AMU [Aligarh Muslim University] team winds up Maharashtra tour; to decide on location : ummid.com

http://ummid.com/news/2011/October/27.10.2011/amu_team_visits_maha_tour.htm

AMU [Aligarh Muslim University] team winds up Maharashtra tour; to decide on location in few days Thursday October 27, 2011 06:50:32 PM, ummid.com Staff Reporter

Related Articles AMU team arrives in Maharashtra, begins inspecting land for sub centre “Sir, like girls in other parts of the country, we also wish to seek higher education. But, since we don’t have any such opportunity here in Malegaon our dreams may shatter. In AMU’s sub-centre, we see our dream of higher education  » AMU Maharashtra: Expert team to inspect lands for sub centre October 26 Aligarians in Maharashtra throw weight behind AMU Malegaon We see our future in AMU Malegaon: Write hundreds of students to VC AMU Malegaon: Nashik MP extends support; VC ready to send team Upbeat netizens give a strong thumbs up to AMU Malegaon Finally, Maharashtra govt nod to AMU Malegaon; ball now in VC's court Give us AMU centre: Girl students of Malegaon demand on Women's Day Malegaon/Aurangabad: The high level AMU expert team which was in Maharashtra on a three day tour to inspect the land for its proposed centre in the state left for Aligarh via New Delhi today morning. During its stay in Maharashtra, the team inspected the lands in Aurangabad and Malegaon that were identified for the purpose. Flowers and protests both greeted the team during its three-day stay in team.   After arriving in Aurangabad from New Delhi by air, the team led by AMU Vice Chancellor Prof PK Abdul Aziz inspected the lands located at two different places near Aurnagabad on October 26 in the morning.   According to Mrs Fauzia Khan, Minister of State for Primary Education and Awkaf, the AMU team visited two locations - one around ten kms to Aurangabad and the other at Khuldabad around 30 kms away.   Principal Secretary of Minority Development Department Mrs Thekkekara and Secretary of Minority Commission, Govt. of Maharashtra Syed Hashmi were also present in Aurangabad for the land inspection.   Aurangabad district officials assisted Minister Mrs Fauzia Khan and others for AMU team's smooth land inspection.   Later, after visiting Tomb of Great Moghul Emperor Aurangazeb the team left for Malegaon.   The ummid.com staff reporter who was travelling with the team from Aurangabad to Malegaon said that a huge crowd which comprised of heads of local educational institutions, teachers, social activists and leaders from all political parties including Nasik MP Sameer Bhujbal, local MLAs Mufti Mohd Ismael and Dada Bhuse greeted the team when it entered Malegaon at around 01:15 PM.   Some of the people had traveled from neighboring and faraway places to meet the AMU team. Prominent among them were Students' Islamic Organization (SIO) Zonal Secretary Irshad Khan who traveled from Nagpur to Malegaon and various heads of education institutes of Yeola, Nasik, Dhule and Manmad.   "The enthusiasm can be gauged from the fact that people from all walks of life literally lined up to greet the AMU team and to stress the need for establishment of the AMU off-campus centre near Malegaon so that they also get access to higher education", Dharma Anna, Sarpanch of Daregaon said while speaking to ummid.com.   In Malegaon, the AMU team visited two spots that were identified for the proposed AMU sub centre. The District Magistrate P Velrasu said that the AMU team visited two spots in Malegaon - one at Rampura some 30 kms from Malegaon and the other 22 kms to Malegaon at Jalgaon-Chondi near Manmad - the major railway junction which connects North and South India.    After having lunch at Jamia Mohammadia Mansoora rest house, the team held a prolonged discussion with Nasik MP Sameer Bhujbal, local MLAs Mufti Ismael and Dada Bhuse, District Magistrate P Velrasu, and office bearers of Noble Education & Welfare Society (NEWS) and Citizens for Development & Peace (CDP).   During the meeting, Vice chancellor Prof PK Abdul Aziz and team members Prof. Anwar Jahan Zuberi, Prof. Jawaid Akhtar, Prof. Ekram Husain, Prof. N. A. K. Durrani and Prof. M. Saud Alam Qasmi explained in detail the motive behind establishment of this centre and its expected impact on the overall development of the region.   Protests Meanwhile, in an unpleasant incident during AMU team's visit to Maharashtra, the team also had to face besides flowers protests both in Aurangabad and Malegaon.   While Shiv Sena-BJP activists camped near the Khuldabad location carrying saffron and black flags, at Rampura site of Malegaon, the team was stopped just near the proposed land. Local MP Sameer Bhujbal and DM P Velarsu talked to the protesting crowd of around 500 villagers, but they were not ready to allow the AMU team to visit the proposed site.   The AMU team however peacefully inspected the other site located 14 to Manmnad Railway junction.   Later while addressing the press conference with District Magistrate P Velrasu, AMU VC said, "Some forces are opposing tooth and nail the establishment of the AMU centres. First they opposed when we visited other states and now they are doing the same in Maharashtra."   "However", he added, "The project has the backing of the majority of the people in the country including Hindus, Muslims and people from other religions and classes wnd we are trying our best to make these centres a success."   In reply to a question, the Vice Chancellor said that the AMU team few days after after reaching Aligarh will hold a meeting and decide on the final locations.   Refuting the media reports which were appearing in a section of the media since last few weeks, the Vice Chancellor said, "At this stage I can't say anything about the final location. I can only assure you that an AMU centre will be established in Maharashtra very soon and we are all set to start the academic activities from the next academic year".

The killing of Qadhafi - HINDU Editorial + Comments by Ghulam Muhammed

COMMENTS POSTED on Hindu Editorial: Killing Qadhafi ---

 The West and with them the captive world audience are shedding crocodile tears on the killing of Gaddafi, while nobody can deny that the Western powers had left no stone unturned to see that Qaddafi if eliminated. They had been at it for a long time. So why now such a shock and change of tune. The real reason as some analysts have pointed out is the fate of 160 billion dollars that the West got frozen through UN sanctions and if they had caught Qaddafi alive, it would have made their job easier to get hold of that treasure by torturing and/or making deal with imprisoned Qaddafi. With his death, their urgent plans to inject money into the fast deteriorating situation in Eurozone, have gone awry. The new National Transitional Council, has shown no willingness to even pay for the war efforts that the West has invested in their bombing raids. So now all of a sudden the West has found sympathy for the assassinated Qaddafi. Who said, you cannot fool all the people all the times.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2559752.ece

The killing of Qadhafi

The violent death of Col. Muammar Qadhafi is the worst possible beginning for a new Libya where 42 years of dictatorial and whimsical rule by a strongman are supposed to make way for democratic structures. The exact circumstances in which Col. Qadhafi was killed are unclear. It is known that NATO bombed a convoy in which he was trying to flee a blockade of his hometown Sirte by forces allied to the National Transitional Council government. He might have been wounded in the bombing; subsequent video footage shows him asking for mercy from his captors. The NTC, which took power after over-running the Qadhafi regime two months ago with NATO's assistance, has said he was shot in crossfire between its forces and his loyalists. But reports from the ground suggest he was executed in cold blood. Libya has failed its first democratic test, with vengeance and bloodlust triumphing over due process, the rule of law, and justice. NATO is deeply complicit in this. The role of western powers, especially the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, through this sorry saga of violent regime change reiterates the question that has been asked ever since NATO began bombing Libya, ostensibly as a “humanitarian intervention” authorised by the United Nations Security Council: does the West want democracy in Libya or just any friendly regime that will give it access to the country's oil? It is disappointing that India, which opposed external intervention in Libya, has expressed no concern at Qadhafi's violent end.

Muammar Qadhafi will certainly not be mourned as a great leader of his people. His rule did bring about positive changes for his country, notably in health, education, and infrastructure development. In contrast to other Arab states, it also gave Libyans a consciousness about their oil wealth as a national resource. But he was a ruthless dictator, and his regime was infamous for crushing dissent by imprisoning, torturing, and killing a large number of political opponents. Qadhafi's Libya was also associated with deadly terrorist acts in Europe, including the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie in Scotland, for which the world imposed sanctions on the country. It was only after 9/11 that both the West and Qadhafi saw opportunities in compromise: after condemning Osama bin Laden, he gave up Libya's nuclear programme and surrendered two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing, in return for a lifting of international sanctions. With Qadhafi gone, the NTC will no doubt move to cement its hold on power. But if it genuinely wants to set Libya on the right path, it would do well to begin by conducting an honest and impartial investigation into Qadhafi's killing.

Keywords: Libya, Muammar Qadhafi, political crisis, death, Qadhafi killing, National Transitional Council government

We Can All Become Job Creators By JOE NOCERA - The New York Times

An private initiative to become Job Creators, that can be duplicated in all communities facing credit crunch and unemployment
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/opinion/nocera-we-can-all-become-job-creators.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

We Can All Become Job Creators

By JOE NOCERA

Published: October 17, 2011

Howard Schultz. God bless him. 

Enlarge This Image

Earl Wilson/The New York Times

By Joe Nocera

When last we left the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, in mid-August, he had written a widely publicized e-mail lamenting the poisonous state of our nation’s politics. That led him to his first big idea: a call for a boycott of political contributions until Democrats and Republicans began to act in a nonpartisan way for the good of the country.


The idea had undeniable appeal. But it was also — let’s face it — pretty quixotic, fun to dream about but impossible to turn into reality.

Here we are two months later, and Schultz is back with Big Idea No. 2. It is every bit as idealistic as his first big idea, but far more practical. Starbucks is going to create a mechanism that will allow us citizens to do what the government and the banks won’t: lend money to small businesses. This mechanism is scheduled to be rolled out on Nov. 1. This time, Schultz is not tilting at windmills.

From the start, Schultz’s crusade has been focused on the need for jobs, or, as he likes to say, “the jobs emergency.” Should the government finance a sustained infrastructure program to create jobs? Of course. Should it give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed? Yes again. But with an election coming up, nothing of the sort is likely.

With the government a nonfactor, Schultz began mulling other ideas. He knew that small businesses created most new jobs, but that many small businesspeople couldn’t hire because they had lost access to credit after the financial crisis. He thought about Starbucks’s involvement in microlending programs in some of the countries where it bought coffee. He wondered if there was some way that that could be applied to small business lending in this country. 

Finally, he thought about the nearly 7,000 Starbucks stores in the United States, and its tens of millions of customers. Surely, he mused, there must be some way to take advantage of Starbucks’s sheer size.

In late August, Schultz invited a handful of employees to his home. He told them that they were not there to discuss Starbucks business. “Let’s try to take a big swing at job creation that will be unprecedented and unorthodox,” he said. The meeting went well into the evening. Schultz served pizza.

Here’s the idea they came up with: Americans themselves would start lending to small businesses, with Starbucks serving as the middleman. Starbucks would find financial institutions willing to loan to small businesses. Starbucks customers would be able to donate money to the effort when they bought their coffee. Those who gave $5 or more would get a red-white-and-blue wristband, which Schultz labeled “Indivisible.” “We are hoping it will bring back pride in the American dream,” he says. The tag line will read: “Americans Helping Americans.”

It didn’t take long for Starbucks to find the perfect financial partner: Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs. These are lenders, mostly under the radar, that specialize in underserved communities. Most, but not all, CDFIs are nonprofit, and their loan default rates are extremely low. “We specialize in expending credit, getting paid back, and paying back our investors,” says Mark Pinsky, whose organization, Opportunity Finance Network, acts as an umbrella group to the best of them.

Pinsky served on a board with a Starbucks executive. Schultz didn’t know that — indeed, he said he had never heard of a CDFI. But the young Starbucks executives charged with turning the idea into a reality soon found Pinsky — and realized that his organization was tailor-made for their project. Within a matter of days, he had met Schultz, and they had struck a deal.

Starbucks and the Starbucks Foundation will pay for the marketing costs, the wristbands and every other cost associated with the new program — which will be called Create Jobs for USA — out of its own coffers.

Here is the most beautiful part about the whole arrangement. The donations to Create Jobs for USA will not be loaned to the CDFIs. They will be turned into capital — equity that can be leveraged. Pinsky and others told me that that equity can be leveraged 7 to 1, meaning that if 10 million Starbucks customers donate $5, that will support $350 million worth of lending. That’s real money.

The Starbucks Foundation is starting things off with a $5 million donation. Schultz is hoping to convince other national retail chains to participate as well — so that Starbucks isn’t the only place people can join in the effort. And, of course, he is hoping that Starbucks customers will flock to it in droves.

So am I. With the government and banks unwilling or unable, it’s time we took matters into our own hands. At this point, who else can we count on?

Amnesty Calls on Canada to Arrest Bush - By Michel Comte -AFP

Amnesty Calls on Canada to Arrest Bush

By Michel Comte

October 13, 2011 "AFP" - Amnesty International called on Canadian authorities Wednesday to arrest and prosecute George W. Bush, saying the former US president authorized "torture" when he directed the US-led war on terror.

Bush is expected to attend an economic summit in Surrey in Canada's westernmost British Columbia province on October 20.

In a memorandum submitted last month to Canada's attorney general but only now released to the media, the London-based group charged that Bush has legal responsibility for a series of human rights violations.

"Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former president Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture," Amnesty's Susan Lee said in a statement.

"As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former president Bush to justice, the international community must step in. A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention Against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights," Lee said.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney blasted Amnesty for "cherry picking cases to publicize, based on ideology."

"This kind of stunt helps explain why so many respected human rights advocates have abandoned Amnesty International," he said.

Kenney said it will be up to Canadian border officials to decide independently whether to allow Bush into the country.

Bush canceled a visit to Switzerland in February, after facing similar public calls for his arrest.

Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International's Canadian branch, told a press conference the rights group will pursue its case against the former US president with the governments of other countries he might visit.

"Torturers must face justice and their crimes are so egregious that the responsibility for ensuring justice is shared by all nations," Neve said.

"Friend or foe, extraordinary or very ordinary times, most or least powerful nation, faced with concerns about terrorism or any other threat, torture must be stopped.

"Bringing to justice the people responsible for torture is central to that goal. It is the law... And no one, including the man who served as president of the world's most powerful nation for eight years can be allowed to stand above that law."

Amnesty, backed by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, claims Bush authorized the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and "waterboarding" on detainees held in secret by the Central Intelligence Agency between 2002 and 2009.

The detention program included "torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (such as being forced to stay for hours in painful positions and sleep deprivation), and enforced disappearances," it alleged.

Amnesty's case, outlined in its 1,000-page memorandum, relies on the public record, US documents obtained through access to information requests, Bush's own memoir and a Red Cross report critical of the US's war on terror policies.

Amnesty cites several instances of alleged torture of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, by the US military.

The cases include that of Zayn al Abidin Muhammed Husayn (known as Abu Zubaydah) and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, both arrested in Pakistan. The two men were waterboarded 266 times between them from 2002 to 2003, according to the CIA inspector general, cited by Amnesty.

U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy - The New York Times

Comments posted on The New York Times website over article:

U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/us-accuses-iranians-of-plotting-to-kill-saudi-envoy.html#preview.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011..

1:32 PM

Thank you for your submission. Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. An email will be sent to you at ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com (Change e-mail)

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Ghulam Muhammed

Location

Mumbai, India

Comment

Prima Facie, this could be the long-awaited conspiratorial move by neo-cons in various branches of US administration, to fine-tune a pretext, opening the first salvo against Iran, now that Israel is facing isolation of the worst kind ever experienced in its history. The time is now ripe to flex new muscles and move to start another crisis in the region to remain relevant to US warmongers. Obama is a helpless prisoner in the White House and hostage to Zionists as far as his reelection prospects are concerned. The ultimate irony is dragging of Saudi Arabian Ambassador in the conspiracy loop, to divide the region first before carrying out a war campaign against Iran. The world has seen all this coming. The news of the sting operation is patent US operation when it wants to fool its people and succumbs to Jewish Neo-con agenda to wage war in the name of security.


Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

--------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/us-accuses-iranians-of-plotting-to-kill-saudi-envoy.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2&pagewanted=all

U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy

Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador, was said to be the target of an assassination plot involving a Mexican drug cartel.

By CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE

Published: October 11, 2011

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WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

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Mansour J. Arbabsiar

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The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.

The plotters also discussed a side deal between the Quds Force, part of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Los Zetas to funnel tons of opium from the Middle East to Mexico, the official said. The plans never progressed, though, because the two suspects — the Iranian-American and an Iranian Quds Force officer — unwittingly were dealing with an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who announced the murder plot at a news conference in Washington, said it was “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government and, specifically, senior members of the Quds Force.” He added that “high-up officials in those agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot.”

The charges heightened tensions in an already fraught relationship between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, said his nation was “outraged” about the accusations. In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Khazaee said that Iran “strongly and categorically rejects these fabricated and baseless allegations, based on the suspicious claims by an individual.”

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a bitter regional rivalry, one that has intensified as they have jockeyed for influence since the political upheavals of the Arab Spring. The Saudi Embassy in Washington denounced the plot against the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, as “a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions.”

Mr. Holder’s assertion and the F.B.I.’s account of official Iranian involvement in the plot, reportedly code-named “Chevrolet,” provoked puzzlement from specialists on Iran, who said it seemed unlikely that the government would back a brazen murder and bombing plan on American soil.

Investigators, too, were initially skeptical about ties to Iran, officials said. They said, though, that the F.B.I. monitored calls to Iran about the plot and found money had been wired from a Quds Force bank account. In addition, the Iranian-American accused in the scheme, Mansour J. Arbabsiar, correctly identified a known Quds Force officer from a photo array, and his cousin — who he said recruited him for the plot — is another Quds official.

It remained unclear, though, whether the plot was conceived by a rogue element or had approval from top officials of the Revolutionary Guards or the Iranian government.

“It’s so outside their normal track of activity,” said a senior law enforcement official who had been involved in the investigation and would speak only on the condition of anonymity. “It’s a rogue plan or they’re using very different tactics. We just don’t know.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed her incredulity in an interview with The Associated Press.

“The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?” she asked, also saying that the plot “crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.”

The State Department issued an alert on Tuesday for Americans traveling or living abroad regarding “the potential for anti-U.S. actions following the disruption” of the plot, which it said “may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity.”

Mr. Arbabsiar, 56, a naturalized American citizen who lives in Corpus Christi, Tex., was named in a federal criminal complaint in New York along with Gholam Shakuri, whom the Justice Department identified as a member of the Quds Force.

Mr. Arbabsiar, who one official said sold used cars for a living, was arrested Sept. 29 at Kennedy International Airport in New York; Mr. Shakuri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.

Minutes after the Justice Department laid out the charges, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against five people — including four “senior” members of the Quds Force, which the United States designated as a terrorist group in 2007.

White House officials said President Obama called the Saudi ambassador on Tuesday to express solidarity, saying the president “underscored that the United States believes this plot to be a flagrant violation of U.S. and international law, and reiterated our commitment to meet our responsibilities to ensure the security of diplomats serving in our country.”

Mr. Arbabsiar, who has lived in Texas for many years, made a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, dressed in a blue checked shirt and with a pronounced scar on his left cheek. He did not enter a plea, but his lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, said after the hearing that “if he is indicted, he will plead not guilty.”
The case began in May, when a Drug Enforcement Administration informant with ties to high-level leaders of Los Zetas told agents of a bizarre conversation. He had been approached, he said, by an Iranian friend of his aunt’s in Corpus Christi — Mr. Arbabsiar — with a proposition to hire the cartel to carry out terrorist attacks inside the United States. Mr. Arbabsiar believed that the informant was an actual member of Los Zetas.

Over the next two months, Mr. Arbabsiar and the informant worked out a deal under which Mr. Arbabsiar would pay $1.5 million to Los Zetas to kill the Saudi ambassador at a restaurant in Washington, officials said. 

The complaint quotes Mr. Arbabsiar as making conflicting statements about the possibility of bystander deaths; at one point he is said to say that killing the ambassador alone would be preferable, but on another occasion he said it would be “no big deal” if many others at the restaurant — possibly including United States senators — died in any bombing.

There was never any risk, officials said, because the informant was working for the drug agency, and their meetings in Mexico and telephone conversations, were being recorded by law enforcement authorities.

In early August, on a visit to Iran, Mr. Arbabsiar wired nearly $100,000 to the informant’s bank account as a down payment, according to court documents. In late September, he flew to Mexico City from Iran, intending to serve as human “collateral” to ensure that Los Zetas would be paid the rest of their money after killing the ambassador.

But the government of Mexico, at the request of the United States, denied entry to Mr. Arbabsiar and put him on a commercial flight with a stopover in New York, where he was arrested.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a letter to the court saying Mr. Arbabsiar had repeatedly waived his right to be quickly brought before a judge and to have a lawyer present during questioning. The letter said he had confessed to his role in the plot and had provided “extremely valuable intelligence.”

Mr. Holder said the United States “is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions” but declined to answer a question about Iranian officials’ motivation for the alleged plot.

Experts on Iran expressed astonishment at both the apparently clumsy tradecraft and the uncertain goal of the intended mayhem on United States soil.

Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian-American scholar who studies the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said he thought it unlikely that the plot was approved at a high level by Iranian officials. “It’s not typical of the Quds Force or the I.R.G.C. to operate in the U.S., for fear of retaliation,” Mr. Nafisi said. Iran’s last lethal operation on American soil, he said, was in 1980, when a critic of the Islamic government was murdered at his Bethesda, Md., home.

Mr. Nafisi said it was conceivable that elements of the Revolutionary Guards might have concocted the plot without top-level approval, perhaps to prevent reconciliation between Iran and the United States.

But Iran’s Islamic government has a long history of attempts to eliminate enemies living overseas, said Roya Hakakian, author of “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace,” a book on the murder of four Iranians in a Berlin restaurant in 1992. A German court found that the murders were approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

The gunman in the Berlin killings was also accused of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Sweden, Ms. Hakakian said.

Reporting was contributed by Anthony Shadid from Beirut, Lebanon; Eric Schmitt, Steven Lee Myers and Mark Landler from Washington; J. David Goodman and Benjamin Weiser from New York; and Randal C. Archibold from Mexico City.

http://twocircles.net/2011oct08/islamic_exhibition_dussehra_fair_kota.html

Islamic Exhibition at Dussehra Fair in Kota

Submitted by admin7 on 8 October 2011 - 10:54pm

• Indian Muslim

By TCN News,

Kota (Rajasthan): The National Dussehra Fair in Kota city of Rajasthan started with traditional zeal after burning the statue of Ravana. At the ongoing fair (5th Oct-24th Oct 2011), there is a big exhibition of Islamic books and Multimedia.


There are thousands of books in this exhibition covering different topics related to Islam. It comprises different sections like English, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic. Besides, the holy Quran is available here at least in 10 languages.

The most important part of the exhibition is that organizers display the translations of Quranic verses and Ahadees on the board in different languages, then they invite the present people --Muslims, non-Muslims -- to ask any question about Islam and if any question comes, they answer it in the light of these verses. Besides, non-Muslims buyers of the books are given 10% discount and also Hindi and English translations of the Quran are given to them.

The exhibition opens everyday at 6:00 pm and closes at 1:00 am where more than twenty five volunteers offer their services daily.
The exhibition was inaugurated on 5th Oct by Er. Khursheed Hussain, president, Jamaat-e Islami Hind Rajasthan.

Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Mr. Hussain highlighted the importance of Dawah work. “It is our primary duty to convey the message of Islam to mankind. We should adopt all resources like literature, multimedia and dialogues for this pious purpose,” he said.

The keynote speaker Dr. Mohammed Naeem Falahi said that Allah is the only creator of this universe so all of us should obey His orders. Allah has created us and the people who were before us, he added.

The function was presided over by the renowned personality of Kota, Qazi Anwaar Hussain, Chief Qazi of Kota. He threw light on Surah Al Asr and explained the basic four qualities of a successful person here and hereafter.

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اگرچہ بت ہوں جماعت کی آستینوں میں
تجھے ہے حکم اذاں لا الہٰ الاللہ

The Dussehra Fair is organized by Municipal Corporation of Kota city every year since long just after Dussehra festival and ends before Diwali festival. This year it started on 5th Oct and will end on 24th Oct 2011.

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Modi is anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit...and now anti-Brahmin - By Amaresh Misra

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Modi is anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit...and now anti-Brahmin

                                          By Amaresh Misra

Bizarre developments keep taking place in Gujarat. IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been arrested. Previously, on 5 February 2011, the Gujarat government issued a show cause notice to senior IPS officer Rahul Sharma.  

       Why did Sharma suddenly become persona non grata? Sharma, a 1992 batch IPS officer, now posted as DIG Rajkot, was DCP (control room), Ahmedabad, in April 2002. He investigated the violence at Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society. He made CDs, from AT&T and Cel-Force mobile service provider data.  

These CDs contained phone records of senior ministers, police officers, and members of RSS and VHP during the 2002 riots. They disappeared mysteriously; But Sharma preserved a copy.  

Interestingly, these phone records played a significant part in the arrest and the cancelling of anticipatory bails of Gujarat VHP president Jaideep Patel and minister Maya Kodnani for their role in killing Muslims during 2002 riots. They are important also in the investigation into the brutal killing of Congress ex-MP Ehsan Jafri and 30 others at Gulberg Society. The CDs also provide important pieces of evidence in the Naroda Patiya violence in which 105 Muslims were killed.

Here is a sample of what the CD contains:  

12:20 HRS: Police Inspector KG Erda of Meghani Nagar sends a message to Ahmedabad police control room that a mob of around 10,000 has surrounded Gulberg Society and was pelting stones and also trying to set it on fire. Erda requests for additional forces.

12:38 HRS: A police mobile van stationed near Meghani Nagar sends a message to Ahmedabad police control room that Gulberg Society had been surrounded by a mob of 4,000 to 5,000 people.

14:05 HRS: Joint Commissioner Sector 2, MK Tandon sends a message to police control room that Ehsan Jafri has been surrounded by a mob and additional forces should be dispatched.

14:14 HRS: KG Erda sends another message to Ahmedabad police control room that a mob of 10,000 people was about to set Gulberg Society on fire and ACP, DCP and additional forces be sent immediately.

14:45 HRS: KG Erda sends yet another message that the society had been surrounded from all sides and the mob was about to set it on fire.

15:45 HRS: Tandon sends a message to control room enquiring if there was any incidence of violence at Gulberg Society (by this time the carnage was in full swing).

       All this is mentioned in the SIT report submitted to the Supreme Court. The SIT states explicitly that the Gujarat Government destroyed crucial records and that Modi is “immoral” and “communal”.

The SIT report states that Sanjiv Bhatt, the deputy commissioner intelligence during 2002, admitted off the record that Modi asked government officials to let “Hindus vent their anger” in the 27^th February 2002 meeting. Modi should have been arrested and paraded in Ahmedabad as a criminal for these unconstitutional remarks. On the contrary, after arrest, Bhatt is being treated like a criminal. Mrs Shweta Bhatt, his wife, fears for his life—all this, because he would have gone on record had criminal proceedings been initiated against the Gujarat CM.

 Can things get more, weird than this? Hemant Karkare, the officer who first unmasked the real, RSS face of terrorism in India was killed in mysterious circumstances, possibly by Sangh Parivar terrorists, during 26/11 in Mumbai. He was a Brahmin. Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt are also Brahmins. Other persecuted Gujarat officers, like Satish Verma also belong to the upper caste.

 Ideologically, fascism as a phenomenon seeks to re-invent tradition. Both Hitler and Mussolini were upstarts who usurped respectively, the authority of the traditional German and Italian elite. Anti-Semitism was a smokescreen for the larger agenda by these two figures to kill both the ruling and the working classes of their countries.

In a similar manner, anti-Muslim rhetoric is a smokescreen for upstart-fascist Modi to target Dalits, Adivasis and poor on one hand and Brahmins on the other. Remember, RSS and Bania-Marwari-Sindhi leaders of the BJP were never comfortable with Atal Behari Vajpeyi, the man who chided Modi for not following `Rajdharma’ in 2002.

Modi draws most of his support from refugee Punjabis, Parsis, Banias, Marwaris—forces who have money but who resent secretly, Sanatan Dharma Brahmins and their socio-political clout, and who, at the same time, are afraid of Dalits-OBCs-Adivasis one day asking for real socio-economic justice.

Since coming to power, Modi has targeted Sanatani Brahmins systematically. First RBC Kumar, a now retired IPS Brahmin officer, was persecuted. Then Pradeep Sharma, IPS, and Kuldeep Sharma, IAS, were harassed. Hiren Pandya, another Brahmin, was killed in broad daylight by assassins sent by Narendra Modi.

In an unprecedented move, Jagdish Dave, Nanu Vaidya, Pravin Raval, Deepak Bhatt, Rashmikant Trivedi and Hemang Raval—all leading luminaries of the Brahmin Ekta Samaj, an umbrella organization of 84 Gujarati Brahmin communities—have called Modi a tyrant and condemned the arrest of Sanjiv Bhatt. While calling out an all out war against Modi, these figures have welcomed efforts by secular/civil society forces/students to take up cudgels against fascism in Gujarat.  

Indian fascists resent Congress because it is the only party that brings together Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims and tries, despite several mistakes, to further the difficult task of nation building in a humungous, diverse society. Recently, on the occasion of Modi completing ten years of his reign as Gujarat’s CM, the media put out the message that he is invincible. The Brahmin alienation may well start the beginning of the end of the Modi factor by 2012, when elections become due in Gujarat.