Monday, December 31, 2012

Top 5 Islam-bashing Republicans to watch in 2013


http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=45887:top-5-islam-bashing-republicans-to-watch-in-2013&Itemid=2

Malaysia Chronicle

Monday, 31 December 2012 17:16

Top 5 Islam-bashing Republicans to watch in 2013


NEW YORK, - When Muslim-American organizations and activists concerned with Islamophobia woke up the day after the election, on November 7, they were elated. Key members of what had been dubbed the House Republican “Islamophobia caucus” had been voted out of office. These Tea Party-affiliated Republicans included Joe Walsh (Republican-Illinois), who had warned in August that Islamists were “trying to kill Americans every week” and were lurking in the Chicago suburbs, and Allen West (Republican-Florida), who linked the entire religion of Islam to terrorism.

These fear-mongers won’t be able to spread their hysteria from the bully pulpit of a House seat any longer. But that doesn’t mean that the House Republican caucus has rid themselves of the scourge of anti-Muslim politicians who stoke that sentiment for political gain. On the contrary, the House Republican caucus remains the place where the ugly head of Islamophobia rests comfortably.

Here are five House Republicans who spread anti-Muslim sentiment routinely. Activists concerned with Islamophobia should watch these players in the year to come. The fight against Islamophobia in this country is far from over, and many members of the Republican Party remains wedded to that hateful ideology.

1. Michele Bachmann

This Minnesota Tea Party favorite catapulted herself into the spotlight again by hawking a wacky conspiracy theory first propagated by a former Reagan administration official and now chief Islamophobe. She narrowly won re-election in November despite spending twelve times as much as her opponent, Democrat Jim Graves.

Last summer, Bachmann garnered national attention when she and other Republicans alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-based political movement that spread throughout the Middle East, had “penetrated” the U.S. government. Specifically, Bachmann singled out a prominent Muslim-American aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Huma Abedin as being part of the conspiracy. The Minnesota congresswoman made the allegations in letters sent to U.S. government officials.

The letter questioned whether there was “direct influence” on the intelligence community from “[Muslim] Brotherhood operatives.” And the letter also mentioned that Abedin has “family members” connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Needless to say, the allegations were bogus, and some Republican leaders blasted Bachmann for going on a witch hunt. “Accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH). But other Republican officials backed up Bachmann. “Her concern was about the security of the country,” said Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Her letter to U.S. government officials made clear that Bachmann got her ideas from Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan aide and prominent neoconservative. Gaffney is a leading anti-Muslim activist in the U.S., and has produced a 10-part online series about the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in the U.S. But the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood is plotting from within is a McCarthyite theory that casts aspersions on Muslim-Americans within the U.S. government. There is also no evidence to support the theory.

This summer 2012 episode was hardly the only iteration of Bachmann’s Islamophobia, though. In 2011, she stoked fear about sharia law--Islamic law-- taking over U.S. courts.

2. Peter King

He may have lost his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee due to party-imposed term-limits, but you can count on King stoking the flames of fear towards Islam next year. King, a Republican hailing from Long Island, used his post as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee to specifically target the problem of terrorism within the Muslim community--and nowhere else, despite right-wing extremism being on the rise. After serving for seven years, King is no longer the head of the committee, though he will remain a member.

King has a penchant for singling out Muslim-Americans. He held a total of five separate hearings on Islam and terrorism in the United States, ostensibly to focus on the threat of “homegrown” terrorism from Muslims. But as Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), a fellow member of the Homeland Security Committee, pointed out: 

“According to a polling of state law enforcement agencies conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s START Center of Excellence, there are a variety of domestic extremist groups more prevalent in the United States than Islamic extremists, including neo-Nazis, environmental extremists, anti-tax groups, and others.”

His first hearing sparked the most controversy. Titled “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response,” it was based on King’s assumption that the Muslim community in the U.S. is prone to breeding extremists. 

In 2004, King claimed that “80%, 85% of the mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists." Despite this claim becoming a right-wing meme, there was no evidence to back it up. In fact, as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights pointed out in a letter to King before his first hearing, “experts have concluded that mosque attendance is a significant factor in the prevention of extremism.”

King courted even more controversy based on one of his star witnesses at the first hearing: Zuhdi Jasser, an activist who has become the right’s darling Muslim. Jasser is the head of a group called the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which is funded by anti-Muslim figures like the right-wing Christian Foster Friess. 

Many Muslim organizations say that Jasser has little following among American Muslims. Jasser narrated an Islamophobic film put out by an Israeli-settler and neoconservative linked outfit called the Clarion Fund. The film, titled “The Third Jihad,” was shown to New York Police Department officers as training and claims that Muslim extremists are plotting from within to take over the U.S.

Other statements in King’s past show that his motivation to root out Muslim extremism in the U.S. is based on faulty assumptions. He has stuck to his claim about mosques in the U.S. being run by radical extremists and has also claimed that “the Muslim community does not cooperate anywhere near to the extent that it should” on terrorism-related cases. But that statement ignores the fact that Muslims are tipped off law enforcement to break up the small number of plots that do exist.

3. Mike McCaul

For the House Homeland Security Committee, it’s out with one Islamophobe as chief of the panel, and in with another. McCaul, a Republican hailing from Texas, has dutifully served alongside King on the committee. And now, he’s getting his chance to run it on his own.

Since King was forced out of the top spot due to party-imposed parameters, McCaul has been tapped to lead the Homeland Security Committee. McCaul’s history of Islamophobia shows why he will likely lead the committee similar to how King did.

In fact, McCaul strongly supported the King-led hearings focusing on Muslim-Americans. McCaul praised King’s hearings as a way to “end the era of political correctness.” During the hearing itself, McCaul said: “I am mystified by the controversy that has followed from this.”

After King’s fifth set of hearings, McCaul said that the “U.S. should not overlook the correlation between Islam and national security.”
And McCaul also runs around with the players behind the wave of Islamophobia that has swept the nation since 9/11. McCaul appeared on Frank Gaffney’s radio show last year--the same radio show where Gaffney has spread his toxic theories about sharia law and the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. And McCaul didn’t bat an eye, or mutter any response, when Gaffney carried on about the “Muslim Brotherhood’s operations in the United States.” When he got a chance to speak, McCaul indulged in speculation about the “threat” of Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, in the Western Hemisphere--a threat for which there is little evidence for, according to PolitiFact.

4. Louie Gohmert

This Texas Republican has promoted anti-Muslim sentiment too many times before. Gohmert was widely mocked for his August 2010 assertion that Middle Eastern terrorists were plotting new attacks on the U.S. by sending their pregnant wives to this country whose children “could be raised and coddled as future terrorists.” 

The phrase “terror babies” entered the political lexicon after Gohmert’s outlandish statements. Yet, as Mother Jones noted at the time, there’s not “a morsel of evidence to support Gohmert's terror baby tale, which the congressman says he learned of from a woman on a plane while en route to the Middle East and from a retired FBI agent.”

The next year, Gohmert again made headlines with remarks about Islam and President Barack Obama. He suggested that Obama’s allegiances were with Islamic states instead of the U.S. “I know the president made the mistake one day of saying he had visited all 57 states, and I'm well aware that there are not 57 states in this country, although there are 57 members of OIC, the Islamic states in the world,” Gohmert said on the House floor. “Perhaps there was some confusion whether he'd been to all 57 Islamic states as opposed to all 50 U.S. states. But nonetheless, we have an obligation to the 50 American states, not the 57 Muslim, Islamic states...This administration [has been] complicit in helping people who wants [sic] to destroy our country.”

Gohmert’s speech played into the right-wing conspiracy theory that Obama was a secret Muslim in league with anti-American Islamists. In line with that theory, Gohmert has also suggested that Obama listens to advisers from the Muslim Brotherhood.

And finally, Gohmert was one of four other Republicans to sign onto the Bachmann letter on Muslim Brotherhood influence within the U.S. government. When other, more sane Republicans questioned the letter, Gohmert lashed out. “I wish some of these numbnuts would go out and read the letter before they make these horrible allegations about the horrible accusations we’re making,” Gohmert said.

Expect 2013 to see a lot more of Gohmert’s conspiracy-laden theories about Muslims in the U.S.

5. Trent Franks

In recent years, Arizona Republican Trent Franks has taken to demonizing Muslim-Americans.

In 2009, Franks was one of four Republicans to call for an investigation of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s leading Muslim civil rights group and a favorite target of the Islamophobic right. The GOP members claimed an investigation was needed into whether CAIR was “spying” on Congressional offices in order to influence policy. The evidence for that charge was a 2007 CAIR memo that called for placing Muslim interns in key Congressional offices in order to influence policy on issues important to Muslim-Americans--something that every interest group does in Washington. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out at the time: “They stand accused of plotting to influence members of Congress and trying to help interns obtain positions in Congress in order to advance their political agenda. That’s consistent with what virtually every political advocacy group in the nation does; it’s normally called activism and democracy.” But for House Republicans, Muslim-Americans working on Capitol Hill is a step down the road towards sharia law.

The House GOP members’ initial source for the entire CAIR debacle was a book titled Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.

Franks’ anti-Muslim fear-mongering didn’t stop in 2009, though. The next year, he showed support for Frank Gaffney’s theory that sharia law was on the march in the U.S., led by Muslim-American organizations with links to the Muslim Brotherhood who were plotting from within.

Predictably, the latest iteration of Franks’ Islamophobia was his signature on Bachmann’s McCarthyite letter about Muslim Brotherhood influence in the U.S. government and Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

So while Allen West and Joe Walsh have to take a breather from spreading fear and hysteria about Muslims, they have plenty of colleagues to pick up the slack. Some of the leading purveyors of anti-Muslim bigotry may have been booted out of office, but you can still expect 2013 to have its fair share of Islamophobic hate.

-AlterNet

 

When schoolchildren dream of start-ups.. By Saritha Rai - The Indian Express

 LET US COME OUT OF MACAULAY'S SHADOWS


http://www.indianexpress.com/news/when-schoolchildren-dream-of-startups/1052246/0

The Indian Express

When schoolchildren dream of start-ups..

Saritha Rai : Mon Dec 31 2012, 03:15 hrs
Entrepreneurship is steadily becoming a desirable goal for the middle class

There were groups making block-printed cloth bags, coasters from recycled material, miniature toys, chocolate-frosted cupcakes and office stationery. They talked of modest venture capital, marketing tactics, and balancing expenses and income. But the most arresting feature of the presentation? The budding entrepreneurs were a roomful of energetic, enthusiastic 11-year-olds.

Just as striking was the fact that the exercise was being replicated across eight branches of the National Public School, or NPS, a Bangalore-headquartered school chain that has built a brand around grooming its students to ace the IIT and medical entrance exams and more recently, the SATs for admission into American colleges. 

The event is amongst the early signs that the traditional Indian education system, long criticised as being designed to create only employees and a “workforce”, is poised for change.

Through slick PowerPoint presentations that morning, the students described their projects. They had worked collaboratively in teams of five or six to come up with ideas. They would draw on available material, buying only limited items, and all the products would be handmade. To get started, they would each tap their parents for a couple of hundred rupees, which would be their venture capital. All profits from the sales would go to a charitable cause.

One sixth-grader said her group was inspired by Abdul Kalam’s statement that India needs job creators, and not job-seekers. Teased by an audience member on whether that meant creating work for their parents, the girl shot back, “I want to first create a job for myself so that I don’t have to work in a boring office.”

India is poised on the brink of change, as there is a generational shift in students’ thinking on entrepreneurship, said Bindu Hari, who steers the NPS school chain founded by her father, K.P. Gopalakrishna in 1959. “At one time, the top goal of a student was to find government employment and later, it was an MNC job,” she said. “But the current generation is willing to take risks and go out to grab opportunities.”

Even parents were more amenable to kids branching away from conventional career paths, Hari said. On 11-year-olds grasping the concepts of starting up a venture, she said she was often amazed by the maturity of fifth and sixth graders today. It is necessary to sow the seeds of entrepreneurship at a young age, said Hari.

The school first worked on a pilot project before transplanting it to all schools in its chain, including a school each in Chennai and Singapore. It works with four modules: raising capital, designing the product, marketing and understanding the balance sheet. “The most crucial part is that students work in groups and the exercise becomes as collaborative as entrepreneurship is in real life,” said Hari.

Entrepreneurship is becoming a more acceptable option amongst India’s middle class, said Ravi Venkatesam, the parent of an 11-year-old NPS student. “In the last two decades, many traditional, middle class Indians have turned successful entrepreneurs, not just in information technology, but in a variety of other fields,” said Venkatesam who runs his own BPO consulting practice. That NPS was running a module on entrepreneurship was a reflection of what middle-class parents seek for their children, he said.

The interest amongst youngsters in the world of business and in entrepreneurship is startling, said Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chairman of outsourcing firm MindTree and author of the book, MBA@16. “Business is not the taboo word it used to be when I was growing up,” Bagchi said. While researching his book, he was surprised that the teenagers did not have a uni-dimensional view of entrepreneurship. “A lot of them were interested in entrepreneurship as an agent of social change.”

While his book only deals with an urban sample, Bagchi said entrepreneurship as is also spreading to small-town India. The recent demand for translations of the title into Indian languages such as Hindi and Telugu is evidence, said Bagchi.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com

Justice for Mass Crimes - Workshop and Public Meeting - Mumbai

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Films sanctify pestering and stalking of women - By Swaminathan S A Aiyar - The Economic Times, Mumbai, INDIA

Just as Hollywood's Jewish Movie Moghals promote wars, aggression, violent crimes to earn a living on blood and gore and support America's War Industry so that it can wage wars overseas to protect Israel; Bollywood unwittingly has been overwhelmingly engaged in sex and demeaning of Indian women in films after films, without any fear or accountability from Indian Censor Board. People are still unaware if there is some method to this madness. In depicting the real-time social status of our women, it is encouraging rather than discouraging crimes against them. The more Macho the film depicts, the more box office rakes in crores. Nobody bothers about the social affects of such sordid criminal assaults, physical and social, against innocent women, who are daughters, sisters, mothers and should not be made targets of dehumanizing by Bollywood movies. Government is more interested in collecting taxes. It is most insensitive to the wider implication of such organized sex trade, that is eating the vitals of our society, where women are half of our citizens and should have equal rights, dignity and respect. In the name of freedom of expression, the new holy cow of our liberal intellectuals, women is being depicted in the movies, in advertising and in workplace, as fair game for the evil minded. The the irony is that the same liberals are now minding the barricades, burning candles and keeping long vigils over one single case of the unfortunate Nirbhaya, whole hundreds and thousands of Nirbhaya's lives are threatened day and night with fear and demeaning indignities throughout the length and breadth of our nation. They must reflect and review their own obsessions in the noble cause of the greater good of the people. They too bear heavy responsibility in promoting a culture that puts women in distinct disadvantage in facing the challenges of the new times.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>


------
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/swaminathan-s-a-aiyar/films-sanctify-pestering-and-stalking-of-women/articleshow/17816536.cms

The Economic Times

30 Dec, 2012, 10.10AM IST, TNN

Films sanctify pestering and stalking of women


By Swaminathan S A Aiyar
 
The ghastly assault and rape of a female paramedic in Delhi has produced an avalanche of protest and comment on why we treat women so badly. But a major cause, the film industry, has hardly been mentioned. It has fostered thoroughly retrograde male attitudes that are at least partly responsible.

Some feminists focus on the commodification of women in Bollywood's "item numbers", sex-laden dances by Isha Koppikar, Mallika Sherawat and others. Others highlight the popularity of rape scenes to titillate audiences. Old-time villain Ranjeet did close to 100 rape scenes, with the audience almost cheering him on.

Yet item numbers and rape scenes are not the main problem. After all, cabaret dancers and villains are not role models. What's truly terrible is the manner in which film heroes have for decades pestered, stalked and forced their unwanted attentions on heroines in a thousand films, yet ended up getting the girl. That sends the most outrageous of all messages to the public: pestering girls is what heroes do, and a girl's "no" actually means "yes."

Hit film songs that glorify harassment and stalking have compounded the problem. These are perpetuated in memory and social attitudes through repeated humming of the songs and viewing of video clips.

Dev Anand was the great romantic lover of my youth. We watched him serenade Nalini Jaywant in the film Munimji ("jeevan ke safar mein rahi&rdquo, while pawing and pestering her. He was equally obstreperous with Nutan in the film Paying Guest, with the hit song "Mana janab ne pukara nahin." The song's words frankly admit that although he is not welcome at all, he must insist on gaily forcing his attentions on her. For decades after audiences sang these songs, barely conscious of the sordid values they implied.

Raj Kapoor couldn't be far behind. In his opus Sangam he sang a megahit while pestering a bathing Vyjianthimala: "Mere man ki Ganga, aur teri man ki Yamuna, bol Radha bol sangam hoga ke nahin." As justification for this boorishness, he stuck a feather in his hair in imitation of Lord Krishna, who also harassed bathing gopis. Whereas Krishna played on the flute, Raj Kapoor played on Scottish bagpipes, a variation difficult to explain except as a side-effect of the actor's fondness for Scotch whisky.

Amitabh Bachchan strode the Bollywood scene like a colossus. His biggest contribution to female degradation was in the film Hum. In this, he and a gang of maybe 300 leering males demand a kiss from actress Kimi Katkar—the hit song "Jumma chumma de de."

Katkar sings back that she will not give a kiss. The male leerers insist on a kiss and douse her with a hosepipe. Ultimately, after several refusals, the song ends with Bachchan finally getting his kiss. He emerges grinning from the melee with lipstick smeared across his face. There could hardly be a more graphic message: if only you harass a woman enough, no matter how often she says no, she will ultimately say yes.

The greatest Hindi film of all time was probably Sholay. This had Dharmendra giving his version of how to win a girl. He jumps on the tonga (horse carriage) of tongawali Hema Malini, serenading her and grabbing her from behind. She fights him off, knocking him off the tonga. But he once again climbs aboard and continues with his musical harassment. The song goes, "Koi hasina jab rooth jati hai to, aur bhi hasin ho jati hai." (translation: when a beautiful girl gets pissed off with you, she becomes even more beautiful). Does he go to jail for this behaviour? Alas no, she falls into his arms! Great are the rewards of harassment.

I don't see films in other India languages. Some say they are even cruder, so let's not blame Bollywood alone. I'm told such crudity doesn't happen in big Bollywood films any more. Really? I saw Rockstar, in which Ranbir Kapoor forces his attentions on a girl, who initially resists but then asks him to take her to a raunchy film!

Let the last word come from somebody in the film business."There are films in which romantic wooing has been replaced by a kind of harassment of the heroine. The heroes of these films could be considered stalkers in some civil societies. Now imagine that this actor is a role model to millions... wouldn't his fans think this behaviour is okay? Now imagine that this actress is a role model to millions... what message does it send to women across the country?"

These are the words of actor-director Farhan Akhtar. When he says things are getting worse, please pay attention.

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Lessons from history for Muslims

Lessons from history for Muslims


How Christian colonists divided land conquered from the defeat of Ottoman Caliphate and a glimpse of their secret strategies:
.


Urdu travelogue of six countries by Late Maulana Ali Mian, (Dean of Nadwa University at Lucknow), titled as,'Darya e Kabul sey darya e Yarmook Tak'. (From Kabul River to Yarmook River)

Writing about Lebanon, he says:

Translation Begins:

I have hinted in the lines above that non-Muslim powers worked in a planned way to reduce the importance and the role of the Muslim
majority and to give to the Christians permanent power. Fortunately a documentary proof of this scheme has been found recently in French in a Lebanese Church.It was distributed to Christian leaders and workers secretly by the French government.

Here is its translation:

From the Mother Govt. to its sincere Sons

O Sons of Jesus Christ!

O those who tolerated insults and ruswai for the sake of safeguarding your beliefs;remember these TEN pieces of ADVICE always:

1. This country has come into existence for you alone so that you may remain united and enjoy the fruits of freedom after the historic(First world War_ Ed. ) war.You should firmly believe that Christian means Lebanese and the Arabs who came from the desert must go back to the desert.

2 We have made all arrangements here  for you to ensure a good life for you such as : Ownership of land, Foreign Agencies, Political
Situation,Finance.It is now your duty to safeguard these and  enhance these all the time.

3. Try to capture places of entertainment and tourism and eject the
Arabs from their areas of residences.Try to build a Reserve Port in a place where there are no Muslims;whenever there is an opportunity to do so.

4. Try to be as powerful as possible such as by Exercising the body,
Procuring Arms and Forming Youth Associations.Take interest in the Armed Forces.Keep your matters a secret,Trust only your associates because the battle with the Enemies is long and continuous.

5.Take the leadership of the field of Literature in your hands e.g.
Publishing of books and the Management of all the Associations and Academies should be in your hands. Do not ever accept that the literature of your language( Arabic _ Ed. )belongs to Muslims.Wage an unrelenting war with all those who  oppose your thoughts and ideas.

6. Do not allow your internal differences to go beyond shallow and
nazari levels for your very life depends upon your unity against the
kafir enemy.In any case you are the sons of Jesus Christ who has given us the lesson of mutual love.

7 Always study the plans of others and always  work with them so that you may know their programmes. There is no harm in agreeing with them when required but all of you must always keep in touch with your Church and its Leaders and must never go against the commands of your sincere fathers.

8. At all high forums,keep your heads and your specifically Christian appearances and acts alive and high and be assured that all the great powers of the world will soon be with you....but work in such a way as if you know nothing of this fact.

9.Try to draw near the Arab Kings and Leaders through personal and medical services to them;as this is the easiest route to achieve this closeness.This will open a large field for your work,will bring vast wealth to you and will easily enable you to enter countries where it is difficult to enter.

10. The battle of Lebanese Nation is very important . Take great care and work with great wisdom so that you may guard your Majority Rights or else all your efforts will go waste.

Translation Ends
_____________

The time line for this document must be is around World War One after which the Turkish Khilafat was abrogated and its territories divided as the Spheres of Influence of the British,the French and Fiefdoms of their Arab collaborators.As a part of this sharing of the spoils of war,Lebanon was separated from Syria; a part of which it had been for long and made into a very small country ,even smaller than Kuwait once a majority of Christians was established through a dishonest census.

_____________

Thursday, December 27, 2012

All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat Central Working Committee meeting 27 December 2012 - PRESS STATEMENT

ALL INDIA MUSLIM MAJLIS-E-MUSHAWARAT
[Umbrella body of the Indian Muslim organisations]
D-250, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar
New Delhi-110025  India
Tel.: 011-26946780 Fax: 011-26947346

All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat
Central Working Committee meeting
27 December 2012

Press Statement

New Delhi, 27 December 2012: The Central Working Committee (Majlis-e Amla) of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, met here today. The meeting was chaired by the AIMMM National President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan and attended by the following members: Janab Syed Shahabuddin, Janab Nusrat Ali, Janab Muhammad Ahmad, Dr Jawed Ahmad, Janab Amanullah Khan, Janab Shahid Sharif Shaikh, Janab Abdul Khaliq, Janab SMY Nadeem and Janab Abdul Qayyum Khan.

The meeting offered condolences to the millat and families of prominent leaders of the community who passed away recently and prayed for their souls, especially:

Dr. ABDUL HAQ ANSARI, Ameer of Jamat Islami-e Hind from 2003 to 2007 and former Professor of Philosophy at Shantiniketan and other universities died in Aligarh on 3 October;

Dr. SAQIB RIZVI, retired professor of Udaipur University and former chairman of Rajasthan Urdu Academy, Jaipur died in Delhi’s AIIMS on 1 October at the age of 80 years;

AKBAR HAIDARI, noted author and researcher died in Delhi on 30 September;

JAVED HABIB, milli leader, journalist, former President of AMU Students Union and founder of Babri Masjid Action Committee, died in Delhi on 11 October at the age of 62;

MAULANA ABDUL KARIM SALFI, head of Delhi’s Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees, a member of Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees’ Majlis-e Shoora, died in Delhi after a prolonged illness on 5 November;

MARYAM JAMILA, a great intellectual died of heart attack in Pakistan on 31 October at the age of 78 years;

Dr. AKBAR HYDARI, prominent litterateur, researcher and critic of Kashmir died in Srinagar recently at the age of 83 years;

Prof. SHEES MUHAMMAD ISMAIL AZMI, poet, scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies  and head of Jamia Millia’s Department of Islamic Studies died in Delhi on 12 November;
Mufti of Sambhal City and patron of Ulama wa Mashaaekh Board 

MAULANA ZAMEER HUSAIN alias Maulana Nausha died of heart attack on 19 November;

MAULANA AFZAALUL HAQ JAUHAR QASMI, a great religious scholar and journalist, president of Markazi Jamiatul Ulama-e Hind and Abna-e Qadeem, Darul Uloom Deoband died at his home town in Azamgarh district on 30 November at the age of 89 years;

Dr. (Nawab) KAZIM ALI KHAN, a leading researcher, a man of letters and literary critic died of heart attack in Lucknow on 3 December at the age of 74 years;

MAULANA ABU RAIHAN AHMAD NOORI, a Kannad writer and translator of the Quran into Kannada died recently in Bangalore at the age of 92 years;

Prof. K. A. JALEEL, former Vice Chancellor of Calicut University, a renowned academician and author died at Kozhikode (Kerala) at the age of 90 years;

MUHAMMAD AMIN, a former VC of Jamia Hamdard, a distinguished historian and educationist who taught medieval Indian history at St. Stephen’s College for more than four decades died in Delhi on 15 December at the age of 86 years;

PROF HANEEF NAQVI, noted Urdu critic and former head of Urdu deptt, BHU, died on 22 Dec. 2012

The meeting also prayed for the souls of AKHILESH MITHAL, a noted columnist, historian, lover of Urdu and secular values who passed away on 21 Nov. 2012 in Delhi at the age of 86; and former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, who died on 30 November. He was a great friend of the Muslim community and a lover of Urdu.

The meeting discussed a gamut of milli, national and international issues affecting the Muslim community and passed the following resolutions:


RESOLUTIONS

Terror in the name of fighting terror

The AIMMM condemns with full force at its command the ongoing war on the Muslim community in the name of “fighting terror”. The AIMMM holds the central and state governments directly responsible for faking this war of terror in which innocent Muslim youths are implicated by manufacturing evidences and forcing detainees to make false confessions extracted through the use of third degree torture which is illegal under the international covenant signed by our government. The wholesale acquittal of Muslim youths after spending long years in jails is a proof of this fake campaign masterminded by communal elements in the IB, Home Ministry and Police who should be purged if India is to remain a secular democracy. The Central and state governments should pay a proper compensation to the acquitted “terror” victims commensurate with their lost years and destroyed careers and these should be deducted from the salaries and PF accounts of the officers who falsely implicated them. Such officers should also be suitably punished and dismissed from service for committing these crimes against innocent youths destroying their lives and careers and in the process defaming a whole community.

UAPA amendment

The AIMMM condemns the new amendments appended to the new avatar of UAPA which raised the ban period of a banned organization from two to five years and treats economic offences as “terrorism”. This will open this terrorist law to further misuse by the inept and communalised police and intelligence agencies. The UPA was voted to power on its promise to repeal the much-misused POTA, but very soon after election it fortified the old UAPA as a Super POTA and has since continued fortifying it with one amendment after another in order to further strengthen this terrorist law which is being used to continue the war on the Muslim community which was started by the previous BJP-led NDA regime. AIMMM demands the repeal of this terrorist law and affirms its belief that existing laws are enough to deal with the scourge of terrorism provided they are fairly and judiciously applied to all accused.

U.P. Govt. and terror cases

The Samajwadi govt. in Uttar Pradesh had been elected to power on a promise to release Muslim youths in U.P. jails on fake terror charges. Once in power, it first indicated that it will wait for the report of the Nimesh Commission appointed by the previous Mayawati government to probe into the Khalid and Tariq arrests. The Nimesh Commission report has submitted two months ago and reports leaked to the media about its contents suggest that they are innocent and everything about their arrest was fabricated but the U.P. govt. is stalling the issue and has unnecessarily sought the opinion of district collectors and deputy commissioners. AIMMM demands U.P. govt. to redeem its electoral promise, respect the Nimesh Judicial Commission and release Khalid and Tariq forthwith. It should also release many other Muslim youths in U.P. jails on fake and manufactured charges.

Minority schemes

AIMMM registers its displeasure at the lethargic pace and limited scope of govt schemes announced in the wake of the Sachar Report which by and large are now reduced to “scholarships” and even 60% of the scholarships budget was returned unutilised last year due to the callousness and inefficiency of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. AIMMM hopes that under the new Minority minister, a more vigorous effort will be made to uplift the Muslim community in a variety of ways and that the schemes for the so-called Muslim-dominated districts will be implemented in Muslim areas of those districts in order to honour the spirit and purpose of these schemes.

Reservation

The AIMMM reminds the Union government that action over Misra Commission Report is long overdue. Likewise, the central govt. is sitting on its overdue reply to the Supreme Court about the inclusion of the Muslim and Christian Dalits in the SC/ST reservation list. Exclusion of Muslim and Christian Dalits from the SC/ST quota since 1950 is a fraud on the Constitution of India, which should come to an end at the earliest.
  
Crimes against women

The AIMMM registers its full sympathy with the hapless female victims of violence and rape crimes, especially the young lady brutalised by beasts on a moving Delhi bus in the night of 16 December which has rightly agitated a large section of Indians. All such crimes against women and weaker sections, especially minorities, Dalits and Adivasis are highly condemnable and show the whole country in extremely bad light. It is time people, police, judiciary and government agencies stood up to discharge their duties to protect the weak and vulnerable sections of society. The AIMMM urges the government to introduce deterrent punishments for such brutal crimes. It should also hasten with the overdue Police reforms to liberate the police force from the British Raj rules and make it capable and accountable to protect all citizens, human rights and honour of ordinary people.

FDI

The AIMMM rejects and condemns the central govt’s impatience to open the Indian markets to foreign companies and capital which will very negatively impact our national economy and will stifle our growth. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector will be a catastrophe as it will adversely affect lakhs of households whose shops and small businesses will be forced to close. We believe that our country has ample human and financial resources to achieve the required rate of economic growth. We should unshackle our local markets and offer incentives to local industry and businesses under a stable legal regime in order to instill confidence and enable them to outperform others.

Meat industry

AIMMM takes note of the difficulties faced by people involved in the meat industry across the country. Abattoirs are being closed down, trucks transporting cattle are hijacked by saffron goons with police support, hurdles are placed in the face of opening of new abattoirs and meat shops. These activities harm a certain section of the Muslim community which is traditionally engaged in the meat trade. AIMMM looks at these hurdles as a subtle economic war against a section of the community and calls upon the central and state governments to wake up and stop these illegal activities by saffron goons, Police and some communal elements in the government.
  
Karnataka cow protection bill

The AIMMM opposes the new cow protection bill passed by the BJP-dominated Karnataka Assembly which is highly objectionable as it enlarges the definition of the “cow” family in an unprecedented way and enhances punishments in an unnatural fashion. AIMMM appeals to Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka and Hon’ble President of India to reject this bill which is clearly against the interests of minorities and all others whose source of protein is meat of cattle other than cows.

Gujarat Muslims

AIMMM salutes Gujarati Muslims who have shown their maturity and resourcefulness by improving their lot with self-help despite the criminal neglect by the Modi government. AIMMM also notes with satisfaction the Gujarati Muslim resilience and wisdom in denying Modi the landslide victory he was dreaming to achieve in the recent elections by showing vacuous gestures to the Muslim community and by launching a fake Sadbhavna march. AIMMM reiterates that Modi will remain an untouchable for secular forces and the Muslim community within and outside Gujarat as long as he does not apologise and makes good the losses of Muslim victims as a result of his administration’s omission and commission during the 2002 pogroms.

Waqfs

The AIMMM urges the government to hurry the Waqf bill through Parliament taking into account the suggestions made by Muslim organisations. It is high time to safeguard and redeem waqf properties and to unshackle them from the archaic rent control so that these may attract market rates. Many Muslim problems will be solved if waqfs are put to good and sensible use according to the intentions of the people who established those waqfs.

Managed peace in J&K

The year 2012 is being touted as a “year of peace” because 12.5 lakh tourists and 6.5 lakh Amarnath yatris visited the state during this year. But the fact is that this “peace” is managed by state oppression. Thousands of youths are in jails on frivolous charges. Every now and then undeclared curfew is clamped on various areas. On several Fridays this year, prayers were not allowed in the Jama Masjid of Srinagar. Muharram processions were also not allowed this year. Separatist leaders like Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabbir Shah etc were frequently arrested during this year. Another separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, remains under perpetual house arrest and has not been allowed to offer Friday prayers during the last three years. In spite of the assurances of Chief Minister Umar Abdullah, AFSPA remains in force. A total of 150 persons are in jails under the draconian Public Safety Act and 840 political prisoners remain incarcerated. AIMMM calls upon the Union government to take a bold step to talk to the separatists. A remarkable gesture will be to lift AFPSA which has no relevance now in view of the official statements that only a few hundred militants remain in J&K.

Amarnath Trust

AIMMM shares the uneasiness of the Kashmiri brothers over the increasing activities and infrastructure building by J&K’s Amarnath Trust. A new fait accompli is being attempted at the expense of the area’s environment and people’s sentiments. The ever-growing number of pilgrims to Amarnath, from a few thousand in pre-1990 days to around six lakh this year, is disastrous to the area’s fragile ecology as well as it sends a political message to the Valley’s Muslim majority. The state government should stop any measures to build permanent infrastructure on the Amarnath route and should limit the visitors to what the area’s ecology permits. Moreover, Kashmiri Pandits should be appointed on the Amarnath Trust and no land should allotted to it as it will lead to permanent infrastructure

Illegal shrines at Muslim monuments

The recent attempt to build a full-fledged temple on the north-eastern corner of Charminar in Hyderabad under the title “Bhagyalakshmi Temple” should awaken the whole community and make it conscious of a common practice throughout the country from Ayodhya to Delhi, Hyderabad and Baba Budhan in Karnataka of building a “Hindu Shrine” adjacent to a Muslim heritage site or shrine, then slowly expand it and finally take the site over. In Hyderabad, it all began with a corner mile-stone placed to save the monument from traffic damage. Later it received vermillion marks, then a small idol was placed there and a platform was quietly built as a regular mandir. The Muslim community in every village and town must, therefore, keep an eye on the placement of an idol, picture or even a piece of stone near a Masjid or in a Qabristan or a shrine or monument, followed by Hindu rituals and puja. In some places when it was brought to the notice of the authorities, the matter was looked into with the help of old maps and land records, the mischief was nipped in the bud and the revenue or the municipal officer performed his duty to remove the accretion forthwith. In MP, the then Chief Minister Shri Arjun Singh himself once protected the Tajul Masajid in Bhopal in this manner.  Near Delhi in Sikandarpur, a young district magistrate after summary inspection removed the idol from the Qabristan with his own hands. But in many villages and towns, Hindu shrines are springing up by the road-side or under a tree, even in Delhi. These are ignored by the municipal authorities and the police. It is, therefore, suggested that in all villages and mohallas the community should keep an eye on such developments on graveyards or near  masjids or heritage sites and immediately file a complaint with the authorities and make a move for its removal. This practice is very common even in protected places which are in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.  The law does not permit any construction within 100 meters of any protected monument but even in Delhi there are many cases of Hindu shrines being built next to the walls of a masjid or monument. Today temples occupy the outer walls of Purana Quila and Qutb Minar. Earlier a Sikh temple had been built next to the Puran Qila. AIMMM appeals to the Muslims to wake up to the situation and press local authorities and the waqf committee to take necessary action immediately.

Muslim political parties

The AIMMM welcomes the emergence of new political parties with Muslim initiative. Muslim masses should prefer winnable, reliable and trustworthy candidates of such parties so that the community has a free and independent voice in the state and central legislatures to raise its issues.
    
Babri Masjid

AIMMM rejects the current hush-hush efforts to find an out of court solution for the Babri issue. AIMMM reiterates that with the unjust demolition, long litigation and the current appeals pending with the Supreme Court, the matter is now beyond such efforts and only a final Supreme Court verdict will be acceptable to the Muslim community.
  
Hizbut Tahrir

AIMMM notes with dismay that efforts are being made these days to export Hizbut Tahrir to the Subcontinent. It is a secretive, dubious and destructive neo-Kharijite society banned in all Arab countries but is allowed to openly flourish in Britain. Muslim masses in the area should be alert to this menace which will only further divide the community and add to confusion and chaos.

Rohingyas

AIMMM condemns the Burmese authorities’ continued persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community in Burma which is deprived of its natural rights as citizens of Burma and forced to live as refugees in its own country or to flee to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and India. Such behaviour is a source of utter shame in the twenty first century. Burma authorities should rethink their erroneous and racist policies, should allow Rohingyas to return to their villages and hamlets and should repatriate those who have fled outside Burma due to persecution. AIMMM urges the Indian government to put pressure on Burma govt. to start behaving in a civilised manner and honour the civil, political and human rights of the Rohingyas.
  

Egypt

The AIMMM congratulates the Egyptian people for courageously passing a new democratic constitution despite the efforts of the pro-Israel and pro-west vocal minority which does not wish to see a stable and democratic government in Egypt. The AIMMM lauds the efforts of President Mursi to wisely deal with the challenges posed by western stooges and remnants of Mubarak regime.
  
Syria
 
The AIMMM is pained by the continued war waged by the sectarian Baathist dictatorship in Syria against its own people, causing unprecedented casualties in life and properties never seen before in any similar situation. It is time for the Assad regime to go and allow genuine Syrian patriotic forces to take over in order to spare Syria the wages of an American-led western intervention which will further complicate the problems and result in further destruction of Syria.
  
Palestine
 
The AIMMM forcefully condemns the Israeli war against Gaza last November which ended rather abruptly due to the brave resistance of the people and the support of neighbouring countries especially Egypt and Iran. Israel has to learn to live like a normal country of the area foregoing its imperialist and expansionist designs. It will be cast in the dustbin of history like the South African apartheid regime if it fails to learn lessons of history. Israel has to respect the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in their homeland including the right of the  Palestinians to have their own sovereign and viable state and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands, and restore Jerusalem to its rightful owners. Without such real measures there will be no place for Israel in the Middle East.

[end]

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

What Gujarat’s Muslims can take away from Modi’s win - By Dr. Juzer S. Bandukwala, Baroda, The Indian Express, Mumbai

"Communal polarisation will not be easy in Bihar, UP, West Bengal and Assam, with larger Muslim populations and powerful third parties that seek their votes. These four states send about 200 Lok Sabha members, compared to 26 MPs from Gujarat." : Dr. Bandukwala



http://www.indianexpress.com/news/selfhelp-is-the-only-help/1050668/0

The Indian Express

Self-help is the only help


Dr. Juzer S. Bandukwala, Baroda


jsbandukwala : Thu Dec 27 2012, 01:02 hrs

What Gujarat’s Muslims can take away from Modi’s win

Narendra Modi has secured another huge victory in Gujarat, an outcome that is bound to have been seen as demoralising by Muslims in the state and across India. In the context of Modi’s prime-ministerial ambitions, it is important that we analyse this development.

First, despite what the pundits say about Modi’s ‘development’, Gujarat’s growth has been heavily tilted towards the middle and upper classes. And yet, Modi has received huge support from tribal, Dalit and backward class voters. The reason is the sense among Gujarat’s Hindu population: “In 2002, Muslims were taught a lesson they will never forget”. This is the basis of Modi’s political success.

Gujarat may be the most communalised state in the country. This predates the horrors of 2002. While non-Gujaratis are troubled by the fact that Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace should be so anti-Muslim, Gandhi, in his lifetime, was never a popular figure in the state. Gujaratis have been far more influenced by Swami Dayanand Saraswati, K.M. Munshi and the sack of Somnath by Mahmud of Ghazni. Modi has successfully exploited this latent anti-Muslim feeling, turning it into a powerful political weapon. With a Muslim population of just under 10 per cent, it is easy to inflame the remaining 90 per cent on communal grounds. He was not willing to give even one BJP seat to a Muslim candidate, for that would have diluted his appeal to non-Muslims. His references to “Ahmed miyan”, his saffron clothes at election meetings, his raising the Sir Creek issue, were all subtle messages to his core supporters.

However, the national arena is a different matter. What are Modi’s prospects in 2014? Bihar, UP , West Bengal and Assam have Muslim populations of between 20 to 30 per cent of the whole. The BJP is weak in these states. Communal polarisation will not be as easy as it is in Gujarat, especially because there are powerful third parties that seek Muslim votes. These four states send about 200 Lok Sabha members, compared to 26 MPs from Gujarat.

Indian Muslims have paid a heavy price for Partition, including the cycle of communal riots, and “terror arrests” of our youth. A widely shared sense of insecurity has led to ghettoisation all over the country, widening the gulf between Muslims and non-Muslims. In Gujarat, we are often questioned about our role in the freedom movement and, therefore, our patriotism. Few Hindus are aware that Gandhiji’s original trip to South Africa was sponsored by a Gujarati Muslim, Dada Abdulla, or that the Indian National Army was sponsored by another Gujarati Muslim, Abdul Habib Marfani.

Meanwhile, ambitious politicians and businessmen who seek to go beyond the ghetto, have used their Muslim names to secure advantages from those in power. They have moved away from the community itself. Muslims rank at the bottom of the national social, economic and educational ladder. Yet, any attempt to address and improve this situation, such as the Ranganath Mishra commission and the Sachar commitee, is met with stiff opposition, particularly from the RSS and BJP. In the absence of enlightened leadership, the community has turned to the ulema, who do not have a larger national perspective, to guide it on non-religious issues.

The only way out for Muslims is to rely on themselves, focus on quality education and business. We need doctors, engineers, scientists and management experts, industrialists and wealth-generators. But these people must devote time to community uplift. We may not have the financial resources to operate our own schools and universities, and must support students in established educational institutions. We have to take special care of the children of those killed in the riots and those languishing in jails.

We also have to continue our fight for justice for the victims of 2002 and fake encounters. The BJP/ RSS often accuse us of living in the past, and like to quote the example of Sikhs who have moved on from the 1984 riots. But, unlike the Congress, Modi and his party have never uttered words of remorse and sorrow for 2002 and after. The RSS treats Sikhs as part of the larger Hindu community, but treats Muslims as outsiders.

We are fortunate that the Supreme Court and civil rights activists have been so responsive to our call for justice. We have obtained convictions, including senior politicians and officers. That may be our best bet that, Insha’allah, the tragedy of 2002 is never repeated.
The writer retired as professor of physics from MS University, Baroda. He is president of the Gujarat chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties

express@expressindia.com