Islam could be dominant UK religion in 10 years – census analysis - RT

http://rt.com/news/christianity-decline-uk-islam-rise-405/

Islam could be dominant UK religion in 10 years – census analysis

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Published time: May 17, 2013 10:08

Shiite Muslims gather in Hyde Park in West London to mark the final day of Ashura. (AFP Photo/Shaun Curry)

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Immigration, Religion, UK

One in 10 people under 25 are Muslim, while Christianity is in decline, the 2011 UK census reveals. An explosion in the Muslim population and an aging Christian demographic could mean Islam will be the dominant religion in the UK in 10 years.
A new analysis of the 2011 census by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of Christians was falling 50 per cent faster than had previously been thought. Earlier analysis of the statistics showed only a 15 per cent decline, but the ONS found that this figure had been beefed up by 1.2 million foreign-born Christians.

Furthermore, the re-analysis showed that the majority of Christians were over the age of 60 and for the first time less than half of young people describe themselves as Christian. As a result the ONS has calculated that in a decade only a minority will classify themselves as Christians in England. Christianity is still the dominant religion in the UK with over 50 per cent of the population regarding themselves as believers.

However, this may be set to change as the British Muslim population has surged dramatically over the past 15 years, increasing by 75 per cent in England and Wales. The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade.

Muslims attend Friday prayers on a rainy first day of Ramadan, at the courtyard of a housing estate next to a small BBC community centre and mosque in east London (Reuters/Chris Helgren)

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is
“inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.
Moreover the number of people identifying themselves as atheists has increased by 10 per cent, rising from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. The change has been dubbed as a “significant cultural shift” by the British Humanist Association, while the Church of England has shrugged off the statistics, maintaining they still retain a strong base of believers.
"While this is a challenge, the fact that six out of 10 people in England and Wales self-identify as Christians is not discouraging. Christianity is no longer a religion of culture but a religion of decision and commitment. People are making a positive choice in self-identifying as Christians," said a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales told press in December.
In addition the census registered an increase in followers of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism.

‘Sleepwalking into segregation’

The rising number of immigrants and different ethnicities in the UK has given rise to increasing levels of segregation. Think tank ‘Demos’ has labeled the phenomenon ‘white flight’, citing the falling number of ethnic whites in areas where they are minorities.

Demos’ investigation revealed that new ethnic minorities like Somalis where moving into areas where older most established ethnic populations like Afro-Caribbeans had previously been dominant.

Muslims attend Friday prayers on the first day of Ramadan, in the courtyard of a housing estate next to a small BBC community centre and mosque in east London (Reuters)

The population of London is indicative of the change in the British demographic with 600,000 white Londoners moving out of the capital in the past decade. In spite of the fact that the British capital’s population has grown by more than a million, the number of white British residents has decreased from 4.3 million to 3.7 million.
“We do have an integration problem,” said Demos director David Goodhart to RT. The
“changing ethnic composition” of the British capital is causing a large exodus of ethnic white out of the city, he added.
Goodhart went on to say that the problem of integration was not confined to Great Britain and is prevalent all around the EU despite attempts to eradicate segregation.
“Part of the point of the euro was to disperse German power and prevent the rise of nationalism in Europe, but it has done precisely the opposite on both fronts. We now have serious national resentments in countries like Greece,” he stressed.
Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that the statistics did not spell good news for integration in the UK and warned the country was

Two terror attacks, four sets of accused, two names in common By Muzamil Jaleel - The Indian Express, Mumbai, INDIA

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/two-terror-attacks-four-sets-of-accused-two-names-in-common/1115309/0

Two terror attacks, four sets of accused, two names in common

Muzamil Jaleel : Mon May 13 2013, 00:13 hrs

As Maharashtra ATS's 7/11 suspects go on trial, a look at contradictions between its claims and those of Mumbai crime branch, and the Malegaon connection
Between July and October 2006, Maharashtra's anti-terrorist squad arrested 13 people and claimed they had confessed they were responsible for that year's July 11 blasts that had killed 187 people in seven trains. The ATS filed a chargesheet that November 29. This was after all the accused had filed written submissions to a court on November 9, saying the confessions had been forced out of them under torture, but these received no attention against the ATS narrative.

The case against them is currently being heard in a special MCOCA court. During the years since their arrest, another set of people has been accused of the same attack by another wing of the police in the same state.

In 2008, the Mumbai police's crime branch arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for all major blasts since 2005, including 7/11. On October 7, 2008, a remand application was filed stating that "Afzal Usmani and the wanted accused who are part of the Indian Mujahideen have carried out the 7/11 train blasts, and all blasts in Mumbai since 2005".

Based on confessional statements attributed to these men, the Maharashtra additional chief secretary (home) in January 2009 and the Mumbai police commissioner in February granted sanction to prosecute Mohammad Sadiq, Ansar Sheikh and Arif Sheikh.

One confession was on October 18, 2008, recorded by DCP Vishwas Nangre Patil under section 18 of the MCOCA. "Sadiq stated that he, with the help of other IM members such as Riyaz Bhatkal, Arif Badar, Dr Shahnawaz and others, had carried out the 2006 train blasts, that they had also carried out all bomb blasts in Mumbai after 2005." The statements of Ansar Sheikh and Md Arif Sheikh, saying that "Sadiq told them that he had carried out the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts" were recorded under MCOCA by DCPs Dilip Sawant and Milind Bharambe.

On February 17, 2009, the crime branch filed a chargesheet against a number of alleged IM operatives for hacking into email accounts and claiming responsibility for various attacks in the country. As reported in The Indian Express then, the chargesheet did not mention the initial claim that five of the accused were also guilty of 7/11. The defence case of the ATS's suspects, however, hinges around that initial claim.

Apart from the fact that two different sets of people were indicted for the same crime, there have been other question marks around the 7/11 probe. Call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court have indicated that the phones of Ehtesham Siddiqui, Faisal Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, accused by the ATS of planting the bombs, weren't actually near the sites that day. On seven occasions, the ATS had cited CDRs to establish links between these accused and the Lashkar-e-Toiba while seeking their custody in courts, but then failed to produce the CDRs and claimed they had destroyed the records.

Another intriguing twist is that two of the 13 accused, Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh and Asif Bashir Khan, were accused by the ATS in another case for which a fresh set of people was later indicted — the Malegaon blast of September 8, 2006. NIA investigations have since held a Hindu terror module responsible. These two are among nine ATS suspects; the other seven are out on bail but Sheikh and Asif remain in custody because of the 7/11 charges.

Though the ATS claimed to have arrested Sheikh on September 29, Sheikh claimed to have been in and out of police custody since August 1. Excerpts from his handwritten submission to the court on November 9, 2006:

Sheikh's statement

"I was detained illegally from August 1, 2006, to August 31 for enquiry at Kurla ATS office... On September 7, I was taken to ATS office, Nagpada, and detained there till September 28. I was told I need not worry and I would be allowed to go before Ramzan. On September 29, I was arrested and produced in court and I learnt that I was implicated in the train blast case...

"I was taken to my house and a pressure cooker was taken. When I asked what was happening, I was told they would make me a witness and that I shouldn't tell anybody. The ATS officers constantly asked me who all had come to my house and stayed how many days. I used to answer that no guests used to come as I live in a small house.

"On September 9, at around 6 pm, I was taken to the Nagpada office. I was taken to the office of (then ATS chief) K P Raghuvanshi by (ATS officer) Dinesh Ahir. Shailesh Gaikwad (ATS officer) also came. Raghuvanshi saab asked me if I know Mohammad Ali, a tailor, staying at Road No. 7. I said out of fear that I will enquire if there is such a person. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't find him, I was to be implicated.

"On September 26, around 5 pm, Raghuvanshi saab came to ATS Nagpada and I was threatened (and told) that my house has been used for working out the train blast. I denied it. I was told I would be given one hour to admit the same or else I would face the same consequences as the other accused.

"On October 3 (four days after the arrest), I told officer Sachin Kadam, 'Sir, why did you implicate me falsely?' On October 17, I was taken for a narco test. On October 20, around 11 pm, at Kala Chowki, Sachin Kadam showed me a photo of the Malegaon blast, abused me and said, 'What you have done in the Malegaon and Mumbai blasts, you have told us'. I told them... as I am not connected in any way in this case, how could I tell? I told the officers to show me the narco analysis CD. They started assaulting me.

"I was taken before Raghuvanshi saab, who had come to Kala Chowki. I begged for mercy. Raghuvanshi saab told me that if I didn't admit it and became an approver, I would be implicated in the Malegaon blast. Raghuvanshi saab hit me on the back. I sat down. I was assaulted on the head with a belt and blows from fists. I screamed in pain but officers Sachin Kadam and Raghuvanshi did not show any mercy. ACP Dhamle came and assaulted me and told me to confess to a false story... that if I don't create a story about the Malegaon blast, my entire family will be implicated.

"Raghuvanshi saab used to take the names of persons whom I had never heard of. He told me to say these persons had come to my house. I was also told by Raghuvanshi saab that Pakistanis had come to my house... I had to say yes to whatever they were saying as I was scared. Raghuvanshi saab had already prepared a story on the Malegaon blast and had written the following names on a piece of paper — Shabir Ahmad (Masiullah), Nurul Huda, Rayiz Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Waheed, Wajid.

"On October 20, 21 and 22, I was assaulted and hung upside down by ATS officers. On October 23, Raghuvanshi saab came to me and told me that now that the stories of both blasts had been prepared, I would be discharged and made an approver. And every month Rs 10,000 would be sent to my house.

"On October 24, A N Roy (then Maharashtra DGP) came with Raghuvanshi saab and told me that if I didn't become an approver and didn't sign on the confessional statement I would have to remain in jail for a long time, and if I cooperated with them, I would be released within one-and-a-half months.

"The ATS officers come to Arthur Road Jail and threaten all the accused. I apprehend the ATS officers will implicate me falsely in the Malegaon case."

Asif's statement

The name of the other man accused by the ATS in both 7/11 and Malegaon 2006, Asif Bashir Khan, had appeared in an alleged confessionn by Shabir Ahmad Masiullah. Masiullah told The Indian Express he was forced to sign on a paper and later found that Asif's name was part of it. Masiullah says he does not know Asif or Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. According to the ATS case, Asif had arranged the "leftover RDX" from the 7/11 blasts and given it to Masiullah and others for the Malegaon blast.

Excerpts from Asif's submission to the court on November 9, 2006:

"I was arrested by the ATS on October 3, 2006, from a friend's house in Belgaum. Police officers torture me and beat me brutally and take my signatures on blank pieces of paper... also threaten to shoot me in encounter.

"...I was taken to Bangalore for narco analysis on October 20... They again carried out a narco test on October 28 in Bangalore. On return, they kept me in custody and Mr Deshmukh Sir, police inspector, threatened me that if I did not confess, he would... implicate my brother and father, and my children would be sent to a remand home... The police also took me before the DCP, Borivali... he tried to force me to sign on a written document but I refused. I have been regularly tortured as I have refused to sign. The police also threaten that my family and I will be implicated in the Malegaon case."

Malegaon 2006

It was not the blast that led to the investigation. The probe had predated the attack; it was based on information on what was to come. In a statement that was treated as an FIR, assistant inspector Shripad Balkrishna Kale of Greater Mumbai Police, now DCB in Unit 7 at Ghatkopar, Mumbai, declared he "received information on August 1, 2006, through a reliable informant that one Shabir of Malegaon and Nafis of Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, Mumbai, who are connected with SIMI, were preparing to commit some sabotage acts in the Ganesh Festival". Kale said he informed his seniors and two squads were appointed, with senior inspector Rathod leading a squad to Malegaon and assistant inspector Kamble being sent to Shivaji Nagar, Govandi.

Kamble said the squads brought Masiullah, 38, who made and sold batteries and inverters, from Malegaon, and Nafis Ahmad Jameer Ahmad Ansari, 29, who worked as a computer operator in Mumbai's Shivaji Nagar, to the unit office. "On repeatedly and intensively interrogating the two persons, it was found that both of them are workers of SIMI. Further, it is learnt that both persons, through the said banned organisation, had gone from India to Pakistan via Dubai in or about May-June 2003 where they received arms training," Kamble said. "They had come back from Pakistan to Dubai and entered India from Kathmandu through the Bahraich border. Both of them had torn/destroyed their Indian passports at Kathmandu... the evidence of their having gone to Pakistan." The date of arrest in police records is August, 11, 2006, also the date of registration of the FIR.

Initially the case (FIR 1106/06 dated August 11, 2006) was registered with the Ghatkopar police station, then transferred to the DCB, CID Unit-7, the same day.

Masiullah and Nafis were charged under UAPA. Apart from the alleged plan to bomb the Ganesh festival on August 1, the ATS simultaneously accused Masiullah of planning the bombing of Muslim religious places on Shab-e-Baraat five weeks later in Malegaon. The ATS later alleged that Masiullah was the mastermind behind the 2006 Malegaon blasts. It claimed he and his accomplices had assembled the bombs in the last week of July, and kept them in a godown from where he ran his business of assembling inverters and batteries. He signed his "confession" on November 21, 2006; it was after that (on December 10) that the ATS raided his godown and claimed to have found traces of RDX in soil samples.

The ATS claimed that Mushiullah and Nafis were helping Riyaz Bhatkal, Tariq Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh. This is how Sheikh's name came up in that case. In the affidavit before the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, senior inspector Udaisingh of Kherwadi Police Station said Masiullah and Nafis "repeatedly met Sattar and Mohammad Ali Alam Shaikh @ Aziz who also induced them to encourage to go to Pakistan" and "helped Nafis in getting a passport and helped both the arrested accused get a visa and plane tickets to Dubai".

Final twist

The government decided to hand over the case to the CBI; the ATS hurried to file its own chargesheet. In December 2010, Swami Aseemanand gave a confessional statement indicating that a Hindu terror module was responsible for the Malegaon blast. In April 2011, the NIA started probing the case afresh. On November 16, Masiullah was granted bail and released with six others. Only the two also charged in 7/11 remained in jail.
On December 15, 2012, the NIA arrested Rajender Chaudhary alias Pehelwan from Ujjain in connection with the Samjhauta Express blasts and he reportedly admitted that he and others had planted the Malegaon bombs too. The NIA chargesheet is expected to be filed soon.

NIA [National Investigation Agency] chargesheet to debunk ATS claims | NIA to nail Hindu radicals in Malegaon chargesheet - TNN - THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI, INDIA

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/NIA-to-nail-Hindu-radicals-in-Malegaon-chargesheet/articleshow/20020578.cms

..

Mumbai Print Edition Headline:

NIA [National Investigation Agency] chargesheet to debunk ATS claims

TIMES OF INDIA WEBSITE HEADLINE:
NIA to nail Hindu radicals in Malegaon chargesheet

Mateen Hafeez, TNN | May 13, 2013, 01.08 AM IST

MUMBAI: The country's premier anti-terror agency is set to file a chargesheet against four ultra-right Hindu activists for carrying out the 2006 Malegaon blasts. The National Investigation Agency's (NIA) probe has knocked the bottom off the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad's (ATS) case that members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India ( SIMI) had carried out the attack.

The chargesheet is expected to be filed any time this week. The blasts in the textile town on September 8, 2006, when people had gathered to observe the Shab-e-Baraat, had killed 37 people and injured 297.

The NIA, which started the probe in April 2011 on the Union home ministry's orders, has so far arrested four people — Dhan Singh, Lokesh Sharma, Manohar Singh and Rajendra Chaudhary — for the blasts. Three others, Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangra and Raj Mehul, are wanted in the case. The agency says Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Singh and Kalsangra planted the bombs.

A senior NIA official in Delhi refused to give more details citing the sensitivity of the case. Sharma, who is also an accused in the Samjhauta Express blast in 2007, and Chaudhary were members of the Bajrang Dal.

"There cannot be two sets of accused in one crime," said an NIA officer, adding the agency was examining if there was a larger conspiracy involved. Another officer said the agency might ask the court to dismiss the charges against the nine people arrested by the ATS. All were granted bail in November 2011.

On Friday, the NIA recorded the statement of Mohammed Atif, a prime witness in the case. The ATS had said Atif had witnessed the attackers making the bomb and later hid in the godown of one of the accused. Atif later told a court in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh that he was forced to give the statement.

The NIA says the decision to bomb the textile town was taken by senior members of the right-wing Hindu module, including former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, who was later murdered allegedly by his own accomplices; Kalsangra; and Dange. Kalsangra and Sharma were tasked with the execution, and they asked Chaudhary, Dhan Singh and Manohar Singh to plant the bombs.

The agency says the team first recced Malegaon to identify targets. On the day of the blasts, Sharma drove the team to Malegaon, where Kalsangra gave them the RDX explosive and also clothes to disguise themselves as pious Muslims. Kalsangra accompanied Dhan Singh, Manohar Singh and Chaudhary to place the bombs on bicycles at spots near the Hamidiya mosque at Bada Qabristan where many people had gathered. Sharma then drove them back to Indore.

The ATS — led by then joint commissioner K P Raghuvanshi and DIG Subodh Jaiswal — filed a chargesheet in the case on December 21 the same year. It had taken just 54 days to file the chargesheet; usually it can take up to 180 days in such cases. The Central Bureau of Investigation, after its own probe, had endorsed the ATS findings.

The NIA, set up in 2009, post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, can deal with terror-related crimes without any special permission from state governments. The agency focused on Hindu right-wing groups after a confession by Swami Aseemanand, arrested in the 2007 Hyderabad Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, it told the court last November. The agency has a Rs 10 lakh reward for Kalsangra and Dange.

Malegaon had seen another attack in 2008 allegedly by right-wing Hindu groups. Sadhvi Pragya Singh and former Lt Col Srikant Purohit were later arrested in connection with that attack.
ATS's claims in 2006

* Blasts were carried out by Muslim youths in an attempt to spark communal riots

* The RDX for the bombs came from Pakistan and a Pakistani national, Muzammil, assembled them in Malegaon

* A bomb each was planted by accused Noor-ul-Huda, Raees Ali and Abrar Ahmed

* Zahid Majeed, an imam from Yavatmal, planted a bomb and returned the same day. (About 250 Yavatmal residents filed affidavits, saying Majeed was in the town at the time)

* Shabbir Masiullah, a battery shop owner, was part of the conspiracy. (At the time of the blasts, he was in the custody of the Mumbai crime branch in another case)
NIA claims

* The RDX was procured in India. The explosives were allegedly planted by Dhan Singh, Rajender Chaudhary, Ramji Kalsangra and Manohar Singh. Dhan Singh also connected with the Samjhauta Express and 2008 Malegaon blasts

* Another Samjhauta blast accused, Lokesh Sharma, provided logistical support

* The blasts were plotted by former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange, and others. Kalsangra and Sharma tasked with the execution

* Chaudhary, Dhan Singh and Manohar Singh recced Malegaon to identify the targets
Legal Angle

Prominent criminal lawyer Majeed Memon, who represented several 1993 bomb blast accused in court, said two ideologically diagonally opposite groups cannot be responsible for a particular terror attack. Truth cannot have two faces. "The NIA has to necessarily discharge the earlier set of boys in this case, who were wrongly believed to be involved."

Preventing a new Afghanistan by not creating a vacuum- http://tehelka.com

http://tehelka.com/pushing-bangladesh-to-the-right-of-centre/

Pushing Bangladesh to the Right of Centre

The country is headed for a religious civil war as political crises hit the ceiling

.Shaik Ubaid

Conflicting ideas A face-off between conservatives and atheists, Photo: AP

This past weekend, Bangladesh has moved closer to a civil war. With a population of 150 million, it is the third largest Muslim nation in the world. Due to its strategic location between India, China and Myanmar, any crisis it faces is bound to affect the entire region. If Bangladesh with its Vietnam-like terrain is allowed to destabilise, the consequences will be difficult to contain. Somalia then will look like child’s play and the Afghan problem a minor headache.

Bangladesh came into existence in 1971 with the active intervention of India during a bloody and ruthless civil war between East and West Pakistan. Over 3,00,000 people were killed and tens of thousands of women were raped. This war of independence is deeply embedded in the nation’s collective psyche. The only other instance in recorded history of such a narrative of national victimisation can be seen in Serbia and Armenia, two nations that have held on to the memory of their bloody conflict with the Ottoman Turkey.

When the civil war erupted, it was barely a quarter century since the region of East Bengal (earlier partitioned from West Bengal by the British) had secured independence from the colonial powers and become the eastern wing of Pakistan, the whole breadth of India separating the bifurcated new nation. Millions of Bihari Muslims from the contiguous areas of India had migrated to East Pakistan at the time. In 1970, after years of discrimination of the Bengali Muslims, an overwhelming majority in East Pakistan, rose up against the central (Pakistani) government. The Bihari Muslims wanted no part of the secession. Many Bengali Muslims who were ideologically aligned to Pakistan also refused to join the secession movement but a larger segment of the Bengali Muslim population supported it. In the ensuing disturbance, the Pakistani army unleashed a wave of terror that included mass murder and rapes.

The army used the excuse that they were not only trying to preserve the territorial integrity of Pakistan but were also fighting Bengali terrorists and Indian infiltrators who were killing and raping loyal Biharis. Members of right wing political parties such as Jamat-e-Islami and Muslim League formed armed militias and sided with the federal Pakistani forces.

India had been long hoping for the break-up of its arch rival and wasted no time in supporting the secessionists. Additionally, citing the influx of millions of refugees on its eastern border it invaded East Pakistan, forcing the Pakistani army to surrender after a short war.

Not one of the 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war from that time were ever tried or brought to justice for war crimes. Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, the popular leader of the newly formed Bangladesh, focussed on rebuilding the poor and devastated nation and chose not to pursue those involved in the rapes and murder of Bengalis. The Bihari victims who had sided with the vanquished army bore the brunt of revenge rapes and murders. Countless victims from both sides were thus left to seethe in anger, their wounds raw and their hurts unhealed.

Within four years, the founder of the new nation along with most of his family members was murdered in a coup by the military which claimed that he had imposed a single party tyranny. The military rulers then used Islam to gain legitimacy amongst the shocked population just as General Zia-ul-Haq was to do a few years later in Pakistan.

Thanks to rampant corruption, new divisions based on wealth and class further polarised the country.

But the biggest chasm that went almost unheeded by all was the growing conflict between the traditionalist Muslims and the liberal elite. Bangladesh hosts the second largest religious assembling of Muslims, after the Haj in Mecca. The non-political Tablighi Jamat holds its annual ijtima (gathering) here. A small group of self-declared atheists have long been openly attacking Islam, ignoring the appeals of moderate mainstream atheists and liberals, not to antagonise the non-political traditional Muslim majority.

It is in this volatile context that the current government, facing low approval ratings, chose to politicise the issue of war crimes. Its main aim seemed to deflect criticism of rampant corruption and to decimate the mainstream Islamist party, Jamat-e-Islami, which is aligned to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main Opposition party. The political calculation was that without the backing of Jamat-e-Islami, the BNP will not be able to defeat the ruling Awami League.

Instead of forming an impartial and independent war crimes tribunal, the government constituted a biased tribunal which has been criticised by the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and foreign bar associations. Leaked conversations between the chief judge and outsiders have established that the tribunal was acting like a kangaroo court. The chief judge was forced to resign but the tribunal went ahead and issued death sentences to leaders of Jamat-e-Islami.

Cautioning the government against destabilisation, many countries, including its biggest donors, such as Saudi Arabia and the United States asked it not to adopt a confrontational policy. However, with open support from India, the Bangladesh government rebuffed all such appeals.

As was to be expected, Jamat-e-Islami facing decimation and the BNP facing political isolation, have hit back.

The opportunity to launch the counter campaign was provided by the militant atheists, who in a lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance, initiated vulgar attacks on Islam and Prophet Muhammad. In a Muslim country, this is nothing short of suicidal. The proponents seem to have been carried away by the outpouring of nationalistic fervor unleashed by the belated (and politically motivated) punishment to the “traitors” of the war of independence. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis have been demanding the death penalty for the traitors and war criminals in the Shahbagh Square in the capital Dhaka.

The traditionalists, who as a rule do not support political Islam as represented by the Jamat-e-Islami, were enraged at the “blasphemous attacks” and have mobilised the network of their madrassas. Those that had earlier chosen not to side with the Jamat-e-Islami and BNP have now taken to the streets.

Unfortunately, Bangladeshi Hindus have been caught in the crossfire of this conflagration because of their sympathies for the current government. Many Hindu temples were destroyed.

Unfortunately, the political Left in the country has not responded positively so far. Most of them are unwisely supporting the stand of the Indian security establishment that crushing the Islamists in Bangladesh is in India’s interest. This can, at best, be described as a most short-sighted perspective and at worst, a disastrous one.

The Bangladesh government and the militant atheists miscalculated badly. The government was slow in distancing itself from online vulgar attacks on Islam by the atheist bloggers.

If India does not stop its unconditional support of the Bangladesh government that has acted arrogantly and undemocratically, it will be seen by most Indians as Iran is viewed by most Syrians for its support of the unpopular Assad government.

This past weekend, Bangladesh has erupted in a fury.

After physically being put on the defensive as millions of common Muslims have taken to the streets, the ruling party has launched a media campaign in the West, pointing out to the similarity in the demands between the Bangladeshi traditionalists and the Pakistani Taliban.

The traditionalists have resorted to their own demonisation of “atheists”, a hated term used interchangeably with Marxists, that goes back to the times of the Cold War and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The war between “Talibans” and “atheists” is set to destabilise the whole region.

The world must act before Bangladesh reaches a point of no return. Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina Wajid is known to be stubborn and arrogant. It is imperative that she be brought under pressure by India to seek a solution to the current crisis in the form of an independent war crimes tribunal and a truth and reconciliation commission. The Indian Muslim seminary of Deoband that has considerable influence on the Bangladeshi traditionalists, must be asked to dissuade them from further confrontation. The mainstream liberals, atheists and Marxists in Bangladesh must rein in their militant wing from launching incendiary attacks on Islam.

The window to act is small and getting smaller by the day. Time is of real essence.

letters@tehelka.com

 

(Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 20, Dated 18 May 2013) - See more at: http://tehelka.com/pushing-bangladesh-to-the-right-of-centre/#sthash.ZPdR66O5.dpuf

Anti- Terrorist Squad ex-chief wanted me killed: 7/11 blasts accused - By Swati Deshpande - TNN - The Times of India, Mumbai, India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ATS-ex-chief-wanted-me-killed-7/11-blasts-accused/articleshow/19903276.cms.

ATS ex-chief wanted me killed: 7/11 blasts accused

Swati Deshpande, TNN | May 6, 2013, 12.53 AM IST

MUMBAI: An accused in the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts case informed the special court that former anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi threatened to have him killed in an encounter if he did not admit to involvement in the crime that took the lives of about 200 people.

"Raghuvanshi told me that if I do not admit to the crime, he would have me killed in an encounter as they had killed one person,'' Ehtesham Siddiqui (31) said on Friday in a detailed deposition before special Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) judge Y D Shinde.

Raghuvanshi, however, told TOI that the accused "have been saying many things''. He said he was not fazed by the allegations and added, "We have submitted evidence in court and the court will decide the case based on the evidence.''

Siddiqui, accused of preparing pressure cooker bombs in Govandi, said not only was he never there, but that when he denied knowledge of the blasts, he was tortured at Raghuvanshi's behest. He told the court that after his return from Bangalore to Mumbai, where his underwent a narco-analysis test in which he denied planting any bomb, he was being taken to the Bhoiwada lock-up, when cops escorting him got a call and he was taken to Raghuvanshi's office in Nagpada on September 13, 2006. "He called police inspector Khandekar and then inspector Tajne to his cabin. He told them to get a big rope and tie me, and then to take me to the jungles in Borivli national park, and when I start to run, to shoot me,'' he said.

Siddiqui said Raghuvanshi, the ATS chief then in his first stint, told the cops to give him "special treatment".

Detailing his torture, he said, "I was taken to the detection room at Kalachowkie, where there were handcuffs in four corners. I was handcuffed to one. Sound absorbers were in all corners,'' said Siddiqui, who has been in jail since his arrest in August 2006.

"...Additional commissioner of police Jaijeet Singh, assistant inspector Khanwilkar and other cops came into the room at midnight with a rope and belt. They tied my hands behind my back and made me sit on the floor with legs stretched in front. A constable sat in the chair behind, with a leg entangled in my hands, which were tied. Ropes were tied to my legs with the other ends held by two cops on either side. Two constables started stretching my legs outwards. The additional CP sat on a chair opposite me. He was continuously asking me only one question: Who was behind the blasts? Each time I said I did not know anything, my legs were stretched apart all the way to 180 degrees... the next day I bled when I passed urine. The officer said I would be okay and refused medical help.''

He said, "Raghuvanshi told me to sign some documents and then they would not do anything to me. I refused to sign anything false.'' He said he was then taken to another room. "There was a handcart there. I was tied and the top part of my body lowered. A cloth was put on my face and they started pouring water on my nose and mouth. I had difficultly breathing...''

He said the third degree torture stopped only when deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Naval Bajaj and an officer of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) came. "Bajaj scolded the officers and asked if they wanted to kill me,'' but the next day, he said, the police gave him electric shocks, including on his private parts, after removing all his clothes. They later let drops of water dribble on his head for two hours, resulting in pain, he said.

A few days later, when produced in the Mazgaon court, his face was not unveiled and the magistrate did not ask him anything. He said he did not say anything out of fear.

Siddiqui also said video-recordings of his narco test were edited to remove denials and add morphed admissions. He said on September 29, 2006, the then police chief also told him to admit he was behind the blasts as they planned a press conference.

On October 5, 2006, he was taken to a DCP in Matunga, who asked him his name and address. He then told two officers to torture him that night, and made him sign two pages the next day after officers threatened to involve his father and brother. He said he relented and signed the papers and later two typewritten pages, which a DCP told him was his confession.

His deposition will continue on Monday

Mumbai Train Blasts Accused: We weren't on the trains - By Sukanya Shantha - The Sunday Indian Express, Mumbai, INDIA

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-weren-t-on-the-trains.../1111537/0 We weren’t on the trains... Sukanya Shantha : Sun May 05 2013, 00:31 hrs   After one of the blasts, at Matunga on the Western Line of the Mumbai suburban railway On April 25, a nodal officer from Bharti Airtel walked into the dock to face the defence lawyer in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case. The point of contention was whether the three men who allegedly planted bombs on seven Mumbai trains on the Western Railway Line on July 11, 2006, killing 187 people and leaving over 900 wounded, were present at the spot of the incident. While the prosecution has all along claimed that the three alleged bombers—Ehthesham Kutubuddin Siddiqui, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid alias Abdulla and Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rehman Shaikh—boarded the trains bound to Virar and Borivali from Churchgate station and got off at Dadar, the call data records (CDRs) produced in the special MCOCA court that is hearing the case have drilled holes in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's theory. The records have supported the claims of the accused that they were at their work places or were home when the blasts took place. Though the prosecution has said that the accused did not use their mobile phones during the alleged operation and that they could have left the phones with their family or friends, the defence argued that in that case, it is for the prosecution to probe who had been using these phones. What lends further credence to the defence theory is that two years after the 13 men were arrested and the cases handed over to the ATS, the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police arrested five alleged Indian Mujahideen men and claimed they were responsible for the July 11, 2006, Mumbai blasts. On October, 18, 2008, DCP Vishwas Nagrepatil recorded a confession of Mohammad Sadiq, an alleged IM member, under Section 18 of MCOCA. *** Ehthesham Siddiqui says he had been in Mumbai for only a couple of years, making a living getting books printed for a commission, when he was arrested in August 2006. On the day of the blast, Siddiqui claims to have gone to meet one of his clients at Mira Road. According to a letter he wrote to the trial court in 2006, a claim that was also supported by the CDRs, Siddiqui was at Mira Road throughout the day. But according to the prosecution, the 24-year-old was the Mumbai secretary of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had allegedly harboured Pakistani terrorists in the city. He allegedly surveyed local trains in Mumbai before the blasts, helped assemble bombs and attended conspiracy meetings. One of the bombs exploded at Mira Road station. Siddiqui, now 31, says he filed over 1,500 RTI applications while in prison. Over 400 of these were directly related to the train blast case. "I asked for the minutest of details—date of arrest, place where we were kept, platforms on which the trains had halted. Initially, the replies were vague, today our defence case stands on the information gathered under the Act," says Siddiqui. The soft spoken Siddiqui has regularly sought, and got, answers through RTI applications and through petitions in courts—on the condition of the cramped Anda cell in Arthur Road Jail where he and the other accused are being held, the size of the beds in prison, the "behaviour" of the superintendent who "regularly thrashed" the inmates and many more. Siddiqui, who had a diploma in chemical engineering when he was arrested in 2008, is now studying for his masters in tourism management from Indira Gandhi National Open University. On weekdays, he attends court and on weekends, he goes to K J Somaiya College at Vidyavihar in Central Mumbai for his classes. "Two constables stand guard while I sit through my three-hour class," he says. Siddiqui has played a key role in strengthening the defence's stand. "Earlier, even when we screamed out loud that we were innocent, no one listened to us. Today, we are backing it with evidence," he says. Siddiqui says he always wanted to study further, "but could never pursue it". "I am putting these years in jail to good use. Life in prison can bring out the worst in a person. If the mind if not channeled into doing something constructive, the strongest of men can break down." While Siddiqui had been implicated in two other cases for his alleged SIMI activities, he has been acquitted in one of them. Another case is in its final leg. While in jail, Siddiqui's parents rarely visited him. "But they are supportive. Travelling from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh is difficult, but they know what's happening here." His two younger brothers support his parents back home, he adds. *** Asif Bashir Khan, 40, the 'second bomber', was arrested three months after the blast for allegedly placing a bomb in a 17:37-hour Virar Slow local. The bomb he allegedly planted in the first-class compartment of the train exploded between Mira Road and Bhayander stations. He was arrested on October 3 from Karnataka. The ATS claims he supplied and distributed the RDX which was used in the train blasts and later in the 2006 Malegaon blasts. But the attendance register at Khan's office showed he was at his workplace in Kandivali from morning until 6 pm, something the CDRs of his phone too indicate, says defence lawyer Sharif Shaikh. "I was in my office in Kandivali that day. I signed my muster roll in the morning, worked through the day and left in the evening," says Khan, a civil engineer who worked as a site in-charge with the Lokhandwala Group at the time of his arrest. His claims are supported by the nodal officer of the cellphone company and matches the CDRs furnished in court. "When I set out that day after work, I heard trains were being targeted. I was both sad and worried," he says. "Sad" that innocents were killed and "worried" for his community. "I knew the police would go after Muslims. But I didn't know I would be one of the several Muslims to be rounded up," Khan says. The ATS alleged that Khan masterminded the blasts and harboured Pakistani terrorists at his home in Mira Road. They alleged that he had bought rexine bags, utensils, ammonium nitrate, detonators and helped assemble bombs at his house. What followed the arrest, Khan says, is "deplorable", something even "real bombers" should not be subjected too. "The officers tried every tactic possible to extract a confession from me. I would be stripped naked and beaten by any and every officer handling the case. They threatened to get my family from Jalgaon and abuse me in their presence," Khan says. "It is a systematically executed operation. Muslims are targeted not just by a few communal minds, but an entire system which works on one agenda," he says. Through RTI, Khan was able to trash the testimonies of two of the prosecution witnesses who claimed that they had seen Khan board the train at Churchgate and get off at Dadar. He says it wasn't easy to procure the CDRs. "But this delay in a way proved to be a blessing in disguise. Had the case been wrapped up soon after we were arrested, most of these revelations would not have happened." *** For Faisal Shaikh, 37, 2006 had begun well. Two of his brothers had got jobs in software companies, he had started his new business and was planning to set up a small workshop at Jogeshwari. "My youngest brother Muzzamil had just got a job with Oracle and my other brother, Rahil, had shifted to London. But then, the blasts happened and everything changed overnight," he says, standing in a small passage at the Kala Ghoda sessions court in south Mumbai. ATS claimed Shaikh was chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba's Mumbai unit and worked for Azam Cheema, Lashkar's commander-in-chief (training) in Pakistan. While Shaikh was picked up for planting a bomb which exploded near Jogeshwari station, his brother Muzzamil, then 22 years old, was subsequently arrested for being a 'conspirator'. The chargesheet names Shaikh's other brother, Rahil, as one of the 15 absconding accused. "I was picked up on July 19 but official records show that I was arrested on July 27. The tower readings show how several calls were made from my phone in and around Jacob Circle road," Shaikh says. He is tall and broad built, speaks a distinct Mumbaiyya tongue. Shaikh says life hasn't been the same for his family since the arrest. "Relatives, who earlier said they considered us to be their role models, had suddenly distanced themselves," he says. He says he has made friends with a few policemen in jail. "But when I begin to narrate my story of discrimination and how my family was targeted, they do not want to believe. 'Kuch toh kiya hoga', they say." The CDR revelation, Shaikh says, "has directly questioned the ATS's story. But we hear no noise." He blames the media, too. "They never question the police version. We have to fight our own battles," says Shaikh. TRIAL TRAIL July 20 to October 2, 2006: State ATS arrests 13 Muslim men November 29, 2006: Chargesheet filed and all 13 accused booked under MCOCA and sections of IPC December 18, 2007: Trial commences with the examination of first witness 2008: Accused move Supreme Court, trial stayed. Stay lifted two years later, on April 23, 2010 August 16, 2012: Defence seeks warrant on ATS to trace the CDRs of the seized mobile phones of the accused. This data, with the ATS, was not produced in court. Trial court rejects application December 10, 2012: HC quashes the trial court order March 7, 2013: Three nodal officers quote amount of Rs 34 lakh in court to retrieve the CDRs. Later, Vodafone, Loop, Airtel and Tata Teleservices make the CDRs available free of cost The Retractions Muzamil Jaleel Between July 20, 2006, and October 3, 2006, Mumbai Police's ATS arrested 13 people and claimed to have cracked the case. The ATS claimed that these men had confessed to their crime. In November 2006, all the accused filed written submissions to the court, saying they were made to confess under severe custodial torture. Extracts from the submissions of three of the accused: Ehthesham Siddiqui, Accused No. 4 "On 07.11.2006, my Test Identification Parade was held at Arthur Road Jail's open ground. The witnesses were kept in (a) room inside the jail...I and Mohammed Ali (were) made to stand between 12 dummies. (We had) beards and the other 12 dummies were clean shaven...so we both can be easily identified. I was identified by three witnesses...ATS cell ACP Vinod Bhatt, a respectable ATS officer, met me twice, first time he asked me about myself and my past. When he met me second time, I told him that I am innocent...He said that you are innocent and all other accused are also innocent. I am (under pressure) from superior officers of ATS to falsely implicate you and other accused in the said case. He had named specifically ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi, A N Roy (then Commissioner of Mumbai Police)...Mr Vinod Bhat was a good and honest officer, he had committed suicide but I say that the ATS officers had killed him because he was not cooperating (with) them to falsely implicate us in the case. I was given shock treatment (after getting me to strip)...They used to tie wire on the thumb of (my) leg, then they used to give shock treatment at regular intervals. I was also given shock (treatment) on my private parts at regular intervals...They used to tie me upside down...and my both hands were tied by rope. Then they used to pour water into my nose at regular intervals...They warned me that my brother and father will be also (included) in the bomb blast case if I do not sign on the confessional statement. They also warned that (women) members of my family will be brought and...molested." (Written submission to court on March 9, 2006)

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My comments posted on The New York Time article by Thomas L. Friedman - By Ghulam Muhammed

My comments posted on The New York Time article by Thomas L. Friedman -

Thank you for your submission. We'll notify you at gh***@gmail.com when your comment has been approved.

1. 

   • Ghulam Muhammed
   • Mumbai, India

   
   
   Friedman writes:
   
   "This is a popular meme among radical Muslim groups, and, to be sure, some Muslim youths were deeply angered by the U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The brothers Tsarnaev may have been among them.
   
   But what in God’s name does that have to do with planting a bomb at the Boston Marathon and blowing up innocent people? It is amazing to me how we’ve come to accept this non sequitur and how easily we’ve allowed radical Muslim groups and their apologists to get away with it.
   
   Would he be willing to accept the paraphrasing of his logic to the following:
   
   " Yes, Americans are genuinely angered over 9/11. But what in God's name, what that have to do with US invading and killings hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?"
   
   "Why US is so radicalized. By Friedman's logic, US should have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, not to bomb but to build schools, hospitals for Muslims, so that they may not think US as an enemy. Why bomb innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan? What kind of sick madness is this?"
   
   "Friedman never gave that pacifying advice to Israel, when it matched rockets with rockets against its adversaries. He never told Israel: go build schools, hospitals in Gaza.
   "
   This only proves that even the best brains in America are yet to get their logic straight when it comes to their violence against our violence.
   
   Friedman wants others to do all the pacifying, while the neo-cons are free to carry on with their warmongering. That is fooling people.

-----------
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-judgment-not-included.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Op-Ed Columnist

Judgment Not Included

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan, this month. Innocent Muslims are killed by radical Muslims in the Middle East weekly.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: April 27, 2013 9 Comments

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¶ AS police investigators peel away the layers of the Boston Marathon bombing, there are two aspects of this unfolding story to which I want to react: the mind-set of the alleged bombers and the role of the Internet in shaping it. Important news about both was contained in a single Washington Post article on Tuesday. 

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Josh Haner/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

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¶ “The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews,” The Post reported. The officials said, “Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev ... do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization. Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were ‘self-radicalized’ through Internet sites and U.S. actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the U.S. war in Iraq, which ended in December 2011 with the removal of the last American forces, and the war in Afghanistan.”
¶ This is a popular meme among radical Muslim groups, and, to be sure, some Muslim youths were deeply angered by the U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The brothers Tsarnaev may have been among them.
¶ But what in God’s name does that have to do with planting a bomb at the Boston Marathon and blowing up innocent people? It is amazing to me how we’ve come to accept this non sequitur and how easily we’ve allowed radical Muslim groups and their apologists to get away with it.
¶ A simple question: If you were upset with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, why didn’t you go out and build a school in Afghanistan to strengthen that community or get an advanced degree to strengthen yourself or become a math teacher in the Muslim world to help its people be less vulnerable to foreign powers? Dzhokhar claims the Tsarnaev brothers were so upset by something America did in a third country that they just had to go to Boylston Street and blow up people who had nothing to do with it (some of whom could have been Muslims), and too often we just nod our heads rather than asking: What kind of sick madness is this?
¶ It’s a double non sequitur when it comes from Muslim youths who lived and studied in America, where, if you’re upset about something, you have many ways to express your opposition and have an impact — from organizing demonstrations to publishing articles to running for office. In fact, an American guy named Barack, whose grandfather was a Muslim, did just that. And he’s now president of the United States, a job he’s used to unwind the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
¶ Moreover, some 70,000 people, most of them Muslims, have been killed by other Muslims in the Syrian civil war, which the U.S. had nothing to do with — although many Muslims are now begging us to intervene to stop it. And every week innocent Muslims are blown up by Muslim suicide bombers in Pakistan and Iraq — every week. Thousands of them have been maimed and killed in attacks so nihilistic that the bombers don’t even bother to give their names or make demands. Yet this does not appear to have moved the brothers Tsarnaev one iota.
¶ Why is that? We surely must not tar all of Islam in this. Having lived in the Muslim world, I know how unfair that would be. But we must ask a question only Muslims can answer: What is going on in your community that a critical number of your youth believes that every American military action in the Middle East is intolerable and justifies a violent response, and everything Muslim extremists do to other Muslims is ignorable and calls for mostly silence?
¶ As for the role that Web sites apparently played in the “self-radicalization” of the two Chechen brothers, it is yet another reminder that the Internet is a digital river that carries incredible sources of wisdom and hate along the same current. It’s all there together. And our kids and citizens usually interact with this flow nakedly, with no supervision.
¶ So more people are more directly exposed to more raw information and opinion every day from everywhere. As such, it is more important than ever that we build the internal software, the internal filters, into every citizen to sift out fact from fiction in this electronic torrent, which offers so much information that has never been touched by an editor, a censor or a libel lawyer. That’s why, when the Internet first emerged and you had to connect via a modem, I used to urge that modems sold in America come with a warning label from the surgeon general, like cigarettes. It would read: “Attention: Judgment not included.”
¶ And that’s why the faster, more accessible and ultramodern the Internet becomes, the more all the old-fashioned stuff matters: good judgment, respect for others who are different and basic values of right and wrong. Those you can’t download. They have to be uploaded, the old-fashioned way, by parents around the dinner table, by caring but demanding teachers at school and by responsible spiritual leaders in a church, synagogue, temple or mosque. Somewhere, somehow, that did not happen, or stopped happening, with the brothers Tsarnaev.