Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia
Date: September 4, 2013
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Media Marginalization of Muslims in India
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... Read More
YaHind.com, Saudi Arabia
Date: September 8, 2013
![]()
Media Marginalization of Muslims in India
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... Read More
On Line Opinion, Australia
Date: August 7, 2013
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Becoming the Bread Basket of Muslim Asia
By Jonathan J. Ariel
Not for long hopefully. HDC's promise is to help businesses access new markets both in Malaysia and abroad. For businesses, it means Halal is the avenue for new markets with the help of HDC and its agencies. For consumers, it means that with the growth of the Halal industry, they will have increased awareness and better choices on Halal goods. And finally, for the government, with new markets reached through Halal, it translates into economic growth. While the author Liow Ren Jan dwells on Malaysia's place in the global Halal marketplace, the book would be an excellent read for Australian managers in both government owned organisations tasked with "food innovation" as well as policy wonks in the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Austrade and food industry managers and entrepreneurs generally who are interested in lifting Australia's game in marketing (especially) value added foodstuffs to our near neighbours. So why should Australia focus laser-like, on Halal certified exports? Hasan Mulani of New Delhi's Indian Muslim Observer explains that Islam is one of the largest and fastest-growing religions in the world; over 25 per cent of the world's population - about 1.75 billion – follows the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed... Read More
Outlook, India
Date: December 5, 2011
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The Yin, Wounded
Debarshi Dasgupta
It has been 53 years since she was subjected to the agony. But as Zenab Bano, a retired political science professor in Udaipur, recounts the horror of that day, the wound is laid bare all over again—still raw, still unhealed. Barely seven years old then, she was told to go with her friend and her grandmother to a function for children at the end of which she would get a gift. “Before I realised what was happening, there was this woman pulling down my undergarment,” she says. “I had no idea what she was doing. It hurt a lot and I cried.” What Bano describes is the female circumcision ritual called khatna that most Bohra Muslim girls in India had to go through then. And which is still a rite of passage for many even today. What happened to Bano was never openly talked about within her household. “Whenever I asked my mother about it, she would say it’s nothing and that it’s done to all,” she says. The efforts of a 42-year-old Bohra woman from Mumbai, however, may finally bring the taboo subject to light, despite the cold indifference of orthodox members. Tasleem (who doesn’t want to reveal her surname), the mother of a 19-year-old girl, launched an online petition this October to try and get Bohra high priest Mohammed Burhanuddin to put an end to this archaic ritual. She sent her campaign material, including a large cardboard blade embossed with a photograph of a wailing girl being circumcised, to Burhanuddin’s office, but got no response. This campaign has now been picked up by Indian Muslim Observer, a website dedicated to Muslim affairs, for broader dissemination amongst other Muslims. According to Tasleem, khatna is still widely practised. “It still happens among rich, poor, the middle class,” she says. “I’d say 90 per cent still practise it.” Bohra reformist and scholar Asghar Ali Engineer too acknowledges that female circumcision is still very much prevalent. “But it would be difficult to ascertain the scale as it is a very hush-hush affair. In big cities like Bombay, it is done is hospitals right after birth and in smaller towns it is done around the age of six.”... Read More
Outlook, India
Date: November 19, 2012
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Green Colour Paper
Debarshi Dasgupta
Launching an English daily that specialises in covering Muslim affairs is an idea many have broached, even attempted. But it has remained illusory so far. While many attempts didn’t go beyond the drawing board, the few that made it to a print-run didn’t survive more than a few months, accentuating the challenges to launching a community-specific daily for India’s Muslims. However, this hasn’t deterred a group of Andhra Pradesh Muslims from reviving the idea with a new daily called Deccan Age, which they promise to launch on January 1, 2014. While there are many Muslim-specific dailies in Indian languages like Urdu and Malayalam, it’s the lure of having one in English—the language of many decision-makers—that has proved elusive. There are English journals for Muslims, like the Radiance Viewsweekly, the fortnightly Milli Gazette and the monthly Islamic Voice. But there’s no daily. Hoping to break this jinx, the Hyderabad-based Deccan Age was registered in September 2010... Meanwhile, a lot of what Rahman and his backers intend to do is already being done by websites that specialise in covering Muslim-related news, such as Two Circles, Ummeed and Indian Muslim Observer, and that too at far lower costs... Read More
World Muslim Congress, USA
Date: November 27, 2011
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Female Genital Mutilation among Bohra Muslims - A Report
I applaud the courage of Mr. Danish Ahmed for reporting this issue head on in his magazine Indian Muslim Observer. There is a lot that goes on in our societies, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Sikh or otherwise, in this instance a large number of Bohra Muslim Women are being genitally mutilated in secrecy, as it is an illegal practice within several cultures. Even if one woman, Muslim or otherwise is deprived of her God given pleasures of life, it must be stopped. Standing up against oppression is one big aspect of being a Muslim. Injustice to anyone and particularly women will eat away the morality of the society from within. Oppression cannot go on for long. Every religion has been a medium to restore righteousness in the society, the guidance is universal including Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) who said, the least thing you can do against injustice is to speak up. Speaking up is the right thing to do... Read More
NPWJ.org, USA
Date: November 15, 2011
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Uproar over Female Genital Mutilation: Bohra Muslim Woman
By Danish Ahmad Khan, Indian Muslim Observer
Female khatna’ (circumcision) or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which is widely prevalent in Africa and the Middle East among sections of Muslim, has come under sharp criticism by a female activist who has termed it grossly ‘inhuman, unjust and un-Islamic’ and is clamoring for a ban on its practice. The activist, who prefers to be named Tasleem, has launched a campaign on Facebook and making sincere efforts to collect signatures to petition the Bohra High Priest His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin ordering a ban on this ritual and stop this cruelty being foisted on Bohra females. The activist has urged the people to actively take part in this campaign against FGM and sign the Online Petition [https://www.change.org/petitions/hh-dr-syedna-ban-female-circumcision-ladkiyon-par-khatna-2] to put adequate pressure on HH Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin to finally put an end to this abhorring and ghastly practice... Read More
Orchid Project, UK
Date: September 29, 2011
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FGC in India and Pakistan
A widely held misconception is that female genital cutting is solely an African issue. Far from it. FGC is practised in all corners of the globe from Kurdistan to Australia, the Yemen to the UK – take a look at our two previous blogs about the state of FGC in Indonesia and United Arab Emirates. In this week’s blog, Orchid turns its focus to a part of the world where FGC is less well known about. We look at personal testimonies that provide anecdotal evidence of FGC occurring in the Bohra communities of India and Pakistan. The Bohra is a small, tight-knit community made up of approximately one million adherents, the majority residing in west India. Bohra communities have inhabited regions of Gujarat in western India since around the 11th Century. They spread to the Sindh region of Pakistan during independence from India and from British rule in 1947. The word Bohra is derived from the Gujarati, ‘vohorvu’, meaning ‘to trade’, and Bohras have traditionally been merchants in their communities. The Bohra observe a form of Shi’a Islam. Their ancestry and religious roots hail from the Yemen and from Egypt, where, significantly, FGC is believed to have begun. They are known to cut their daughters, and commonly practice type 1, the removal of all or the tip of the clitoris... Read More
nextGenIndia Network
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Operation Blade: Stop FGM
It was indeed a disturbing truth that the brutal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) continues in parts of the African continent. What most of us did not expect was the ugly revelation that this method of oppression was being practiced in our own backyards. Reports of the prevalence of FGM (known as khatna in the community) among the Dawoodi Bohra community have taken many gender activists by surprise. FGM is an uncomfortable reality, about which few Bohra women had so far dared to talk about openly was brought to light by an anonymous letter to the chairperson of the international NGO, Tostan. We took up the issue and created a bloggers campaign around it along with a social media dialogue. The objective was to collect online signatures for the petition against the practice... Read More
The Indian Express, India
Date: March 18, 2011
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Click on the 'Muslim' Story
Irena Akbar
Mainstream English and Hindi media look at them in black cloak or wearing a skull cap. Or so many Muslims in India believe. The Urdu media, on the other hand, is more interested in covering a seminar at AMU or some mushaira somewhere in Lucknow, than in real socio-economic issues that affect the community. Frankly, who cares about the Urdu press? Not many Muslims today can read the language, and thus don't read Urdu newspapers. My bet is that sadly, very sadly, my parents' generation is the last generation that can read an Urdu newspaper. Caught between the mainstream media and the Urdu press, the Indian Muslim community is trying to find an outlet for expression in the new media – the Internet. There are a couple of news and information websites run by Muslims that feature news and articles about the community, from their perspective. Some that I have read include Ummid.com, Indianmuslimobserver.com, Newageislam.com and Twocircles.net. Indianmuslimobserver.com, run by a group of journalists in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, calls itself, "Your Window To The Muslim World"... Read More
Date: September 4, 2013
Media Marginalization of Muslims in IndiaTARIQ 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... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
YaHind.com, Saudi Arabia
Date: September 8, 2013
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... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
On Line Opinion, Australia
Date: August 7, 2013
By Jonathan J. Ariel
Not for long hopefully. HDC's promise is to help businesses access new markets both in Malaysia and abroad. For businesses, it means Halal is the avenue for new markets with the help of HDC and its agencies. For consumers, it means that with the growth of the Halal industry, they will have increased awareness and better choices on Halal goods. And finally, for the government, with new markets reached through Halal, it translates into economic growth. While the author Liow Ren Jan dwells on Malaysia's place in the global Halal marketplace, the book would be an excellent read for Australian managers in both government owned organisations tasked with "food innovation" as well as policy wonks in the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Austrade and food industry managers and entrepreneurs generally who are interested in lifting Australia's game in marketing (especially) value added foodstuffs to our near neighbours. So why should Australia focus laser-like, on Halal certified exports? Hasan Mulani of New Delhi's Indian Muslim Observer explains that Islam is one of the largest and fastest-growing religions in the world; over 25 per cent of the world's population - about 1.75 billion – follows the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
Outlook, India
Date: December 5, 2011
Debarshi Dasgupta
It has been 53 years since she was subjected to the agony. But as Zenab Bano, a retired political science professor in Udaipur, recounts the horror of that day, the wound is laid bare all over again—still raw, still unhealed. Barely seven years old then, she was told to go with her friend and her grandmother to a function for children at the end of which she would get a gift. “Before I realised what was happening, there was this woman pulling down my undergarment,” she says. “I had no idea what she was doing. It hurt a lot and I cried.” What Bano describes is the female circumcision ritual called khatna that most Bohra Muslim girls in India had to go through then. And which is still a rite of passage for many even today. What happened to Bano was never openly talked about within her household. “Whenever I asked my mother about it, she would say it’s nothing and that it’s done to all,” she says. The efforts of a 42-year-old Bohra woman from Mumbai, however, may finally bring the taboo subject to light, despite the cold indifference of orthodox members. Tasleem (who doesn’t want to reveal her surname), the mother of a 19-year-old girl, launched an online petition this October to try and get Bohra high priest Mohammed Burhanuddin to put an end to this archaic ritual. She sent her campaign material, including a large cardboard blade embossed with a photograph of a wailing girl being circumcised, to Burhanuddin’s office, but got no response. This campaign has now been picked up by Indian Muslim Observer, a website dedicated to Muslim affairs, for broader dissemination amongst other Muslims. According to Tasleem, khatna is still widely practised. “It still happens among rich, poor, the middle class,” she says. “I’d say 90 per cent still practise it.” Bohra reformist and scholar Asghar Ali Engineer too acknowledges that female circumcision is still very much prevalent. “But it would be difficult to ascertain the scale as it is a very hush-hush affair. In big cities like Bombay, it is done is hospitals right after birth and in smaller towns it is done around the age of six.”... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
Outlook, India
Date: November 19, 2012
Debarshi Dasgupta
Launching an English daily that specialises in covering Muslim affairs is an idea many have broached, even attempted. But it has remained illusory so far. While many attempts didn’t go beyond the drawing board, the few that made it to a print-run didn’t survive more than a few months, accentuating the challenges to launching a community-specific daily for India’s Muslims. However, this hasn’t deterred a group of Andhra Pradesh Muslims from reviving the idea with a new daily called Deccan Age, which they promise to launch on January 1, 2014. While there are many Muslim-specific dailies in Indian languages like Urdu and Malayalam, it’s the lure of having one in English—the language of many decision-makers—that has proved elusive. There are English journals for Muslims, like the Radiance Viewsweekly, the fortnightly Milli Gazette and the monthly Islamic Voice. But there’s no daily. Hoping to break this jinx, the Hyderabad-based Deccan Age was registered in September 2010... Meanwhile, a lot of what Rahman and his backers intend to do is already being done by websites that specialise in covering Muslim-related news, such as Two Circles, Ummeed and Indian Muslim Observer, and that too at far lower costs... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
World Muslim Congress, USA
Date: November 27, 2011
I applaud the courage of Mr. Danish Ahmed for reporting this issue head on in his magazine Indian Muslim Observer. There is a lot that goes on in our societies, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Sikh or otherwise, in this instance a large number of Bohra Muslim Women are being genitally mutilated in secrecy, as it is an illegal practice within several cultures. Even if one woman, Muslim or otherwise is deprived of her God given pleasures of life, it must be stopped. Standing up against oppression is one big aspect of being a Muslim. Injustice to anyone and particularly women will eat away the morality of the society from within. Oppression cannot go on for long. Every religion has been a medium to restore righteousness in the society, the guidance is universal including Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) who said, the least thing you can do against injustice is to speak up. Speaking up is the right thing to do... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
NPWJ.org, USA
Date: November 15, 2011
By Danish Ahmad Khan, Indian Muslim Observer
Female khatna’ (circumcision) or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which is widely prevalent in Africa and the Middle East among sections of Muslim, has come under sharp criticism by a female activist who has termed it grossly ‘inhuman, unjust and un-Islamic’ and is clamoring for a ban on its practice. The activist, who prefers to be named Tasleem, has launched a campaign on Facebook and making sincere efforts to collect signatures to petition the Bohra High Priest His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin ordering a ban on this ritual and stop this cruelty being foisted on Bohra females. The activist has urged the people to actively take part in this campaign against FGM and sign the Online Petition [https://www.change.org/petitions/hh-dr-syedna-ban-female-circumcision-ladkiyon-par-khatna-2] to put adequate pressure on HH Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin to finally put an end to this abhorring and ghastly practice... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
Orchid Project, UK
Date: September 29, 2011
A widely held misconception is that female genital cutting is solely an African issue. Far from it. FGC is practised in all corners of the globe from Kurdistan to Australia, the Yemen to the UK – take a look at our two previous blogs about the state of FGC in Indonesia and United Arab Emirates. In this week’s blog, Orchid turns its focus to a part of the world where FGC is less well known about. We look at personal testimonies that provide anecdotal evidence of FGC occurring in the Bohra communities of India and Pakistan. The Bohra is a small, tight-knit community made up of approximately one million adherents, the majority residing in west India. Bohra communities have inhabited regions of Gujarat in western India since around the 11th Century. They spread to the Sindh region of Pakistan during independence from India and from British rule in 1947. The word Bohra is derived from the Gujarati, ‘vohorvu’, meaning ‘to trade’, and Bohras have traditionally been merchants in their communities. The Bohra observe a form of Shi’a Islam. Their ancestry and religious roots hail from the Yemen and from Egypt, where, significantly, FGC is believed to have begun. They are known to cut their daughters, and commonly practice type 1, the removal of all or the tip of the clitoris... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
nextGenIndia Network
It was indeed a disturbing truth that the brutal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) continues in parts of the African continent. What most of us did not expect was the ugly revelation that this method of oppression was being practiced in our own backyards. Reports of the prevalence of FGM (known as khatna in the community) among the Dawoodi Bohra community have taken many gender activists by surprise. FGM is an uncomfortable reality, about which few Bohra women had so far dared to talk about openly was brought to light by an anonymous letter to the chairperson of the international NGO, Tostan. We took up the issue and created a bloggers campaign around it along with a social media dialogue. The objective was to collect online signatures for the petition against the practice... Read More
--------------------------------------------------
The Indian Express, India
Date: March 18, 2011
Irena Akbar
Mainstream English and Hindi media look at them in black cloak or wearing a skull cap. Or so many Muslims in India believe. The Urdu media, on the other hand, is more interested in covering a seminar at AMU or some mushaira somewhere in Lucknow, than in real socio-economic issues that affect the community. Frankly, who cares about the Urdu press? Not many Muslims today can read the language, and thus don't read Urdu newspapers. My bet is that sadly, very sadly, my parents' generation is the last generation that can read an Urdu newspaper. Caught between the mainstream media and the Urdu press, the Indian Muslim community is trying to find an outlet for expression in the new media – the Internet. There are a couple of news and information websites run by Muslims that feature news and articles about the community, from their perspective. Some that I have read include Ummid.com, Indianmuslimobserver.com, Newageislam.com and Twocircles.net. Indianmuslimobserver.com, run by a group of journalists in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, calls itself, "Your Window To The Muslim World"... Read More