tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61555363912552529332024-03-12T18:39:36.981-07:00Jago BanglaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-37130554290120027822013-12-31T15:33:00.003-08:002013-12-31T15:33:59.599-08:00Rizwan Ahmed takes over as UP's first Muslim police chief<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12nyhKajwCL8wehrwsAcIW0sdABYnkQ8uzN8MyCHazD8CUgiY96N_BBC81cL8P2qPDxAuIdNU3MF3kSP43TqRXkqcqOYkpgdeMWqkXG-dZtHHGGfsfMJB1OwNqKom8AEnbNc2r8oIBpM/s1600/Rizwan+Ahmed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12nyhKajwCL8wehrwsAcIW0sdABYnkQ8uzN8MyCHazD8CUgiY96N_BBC81cL8P2qPDxAuIdNU3MF3kSP43TqRXkqcqOYkpgdeMWqkXG-dZtHHGGfsfMJB1OwNqKom8AEnbNc2r8oIBpM/s200/Rizwan+Ahmed.jpg" width="195" /></a> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The New Year in Uttar Pradesh
dawns the advent of the state’s first Muslim director general of police, with
chief minister Akhilesh Yadav naming 1978 batch Indian Police Service officer
Rizwan Ahmed as the new police chief.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ahmad, who was heading the
railway police set up in the state, assumed office of the DGP, in Lucknow on
Tuesday evening, following the retirement of Devraj Nagar, who had taken over
the reins of the state police barely a few months back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ahmad too will superannuate in
the next three months when he turns 60. However, in view of the forthcoming Lok
Sabha elections, there was every possibility of him getting an extension, since
the poll notification would in all likelihood be issued around March 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While Ahmad had been in the race
for the top job over the past few months, he was seen an unlikely choice,
essentially because UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani also happens to be a
Muslim. Going by the traditional logic, successive governments avoided having
the chief secretary and DGP of the same caste or creed. And given the
significance that governments have been giving to caste an religion over merit
or seniority, even Ahmad used to feel that he may not be considered at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, it was
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav who used his veto to handpick
Ahmad, overlooking the claim of other aspirants -- A L Banerjee, Arun Kumar
Gupta and Ranjan Dwivedi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Evidently, Mulayam’s final
decision is understood to have been influenced by his desperation to woo back
Muslims, who were appearing to be terribly disillusioned with the ruling SP
because of the government’s poor handling of the Muzaffarnagar riots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Apart from the communal violence
that took more than 50 lives, most of whom were Muslims, the UP
government was also harsh on those who were rendered homeless and had sought
refuge in relief camps set up for the victims. As many as 34 children died in
the relief camps because of the inadequate arrangement to protect them from the
biting cold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And no sooner than Congress vice
president Rahul Gandhi sneaked into these camps unannounced to highlight the
plight of the victims, the state government not only ordered closure of the
camps, but also uprooted the victims. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mulayam, who was widely seen to
be doing all the backseat driving behind his chief minister son, even went to
the extent of labeling the camp inmates as “conspirators planted there by the
Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Having drawn much flak on account
of these controversies, Mulayam hopes to retrieve his apparently lost Muslim
support with one stroke -- appointing a Muslim as the state’s first Muslim
police chief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:
<a href="http://www.rediff.com/news/report/rizwan-ahmed-takes-over-as-up-first-muslim-police-chief/20131231.htm">http://www.rediff.com/news/report/rizwan-ahmed-takes-over-as-up-first-muslim-police-chief/20131231.htm</a></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-15366534727544541192013-12-22T15:25:00.000-08:002013-12-22T15:25:16.792-08:00Shahriar Kabir’s documentary evidences truest, cruelest nature of Islamic fundamentalism <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlGLUAvK-5KNuHHc5CTts9oIlnShQCOr07R2B95VTVAGdAhR9TojNjPd7fwWhFRWcgIso0kp0jYwimT4PYRnjsR9-m8hznla1MS58M2a7j3TpPq1eB-Oz2-2J-3ZAT6Vy4tXv1ooegEs/s1600/the+ultimate+jihad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlGLUAvK-5KNuHHc5CTts9oIlnShQCOr07R2B95VTVAGdAhR9TojNjPd7fwWhFRWcgIso0kp0jYwimT4PYRnjsR9-m8hznla1MS58M2a7j3TpPq1eB-Oz2-2J-3ZAT6Vy4tXv1ooegEs/s320/the+ultimate+jihad.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The Ultimate
Jihad” – latest documentary of Shahriar Kabir, noted journalist, filmmaker, human
rights activist from Bangladesh and also leader of anti-fundamentalism
struggle, has evoked a good response from the audience in Kolkata who witnessed
it on Saturday, December 21. Terming the rough treatment of Debjani Khobragade,
Indian diplomat stationed in the United States, of late by the indigenous
governance there as a novel American endeavor to caution India, Shahriar Kabir
stated that it was the fallout of a bitter disagreement between India and United
States over the nature of Islamic fundamentalism in the Indian subcontinent. United
States is making all efforts to strengthen Jamaat as the spokesperson of “soft religious
bigotry” against the all-encompassing fundamentalism championed by Talibans – a
notion refuted by India, known to bear burnt of Islamic terrorist attacks
always. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now the
question remains of the authenticity of American analysis of the changing
reality. Kabir prefers to term it as not wrong only but also as the greatest
blunder perpetrated by the “West” hitherto also. On the word of him, whether it is Turkey or Iran,
from Baluchistan in Pakistan sharing international border with Afghanistan to Darul
Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh or even New Delhi or Hyderabad or Lahore or Karachi,
there is no difference between Islamic fundamentalist notions – there is
nothing as soft or hard, modern or mediaeval, and at the end of the day, it is
nothing but anti-non-Muslim hatred that reigns fundamentalists altogether. </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><em><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-style: normal;">Jamaat</span></em><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">-<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">e</span></em>-<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Islami</span></em></span><span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> in Bangladesh
happens to be the branch of an international parental organization and in this
context it is akin to Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt or Syria and Taliban in both
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jamaat also enjoys the support of Al-Qaeda, it is
worth mentioning. Truly, Jammat cadres are opting for western dress in Bangladesh
these days but it is to hoodwink commoners to conduct their divisive jobs both
overtly and covertly. The documentary states with conviction how any insensate
job is done to flex the invincibility of Islamic fundamentalism and each such job
earns patronage through millions of petro-dollar from Arabia. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">According
to him, prior to the advent of Sheikh Hasina 159 anti-India terrorist camps
used to exist in bangladesh. Those were under the direct supervision of
Pakistani brains and became the main basis to operate terrorism in India. Hasina
has devastated all these and all these have been included in Kabir’s in his
latest documentary “The Ultimate Jihad.” The documentary also contains interviews
of a Muslim youth (used by ISI in Pakistan as a pawn for terrorism) and Hafiz
Sayed, infamous terrorist leader in Pakistan. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="hp"><span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1f117JXKL3cwuV9ml9GxnQyWAX0ha4fDnVsJ4BSG8bVxayLkl2NdwIu-NBVc5Qpgg-wkqJYts0dWAROKB0iyqg6c96VKGwOAgsdB9VXkrsSt3dMWOupSgWY2UT9t-KAuIZ_RtE9TvonQ/s1600/jamaat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1f117JXKL3cwuV9ml9GxnQyWAX0ha4fDnVsJ4BSG8bVxayLkl2NdwIu-NBVc5Qpgg-wkqJYts0dWAROKB0iyqg6c96VKGwOAgsdB9VXkrsSt3dMWOupSgWY2UT9t-KAuIZ_RtE9TvonQ/s320/jamaat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="hp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
documentary also contains the testimony of Irfan Ara, Saudi terrorist, that Rs.
65, 000 crores has been given to Islamic fundamentalists in South-East Asia. He
also said that deployment of army remains the only way to save Hindus in
Bangladesh. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-86891376442478668642013-10-01T14:29:00.001-07:002013-10-01T14:29:19.053-07:00Moorabia or Eurabia only; no Europe anymore <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This
starling report may turn up to be an eye-opening account to liberal, western-educated
Indians considering the whole of Europe as halcyon, cornerstone of a belief
that helped it to replace the Age of Faith with the Age of Reason. The reality,
at this point in time, there is just the opposite and to the spate of entrance
of Muslim immigrants, enjoying financial support from the state as well, Europe
is on the verge of surrender. None knows what will happen within a few years
from now but it’s definite that the surge of Islamic fundamentalism across the
globe will smash the age-old culture of Europe permanently. It will be known to
the posterity as a continent where Burqa replace the coveted women’s liberalism
silently but steadily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What
will be the name of this new continent bearing witness to Islamic triumph? Eurabia
has already become cliché. How do you find the word Moorabia to worship bloody
conquests and thus rape of humanity by Moors in ancient Europe? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
Extermination of Whites in Europe: “We Are the Last 3 German Children in Our
School.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There
are now only three German children left in the Jens-Nydahl-Grundschule in
Kreuzberg, Berlin—a shocking demonstration of how Europe is being ethnically
cleansed by Third World immigration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A
story in the <em>Bild</em> magazine on the development was
headlined: “We are the last 3 German children in our German school. The
rest are Muslims.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Kreuzberg
in Berlin has long been a destination for Turkish immigration into the German
capital, and now the inevitable point has been reached where Germans have been
ethnically cleansed from that part of the city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In
the playground Talina (11), Svenja (11) and Jason (9) can’t understand a word.
Because, here, their classmates only speak Turkish and Arabic, the Bild article
continued.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here
99 percent of the 313 pupils have an immigrant (Muslim) background. For 285 of
those, the parents receive financial support from the state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Talina
is in the 6th year. “When she first went to school, she could read and write
her first words. Her fellow pupils couldn’t say ‘Thank you’, ‘Please’ or ‘Good
morning’,” says her mother Mara M. (45).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
German children are teased about being ‘pork eaters’. Her classmate Svenja: “I
wish there were more pupils who could speak my language.” Jason’s mother says:
“It’s not good that there are so few German children at the school.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A
teacher was quoted by Bild as saying: “We have tried in vain to get Germans in
the school. Now we’re concentrating on the clientele that we have. In the
canteen, there is no more pork.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Kreuzberg
is now the largest Turkish city outside of Turkey and is known as “Kleine
Istanbul” (Little Istanbul).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">According
to Berlin government statistics, 90 percent of the inhabitants of certain areas
of Kreuzberg live below the poverty level and subsist on taxpayer
handouts—making a mockery of the liberal claim that immigration into Europe is
needed to “keep the pension system and economy running.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[Google-translator]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="hp"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Link: </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://newobserveronline.com/the-extermination-of-whites-in-europe-we-are-the-last-3-german-children-in-our-school/">http://newobserveronline.com/the-extermination-of-whites-in-europe-we-are-the-last-3-german-children-in-our-school/</a></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-68783553443819583392013-09-12T14:01:00.000-07:002013-09-12T14:01:23.891-07:00Gogoi demands refugee status for Bengali Hindus in Assam!! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vote
plays an imperative role in democracy as it is defined as a political system in
which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent
them. But the way Indian politicians stoop in hours of need and pamper people
shames the witnesses even. Latest to join this bandwagon is Tarun Gogoi,
reigning Chief Minister of the Indian state of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Assam</st1:place></st1:country-region> and what makes this article jest
at him is his sudden concern for Bengali Hindus in his state. This is not the
first time when the presence of Bengali Hindus is found there; these people,
victims of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh, have been entering the state steadily
ever since 1971 and have suffered in all possible manners due to the apathetic
state and central administration. None have thought of them and now when the
parliamentary election is round the corner these unfortunate people have become
greatest cause of concern. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">See below:
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Political bid: <st1:country-region w:st="on">Assam</st1:country-region> CM Tarun Gogoi seeks refugee tag for
Hindus from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Assam</st1:country-region> Chief Minister<span class="apple-converted-space"> Tarun Gogoi </span>has said that he will
seek refugee status for people who migrated to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>
from<span class="apple-converted-space"> <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> </span>following
persecutions. "This will mean a central law for those who were forced to
leave their homes. It will be on the lines of political asylum," Gogoi
said on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Traditionally, Bengali Hindus in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Assam</st1:place></st1:country-region> are believed to be BJP<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>supporter. However, in the 2011
assembly polls, there was a distinct shift towards Congress. For the first time
in Barak valley, Congress<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>won 13
out of 15 assembly constituencies. This was seen as the result of Gogoi's
support for the cause of immigrants who had arrived in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> due to
persecution. He had said that they should be given refugee status on
humanitarian grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Gogoi said that his proposal will in no way violate the provisions
of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Assam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
accord. Under <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Assam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
accord, March 25, 1971, is the cutoff date for treating someone as a foreigner.
Congress in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Assam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is confident of winning more seats in the Lok Sabha polls than last time. It
had won seven seats out of 14 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Assam</st1:country-region></st1:place> in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Taunting BJP's presumptive prime ministerial candidate Narendra
Modi, Gogoi alleged that he was a capitalist. "Big companies were given
concessions in <st1:place w:st="on">Gujarat</st1:place>. That is why he is
their darling. Ambanis and Tatas are backing Modi. Even businessmen of Fancy
Bazar (business hub of Guwahati city) are backing BJP."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Tarun Gogoi has said he personally favors Rahul Gandhi<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>as Congress' PM candidate for 2014 Lok
Sabha polls, echoing PM Manmohan Singh's statement that the party VP will be an
'ideal choice' for the top post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Manmohan Singh himself does not want to be the Prime
Minister next time...I support Rahul Gandhi to become the Prime Minister. I am
saying it openly and formally," Gogoi said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On whether the 2014 election will be a fight between Rahul and
Narendra Modi, he said, "Fight is not between individuals, it will be
between Congress and BJP. The fight will take place between the
leaderships."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="hp">Link: </span><a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-09-11/news/41971540_1_refugee-status-congress-and-bjp-assam-accord">http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-09-11/news/41971540_1_refugee-status-congress-and-bjp-assam-accord</a><span class="hp"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4jiTUKzBV0sKiBiY-ccMwPCmSkvhopvZXlTNfgMEnzYkn3WRNKpc8f9xlZbfjd7tQyqZysxtvlD8NyaQXEX5GY2NTNfuU-tWxx5am0q0KGykZaSqvNJxVxZRZwitvlde3mJF5i_gyQ9U/s1600/tarun-gogoi-660_092612103049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4jiTUKzBV0sKiBiY-ccMwPCmSkvhopvZXlTNfgMEnzYkn3WRNKpc8f9xlZbfjd7tQyqZysxtvlD8NyaQXEX5GY2NTNfuU-tWxx5am0q0KGykZaSqvNJxVxZRZwitvlde3mJF5i_gyQ9U/s320/tarun-gogoi-660_092612103049.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">(Tarun Gogoi)</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-31765666208430191682013-07-26T03:19:00.000-07:002013-07-26T03:20:44.793-07:00Mecca Clock Tower Photo Shows Kaaba In The Shadow Of Abraj Al-Bait Building<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Masjid Al-Haram is an iconic image for
millions of Muslims who dream of making the once-in-a-lifetime<span class="apple-converted-space"> Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">but its silhouette has been drastically altered by the
luxury hotel and clock tower that now overshadows the religious complex.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Kaaba once took center stage, but now it appears as a minute
structure at the foot of a clock tower and hotel, which opened in 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Abraj</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Al-Bait</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Towers</st1:placetype></st1:place>
loom over the Masjid Al-Haram in an ostentatious show of luxury that stands in
stark contrast to the piety and history symbolized by the Kaaba, a cube-shaped
structure believed by Muslims to have been originally built by the prophet
Abraham and his son Ishmael.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Muslims around the world unite in prayer by facing in the
direction of the Kaaba, which is one of Islam's holiest sites.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, the religious monument is completely dwarfed by the <st1:placename w:st="on">Al-Bait</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Towers</st1:placetype>,
with the clock tower holding the title of the world's second tallest building after <st1:place w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place>'s Burj Khalifa.
International outcry broke out after the<span class="apple-converted-space"> Saudi government demolished the historic Ajyad Fortress, </span>an 18th-century Ottoman citadel, to
make way for the Towers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset,
is meant to evoke feelings of religious devotion and self-discipline, reminding
believers of the importance of charity and the reality of hunger, but in recent
years it has become a big business opportunity for retailers which threatens to
overwhelm the meaning of the holy month.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hopefully the comparative size of the mosque and the towers isn't
a comment on the overall significance of the structures in the hearts of the
visitors to <st1:place w:st="on">Mecca</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Courtesy: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/kaaba-photo-mecca-clock-tower-hajj_n_3599870.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/kaaba-photo-mecca-clock-tower-hajj_n_3599870.html</a></span></span></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEb6mdwMUl062GBT8m2dmCtcJq1Jtg7j4NYPBRYMk519KUcoxaT9IflJ0dVI7RZEpLfanjMdPhZVbanr3JLHA054lc6a7tcONJMjYi_kkqY6VpmD-HyTxNHa3vpSn_FWQgjwaSWjy2mXw/s1600/Mecca+Clock+Tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEb6mdwMUl062GBT8m2dmCtcJq1Jtg7j4NYPBRYMk519KUcoxaT9IflJ0dVI7RZEpLfanjMdPhZVbanr3JLHA054lc6a7tcONJMjYi_kkqY6VpmD-HyTxNHa3vpSn_FWQgjwaSWjy2mXw/s400/Mecca+Clock+Tower.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-54298221532357518842013-07-24T06:49:00.000-07:002013-07-24T06:49:30.743-07:00Who will condemn Muslims now for destroying their own historic sites?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lots of pandemonium, series of
outcries and everything enough to denounce any individual or ideology in public
began with the demolition of Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in 1992 and the same trend
has been ceaseless in the last two decades. While one group of secularists term
Hindus as both lunatics and criminals, other group is ever ready to banish Hindus
from India apart from terming them as brazen goons. But none speaks of one
thing ever – restoration of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya has been a demand of
Hindus for more than centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What do they say if the same is
done by Muslims? Either they will be found to shrug or will disappear from
before you. Islamic government in Saudi Arabia is recklessly determined to destruct
holy and also historic sites related to Islam and its evolution. But both the
global Islamic world and also Muslims in India prefer to suppress this cruel
reality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Go through
the following article to know more: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.75pt;">Saudi
destruction of holy and historical sites<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>We have rendered the shrine (the
Kaaba) a focal point for the people, and a safe sanctuary. You may use
Abraham’s shrine as a prayer house. We commissioned Abraham and Ishmael: “You
shall purify My house for those who visit, those who live there, and those who
bow and prostrate.” … And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations
of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou,
only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower</em><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. (2:125-127)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 2006 we published an <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fsaudi_royals_destroying_home_of_muhammad%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">article</span></a> about the planned Saudi destruction of the home
of Prophet Muhammad, and another about the <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fdemolition_of_islams_historical_sites%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">destruction</span></a> of Islam’s historic sites by the Saudi’s over
the past 50 years..<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The current issue of Islamica magazine
- <b>the best Islamic print periodical available in English </b>- has
a series of articles on the Saudi destruction of Muslim historical sites, and
the need for preservation of remaining sites in Saudi and elsewhere. (The
Saudi <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rferl.org%2Fspecials%2Fyugoslavia%2Fmonuments%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">“repair”</span></a> projects in Bosnia are also a lesson in
destruction of Muslim history.) Anyone who can should check with their local
news stand to see if this issue is still available, or better yet, get a
subscription to Islamica if you don’t already have one. <i>Editors
note: Islamica Magazine stopped publishing in 2009, and many articles are
no longer available online except for those that were reprinted on other
sites. In 2010 they set up a site to archive old articles and will work
towards getting all the old articles online. Here are those on this topic
that are now online: <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fislamicamagazine.com%2F%3Fp%3D424" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The destruction of the holy sites in Mecca and Medina</span></a>, Irfan
Ahmed -<a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fislamicamagazine.com%2F%3Fp%3D422" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The birth and immanent death of a sacred Meccan site</span></a>, Shafiq
Morton - <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fislamicamagazine.com%2F%3Fp%3D390" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Memorializing the sacred in the Islamic civilization context</span></a>,
Yousef Waleed Meri<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Ottomans did an excellent job in their
centuries as custodians and protected and documented <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.muslimedia.com%2Farchives%2Ffeatures04%2Fsaud-desec.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">historic sites</span></a>, and now their meticulous care is being
reversed in a short time. In fact, the Saudi’s <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAjyad_Fortress" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">are also destroying</span></a> Ottomon history. For example,
the Ajyad Fortress (Turkish: Ecyad Kalesi) was an Ottoman fort built in Mecca,
in what is now Saudi Arabia, in the late 18th century. It was destroyed by the
Saudi government in 2002 for commercial development, sparking a global outcry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">History is being erased in order to <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.islamicpluralism.org%2Fnews%2F2005n%2Fangawimakkah.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">accommodate</span></a> ever increasing numbers of pilgrims.
Over <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fnaeemjeenah.shams.za.org%2FLastMomentsofMakkah.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">300 sites</span></a> have been <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.findarticles.com%2Fp%2Farticles%2Fmi_m0PAL%2Fis_524_162%2Fai_n15947643" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">destroyed</span></a> in the last 50 years. <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pakistanlink.com%2Fmahjabeen%2F09022005.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">95% of the sites</span></a> in Mecca have been destroyed. As
few as 20 structures are <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.muslimparliament.org.uk%2FMecca.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">left</span></a> that date back to the time of the Prophet. It
would seem that at this rate there won’t be much for those like Congressman
Tancredo who suggested Nuking Mecca to destroy. Muslim <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jafariyanews.com%2F2k5_news%2Fsep%2F5prophethome_destruction.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">silence</span></a> over the destruction is shocking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Mecca conference in 2005 that <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fviewstory.asp%3FPage%3D%255CCulture%255Carchive%255C200512%255CCUL20051229b.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">criticized</span></a> Israeli destruction of historic sites, and the
Saudi protest of the destruction of the <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mindanews.com%2F2005%2F09%2F29vws-mangansakan.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Babri Mosque</span></a> in Ayodhya, India would seem hypocritical.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The site where the Prophet grew up has
already been demolished, a <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.al-islam.org%2Fgallery%2Fphotos%2Fbrthplac.gif" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">library</span></a> has now been built over the house where the
Prophet was born and now there are plans to demolish <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aim.org%2Fmedia_monitor%2FA2503_0_2_0_C%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">that</span></a> to build skyscrapers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Five of the renowned “Seven Mosques”
initially built by Prophet Muhammad’s daughter and four of his “greatest
Companions”: Masjid Abu Bakr, Masjid Salman al-Farsi, Masjid Umar ibn
al-Khattab, Masjid Sayyida Fatima bint Rasulillah and Masjid Ali ibn Abi Talib
have been <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aim.org%2Fmedia_monitor%2FA2503_0_2_0_C%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">demolished</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Saudi’s have announced an <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arabnews.com%2F%3Fpage%3D1%26section%3D0%26article%3D56929%26d%3D2%26m%3D1%26y%3D2005" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">award</span></a> — called “Prince Sultan ibn Salman Award for
Architectural Heritage” — which will be presented in three fields — research
related to architectural heritage, use of architectural heritage in new designs
and heritage restoration and rehabilitation. However, by the time anyone
might win such an award what will be left to protect?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">What we can do is at least protest any
further destruction. We can <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saudiembassy.net%2FEmbassy%2FMinistry.asp" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">contact</span></a> the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC or the Saudi
Arabian Cultural Mission and ask them to preserve Islam’s historical
sites. I am grateful that I was able to <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fhajj_experience" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">experience Hajj</span></a> before this destruction began to speed
up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>UPDATE February 2008</strong></div>
</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">We have just published <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fdestruction_of_islamic_architectural_heritage_in_saudi_arabia_a_wake_up_cal%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Destruction of Islamic Architectural Heritage in Saudi Arabia: A Wake-up
Call</span></a>by Saeed Shehabi in which he notes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… The extremism of today’s Salafi
movement has become a force of annihilation, which spares no one in its drive
to dominate the Muslim world. It is closely linked to the Wahhabi movement
founded by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al Wahab (1703–1792 AC). His aim was to purify
Islam by returning all Muslims to what he believed were its original principles
as typified by al Salaf al Şalihīn (the earliest converts to Islam). He
rejected what he regarded as corruption introduced by bid‘a (innovation,
reformation) and shirk (idolatry). During his lifetime, he denounced the
practices of various sects of Sufism as heretical and unorthodox, such as their
veneration of saints. Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al Wahab revived interest in the works
of an earlier scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah (661–728AH/1263–1328AC), and his disciple,
Ibn al Jawziyyah (d. 1350 AC). … The Arabian Peninsula became the
launching pad for the new politico-religious trend. This led to the destruction
of more than 90 per cent of Islamic monuments, holy places, tombs and
mausoleums. Anything that had symbolic significance unrelated to the Wahhabi
school of thought was deemed “polytheistic” and faced destruction. In 1924,
‘Abd al ‘Aziz ibn Sa‘ud and his troops occupied Makkah in the region of Hejaz.
Among their first actions was the destruction of al Mu’alla graveyard, which
contained the grave of Khadijah, Prophet Muhammad’s wife, and that of his
uncle, Abu Talib. Two years later, in 1926, Ibn Sa‘ud occupied Madinah and
demolished the tombed mausoleum over the graves of several of Prophet
Muhammad’s descendants, including those of his daughter, Fatimah, and his
grandson, Hassan ibn ‘Ali. Since no tangible resistance to their heinous
actions was mounted by Muslims, they went even further and demolished the
famous Seven Mosques of Salman al Farisi, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, Fatimah, ‘Ali, al
Qiblatayn and al Fath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">UPDATE November 2010<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A new 485-metre-high Mecca clocktower has
been built. Some highlights about the project of which the clocktower is
a part from an excellent <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fworld%2F2010%2Fnov%2F14%2Fmecca-hajj-saudi-arabia" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Guardian article</span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">— The clocktower is part of a project that
buckles under the weight of its own statistics. Abraj al-Bait, a complex of
luxury hotels, malls and apartments, has an estimated value of $3bn (£1.86bn),
a built-up area of 1.4m sq metres, 15,000 housing units and 70,000 sq metres of
retail space.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">— The level of pampering offered by some of
the hotels – Asprey toiletries, 24-hour butler service, $270 chocolate
selections – may jar with the ethos of sacrifice, simplicity and humility of
hajj but it is not a contradiction felt by the customers snapping up royal
suites at $5,880 a night, eating gelato or milling around hangar-like lobbies
of polished marble in their Hajj clothing of bedsheets, towels or burqas.
Raffles is reporting 100% occupancy for it 211 rooms.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">— The view from al-Bait reveals the physical
impact of this soaring ambition. All around the Grand Mosque and the Ka’bah,
which are overshadowed by cranes and skyscrapers, construction continues at a
frenzied pace. Mountains have been razed to make way for towers– a pile ‘em
high and sell ‘em high approach to hospitality – and homes demolished.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">— The mountains of Mecca – Omar, Kaabah,
Khandama – will no longer exist. The Shamiya district has all but disappeared.
From the terrace of al-Bait to street level there is a stench of machine oil
and cement that mingles with the more familiar odours of hajj – sweat, hardship
and flipflops.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">UPDATE 9/23/2011<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">An article <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2Fmecca-for-the-rich-islams-holiest-site-turning-into-vegas-2360114.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Mecca for the rich: Islam’s holiest site ‘turning into Vegas’</span></a> was
just published by the Independent in Britain. According to this article<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">But critics fear that the desire to expand
the pilgrimage sites has allowed the authorities to ride roughshod over the
area’s cultural heritage. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95
per cent of Mecca’s millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past
two decades alone.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The destruction has been aided by Wahabism,
the austere interpretation of Islam that has served as the kingdom’s official
religion ever since the al-Sauds rose to power across the Arabian Peninsula in
the 19th century.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the eyes of Wahabis, historical sites and
shrines encourage “shirq” – the sin of idolatry or polytheism – and should be
destroyed. When the al-Saud tribes swept through Mecca in the 1920s, the first
thing they did was lay waste to cemeteries holding many of Islam’s important
figures. They have been destroying the country’s heritage ever since. Of the
three sites the Saudis have allowed the UN to designate World Heritage Sites,
none are related to Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The article lists a number of sites that have
been destroyed or are in danger of being destroyed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Independent has <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F00650%2FPg-32-meccagraphic_650644a.jpg" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">a very interesting photograph</span></a> with notes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>UPDATE November 2012</b></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">It seems that the Saudi’s are not offended by
some “cultural icons”. Paris Hilton is opening a store in Mecca.
Here are a few articles on this development: — <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2012%2F11%2F19%2Fparis-hilton-mecca-holy-city-store-saudi-arabia-offends_n_2160504.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Paris Hilton Store In Holy City Of Mecca Sparks Outrage</span></a> — <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2012%2F11%2F20%2Fworld%2Fmeast%2Fparis-hilton-store-mecca" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Paris Hilton whips up a storm in holy Mecca</span></a> — <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Farticle%2Findex%2F236668%2F3-reasons-paris-hiltons-mecca-boutique-is-a-really-really-bad-idea" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">3 reasons Paris Hilton’s Mecca boutique is a really, really bad idea</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Omid Safi comments on this commercialization
of Mecca <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fislamicommentary.org%2F2012%2F11%2Fomid-safi-saudis-say-no-to-the-prophet-muhammad-yes-to-paris-hilton%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Saudis say No to the Prophet Muhammad, Yes to Paris Hilton</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">“More and more people are speaking out
against the Saudi regime, and the way in which its Wahhabi ideology has linked
together an utter disregard for the historical heritage of Muslims with an
unabashed embrace of vapid capitalism. In both Mecca and Medina, the Saudi
state has already bulldozed over 90% of the Islamic monuments going back some
1400 years. In their place, they are putting up five star hotels, parking lots,
and shopping malls.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… So this is what it has come to. The so-called
“Guardians of the two sanctuaries” bulldoze Islamic history, tear down the
houses associated with the Prophet and his family, and in its place put up
shopping malls by vapid symbols of the most crass capitalistic materialism the
world has to offer. No wonder many are talking about the transformation of
Mecca into another Las Vegas.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… Furthermore, in place of these historical
monuments, many of which hold a sacred significance to all Muslims outside of
the Wahhabi sect, the Saudi state is building five star hotels that cost as
much as $7,000 a night. In other words, these policies are not only bulldozing
the history of Islam, they are also subverting the radical egalitarian
teachings of Islam most beautifully symbolized in the rich and poor standing
shoulder to shoulder wearing simple unadorned clothing in the House of the One
God. Now the poor teeming masses are below, and the ultra-rich can reside in
their 5-star suites looking down at the Ka’ba. Lastly, these absurd towers even
displace the very symbolism and centrality of the Ka’ba.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Saudis make a great deal of their
honorific as the “Caretaker of the two Noble Sanctuaries” in Mecca and Medina.
One has to wonder about a kind of Care that says no to the legacy of Muhammad,
bulldozes it, and invites Paris Hilton in its place. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">UPDATE 1/28/2012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A 35-minute video has been put online <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DB1vbN-rfTLk%26sns%3Dfb" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Wahabi Destruction Of Makkah’s Historical Places</span></a> which
gives a great deal of information. And, another 9 minute video <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2F%E2%80%8Bwatch%3Fv%3Dszb3q8WfDBI" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Vandalization of the Holy Places</span></a> also on YouTube.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shehnaz Kermali has written <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fcommentisfree%2F2012%2Fjan%2F27%2Fhajj-exhibition-saudi-cultural-vandalism%3Ffb%3DoptOut" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">an excellent article</span></a> about the fact that the Saudi elite
are proud of the British Museum’s current Hajj exhibition, and notes that “it’s
a shame they don’t feel the same about all their heritage”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>UPDATE 11/20/2012</strong></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">It has been reported that the <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Frt.com%2Fnews%2Fsaudi-arabia-prophet-mosque-615%2F" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Saudi’s plan to raze Prophet Mohammed’s tomb to build larger mosque</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The key Islamic heritage site, including
Prophet Mohammed’s shrine, is to be bulldozed, as Saudi Arabia plans a $ 6
billion expansion of Medina’s holy Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque. However, Muslims
remain silent on the possible destruction. Work on the Masjid an-Nabawi
in Medina, is planned to start as soon as the annual Hajj pilgrimage comes to a
close at the end of November.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… Concerns are growing that the
expansion of Masjid an-Nabawi will come at the price of three of the world’s
oldest mosques nearby, which hold the tombs of Prophet Mohammed and two of his closest
companions, Abu Bakr and Umar. The expansion project which will cost 25 billion
SAR (more than US $6 billion) reportedly requires razing holy sites, as old as
the seventh century.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>UPDATE
3/30/2013<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2Fthe-photos-saudi-arabia-doesnt-want-seen--and-proof-islams-most-holy-relics-are-being-demolished-in-mecca-8536968.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The photos Saudi Arabia doesn’t want seen – and proof Islam’s most holy
relics are being demolished in Mecca</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun
dismantling some of the oldest sections of Islam’s most important mosque as
part of a highly controversial multi-billion pound expansion. Photographs
obtained by The Independent reveal how workers with drills and mechanical
diggers have started demolishing some Ottoman and Abbasid sections on the
eastern side of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">… But such a transformation has come at
a cost. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of
Mecca’s millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades
alone. Dozens of key historical sites dating back to the birth of Islam have
already been lost and there is a scramble among archaeologists and academics to
try and encourage the authorities to preserve what little remains. Many
senior Wahabis are vehemently against the preservation of historical Islamic
sites that are linked to the prophet because they believe it encourages shirq –
the sin of idol worshipping. But Dr Irfan al-Alawi, executive director of
the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation which obtained the new photographs
from inside the Grand Mosque, says the removal of the Ottoman and Abbasid
columns will leave future generations of Muslims ignorant of their
significance. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>What
has changed?<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In <strong>Saudi Arabia</strong>, Muslim
historic sites, graveyards, mosques, etc. stood for centuries (some from the
earliest days of Islam in the 6th century) and were protected by the Ottomans
and previous generations. Under the Saudi’s these sites are being
destroyed. The Saudi’s began destroying historical sites as soon as they
came to power in 1806, but were stopped by the Ottomans who even attempted to
restore some of the sites. The Saudi’s did not get an opportunity to
continue with their destruction until after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in
the early 20th century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>What
changed between the 6th century and the 20th/21st centuries?<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>The
destruction of Islamic cultural heritage has gone far beyond Saudi Arabia.<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Buddhas of Bamiyan stood in the
Bamyan valley of Afghanistan since the 5th century AD. Islam came to this
area between the 7th and 9th centuries AD. There was some damage done to the
statues over the centuries, blamed on various individual kings &
emperors. But the statues stood for 1,000 years in a predominantly Muslim
country. The Taliban commander responsible for destroying the statues in
2001 was prevented from doing so for some years by local authorities, and even
by Mullah Mohammed Omar. The Guardian <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20060228113747%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2FArchive%2FArticle%2F0%2C4273%2C4145138%2C00.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">reported</span></a> “But the Taliban then decided to take a more
pragmatic view of Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic past. In July 1999 Mullah Omar
issued a decree that said the Bamiyan buddhas should be preserved. There were,
he pointed out, no Buddhists left in Afghanistan to worship them. But he added:
“The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential
major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban
states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Taliban destruction of the Buddhas of
Bamiyan which <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Famerican-muslims-issue-statement-against-taliban-destruction-of-buddhist-st" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">was condemned</span></a> by most Muslims at the time it
happened. This passage from an American Muslim condemnation of this act
expresses the shock that such a thing could have happened:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The statues in Afghanistan are its historic
treasures. These statues have existed in Afghanistan long before Afghans became
Muslims. No Afghan Muslim government in the past tried to destroy them.
They represent the past history of Afghanistan and its transformation into a
Muslim community that recognized monotheism. Past generations and governments
of Afghanistan did not destroy these images and yet Islam flourished in
Afghanistan. In many other countries where Muslims are a majority, and
have ruled those lands for centuries, they did not destroy the religious
symbols of other people. Such images and symbols of the past still exist in
almost all Muslim countries.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>What
changed between the 9th century and the 20th/21st centuries?<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In <strong>Libya</strong>, the graves of
scholars and Sufi saints have stood since the 15th century. In 2012
extremists began destroying these graves. In <strong>Timbuktu, Mali,</strong> hundreds
of thousands of manuscripts have been lovingly maintained in its libraries
since the 14th century. In the 20th century hardline extremists attempted
to destroy many of these manuscripts. They set fire to some libraries,
and also smashed graves and shrines. In <strong>Tunisia</strong>,
extremists have attacked almost 40 Sufi shrines in the past few years.
In <strong>Somalia</strong>,<strong> Iraq</strong>, and <strong>Pakistan</strong>,
extremists are attacking Sufi shrines regularly. In<strong>Bosnia</strong>,
Saudi Arabia has <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.angelfire.com%2Far%2Frawdah%2F03buldoz.htm" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">offered to help restore</span></a> mosques and historical sites
damaged during the war. Instead, under the pretense of helping restore
them, they have been destroyed and rebuilt. Old Ottoman era
cemeteries and Sufi shrines have been razed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>What
changed between the 15th century and the 20th/21st centuries?<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In <strong>Egypt, Malaysia, Kenya</strong>,
extremists are targeting Sufi shrines regularly. Extremists are attacking
minority communities, including Shia, Ahmadi, Christians, Sikhs, Sufis,
etc. Even in countries where communities have lived together in relative
peace for centuries, there is now a lack of tolerance, and even violence
towards minorities. In Pakistan, whose “Quaidi Azam” or great leader and
founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was a Shia, the Shia are now undergoing
intense persecution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>What
changed in the 20th/21st centuries?<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Something new and destructive became a force
within many Muslim communities. Certainly, colonialism and the many
destructive legacies of colonialism have had a negative impact. The
formation of the State of Israel by decree of former colonial powers and without
taking into consideration the rights of the existing local community had a
profound effect on not only the Middle East, but on the world. The
collapse of the Ottoman Empire also had a negative impact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">All of these are important – but one negative
force is rarely mentioned. That is the rise of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia,
followed by the discovery of vast oil resources making the Saudi’s extremely
wealthy. This allowed them to use those vast resources to spread their
particular interpretation of Islam around the world. The destructive
impulse has spread around the world wherever Wahhabi teachings have gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saudi Arabia funded madrassas that produced
the Taliban and many other extremist groups. They spread their ideology
through sending Imams around the globe. They provided their own “revised”
translations of the Qur’an, as well as “new” translations that provide only an
extreme interpretation in line with their interpretation. We saw this
right in the U.S. with the <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fbook_review_on_the_new_revised_edition_of_yusuf_alis_quran_translation" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">“revised” Yusuf Ali</span></a>, and the <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanmuslim.org%2Ftam.php%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2Fthrough_the_looking_glass_hilali_khan_quran_translation" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Hilali-Khan</span></a> translations that were given away free by the
case to mosques across the country. They have funded all of this with
petro-dollars. And, although they are anti-traditional Islam, and
anti-West, because of their oil, they have been supported by the West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">It is past time for Muslims around the world
to speak out against this destruction of our heritage. It is not only
buildings that are being destroyed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>UPDATE 7/19/2013</strong></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">It has <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fewn.co.za%2F2013%2F07%2F19%2FPilgrims-take-virtual-tour-of-Mecca" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">been reported that</span></a> in Istanbul, Turkey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hundreds of would-be pilgrims denied the
chance to travel to Mecca made a virtual tour of the Muslim holy sites on
Thursday after breaking their fasts next to an Ottoman mosque on Istanbul’s
Bosphorus shore.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saudi Arabia’s religious authorities last
month approved a request by the government to reduce the number of pilgrims,
including those from abroad, permitted at the hajj this year to allow expansion
work at Mecca’s Grand Mosque.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A real hajj guide and seven actors in the
Istanbul square, their shadows projected on three giant screens showing videos
of Mecca, tried to recreate the pilgrimage. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Huffington Post just published <a href="http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2013%2F07%2F15%2Fkaaba-photo-mecca-clock-tower-hajj_n_3599870.html" style="font-style: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-themecolor: text1; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Mecca Clock Tower Photo Shows Kaaba In The Shadow Of Abraj Al-Bait
Building</span></a>. The article opens with: <em>“The Kaaba once
took center stage, but now it appears as a minute structure at the foot of a
clock tower and hotel, which opened in 2012. The Abraj Al-Bait Towers
loom over the Masjid Al-Haram in an ostentatious show of luxury that stands in
stark contrast to the piety and history symbolized by the Kaaba, a cube-shaped
structure believed by Muslims to have been originally built by the prophet
Abraham and his son Ishmael.”</em> But this photo included in the article
says everything without words. It deserves to be used as a meditation on
“what has changed”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Link: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="http://muslimvillage.com/2013/07/24/41940/saudi-destruction-of-holy-sites/">http://muslimvillage.com/2013/07/24/41940/saudi-destruction-of-holy-sites/</a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAc7YlvAd5_9RqE8lwDk0YhCtAeNZIZf4BpbTkk4LXnVZUYfMKxPKwBhNp16nPlZheZMFCJhYR3nX4InPvDcJJwqM0wDX702WpTsr9kSAw9IYXwa3_4NOdby9mhOco3QJbOZZmiTULCc/s1600/destroyed+Muslim+holy+sites+in+Saudi+Arabia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAc7YlvAd5_9RqE8lwDk0YhCtAeNZIZf4BpbTkk4LXnVZUYfMKxPKwBhNp16nPlZheZMFCJhYR3nX4InPvDcJJwqM0wDX702WpTsr9kSAw9IYXwa3_4NOdby9mhOco3QJbOZZmiTULCc/s320/destroyed+Muslim+holy+sites+in+Saudi+Arabia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-10207024118756842572013-07-21T04:38:00.000-07:002013-07-21T04:38:21.084-07:00Upset Hindus ask NZ Herald for front page apology for goddess Kali caricature<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hindus
are upset at the Hindu goddess Kali caricature in New Zealand’s leading
metropolitan daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald, which they found highly
insensitive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a
statement in Nevada (USA) today, asked Herald Editor-in-Chief Tim Murphy and
Board Chairman of its parent APN News & Media Peter Cosgrove to immediately
apologize and publish the apology on the front page of the paper for this
trivialization of Hindu goddess. Moreover, Herald and other APN media outlets
should print/broadcast an introductory piece about Hinduism and its deities to
create better understanding in the society, Zed added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Zed, who is President of Universal Society of
Hinduism, pointed out that this goddess Kali image holding a pack of cigarettes
besides other objects was quite inappropriate and hurtful to the devotees.
Goddess Kali was highly revered in Hinduism and she was meant to be worshipped
in temples or home shrines and not to be trivialized in a reimagined version
for the commercial or other agenda of a newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rajan Zed noted that the goddess illustration
accompanying the article titled “Guardians at the superette” by Dita De Boni in
Herald’s June 28 edition was offensive, disrespectful and irresponsible. Herald
should set up an internal structure so that unnecessary mistakes like this
should not happen in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Zed urged New Zealand Race Relations
Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy and New Zealand Press Council Chairman Sir John
Hansen to look into the issue and discipline Herald for the insensitivity shown
to the Hindu community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rajan Zed stressed that Hindus were for free
speech as much as anybody else if not more. Hindu tradition encouraged peaceful
debates, won on their intellectual merit. But faith was something sacred and
attempts at belittling it hurt the devotees. Hindus welcomed media to immerse
in Hinduism but taking it seriously and respectfully and not for refashioning
Hinduism concepts and symbols for mercantile greed, Zed said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hinduism was the oldest and third largest
religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical
thought and it should not be taken lightly. Symbols of any faith, larger or
smaller, should not be mishandled, Zed argued.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2010, a New Zealand TV presenter
reportedly made xenophobic remarks ridiculing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit and New Zealand Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand. New Zealand
Parliament refused to consider Zed’s request in 2008 to amend its prayer
procedure/structure for making it more inclusive and universal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition to The New Zealand Herald, Sydney
(Australia) headquartered APN claims to be the largest operator of regional
newspapers, radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising in Australasia. Herald,
founded in 1863 and headquartered in Auckland, is claimed to have the largest
newspaper circulation of any in the country. APN’s Editorial Code of Ethics
states: “we undertake to maintain the highest ethical standard in our
journalism”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Goddess Kali, who
personifies Sakti or divine energy, is widely worshipped in Hinduism. She is considered the goddess of time
and change. Some Bengali poets described her as supreme deity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Link:
<a href="http://thejetnewspaper.com/2013/07/20/upset-hindus-ask-nz-herald-for-front-page-apology-for-goddess-kali-caricature/">http://thejetnewspaper.com/2013/07/20/upset-hindus-ask-nz-herald-for-front-page-apology-for-goddess-kali-caricature/</a></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-16033005949456495472013-05-23T14:12:00.000-07:002013-05-23T14:12:16.113-07:00Vande Mataram controversy reveals mental chasm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Prior
to the 175th birth anniversary of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894), his
song <b>Vande Mataram</b> is back in news for wrong reasons. On May
8, BSP’s Shaifqur Rehman Burq nonchalantly walked out of the Lok Sabha
while <b>Vande Mataram</b> was being played. The only comparable
incident in the annals of the apex legislative body had taken place on the
historic midnight on August 14-15, 1947. As the Assumption of Power ceremony
commenced in the Constitution Hall (now Central Hall of Parliament) with Vande
Mataram, some members did not arrive. But as soon as the song concluded, they
were seen trickling inside. HV Kamath, member from erstwhile Central Province
& Berar, found their entry too simultaneous to be natural. They had
apparently wanted to skip the Vande Mataram by design. Kamath referred to this
incident in the Constituent Assembly on August 26, 1947 when it was his turn to
speak. However, neither the identity of members nor their motives are known to
us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
Burq, MP from Sambhal, and Convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee clearly
acknowledges religious reasons. He admits that tenets of Islam prevent him from
bowing down his head to (an idolised form of) the motherland. “I can give my life
to the motherland and I have been taught heaven lies beneath the feet of
mother. But I cannot bow my head to her, which is reserved only for Allah.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Criticism
directed against Burq is purely legalistic. It hinges on the point that Burq
has insulted the national song, co-equal of national anthem Jana Gana Mana. His
critics trace it to a statement by President Rajendra Prasad in the Constituent
Assembly on January 24, 1950. “The song Vande Mataram, which has played a
historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally
with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it… I hope this will
satisfy all members.” It was not a ruling from the chair but a statement made
only to ‘satisfy’ the members. It was like an apology or resignation tendered
merely to ‘satisfy’ ruffled public sentiment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Had
Dr Rajendra Prasad or Nehru been sincere about the co-equal status, they would
have got it entered into the Constitution adopted on November 26, 1949. Several
Constituent Assembly members had favoured recognising Vande Mataram as the
national anthem. But why did Dr Rajendra Prasad make a reference on January 26,
1950 — merely two days before the Constitution was about to be enforced? The
song actually fell between two stools. Vande Mataram is not protected even
Article 51 A of the Constitution — Fundamental Duties or the Prevention of
Insults to National Honours Act, 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
what the legalistic interpreters overlook is the psychic chasm between the
communities. Vande Mataram merely occasions its exposure. I doubt if Burq’s
conduct would have surprised Bankim. Burq’s iconoclastic faith prevents him
from bowing down to motherland personified. Bankim had no love lost for Burq’s
Arabic imperial faith either. In Anandamath (1882), where the song Vande
Mataram appears, he hails the disestablishment of Muslim rule in Bengal. He was
convinced that a century of British rule was necessary to reinvigorate the
Hindus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bankim
was not merely the first novelist of India. He is hailed a seer who gave us the
mantra of ‘Vande Mataram’. Its Hindu inspiration is obvious. The song was
composed on November 7, 1875 on the day of Jagaddharti Puja in Bengal. But that
is not the only reason why Muslims were irked by it. Vande Mataram was song
common to different branches of freedom movement. From revolutionaries of
Bengal and Maharashtra to the moderate Congressmen and Gandhiji– Vande Mataram
was hailed by all. But the bulk of Muslim society, under the influence of Sir
Sayyid Ahmed Khan, stayed away from freedom movement. The freedom movement of
India was thus a Hindu enterprise. Only the Hindus melted their bones in the
dungeon of cellular Jail in Andaman, and went to gallows smilingly for the sake
of motherland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vande
Mataram, like the less poetical Bharat Mata Ki Jai, is a Hindu expression of
patriotism. It is the Hindu who idealises India as divine mother. Its roots
perhaps lie in the hoary antiquity of Atharva Veda where the Prithvi Sukta
says, “Earth is my mother, I am her son”. He sees Mother India as part of Mother
Earth. India is the land of sacred geography — but to Hindus alone. To the
Central Asian invaders, India has been a real estate. The Muslims have
possessed India, the Hindus have belonged to it. Thus Vande Mataram or Bharat
Mata Ki Jai come naturally to any Hindu of whatever persuasion. Had Burq’s
forefathers not accepted the religion brought over by Turk horsemen, he would
not have any hesitation in singing Vande Mataram.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
contrast is quite revealing as Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are adjourned sine die
each session. The Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Vice President Hamid Ansari says,
‘now national song’. But Speaker, Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar says ‘Please stand up
for Vande Mataram’. Hindus would love Vande Mataram, as they have loved it for
a century, regardless of its Constitutional status. It is the love of patriotic
Hindus, not the statement of the Chairman, Constituent Assembly that has made
Vande Mataram a national song.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2013/05/13/vande-mataram-controversy-reveals-mental-chasm-77208.html">http://www.niticentral.com/2013/05/13/vande-mataram-controversy-reveals-mental-chasm-77208.html</a></span></span></div>
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-26043097032310357542013-05-20T14:40:00.000-07:002013-05-20T14:40:00.709-07:00Bengal’s Communal Card<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">M
J Akbar </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most self-destructive politician, was confident that he
would never lose power until Birnam wood began to move.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since it seemed highly unlikely that a whole forest would trot
across towards his fortress, he lived in the complacent world of invincibility. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every government in </span><st1:place style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
is equally certain of survival till the Muslim vote begins to move against its
citadel. The largest Muslim concentration in </span><st1:country-region style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">India</st1:country-region><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
is in </span><st1:place style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">; they constitute 28 per cent of
the population, or twice the national average. The effective percentage is
higher. Muslims, conscious of the strategic value of their vote, poll in higher
numbers. Second, geography is on their side. They are concentrated in an eastern
arc that rises from South 24 Parganas and develops demographic momentum in
districts like Murshidabad, Malda and Dinajpur. They make the difference in at
least half of </span><st1:place style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">’s seats, if not more.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Quiz question: what is the Muslim vote in President Pranab
Mukherjee’s former constituency? Above 65 per cent. Rub your eyes again at the
next fact. Barring one instance in the 1950s, neither the Congress nor the
Marxists have put up a Muslim candidate from this constituency, until the Left
did so in last year’s by-election. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Being a forest, this vote moves slowly, almost imperceptibly,
but when it shifts the impact is decisive in </span><st1:place style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.
Till 1967, it supported the Congress. When the mood changed, United Front
governments came to power. In 1971, it went back to Congress because of Mrs
Indira Gandhi, but from 1977 it veered towards the Left and kept Marxists in
power for over three decades. It now forms the vanguard of the Mamata Banerjee
insurrection.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The decline in Mamata Banerjee’s urban popularity is evident
to anyone who lives in or visits <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Calcutta</st1:place></st1:city>.
<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Calcutta</st1:place></st1:city> has
not returned to red yet, but the mood is belligerent. There is incipient
nostalgia among the genteel bhadralok in particular for the last Marxist Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who had the kind of soft public style that is
considered good manners.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mamata Banerjee is too interventionist, a one-woman
occupation force rather than a government. She has not understood the art of
surrendering space to colleagues, if for no other reason but to share the blame
when things go wrong, as they always will. If you hog the spotlight, warts from
elsewhere will drift onto your face. Her nature is confrontational. This wins
applause when she dares a Goliath called <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Delhi</st1:place></st1:city>.
It seems shabby when her ire descends upon little men from Lilliput who crowd
the media.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But slip outside the metropolis and you can smell and see the
change in mood along with the environment. Rural Bengal, on either bank of the
Hooghly river, is as serene as urban <st1:place w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place> is
squalid. As we drive up towards Shantiniketan, where <st1:place w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place>
pays homage to the memory of Rabindranath Tagore, there are only a few patches
of the potholed past. On one short stretch, a 20th century road was still being
laid over a 19th century surface through 18th century methods. But these
villages and small towns that echo through the early phase of East India
Company history, remain Mamata territory. The devastation of famine, which came
with the British, may have become a nightmare of the past but poverty remains
pervasive, visible in the low wages and darned lungis of labour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is this constituency of the poor that gives Mamata her
political strength. But her true opportunity lies in an area of decision-making
which is rarely discussed. Both Congress and Communists never lose a chance to
claim secularism as their bread-and-butter creed, but neither has ever
empowered Muslims when in government. In any other state a community with a
minimum 30 per cent vote would have claimed the chief ministership. Forget that
thought in <st1:place w:st="on">Bengal</st1:place>. Neither Congress nor
Communists have even given a Muslim an economic portfolio like finance. As a
senior Marxist once told me, Bengali Muslims are considered good enough for
only livestock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So far Mamata Banerjee has remained within the conventional
pattern. She has raised the political profile of some Muslim colleagues but
that is not going to be enough for a community that is beginning to understand
its power. If it continues to be taken for granted, fed with occasional
tokenism, the forest will move much faster than before. Mamata Banerjee still
has time. And time shall tell if she also has the will to be different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Source: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/April/opinion_April45.xml&section=opinion">http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/April/opinion_April45.xml&section=opinion</a></span></span></div>
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-75976409052001907692013-05-11T13:41:00.002-07:002013-05-11T13:41:39.640-07:00When Germany is Christian, is India Hindu?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">(Denying
One’s Own Roots)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">By Maria Wirth<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though I live in India since
long, there are still some points that I find hard to understand - for example
why many educated Indians become agitated when India is considered as a Hindu
country. The majority of Indians are Hindus. India is special because of its
ancient Hindu tradition. Westerners are drawn to India because of it. Why then
is there this resistance by many Indians to acknowledge the Hindu roots of
their country?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This attitude is strange for two
reasons. First, those educated Indians seem to have a problem only with ‘Hindu’
India, but not with ‘Muslim’ or ‘Christian’ countries. In Germany for example,
only 59 percent of the population are registered with the two big Christian
Churches (Protestant and Catholic), however, the country is bracketed under
‘Christian countries’. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, stressed recently the
Christian roots of Germany and urged the population ‘to go back to Christian
values’. In 2012, she postponed her trip to the G-8 summit for a day to address
the German Catholic Day. Two major political parties carry ‘Christian’ in their
name, including Angela Merkel’s ruling party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Germans are not agitated that
Germany is called a Christian country, though I actually would understand if
they were. After all, the history of the Church is appalling. The so called
success story of Christianity depended greatly on tyranny. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>“Convert
or die”, were the options given not only to the indigenous population in
America some five hundred years ago. In Germany, too, 1200 years ago, the
emperor Karl the Great ordered the death sentence for refusal of baptism in his
newly conquered realms. It provoked his advisor Alkuin to comment: ‘One can
force them to baptism, but how to force them to believe?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Those times, when one’s life was
in danger if one dissented with the dogmas of the Church, are thankfully over.
And nowadays many in the west do dissent and leave the Church in a steady
stream - partly because they are disgusted with the less than holy behavior of
Church officials and partly because they can’t believe in the dogmas, for
example that ‘Jesus is the only way’ and that God sends all those who don’t accept
this to hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And here comes the second reason
why the resistance to associate India with Hinduism by Indians is difficult to
understand. Hinduism is in a different category from the Abrahamic religions.
Its history, compared to Christianity and Islam was undoubtedly the least
violent as it spread in ancient times by convincing arguments and not by force.
It is not a belief system that demands blind belief in dogmas and the
suspension of one’s intelligence. On the contrary, Hinduism encourages using one’s
intelligence to the hilt. It is an enquiry into truth, based on a refined
(methods are given) character and intellect. It comprises a huge body of
ancient literature, not only regarding Dharma and philosophy, but also
regarding music, architecture, dance, science, astronomy, economics, politics,
etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If Germany or any other western
country had this kind of literary treasure, it would be so proud and highlight
its greatness on every occasion. When I discovered for example the Upanishads,
I was stunned. Here was expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to
be true, but could not have expressed clearly. Brahman is not partial; it is
the invisible, indivisible essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again
a chance to discover the ultimate truth and is free to choose his way back to
it. Helpful hints are given but not imposed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> In my early days in India,
I thought that every Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized
that I was wrong. The British colonial masters had been successful in not only
weaning away many of the elite from their ancient tradition but even making
them despise it. It helped that the ‘educated’ class could no longer read the
original Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of
knowledge and the brainwashing by the British education may be the reason why
many ‘modern’ Indians are against anything ‘Hindu’. They don’t realize the
difference between western religions that have to be believed (or at least
professed) blindly, and which discourage if not forbid their adherents to think
on their own and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and
encourages using one’s intelligence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of the educated class do not
realize that on one hand, westerners, especially those who dream to impose
their own religion on this vast country, will applaud them for denigrating
Hindu Dharma, because this helps western universalism to spread in India. On
the other hand, many westerners, including Church people, very well know the
value and surreptitiously appropriate insights from the vast Indian knowledge
system, drop the original source and present it either as their own or make it
look as if these insights had been known in the west.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity
Foundation has done painstaking research in this field and has documented many
cases of “digestion” of Dharma civilization into western universalism. He chose
the term digestion, as it implies that that which is being digested (a deer for
example) is in the end no longer there, whereas the ‘digester’ (a tiger)
becomes stronger. Similarly, Hindu civilization is gradually being depleted of
its valuable, exclusive assets and what is left is called inferior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If only missionaries denigrated
Hindu Dharma, it would not be so bad, as they clearly have an agenda which
discerning Indians would detect. But sadly, Indians with Hindu names assist
them because they wrongly believe that Hinduism is inferior to western
religions. They belittle everything Hindu instead of getting thorough
knowledge. As a rule, they know little about their tradition except what the
British told them, i.e. that the major features are caste system and idol
worship. They don’t realize that India would gain, not lose, if it solidly backed
its profound and all inclusive Hindu tradition. The Dalai Lama said some time
ago that already as a youth in Lhasa, he had been deeply impressed by the
richness of Indian thought. “India has great potential to help the world,” he
added. When will the westernized Indian elite realize it?<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-9890408557439152542013-04-27T02:54:00.001-07:002013-04-27T02:54:36.679-07:00Are Sharia councils failing vulnerable women?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">By Jane Corbin<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>BBC Panorama has uncovered fresh evidence of
how some Sharia councils in Britain may be putting Muslim women "at
risk" by pressuring them to stay in abusive marriages.</b><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In a small terraced house in east London, a
woman and her husband argue before an Islamic scholar who sits on a dais above
them in a room that looks and feels like a court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is Leyton Islamic Sharia Council, and Dr
Suhaib Hasan will decide if the woman can have a divorce. Her husband is
refusing to grant her one and the couple has been coming here for a year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">She accuses him of refusing to work, ignoring
the children and verbally abusing her. He vehemently denies it. When Dr Hasan
orders the husband to leave the room, the woman breaks down in tears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"I hate him, I can't even bear to look
at him, he has ruined my life," she sobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dr Hasan sends the couple away for another
month to try to save their marriage, with the help of Allah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fearful women<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Leyton Islamic Sharia Council is Britain's
oldest Islamic council and one of the most active, hearing about 50 cases a
month - mainly marital disputes. Nine out of 10 are brought by Muslim women
from all over the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With
an Islamic marriage, it is far easier for a man to divorce. The only way for
women is through these councils.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"We
are not here just to issue divorces," says Dr Hasan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"We
want to mediate first. We try to save marriages so when people come to us we
try to reconcile them."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
Islamic rulings given here are not always in the interests of the women
concerned, and can run counter to British law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In
Leeds I met Sonia, a woman who suffered extreme violence from her husband, who
punched and kicked her and threw her down the stairs. He also hit their son.
When Sonia got a civil divorce, the courts would allow him only indirect access
to the children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sharia
courts are not allowed to interfere in child access matters, but when Sonia
went to Leyton Islamic Sharia Council for a Sharia divorce, they told her she
would have to give the children up to her husband.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"I
couldn't bear the thought of such a violent person having my children,"
said Sonia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"What
was shocking was when I explained to them why he shouldn't have that access to
the children, their reaction was - well, you can't go against what Islam
says."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sonia stood her ground and eventually got
Leyton Islamic Sharia Council to drop their demand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The council told BBC Panorama that when a
marriage ends the question of access to children for both parents is crucial.
Safety is paramount, it says, and any UK court order must be followed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We had seen the public face of Leyton Sharia
Council, but we sent an undercover reporter to see what advice they would give
a vulnerable female client. Her story was that her husband was hitting her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The government says domestic violence is a
crime which should be reported to the police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But Dr Hasan told the undercover reporter:
"The police that is the very, very last resort. If he becomes so
aggressive, starts hitting you, punching you of course you have to report it to
the police, that is not allowed."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He went on to tell her that reporting the
abuse to the police would be a final blow and she would have to leave the house
and go to a refuge. He said that was a very "bad option".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">His wife, a counsellor at Leyton Islamic
Sharia Council, also told the undercover reporter not to go to the police but
to involve the family instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">'Dangerous'<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When Leyton Islamic Sharia Council were asked
about the secret filming, they said it may be essential to involve the police
and other authorities in cases of domestic violence but it can be a step with
irrevocable consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We showed our secret footage from Leyton
Islamic Sharia Council to Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the North
West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mr Afzal, himself a Muslim, said: "I'm
disappointed but not surprised. Most of them [Sharia councils] are fine but
there are some clearly like this who are putting women at risk."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He described what he had seen as
"dangerous" because if people were deterred from seeking help they
could suffer significant harm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I
met another woman who had tried to get a divorce from a different Sharia
council in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ayesha's
husband was in prison for violence, but Dewsbury Sharia Council told her she
would have to go to mediation with him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"I
said I can't do that because he's not even allowed near my house and because I
am frightened, I can't face him... but they didn't take any notice," she
said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Eventually
Dewsbury Sharia Council agreed to see her without her husband but she had to
face five men alone without legal representation. It took her two years to get
a Sharia divorce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dewsbury
Sharia Council said they could not comment on individual cases but they were
aware of the standing and gravity of UK court orders and would never advise
clients to breach them. They said they could arrange separate meetings on
different days to avoid such breaches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
women I spoke to believe it is not the Islamic code that is at fault, but the
way some Sharia councils interpret it, and they want them investigated and held
accountable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Although
these women eventually freed themselves from unhappy marriages, there are
others condemned by religious councils to miserable lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22044724">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22044724</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-40476133045323685272013-04-18T11:30:00.001-07:002013-04-18T11:30:30.175-07:00Bangladesh simmers as Islamic conservatives and progressives clash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As
popularity of rightwing party Hefazat-e-Islam grows, millions of female garment
workers increasingly fear for their jobs<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Six
mornings a week, Tania Akhter leaves her home in the Banasri Ullah Para neighbourhood
in the north of <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place>, the Bangladeshi
capital, for the garments factory where she stitches jackets and trousers to be
sold on western high streets. The journey takes the 23-year-old through a
simmering city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Protests
and clashes in <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place> and elsewhere in the
country have diminished in recent weeks but with about 100 dead and thousands
injured, tensions remain high. A series of "shutdowns" have been
enforced by political groups, more are threatened and many fear violence will
flare again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
battle pits religious conservatives against more moderate, progressive voices
in a fight to determine the future direction of the country – the world's
eighth most populous – 40 years after it won independence from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in a
brutal war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
most recent development is the emergence of a radical conservative Muslim
party, Hefazat-e- Islam, as the standard bearer of the religious right. Earlier
this month, at a huge rally in <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place> attended
by more than 100,000 according to police, the party issued 13 demands. They
included the introduction of measures to stop "alien culture" making
inroads in Bangladesh, the reinstatement of the line "absolute trust and
faith in the Almighty Allah" in the nation's constitution, which is
largely secular, and a ban on new statues in public places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
it was Hefazat-e-Islam's demand that men and women do not mix in public – seen
by many as a bid to stop women working outside the home – that most worried
Akhter, one of tens of millions of female labourers in Bangladesh's booming
garment industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"If
we are not allowed to work, how will we survive?" asked Akhter, who
supports her elderly parents on her monthly wage of 6,500 takas (£55).
"Many of our coworkers were abandoned by their husbands. Some families
only have daughters, whose parents are old. What will a single mother do? We
will not have any means for a living."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hefazat-e-Islam's
demand is opposed by employers too. "There are women in media, defence,
and development. There cannot be development [by] keeping half of a population
ineffective," Mushrefa Mishu, president of the Garment Workers' Unity
Forum, told the Guardian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
beyond the issue of women working are much larger questions. "Although <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place>
is a Muslim-majority country, it is a people's republic, not a Muslim
country," said Mishu.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
unrest was initially provoked by the first verdicts passed by the international
war crimes tribunal, set up by Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister and daughter
of the wartime leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to investigate atrocities
committed during the 1971 conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When
a group of young moderates in <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place>
demonstrated in the central <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Shahbag
Square</st1:address></st1:street>, their protest quickly grew into a mass
movement demanding accountability and harsh sentences for alleged crimes during
the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
conflict left up to 3 million people dead. At least 200,000 women were raped
while millions fled to neighbouring <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s biggest Islamist party,
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), opposed the independence movement during the 1971 war and
worked with the Pakistani army to fight nationalists. It is largely senior
officials from JI who have been indicted by the tribunal. Two have been
convicted this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Religious
conservatives, many loyal to JI, took to the streets to counter the Shahbag
demonstrators, accusing their leaders of being atheists and blasphemers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Some
of the violence has been explicitly sectarian, with attacks on places of
worship of the small Hindu minority. Several activists have been shot dead by
the police who routinely use live ammunition to quell protest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, the
widow of the independence war's best-known military commander, has accused
Hasina of using the tribunal to hound political enemies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In
turn, Zia has been charged with encouraging and exploiting the rightwing anger.
Hefazat-e-Islam are close to JI, which is a key ally of the BNP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
conservatives say they are victims of a smear campaign and that their aims have
been misunderstood. "The idea that Hefazat-e-Islam is taking the country
back to the medieval age through its demands is propaganda," said
Moinuddin Ruhi, joint secretary of the party. "We are not opposing women's
development … Hefazat demands women refrain from free mixing in society to
avoid sexual harassment and incidents such as rape. This does not … mean we
want them to refrain from going to work or study. They should go to work and
study following the principles of Islam."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Akhter
countered that she and her female colleagues were "responsible enough to
protect our own prestige and self-respect".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hefazat-e-Islam
officials say they will "besiege" <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place>
next month if the government does not agree to their demands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There
are fears that the pressure from the conservatives is having an effect. Shortly
after officials said their demands would be considered last week, police
detained four bloggers who are seen as sympathetic to the Shahbag movement and
critical of Islamists on charges of "hurting religious sentiment".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
defaming a religion on the internet can carry a 10-year jail sentence. One of
Hefazat-e-Islam's principal demands is that the death penalty be imposed in
such circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pinaki
Bhattacharya, a blogger and online activist, describes the arrests as
unacceptable. "I believe we should not unnecessarily hurt someone's
beliefs. I believe everybody should be sensible. Everybody should have their
own sense of responsibility and they should not indulge into things which might
create unrest and trouble in society," said Pinaki.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Police
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place>
have also arrested the acting editor of Amar Desh, a pro-opposition newspaper,
on several charges, including sedition. Mahmudur Rahman of the Bengali-language
publication was detained in a raid on his office in <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place>,
said a city police official Masudur Rahman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
arrest has concerned local journalists. Nurul Kabir, editor-in-chief of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
popular English daily New Age, said: "I have serious disagreement with the
editorial policy of Mahmudur Rahman and the most of the contents that his paper
Amar Desh disseminates, but I have no doubt that the government has arrested
him primarily because of his active support for the opposition political camps.
In a democratic dispensation, this is unacceptable."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Elections
are due in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place>
later this year or early in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/16/bangladesh-hefazat-e-islam-women#_" style="font-size: 12pt;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/16/bangladesh-hefazat-e-islam-women#_</a></span></div>
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-17548415297808311752013-04-17T06:16:00.000-07:002013-04-17T06:16:00.233-07:00Boy, 8, one of 3 killed in bombings at Boston Marathon; scores wounded <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Two
bombs struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, turning a
celebration into a bloody scene of destruction.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Boston
Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Monday night that the death toll had risen to
three. Scores were injured at the scene. One of the dead was an 8-year-old boy,
according to a state law enforcement source.Hospitals reported at least 144
people are being treated, with at least 17 of them in critical condition and 25
in serious condition. At least eight of the patients are children.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">At
least 10 people injured had limbs amputated, according to a terrorism expert
briefed on the investigation.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Several
of the patients treated at Massachusetts
General Hospital
suffered injuries to lower limbs that will require "serial
operations" in the coming days, trauma surgeon Peter Fagenholz said Monday
night. Some injuries were so severe amputations were necessary, Fagenholz
added.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Washington,
President Barack Obama vowed, "Any responsible individuals, any
responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice."</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Boston "is a tough and resilient
town," he said, adding that Americans will stand by Bostonians "every
single step of the way."</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>'Like a huge cannon'</strong></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
terrorist attack, near the marathon's finish line, triggered widespread
screaming and chaos, shattered windows and barricades and sent smoke billowing
into the air at Copley Square.
The blasts were about 50 to 100 yards apart, officials said, on a stretch of
the marathon course lined with spectators cheering runners through the final
yards of a 26-mile, 385-yard endurance feat.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"It
felt like a huge cannon," a witness told CNN about one of the<strong> </strong>blasts.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Allan
Panter, a doctor who was near the finish line waiting for his wife to finish
the race, told CNN he was standing about 20 to 25 feet from the first blast. He
said he treated victims on the street after the explosion.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"I
saw at least six to seven people down next to me," he said. "They
protected me from the blast. One lady expired. One gentleman lost both his
(lower) limbs. Most of the injuries were lower extremities."</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bill Iffrig, 78 and a veteran marathoner, was
nearing the finish when "the shock waves just hit my whole body and my
legs just started jittering around." Iffrig, who can be seen in video of
the explosion wearing an orange tank top, was helped to his feet by an event
volunteer and had just a scratch from his fall, he told CNN.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Federal
authorities are classifying the bombings as a terrorist attack, but it's not
clear whether the origin was domestic or foreign, a federal law enforcement
official with knowledge of the investigation said.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">A
federal law enforcement official told CNN that both bombs were small, and initial
tests showed no C-4 or other high-grade explosive material, suggesting that the
packages used in the attack were crude explosive devices.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Another explosive device
found</strong></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Authorities
in Boston found
at least one other explosive device that they were dismantling, Boston Police
Commissioner Ed Davis said.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Rep.
Bill Keating of Massachusetts,
meanwhile, said two more were found.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">One
unexploded device was found at a hotel on Boylston Street near the bomb site and
another unexploded device was found at an undisclosed location, Keating, a
Democrat and member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said. He called
the bombing a "sophisticated, coordinated, planned attack."</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was unclear who may have planted the
marathon bombs. There were no credible threats before the race, a state
government official said.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">There
is no suspect in custody, but many people are being questioned, Davis said.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Investigators
warned police to be on the lookout for a "darker-skinned or black
male" with a possible foreign accent in connection with the attack,
according to a law enforcement advisory obtained by CNN. The man was seen with
a black backpack and sweatshirt and was trying to get into a restricted area
about five minutes before the first explosion, the lookout notice states.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Also,
a Saudi national with a leg wound was under guard at a Boston hospital in connection with the
bombings, but investigators cannot say he is involved at this time and he is
not in custody, a law enforcement official said Monday evening.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In
addition to scrutinizing images of surveillance cameras in the area, the FBI
likely was issuing subpoenas for records from cell towers in the area to
isolate and trace calls from around Copley
Square at the time of the blasts, according to a
former federal law enforcement official who now works in the intelligence
community.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unexploded devices that were recovered
could provide a treasure trove of information such as fingerprints and
indications of the bomb maker's design, and from the bombs that did explode,
investigators would be looking for fragments and anything indicating the
"signature" of the bomb makers, the official told CNN.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">As
authorities searched the scene, numerous suspicious packages were found,
possibly because people fled the area, leaving items behind. Investigators were
checking them.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">All
off-duty Boston
police were called in.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
Marriott hotel at Copley Place
was evacuated as a precaution.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
Lenox Hotel was also evacuated as a precaution, the Boston Globe reported.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><strong>'Horrific day'</strong></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Crowds
were in the area watching the runners take part in the world's oldest annual
marathon.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">It
was also Patriots Day, commemorating the opening battle of the Revolutionary
War.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Within
seconds, the festive occasion turned into devastation.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"This
is a horrific day in Boston,"
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"My
thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured. I have been in touch
with the president, Mayor (Thomas) Menino and our public safety leaders. Our
focus is on making sure that the area around Copley Square is safe and secured. I am
asking everyone to stay away from Copley
Square and let the first responders do their
jobs."</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder spoke with FBI Director Robert Mueller and U.S.
Attorney Carmen Ortiz, a Justice Department official said. Holder has directed
the full resources of the Justice Department to be deployed to ensure the
matter is fully investigated, the official said.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
Federal Aviation Administration placed a flight restriction over the site of
the blasts.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Other
cities, including New York and Washington, tightened
security as a result. Following standard protocol, the White House cleared out
an area in front of the West Wing.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mike
Baingon, who works at the Atlantic Fish Company in Boston, said an explosion took place in front
of the restaurant and that he was right by the front door at the time.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
explosions occurred at about 2:45 p.m., more than two hours after the first of
the race's nearly 27,000 runners had crossed the finish line, CNN Producer Matt
Frucci reported.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
race was halted as was subway service into the area.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Troops
from the Massachusetts National Guard, already at the site as part of the
marathon's security and crowd-management plan, were assisting police as well.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/boston-marathon-explosions/index.html">http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/boston-marathon-explosions/index.html</a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-19705536345988877222013-04-16T05:02:00.000-07:002013-04-16T05:02:01.538-07:00 Remembering the last hero of Chittagong uprising<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Benode
Behari Chowdhury, the last warrior of the Chittagong uprising of 1930-34 passed
away last Wednesday night (April 10) at the age of 104 in a hospital in
Kolkata. The passing of this legendary figure comes at a time when Hindus in
Bangladesh and Pakistan are facing a renewed wave of persecution and West
Bengal is witnessing the growth and expansion of Islamist forces which feel a
greater connect to the razakars and the Jamaat of Bangladesh than to their own
fellow citizens in the state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Throughout
his long, active and eventful life Benode Behari essentially fought against
such disruptive forces and indefatigably championed the cause of the Hindus and
other minorities in Bangladesh. Till the very end he remained concerned and
disturbed at the fact that the Hindus of Bangladesh were being squeezed out by
radical elements and that pro-Pakistan elements were on the ascendancy in the
country. Around a decade ago, when the BNP-led four-party alliance of
which the Jamaat and its rabidly anti-Hindu leaders were the leading lights,
was in power in Bangladesh, Benode Behari, at the advanced age of 93, had
protested their treatment of the minorities in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As early as 1972, when anti-Hindu attacks
rocked newly liberated Bangladesh, Benode Behari’s advise to Sheikh Mujeeb was
indeed crucial, he had warned the President that “he would not remain in power
if Pakistani elements were not checked.” He clearly saw that these elements
would never reconcile themselves to the emergence of a new Bangladesh which
wanted to be free from the asphyxiating yoke of a wahabised Islam while
yearning to forge a new religio-cultural identity for itself. Bangladesh today
remains locked in an epic struggle between these forces of destruction and
betrayal and those who yearn to go back to the original vision and ideals of
the liberation movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When not yet 20, Benode Behari had thrown in
his lot with Surya Sen –<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Masterda</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– the leader and ideologue of the
Chittagong uprising. Passionately moved by the “golden dream – the dream of a
free India” as his leader described it, Benode Behari braved British bullets –
a bullet pierced his neck – and participated in raising the banner of armed
revolt against the mighty Empire in far off Chittagong by declaring it
liberated territory. Young Benode was transported to prison in distant
Rajputana and then incarcerated in a deserted camp. The prolonged episode which
had galvanised the entire area and other revolutionary movements across the
subcontinent had badly shaken the Empire, till then firmly ensconced in its
belief of invincibility. Yet the episode is neither remembered today in India –
where empty chairs at the screening of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Chittagong</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>demonstrated the general apathy
towards such riveting episodes of our history, nor in Bangladesh were Benode
Behari would lament that in some quarters Surya Sen continued to be described
“as a dacoit, a Hindu leader!” In fact, Bangladesh and India are yet to erect a
suitable memorial to the martyrs of that uprising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">After partition, Benode Behari stayed on in
East Pakistan and during a particularly dangerous time emerged as a rallying
point for the minorities of that half of Pakistan. Steadfastly remaining in
Chittagong, which over the years developed into a hotbed of radical elements
including the Jamaat, Benode Behari remained unscathed and succeeded in
organising the Hindus of the district. One of the then leading papers in
Chittagong<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Azad</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>had, pouring vitriol, proclaimed in
early 1950 (February 8-9) that the “Real enemies of Pakistan are Hindus” and
that “Hindus are not reliable.” It was against such odds that Benode Behari
struggled for the rights, protection and dignity of his co-religionists and of
other minorities of East Pakistan. Eventually, it was largely due to his
efforts that Hindus in Chittagong became an important bloc in the region’s
local politics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Each time a compromise was made with Islamic
fundamentalist forces, Benode Behari came out openly condemning the turn. He
did not spare the Awami League either which had its phases of infatuation with
the “Khelafatists”, as happened in 2006 when it came to an agreement with the
fundamentalist Khelafat Majlish and agreed to support the issuance of fatwas by
alems when it came to power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Benode Behari Chowdhury’s life thus had two
distinct parts, both of them revolutionary and full of struggle. The early part
was a struggle against the idea and manifestations of an empire and the second
was a ceaseless battle against a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalist
consolidation and in support of efforts for protection of the Hindu voice in a
continuously shrinking religio–political space in the land of his birth. He
never considered the option of migrating, for a warrior that option was not
even the last one, it never existed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">His example needs urgent and dedicated
emulation across all parts of Bengal today, but does the Bengali Hindu<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>bhadralok</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>have time and tenacity for it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: <a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/12/remembering-a-warrior-and-a-hero-65221.html" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/12/remembering-a-warrior-and-a-hero-65221.html</a></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-4083407270677607212013-04-11T05:08:00.001-07:002013-04-11T05:08:38.084-07:00From the heart of a Muslim - by Tawfik Hamid .....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I was born as a Muslim and
lived all my life as a follower of Islam. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">After the barbaric terrorist
attacks done by my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and
after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts
of the world, I feel responsible as aMuslim and as a human being,
to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and
Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">I have to
admit that our current Islamic teaching creates violence and hatred
toward Non-Muslims. </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">We Muslims are
the ones who need to change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the
beating of women by men, </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">and killing those
who convert from Islam to other religions. We have never had a clear and
strong stand against the concept of slavery or wars, to spread our
religion and to subjugate others to Islam and force them to pay a humiliating
tax called Jizia. </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">We ask others to respect our religion while all the
time </span><b><span style="color: red;">we curse non-Muslims loudly (in
Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques. </span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">What message do
we convey to our children when we call the Jews <b><span style="background: #FFFF66;">"Descendants of the pigs and monkeys"..</span></b></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FFFF66; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is this a
message of love and peace, or a message of hate? </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FFFF66; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">I have been into churches and synagogues where they were praying for
Muslims.</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FFFF66; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="background: #FF8080; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">While all the time we curse them, and teach our generations
to call them infidels, and to hate them.</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">We immediately
jump in a 'knee jerk reflex' to </span></b><b><span style="background: #FF8080; color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt;">defend Prophet
Mohammed when someone accuses him of being a pedophile </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">while, at the same time, we are proud with
the story in our Islamic books, that <span style="background: #FF8080;">he
married a young girl seven years old (Aisha) when he was above 50 years
old. </span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> I
am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after
September 11th and after many other terror attacks. </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FFFF66; font-size: 11.0pt;">Muslims denounce these
attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic
terrorists and sympathize with their cause. </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<span style="color: black;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Till now our 'reputable' top religious authorities
have never issued a Fatwa or religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an
apostate, while an author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be
killed according to Islamic Shariia law just for writing a book criticizing
Islam. </span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">Muslims
demonstrated to get more religious rights as we did in France
to stop the ban on the Hejab (Head Scarf), while we did not demonstrate with
such passion and in such numbers against the terrorist murders. </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FF8080; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">It is our absolute silence against the terrorists that gives the
energy to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts </span></b><b><span style="background: #FF6666; color: #ff6666; font-size: 11.0pt;">. </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
<span style="color: black;">We Muslims need to stop blaming our problems on
others or on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only light of democracy,
civilization, and human rights in the whole Middle East
. </span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> We
kicked out the Jews with no compensation or mercy from most of the Arab
countries to make them "Jews-Free countries" while Israel accepted
more than a million Arabs to live there, have its nationality, and enjoy their
rights as human beings. </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">In Israel, women can not be beaten legally by
men, and any person can change his/her belief system with no fear of
being killed by the Islamic law of 'Apostasy,' while in our Islamic world
people do not enjoy any of these rights. I agree that the 'Palestinians'
suffer, but they suffer because of their corrupt leaders and not because of Israel. </span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FFFF66; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">It is not common to see Arabs who live in Israel leaving to live in the Arab
world. On the other hand, we used to see thousands of Palestinians going to
work with happiness in Israel
, its 'enemy'. If Israel
treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would have seen the opposite
happening. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FF6666; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">We Muslims need to admit our problems and face them. </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">Only then we can treat them and start a
new era to live in harmony with human mankind. Our religious leaders have
to show a clear and very strong stand against polygamy, </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">pedophilia, slavery,
killing those who convert from Islam to other religions, beating of
women by men and declaring wars on non-Muslims to spread Islam. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">Then, and only
then, do we have the right to ask others to respect our religion.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="background: #FF8080; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">The time has come to stop our hypocrisy </span></b><b><span style="background: #FF6666; color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;">and say it openly: 'We
Muslims have to Change'. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<b>Tawfik Hamid</b></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">(Dr.
Tawfik Hamid (aka Tarek Abdelhamid), is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and
one time Islamic extremist from Egypt.
He was a member of a terrorist Islamic organization JI with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri
who became later on the second in command of Al-Qaeda. Some twenty-five years
ago, he recognized the threat of Radical Islam and the need for a reformation
based upon modern peaceful interpretations of classical Islamic core texts.) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-39356706573950984032013-04-09T06:37:00.000-07:002013-04-09T06:37:12.357-07:00A rally for war criminals: Why are TMC, Left silent?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>A belligerent rally in
Kolkata by 16 Islamic organisations in support of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one
of the prime accused in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh,
is indicative of West Bengal’s liberal space
shrinking, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.</strong></span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Something
unprecedented happened on March 30 in Kolkata. Sixteen Islamic organisations
came together at the Maidan, the second largest public ground in the city, in
protest against the ongoing war crimes trial in Bangladesh,
against the Shahbag sit-in and in support of the vice-president of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, <em>Delwar
Hossain Sayeedi,</em> one of the prime accused in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">It
was astounding to see a huge and belligerent crowd gather from all over the
state to support one of the best known <em>razakars</em> and collaborators with
the Pakistan Army in its genocide against Muslims and Hindus in East Pakistan.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Speakers
addressing the gathering attempted to whip up hysterical support for the Jamaat
and its leaders and pledged that just as West Bengal’s Muslims prevented Salman
Rushdie from the entering the state and hounded out Taslima Nasreen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in 2007 they would generate a movement
against the pro-war crime trial bloggers in Bangladesh and would take on their
supporters with the same zeal. They even threatened to block any future visit
of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>to India.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">But
most shocking was their brazen support for Sayeedi, a known vocal anti-India
preacher, a rabid anti-Hindu who has been active in organising pogroms against
minorities in Bangladesh
over the years and one of the most avid collaborators in Pakistan’s genocide against fellow
Muslims.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">They
openly declared their support for Sayeedi saying that a death sentence for
Sayeedi in effect meant a death sentence for the Koran and Islam. These
speakers chose to ignore the fact that Sayeedi was being tried for killing in cold
blood their fellow religionists. It was for the first time that such a
mobilisation took place in Kolkata and it simply reinforced an emerging mindset
which has begun trying to consolidate a pan-Bengal Islamic identity.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Incidentally,
it was from the Maidan in August 1946 that the call for ‘direct action’ was
given by the Muslim League. The result of that call on the history of both
parts of Bengal is too well known to even
require a passing reiteration. But our politicians have deliberately chosen to
ignore that past.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not
a single political party, and in them especially those who at the first
opportunity, jump to dissect delusional dimensions of Hindu fascism and
habitually get into describing various conjured Hindutva theatres of genocidal
experiments or pontificate on the need to maintain the secular and syncretic
texture of our nationhood, came forward to condemn the positions taken in the
meeting.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not
one political party even recalled that Sayeedi and his ilk were part of those
criminal groups which selectively hunted out and massacred Hindus, fellow
Bengali Muslims and helped to sustain Pakistani resistance to Indian soldiers.
The Shahbag protesters have been calling for the establishment of a truly
secular and constitutional Bangladesh
where religious bigots would be reined in and their anti-national tendencies
curbed and yet they find no support from our political secularists.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Both
the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress have maintained a studied silence
having mortgaged over the years their politics to Islamic fundamentalist
elements in the state. Comrades who jump at every opportunity to display their
secular credentials in order to keep communal forces at bay through organising
rallies, sit-ins, and seminars have not issued even as much as a statement.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In
fact Sayeedi himself had a very clear benchmark for Communists, “Leftists are
not Muslims. They don’t believe in prayers,” he had declared. It has always
been an axiomatic truth for him that no non-Muslim could be allowed to live in Bangladesh. He
assiduously worked for it ever since the War of Liberation in 1971. No wonder
comrades in Bangladesh
find it difficult to survive on their own and have prudently sided with Sheikh
Hasina.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
Congress believing that it shall gain space with the electorates’ gradual
disillusionment with the TMC has obviously kept quiet. Its studied silence is
part of its larger grand design of mobilising country wide minority support.
Nor has the Indian media come forward to debate the phenomenon; it is still
incapable of visualizing its status once congregations such as these begin
spawning Sayeedi clones all over India.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">For
the media and journalists Sayeedi had a simple equation, “Journalists write
lies. They are the enemies of Islam”. It is well documented as to what Sayeedi
did to those whom he considered as enemies of Islam. It is this stoic silence
in face of a rising vocal Islamic fundamentalism which is worrisome and
condemnable. The liberal space in Bengal
is fast shrinking and we have paid a heavy price for such a constriction in the
past. </span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Those
in whose support the Maidan congregation was organised were at their vicious
best when it came to treating minorities in their own country. Sayeedi himself,
as head of the local Al Badr and Al Shams, has been convicted of killing
Hindus, burning their homes and businesses and of forceful conversion. He
assisted the Pakistan
army in its operation of decimating Hindus.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sydney
Schanberg, then correspondent of the <em>New York Times</em>, noted this
selective approach, ‘the [Pakistani] army is now concentrating on Hindus, the
killing is more selective, [and] has not stopped.’ Schanberg further recorded
how the Pakistan
army had ‘painted big yellow H’s on the Hindu shops to identify the property of
the minority, eighth of the population that it has made it special targets.’</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Archer
Blood, the ‘dissenting diplomat’, then American Consul General in Dhaka cabled
on March 29, 1971 on how the ‘Hindus [were] particular focus of [the] campaign
and how the army was ‘going after Hindus with a vengeance.’</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Veteran
Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, who fled to London
in order to tell the truth about the Pakistan
army wrote in exasperation in his columns in the <em>Sunday Times</em> that the
Pakistani military operation had two distinctive features: ‘ One, the cleansing
process’, the other ‘rehabilitation effort’ -- ‘turning East Bengal into a
‘docile colony of West Pakistan.’ Sayeedi and
his political colleagues had wholeheartedly facilitated all of these; the
Maidan congregators were silent on that.</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">It
was Sayeedi who had once said of the Hindus of Bangladesh, ‘Why should we feel
sad when the Hindu brothers choose to leave our country? Do we mourn when we
have indigestion and materials leave our bodies?’</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do
we then assume that those in West Bengal who
have organised the Maidan rally in Sayeedi’s support and those who have,
through their silence given consent to their demands, really support that line?</span></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; font-size: 12pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.rediff.com/news/column/a-rally-for-war-criminals-why-are-tmc-left-silent/20130403.htm">http://www.rediff.com/news/column/a-rally-for-war-criminals-why-are-tmc-left-silent/20130403.htm</a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-50951579975633435502013-04-08T11:09:00.003-07:002013-04-08T11:11:33.349-07:00A Dangerous Connivance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong><em><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">It is worrying that West Bengal’s political class remained tactical spectatorss to the Kolkata rally organised by Muslim groups in support of Bangladeshi war criminals</span></em></strong> <br />
<br />
West Bengal looked to the Shahbag protests in Dhaka with hope. In 1971, a massive relief and solidarity effort was undertaken in West Bengal for the millions trying to escape a veritable genocide. The then leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami in East Bengal and its students wing organised murder and rape squads in collaboration with the Pakistani forces. Their crimes included mass murder, rape as a weapon of war, arson and forced conversions. Post-1975, generals used them to cast an Islamic veneer of legitimacy over their illegal capture of power. Their immunity lasted until the present Bangladesh government restarted the legal proceedings in the War Crimes tribunal. The Shahbag protests demanded maximum punishment for the guilty.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Shocking</span></strong><br />
<br />
In West Bengal, a few meetings have happened around Shahbag, mostly expressing support. But, shockingly, the largest was a massive rally held in Kolkata on March 30, explicitly against the Shahbag protests and in support of the war criminals already convicted. Various Muslim groups, including the All Bengal Minority Council, the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, the Madrassa Students Union, the Muslim Think Tank and the All Bengal Imam Muazzin Association, organised the rally. People arrived in buses from distant districts of Murshidabad and Nadia, as well as from neighbouring districts. Students of madrassas and the new Aliah Madrassa University were conspicuous at the gathering.<br />
<br />
The old rallying cry, “Islam is in danger in Bangladesh,” was heard. We heard a similar cry in 1952 during the mother-language movement, in 1954 when Fazlul Haq and Maulana Bhashani challenged the Muslim League, in 1969 when the Awami League made its six demands and during the 1971 liberation struggle — basically during every secular movement for rights and justice. The rally thundered that West Bengal would be “cleansed” of supporters of war crimes trial and the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh. They promised that political forces supporting Shahbag would be “beaten with broom-sticks” if they came asking for Muslim votes. Like Taslima Nasreen and Salman Rushdie, Sheikh Hasina would not be allowed inside Kolkata. They expressed solidarity with the anti-Shahbag “movement” in Bangladesh. This assertion is worrisome, as the anti-Shahbag forces in Bangladesh have initiated a wave of violent attacks on Hindus, Buddhists and secular individuals, and the destruction of Hindu and Buddhist homes, businesses and places of worship. Amnesty International documented attacks on over 40 Hindu temples as of March 6. That number has increased.<br />
<br />
This large gathering and its pronouncements have been in the making. A collapse in the Muslim vote was important in the Left Front’s demise. Muslim divines regularly remind the present government of this. The Trinamool Congress wants to ensure a continued slice of this vote. In an unprecedented move, the government handed out monthly stipends to imams and muezzins to build a class of Muslim “community leaders” who eat out of its hand. The debt-ridden, vision-deficient government is unable to solve the problems that are common to the poor. It has wooed a section of the marginalised on the basis of religion by selective handouts. These are excellent as speech-making points masquerading as empathy. This also gives fillip to forces whose trajectories are not under usual political control. <br />
<br />
The Left Front’s political fortune stagnated after 2011. It has cynically chosen not to strongly oppose this communal turn. Waiting for the incumbent to falter is its roadmap to power. The damage this is doing to the West Bengal’s political culture is possibly irreparable. The incumbent’s connivance and the opposition’s silence are due to the long-eroded tradition of democratic political contestation through grassroots mobilisation. Both deal with West Bengal’s sizeable minority population primarily via intermediaries, doing away with any pretence of ideology in the transactions.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Politics of blackmail</span></strong><br />
<br />
Organisations inspired by political Islam have used this disconnect to the hilt to blackmail the government. An emerging bloc of divines, and former and present student leaders have used students and youths as storm troopers at short notice. Sadly, they are unconcerned about life and livelihood issues of Muslims. With assistance from the Left Front regime, they drove out the persecuted humanist writer, Taslima Nasreen. The extent of their clout as blackmailers was evident from the government’s pro-activeness in keeping Salman Rushdie out of Kolkata, after his visit to Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. This pushing of the envelope fits into a sequence of events that is increasingly stifling the freedom of expression. The double-standards are clear. <br />
<br />
On March 21, a group of small magazine publishers, human rights workers, theatre artists and peace activists were disallowed from marching to the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh to express their support to the war-crimes trial efforts. The police had “orders;” some marchers were detained. A month earlier, the same police provided security cover to an anti-Shahbag march and later to the marchers when they submitted a memorandum to the Deputy High Commission demanding the acquittal of convicted war criminals. Last year, public libraries were directed to stock a sectarian daily even before its first issue was published! The State thinks that it can play this brinksmanship game with finesse. When the political class acts as tactical facilitators or tactical spectators to apologists of one the largest mass-murders ever, the demise of Kolkata as a centre of culture is a natural corollary. A combination of circumstances can cause an uncontrollable unravelling. Bengal’s experience with sectarian politics is distinctly bitter.<br />
<br />
The bye-election to Jangipur, a Muslim-majority Lok Sabha constituency, saw the combined vote of the two main parties fall from 95 per cent in 2009 to 78 per cent in 2012. The beneficiaries were the Welfare Party of India, a thinly-veiled front organisation of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and the Social Democratic Party of India, a similar group. “Tactical pluralism” is their game, a concept quite akin to the tactical defence of Taslima’s freedom of speech by Hindu communal political forces. The rally in support of war criminals has exposed this faux pluralism. <br />
<br />
There was another significant beneficiary in the same election — the Bharatiya Janata Party. Communal tension has been rising, with serious disturbances in Deganga and Canning. Sensing a subterranean polarisation, the majoritarian forces see an opportunity. Mouthing banalities about Bengal’s “intrinsically” plural culture is useless. Culture is a living entity, recreated every moment. It is being recreated by the victimisation discourse by fringe groups like Hindu Samhati and in certain religious congregations where unalloyed poison produced by divines like Tarek Monawar Hossain from Bangladesh is played on loud-speakers. Thanks to technology, vitriol produced in a milieu of free-style majoritarian muscle-flexing in Bangladesh reaches West Bengal easily. Hence the popularity of one of the convicted war criminals, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, who in his post-1971 avatar had become a superstar in the Bengali waz-mahfil circuit. <br />
<br />
What are the effects of cultural exchange of this kind? The rally is a clue. A defence of Sayedee and the claim that he is innocent, made repeatedly in the rally, are like perpetrating Holocaust-denial.<br />
<br />
A day after the anti-Shahbag rally in Kolkata, almost as a divine reminder of starker realities beyond the defence of Islam, nearly 45 lakh unemployed youth, Hindus and Muslims, sat for the primary school teachers’ recruitment examination for 35,000 posts. Clearly, the ‘minority’ employment exchange set up by the incumbents has failed. West Bengal has petitioned the Centre for a relaxation of the minimum qualifications for primary school teachers. The promotion of religious education is hardly the way to empowerment and livelihood generation for the minorities in a State where they have been grossly under-represented in all white-collar services. There are no short-cut solutions.<br />
<br />
<strong><em>(Garga Chatterjee is a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)</em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
<strong><em>LINK : <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-dangerous-connivance/article4585420.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-dangerous-connivance/article4585420.ece</a></em></strong></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-54085313925110438492013-04-03T14:14:00.003-07:002013-04-03T15:32:55.351-07:00Bengal on verge of collapse due to Muslim Appeasement: Tapan Ghosh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">IBTL
team talked to Social Activist & Hindu Samhati Chief Tapan Ghosh to know
his version of the recent violence and atrocities happened on Hindus in West
Bengal and the role of the left parties and Trinamool Congress in it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Mr. Gosh at present there are
religious riots going on in West Bengal, and in this regard almost the entire
nation is uninformed, What do you feel about this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">First of all I would like to inform you that
the riots were spread across four villages on 19<sup style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">th</span></sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of
February, in which about 200 houses of Hindus were burnt. This is just one
incident, such incidents take place atleast four to five times a year. Last
year on the 14th of May, there was similar situation in Taarnagar and Rupnagar
of 24 south pargana districts when Muslim rioters burnt down houses of several
houses. I visited those villages in person, and arranged trauma relief
programmes for the victims. Two years ago in Chaopur village of Murshidabad
also there was a very violent situation. Hindus were beaten blue and
black, at first two houses belonging to Hindus were set on fire and later a
Hindu youngster was put to death. Commotion of similar intensity was also
spread in Taarnagar. Several women were sexually assaulted. About two and half
years before this incident in 2010 September Hindu women were assaulted largely
in Muslim majority areas of the North 24 pargana district. Those days CPM
was ruling Bengal but now it is Mamtaji’s government. The current governments
and the previous ones have subjugated these incidents from coming to lime light
because these were favourable to them. The governments have exploited these
situations for their political interests. Even the Bengali is also is acting as
a buffer from exposing the riots taking place in different regions of West
Bengal. It is evidently failure of the Government and Media, that they could
not prevent such incidents. Some to feel ashamed about is that in four villages
under the Canning police circle which is hardly 60 km away from Kolkata on the
19th of February all the Hindu houses were looted and then set on fire. The
natives of those villages and the victims informed me that a large numbers of
Muslim have come to their villages, and that there about 150 trucks by which
they had traveled from Kolkata. The rioters have looted all that that was
portable. The other heavy things like grains which they couldn’t carry with
them; they just splashed petrol and set them on fire. During this entire
incident Police acted as silent spectators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you feel that this is not
just a temporary phenomenon but a long term strategy? Is that seeds of
separatism are being sowed similar to that in Kashmir, there was also
information that Badruddin Ajmal the mastermind behind the Assam riots was also
in Bengal three days ago?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I feel this is not just a Temporary
phenomenon but it seems like a strategy. These happenings may be a part of long
term plans. Through these actions they are showing off to the government their
muscle power and are also inducing fear into the Hindu community which will
compel them to flee from these villages and to migrate to other regions. I do
not have any clue about Badruddin Ajmal, including that you have mentioned. Yes
he did visit Kolkata to launch his party. Apart from him there is another
Muslim leader P.D.Choudary who has merged his party into Badruddin’s party. I
feel that this is a conspiracy by top Muslim leaders of CPM and TMC. And they
are involved in accomplishing the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What about Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee who claims that religious riots take place only in Gujarat and
not in West Bengal?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There cannot be a lie bigger than this. There
are atleast a thousand riots in Bengal each year. These are just subjugated and
pushed under the carpet. The politicians are making policies to please Muslim
voters as a part of their vote bank politics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you feel that following the
UPA in centre and CPM in the state, now even TMC is also playing the Muslim
minority card and indulging in minority politics?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Even a blind would get to see that Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee who claims to be secular, but still goes to mosques to
offer prayers. She is also providing special stipend to the Muslin students,
distributing cycles among them and also paying remunerations to Imams and
facilitating the minorities with many things which the others do not get to
enjoy. In the vicious drama of the Alcohol issue there was an anti-social
element behind the screen that is referred to as the White Emperor. He runs
many illegal and unethical businesses. After the riots the government of Bengal
gave such people an amount of Rs. Two lakh as ex-gratia, despite the fact that
they were into ill-legal activities. In the state of Bengal the Mamata run
government resorted to all sorts of things to please Muslims. And she is
walking in the footsteps on the communist parties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Indian Media stills
discusses the Gujarat riots, but pays no attention to this repeated attack on
Hindus in Bengal, do you feel Media is biased?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The justification Media gives for not having
covered the riots is that the news may instigate riots in rest of the country.
And they claim that regulations do are stooping them from covering the riots.
The question to be raised with Media in first place is that who made this
regulation? Is the Press council of India working under the central government
or under the government of West Bengal? The Media is lying, there is no such
regulation. To report whatever has happened is the first and foremost duty of
the Media and Media has failed to do so. Media is under the pressure of Muslim
forces and the current government. Even the leading newspaper of West Bengal <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Anand bazaar patrika</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>has
always been biased and anit-hindu. They are least bothered about the Hindus
(Majority)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sentiments and publish articles criticizing
Hindu gods and goddesses, none of the media ever dare to comment on Muslim
believes. Bengal media has always ignored their wrong deeds. If at all in
future Bengal turns to be an Islamic state, the credit would go to Media houses
like the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Anand bazaar patrika</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What is your opinion on the way
Media is reporting about the Gujarat Riots? Wherein without any sort of
judgments by any court they are projecting him as a villain with respect to the
issue?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The fund Media generates through Ads and in
other ways most of it comes from the Islamic (Arabic) nations or Christian
missionaries. The instructions they have got is to project that Hindus are
rioters everywhere and also project Modi as a fundamentalist belonging to RSS. This
is their strategy. They feel that Muslims can never indulge in wrong practices.
Whereas on the other hand Muslim rioters have brutally killed Vinod Mehta the
deputy commissioner of Kolkata port area. They have chopped his body into
pieces, cauterize him with cigarette and even cut his private parts and
tortured him. Though Muslims have done all this, this have never been shown on
news because Muslims are like their brothers, and when your brother does
something wrong you leave it unnoticed after all he is your brother so he can
do. He can even break the country or terrorize but still he is not innocent
since he is your brother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Most of the Media institutes
and Higher Education Platforms seem to be in the clutches of the communists.
Where the students are brain washed and convinced of communism. Can we expect
them to be unbiased?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is matter of fact that though the
communist are no longer in power, they still have full control over the media
and Education in state. Not just there but even in the fates of the Bengalis of
West Bengal the communists exercise their power. Communism was born in the
Soviet. The communist have failed from giving the Nation a vision. They have
always been anti-nationals. It would not be wrong even if I say that it is the
ill-fate of the Bengalis as communists exist in West Bengal. They haven’t done
any good to the state and in fact turned it into a sick state. Nationalists
need to work in this direction. Even after the entire world faulted Stalin as
Evil, the communists still worship him. That looks more like actions of a brain
dead. Until they exist there nothing can be done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is another question
similar to the previous one. Do feel that the Education system nurtured by the
communists as isolated an entire generation from the rest of the nation?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Communists are the second convicts in this
regard. The primary damage has been done by Macaulay through the reforms he has
got. Sad part is that the English (British) and communists were friends as they
were allies in the Second World War where the British and the Soviet fought
together. Even in India the communists turned puppets in the hands of the
British. For the reason that Nehru had good relation with the Soviet Union he
allotted the education planning to the communists. For instance Nooral Hasan
was holding office in the communist party, but still he was made the Education
minister. In pre Independence there was an understanding between the British
and the communists, which after the independence turned into an illicit
relation between congress and the communists. The Indian Education system was
made deficient of nationalistic vision and had small sphere of inclusion as a
part of their revenge. The interference of Communists in the Education and
syllabus planning is spoiling the future of our country. The revisions made in
the CBSE syllabus are fine examples of this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What do you think is the role
of communists in raising Muslim acculturation and separatism tendencies in
India?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yes I feel that they intentionally ignore the
Muslim fundamentalism and separatist ideas. I feel that in any corner of their
heart the communist do not have anything that is in favour of India. The
partition of India in 1947 is an example of the separatist ideology of Muslims.
Based on the teachings of their religion people following Islam would not like
to stay with people of other religions. They aim at Islamisation of the entire
world as per Dar-ul-Islam and the same ambition has caused the partition of
India too. The partition has also caused the death of many Hindu brethren.
Several Hindu women have been raped, and still such a situation is prevailing.
Is this all not a part of History? But the communists have buffered all this
from the records of history and wrote up some stories as history. The massacre of
Hindus and forceful conversion of people to Islam by the Mughals have been
replaced stories praising the Mughals for many fake reasons. Bengal has always
been under the rule of insane rulers. During Independence Justice Suhravardhi
was the chief minister; in the name of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Direct Action</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>he
had caused riots in the city of Kolkata. On 16<sup style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">th</span></sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of
Aug 1946 there were several communist leaders present there who were shouting
aloud slogans “We want Independence only after portioning India into India and
Pakistan.” After which the Muslim population has raised to 26 percent whereas
the Hindu population fell down to 54 percent. The Communists have ruled Bengal
for about 34 years. The riots are an illustration of the growth of
fundamentalism in the Muslims in all these years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do see any sought of Hindu
Movement rising in Bengal in the coming years?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There would not be just some sought of
movement but I feel there would be outburst of a Hindu revolution. All the
political parties and Media houses are trying to some how suppress this.
Following the same fashion in pleasing the minorities already our country had
been divided once in the past. Lakhs of Hindu men were killed, Women were
raped, temples destroyed but now Hindus will no longer tolerate this again. The
current political parties in Bengal are dedicated in pleasing the Muslims. The
need of the hour is to alienate such evil forces from coming to power. And soon
the world is going to witness a mass Hindu revolution in West Bengal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Do you think in coming days we
are going to see a Pro-Hindu party forming government in West Bengal?</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I don’t think any pro-Hindu party can form
government or even think of it, because there are about 30 percent Muslims who
generally vote in bulk for the same party. Like in the last elections they have
voted for TMS or Congress as they have moved away from Communists. That why the
parties always try to please Muslims leaders so that they can have the support
of the bulk Muslim voters who constitute to 30 percent of the voters. Even BJP
which is labeled a Hindu party is also unable to raise its voice against this
partiality of the government. There are many other parties which are secular.
Hindu votes get divided among several parties. If a party wants to work for the
interest of the Hindus, some Nationalist party needs to come forward and unite
the Hindus voters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many different Hindu
organizations are working on various issues across the country. Do you think
all of them should meet on a single platform to work together?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have interacted with several Hindu
organizations from different parts of the country working on different issues;
one thing I have observed about them is that they do not have a National
vision. They are sincerely working to improve things in spheres they have
selected, but they are not willing to work in national level as there are
different problems and difficulties associated with each cause. But if a
National level organisation is ready to take the lead they are willing to
extend their support. That body, should co-ordinate with all of them and unite
them. Small and regional organizations are also not able to raise their voice;
even if they raise their voice it is not given importance in National scenario.
If all the Hindu organizations are able to meet on one platform nationally then
the state of Hindus in this country will develop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many times it seems that the
Hindu groups themselves are not aware of the basic teachings of their religion.
Some organizations do protests on issues of no importance, but ignore those
issues which pertain to interest of Hindus. What do you feel about this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I totally agree with you on this. I think you
are talking in regard to the Bangalore pub issue. The incident is over and the
anti-Hindu media has exploited the situation fully against the Hindu
organisation involved in that incident. To do moral policing Valentine’s Day is
not the primary objective of Sri Ram Sena but it is just a part of their cause.
The need of the hour is to form a Platform to accommodate all the Hindu
organizations so that they work together for a National cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.ibtl.in/news/exclusive/2081/bengal-on-verge-of-collpase-due-to-muslim-appeasement-tapan-ghosh">http://www.ibtl.in/news/exclusive/2081/bengal-on-verge-of-collpase-due-to-muslim-appeasement-tapan-ghosh</a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-61844806255223605632013-03-23T09:24:00.000-07:002013-03-23T09:24:42.361-07:00Armed Buddhists, including monks, clash with Muslims in Myanmar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Buddhist monks and others armed
with swords and machetes Friday stalked the streets of a city in central
Myanmar, where sectarian violence that has left about 20 people dead has begun
to spread to other areas, according to local officials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Members
of the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Meiktila township have clashed this
week after<span class="apple-converted-space"> a
dispute </span>between a Muslim gold shop owner and two Buddhist
sellers Wednesday ignited simmering communal tensions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rioters
have set fire to houses, schools and mosques, prompting thousands of residents
to flee their homes amid unrest that had echoes of sectarian troubles that
killed scores of people in western Myanmar last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Late
Friday night, President Thein Sein announced on state television that four
townships in the affected region are under a state of emergency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
United Nations and the United States have expressed concern about the violence
in the lakeside city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mandalay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Win Htein, an opposition member
of parliament for Meiktila, said the number of dead in the city has risen to
about 20 by his estimate -- most of them Muslims -- after charred bodies were
found in the streets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"I
have not seen this scale of violence before in my life," he said. "I
am very sad. The community used to live in peace."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Myanmar
is emerging from decades of military repression and has taken a number of
significant steps toward democracy in recent years under President Thein Sein.
But it has been plagued by bouts of ethnic violence that some analysts say are
a byproduct of the changing political climate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Burning mosques<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A group
of about 100 Buddhists, including some monks, went around Meiktila on Thursday
night torching mosques, said Police Lt. Col. Aung Min, and while most of them
have returned home, some are still wandering the streets, carrying weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Although
Aung Min declined to provide an official death toll, he said the violence had
spread to a nearby town, Win Twin, where a mosque was burned down overnight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He said
about 1,000 Muslims had taken temporary shelter in a soccer stadium in
Meiktila, where about 30% of the 100,000 residents are estimated to be Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Win Htein
said he believed that more than 5,000 Buddhists had fled to monasteries around
the city to escape the violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many
members of both communities had lost their homes, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Journalists
in the city who tried to take photos of the clashes said they were threatened
by Buddhists, some of them monks, who were holding sticks and knives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Violence in Rakhine<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the western
state of Rakhine</span></strong>,
tensions between the majority Buddhist community and the Rohingya, a stateless
ethnic Muslim group, boiled over into clashes that killed scores of people and
left tens of thousands of others living in makeshift camps last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Most of
the victims were Rohingya.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"The
ongoing intercommunal strife in Rakhine State is of grave concern," the
International Crisis Group said in a November report. "And there is the
potential for similar violence elsewhere, as nationalism and ethno-nationalism
rise and old prejudices resurface."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A failure
by authorities to address deepening divisions between the communities could
result in a resumption of violence in the future, the report said, "which
would be to the detriment of both communities, and of the country as a
whole."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vijay
Nambiar, special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on Myanmar, on Thursday
expressed "deep sorrow at the tragic loss of lives and destruction"
in Meiktila this week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He called
for "firm action" from Myanmar authorities, combined with "the
continued fostering of communal harmony and preservation of peace and
tranquility among the people."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Win
Htein, the local lawmaker, said that he believed there were now about 1,000
police officers in the area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He said
he had spoken to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and leader of the
opposition National League for Democracy, who had said local authorities should
use police to control the situation according to the law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The U.S.
ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, said Thursday that he was "deeply
concerned" about the reports of violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: </span><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/asia/myanmar-clashes/index.html" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/asia/myanmar-clashes/index.html</a><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-51620188280525942622013-03-21T10:43:00.000-07:002013-03-21T10:43:40.747-07:00Two dead, mosques destroyed in Myanmar unrest: Police <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Two people including a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Buddhist
monk </span>were killed and at least three<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>mosques were
destroyed after riots<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>broke out
in a town in central Myanmar, police said on Thursday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Around 200 people fought in the streets after an argument in
a Muslim-owned gold shop turned violent in Meiktila on Wednesday, according to
a post on Myanmar Police Force's Facebook page.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"One injured monk and Than Myint Naing, 26, who were
being treated for their injuries died from their burns at hospital," it
said.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Police imposed a curfew from evening to early morning to
control the situation.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"People tried to burn down the mosques," one local
police officer said.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The unrest comes amid heightened concerns over
Muslim-Buddhist relations in Myanmar, where communal conflict in the western
state of Rakhine has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000
displaced since June 2012.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">An initial report on the police Facebook page late on
Wednesday said anger spread after one man was injured during the row in the
gold shop.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The report said a mob then descended on the area and
destroyed some buildings.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">It said six people were hospitalised, and that the Buddhist
monk and a Muslim man later died from their injuries. A subsequent police
report omitted the religion of the second man.</span><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Two-dead-mosques-destroyed-in-Myanmar-unrest-Police/articleshow/19102223.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Two-dead-mosques-destroyed-in-Myanmar-unrest-Police/articleshow/19102223.cms</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-6727023332157531902013-03-19T14:01:00.000-07:002013-03-19T14:01:02.085-07:00Broken Goddess and the War Crime Verdict of Bangladesh <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>by Swadesh Roy</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>(March 13, 2013, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) </b>Broken Goddess picture is published every day in the progressive
newspaper in Bangladesh now. From 28 February, attack on the temple is an
everyday feature now in Bangladesh. Not only the sculpture of the Goddess are
broken by the Jammat- Shibir , the terrorist and the war criminal party of
Bangladesh but also arson, looting and killing are continuing on the Hindu community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In Bangladesh, this terrorist and war criminal party members have
attacked at least in twenty-two districts on the minority community. They are
not only attacking on the minority community but also setting fire to many
government office even the electricity plant. They have set fire to rail, bus,
bank, business organization and the house of the government officer. They are
continuously attacking on many innocent intellectual people also. They have
killed more than three intellectuals. They have declared a kind of war against
Bangladesh. But it has to mention here that, they never recognized Bangladesh.
They fought against Bangladesh in 1971 with the collaboration of Pakistan army.
Then they killed millions of people and raped thousands of girls besides they
helped for killing and raping to Pakistan army. Jammat –E- Islami men also
looted and arson in 1971. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">After the liberation of Bangladesh, the government of Bangladesh
did ban their politics through the constitution and more than 50 thousand of
their workers who were accused on war criminal were arrested. At last, 11
thousand of them were on trial. The military ruler freed them all after the
counter-revolution in 15 August 1975. In addition, very soon the military
government gave them political right in Bangladesh. From then they are enjoying
political rights. Though they are enjoying democratic political rights, they
are participating in the parliament election but they never do democratic
political activates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">After getting the political rights in Bangladesh, they have
enjoyed the government help for their terrorist activities for a long time. In
that time, they have setup huge number of business institute including
financial institute like Islamic Bank of Bangladesh. On the other hand, they
have established a number of terrorist groups including their student
organization. In this work, they are getting huge money from the Islamic
countries of Middle East in the name of Islam; besides Pakistani military
intelligence (ISI) also helps them to give money and training. So now, they are
well funded and well trained terrorist organization not only in Bangladesh but
also in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, these Jammate-E- Islamic main leaders are now facing
trial-accusing war crime in tribunal; that tribunal is called international war
crime tribunal (ICT). By this time, ICT has given verdict three of them. Two of
them have awarded sentence to death and one has lifetime Jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The war criminal who has given lifetime jail by the tribunal his
name is kader Mollaha. In 1971, he was known as a butcher Kader. He did rape,
killing and looting. He is the murderer of many intellectuals including a
famous women poet of the then time. ICT has proved that he committed more than
355 murders. One killing is enough to get the capital punishment but the
butcher Kader has given lifetime by the court. After declared this verdict,
Kader shown victory symbol to the press. To see this picture the scenario of
Bangladesh turned in to a face of volcano. Because, the butcher Kader strocked
on the pride of the nation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Young generation of Bangladesh cannot take it rather their out
blast was historical which never happened in Bangladesh. Some young online
activist gave an apple to the people to come on a road in Dhaka named shabag,
which is nearby Dhaka University. But by the evening a huge crowd made there.
From then it is continuing. For the first time this type of uprising is
happened in Bangladesh. It is very non-partisan. They only uphold the spirit of
freedom struggle of Bangladesh and they want to respect to the 3 million
martyrs and a half million women who were raped by the Pakistani army and the
Jammat people in 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Within three days, this uprising became a human sea. From this
human sea, they demanded that they want capital punishment for the butcher
Kader and all the war criminal that are now facing trial. Besides, they want
that, government have to ban Jammat-E-Islamic Bangladesh, as a war criminal
party they cannot enjoy political right in Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh
have supported their demand because all over the world the war criminal party
cannot enjoy the political right. In the mean time a group of Shibir( student
wing of Jammat) men killed one of the online activists who was an architect. To
share condolence to the family members Prime Minister of Bangladesh went his
home, at that time she told to the journalist that Jammat has no right to do
politics in Bangladesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The online activist Rajib Hyder Shovo was a blogger. Most of the
time he would write to uphold the principle or sprit and the history of freedom
struggle of Bangladesh that has been destroyed by the military ruler of
Bangladesh. But, one of the editors of a newspaper in Bangladesh named Amardesh
who was awarded as a chance editor by the Supreme Court, Mr. Mahamudur Rahaman
published a baseless story that, Rajib wrote story against the great Prophet of
Islam. His newspaper never maintains any ethics. With his newspaper, he is
trying to establish that, this uprising is against religion. This` religion
game’ is an old weapon in Bangladesh. When the people of Bangladesh start any
progressive movement like the historical language movement, Freedom struggle in
Bangladesh then the reactionary group uses that weapon. However, the people of
Bangladesh never accept it. In spite of that, they succeed to do many unethical
works in the name of religion; like looting, killing and raping. This time they
also are doing this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, on 28 February the ICT gave the verdict of an war
criminal. His name was Delwar hossien Syedee. In 1971, he was known as Della
Razakar. ICT gave him sentence to death. Court has found that, in 1971, he
committed murder, raping ,arson and looting. After giving his verdict, the
people of Bangladesh and the youth up risers started to celebrate. Nevertheless,
the Jammat and Shibir people started to arson government office in different
place. With the modern and homemade weapons, they killed police officer, arson
government office, business house and they attacked on minority Hindu, Buddhist
people, and their temples in twenty-two district of Bangladesh. They have
killed more than six Hindu people including temple Guru and two years baby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The law enforcing men of Bangladesh took measures. For taking
measure, a number of causalities were happened. Because, they have started war
against the state. However, the people of Bangladesh basically the youth are
trying to stop it through the non violent movement; and the terrorist going to
isolated from the society but after three days of this terrorism, the main
opposition supported the terrorist activates of the Jammat- Shibir. After that,
they are calling shutdown one after another, killing the innocent people, and
attacking on the minorities. The renowned human right activist of Bangladesh,
Shariar Kabir has visited many places, where they attacked the minorities. He
said in a press conference that, main opposition party, Bangladesh nationalist
party (BNP) men are involved on the attack of minorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is a big setback for Bangladesh politics that BNP has supported
the terrorist group of Bangladesh. Therefore, government of Bangladesh has to
face now more terrorism and now the more than one-core minorities of Bangladesh
are in danger. Despite, it is true ultimately, the progressive force of
Bangladesh will win, but it is very much needed that, world progressive forces
have to support them. World human right workers and all kind of progressive
force have to be concerned regarding the security of the minorities of
Bangladesh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The
Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh.</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/03/broken-goddess-and-war-crime-verdict-of.html" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/03/broken-goddess-and-war-crime-verdict-of.html</a></span></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-46778484531731459682013-03-12T13:48:00.002-07:002013-03-12T13:48:46.771-07:00Karma catches up with Jamaat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Shabagh sit-in has robustly
survived for a month and its strength and resolve seem to be growing. Veteran
Mukti Joddhas, enthused by the response of youth, see in this a second struggle
for liberation from shackles of fundamentalist Rezakars and their Pakistani
mentors who have always worked to throttle the full emergence and consolidation
of a Bengali identity. The protestors have resolved to continue with the
signature campaign for another month till the April 7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Among
the major demands of the campaign is the completion of the war crimes trial,
the hanging of the Jamaat leaders who collaborated with the Pakistani Army in
its pogrom against the people of East Pakistan during 1971 and the banning of
the party altogether. It is the first time since 1971 that the Bangladeshis
have witnessed such a massive and sustained outpouring in support of the ideals
of the Liberation War. The Jamaat’s countrywide mayhem, its targetted attacks
and killings of law enforcers, its destructions of Hindus’ home and hearth,
their temples and business establishments have not been able to cow down the
protestors at Shabag.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But
Bangladesh is in the grips of a death fight between progressive forces of
democracy and stability and those who wish to push it to the brink and Wahabise
it. They are working overtime at the behest of their external mentors. ‘Basher
Kella’, the Facebook page run by Jamaat-Shibir activists, for example, called
for a ‘Bangladesh-Pakistan-Islamic Republic of Banglastan’ where only Muslims
will live after exterminating Hindus and other minorities. The Jamaat has never
fully severed its umbilical ties with the Pakistani military establishment and
the Pakistanis have never abandoned them. How can they dump those who have been
their comrades in arms in perpetrating one of largest genocides in human
history. The US establishment too has never raised the Jamaat issue publicly
nor called for their trials. It is easier for it to deal with banana dictators
and warlords than with those who are under the protection of their so-called
principal collaborator in the ‘war on terror’ in South Asia. The main
opposition BNP is fully in tune with the Jamaat’s objectives and is also
orchestrating the countrywide shutdowns and unrests. Khaleda’s cancellation of
her meeting with the Indian President through an email communication and then
calling a separate spate of hartals is actually the carrying out of the Jamaat
and the Islamic Oikya Jote agenda. Each one is riding on the other in order to
strengthen its fundamentalist credentials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Indian Prime Minister,
gullible as he is in handling foreign affairs, had feted Khaleda on her visit
last November. He met her for an hour and even hosted a lunch, perhaps the
first ever in honour of a leader of Opposition. The naïve Salman Khurshid was
ecstatic when Khaleda assured him then” ‘this marks a new beginning. Let’s look
forward and not look back in the rear-view mirror.’ Little did they know that
the lady was a past master at changing colours and was an inveterate foe when
it came to India and Hindus. During Khaleda’s visit, the Indian establishment
had even prematurely indicated that it was ready to do business with Khaleda,
implying that it was already considering a BNP dispensation in the next
elections. The blinkered Indian PM and his even more isolated five star
advisors must have failed to see that it is in the character of the BNP to go
the extra mile to accommodate the Jamaat, and the extra mile has always seen an
increase in anti-India rhetoric, providing sanctuaries to insurgents and
militants from the North-East and the ethnic cleansing of the Bangladeshi
Hindus. Let us not forget that Khaleda’s coming to power in 2001 saw one of the
largest anti-Hindu pogroms in Bangladesh in recent times and the Awami
League-appointed Shahabuddin Commission report which investigated the attacks
has indicated at organised violence with BNP-Jamaat imprints. What compels UPA
to look the other way when it knows that AL and Hasina remain the best bet for
India, for the region, and for the Bangladeshi Hindus, is hard to comprehend.
Mortgaging India’s foreign interests has become a habit with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
recent spate of anti-Hindu violence, especially in the last one week since the
ardent and fawning Pakistani collaborator and Jamaat vice president Delawar
Hossein Sayeedi was sentenced by the International Crimes Tribunal to be ‘hanged
by the neck till he is dead’, has been particularly unsettling. Within a day of
the announcement the old pattern fell into place and the Jamaat’s ire was
directed at the Hindus. It has demonstrated that the Jamaat’s core agenda –
obliterating Hindus from Bangladesh – remains undiluted and its organisational
capacity to wreak havoc remains intact. Incidents of violence against Hindus
were reported from all over the country including Noakhali, Bogra,
Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Barisal, Dinajpur, by March 4 more than 100
temples were vandalised and 1000 homes, at conservative estimates, attacked and
burnt. The Hindus’ business establishments were ransacked and their women
terrorised. Leading Bangladeshi dailies calling for a halt had termed the
pogroms a fallback to 1971. But we did not even hear muted protests from the
international community. The US State Department merely said that it has taken
note of ‘reports of attacks on a Hindu temple’ and our own homegrown
secularists have not let out as much as a grunt in protest. I had hoped to hear
at least a whimper from the faithful Mani Shankar Aiyar, that perpetual
honorary Pakistani Consul-at-Large in India!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
Jamaat leaders facing the war crimes trial is the worst of the lot – in fact
with the Pakistani army in 1971 it was they who formed the real ‘axis of evil’
aiding and abetting the murder and rape of thousands of their fellow citizens.
Sayeedi, then a lowly Urdu- knowing ‘grocery shopkeeper’ in his thirties had
earned distinction from the Pakistani establishment for his atrocities on
Hindus. As the local commander of the Al Badr and Al Shams in his area Sayeedi
had particularly targeted Hindus, arranging for their women to be raped by
Pakistani Army personnel, himself confining and molesting them, forcibly
converting them to Islam and of killing some of them in cold blood.
Politically, in later years, his anti-India stance and his anti-Hindu rhetoric
had earned him a special place in the Jamaat pantheon. Till a few years back,
CDs of his anti-India discourses were publicly distributed along the
Assam-Bangladesh border with the aim of inciting communal passion. Hasina has
indeed shown mettle in hauling the entire top Jamaat leadership in prison and
by putting them on trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The
majority of Bangladeshis have supported the war crimes trial and there is a
growing demand for banning the Jamaat, it is in the interest of Bangladesh and
the growth of the region that both the trial and the ban attain their logical
conclusion, only then will Bangladesh truly liberate itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As
for the Hindus in Bangladesh, they ought to recall what Sayeedi once said in
one of his vitriolic public discourses at the Chittagong Parade Ground, “Why
should we feel sad when the Hindu brothers choose to leave our country? Do we
mourn when we have indigestion and materials leave our bodies?” The Hindus thus
should not mourn Sayeedi’s conviction and his impending departure. Let them
rejoice the final purgation from their body-politic of this highly inedible
fundamentalist chunk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source:
</span><a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/12/history-catches-up-with-jamaat-54336.html" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/12/history-catches-up-with-jamaat-54336.html</a></span></div>
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-37247197767683418362013-03-06T05:56:00.000-08:002013-03-07T02:50:24.151-08:00Twenty Charges against Delwar Hossain Sayedee<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1.
On May 4, 1971, Delawar Hossain Sayedee as a member of Peace (Shanti) Committee
carried secret information to the Pakistan army about a gathering of a group of
people behind the Madhya Masimpur bus-stand under Pirojpur Sadar and took the
army to the spot. The army killed 20 unnamed people by firing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2.
On May 4, 1971, Sayedee along with his accomplices accompanied by the Pakistan army
looted belongings of members of the Hindu community living in Masimpur Hindu Para
under Pirojpur Sadar. They also set the houses of Hindus alight and opened fire
on the scared people, who started fleeing the scene, killing 13 people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3.
On May 4, 1971, Sayedee led a team of the Pakistan army to Masimpur Hindu Para,
where the team looted goods from the houses of two members of the Hindu
community -- Monindra Nath Mistri and Suresh Chandra Mondol -- and destroyed
their houses by setting them on fire. Sayedee also directly took part in the
large-scale destruction by setting fire to the roadside houses of villages
Kalibari, Masimpur, Palpara, Sikarpur, Razarhat, Kukarpara, Dumur Tola,
Kalamtola, Nawabpur, Alamkuthi, Dhukigathi, Parerha and Chinrakhali.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4.
On May 4, 1971, Sayedee and his accomplices, accompanied by the Pakistani army looted
the houses of members of the Hindu community and opened fire indiscriminately on
them in front of Dhopa Bari and behind the LGED Building in Pirojpur, leaving
four persons killed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5.
Sayedee declared publicly to arrest Saif Mizanur Rahman, then deputy magistrate
of Pirojpur Sub-division, when the magistrate organised a Sarbo Dalio Sangram
Parishad to inspire people to join the Liberation War. On May 5, 1971, Sayedee
along with his associate Monnaf (now deceased), a member of Peace (Shanti)
Committee, accompanied by the Pakistan army picked up Saif from the hospital
where he was hiding and took him to the bank of the Baleshwar river. On the
same date and time, Foyezur Rahman Ahmed, sub-divisional police officer, and
Abdur Razzak (SDO in charge of Pirojpur), were also arrested from their
workplaces and taken to the river bank. Sayedee as a member of the killer squad
was present there and all three government officials were gunned down. Their
bodies were thrown into the river Baleshwar. Sayedee directly participated and abetted
in the acts of abduction and killing of those three officers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6.
On May 7, 1971, Sayedee identified the houses and shops of Bangalees belonging
to the Awami League, Hindu community and supporters of the Liberation War at
Parerhat Bazar under Pirojpur Sadar. Sayedee as one of the perpetrators raided
those shops and houses and looted valuables, including 22 seers of gold and
silver from the shop of one Makhanlal Saha.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7.
On May 8, 1971, Sayedee led a team of the Pakistan army to the house of Nurul
Islam Khan, where he identified Nurul Islam as an Awami League leader and his
son Shahidul Islam Selim as a freedom-fighter to the army. Sayedee then
detained Nurul Islam and handed him to the army, which tortured Nurul Islam.
His house was then looted and finally set on fire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8.
On May 8, 1971, Sayedee and his accomplices accompanied by the Pakistan army raided
the house of one Manik Posari at Chitholia under Pirojpur Sadar and caught his brother
Mofizuddin and one Ibrahim. Sayedee's accomplices then burnt five houses there.
On the way to the Pakistani army's camp, Sayedee instigated the members of the occupation
force to kill Ibrahim by gunshot and dump his body near a bridge. On the other
hand, Mofiz was taken to the army camp and tortured. Sayedee directly
participated in the abduction, murder and persecution of the victims.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">9.
On June 2, 1971, armed associates of Sayedee under his leadership and
accompanied by the Pakistani army raided the house of one Abdul Halim Babul at
Nolbunia under Indurkani Police Station and looted valuables from Halim's
house. The team then reduced the house to ashes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">10.
On June 2, 1971, Sayedee's armed associates under his leadership and
accompanied by the Pakistan army burnt 25 houses of a Hindu Para in Umedpur
village under Indurkani Police Station. At one stage, a victim, Bisabali, was
tied to a coconut tree andwas shot dead by Sayedee's accomplice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">11.
On June 2, 1971, Sayedee led a team of Peace (Shanti) Committee members, accompanied
by the Pakistani army, to raid the house of Mahbubul Alam Howlader (freedom-fighter)
of Tengra Khali village under Indurkani Police Station. Sayedee and the team
then detained Mahbubul's elder brother Abdul Mazid Howlader and tortured him,
and looted cash money, jewellery and other valuables from the house. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">12.
One day a group comprising 15-20 armed accomplices of Sayedee under his leadership
entered the Hindu Para of Parerhat Bazar under Pirojpur Sadar and captured 14
Hindus, who were all supporters of Bangladesh's independence. The fourteen were
then tied with a single rope and dragged to Pirojpur and handed over to
Pakistani soldiers, who killed them. Their bodies were thrown into the river.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">13.
One night, about 2 to 3 months after the war commenced, some members of Peace Committee
under Sayedee's leadership accompanied by the Pakistan army raided the house of
Azhar Ali of Nalbunia village under Pirojpur Sadar Police Station. They then caught
and tortured Azahar Ali and his son Shaheb Ali. The team then abducted Shaheb Ali
and ultimately he was taken to Pirojpur and killed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">14.
During the final stages of the war, Sayedee one morning led a team of Razakar
Bahini consisting of 50 to 60 Razakars, into attacking the Hindu Para of
Hoglabunia under Pirojpur Sadar. Seeing the attackers, the Hindus managed to
flee but one Shefali Gharami failed to do that. Some members of Razakar Bahini
entered her room and raped her. Being the leader of the team, Sayedee did not
prevent them from committing rape upon her. Sayedee and the members of his team
also set fire to the dwelling houses of the Hindu Para.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">15.
During the last part of the war, Sayedee led 15 to 20 armed Razakars who
entered the Hoglabunia village under Pirojpur Sadar Police Station and caught
10 members of the Hindu faith. The attackers then tied all the members of Hindu
community with a single rope, dragged them to Pirojpur and handed them over to
the Pakistani army. They were all killed and their bodies were dumped into the
river.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">16.
In the course of the Liberation War, Sayedee led a group of 10-12 armed Razakars
and Peace Committee members, which surrounded the house of Gouranga Saha of Parerhat
Bandar under Pirojpur Sadar. Subsequently, Sayedee and the others abducted three
women and handed them over to the Pakistan army at Pirojpur where they were confined
and raped for three days before being released.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">17.
During the Liberation War, Sayedee along with other armed Razakars kept Bipod Saha's
daughter Vanu Saha confined to Bipod Saha's house at Parerhat under Pirojpur Sadar
Police Station and regularly used to go there to rape her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">18.
During the Liberation War, one Bhagirothi used to work in the camp of the
Pakistan army. One day, after a fight with the freedom fighters, and at the
instance of Sayedee, Bhagirothi was charged with passing information to the
freedom fighters and killed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">19.
During the war, Sayedee, being a member of Razakar Bahini and exercising his influence
over the Hindu community of Pirojpur, converted 100-150 Hindus of Parerhat and
other villages and compelled them to go to the mosque to offer prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">20.
On a day at the end of November 1971, Sayedee got information that thousands of
people were fleeing to India in order to save their lives. A group of 10-12
armed members of the Razakar Bahini, under Sayedee's leadership, then attacked
the houses of Talukdar Bari at Indurkani village and detained a total of 85
persons and looted goods from there. Of them, all but 10-12 persons were
released in exchange for bribes negotiated by Fazlul Huq, a member of the
Razakar Bahini. Male persons were tortured and female persons were raped by
Pakistan soldiers deployed in the camp.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: </span></span><a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/suppliments/charges_sayedee.pdf" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">http://www.thedailystar.net/suppliments/charges_sayedee.pdf</a><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-72716157452084613232013-03-05T03:24:00.001-08:002013-03-05T03:24:39.034-08:00Puttur: Girl taken to Kerala for conversion – advocate, five others arrested <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Puttur notary,
advocate and Dakshina Kannada district Congress minority unit chief secretary
Nooruddin Salmar has been remanded in judicial custody for allegedly assisting
in the conversion of a Hindu girl from Ankatadka, Paltady and helping his
friends take her to Kerala.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Nooruddin was caught when he was trying to help Mohammed Althaf,
the second accused in the case, to reportedly escape in his car. The Kasargod
police arrested them near Perla. The prime accused in the case is Aziz, a
poultry trader from Ankatadka.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The girl, a resident
of Paltady, had left from her home on February 19 and escaped to Bellary. Aziz
is said to have given the girl Rs 10,000 and asked her to convert to Islam. She
was then taken to Kasargod by accused Rahiman, Mansoor and auto driver Manoj,
and from there to Ponnani by train.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The girl then called Puttur rural police and informed them that
she was in Ponnani. The girl's father filed a complaint in Puttur rural police
station on February 21. It is said that Aziz and the girl had an affair, and
after the family's intervention, it was decided that Aziz and the girl would
not meet or talk to each other anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Meanwhile, based on the information obtained on tracking the phone
number the girl had called from, the Puttur rural police led by SI Jagadish
Reddy under the direction of DySP Sadananda Warnekar left for Ponnani and
brought the girl back. On the basis of her statement, the police filed
complaints against Aziz, Rahiman, Mohammed Althaf, Mansoor and Manoj.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though Nooruddin was only accused of helping the accused escape,
investigations later revealed that he was the mastermind behind the plan to
convert the girl, said DySP Sadananda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Accused Aziz, Althaf and Nooruddin were taken for medical
examination and produced in Puttur court. Puttur lawyers' association filed a
bail plea for Nooruddin's release. B Narasimha Prasad and Mahesh Kaje argued on
his behalf and said that Nooruddin should be granted interim bail as he was an
advocate of the Puttur court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Assistant public prosecutor C Thammana expressed a strong
objection to the bail plea. He said interim bail can be granted to old people,
patients and women but in this case interim bail cannot be granted to the
accused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Justice Venkatesh Nayak who upheld the decision of the public
prosecutor, denied the bail and remanded the accused in judicial custody for 14
days. Along with Nooruddin, the court also awarded judicial custody to Azeez
and Mohammed Althaf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A few people objected to the photographers who were clicking
pictures of the accused. Meanwhile police officials intervened and dispersed
the crowd. Strong security was deployed in the court premises under the
guidance of M Sudarshan, Puttur town police inspector and K Suresh Kumar, rural
police circle inspector.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=166024"><b>http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=166024</b></a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155536391255252933.post-1554168397656574362013-03-04T05:00:00.001-08:002013-03-04T05:00:37.595-08:00Hindus under attack in Bangladesh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Conspicuous
by its absence on Indian news television, the current crisis in Bangladesh
is nothing less than history catching up with the young nation after war and
ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Pakistani army in 1971 gave it wounds that
have remained unhealed for more than four decades.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">After
Islamists amended the young nation’s Constitution in 1977 and 1988 to make
“absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah as the basis of all actions”
its fundamental guiding principle, it was not until 2010 that a Tribunal was
set up to provide justice to those who had been slaughtered by Rezakars in the
aftermath of Bangladesh’s war of independence.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Awarding
of life imprisonment to Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah and death sentences
to war criminals Abul Kalam Azad and Delawar Hossain Sayedee followed have
triggered a fresh wave of attacks on Hindus in the country.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><em><span style="font-style: normal;">Daily
Star</span></em> reports that on
Saturday alone, members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami
Chhatra Shibir have attacked and destroyed six temples and set fire to
several Hindu houses and business in Noakhali, Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur,
Sylhet, Chapainawabganj and Rajganj. These attacks of course, are in addition
to the violence unleashed by Islamists in the last three days in which more
than a dozen people have lost their lives.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
situation, perhaps not surprisingly, is reminiscent of the state of affairs
that prevailed during the early days of the Bangladeshi Government’s tryst with
Islamists when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared a general amnesty for Islamists
against whom trials had not yet been initiated. Rahman was assassinated in
1975, paving the way for a series of military coups and a general chaos that
still lasts.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
current Sheikh Hasina Government too, in its turn, seems unwilling to anger
rioting Jamaatis and is in no mood to do anything about the riots that seem to
be killing the country’s Hindus. Political motivations that kept Mujibur Rahman
from coming down hard upon Islamists in the beginning of the nation’s history
hold the Government hostage still.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus in the wake of a setback to the Islamist
cause is happening exactly as it did back in 1971. Back then, the reason was
the Bangladeshi freedom movement. This time, the reason is justice catching up
with the war criminals.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
In Chittagong,
Jamaati Islamists attacked Hindu majority localities at Jaldi union of
Banshkhali upazila and set fire to a Buddhist temple.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
Jamaat members also burned houses at Dhopapara and Mohajonpara and attacked
people with sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
The rioters also burned three shops belonging to Hindus at Kaliash union of
Satkania upazila.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
Members of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir attacked
a temple and business establishments belonging to Hindus at Bhelkobazar in
Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
Rioters also vandalised some houses in Shovaganj union.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
Vandalism, arson and looting took place in temples, houses and business
establishments of Hindus in Sylhet, Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Laxmipur and
Chapainawabganj.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
Attackers had vandalised the central Kali temple at Mithapukur upazila in
Rangpur and another at Kansat in Chapainawabganj.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">(Source:
Daily star)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
situation wasn’t very different in 1971. Delivering the death sentence to
Sayedee, the judges said they had established that he “…took active part in the
attacks directed against civilian population at Parerhat area, causing murder,
deportation, rape, looting of goods, setting fire to the houses and shops of civilians,
forceful religious conversion, inhuman acts and torture which fall within the
purview of crimes against humanity.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Some
of the charges against Sayedee, with regard to his crimes of 1971, are as
follows.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
On May 4, 1971, Sayedee and his accomplices, accompanied by the Pakistani army
looted the houses of members of the Hindu community and opened fire
indiscriminately on them in front of Dhopa Bari and behind the LGED Building
in Pirojpur, leaving four persons killed.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
On May 7, 1971, Sayedee identified the houses and shops of Bangalees belonging
to the Awami League, Hindu community and supporters of the Liberati on War at
Parerhat Bazar under Pirojpur Sadar. Sayedee as one of the perpetrators raided
those shops and houses and looted valuables, including 22 seers of gold and
silver from the shop of one Makhanlal Saha.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
On May 8, 1971, Sayedee and his accomplices accompanied by the Pakistan army
raided the house of one Manik Posari at Chitholia under Pirojpur Sadar and
caught his brother Mofizuddin and one Ibrahim. Sayedee’s accomplices then burnt
five houses there. On the way to the Pakistani army’s camp, Sayedee instigated
the members of the occupation force to kill Ibrahim by gunshot and dump his
body near a bridge. On the other hand, Mofiz was taken to the army camp and
tortured. Sayedee directly participated in the abduction, murder and
persecution of the victims.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
On June 2, 1971, Sayedee’s armed associates under his leadership and
accompanied by the Pakistan
army burnt 25 houses of a Hindu Para in Umedpur village under Indurkani Police
Station. At one stage, a victim, Bisabali, was tied to a coconut tree and was
shot dead by Sayedee’s accomplice.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">>>
One day a group comprising 15-20 armed accomplices of Sayedee under his
leadership entered the Hindu Para of Parerhat Bazar under Pirojpur Sadar and
captured 14 Hindus, who were all supporters of Bangladesh’s independence. The
fourteen were then tied with a single rope and dragged to Pirojpur and handed
over to Pakistani soldiers, who killed them. Their bodies were thrown into the
river.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Source: <a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/03/hindus-under-attack-in-bangladesh-51684.html">http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/03/hindus-under-attack-in-bangladesh-51684.html</a>
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11490405927751525925noreply@blogger.com0