Saturday, September 17, 2011

A NEW DEAL FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS By Ghulam Muhammed

A NEW DEAL FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS

India is at the threshold of a New Deal for 200 million Muslims of India, at the behest of the world's super power, the USA. Signs are unmistakable that the initiative has been forced on India by the US, the world's most experienced and effective regime changer. Obsessed by the uncontrolled spread of Al-Qaeda's revengeful logic in Muslim world and Muslims around the globe, Obama and Clinton are in high-gear to see that Indian Muslims do not catch the bug; especially due to India's institutionalized persecution of and demonetization of their 15% Muslim population, which can hardly be managed to be immunized from world movements unless an organized effort is made to pacify them. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's strong advice to Police officials is certainly part of the campaign. Even Modi's change of face is all openly managed to neutralize any future possibility of the disgruntled Muslim victims of the BJP/RSS century long demonization of Indian Muslims, being reduced to manageable proportions. Earlier, Home Minister P. Chidambaram's management of media reaction to Mumbai blast had the signs of realization that automatic demonization of Muslim in media is counter-productive. Visible courting of different groups within Indian Muslim community, in the best traditions of 'divide and rule' strategies, too is not forgotten by the US. It is unthinkable that a US consulate would organize an exhibition on the lives of US Muslims in the pristine boundaries of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. US authorities have done their home work on Who’s Who in Muslim India --- just as P. Narasimharao had done in the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition and the alienation of Muslims from Congress. In the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, rumors are afloat that BJP is courting UP Muslims with the bait of a Muslim Chief Minister's prize to 'appease' and entice Muslims into their fold.

It is a wake-up call for the Grand Old Party's deeply entrenched Brahmins to move faster than they are ever used to, if they are not to be sacrificed at the altar of America's regime change spree.

It is unfortunate that changes in Indian polity has to wait for outsiders to force the oligarchs to fully countenance the contours of their anti-Muslim cancer spreading and poisoning India that is poised for a great economic upsurge. However, the speed with which this new peace moves are being implanted, shows how superficial the veneer of anti-Muslim hatred is and how that could be so easily managed, if there is the political will. Even Anna Hazare, who has been accused by some Muslim organizations as being silent on Muslim persecution, has raised his voice against Narendra Modi's farce without bringing in a committed change of heart as is a must if India has to move forward. Though Indian establishment was least bothered about any fate that the community suffered, either physically in communal riots, economically when their hard-earned properties were torched, politically, when their sizable voting strength was collected by the ruling Congress as war-time booty, socially when they are only visible in criminal or accident lists, the priorities are being forced. As the far-reaching effects of globalization and internationalization are knocking at the doors of India Inc., it is being realized that you cannot keep a 200-million community in a pressure cooker, without facing the danger of a blow-out. Big changes could get unleashed unless the political class gets its house in order and keep their looting instincts for later times and harmonize its acts with the emerging trends of the world.

The long suffering Indian Muslim would readily settle with a fair deal.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

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THE CHANGE IN PAID MEDIA TOO IS WORTH NOTICING!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/And-I-am-not-a-terrorist/articleshow/10023637.cms

The Times of India

'And I am not a terrorist…'

Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN | Sep 18, 2011,
Among the blizzard of reactions to the September 7 bomb blasts in Delhi, the one allegedly aired in a classroom in Jamia Millia Islamia was truly shocking. On that day, P K Basu, an honorary management professor, parroted the anti-Islamic rhetoric of the West, declaring to his class that Islam "sanctioned" violence. Basu, who later denied the charges, has since been banished from Jamia.

The professor did it openly but the scenario is not uncommon. After every blast, Muslims face a fresh wave of hate-mongering, taunts and vilification. In Mumbai too, the numerous terror attacks have forced the community to reconcile to the fact that Muslims must carry the albatross of being "sympathisers" of terrorists, if not actual terrorists themselves.

A few days after Kasab's terror attack on Mumbai, a Muslim journalist visited a an event in an art gallery in South Mumbai. Looking at the journo's card, the manager remarked, "Terrorists are not allowed." Sensing the pain he had caused, he quickly added, "I was joking. Please come in." "That was a cruel joke I will never forget," recalls the scribe.

Mohammed Altaf, who works with a multinational company, saw the attitude of his colleagues change after the July 13 bomb blasts in Mumbai. "A co-worker told me. 'Yeh sab tum logon ki wajah se hota hai (All this is happening because of you people),' " he says ruefully. Another Muslim had to endure an entire train journey listening to an angry co-passenger say that Hindu youngsters would have to "keep pistols to deal with these Pakistanis" (read Muslims).

"Muslims undeniably carry the guilt that Muslim terrorists are wreaking suffering on innocents," says Salim Alware, convener of the Federation of Muslim NGOs in Maharashtra. "Even if the involvement of Muslim terrorists is not proved, the impression is that Islamic terrorists are behind all blasts." The Federation strongly condemned the September 7 Delhi blasts through a press conference and keeps a banner saying 'We condemn the bomb blasts' always at hand.

The need to repeatedly condemn every act of terrorism shows the pit of fear that Muslims have fallen into: the fear of being maligned and framed. The practice began after the Mumbai train blasts of July 2006 with a big conference being held at KC College. Thereafter, Muslim clerics, especially those belonging to Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind, held a series of anti-terrorism conferences. Exactly a year after the terrorist attacks on the Taj and Trident, an international conference against terrorism was held at the Taj. Even Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband sounded a fatwa against terrorism.

Today it has become a ritual to hold a conference against terrorism immediately after every attack. "Take the speeches made on Ganpati visarjan day at the podium created near Nagpada junction to welcome Ganesh bhakts," says Maulana Mustaqeem Azmi, president of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind (Maharashtra). "Hindu speakers invariably talked of Bappa's blessings and raised slogans like 'Ganpati bappa moraya'. But almost all Muslim speakers said they wanted the culprits of the Delhi high court bomb blasts hanged outside Parliament House. This betrays the fear in the Muslim psyche."

Azmi gives his own example. "A few months ago, I was going from Nagpada to Haj House," he recalls. "It was raining heavily and I saw a young man with a briefcase standing near the JJ Hospital junction. When he put out a hand, I stopped but apologised that I couldn't give him a ride because I didn't know him." The story of Ghulam Yahya, the imam of Haj House who was accused of sheltering terror suspects a few years ago, was at the back of Azmi's mind. "What if the youth was a suspect and I got framed too for sheltering him even if just for a few minutes?" he asks.

The antennae of anti-Muslim folk also get activated after terror episodes and vitriol is spewed from different platforms. Janata Dal president Subramanian Swamy's poisonous piece in a national daily after the July 13 blasts in Mumbai titled 'How to wipe out Islamic terror' declared, "The Muslims of India can join us (in the fight against terrorism) if they genuinely feel for the Hindus. That they do I will not believe unless they acknowledge with pride that though they may be Muslims, their ancestors were Hindus."

"It was an open humiliation of Muslims and an attempt to create discord among communities. Yet the police ignored it," protests former vice-chairman of Maharashtra state minorities' commission Abraham Mathai, who petitioned the high court after the police refused to lodge a complaint. Little wonder, therefore, that most Muslims now dread their own shadow and feel the need to reiterate their patriotism at every opportunity.

India to back Palestinian bid for U.N. membership - THE HINDU

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2462323.ece

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New Delhi, September 17, 2011

India to back Palestinian bid for U.N. membership

Special Correspondent

Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

  Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

India was among the first countries to recognise Palestine when it was proclaimed in November 1988: Ranjan Mathai
India will support a Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations at a meeting of the General Assembly scheduled for later this month, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said on Friday.


The announcement came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas went on television to announce that his administration was “going to the United Nations to request our legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine in this organisation.” Future negotiations with Israel, Mr. Abbas said, “no matter how difficult, will be between one state and another.”

Mr. Mathai told journalists that India “will support the resolution on Palestine seeking membership of the United Nations” and that India was among the first countries to accord the state of Palestine diplomatic recognition when it was proclaimed in November 1988.
Frustrated at a two-year deadlock with Israeli negotiators, the Palestinian Authority hopes its application for the U.N. membership would strengthen its demand that Israel cede territories it occupied during the 1967 war. These territories include East Jerusalem, which Israel now claims as part of its capital, and has been a key stumbling block in the negotiations.

The Palestinian application will need the backing of the Security Council and a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly — but is almost certain to be blocked by the U.S.

The U.S. Senate, in a resolution passed in June, has called on President Barack Obama to veto the Palestinian bid. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said this summer that the U.S. could also withdraw funding for the international body — estimated at $500 million a year — if the vote went through. “I cannot frankly think of a greater threat to our ability to maintain financial and political support for the United Nations in Congress than such an outcome.”

European Union diplomats had been seeking to avert a potential showdown at the U.N., attempting to mediate a deal that would have kick-started Israeli-Palestinian talks. The EU had also suggested that the Palestinians seek to be recognised as an “entity” rather than a full-blown state.

Though the Palestinian issue is likely to be at the centre of diplomatic attention at the U.N., India will also seek to underline its concerns on a welter of other issues.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will travel to New York later this month, is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 24. He will also meet several world leaders — though at least one of those he might have spoken to, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, has cancelled his planned visit because of the severe floods in his country.

Mr. Mathai said the Prime Minister's address would focus on the challenge of the rising food and fuel prices, global counter-terrorism cooperation, reforms to the U.N. Security Council, and the need to resolve the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East “through negotiation and diplomacy rather than the use of force.”