tehrik as well as Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan (founder of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development and Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi). He has presented papers at U.S. conferences and published many books and numerous articles (which have appeared in newspapers of many countries, including Bangladesh, Canada, India, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the USA). He has contributed pieces to renowned US journals and encyclopedias, namely “Harvard Asia Quarterly”, “Pakistaniaat” and “World History Encyclopedia”. Currently he is working on additional books and articles (for updated information, visit the author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nasimyousaf.26).
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August 20, 2013, 10:23 pm
Release of the book Shashvatha Shankitaru, the Kannada version of the study report, on Anti Torture Day
By Shabeer K. (Translation: Arif Kudroli)
'Permanent Suspect' that reveals the framing of Muslim youths under false terror charges across Karnataka and the agenda behind the conspiracy, was cynosure of the program. Sthuthi Publication and Information Trust published the Kannada version, translated by Hayavadana Upadyaya.
The study highlights the fact that Indian State that is in its effort to choose a new enemy in the country and to divert the minds of citizens from its not so people friendly policies has given a new imagination for Muslim terrorism. Earlier its imagination was minimal to show the Muslim terrorists with symbols like beard, hanged guns on their shoulder and covered their faces. However, now this imagination is changed and the Muslim youths who are highly qualified and pursued modern technical educations are also targeted. The report says that an imagination was being created that these youths could establish anti national organizations locally.
The old concept, according to which uneducated and lower class people of Muslims can only indulge in Jihadi violence is being changed and a new type of fear is being instilled that ‘Islamic Terrorism’ could be come from any class of Muslims irrespective of rich and poor, elders and young. The good instance for this is the recent arrests in Bangalore and Hubli where both the youths from high Muslim families and common youths who engaged in works like building demolition were there. In this way, an illusion is being created that highly qualified youths were plotting attacks while lower class youths implement these plans.
The report mentions about the two youths Iqbal Ahmed Jakathi and Imthiyaz Ahmed, who came out cleared from all the charges against them in court. Their case was very example before us to the fact that how police trap innocents in their prey. Jakathi was a columnist and working in an auto mobile company. Imtiyaz Ahmed was vice president in a social organization. Jakathi had left for dubai to earn more and had returned to the country to cooperate with police enquiry when they suspected his involvement in Hubli terror conspiracy. Police had told him over phone that his friend was telling about his involvement in the blast, so he could come to the country and could return to Dubai after giving some statements. It is a big joke if a terrorist mastermind returns to his country when police suspects his involvement in a particular blast and ask him to come back to face enquiry. Once reaching Mumbai airport, Jakathi was realized that he was deceived by police, who were waiting as a big troop to detain him soon after his arrival to the country. Visual Media ‘covered’ breaking news about‘the arrest of Master mind of Hubli blast conspiracy. Ultimately, Jakathi was not charged with Hubli blast case, but was trapped in Belguam blast conspiracy case.
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According to the report, Allah Bakshi Yadvad, a MBBS student from Hubli was arrested under Hubli Blast Conspiracy Case in 2008. He is the son of Waliullah Yadwad, working in railway and was then president of SWR Mazdur Union. Allah Baksh was charged under sedition law and accused of attending a meeting held to wage war against the country. He has also been charged under UAPA. The physical evidences against him were two books that police seized from his house. One was the book of Moududi 'Understanding Islam' and another one was an Arabic grammar book. Police picked up those two books from their home library which had collection of 5,000 books. These books are available in any Islamic book stall.
The report also highlights about tardiness of Indian judicial system and bias against Muslims. The trail of Allah Bakshi, who was arrested in 2008, began only after three years in 2011 and police continued adding witnesses against him and their total number has reached 350. Witnesses are not summoned by police and judges do not bother to question police about this. However, the case of earlier mentioned judge Balakrishna was special. He pressed police to dispatch summons for all the witnesses of Belguam conspiracy case and finished the trail within five months taking the case for hearing.
Wahid Husain from Hubli who was held recently in Bangalore blast conspiracy case was accused of supplying finance for the conspiracy. According to his brother Rajid Bakshar’s statement in the report his brother Wahid had bought Rs. 5,00,000 bank loan for his study and Rs.80,000 from his relatives. He went to Bangalore in search of a job and residing at a room in J.C.Nagar with his friends. Rajid asks how a person who even do not have job could finance a terror conspiracy. When Rajid brought this knowledge before some media police twisted the charge against Wahid and the accusation of conspiring to kill Bajarang Dal leader from Hubli Ganu Jattarkar and others was made against him.
According to the report, every terror related arrest resembles kidnap and police never bother to follow any etiquette mentioned in law. Some police with communal minds highlights the religious symbol of Muslims during the arrest. According to a statement of a person, whose innocence was later proved in court, police had forced him to wear religious cap during the arrest. According to the report, such type act by police is to show that there were link between being a Muslim and being a terrorist.
It also says that police intentionally impose the black laws like UAPA against Muslim youths to harden the chances of getting bail in court. They additionally include witnesses in their effort to prevent bail to the suspects. An instance of four youths who are under trails in different jails still after 19 years of arrest is given in the report. Among them the story of Samshudding was pitiable. He had been to Mumbai to seek a job when he was just 21. He got in touch with Dr.Jalil Ansari through a doctor from Gulbarga when he asked help to get residence in the city. Dr.Jalil Ansari was arrested under the charge of Hyderabad Blast Conspiracy in 1994. Samshuddin was arrested for his link with Dr.Ansari.
After the arrest, his mother died with hunting grief of her son. Samshuddin was finally able to reach his house after the efforts of several people in order to get him attended to last rituals of his mother. But he could not see the body of his mother since it was already buried on his arrival. Rambling to solve brother’s case, his elder brother Aminuddin suffered from diabetes due to long stress and now he is bed ridden after coming under paralysis. When the family contacted then MLA and present Wakf Minister of Karnataka Kamarul Islam, they were warned not to meet him again on this subject.
Samshuddin was just 21 during the arrest and now he is 40 after spending 19 years. Even he cleared from all the charges in court, who would give those valuable times that he spent in jail?
According to the report, the suspects who were in the verge of getting bail by the court would be framed in other cases. Thus police destroy their life and make them to become disgusted about court hearings. The terror suspected are often framed in the incidents held in different states. This is the main reason to many youths from Karnataka to remain as Permanent Suspects in the jails of Gujarath and other states of the country.
The report says that it was not just coincidence that many terror arrests were taken place in Hubli and Belgaum in 2008 and it was benefitted by BJP with the Hindu votes floated towards the party. It further says that police are using their informer networks to create a situation to put victims into their prey to help to make allegation against them.
In some instances, even though suspected youths come out of court cleared from all charges their community itself keeps them away, but this is not because of enmity. It is just with the fear that they may become victim of the system if they keep relation with them. In some cases, even though Hindu families showed sympathy towards the families of victims and expressed their trust that the youths were innocents, people of their own community did not meet them to console with them. This is a good instance of fear instilled on their mind by the state.
The study report concludes that the biased attitude of state has left a section of society to remain ‘Permanent Suspects’ in the state.
[Arif Kudroliis editor of Prasthutha Fortnightly. He can be contacted at arifbk19@gmail.com]
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August 20, 2013, 10:29 pm
Rabble rousing and oratory don’t help for long
By Dr Javed Jamil
Modi and his team has met in Delhi to chalk out a strategy to bring Muslims, at least some of them, into its fold. They are planning to bring a “Muslim Vision Document” of their own, as if it will be a replacement of my “Muslim Vision of India” document. Modi has told the gathering that 20-25 pc of Muslims in Gujarat voted for BJP. He forgot to tell that even if his figures are assumed accurate, 75-80 pc did not vote for him. And this is despite the fact that he has been ruling the state for more than a decade. And of course, he has no time to tell why they did not vote for him. Why a Chief Minister could not win their confidence even after such a long rule?
Rising from media debate on his Independence Day address, which he must be rejoicing because media attention is what he relishes, he is trying to prove to Muslims that he has an agenda for them too. The curious part though is that Muslims are more eager to know his hidden agenda rather than the agenda that BJP will bring in its Muslim Vision document.
I am one of those who believe that agreements can be struck not only with allies but also with enemies. There may come a day when Muslims may think of opening a serious dialogue with the forces of Hindutva. That day will come when these forces will redefine “Hindutva” right, as an ideology based on the principles of Hindu Dharam and not as one that revolves around hatred for Muslims and everything that is linked to Muslims – from Islam to Pakistan. Any such serious dialogue can begin only when no elections are round the corner and must focus on finding the common grounds like social vices, economic disparity, corruption, family values and purity in public life.
But this is the Election time. And at this time whatever comes from the horse’s mouth cannot be taken seriously. I have always firmly believed that whole in case of ordinary mortals, our friends and relatives, we must look at their positives rather than negatives, in case of the ideologies, systems and leaders, we must focus more on their negatives and choose one that has minimum and least offensive demerits. And whatever the positives that BJP may try to project, the truth remains that its negatives will outweigh its negatives. This is true for the very ideology on which it has positioned itself but also its leadership.
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When it comes to actions though, unfortunately no political party or group seems to be much concerned about them. They seem to be concerned only about votes and notes and as notes come only from certain sections of the populace, the votes are often forgotten immediately after they are cast. Then onwards, it is only the notes that matter.
There were two speeches that the Media focused on the Independence Day. Unfortunately for the whole nation, both lacked in substance and merit. There was hardly anything except perhaps the Food Security Bill that could attract attention. With elections around, people expected some big solid steps that would change the lives of the deprived and the marginalized. Nothing much was audible to that effect. And of course, Muslims were conveniently forgotten. As Always.
[Dr Javed Jamilis India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. He can be contacted at doctorforu123@yahoo.com or 91-8130340339]
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August 20, 2013, 10:34 pm
IMO News Service
Kashipur/New Delhi: IIM Kashipur has announced a new MDP titled “Islamic Banking & Finance” that is to be held at the India Islamic Cultural Center in New Delhi on August 24‐25, 2013. The program is the first such executive course offered by a leading business school in the country on Islamic banking, which is considered the largest alternative financial system in the world today, growing at double digit growth rates with a presence in 75 countries and a total size of approximately of $2 trillion.
The program is designed to give participants a thorough grounding in the key concepts, products and applications of Islamic banking and finance along with an understanding of the latest developments in this industry and ideas for its implementation in India.
Announcing this initiative, Prof. K.M. Baharul Islam, Chairperson (Planning and Development) at IIM Kashipur explained the need for such a program in India given the huge interest in this subject among various sections and the growing demand for Islamic finance and banking solutions in the country. The program will be conducted in partnership with Infinity Consultants, a Bangalore based advisory firm focused on training and development of Islamic finance in India.
Commenting on the program, Saif Ahmed a former Islamic banker and Managing Partner with Infinity Consultants stated that “India offers a huge potential to develop innovative Islamic finance solutions in areas such as microfinance, consumer finance and FDI infrastructure investments within existing regulations, and for this we need qualified human capital that this program seeks to develop. We are very excited about partnering with IIM Kashipur on this new venture and hope to conduct similar programs going forward.”
The Indian Institute of Management Kashipur has been set up by Ministry of HRD, Government of India and belongs to elite leagues of IIM’s in India. IIM Kashipur was set up with the objective of imparting quality management education while sensitizing students towards the needs of the society. IIM Kashipur commenced operations from July 2011. The institute offers its flagship two‐year Post Graduate Program in Management (PGPM). The rigorous curriculum seeks to instill a passion for knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge to real life scenarios.
The institute is gearing up to launch innovative programmes, such as Executive PGP and Executive Fellow programme (equivalent to PhD). This places the institute at a vantage point when it comes to ‘Learning by Doing’ via frequent industry interactions and live projects. Infinity Consultants is a Shari’a‐compliant advisory firm based out of Bangalore focused on developing Islamic finance solutions in India and delivering advisory solutions to promote investments between India and the Middle East. Infinity is at the forefront of providing Islamic finance training and certifications in India through its partnership with Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, UAE and has conducted awareness programs on this topic in various institutions across the country. Infinity has also pioneered the establishment of Zayd Chit Funds Pvt. Ltd., India’s first Shari’a‐compliant chit fund company governed by The Chit Funds Act of 1982.
For further information contact:
• Dr.Baharul Islam – Chairperson (Planning and Development), IIM Kashipur
• Irfan Naheem – Manager, Infinity Consultants
Tel: +91-5947-262177|Email: chairpnd@iimkashipur.ac.in
Tel: +91 90357 71177, Email:training@infinity-consult.com
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