Indian Muslim Observer

[Thanks for responding to our Appeal for Sponsorship of Journalism Scholarships for aspiring Muslim youth, and publishing it in the leading Saudi Arabian daily Saudi Gazette. Respected Tariq A. Al-Maeena words fail me on how to express my deepest gratitude to you in acknowledging and spreading this noble cause. I hope philanthropists would rise up to the occasion by chipping in financial contributions for the sponsorship. Heartiest thanks to you Sir once again. -- Danish Ahmad Khan, Founder-Editor, IndianMuslimObserver.com]

By Tariq A. Al-Maeena

There are sentiments in some quarters within India that the Indian media is not necessarily fair to Muslim issues and to the sensitivities of its largest minority. The 160 million plus minority, the largest in India, is not necessarily alone in such thoughts.

Such feelings often held privately were publicly aired by India Press Council Chairman and a former judge in the Indian Supreme Court, Markanedya Katju, who criticized the media for "demonizing" Muslims through “irresponsible journalism”. To drive home his point, he added that "whenever a bomb blast occurs or such incident takes place, within an hour or so many TV channels start showing that an email or SMS has come from the Indian Mujahideen, JeM or Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, or some Muslim name, claiming responsibility.” Such news items are rarely verified before they are quickly broadcast and later retractions are far too little to undo the damage done.

Others are countering that Indian Muslims must shed the syndrome of victimhood and persecution and take charge of matters effectively. They should not view the media suspiciously but be part of the process. This would eventually ensure a balance in reporting with minimal bias.

Danish Ahmed Khan, an Indian who operates the website IndianMuslimObserver.com has recognized that a significant part of the problem lies in the meager representation of Muslim journalists in mainstream media. To this end he has come up with an idea of encouraging more Muslims to enter journalism.

He writes: “Considering the fact that media has an important role to play in connecting communities, strengthening peace and communal harmony and working for the larger cause and benefit of humankind, IndianMuslimObserver.com was launched in March 2009 as India's first online Muslim newspaper. The purpose of the news portal is to bring out the positive side of the story of Muslims and tell the world that they are a peace-loving, progressive community equally contributing to the growth of individuals and the nation. While highlighting all that affects Indian Muslims and the Indian diaspora worldwide, the Indian Muslim Observer also regularly publishes all that concerns Muslims in different parts of the world.

“The prime objective of launching Indian Muslim Observer is to fight prejudices and stereotypes that have been thrust upon Indian Muslims by the mainstream media. The issue of the inappropriate and negative portrayal of Muslims is a matter of grave concern in India. This is because of the lack of adequate Muslim-operated and run media outlets - print, TV and online. As things stand today, the mainstream media has grossly failed to honestly address the issues confronting Indian Muslims, and has rather left no stone unturned in portraying the community in a poor light or simply ignoring the issues that should have been highlighted.

“Considering the fact that Muslims in the country cannot afford to sit on the sidelines, continue to be on the fringes of social and national life and risk their future growth, the Indian Muslim Observer has evolved into an important alternative media platform for information dissemination in a completely objective manner and for presenting the Muslim side of the story in a proper perspective.

"The Indian Muslim Observer acknowledges the need to make the best use of its platform to train aspiring Muslim youths seeking a career in journalism and mass communication, appropriately equip them with relevant knowledge while keeping sight of Islamic ethos so that they are exposed to a situation where being a Muslim can help them to build a good image of the community and effectively counter the baseless, malicious news which is being propagated or specifically written to tarnish the image of the community.

“The Indian Muslim Observer has recently opened the IMO School of Journalism and has decided to train Muslim interns aspiring for a career in journalism and mass communication. To begin with, 10 Muslim interns will be selected every year after a written examination and interview. They will be fully equipped with proper journalistic techniques and skills, including knowledge of Islam, Islamic history, Muslim issues and Indian society, so that they not only fulfill their responsibilities as a journalist but also present the Muslim side of the story in a factual manner and undertake Islamic Dawah work as well as a responsible Da'ee and make extensive efforts toward dispelling the misconceptions and propaganda about our great religion Islam.

“The students will be provided sound in-the-field reporting training so that they properly cover stories that have either been ignored or been given biased coverage by the mainstream media. Today, we find that non-Muslim journalists who cover Muslim issues do not do justice to the stories being handled by them. This is because of a biased mindset always trying to stereotype Muslims, and no proper study or understanding of Islam and Muslim society. We will also train non-Muslim journalists on how to properly report and handle Muslim issues by organizing workshops from time to time.”

“To fulfill the above stated objectives, we appeal to philanthropists and benefactors of the community to sponsor scholarships for the aspiring Muslim youth aiming to become skilled media persons, who will be trained at the IMO School of Journalism. The sponsors may provide the scholarships in their own name or of their kin or deceased family member. The IMO School of Journalism has been opened to train only those Muslim interns who are sponsored, and strictly not for commercial purposes.”

Danish Khan is to be lauded for being proactive and doing something positive about communal understanding rather than taking a back seat and complaining. He deserves our support in his worthwhile cause, one that should eventually increase harmony between ethnic groups in India.

[The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena]

(Courtesy: Saudi Gazette)

By Danish Ahmad Khan

All is surely not well with eminent Muslim personality Saiyid Hamid and the institutions he is presently associated with - Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University) and Hamdard Education Society. The Indian Muslim Observer story titled "IMO EXCLUSIVE: Son puts Hamdard University Chancellor Saiyid Hamid under ‘House Arrest’?" published on October 28, 2012 has been affirmed once again. After nearly one year two Urdu newspapers published from New Delhi have taken up this issue and prominently highlighted it. Both the newspapers, however, flouting established journalistic norms have failed to give credit to the Indian Muslim Observer as the primary source, which they should have done in any case.

A former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, 93-year-old Saiyid Hamid is presently Chancellor of Hamdard University (Jamia Hamdard) and Secretary of Hamdard Education Society. In 2005, Saiyid Hamid was also appointed Member of Sachar Committee by Prime Minisrer Manmohan Singh. The Sachar Committee prepared a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India and presented it to the Government of India.

The Urdu daily 'Qaumi Salamati' recently published a report titled "Saiyid Hamid apney hi ghar me mein mahsoor o majbur" (Saiyid Hamid under arrest and helpless in his own home). The report was published on August 7, 2013. The Qaumi Salamati report though was based on an investigative report by Dr. M. Q. Tabrez, Special Correspondent, Chauthi Duniya weekly, published in August 12-18, 2013 edition. However, by all accounts the Qaumi Salamati report was clearly picked from Indian Muslim Observer and translated verbatim in Urdu.

The Indian Muslim Observer story had highlighted crass nepotism indulged in to by Saiyid Hamid when he provided employment to his 'jobless' eldest son Syed Samar Hamid at Hamdard Public School. The Hamdard Public School was established by Hakeem Abdul Hameed, Founder of Hamdard Dawakhana (which produces famous brand Rooh Afza and other Unani products). Hakeem Abdul Hameed recognized the administrative and organizational capabilities of Saiyid Hamid and made him Secretary of Hamdard Education Society to manage Hamdard Public School and Hamdard Study Circle (which prepares Muslims for Civil Services Exams). Saiyid Hamid, whose contributions to Muslims is negligible as a bureaucrat or educationist, emulated the epic character Dhritrashtra and out of blind love appointed his son Syed Samar Hamid as a Manager to manage the affairs of Hamdard Public School.

The basis of the Indian Muslim Observer report was our first hand experience when I, Mohammad Aleem and Shahabuddin Yaqub had personally gone to present the first-ever Biography on Saiyid Hamid personally to him. The biography of Saiyid Hamid was written by Mohammad Aleem and published by Gloriords Publications owned by Shahabuddin Yaqub. We had a bitter and humiliating experience and saw it for ourselves how Saiyid Hamid was being mistreated by his Personal Assistant Paras Bhatia and allegedly being kept under 'House Arrest' by his own son Syed Samar Hamid for obvious reasons.

There is more to Saiyid Hamid's 'House Arrest' than what meets the eyes. One Nafees Ahmad, so-called sympathiser of Saiyid Hamid, while writing recently on AMU Network forum said: "The story, which appeared in a newspaper that Saiyid Hamid is under house arrest is baseless, fabricated and manufactured by an abnormal person who was refused to see Mr. Saiyid Hamid as he wanted to see him without appointment (I don't remember the date; may be around two-three months before). During those days, Hamid Saheb was advised bed rest by the doctors and to avoid visitors . Despite advising him not see Mr. Hamid by the Secretary and Mr. Samar Hamid, he reached his residence without appointment and gate crashed. Mr. Hamid, a person of extreme 'Murrwwat' met him and his companion at his residence against medical advice."

The truth being that whatever I wrote is completely based on our first-hand experience as stated in the report. Had Nafees Ahmad accompanied me and my colleagues he would have come to know who was abnormal and whether the story I wrote was 'baseless, fabricated and manufactured'. I have met Saiyid Hamid on several occasions along with my father relating to the work of the Gaya Muslim Orphanage (which was established by my grandfather Enayeth Khan in October 1917 in Gaya district of Bihar state), and Saiyid Hamid was then quite accessible.

Moreover, I and my colleagues had to meet Saiyid Hamid personally to present his own Biography, which was written by Mohammad Aleem and published by Shahabuddin Yaqub's company Gloriords Publications. Both the persons were accompanying me as well. Another startling fact which Nafees Ahmad and others would come to know now that Saiyid Hamid from Day One had wanted to dictate his Biography (which would have been more of an Autobiography that he never wanted to write). In a conversation Mohammed Aleem told me that whenever he wrote some pages, Saiyid Hamid would phone him asking to send whatever he has written so that corrections (in his own way) could be made. But, Mr. Aleem resisted on several occasions and refused to send these. He also told me that Saiyid Hamid's family members, including his wife and sons, were totally non-cooperative and never uttered a single word about the personality of Saiyid Hamid narrating their experiences as family members. On the contrary, Samar Hamid wanted his name to be published in the Biography, which was not done by the author despite hard efforts.

Recently, I received a letter by Saiyid Hamid on his official letter head and under his signature dated 24th May 2013. Saiyid Hamid wrote: "... I was deeply dismayed that you have chosen to defame me and my family in this manner. I fail to understand what could have compelled you to write such an untruthful and a libelous article. You have caused me immense distress and pain. I would request you to kindly take off the offending piece from your website."

I still stand by whatever I have written as it was based on our personal experience, which was indeed offensive and humiliating. The entire episode tells the whole story and about the way in which Muslim institutions are being run and community's so-called messiah operate.

As of now, I have come to know through reliable sources that several corrupt practices are currently going on in Hamdard University on a big scale. This needs to be fully exposed by the mainstream media as well and valuable institutions like Hamdard University and Hamdard Public School be saved from deteriorating further.

[Danish Ahmad Khan, a Delhi-based Journalist, is Founder-Editor of IndianMuslimObserver.com. He can be contacted at danishkhan@indianmuslimobserver.com]

IMO News Service

Dubai: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, one of the world’s largest Islamic financial institutions, today announced hiring Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, the leader in Islamic finance training and certification, to deliver its online Islamic finance training certificate (CIFE) to its senior leaders and their deputies.

Mohamed Abbas, Head of Training at ADIB Egypt said, “After looking at all our options, Ethica came away as the clear choice for bank-wide Islamic finance training. They had already won us over with their cost advantage; what secured their place as our top choice was the superb quality of their online training and certification.” ADIB was named 'Best Islamic Bank' by Business Banking and Finance Magazine for two consecutive years.

Ethica’s spokesperson said, “Banks are slowly coming to the realization that 3 day crash courses are expensive and ineffective. Banks now realize that learners want self-paced learning, 365 days a year. It saves banks money and teaches bankers how to do their jobs properly.” Hiring Ethica brings ADIB year-round, 100% online Islamic finance training and certification in Egypt as well as a back-end dashboard allowing managers to monitor learner progress each week.

Ethica’s clients include several global banking giants, most notably Mashreq bank in Dubai, where 1,000 bankers were trained. The move marks a major turning point in an industry lacking in trained and certified bankers and scholars. Ethica’s award-winning CIFE, or Certified Islamic Finance Executive program, is now trusted by more professionals, with students from over 100 financial institutions in 56 countries around the world.

By Tameemuddin Humble

Since the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India became an obligation to a company in 2011, it is gaining ground in the formal sector of the economy. Whereas the informal sector which contributes to almost the half of the GNP and where approximately 93% of the Indian workforce is employed, the application of CSR is rare.

The impact of CSR of a corporate is being felt well in India also on its branding and productivity so a corporate may not like to escape from fulfilling its legal obligations in future besides getting its business benefits in disguise rather it would keep pace with its changing dynamics keeping its global eye on.

Traditionally, CSR existed philanthropically and largely revolved around activities like donations, planting trees, community development, setting up schools and hospitals, adult literacy, adoption of village, and so on.

Though the above components of CSR are important but they are not self-sustainable. Their survival is dependent on the profitability of the corporate. Therefore the CSR activities should be integrated with the official works fixed at regular intervals in a company without affecting its budget and that could only be done, if we ensure the very involvement of its managers in the program. It needs social attitude of the managers and training in order to acquire the necessary skills and competence, if one is lacking.

The Bhagalpur Electricity Distribution Company Pvt. Limited (BEDCPL) wants to tap into skills, expertise and passion of its employees to make a difference not only to the service assigned by the Bihar Government but to the society as well.

The above thoughts expressed by the Director of BEDCPL and CEO of Delhi-based infrastructure giant, SPML Infra, Mr Amanullah, while launching the unique CSR project of BEDCPL, “Power Lunch” at Saryu Devi School in Mirjanhat on 20th August 2013.

The company established its head office for now in Mirjanhat from where it is monitoring its project, designed to serve 1.5 lakh consumers of electricity spread over the 7 blocks of this historic city Bhagalpur.

The concept of “Power Lunch” as a CSR activity has been brought here in Bhagalpur from America where Mr Amanullah worked till 2006 and the idea that brings companies into schools to inspire the students to develop a love for reading and writing at lunch time by the corporate volunteers which does not necessarily consists of taking lunch together but certainly adds intellectual power to the children of that school. The engineers and managers of BEDCPL spend their lunch time with the school children taking motivational classes and inspiring them to do better in their lives. The motivated and encouraged children are then expected to go back to their regular classrooms.

This CSR idea of BEDCPL initiated a debate in the corporate sector of Bihar on how a corporate could deliver its legal obligation under “Corporate Social Responsibility”.

The company has taken up three schools of its vicinity so far for its CSR project—Saryu Devi School and Bihari kanya Vidhayalay at Mirjanhat and the Urdu Prathmic Vidhayalay of Barari.

The project is designed only for the government aided schools of Bhagalpur where most of the children belong to the underprivileged section of the society. Every officer of the company has to spend two hours per week in any one of the selected schools with prior information to that school. More such schools are to be taken on board for this CSR project.

While the CSR activities contribute a lot to the goodwill of a company, their contribution in the society’s actual success is dependent on its sustainability. Hence, it is the need of the hour to adopt the sustainable practices, that in addition to bring the goodwill to the company, the society could benefit in its totality also. The CSR should not only be for the PAFs (Project Affected Families). It should cover the whole society. The company has decided to foster and integrate the whole system of the management not only into the process of customer service but the empowerment of the vicinity where it is working.

Education is the basic tool to bring the real development to the society. That is why BEDCPL is committed to bridge the big gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in educational sector by focusing exclusively the downtrodden children of the areas around the project through the “Power Lunch” program.

Mr Amanullah said, “BEDCPL’s sustainability initiatives focus on two broad categories: delivering transmission and distribution solutions of electricity in Bhagalpur with the consumer satisfaction and operating responsibly and ethically”.

BEDCPL believes in corporate volunteerism as the only way to its sustainability and considers it to have the potential to increase employee productivity and build its reputation while contributing to the community development also. So the “Power Lunch” as a CSR strategy, an innovative idea in India for the corporate sector, has been designed as the flagship programme of BEDCPL which mobilizes its middle and upper level management to take out time from their recess and take motivational classes of the underprivileged children in their schools.

[Tameemuddin Humbleis a Journalist based at Gaya, Bihar. He is also Secretary, Muslim Empowerment Forum, Gaya (Bihar). He can be reached at tameemhumble@gmail.com]

That our children are unable to find and name a role model from amongst the individuals after whom they are, in most cases named, betrays the fact that in the nurturing (tarbiyah) of our children, we have lost our sense of direction and our understanding of our priorities.

By Zahra Patel

Your choice of role model undoubtedly says a lot about who you are. Be your role model a footballer, a musician, a teacher or a parent, who you choose betrays the importance of the characteristics and traits you deem to be instrumental in the development of your own personality.

“Who is your role model?” is a question that is posed to our children from a very young age. We use it as a yard stick by which to measure their emotional growth and to gain a reading of their psyche, mapping out their future occupations as a direct result of their juvenile admissions.

As adults, however, we feel that our choices are private property; often even the objects of our attention and respect are unaware entirely that they play such a key role in the shaping of our lives. There is almost an element of taboo attached to the question in adulthood, with it being side-lined alongside questions about political party affiliations and a woman’s age.

Our unwillingness to provide an answer to this question seems to me to stem from an insecurity we possess about whether we have ‘grown up’ enough to have made a more mature selection in adulthood, or ‘grown up’ enough to no longer require a role model. If we do provide an answer at all, then our admissions are often preceded by a request that the listener doesn’t judge us based on our individual of choice.

In Islam, however, our choice of role model is not only indicative of our career path and our passions and interests, it also reveals where our priorities lie. The Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa salam) has said: “You will be (raised) with those whom you love (on the Day of Qiyāmah)”. Often, this hadīth is used as a forewarning against the adoption of non-Muslim or non-worthy individuals as role models and as a reminder of the Prophet’s status as the best of mankind.

Undoubtedly, the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa salam) suffices for any man or woman as a role model. Muslims and non-Muslims alike accede to his superiority and pre-eminence in every field of life, pointing to the fact that he succeeded as a son, a grandson, a nephew, a husband and a father before he succeeded as a Prophet, a counsellor, a leader and an army general, as proof that his characteristics were and are still the epitome of excellence.

To be raised with him, therefore, requires that we make him our point of reference and his Sunnah our port of call in every facet of our daily life. But the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa salam) passed away fourteen hundred years ago, leaving us an orphan Ummah: a loss which we feel even today. In his absence, he pointed us towards his guiding stars, “The best of my followers are those living in my century (generation), then those coming after them and then those coming after the latter.”

But the Caliphs passed and the Caliphate ended and Muslims had to search again for individuals who would provide guidance and lead us to Sunnah’s ark. Al-Thawri, Mālik, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Abū Hanīfah, Al-Shāfi’ī, Ibn Taymiyyah, Rābiya al-Basriyyah and Ghazāli, may God be pleased with them all, came and passed, and we searched again.

For every generation, more stars were added to the constellation and believers found illumination in their dark times. Men and women of substance and individuals of knowledge and action, led by example and demonstrated the practicality of following in the Prophet’s footsteps.

So when I ask myself today, “Who is your role model?” and I fail to provide myself with an answer, I despair. It saddens me that a nation with so glorious a past, now has so bleak a future and that a people who once paved the way for others, now chase the coat tails of our inferiors.

When a Muslim child is asked, “Who is your role model?” and a Muslim child is unable to look back to the past or look inward in the present and provide an answer that demonstrates the importance of his or her Islamic identity, alarm bells should be ringing about a crisis of faith.

That our children are unable to find and name a role model from amongst the individuals after whom they are, in most cases named, betrays the fact that in the nurturing (tarbiyah) of our children, we have lost our sense of direction and our understanding of our priorities.
That our children are unable to find Muslim role models in and amongst their strong Muslim communities informs me that as parents, teachers, sisters and brothers, we have collectively forsaken the example of the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa salam) and allowed external factors to determine the shaping of our personalities and traits, to a detrimental effect.

In particular, the onus of setting an example for our children falls on the shoulders of the two main cornerstones and gatekeepers of our societies: our parents and our teachers. It must fall to those who nurture and preach to educate our children and provide for them an embodiment of the Prophetic way. Failure to do so will result in a lost generation of Muslims, who, in standing for nothing, will stand for everything but their Islamic identity.

To stave off this crisis of faith, parents and teachers must make education and rectification their priorities. Children learn from what they see and what they are taught. Therefore, by allowing the Sunnah of the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa salam) and the examples of those who came and passed and acted upon his Sunnah, shape the way we nurture our children, we will exist for them as the role models they require to hold on, tightly and with pride, to the rope of Islam.

(Courtesy: Islam21C.com)

By Qanta Ahmed

Muslims complain the West portrays Islam as violent, misogynistic and unforgiving. As a Muslim woman myself, I confirm 'Muslim' brutality is best portrayed only by ourselves.

This week in Multan, Pakistan, 36-year-old Farzana Bibi was allegedly dismembered by her husband for refusing to wear a niqab. Waiting until their three children had gone to school, he allegedly took a knife used for slaughtering an animal in the halal fashion to dismember her into ten pieces.

Farzana's husband-turned-alleged-murderer was noted to have a short temper. Yet he was known as an upstanding man who led prayers at the local mosque and to whose home others came to study the Quran. In other words, he held religious authority because of his religious knowledge.

He left a note on the body before disappearing. The note allegedly confirmed the murder had been a rational and premeditated, one he based on his interpretation of Sharia. Claiming he had deliberated before the act, he finally determined to execute his wife since he didn't wish to bear responsibility for her sins against God. By extinguishing her, he believed he had absolved himself of any guilt for her intransigence on Judgment Day.

He reportedly wrote explicitly of wanting to "punish his wife for rebelling against Allah's orders" adding that he wished all women to learn from this act, and then complained of how his children had been enrolled in a secular English medium school rather than a religious madrasah.

Today, onlookers could be forgiven for assuming that brutal Quranic penalties are critical components to an observed Muslim life, a diabolical distortion of the pluralistic pacifist Islam I was raised in. However, even in a world rife with abominations afflicting the Muslim world, today's Pakistan, the world's first Muslim democracy, exemplifies some of the most egregious violations of Islam at the hands of Muslims, all too often befalling the heads of the most vulnerable.

It wasn't always like this. Sadakat Kadri detailed in his book on Sharia law "Heaven on Earth" how Quranic penalties were exceedingly rare throughout history. In the fifteen centuries since Islam's revelation, an array of violent recourse had been available to Islamic authorities, though generally not deployed. Restraint was the order of the times and documented in the very rare instances of capital punishment. Today, the resurrection of violent punishments defines much of Muslim culture in both Diaspora and Muslim majority communities. This revivalist extremism is a deliberate, modern product of 20th century Islamists.

Despite being steeped in the ritualistic mechanics of Islam he failed to absorb the foundational beliefs central to Islam. Individual free will (particularly that of his wife), the express decree of non-compulsion in any aspect of Islamic religious expression, the Islamic ideal of tenderness towards women and above all the sacred and superior status of a Muslim mother over all other Muslims all evaded his religious 'scholarship'. A minor detail which would prove ultimately fatal would also escape him: that the niqaab itself was never mandated for women by Islam and in fact is expressly forbidden during the most religious rite of Muslim belief, as I learned myself during my own pilgrimage to Mecca while making Hajj. While apparently fluent in the movement and catechisms of Islam, Farzana's killer was a calcified illiterate when it came to Islam's spirit.

Farzana is yet another sacrificial offering in the service of an ever more bloodthirsty man-made Islam. Knowing Pakistan's track record, in a country where false testimony goes unpunished even when resulting in the incarceration of a developmentally delayed Christian child, where Blasphemy charges on hearsay result in mob lynchings, where Christian neighborhoods are razed to the ground in plain view of security forces and where massacres of pacifist Ahmadi Muslims unfold unchallenged on live TV, this particularly repugnant crime is likely to go unprosecuted, and the perpetrator aggrandized for his 'defense' of Islam's 'honor.' Any judge who wishes to bring charges risks assassination at the hands of extremist mobs.

This kind of violent 'Islamic' expression is recent, first igniting with the birth of the modern Iranian Theocracy in the southern Iranian city of Kerman early in the Revolution, where firing squads set about executing Iranians deemed 'perverts, drug dealers and leftists', at the order of the new Ayatollah. Local zealots determined there should be a holier, more authentically Islamic response than firing squads. Soon instead of shooting, death squads stoned four men to death (reported by The Times' correspondent, Robert Fisk). The brutality Shia extremists introduced to Islamic Sha'ria had never been seen before.

Anxious after the unnerving 1979 siege of Mecca themselves, and not to be out done in religiosity by Shias, Wahaabi Saudi Arabia hurried to keep pace with revivalist neo-orthodoxy. In short order, they implemented 'legal reform' in 1981 that reintroduced execution (including crucifixion) not only for murder, but for all sexual abduction, armed robberies and drug offenses.

In neighboring Pakistan, sensing domestic political anxiety, after the execution of democratically installed Zulfikar Bhutto, Pakistan's dictator General Zia consolidated the power he had grabbed through military coup by launching his own 1978 Islamicization programs, quickly legalizing four Hudood ordinances which are particularly violently exacted upon Pakistani women and Pakistan's minorities.

Each are examples of Muslim leaders' political expediency fueling Islamist extremist policies in the service of both domestic oppression and appeasement of firebrand clerics to shore up seized but ever-fragile power.

The most cursory of searches in the Qur'an reveals over 200 instances of divine forgiveness and dozens of references to forgiveness that can be sought either from our fellow man or our Maker. Yet Muslim majority societies show little in the way of Mercy, kindness or humanity in either their human rights measurements or the letter or spirit of their laws. Their citizens reflect their society, after all, more than anything else, a society is what it tolerates.

In Saudi Arabia where the law isn't even written (all laws are oral and handed down by appointed judges) verdicts can only be challenged by royal decree. In both instances, whether the seat of all Islam, or the worlds first and widely acknowledged Muslim Democracy, citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, are subject to the whim of empowered unforgiving men. It's unsurprising therefore Farzana's husband took the actions he did -- he has been legitimized by a heartless state.

In the 'democractic' Islamic Republic of Pakistan which has held seats at the UN Human Rights Council, there are no deterrents for these actions. Pakistani citizens, despite being an empowered populace, freely mobile, and with access to all forms of media, have consistently shown themselves unmotivated to act in the defense of Pakistan's Christians, Shias, Sufis, Hazaras, Ahmadi Muslims, Ismaeeli Muslims, young girls attempting to get an education in the SWAT, nurses risking their lives to vaccinate babies against polio, their heroic statesmen including Governor Salman Taseer or Minister Shabbaz Bhatti or indeed any other vulnerable group.

There is no reason to expect them to act now, in the wake of this truly obscene crime, and in a country where Islam is man-made, events like these will continue to increase. Rather like Farzana, Muslims have cut Islam to ribbons. In the meantime, as we fail to act otherwise, our collective self-portrait grows ever bloodier.

(Courtesy: Huffington Post)

It's time the president acknowledges that systematized discrimination against Muslims is real and thriving

By Uzma Kolsy

I was watching President Obama employ his devilish charisma, in routine fashion, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in early August. The banter dissipated as the interview took a more serious turn to embassy closures, Edward Snowden and, finally, Russia. Obama condemned President Vladimir Putin for Russia's recent "homosexual propaganda" bill saying:

When it comes to universal rights, when it comes to people's basic freedoms, whether you are discriminating on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, you are violating the basic morality that should transcend every country.

I was left rattled by the president's statement. Obama, who made history last year when he expressed his support for same-sex marriage, was comfortably unabashed in impugning Russian leadership on the reprehensible policy, as he should have been. But as a Muslim American, neither the irony nor the hypocrisy of his statement, championing "universal rights", was lost on me.

As we've witnessed time and time again domestically, most recently with the Associated Press revelation that the NYPD designated Muslim houses of worship and community centers as terrorist organizations, the United States is no stranger to legalizing discrimination. In the elusive pursuit of true equality, President Obama has made considerable and long overdue progress in securing the rights of the LGBT community. But he in no way can tout the badge of "basic morality" until he acknowledges that many Americans are being confronted with institutionalized discrimination in every tier of the government hierarchy. Racism, Islamophobia and prejudice run amok in our society, but when discriminatory practice is etched into law, it harkens back to a sinister time in our nation's history.

Regrettably, branding mosques as terrorist enterprises doesn't exactly move the needle given the NYPD's history of targeted surveillance and monitoring of the region's Muslim community. Invidious policy and religious profiling are not confined to the NYPD either. This is just the latest in a mounting string of offenses by government agencies against Muslim Americans. The FBI maintains an intimidatingly lengthy catalog of 15,000 spies, three times as many as there were 25 years ago. In a post 9/11 climate many of them operate as informants in mosques throughout the nation. The mosque that I grew up attending in Irvine, California, was infiltrated by one such informant, who worked so hard to plant seeds of violence and terrorism in the minds of its congregants that members of the mosque immediately reported him.

"Geo-mapping", the FBI's purported tactical crime fighting tool, was exposed as a covert mapping program to track and monitor Muslim communities engaging in constitutionally protected activity, without any suspicion of crime. Leaked FBI training materials have also cemented what we already know – the agency religiously profiles Muslims, instructing its agents that "mainstream" Muslims are terrorist sympathizers and the Muslim practice of giving charity is a cover for funding "combat".

It doesn't end there. Seven states have passed anti-Shariah legislation, redundant and extraneous laws that explicitly prohibit the use of foreign law in American courts, as already established by our nation's constitution. The bills passed in these states, most recently North Carolina, alienate the Muslim community and unfairly paint them as adherents of an archaic, anti-Western system, playing up longstanding stereotypes and stoking fears. Open-ended guidelines for Homeland Security initiatives, like the Suspicious Activity Reporting program, give credence to the subjective biases of citizens and law enforcement alike, allowing for religious profiling when dubbing something as "suspicious". And that is apart from the FBI Watch List and the TSA's No-Fly List.

TSA memos have indicated that their passenger screening process includes "things passengers might do which also might be things a terrorist would do, eg, pray to Allah right before the flight that you might have 90 virgins in heaven". Needless to say, many of these counter-terrorism measures disproportionately target Muslims. We see this disparity even in federal prison, where Muslims make up only 6% of the general federal prison population, but comprise two thirds of the inmates in Communication Management Units (CMU), prison units furtively created to isolate certain prisoners.

And all the while, the president has remained unnervingly silent.

I shouldn't have to point to statistics that most informants actually acted as agent provocateurs in terrorism probes. I also shouldn't have to cite that there is a dearth of evidence to prove that these national security measures, like the SAR program, are effective in combatting terrorism. I shouldn't have to clarify that there is no specter of Shariah law looming on the horizon and that Muslims are not looking to prop up a crescent and star flag in state capitols. And I've come undone at the thought of having to explain, again, that the overwhelming majority of Muslims being spied on, monitored, tracked and, in the case of 16 year old US citizen Abdulrahman Awlaki, killed – by federal, state and local agencies- are innocent of any wrongdoing.

My father's Islamic name should not place him on a watch list. When I pray in the airport, I should expect law enforcement to protect my right to do so, not jot notes in a security memo. And I should be able to attend my mosque without fear of reprisal, from anti-Muslim bigots and FBI spies alike. Being Muslim does not make me a criminal. I shouldn't have to say it, but secret measures that profile Muslims and veiled discriminatory policies assume as much.

This is not a "new low for the NYPD"; it's a dangerous manifestation of a foregone conclusion: in the name of national security, the civil rights afforded to Muslim Americans are being deliberately curtailed. It's time that the president acknowledges that systematized discrimination against Muslims is real and thriving, and expands the reach of his advocacy for universal human rights to include Muslim Americans.

Dark moments of institutionalized racism, alienation and ostracism besmirch this nation's history. It is all too coincidental that we recently marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's legendary "I have a dream" speech – the impetus that led the FBI to surreptitiously launch one of the biggest surveillance operations in history – spying on Dr King himself. The idea that the government was looking for dirt on Dr King to discredit and destroy him seems ludicrous and offensive today. Here's hoping the president sees the historical irony.

(Courtesy: The Guardian)

By K R Rajeev

Kozhikode: Islamic finance is yet to take roots in the financial landscape of the country, but several Muslim management-run educational institutions in Malabar have gone a step ahead and have started offering specialized courses anticipating huge requirements for qualified personnel to man the future Sharia-compliant finance sector.

Courses on Islamic finance and banking have found many takers in the region ever since the state government set in motion its plan to start an Islamic financing institution two years ago. The growing student interest has been fuelled by hopes that the niche sector would offer job opportunities for those well versed in Riba-free Islamic financial and economic system.

The Sullamussalam Science College at Areekode, affiliated to the Calicut University, has become the first college in the state to offer a three year degree course in BA Islamic Finance from this academic year onwards.

"With the state government itself leading the state's foray into Islamic finance, the sector is bound to throw open numerous employment opportunities for people who can manage Islamic financial institutions," said Prof N V Abdurahiman, manager of Sullamussalam Science College, adding that the proposal submitted by the college for starting the BA course in Islamic Finance was accepted for funding by the UGC under 'innovative programmes for teaching and research in interdisciplinary and emerging areas'.

The course, which is the first formal degree level programme in the state, has seen over 100 applicants for the 25 seats on offer this year. The formal inauguration of the programme is expected soon.

Dr A I Rahmathullah, chairman of the board of studies in Arabic said that the university, in another first, has also approved the proposal for starting an MA Course in Islamic Economics and Finance.

"Already several institutions had approached the varsity to start PG course in the field that prompted the board to consider the programme. We will draft the syllabus and curriculum as soon as we get the nod from the academic council," he said.

Institutions like Al Jamia Al Islamiya, a religious college, at Santhapuram have also been seeing growing interest for its postgraduate diploma in Islamic economics and finance (PGDIEF) course. It also offers IGNOU diploma courses in Islamic banking, Islamic finance and Islamic insurance.

"Already many graduates in the state have got lucrative job offers at MNCs in the Gulf offering sharia-compliant mutual funds and venture capital funds. Now with the sector taking roots in the state, the students can look forward to opportunities at home," said Mohammed Pallath, coordinator of the course at the institution.

The Elijah Institute of Management Studies in Thrissur is also offering a postgraduate diploma course in Islamic banking and management as an add-on course for their MBA students.

There are many other institutions in Malappuram and Kozhikode which have recently started offering similar courses sensing the growing interest in the field.

(Courtesy: The Times of India)

By M.G. Radhakrishnan

Thiruvananthapuram : Two recent incidents of Gulf nationals vanishing after marrying poor and underage Muslim girls in Kerala's Kozhikode district have brought back the spectre of Arabi Kalyanams (Arab weddings).

In the latest incident, a UAE national abandoned a 17-year-old orphanage inmate within two weeks of marrying her on June 13.

In another case, a Saudi Arabia national disappeared four days after marrying a girl in Nilambur in Malappuram district on August 23.

Both marriages were registered at mosques.

Unconfirmed reports say more than 10 Arabi Kalaynams were held in the past couple of years in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts.

In the first case, 28-year-old Jasem Mohamed Abdulkarim left for the UAE on July 1 without informing the wife and later called her to say he was divorcing her.

Following the girl's complaint that she was forcibly married off and Abdulkarim sexually harassed her, police arrested the absconding man's mother, Sulaika, from Kozhikode, on August 28.

Two other people are believed to have brokered the marriage.

Sulaika said her son divorced the girl after finding out that she was in love with another man.

Interestingly, Sulaika herself is a victim of Arabi Kalyanam held three decades ago and Abdulkarim is her son born out of that marriage.

Though Sulaika was divorced by her Arab husband, he took their son to UAE and brought him up there.

Sulaika later got married again to a man from Kozhikode and they have two children.

However, Abdulkarim always used to visit his mother in Kerala.

It was during one of these visits in June that his mother arranged his marriage to the 17-year-old.

Sulaika and two others have been arrested for violating the Child Marriage (Prohibition) Act.

The girl and her mother, an illiterate vegetable seller, said they were cheated into the marriage by officials of Ciesco Orphanage in Kozhikode where she was an inmate for 12 years.

According to Muslim reformers such as M.N. Karassery, the obscurantist groups that backed the illegal marriage were emboldened by attempts of the state government, in which the Muslim League is the second-largest constituent, to regularise Muslim marriages of even girls aged below 18 through a circular.

But following a public outcry, the circular was shelved.

"I'm surprised why this heinous practice has returned when the state and its Muslim community are not poor anymore. The incidents demolish the myth and prove that large sections continue to wallow in poverty," Karassery said.

The Opposition Left Democratic Front has also slammed the government for not cancelling the orphanage's licence. "It is the Muslim League that protects the (Arabi Kalyanam) brokers," said CPI-M leader P.K. Sreemathi.

According to officials of Ciesco orphanage, which is run by a Muslim organization, the marriage was conducted with the consent of the girl and her mother.

Sulaika also claimed that her son gave many expensive gifts to the girl and they did not know about the law related to marriageable age.

The state government has now asked the Social Welfare Department inquire into the orphanage which has its licence.

Arabi Kalyanam was common in Kerala's northern districts with a sizable Muslim population a decade ago. But it also sowed misery on many poor families.

Barring a few, most of these women were abandoned by their "foreign" husbands a short while after marriage.

However, the practice became near extinct with increased protests, better economic status of the Muslim community and media scrutiny.

Still there are hundreds of Muslim women in Kozhikode and Malappuram, aged between 20 and 80, who have been victims of this practice.

Most of them have children from their former "Arab" husbands although some have got remarried. Most women eked out a miserable existence and brought up children with great difficulty since they never received any financial support nor heard anything from their husbands after they vanished.

Besides Arabi Kalyanam, Mysore Kalyanam or Male kalyanam too was common in the region.

These pertained to visitors from Mysore in Karnataka or from the Maldives marrying local Muslim girls only to return to their state or country after some days leaving their wives alone.

(Courtesy: India Today)

IMO News Service

Aligarh: A four-member high-level group of Ohio State University, USA will be visiting the Aligarh Muslim University on a four-day tour during September 15-18, 2013, in connection with the AMU-Ohio State University (OSU) collaboration project STEM-ER. The visiting team comprises of Prof. Anil Pradhan, Prof. Sultana N. Nahar, Dr. Nick Booker and Dr. Ratnesh Bhatacharya.

It may be recalled that the US Secretary of State John F. Kerry signed eight Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Union Minister of HRD, Mr. M. M. Pallam Raju in June last to strengthen collaboration and building partnership between American and Indian institutions of higher education, including Aligarh Muslim University. The MoU provided receive an award of approximately $2,50,000 for all projects under the arrangement.

The visit of the exerts from Ohio State University will facilitate ways to meet the urgent and growing need for mushrooming world class Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) faculty in Aligarh Muslim University with active collaboration of the OSU under a proposed pilot project.

The STEM-ER project aims at initiating interdisciplinary collaborative projects of mutual benefit in advanced research and innovation in key areas like Spectroscopy, Nanotechnology, Renewable Energy, Information Technology, Environmental Sciences, Cancer Research and Mathematical Research. It would also involve private industry and Ohio State University and AMU alumni in support of the STEM-ER programme.

By Naiyar Azam

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) was launched in 2009 with the objective to enhance access to secondary education and improve its quality.

The scheme envisages, inter alia, enhancing enrolment at secondary stage by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of any habitation with an objective to ensure GER over 90% by the end of the 12 Plan period and universal retention by 2020. The other objectives include improving quality of education imparted at secondary level through making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, removing gender, socio-economic and disability barriers etc.

This was the first year when RMSA switched to UDISE from SEMIS and Ministry of Human Resource Development made Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data mandatory for Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) 2012-13 without considering the revision in Data Capture Format (DCF) which contains many subjective fields like - section C of the DCF asks -

Classes taught – [Primary only=1, Upper primary only=2, Mostly primary=3, Mostly Upper Primary=4, Secondary only=5, Hr. Secondary only=6, Mostly Secondary=7, Mostly Hr. Secondary =8]

This is important for deciding sanctioned teachers, teachers in position and requirement of teachers, training of teachers, induction training, excursion trips for teachers within and outside the state/UT. The interventions have been decided on these fields which do not reveal actual need of the state.

The field code 7,8 is subjective in nature. Teachers appointed in a high school having classes VI-X may teach all five classes. There may be many permutations and combinations. It is difficult to arrive at any conclusion with these subjective fields.

Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR), derived from this can not reflect correct picture. However sanctions have been accorded in the light of this which seems unfair to achieve the target of USE.

The B (I).item 3 under "Physical facilities and equipment" of the DCF reads -

Land available for Additional Classrooms [Yes=1, No=2]

UDISE Data captured under this field and decision to accord upgradation of upper primary school into secondary school or otherwise based on the data of availability of land may not be appropriate because RMSA provision for a school is “at least two additional class rooms should be built in one secondary school and at least four additional class rooms, two sections each for classes IX & X should be built in one upgraded upper primary schools, one Integrated Science Laboratory- for Physics, Chemistry, Biology & Mathematics One room for Principal, One room for teacher and staff, of adequate size as per state govt. norm for office staff, Girls’ Activity Room, Computer room/ laboratory, Art/ Craft/ Culture, Laboratory and Library”.

Upgradation of school in States/UTs are being sanctioned or denied on the basis of UDISE data and States/UTs data were not considered for approving new school.

Data variations with respect to strengthening of existing secondary school especially for approval of additional class room, science lab, art/craft/culture room, computer lab, toilet block, rams, disabled friendly toilet, etc. In this data also, there are huge gap but MHRD again taken this data for approval of above mentioned items for States/UTs. Again States/UTs data denied because it was said that it is not proper.

UDISE DATA has implications on teacher requirement, teacher in position, teacher recruitment, teacher training, new appointed teacher, subjects teacher, music teacher, sports teacher, language teacher, art/craft/culture teacher, computer teacher, etc. in UDISE but again UDISE data was base for approving proposals of the States/UTs. In this also, States/UTs data were denied resulting in suffering of children.

Data variation in enrolment in feeder school which helps in approving new secondary school in any un-served area of the country. Again States/UTs data were denied.

Data variations in enrolment of special focus groups e.g. SCs, STs, Educationally Backward Minorities, Girls Enrolment, etc. which finally mislead to any intervention being carried out at national level or state level.

There is 6 month gap in cut off date of UDISE and financial year and majority of interventions are carried out in states in 6 months which is captured next year UDISE.

Hence it is not appropriate for considering the annual plan submitted at the fag end of the financial year.

AWP&B 2013-14 of RMSA of States like Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, West Bengal were with a direction to correct the UDISE.

State project directors instructed their officials to get the data of UDISE in the light of RMSA requirements. Thus manipulation in data cannot be ruled out. In the same department of Ministry, UDISE data was not mandatory for approval of plans of the States/UTs while SSA is flagship programme of Government of India.

National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), the custodian of the data was never contacted before approval of any plan of the States/UTs whereas data validation is the responsibility of this university. Interestingly, UDISE of RMSA remained the source for providing data for providing information to the parliament.

MHRD officials do not hesitate in misleading the parliament. It will be more interesting to know that in the same department of MHRD, SSA relied on the State’s data where RMSA relied on UDISE. Use of premature UDISE becomes a bench mark which has has adverse implications in future years.

[Naiyar Azamis based in New Delhi. He can be contacted at naiyar_jmi2005@yahoo.co.in]

IMO News Service

Patna: Peace Foundation, a newly launched non-profit NGO in Bihar, held a deliberation on “Measures for socio-economic development of Muslims” at its office in Patna on September 8, 2013. The discussion and brainstorming aimed at charted out vision to the Muslims for a better future.

The guests included Enam Khan, Convenor of Bihar Anjuman, Rustam Ali, educationist and retired Chief Genral Manager of BSNL, Shoib Khan, social worker and retired I.P.S officer, Dr. Anwarul Hassan Kazmi, Principal, Patna Muslim High School, Maulana Abdul Majid Qasmi, Secretary, Shanti Sandesh Kendr, Md. Shabbir, Software Engineer, Aftab Hassan Shams, Secretary, Naujawanan-e-Millat Welfare Foundation, Bihar Sharif, Dr. Ashrafun Nabi, Journalist, Naushad Ansari, founder and Secretary of Peace Foundation, Mohammad Quasim, Advocate, Patna High Court and many others.

Naushad Ansari introduced Peace Foundation to the audience and pointed out that Muslims suffer from alarming rate of drop out at secondary level. This entails overall backwardness in social, economic and political fields. The drop outs finally join unskilled labour force with paltry wages and remain backward for generations. Hence, he advised, the best course for development could be to go for vocational courses leading to early employment of the wandering youths. Such youths are required to be encourages and supported to pursue semi-skill short technical courses, for which less effort and less investment is required to be done. At the same time, he stressed that the Masjid Committee should have a check on drop out of children of their localities.
Rustam Ali asked to realize that Muslims share in Jawahar Navoday Vidyalayas (JNVs) is just 4 and 3.8 per cent at all India and Patna region against their population ratio of 13.4 per cent and 18.52 per cent respectively. He emphasised that JNVs provide good quality modern education free of charge. This is indeed a panacea for Muslim’s educational backwardness. He felt need of opening as many coaching centres for the preparation of government school going students of class V level to prepare them for the entrance test of JNVs.

While deliberating on the subject Shoib Khan said that the community should be very focused in their approach. In this age of competition Muslims can surely be successful provided that they plan their future with accuracy and a firm faith in Allah SWT. A good number of government schemes doesn’t reach to the Muslims as they are not aware of such plans. We must awaken and educate the community on the importance of education, short professional courses, governments schemes etc, he emphasized.

Enam Khan of Bihar Anjuman shared his experience of running 24 coaching centres for poor Muslim students in different districts of Bihar and Jharkhand free of charges. The students are from the government schools and from a very lower strata of the society. Many of them have become engineers, diploma engineers and Technocrats with their support. Hence any effort at micro level yield very good results. Felicitation and otivational programs are organized on monthly basis at the different coaching centres which electrifies students zeal to work hard.

Dr. Ashrfun Nabi asked the gathering to bring out publications on the themes of contemporary importance like on the government various development schemes, employment opportunities available at different levels, literatures on communal harmony and civil rights etc.

“Information revolution influences decision makers like in the Assemblies and Parliament, in the judiciary, in the security forces, in policy making etc’ viewed Aftab Hassan Shams. Therefore, he suggested, we should interact with media through press releases, letters to the Editor, conducting media meet occasionally.

Mohammad Quasim asked to organize regular workshops and symposium on public awareness with giving importance to educating the people on the welfare schemes made for minorities as most of the welfare schemes made by the centre for the welfare of minorities are being cornered by other better placed minority groups viz, Jains, Christians etc., he lamented.

IMO News Service

Jeddah: Rohail Khan, Chairman, Urdu Academy International (UAI), offered congratulations to the Consulate General of India, Jeddah, and Indian Pilgrims Welfare Forum (IPWF) for a successful Urdu Mushaira, organized for the benefit of Pilgrims.

"Urdu, fourth largest language in the world, is spoken by 550 million people across all continents. After Arabic, Urdu is largest source of knowledge on Islam. To serve future generations, we need to popularize Urdu language and literature at all levels. Expatriate Urdu lovers of Saudi Arabia warmly appreciate the Mushaira and offer gratitude to the respected poets for their valuable participation. Let us promote Urdu beyond borders. Let us serve those who serve Urdu," said Rohail Khan.

Mushaira Proceedings

Famous Urdu poets from various Indian provinces mesmerized the Indian and Pakistani expatriate communities at the Annual Mushaira. The vibrant colors of Ghazal (traditional genre of Urdu poetry), were on full display for a crowd of over 2,000 Urdu lovers.

H.E Faiz Ahmed Qidwai, Consul General, Indian Consulate, Jeddah (center, white achkan) with the team of Poets, greeting the audience at the Mushaira.

After traditional lighting of shama by Indian Ambassador along with the Honorable Consul General, the evening began with a recitation of verses from the Holy Quran followed by an introduction of 12 guest poets by the host Irshad Ahmed.

A heart touching Naat was presented by Tabish Mehdi from Delhi.

“Paye Zikr-e-Nabi mein lub jo kholon
Zuban ko mushk say amber say dholon
Madinay jub kisi ko jatay dekha
Yeh ji chaha usi kay saath main holon”

Young female poet Rukhsar Balrampuri was the first poet of the evening who warmed the hearts of the audience with her sentimental feminine couplets.

“Door kardeti hain teergi betiya
Ghar main laati hain roshni betiya
Ab na beti ki izzat say khailay koi
Hain isi mulk main aap ki betiya
Phir na dilli key jaisa kahin aur ho
phir na zinda jalay aap ki betiya”

Mohsin Jalgawi, renowned poet, author, editor of Etemad daily, captured current social issues in his thought-provoking verses.

“Riwait ki rawadari buhut hai
Yahan rishtoon ki bimari buhut hai
Buhut hi toot ker milti hai duniya
Magar us main adakari buhut hai
Kahin pehchan main dhoka na khana
Shbahat ki riyakari buhut hai”

Tabish Mehdi, once again, was highly appreciated by the audience.

“Tujh say hi subah munawwar hai, Sham roshan hai
Teray hi dum say jahan ka nizam roshan hai
Na karrofar na koi taam jham rakhtay hain
Hum ahle-dil hain miyan dil say kaam rkhtay hain”

Sikander Garber's humorous compositions were greeted with applause.

“Kisi ka husn akhir jaan ka dushman ho bhi sakta hai
Tumharay jail Janay ka yeh kaaran ho bhi sakta hai
Meray beton haseeno say zara tum door hi rehna
Yeh angrezi dawa hai reaction ho bhi sakta hai"

Agha Sarosh proved his esoteric mastery over ghazal:

"Khammoshiyou kay nagar say sada kub ayegi
Udar say phir koi taza hawa kub ayegi
Meray labon ko kaafi hai boond bher barish
Nadi ki piyas bhujanay ghataien kub ayegi
Fiza main itni ghtan hai ke aaj ghabra ker
Chiragh pooch rahay hain hawa kub ayegi”

Waseem Malik from Surat, Gujarat, captured social issues with his verses and was well received by the multi-national audience.

“Saron pe saya-e-rehmat rahe to acha hai
Buzrg ped salamat rahay to acha hai
Mehktay phool say rishton kay sath chalna hai
Mujhay to apnay buzrgon kay saath chalna hai
Main aaj bacchoon ki ungli pakad kay niklonga
Mujhay zameen pe farishtoon kay rehna hai”

Iqbal Ashhar mesmerized the audience with verses based on realism.

“Yeh jugnowo ki qiyadat main chalnay walay log
Thay kal chirag ki manind jalnay walay log
Hamain bhi waqat nay pathar sifat banadala
Hamien thay mom ki soorat pighalnay walay log”

His other couplets were also highly appreciated by the audience.

“Us ki khushbo meri ghazlon main simat aye hai
Naam ka naam hai ruswai ki ruswai hai”

He presented his famous ghazal on public demand and a nazm which made evident to all the richness and sweetness of the Urdu language.

Mohsin Jalgawi, who has authored several books, released his latest book during the event.

Nikhat Amrohi another female poet, struck a chord with the audience on the condition of current Indian society.

“Aik mamoli say mazdor ki beti hoon main
Mujhko bigday huway halat say dar lagta hai
Log sasural main bahoonwo ki jala detay hain
Bus yehi soonch kay barat say dar lagta hai”

Her couplet was much appreciated and she presented it twice as there were cries of encore from the public.

“Khushi kay khawab ko taabeer main dhala hai
Main wo beti hoon jis say maan kay angan main ujala hai
Nahi samjha hai kuch farq betay aur beti main
Meray maan baap nay mujh ko buhut naazon say pala hai”

Nazim-e-Mushaira was Nadeem Farrokh, his poetry mapped the soul’s unique journey through life.

“Subah magroor ko wo sham bhi kardeta hai
Shuhratien cheen kar gumnaam bhi kardeta hai
Waqt say aankh milany ki himaqat na karo
Waqt insaan ko nilaam bhi kardeta hai
Wo pathraiye si ankhon main bhi kajal bhej deta hai
Sulagti dopaher main jaisay badal bhej deta hai
Jahan walay usay jub yaad karna bhool jatay hain
Zameenon ki tahon main koi halchal bhej deta hai”

Naeem Akhter Burhanpuri highlighted social issues in his verses.

“Na ab soya na jaga jara ha hai
Tera gham hai ke badhta jaraha hai
Hum apnay aap main sooraj hain phir bhi
Andhera hum main dhoonda jar aha hai
Zamany pe bharoosa karnay walo
Bharoosay ka zamana jaraha hai”

Jalees Sherwani captured the heart of the audience with his religious couplets.

“Aagaz say behtar hai wo anjaam diya hai
Qur’an ki surat main jo inaam diya hai
Kiya kiya nahi khalqat ko mila rubb-e-ola say
Ahsan hai uska hamien islam diya hai
Karlay agar yaqeen rasalat-e-maab main
Beshak milayga aap ko paani sarab main”

Prof. Wasim Barelvi, Chairman NCPUL (National Council for Promotion of Urdu language) presented the true color of ghazal:

“Subhao phool jaisa hosla guldaan jaisa
Yeh urdu hai ke jis dil bhi hindustaan jaisa
Aap naraz hoon, roothay ya khafa hojaye
Baat itni bhi na bigday ke juda hojaye
Meri nazroon ko baratna koi tujh say sikhay
Jitna main dekh sako utna nazar aata hai”

Prof. Barelvi thanked the audience and organizers for making the event a success. “This successful historical Mushaira confirms a bright future for Urdu language,” he proudly admitted.

IMO News Service

New Delhi: Aaghaz-e-Dosti (An initiative for Indo-Pak friendship, started by Mission Bhartiyam) organized its Fourth Aman Chaupal on 11 September 2013 at Rainbow English Sr. Sec. School in Delhi. Aman Chaupal is an informal session wherein people from Pakistan or who have been to Pakistan share their experiences and address students’ curiosities and questions. This is the fourth Aman Chaupal. The first and the second were done with peace activist from Pakistan Saeeda Diep. The third was with author and journalist Raza Rumi.

In this Aman Chaupal, Kiran Nazish was the guest. She is a journalist-activist. Her works appear in reputed newspapers like Dawn, Express Tribune, Friday times, Tehelka, Forbes, Huffington Post and several others.

The session began with stating the objective and importance of the session. "It is to bridge the communication gap that guides Indo-Pak relations and that gives way to stereotypes and mutual hatred and suspicion. It is to show the other side of Pakistan that the Indian media never shows", remarked Devika Mittal, convenor of Aaghaz-e-Dosti.

After a warm welcome with flowers, Kiran Nazish had addressed about 100 students from classes 10th-12th. At least, the barrier of language was destroyed, the questions and response could be in either Hindi/Urdu or English. The first question was on the issue of Kashmir. This was followed by questions on the recent clash, killing of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani army the case of Sarabjit Singh and the "un-cooperative" attitude of Pakistan Government.

"While Pakistan had killed Sarabjit, the Indian Government had treated the Pakistani terrorist as a guest. While soldiers have been mercilessly killed on the borders, the Indian Government did not responded back. When the Prime Minister of India was in Pakistan for friendship, Kargil was announced.", argued a student.

This had earned a lot of cheer from the crowd. The reason for the cheer indicated the popular sentiment. Kiran Nazish responded to this by pointing out the factual errors caused by the bias in the Indian media, their failure to show the other side of the story. She also talked about the need for peace, the need to "stop somewhere".

She talked about the sentiments that we attach to the soldier. She talked about the innocent life lost in clashes of the "black sheeps" on both sides of the border.

There were also questions on the status of religious minorities and women. "Are people free to go to temples?" was a question on the status of religious minorities. Kiran Nazish remarked that there are many temples and churches in Pakistan. They also celebrate Diwali and Holi. There are constitutional provisions that seek to safeguard the religious minorities. They are free to practice their religion. There is a quota for minorities in the educational institutions.

Are women free? Is the purdah system rigid? She answered that there is freedom. Women have access to equal opportunity. The purdah system is not rigid. It is generally for the conservative families.

While there were several questions on political and controversial issues which were a clear reflection of the media portrayal of Pakistan, when the students were asked if they would like to go to Pakistan, many hands shot in air. A student had also raised the desire and need for a cultural-exchange programme.

The principal spoke about the need to forget the past, bridge the differences and bring peace and prosperity. She talked about the importance of youth in this endeavour. She remarked, "Pehle hum ek the, mann bhi ek tha, aman bhi tha par ye ashanti Kaha se aa gai? Kaise hum shaanti laaye? Kaise hum phir se ek ho sake? Aap aane wale kal ki dharohar hai. Aap bachche chahe toh hindustan ko bhi ucha utha sakte hai, jo Pakistan ko bhi acha bana sakte hai, pure vishwa ko acha bana sakte hai. Aap umeedein hai, aashayein hai."

The programme ended with a gesture of hope, a warm hug by the principal to Kiran Nazish.

Madhulika Narasimhan, the co-ordinator of Aman Chaupal, had concluded the session by talking about the need for a rational perspective on the issues. She suggested that besides the Indian reporting of a news, there is also a need to look at the Pakistani reporting of the same news.

By Danish Ahmad Khan

New Delhi/Jeddah: Urdu, fourth largest language, is spoken by over 550 million people world wide. To serve future generations, there is a pressing need to re-build the brand of Urdu and execute well-planned measures to popularize and secure Urdu language, literature and culture at all levels.

Keeping this significant need in view, Rohail A. Khan, who is presently a Senior Banker, Corporate Financier, Business Developer and Middle and Near East Specialist, recently launched the Urdu Academy International (UAI) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This global think tank is devoted to espousing and popularizing the cause of Urdu language, literature and culture across the world. The new organization ‘s motto is: “Serving Urdu. Serving Islam”.

Rohail A. Khan is a Canadian national with strong parental roots in Pakistan and India. He is a well-rounded CFO, CEO, corporate financier and seasoned business developer, having above 23 years' accumulated experience acquired at multi-national financial and commercial conglomerates across USA, UK, Africa, Middle and Near East. As a Senior Banker, Rohail has worked in progressive positions at Chase Manhattan Bank, BNP Paribas / Meridien BIAO Bank, Citibank / Banque Du Caire, ABN Amro / Saudi Hollandi Bank. He possesses in-depth knowledge of Saudi and GCC markets (working and living in Saudi Arabia since 19 years), and hands-on expertise of key industries: Oil and Gas, Petrochemicals, Energy, Defence, Aviation, EPC, Contracting, Industrial Manufacturing & Trading, Steel, Transportation, Logistics, ICT, Telecommunications, Healthcare, FMCG, Real Estate, Financial Services.

Rohail Khan is a specialist in corporate start-up, turnaround, and expansion. He has extensive experience of evaluating, financing, and managing both green and brown field projects. With Masters in Economics and Finance, he is a qualified CMA and CGA. Rohail is professionally accredited with international bodies in banking, accounting, finance, marketing, general management. He has attended advanced programs at Institute of Directors, Harvard Business School, LSE, INSEAD, and London Business School.

Rohail A. Khan has been elected as Chairman of the newlylaunced Urdu Academy International (UAI). Talking to this Correspondent, Mr. Rohail said that there is an incessant need to represent Urdu internationally and build bridges between East and the West.

"We need to assimilate and utilize Urdu as a means to enhance our knowledge about Islam. Regardless of our origin or nationality, let us admit that (after Arabic) Urdu is the largest source of knowledge and literature on Islam, Quran, and Sunnah. This is an un-deniable fact," said Rohail Khan.

Rohail A.Khan

Under the Academy’s flag, Rohail desires to bring together the Urdu-serving associations, societies, universities, and colleges from all over the world “under one roof”.

Rohail Khan announced the short and mid term projects of the Academy :

1. Launching a well-rounded quarterly Urdu Digest where Urdu scholars from all over the world will contribute essays, short stories and poems on multi-cultural literary and socio-economic reformatory topics.

2. Publishing a concise single-volume Urdu - to - Urdu Dictionary for the benefit of the young generation and Urdu lovers.

3. Publishing a Grand Urdu Encyclopedia, an ambitious project, to compile and publish a comprehensive fifty-volume encyclopedia as an alternate to Encyclopedia Britannia.

4. Publishing Urdu Thesaurus of Information Technology.

5. Global petition to adopt Urdu as Facebook’s official language. Next goal shall be to launch Urdu in other reputed social media portals i.e: Linked-In, Tweeter.

6. Urdu Software Project The objective is to standardize the top three Urdu software applications and develop compatible operating systems in Urdu.

7. International Directory of Urdu writers, poets, philosophers, and scientists.

8. Urdu Workshops and Symposia to be organized at local schools.

9. Urdu Research and Publishing Center (URPC). To initiate research projects on Urdu dictionary, grammar, translation, lexicography, etymology, critique, and biography. URPC will establish state-of-the-art, high-tech publishing house dedicated to publish “electronic books”.

11. Urdu Academy International shall also organize “International Literary Conferences and Urdu Mushairas” by setting up joint ventures with local and international literary societies.

IMO News Service

New Delhi: Leaders of all leading Muslim organizations including Maulana Mahmood Madani, general Secretary Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind , Dr QRS Ilyas, Member of All Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Nusrat Ali general secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan president All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, Dr Taslim Rahmani president Milli Political Council of India, Maulana Mohsin Taqwi, executive secretary Masjlis Ulama-e Hind, Maulana Shees Taimi Member Jamiat Ahle Hadith Hind in their combined press conference here at JUH central office ITO New Delhi unanimously demanded forthwith dismissal of Akhilesh government and establishment of president’s rule in the state claiming that the incumbent government has failed to control the deteriorating situation in trouble region and is responsible for inciting violence and abetment.

The Muslim organizations rejected the excuse of Akhilesh Kumar that riots are fall-out of conspiracies by the oppositions and asserted that opposition political parties in any political dispensation tries to destabilize the incumbent government by vitiating communal situation, creating law and order problem etc, but it is incumbent upon the ruling party to maintain law and order situation. But Akhilesh government have reasonably failed to do so, therefore this government has lost moral high ground to remain in power. The Muslim leaders maintained that more than 105 communal flares up have taken place within 2 years of this samajwadi government which are enough proves to establish the failure of any government.

Replying the queries posed by media, Maulana Mahmood Madani JUH general secretary explained away that question is not about involvement of communal forces in the violence but the real issue is abetment of the Akhilesh government and laxity on its part that 3 days passed since the conflagrations began but instead of letting down it is spreading from one area to other. He pointed out that yesterday there was no communal tension in Hapur, but today reports are coming that two persons were killed in Hapur. Appreciating the demands of Muslim leaders Madani said Muslims were not expecting that this government would remain inactive and riots will spread to interior villages and hamlets by every passing day. “It seems that Akhilesh Government wants the riots continue.” Maulana Madani figured out that thousands of villagers are fleeing their home and taking shelter in camps. “We have sent today our team to assess the situation and myself will leave by tonight to provide food and shelter for the needy. He appealed to the people to maintain peace and exercise patience. He assured them that Jamiat Ulama e hind will not leave them alone. It is the organization for the destitute people and we are right now working in Assam and Kashmir and will do our best for the people of this area without considering their religion, said Maulana Madani.

Muslim leaders also demanded immediate suspension and stern punitive action against the offials found to be negligent of their duty and their failure to discaharge their administrative responsibility. They underscored that mere transfer holding transfer is not punishment but prize.

They demanded that besides urban areas, military personnel should be deployed in the interior villages which are more prone to violence. The organizations demanded from the central government to discharge its constitutional responsibility of maintaining peace and tranquility in the troubled region and intervene for the sake of humanity.

They also asserted on the need for establishment of peace committee and appealed to the religious leaders of the majority community to come forward and stop violence.

By Roger Cohen

London: Is Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president, a game-changer? Initial indications leave open that possibility. Ignoring it would be foolish.

Gone, or tamed, is the inflammatory language, the anti-Western invective, the delusional accusations, the Holocaust denial and the Israel baiting that turned his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, into the villain from central casting. You do not have to be seduced by Rouhani’s apparent recent tweet wishing Jews a good Rosh Hashana — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not impressed” — to perceive a significant change.

Ahmadinejad was a parochial rabble-rouser who proved to be all hat and no cattle. Rouhani, a Western-educated former nuclear negotiator, is a political pragmatist sensitive to the yearning of Iranians for an end to the nation’s pariah status and restoration of normality in its dealings with the world. He has promised to “pursue a policy of reconciliation,” impossible without compromise on Iran’s nuclear program.

There is every reason to be skeptical of Rouhani given past Iranian deception, the depth of mutual mistrust in U.S.-Iranian relations, and the decades-long investment in anti-American policy of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. But Rouhani’s opening should be tested rather than prejudiced through threats or the further sanctions Netanyahu is urging. Congress must hit “pause” on its restless urge to punish Iran.

During the Syrian crisis, Rouhani has been fierce in his condemnation of chemical weapons: Iran was attacked with them in the 1980-88 war by Saddam Hussein, who had the tacit backing of the United States. The Iranian president has been equally firm in his opposition to U.S. military intervention in Syria. His approach, and that of his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who apparently joined the president in wishing Jews a happy New Year, has been striking for its balance.

At the same time, Iran through its Revolutionary Guards has been a core supporter of Bashar al-Assad. Qassim Suleimani, a commander, has pledged support “to the end” for the Syrian regime.

With Iran there are always conflicting signals. Reading Alice in Wonderland is good preparation for dealing with it. But residents of Tehran report a palpable easing of tension under Rouhani. He bears dispassionate scrutiny.

It is a good sign that Secretary of State John Kerry, in noting that the “civilized world” had decided after World War I that chemical weapons should never be used again, chose to mention Iran first among the more than 180 countries that have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Iran is in a vulnerable state: It has reached a post-revolutionary dead end where its anti-American rhetoric serves no strategic purpose. The ideological appeal of its Islamic theocracy in a changing Middle East is near zero. Supporting the brutal Assad has been strategically costly for itself and its Hezbollah surrogate.

Growing Sunni-Shiite tensions across the region can only hurt it. The sanctions-hit economy is a shambles. The country has leveraged its nuclear program for influence about as far it can without taking the added step to bomb-building that would invite a feared U.S. military response. Iran is stymied, its immense potential blocked.

But the Islamic Republic has demonstrated again a deep-seated resilience. By Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and Egyptian standards it is an island of stability. As Rouhani’s election showed, it is capable of liberal eddies within its authoritarian model. Les Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, noted this month that Iran’s elections are “more free and open than those in most Muslim countries.” This is a modest distinction — the 2009 election and its brutal aftermath were a fiasco — but underscores the important point that, unlike Assad’s Syria, Iran is not a totalitarian society.

The Islamic Republic is here to stay. It has largely acquired the nuclear know-how it sought without taking the high-risk bomb-making decision. The election of Rouhani reflects the desire of a society at an impasse to change course. All of which says: Negotiate now before another “red-line” drags the United States into confrontation.

This requires a new approach from the Obama administration. As William Luers, Thomas Pickering and Jim Walsh argue persuasively in The New York Review of Books, the United States “should take the initiative and communicate directly with the new leadership.” Coercive diplomacy, recommended by Obama’s former Iran hand Dennis Ross, is, they note, “an oxymoron” because “invariably the coercive side dominates the diplomatic side.” The goal, they say, should be a broad dialogue under which, in a phased process, Iran would agree to confine itself to limited enrichment for a peaceful nuclear program under strict international monitoring as sanctions were progressively lifted.

Rouhani and Obama will both be at the United Nations this month. They should meet. Beneath a stale enmity lurk many potential fields of cooperation. As Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has pointed out, “The collapse of the Assad regime would produce a common interest for Washington and Tehran in making sure that radical Sunni Islamists, who hate Shiite Iran even more than America, do not rule Damascus.”

Far-fetched? Yes. But the swirling Middle East has nudged Tehran and Washington just a little closer.

(Courtesy: The New York Times)

By Saif Ahmad Khan

With the escalation of Hindu-Muslim tension in India, Hindutva ideologues have started to brainwash Indian Hindus by trying to instill in them a sort of existential dilemma. They reason that Islamist Jihad in India will result in a situation where no Hindus will be left to live in Bharat. In order to substantiate their claim, they cite the example of Muslim majority Pakistan and Muslim majority Kashmir. When Pakistan came into being in 1947, the Hindu population of the state ran in double digits (percentage wise) but gradually this figure has descended to a percentage or two. Similarly, the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley has led to over 90% of the Kashmiri Pandits being forced out of their homes. Islamophobic intellectuals in India have stated that these warnings should not be taken lightly by the Hindus as Muslims are on a mission to convert India into Darul Islam. I wonder whether these academicians really understand the meaning of the term Darul Islam (Abode of Peace) which has been used in the Quran to describe heaven and not some Muslim majority country ruled by the Sharia as some Islamophobes would have us to believe.

If there is any person who is worried about the fate of Hindus in Muslim majority countries and intends to know whether the two communities can co-exist in such a situation then that person should look at Indonesia, the country with the highest number of Muslims in the world. According to the 2010 National Census of Indonesia, the island nation’s human force stands at 237.6 million. Muslims form the majority with 87.5% of the population. Christians happen to be the major minority in the country with 9% stake in the population whereas Hindus and Buddhists form 3% and 2% population share, respectively. Indonesia happens to be a secular state and the guiding force behind the idea of Indonesia is the Pancasila. The Constitution of Indonesia was formulated by such secular fundamentalists that in August 1945 they unanimously ratified and agreed upon the usage of the term “Tuhan” instead of “Allah” in the Indonesian Constitution. This was done particularly to strengthen the confidence of minorities like Hindus who preferred using the term “Tuhan” and could connect with it. On the same day ie 18th August, 1945 the constitution makers modified the first principle of the Pancasila from “Belief in Almighty Good with the obligation for its Muslim adherents to carry out the Islamic Law” to “Belief in Almighty Good”. This made the Indonesian Constitution all the more secular.

The official motto of Indonesia is “”Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” which can be translated as “Unity in Diversity”. The term unity and diversity is said to have been originally coined by Bahai Ullah, the founder of Bahai Faith. The national emblem of Indonesia is called Garuda Pancasila. In Hindu mythology, Garuda is a bird of great significance as it is the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. One of the most important Hindu scriptures called Garuda Purana describes the conversation between Lord Vishnu and Garuda regarding afterlife. Garuda Purana is also recited in Hindu households after someone passes away. Indonesia’s national airline has also been influenced by this bird of Hindu mythology and is called Garuda Indonesia. Lord Ram’s beloved “Hanuman” who appears in the Ramayana is the official mascot of Indonesia’s military intelligence. The National flag of Indonesia called the “Sang Saka Merah-Putin” (meaning “The Sacred Red and White”) has been influenced by the banner of Majapahit empire which was at the time of 13th century one of the largest empires of the region. Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions in the Majapahit Empire.

Senior BJP leader and Former Deputy Prime Minister of India, Lal Krishna Advani visited Indonesia in July 2010 to attend the World Sindhi Conference in Jakarta. It is noteworthy to mention that Advani used to be the poster boy of Hindutva in India as it was him who headlined the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and ensured the rise of Hindu nationalism in the country. During his trip, Advani was left awestruck because of the pride bestowed upon Hinduism by Muslim majority Indonesia. On his return to India, he wrote a blog titled “Hindu influence in Indonesia” on 17th July, 2010. He concluded that write up with the following words, “Indonesia, I must say, seemed to know and cherish Ramayana and Mahabharata better than we (Indians) do.” Advani mentioned in his blog about the Ganesh inscription on a high denomination currency note of Indonesia ie 20,000 rupiah.

During his stay in Bali, Advani encountered the newly adopted logo of the island of Bali which in Advani’s words was a “manifestation of country’s Hindu traditions.” A publication of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism described the logo as follows, “The triangle (shape of logo) is a symbol of stability and balance. It is formed out of three straight lines in which both ends meet, taking the symbols of a blazing fire (Brahma – The Creator), lingga or phallus. The triangle also represents the three Gods of the Universe (Trimurti – Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa), three stages of nature (Bhur, Bwah, Swah and Loka), and three stages of life (Born, Live and Die). The tagline ‘Shanti, Shanit, Shanti’ represents peace be upon Bhuwana alit dan agung (yourself and the world) which will deliver a sacred and holy vibe that awakens a deep aura that balance and make peace to all living creatures.” During his short trip to Indonesia of 4 days (2 days in Bali and 2 in Jakarta), Advani also saw the Krishna-Arjuna Statue at Jakarta main square. While Advani was in Denpasar, capital of Bali, he saw another statue which even he was unable to decipher. When he inquired about the statue from the driver of his car, the driver replied, “This is a depiction of the Ghatotkach from Mahabharata.”

The driver’s answer won Advani’s heart. Advani wrote, “Indeed, even in India very few would be able to identify who Ghatotkach is. And here was the driver of our car knowing full well both Ghatotkach as well as his relationship with Bheema.” Indonesia’s pluralism and its respect for the various religious traditions being practised in the country is a matter of great pride for the entire world. The world’s largest Muslim majority country stands as a testimony for those who believe that societies which are dominated by Islam do not even exhibit the slightest form of tolerance. Advani’s respect for Indonesia stems from Indonesia’s respect for Hinduism. We hope and pray to God that Indonesia continues to prosper and remains a citadel of peace and tolerance across the globe. Advani stated in his blog, “In Indonesia, the names of places, of people, and the nomenclature of institutions also give one a clear impression of a benign Sanskrit influence.” We hope that this vibrancy of Indonesian culture never ceases and continues its existence till eternity.

(Courtesy: GroundReport.com)

[This interview was conducted by Frank Barat of Ceasefire with noted writer Noam Chomsky]

Ceasefire (Frank Barat): What is the definition of negotiations in Israel-US language and why is the Palestinian Authority playing along?

Noam Chomsky: From the U.S. point of view, negotiations are, in effect, a way for Israel to continue its policies of systematically taking over whatever it wants in the West Bank, maintaining the brutal siege on Gaza, separating Gaza from the West Bank and, of course, occupying the Syrian Golan heights, all with full US support. And the framework of negotiations, as in the past twenty years of the Oslo experience, has simply provided a cover for this.

CF: In your opinion, why is the PA playing along with this and going to negotiations time after time?

NC: It’s probably partly out of desperation. You can ask whether it’s the right choice or not but they don’t have many alternatives.

CF: So it’s pretty much to survive that they indeed accept the framework?

NC: If they were refuse to join the US-run negotiations, their basis for support would collapse. They survive on donations essentially. Israel has made sure that it’s not a productive economy. They’re a kind of what would be called in Yiddish a “Schnorrer Society”: you just borrow and live on what you can get.

Whether they have an alternative to that is not so clear, but if they were to refuse the US demand for negotiations on completely unacceptable terms, their basis for support would erode. And they do have support – external support – enough so that the Palestinian elite can live in a fairly decent – often lavish – lifestyle, while the society around them collapses

CF: So would the crumbling and disappearance of the PA be a bad thing after all?

NC: It depends on what would replace it. If, say, Marwan Barghouti were permitted to join the society the way, say, Nelson Mandela was finally, that could have a revitalising effect in organising a Palestinian society that might press for more substantial demands. But remember: they don’t have a lot of choices.

In fact, go back to the beginning of the Oslo Agreements, now twenty years old. There were negotiations under way, the Madrid negotiations, at which the Palestinian delegation was led by Haider Abdel-Shafi, a highly respected, Left-Nationalist figure in Palestine. He was refusing to agree to the US-Israel terms, which required crucially that settlement expansion was allowed to continue. He refused, and therefore the negotiations stalled and got nowhere.

Meanwhile Arafat and the external Palestinians went on the side-track through Oslo, gained control and Haider Abdel-Shafi was so opposed to this he didn’t even show up to the dramatic and meaningless ceremony where Clinton beamed while Arafat and Rabin shook hands. He didn’t show up because he realised it was a total sell-out. But he was principled and therefore could get nowhere, and we’ll get nowhere unless there’s substantial support from the European Union, the Gulf States and ultimately, from the United States.

CF: In your opinion what is really at stake in what’s unravelling in Syria at the moment, and what does it mean for the broader region?

NC: Well, Syria is descending into suicide. It’s a horror story and getting worse and worse. There’s no bright spot on the horizon. What will probably happen, if this continues, is that Syria will be partitioned into probably three regions; a Kurdish region – which is already forming – that could pull out and join in some fashion the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, maybe with some kind of deal with Turkey.

The rest of the country will be divided between a region dominated by the Assad regime – a brutal horrifying regime – and another section dominated by the various militias, which range from the extremely malicious and violent to the secular and democratic. Meanwhile, Israel is looking by and enjoying the spectacle. If you look at the New York Times this morning there’s a quote by an Israeli official essentially expressing their joy at watching Arabs slaughter each other.

CF: Yes, I read that

NC: For the United States, that’s fine, they don’t want an outcome either. If the US and Israel wanted to assist the rebels – which they do not – they can do it, even without military intervention. For example, if Israel were to mobilise forces on the Golan Heights (of course, it’s the Syrian Golan heights, but by now the world more or less tolerates or accepts Israel’s illegal occupation,) If they would just do that, It would compel Assad to move forces to the South which would relieve pressure against the rebels. But there’s no hint even of that. They’re also not giving humanitarian aid to the huge number of suffering refugees, not doing all kinds of simple things that they could do.

All of which suggests that both Israel and the United States prefer exactly what is happening today, just as reported in that NYT story this morning. Meanwhile, Israel can celebrate, and its status as what they call a “Villa in the Jungle”. There was an interesting article by the editor of Haaretz, Aluf Benn, who wrote about how Israelis are going to the beach and enjoying themselves, and congratulating themselves as being a “Villa in the jungle” while the wild beasts out there tear each other to shreds. And, of course, Israel under this picture is doing nothing except defending itself. They like that picture and the US doesn’t seem too dissatisfied with it either. The rest is shadowboxing.

CF: What about talk of a US strike then, do you think it’s going to happen?

NC: A bombing?

CF: Yes

NC: Well, it’s kind of an interesting debate in the United States. The Ultra-Right, the Right wing extremists who are kind of off the international spectrum, they’re opposing it, though not for reasons I like. They’re opposing it because “Why should we dedicate ourselves to solving other people’s problems and waste our own resources?” They’re literally asking “Who’s going to defend us when we’re attacked, because we’re devoting ourselves to helping people overseas?” That’s the Ultra-Right. If you look at the ‘moderate’ Right, people like, say, David brooks of the New York Times, considered an intellectual commentator on the right. His view is that the US effort to withdraw its forces from the region is not having a “moderating effect”. According to Brooks, when US forces are in the region, that has a moderating effect; it improves the situation, as you can see in Iraq, for example. But if we’re withdrawing our forces then we’re no longer able to moderate the situation and make it better.

That’s the Standard view from the intellectual right over to the mainstream, the liberal democrats and so on. So there’s a lot of talk about “Should we exercise our ‘Responsibility to Protect’?” Well, just take a look at the US record on ‘Responsibility to Protect’. The fact that these words can even be spoken reveals something quite extraordinary about the US – and, in fact, Western – moral and intellectual culture.

This is quite apart from the fact that it’s a gross violation of international law. Obama’s latest line is that he didn’t establish a “red line” but the world did through its conventions on chemical warfare. Well, actually, the world does have a treaty, which Israel didn’t sign and which the US has totally neglected, for example when it supported Saddam Hussein’s really horrifying use of chemical weapons. Today, this is used to denounce Saddam Hussein, overlooking the fact that it was not only tolerated but basically supported by the Reagan administration. And, of course, the convention has no enforcement mechanisms.

There’s also no such thing as “Responsibility to Protect”, that’s a fraud perpetrated in Western intellectual culture. There is a notion, in fact two notions: there’s one passed by the UN General Assembly, which does talk about “Responsibility to Protect,” but it offers no authorisation for any kind of intervention except under conditions of the United Nations charter. There is another version, which is adopted only by the West, the US and its allies, which is unilateral and says R2P permits “military intervention by regional organisations in the region of their authority without Security Council authorisation”.

Well, translating that into English, this means that it provides authorisation for the US and NATO to use violence wherever they choose without Security Council authorisation. That’s what’s called “Responsibility to Protect” in Western discourse. If it weren’t so tragic it would be farcical.

CF: Thank you, Professor Chomsky.

(Courtesy: Information Clearing House)

By Ram Puniyani

Identity issues are at the fore in current times. Those basing their politics on the identity issues have lot of assertions about who the ‘others’ are. There is a constant ongoing attempt to assimilate them in the umbrella of their religion and culture. Current times, where religious nationalism dominates, the scene is that amongst all our multiple identities, the religious one is kept at the fore. In this attempt one recalls that it was Murli Manohar Joshi of RSS-BJP who coined the term Ahmadiya Hindus for Muslims and Christi Hindu for the Christians. Not only this is meant to assimilate the other religious minorities, RSS has also been saying that Sikhism is just a sect of Hinduism not a religion by itself. There are multiple assertions at different times; the goal is to somehow label all the people under the umbrella of Hinduism, to label most as Hindus, either on the ground of religion or culture. Sometimes Muslims are told that their ancestors were Hindus and so what has changed is just the mode of worship.

On the same pattern the Goan Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is the latest one in this direction of appropriation of the ‘other’. In an interview he put forward his take on the issue of culture of Goan Catholics. Talking to the New York Times India blog (06, Sept 2013) he said that Catholics in Goa are culturally Hindu and that India is a Hindu nation in cultural sense.

What is this Hindu culture Parrikar is talking about? Let us understand there is no uniform Hindu culture. Amongst Hindus the cultural variations are vast; they are affected by the region, the area in which they live, caste and economic status amongst other things. The hall mark of the society is that culture is basically diverse and most affected by region, so culture generally is not labeled with religious prefix. Diversity is the core of culture of the society. Parikkar does say that culture of a Goan Catholic is different from the one in Brazil. Let’s remind him that culture of Catholics in every country is different. Within the same country it is again not uniform. To say that there is something like Hindu culture out there is an attempt to hegemonize, to impose some sort of homogeneity on something whose life breath is diversity.

There have been the theorists who argued that as different cultures meet they will merge into uniformity, what is popularly called as the ‘melting pot’ model. This is not what the society has seen. What has been observed is the ‘mosaic model’ or a ‘salad bawl’ model, where different shades, colors remain and add to the beauty of the whole. In cultural arena a dynamic interaction and some synthesis does take place while the different shades also continue to add their essence to the whole. There are many Hindus who will visit the Dargah of a Peer or Sufi saint and many Muslims who follow the Hindu saints of medieval times. Many a time’s food habits also become important ingredient of culture. While currently it is projected that eating beef is against Hindu practices there have been large number of Hindu communities eating beef. At personal level one recently came across a Hindu family on a tour to Europe, which was longing to relish beef. The tour operators had organized a vegetarian- non beef meal for the Indian tourists. This family made their own arrangement to eat beef somehow. Anthropological survey had identified large number of Hindu communities consuming beef. Now how will Parikkar handle the fact that Goan Catholics consume beef as well as pork, will he call it a ‘Hindu culture’? Currently cow is one of the major tool-symbol of Parrikar brand of politics, the one of Hindutva. How will Parrikar engage with Catholics eating beef?

Catholics of Goa may not have much in common with Catholics of other countries but that does not make them part of ‘Hindu culture’, if at all such a category can be coined. The core point is cultures cannot be restricted to religious categories. There are nearly 56 Muslim majority countries in the World, and their culture is as diverse as the cultural diversity within India. There is a vast range. Hinduism has been mostly restricted to India, there are Hindu communities in different parts of the World to be sure, but culturally they are as diverse as any other religious community.

So why is RSS swayamsevak Parikkar trying to appropriate the Catholics into Hindu cultural fold? The idea is that RSS-Parrikar politics is founded on the premise that India is a Hindu nation. So something Hindu has to be tagged on to other religious communities to claim their support at electoral level. There is a complex policy towards minorities as far as RSS progeny is concerned. At electoral level their support has to be won over, so some sort of Hindu label is to be put on them. There is also an attempt to impose Hindu norms on them, so some times they are called Ahmadiya Hindus or Christi Hindus. This gives RSS politics a scope to force them to adopt Hindu deities over a period of time. At the level of Governance and social politics, the idea is to subjugate them through violence and marginalization. We have seen enough propaganda-blames on Christians and Muslims, blames about conversion, beef eating, loyalty to other nations etc., the propaganda which is the base of ‘Hate other’ ideology, and communal violence. The burning alive of Pastors, rape of nuns, burning of Churches, violence against Muslims and Christians has been stalking the country. At the level of Governance, in the political arena the Parrikar parivar agenda is to oppose affirmative action for religious minorities or even to the socially disadvantaged people.

Indian Constitution and norms of United Nations do recognize and value the diversity of culture of people. The sectarian political tendencies all over, Parrikar included, begin with labeling them in their own hegemonic version of culture and politics and then go on to impose the same on ‘others’. The cleverness and shrewd maneuvers don’t end here. Simultaneously they can go on with anti minority propaganda and their marginalization in the social-economic terrain.

[Ram Puniyaniis based in Mumbai and is a strong advocate of human rights. He can be contacted at ram.puniyani@gmail.com]

Media marginalization of Muslims in India

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Peace Foundation deliberates on “Measures for socio-economic development of Muslims”

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