Islamic Revelution Against Terrorism

Anti-Muslim Propaganda in Yoga classes

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Forty newly-appointed teachers were sent for Yoga training at Matoshri Upasna Vidyapith at Kharodi (Mumbai) by the Municipal Education department. Out of 40, 12 were Muslim teachers who were shown a Video CD during camp.

The CD contained extremely objectionable remarks about Islam. Later when they asked for permission to go out for Friday namaaz, the person-in-charge handed them over a form and asked to give an undertaking that they will not perform namaaz or any other Islamic prayer during their stay at the camp.

Astonished, the teachers spoke to higher officials and questioned the link between Yoga and anti-Muslim propaganda or not letting them go for namaaz. The senior officials called back the Muslim teachers from the camp the same evening. Later the issue rocked the Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s education wing meet.

The secretary of Education Committee Mohan Kandalgaonkar brought up the issue. He alleged that had the Muslim teachers created a scene there, they would have been labelled militants. The Deputy Municipal Commissioner Nande and other officials later apologised and it was unanimously agreed upon that in future Muslim teachers would not be sent on such camps unless officials hold talks with the organisers of the camp.

Though the issue was resolved later but the question arises that how those at the Yoga training class decided to stop Muslims from prayers in this democratic country. And it was when the group had a dozen Muslims and the entire episode occured in Mumbai, not in a faraway town.

Anti-Muslim Modi: Police cheifs

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Two senior police officers posted in Gujarat during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots have submitted to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) the details of strong “anti-Muslim bias” in the state government.

In their affidavits, R.B. Sreekumar, a former additional director general of police (ADGP) who was in-charge of the state Intelligence Bureau during the riots, and Rahul Sharma, the then Bhavnagar Superintendent of Police, questioned the impartiality of the administration.

The SIT on Thursday submitted to the SC its report on the status of probe in the 10 major riots cases it is re-investigating.

“The Chief Minister summoned me to his chamber on May 7, 2002, and instructed me not to concentrate on Sangh Parivar, as its members were not doing anything illegal. He asked me to concentrate on Muslim militants, and get data on Amanpath, suspected to be a Muslim group,” Sreekumar said in his affidavit. Narendra Modi was the CM then.

The government refused to respond to Sreekumar’s allegation. “Such absurd statements do not merit a response. He is anyway a biased officer who joined Teesta Setalwad's organisation after retirement,” said a senior official, who didn’t wish to be identified.

“K.P.S. Gill, the adviser to the Chief Minister, had told state police chief K. Chakravarthy not to reform the politicians — meaning thereby, not to take any action against the VHP and Bajrang Dal. The adviser also wanted the police to vacate the riot victims living in the relief camps, exhibiting a clear anti-Muslim bias,” Sreekumar said in his affidavit.

Sreekumar told HT he was willing to be cross-examined. “Why are they not cross-examining me on… what I have stated on oath in the affidavits," he said, hinting at more damning facts against the government.

Sharma, who is a Deputy Inspector General, CBI, in Mumbai, said: "Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadaphia had contacted me and said the ratio of deaths as a result of police firing was not proper. What I understood was that, he was complaining about more number of deaths of Hindus as compared to Muslims in Bhavnagar city."

In his affidavit, Sharma said a large part of the police records related to riots had been destroyed and “it was on my own conscience that I managed to submit to the investigating agencies what I could protect”.

Interestingly, Sreekumar and Sharma both faced the wrath of the Modi government for not toeing the “official line”. Sreekumar, who retired in February, was chargesheeted in 2005, for leaking intelligence reports. Last year, the Ahmedabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal quashed the government order and directed payment of all dues to him and slammed the government for denying him a promotion.

Sharma was shunted out of Bhavnagar within days of his talk with Zadaphia to an insignificant position in the Ahmedabad Control Room.

Source

Excerpts from Secret Circular No.411 issued by the RSS:

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:49:00 +0000

Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes are to be recruited to the party so as to increase the volunteers to fight against the Ambedkarites and Mussalmans.

Hindutva should be preached with a vengeance among physicians and pharmacists so that, with their help, time expired [sic.] and spurious medicines might be distributed amongst the Scheduled Castes, Mussalmans and Scheduled Tribes. The newborn infants of Shudras, Ati-Shudras, Mussalmans, Christians and the like should be crippled by administering injections to them. To this end, there should be a show of blood-donation camps.

Encouragement and instigation should be carried on [sic.] more vigorously so that the womenfolk of Scheduled Castes, Mussalmans and Christians live by prostitution.

Plans should be made more foolproof so that the people of the Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, Musslamans and Christians, especially the Ambedkarites, become crippled by taking in [sic.] harmful eatables.

Special attention should be given to the students of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes so as to make them read the history written according to our dictates.

During riots the women of Mussalmans and Scheduled Castes should be gang-raped. Friends and acquaintances cannot be spared. The work should proceed on the Surat model.

Publication of writings against Mussalmans, Christians, Buddhists and Ambedkarites should be accelerated. Essays and writings should be published in such a way as to prove that Ashoka was opposed to the Aryans.

All literature opposed to Hindus and Brahmins are [sic.] to be destroyed. Dalits, Mussalmans, Christians and Ambedkarites should be searched out. Care should be taken to see that this literature do [sic.] not reach public places. Hindu literature is to apply [sic.] to the Backward Classes and Ambedkarites.

The demand by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for filling in the backlog vacancies in services shall by no means be met. Watch should be kept to see that their demands for entry and promotion in government, non-government or semi-government institutions are to be rejected and their service records are destroyed with damaging reports.

Measures should be taken to make the prejudices amongst Scheduled Castes and Backward people more deep-rooted. To this end, help must be taken from saints and ascetics.

Attacks should be started with vigour against equality, preaching communists [sic.], Ambedkarites, Islamic teachers, Christian missionaries and neighbours [?].

Assaults should be made on Ambedkar's statues with greater efforts.

Dalit and Muslim writers are to be recruited to the party and by them essays and literature opposed to the Dalits, Ambedkarites and Mussalmans written and preached [sic.]. Attention is to be paid to see that these writings are properly edited and preached [sic.].

Those opposed to Hindutva are to be murdered through false encounters. For this work the help of the police and semi-military [sic.] forces should always be taken."[2]

In the face of this circular, no more evidence is needed to show what Hindutva actually bodes for the Dalit-Bahujans. It circular very clearly indicates that Hindutva aims essentially at preserving the oppression of the Dalit-Bahujans, in addition to the Muslims and Christians, on which the entire edifice of Brahminism stands.

Muslim Leaders urge united fight against terrorism

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:53:00 +0000

BHUBANESWAR: Muslims from different corners of the country and outside assembled in a congregation organised to build a movement against terrorism and pledged themselves to fighting divisive forces here on Sunday.

At the conference on anti-terrorism and global peace, organised by Jamaiat-Ulama-I-Hind, Muslim intellectuals and religious heads condemned the act of terrorism or violence in any form whether by an individual or an organisation.

“The whole country should strive to bring misled section of youth of the country to right path. We should stop them by all means,” they said.

“It is mandatory for us to help each other in maintaining peace and harmony in society,” said Hazrat Maulan Syed Mehemood Asad Madani, head of Jamaiat-Ulama-I-Hind.

He said, “for us India is safest country in the world. We are stakeholders in the country’s development. Our predecessors had made sacrifice to free India from colonialism. Now the foremost duty before us is to fight divisive forces to take the country on path of development.”

The conference of Jamaiat-Ulama-I-Hind appealed to media organizations to refrain from presenting terrorism synonymous to any religion and called them not to interpret events with bias.

Maulana Abdul Mouyeedd Quasmi read out fatwa issued by Darul-Uloom, Deoband, against terrorism. The fatwa said there was no place for terrorism in Islam.

Passing a resolution, Jamaiat-Ulama-I-Hind demanded that a law against communal violence be formulated as early as possible. Hazrat Maulana Quari Syed Md. Usman, president of Jamaiat-Ulama-I-Hind administered oath to delegates on fighting terrorism.

Addressing the massive rally in the evening, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said his Government was committed to protecting life and property of every citizen. Any form of terrorism should be condemned in strongest possible terms, he said.

Swami Agnivesh, a social activist, said efforts should be made to keep communal forces at bay. They were the biggest threat to nations stability, he said. Another Hindu religious leader Baba Balia also spoke at the occasion.

Source

HUJI tried to kill Kalam

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:45:00 +0000

New Delhi (PTI): Six Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami (HUJI) terrorists, accused of plotting to kidnap cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly, had also attempted to assassinate A P J Abdul Kalam during his visit to Patna in 2001, the prosecution told a Delhi court on Monday.
"They (terrorists) also tried to assassinate A P J Abdul Kalam (the then Scientific Advisor to the Defence Ministry), when he visited Patna, but their plan could not succeed due to lack of logistic support there," Public Prosecutor Anita Hooda submitted before Additional Sessions Judge Pinki.
The chilling disclosure was made by Tariq Mohammed, a Pakistan-based HUJI militant, during his custodial interrogation, the prosecutor said while continuing with final arguments for the third day.
The arrested HUJI men were working at the instructions of their Pakistan-based masters, Asif Raza Khan, Umar Sheikh and Azam Cheema, she said.
"The leaders wanted them to abduct Sachin Tendulkar for ransom to raise funds for their terrorist activities. They also wanted to kidnap Saurav for the purpose of securing the release of their two men lodged in jails," the prosecutor, while referring to the chargesheet, submitted.
Besides attempting to kill Kalam, the accused also had a plan to "carry out explosions" at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, the prosecutor said.

Source

Pakistan, BJP celebrate Communal violance in India- Shakeel Ahmed

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Central Minister Dr. Shakeel Ahmed, at a seminar on terrorism and communalism at the Gandhi Museum in Patna on Monday, accused both Pakistan and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for stirring up trouble involving Hindus and Muslims to serve their own interests as and when needed.

"Any time there is a Hindu-Muslim conflict in India both Pakistan and BJP activists distribute sweets and celebrate," Ahmed said adding the Pakistani leaders knew that they could remain in power only by creating communal chaos in India.

The Congress leader accused the BJP of trying to derive political mileage out of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and appealed to the people not to support those who celebrate the killer of Mahatma Gandhi.

Classifying terrorists into four categories, Ahmed said they had no caste or religion and came in different flavors including the foreign-sponsored terrorists, domestic extremists like the Naxalites, the separatist, and the regionalists who were damaging the secular fiber of the nation.

Former Chief Minister Ram Sundar Das, museum secretary Dr. Razi Ahmed, and Jiyalal Arya also spoke on the occasion.

"If everyone just followed the path of Mahatma Gandhi, we would not have communal unrest as we have recently in our nation," Das said.

Source

Gujarat Minster distributed Swords to Massacre Muslims

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:15:00 +0000

The government in an affidavit
in the Gujarat High Court has said that state minister Maya Kodnani led the mob, instigated them and distributed weapons to carry out Naroda riot which left 95 people dead in 2002. The affidavit was filed in the court on Thursday on the basis of findings of Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court challenging anticipatory bail given to Kodnani by the lower court. "She was the leader of mob and was an MLA and allegations against her is she was instigating the mob to commit crime and therefore she was playing the main role," the affidavit said. The copy of the affidavit is with PTI. The affidavit said, "from one of the statements of witnesses it has been revealed that she had fired from her pistol, as well as, from another statement it has been revealed that she had come to the spot in a car with other persons and had distributed swords among the mob." Kodnani is a Minister of State for Higher Education in the Gujarat government and is regularly attending the ongoing Assembly session. Kodnani had gone underground after SIT declared her absconder and resurfaced only after the lower court granted anticipatory bail to her. The affidavit said she is a minister in the present government, so there are ample chances of tampering with prosecution witnesses by way of giving threat. It has said that about 15 witness have testified that a mob of around 15,000 people was headed by Kodnani and she was instigating the mob. Speaking about the lower court order, the affidavit says that lower court had passed the order of giving anticipatory bail to Kodnani without appreciating the affidavit placed on record by the prosecution, and without considering the papers of the investigation. The lower court's order granting anticipatory bail to Kodnani said that it is proved that she was part of the mob, but anticipatory bail was given to her on basis of parity as others who were part of the mob have been given bail.

The matter of anticipatory bail of Kodnani came up for hearing on Thursday, but Justice A S Dave of the Gujarat High Court declined to hear the petition saying "not before me".

Now the matter will come up for hearing in front of Justice D H Vaghela on February 24.

Over 95 people belonging to the minority community were killed and their properties destroyed in Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam by a mob on February 28, 2002 following the Godhra train buring incident.

Source

Ram Sene's Moral Policing Justified?

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:23:00 +0000

In a Democracy, can somebody come and dictate what you should do and what you should not? Just imagine the day when you would be beaten up for watching an English movie in the name of culture and tradition.

Are these Sri Ram Sena terrorists fit enough to act like moral polices and dictate public what they should wear and what they should not.. what they should do and what they should not? Peep into their personal lives and u will find that these guys themselves are biggest blunders to their families. the leader himself is a school drop out. they break Indian traditions and Hindu rules on a number of occasions and yet they catch a stick in hand and order other people to follow as they say? They are not police and its none of their business to snatch other person's rights in the name of religion. If they really respected Indian culture, then would they raise their hands on an Indian woman?
why are Hindu youngsters not reacting? u always ask us about Muslim terrorists, why are u silent when terrorists are using religion's name?

Ram Sene List of Rules :
1. Girls should not wear jeans and T shirts
2. No valentines day
3. Girls should stay at home after 7pm and make chapatis (this is what Muthalik told in an interview)
4. Hindu girls must not talk to Muslim boys but Hindu guys can talk and make love with Muslim girls
5. Show your anger on Muslims whenever u can to keep them under control.

These rules are for now. for more rules, plz wait and see, there is a very big list coming for sure.

By the way, why should we pay our taxes to the government? why not pay our taxes to Sri Rma Sene and Bhajrangdal and ask them to take care of us? may be in that way we would be safer. shame on our polititians and impotent governments. Will no one save the citizens of India? Congress will do nothing but sit and watch as always. BJP will pamper these hindutva terrorists because it fears the loss of hardcore hindu votes.

WHY ARE HINDU GUYS DATING MUSLIM GIRLS NOT ATTACKED?

Why are these fanatics not attacking Hindu guys who date and flirt with Muslim girls? Do they mean to say that Men can do whatever they want and women can not? Do they mean to imply that women are a sex item of 'their' community and other community using their tool is considered as offense by them?
Recently a 15 year old girl was harassed by Hindutva brigade when she was talking to a Muslim boy in Manglore. She and her friends were beaten and then handed over to cops. The cops made the guy write an letter of apology and insulted the girl's family. The girl could not bear the humiliation and commited suicide. You know what the worst of all is? The hindutva terrorists forced her father to lodge a complaint against Salim, the girl's friend, saying that he raped his daughter and caused the death of his daughter. How many of these guys who talk about Indian culture really live by it? How many of them do not drink and sleep with women in brothal houses or how many of them do you think do not have 'girl friends' and illegal affairs? How many of them wear dhoti kurta and above all, how many of them are well behaved and really 'Hindu' from inside?

Increasing rapes and molestation of minors

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:14:00 +0000

New Delhi: In a fifth sexual assault on minor girls in Delhi in barely two weeks, all by neighbours, a rickshaw puller allegedly raped a two-and-a-half-year-old girl, the police said on Monday.

Lalan Prasad, 23, took the victim to a secluded place in Raghubir Nagar area late on Sunday and allegedly raped her.

The police said Prasad, who is from Bihar, then dropped the girl home but the family caught him after seeing their daughter bleeding profusely.

The family informed the police, but Prasad managed to escape before the officials could reach the spot.

The girl was admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where her condition was stated to be critical on Monday afternoon.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Delhi) Sharad Agarwal said Prasad was a distant relative of the victim. "We have sent a team to Bihar to arrest him," he said.

The incident comes in a series of crimes targeting minor girls.

A 12-year-old girl, who is mentally challenged and hearing and speech impaired, was raped in her east Delhi home in the early hours Sunday. She was going to the toilet when her neighbour Sandip Rawat attacked and raped her, police said.

Saturday, Attar Singh, a Railway employee allegedly molested an eight-year-old girl in his northeast Delhi neighbourhood.

A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour in Najafgrah area of southwest Delhi last Monday.

On April 3, three men allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in a stationary car in west Delhi. The victim's neighbour was among the accused.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Defensive Nature of Jihad

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Taken from A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád' by Moulavi Gerágh Ali , Chapter 3

Sidenote: 17. Verses from the Koran in support of the defensive character of the wars.

This brief sketch of the defensive wars of Mohammad with the Koreish will fully show, that those who assert that Mohammad was aggressive or revengeful in his wars, or that he made war to force his religion upon the people, are altogether in the wrong.

I will now quote some verses of the Koran, showing that all the wars of Mohammad with the Koreish were defensive wars.

39. "Verily, God will ward off^[1] mischief from believers: lo, God loveth not the false, the unbeliever."

40. "A sanction is given to those who have been fought,^[2] because they have suffered outrages, and verily, God is well able to succour them"—

41. "Those who have been driven forth from their homes wrongfully, only because they say, 'Our Lord is the God.' And if God had not repelled some men by others, cloisters and churches and oratories and mosques wherein the name of God is ever commemorated, would surely have been destroyed! And him who helpeth God will God surely help: Verily, God is Strong, Mighty."

42. "They who, if We established them in this land, will observe prayer and pay the alms of obligation and enjoin what is recognized as right—and forbid what is unlawful. And the final issue of all things is unto God."—Sura, xxii.

186. "And fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you: but commit not the injustice of attacking them first: verily, God loveth not the unjust."

187. "And kill them wherever ye find them, and eject them from whatever place they have ejected you, for (fitnah)^[3] persecution is worse than slaughter: yet attack them not at the sacred mosque, until they attack you therein; but if they attack you, then slay them—Such is the recompense of the infidels!"—

188. "But if they desist,^[4] then verily God is Gracious, Merciful!"

189. "And do battle against them until there be no more (fitnah) persecution, and the worship be that of God: but if they desist, then let there be no hostility, save against wrong-doers."

214. "They will ask thee concerning war in the Sacred Month. Say: The act of fighting therein is a grave crime; but the act of turning others aside from the path of God, and unbelief in Him, and to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and to drive out his people, is worse in the sight of God; and persecution^[5] (fitnah^[6]) is worse than bloodshed. But they will not cease to war against you until they turn you from your religion, if they be able: but whoever of you shall turn from his religion, and die an infidel, their works shall be fruitless in this world and in the next: and they shall be consigned to the fire; therein to abide for aye."

215. "But they who believe, and who fly their country, and do their utmost in the cause of God, may hope for God's mercy: and God is Gracious, Merciful."

245. "And fight in the cause of God; and know that God is He who Heareth, Knoweth."

247. "Hast thou not considered the assembly of the children of Israel after the death of Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs,—'Raise up for us a king; we will do battle for the cause of God?' He said, 'May it not be that if to fight were ordained you, ye would not fight?' They said, 'And why should we not fight in the cause of God, since we are driven forth from our dwellings and our children?' But when fighting was commanded them they turned back, save a few of them: But God knew the offenders!"

252. "And by the will of God they routed them; and (Dâood) David slew Goliath; and God gave him the kingship and wisdom, and taught him according to his will: and were it not for the restraint of one by the means of the other imposed on men by God, verily the earth had assuredly gone to ruin, but God is bounteous to his creatures."—Sura, ii.

76. "Let those then fight in the cause of God who barter this present life for that which is to come; for whoever fighteth on God's path, whether he be slain or conquer, We will in the end give him a great reward."

77. "But what hath come to you that ye fight not on the path of God, and for the weak among men, women and children, who say, 'O our Lord! bring us forth from this City whose inhabitants are oppressors; give us a champion from thy presence; and give us from thy presence a defender?'"

78. "They who believe, fight on the path of God; and they who believe not, fight on the path of Thâgoot: Fight then against the friends of Satan—Verily, the craft of Satan shall be powerless!"

86. "Fight then on the path of God: lay not burdens on any but thyself; and stir up the faithful. The prowess of the infidels, God will haply restrain; for God is the stronger in prowess, and the stronger to punish."

91. "They desire that ye should be unbelievers as they are unbelievers, and that ye should be alike. Take therefore none of them for friends, until they have fled their homes for the cause of God. If they turn back, then seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; but take none of them as friends or helpers."

92. "Except those who seek asylum among your allies, and those who come over to you—prevented by their own hearts by making war on you, or from making war on their own people. Had God pleased, He would certainly have given them power against you, and they would certainly have made war upon you! But, if they depart from you, and make not war against you and offer you peace, then God alloweth you no occasion against them."

93. "Ye will find others who seek to gain your confidence as well as that of their own people: So oft as they return to sedition, they shall be overthrown in it: But if they leave you not, nor propose terms of peace to you, nor withhold their hands, then seize them, and slay them wherever ye find them. Over these have We given you undoubted power."—Sura, iv.

19. "O Meccans! If ye desired a decision, now hath the decision come to you. It will be better for you if ye give over the struggle (or attacking upon Medina or the Moslem). If ye return to it we will return; and your forces, though they may be many, shall by no means avail you aught, because God is with the faithful."

39. "Say to the infidels: If they desist (from persecuting, obstructing, and attacking the Moslems), what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return to it (commit again the hostilities), they have already before them the doom of the ancients!"

40. "Fight then against them till civil strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's; and if they desist, verily God beholdeth what they do."

41. "But if they turn their back, know ye that God is your protector: Excellent protector! and excellent helper!"

73. "... And they who have believed, but have not fled their homes, shall have no rights of kindred with you at all, until they too fly their country. Yet if they seek aid from you on account of the faith, your part it is to give them aid, except against a people between whom and yourselves there may be a treaty. And God beholdeth your actions."

74. "And the infidels have the like relationships one with another. Unless ye do the same (i.e., aid the oppressed and repel the oppressor), there will be discord in the land and great corruption."—Sura, viii.

(When the Meccans broke the Hodeibia treaty mentioned in the above paragraph, the Koreish and Bani Bakr attacked Bani Khozaá, who were in alliance with Mohammad. It became incumbent on him to assist Bani Bakr and to chastize the aggressors. The following verses were published on that occasion, but happily, before the expiration of the fixed period, the Koreish submitted and Mecca was taken without bloodshed, and these verses were not acted upon:—)

1. "An immunity from God and His Apostle to those with whom ye are in league (and they have violated the same—compare verses 4, 8 and 10) among the polytheist Meccans."

2. "Go ye therefore at large in the land four months (i.e., four sacred months from Shaw-wal. The treaty was violated by the Koreish in Ramzan, a month immediately previous to the sacred months. It is announced here that four months' time is given to the aggressors, who violated the treaty of Hodeibia, to make terms. After the time is over (verse 5) the Moslems will commence hostilities to defend their allies, the Bani Khozaá), but know that ye shall not find God feeble, and that those who believe not, God will put to shame."

3. "And a proclamation on the part of God and His Apostle to the people on the day of the greater pilgrimage, that God is free from any engagement with those who worship other gods with God, as is his Apostle. If then, ye turn to God, it will be better for you; but if ye turn back, then know that ye shall not find God feeble: and to those who believe not, announce thou a grievous punishment."

4. "But this concerneth not those Polytheists with whom ye are in league, and who have afterwards in no way failed you, and not yet aided any one against you. Observe, therefore, your engagement with them through the whole time of their treaty. Verily, God loveth those who fear Him."

5. "And when the sacred months are passed^[7] kill those who join other gods with God^[8] wherever ye find them; and seize them, and besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush; but if they repent and observe prayer and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way.^[9] Verily, God is Gracious, Merciful."

6. "If any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylum of thee, grant him an asylum, in order that he hear the Word of God; then let him reach his place of safety. This, for that they are people devoid of knowledge."

7. "How can they who add gods to God be in league with God and His Apostle, save those with whom ye made a league at the sacred temple? So long as they are true to you,^[10] be ye true to them: verily, God loveth those who fear Him."

8. "How can they? since if they prevail against you, they will not regard in their dealing with you, either ties of blood or good faith: With their mouths they content you, but their hearts are averse, and most of them are perverse doers."

9. "They sell the signs of God for a mean price, and turn others aside from his way; of a truth, evil is it that they do!"

10. "They respect not with a believer either ties of blood or good faith; and these are the transgressors!"

11. "Yet if they turn to God and observe prayer, and pay the impost, then are they your brethren in religion: and We make clear the signs for men of knowledge."^[11]

12. "But if, after alliance made, they violate their covenant and revile your religion, then do battle with the ringleaders of infidelity—verily there is no faith in them! Haply they will desist."

13. "Will ye not do battle with a people (the Meccans) who have broken their covenant and aimed to expel your Apostle and attacked you first? Will ye dread them? God truly is more worthy of your fear if ye are believers!"

14. "Make war on them: By your hands will God chastize them and put them to shame, and give victory over them, and heal the bosom of a people who believe."

36. "... and attack those who join gods with God one and all, as they attack you one and all."—Sura, ix.

What the above-quoted verses show.

I need not repeat here what these verses and the facts related above show, that the wars of Mohammad with the Koreish were merely defensive, and the Koreish were the aggressors, and that Mohammad was quite justified in taking up arms against them.

"In the state of nature every man has a right to defend," writes Mr. Edward Gibbon,^[1] "by force of arms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even to repeat, the violence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonable measure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, the duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and Mahommed, in the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been despoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen." It has been fully shown in the foregoing paragraphs that the Moslems in Mecca enjoyed neither safety nor security. Religious freedom was denied to them, though they were harmless and peaceful members of the community. Besides this they were expelled from their homes, leaving their families and their property in the hands of their persecutors, and were prevented from returning to Mecca, and were refused access to the Sacred Mosque; and, above all, they were attacked by the Meccans in force at Medina.

Justification of the Moslems in taking up arms against their aggressors.
The persecution of the early Moslems by the Koreish was on religious grounds. They would not allow the believers to renounce the religion of their forefathers and profess Islam. Their intolerance was so strong and harsh that they tortured some of the professors of the new faith to renounce the same and to rejoin their former idolatry. "Taking away the lives, the fortune, the liberty, any of the rights of our brethren, merely for serving their Maker in such manner as they are persuaded they ought, when by so doing they hurt not human society, or any member of it, materially, is evidently inconsistent with all justice and humanity: for it is punishing those who have not injured us, and who, if they mistake, deserve only pity from us. The early Moslems had had every international right to resent persecution and intolerance of the Meccans and to establish themselves by force of arms, to enjoy their religious liberty and to practise their religion freely.

The first aggression after the Hegira was not on the part of Mohammad (saw).
Some of the European biographers of Mohammad say, "that the first aggressions after the Hegira were solely on the part of Mahomet and his followers. It was not until several of their caravans had been waylaid and plundered, and blood had thus been shed, that the people of Mecca were forced in self-defence to resort to arms.

This is not correct. The aggressors, in the first instance, were the Koreish, who, as already shown, followed up their persecution of the Moslems by an attack upon the city in which the Prophet and his followers had taken refuge. Even taking it for granted that the Moslems were the first aggressors after the Hegira, was not the Hegira, or expulsion itself (leaving aside the previous persecutions and oppressions at Mecca), a sufficient reason for the commencement of hostilities by the Moslems, who were anxious to secure their moral and religious freedom, and to protect themselves and their relatives from further aggressions?

Sir William Muir admits, that "hostilities, indeed, were justified by the 'expulsion' of the believers from Mecca. "It may be said," says Major Vans Kennedy, "that, in these wars, Mohammad was the aggressor by his having, soon after his flight, attempted to intercept the caravans of Mecca. But the first aggression was, undoubtedly, the conspiracy of the Koreish to assassinate Mohammad, and when to save his life he fled from Mecca, himself and his followers were thus deprived of their property, and obliged to depend for their subsistence on the hospitality of the men of Medina, it could not be reasonably expected that they would allow the caravans of their enemies to pass unmolested."

The alleged instances examined:
There is no proof that Mohammad, after the Hegira, commenced hostilities against the Koreish by intercepting their caravans. The alleged instances of the caravans being waylaid by the Moslems at Medina are not corroborated by authentic and trustworthy traditions. They have also internal evidences of their improbability. The Medina people had pledged themselves only to defend the Prophet from attack, and not to join him in any aggressive steps against the Koreish. Therefore, it seems impossible that they should have allowed Mohammad to take any aggressive steps against the Koreish which would have involved them in great trouble.

Hamza and Obeida expedition:
The alleged expeditions against the Koreish caravans by Hamza and the other by Obeida in pursuit of caravans which escaped, are in themselves improbable. Mohammad (saw) would not send fifty or sixty persons to waylay a caravan guarded by two or three hundred armed men.

The Abwa, Bowat, & Osheira expeditions:
The alleged expeditions of Abwa, Bowat, and Osheira, said to have been led by Mohammad (saw) himself to intercept the Mecca caravans, but in vain, are altogether without foundation. He might have gone, if he had gone at all, to Abwa, and Osheira to negotiate friendly terms with Bani Dhumra and Bani Mudlij, as his biographers say, he did.

The affair at Nakhla:
The affair of the Nakhla marauding party, as related in the traditions, is full of discrepancies, and is altogether inconsistent and untrustworthy. The very verse (Sura, ii, verse 214) which the biographers say was revealed on the occasion, and which I have quoted above (para. 16), contains a reference to the Meccans' fighting against the Moslems, which runs counter to the assumption of the European biographers, who make it an aggressive attack on the part of Mohammad (saw). It is probable that Mohammad (saw) might have sent some six or eight scouts to bring in news of the movements and condition of the Koreish, whose attitude towards Mohammad (saw) had become more hostile since his flight to Medina. As the Koreish had a regular and uninterrupted route to Syria for traffic, it was only reasonable on the part of Mohammad (saw) to take precautions, and he was always on his guard. The biographers "Ibn Is-hak", "Ibn Hisham" (p. 424), Tabri (Vol. II, p. 422), Ibnal Athir in "Kamil" (Vol. II, p. 87), Halabi in Insanul Oyoon (Vol. III, p. 318), say, that Mohammad (saw) had given written instructions to Abdoollah-bin-Jahsh, which was to the effect "bring me intelligence of their affairs." They also say that Mohammad (saw) was displeased with Abdoollah's affair at Nakhla, and said, "I never commanded thee to fight in the Sacred Month." The biographers also relate that Mohammad even paid blood-money for the slain.

At Badr Mohammad (saw) had come only in his defence:

Some of the European biographers of Mohammad allege, that the battle of Badr was brought by Mohammad himself. They appear to hesitate to justify Mohammad(saw) in defending himself against the superior numbers of the Koreish, who had advanced to attack him as far as Badr, three stages from Medina. It is alleged that Mohammad (saw) intended to attack the caravans returning from Syria, conducted by Abu Sofian, his arch-enemy, therefore he set out upon his march with eighty refugees and two hundred and twenty-five people of Medina, and halted at Safra to waylay the caravan. Abu Sofian, warned of Mohammad's (saw) intention, sent some one to Mecca for succour. The Koreish, with nine hundred and fifty strong, marched forth to rescue the caravan. In the meantime, the caravan had passed unmolested, but the Koreish held a council whether to return or go to war. On the one hand, the biographers say, it was argued that the object for which they had set out having been secured, the army should at once retrace its steps. Others demanded that the army should advance. Two tribes returned to Mecca, the rest marched onwards; but it is not fair to allege that Mohammad (saw) had set forth to attack the caravan. Had he any such intention, the people of Medina, who had pledged themselves only to defend him against personal attack, would not have accompanied him. The presence of a large number of the Ansárs, the people of Medina, more than double that of the Mohajirins, the refugees, is a strong proof that they had come out only in their defence.

Mohammad (saw), on receiving intelligence of the advancing force of the Koreish, set out from Medina to check the advance of the Meccan force, and encountered it at Badr, three days' journey from Medina. The Meccan army had advanced nine days' journey from Mecca towards Medina. The forces met at Badr on the 17th of Ramzan (13th January 623), the Meccans had left Mecca on the 8th of Ramzan (4th January), and Mohammad (saw) started only on the 12th of Ramzan (8th January), about four days after the Meccan army had actually set out to attack him. Supposing Abu Sofian had some reason for apprehending an attack from Medina, and sent for succour from Mecca, but the object of the Meccan army of the Koreish for which they had set out having been secured, the caravan having passed unmolested, they ought at once to have retraced their steps. The fact that Mohammad (saw) left Medina four days after the Koreish had left Mecca with a large army advancing towards Medina, is strongly in his favour.

The first aggressions after the Hegira, if from Mohammad, might fairly be looked upon as retaliation.
Even taking it for granted that the first aggressions after the Hegira were solely on the part of the Moslems, and that several of the caravans of the Koreish had been waylaid and plundered, and blood had been shed, it would be unfair to condemn Mohammad. Such attacks, had they been made, might fairly be looked upon as a retaliation for the ill-treatment of the Moslems before the flight from Mecca. "Public war is a state of armed hostility between sovereign nations or governments. It is a law and requisite of civilized existence that men live in political continuous societies, forming organized units called states or nations, whose constituents bear, enjoy and suffer, advance and retrograde together, in peace and in war. The citizen or native of hostile country is thus an enemy, as one of the constituents of the hostile state or nation, and as such is subjected to the hardships of war."^[1] The almost universal rule of most remote times was, and continues to be with barbarous nations, that the private individual of a hostile country is destined to suffer every privation of liberty and protection, and every description of family ties. But Mohammad protected the inoffensive citizen or private individual of the hostile country. He even protected those who had actually come out of Mecca to fight at Badr, but were reluctant to do so. Mohammad had desired quarters to be given to several persons in the Koreish army at Badr. Abul Bakhtari, Zamaa, Hárith Ibn Amir, Abbás and other Bani Háshim were amongst those named.

Ulema association Condems terrorism

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:55:00 +0000

New Delhi, Feb 26: The Anti-terrorism conference organized by Darul Uloom Deoband, India’s oldest and most respected seminary is the first conference where Muslim ulama have condemn terrorism in very clear terms. In the conference the maulanas also defended the Muslim youth who have been wrongly implicated in terrorism cases like never before. It was an occasion that also brought all the Muslim organizations and groups on a common platform.

Here we give the declaration issued by Darul Uloom Deoband's Rabta Madaris Islamiah (Islamic Madrasas Association) at the end of anti-terrorism conference on 25th February 2008.

Islam is the religion of mercy for all humanity. It is the fountainhead of eternal peace, tranquility, security. Islam has given so much importance to human beings that it regards the killing of a single person the of killing the entire humanity, without differentiation based on creed and caste. Its teaching of peace encompasses all humanity. Islam has taught its followers to treat all mankind with equality, mercy, tolerance, justice. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism. It has regarded oppression, mischief, rioting and murdering among severest sins and crimes.

This All India Anti-Terrorism Conference attended by the representatives of all Muslim schools of thought organised by Rabta Madaris Islamiah Arabia (Islamic Madrasas Association), Darul Uloom Deoband condemns all kinds of violence and terrorism in the strongest possible terms. The Conference expresses its deep concern and agony on the present global and national alarming conditions in which most of the nations are adopting such an attitude against their citizens especially Muslims to appease the tyrant and colonial master of the West, which cannot be justified in any way. It is a matter of greater concern that the internal and external policies of our country are getting heavily influenced by these forces. Their aggression, barbarism and state-sponsored terrorism not only in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Bosnia and various South American countries have surpassed all the records known to human history. Contrary to it, our great nation has always been known for impartiality and its moral and spiritual values. Now the situation has worsened so far that every Indian Muslim especially those associated with madrasas, who are innocent with good record of characters, are always gripped by the fear that they might be trapped by the administrative machinery anytime. And, today countless number of innocent Muslims are spending their lives behind the bars and are forced to bear many intolerable tortures. And, those spreading terror, attacking police stations, killing the police in broad daylight and showing illegal arms are roaming about freely with no effective and preventive steps being taken by the government to check their acts of terrorism and violence. This partial attitude has put a big question mark on the secular character of the government posing great threats to the country. Therefore, this All India Anti-Terrorism Conference strongly condemns this attitude and expresses its deep concern on this partiality of government officials and declares its continuous joint struggles for domination of law, justice and secular system.

This conference strongly demands the Indian Government to curb those maligning the madrasas and Muslims. The administrative machinery should be demanded to conduct impartial investigations in activities disturbing public peace in the country and to punish only those found guilty. It also demands to free the accused if he is found innocent and punish severely those officials who accused him of crimes of terrorism. No person of any particular community should be suspected without solid reasons. In short, the government agencies must fulfill their duty justly without any prejudice and bias so that real peace and security may prevail in the country.

Source: khabrein.info

Churches torched on Christimas

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Hindu extremists ransacked and burned eight village churches in eastern India, marring Christmas celebrations in a corner of the country with a history of violence against Christians, officials said Wednesday. One person was killed in the violence.

Authorities deployed 450 police and imposed a curfew to quell the violence in the remote district of Orissa state where the churches — most nothing more than mud and thatch houses — were attacked, said Bahugrahi Mahapatra, a government official.

Six village churches were torched on Christmas Day, and two more were attacked Wednesday along with 10 houses belonging to Christians, Mahapatra said.

India is overwhelmingly Hindu but officially secular, a fact India's leaders often point out. They note that religious minorities, such as Christians, who account for 2.5 percent of the country's 1.1. billion people, and Muslims, who make up 14 percent, often coexist peacefully. Some have risen to the highest levels of government and business.

But throughout India's history, both communities have faced repeated attacks from hard-line Hindus, with violence against Christians often directed at foreign missionaries and Hindu coverts to the religion.

Orissa has one of the worst histories of anti-Christian violence. In one of the most brutal incidents, an Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, where burned to death in their car following a Bible study class in 1999.

Orissa is also the only Indian state that has a law requiring people to obtain police permission before they change their religion. The law was intended to counter missionary work.

There were conflicting reports of what sparked the Christmas violence in the rural district of Kandhamal, with each side blaming the other.

Officials, meanwhile, were hesitant to wade into he-said, she-said — Mahapatra called the violence a "sensitive matter" and refused to discuss how it began.

The Hindu hard-liners said Christians had attempted to attack one of their leaders, 80-year-old Laxmanananda Saraswati of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad group, who leads an anti-conversion movement.

"When they were prevented from attacking him by his followers the Christians hit someone with an ax and one Hindu died," Giriraj Kishore told reporters in New Delhi.

But the New Delhi-based Catholic Bishops Conference of India said the fighting Monday began when Hindu extremists objected to a show marking Christmas Eve, believing it was designed to encourage Hindus at the bottom of the religion's rigid caste hierarchy to convert to Christianity. Low-caste Hindus are often a target of missionaries.

An argument over the Christmas show got out of hand and some of the Hindus opened fire on the Christians, wounding three of them, said John Dayal, a spokesman for the Bishops Conference.

The Hindus then went on a rampage Tuesday, Christmas Day, chasing people out of six churches and setting the mud-and-thatch buildings ablaze, he said.

Later, dozens of people from each community clashed, Dayal said. One person was killed, he added, but could not say if the dead man was a Hindu or Christian. Another 25 people were wounded, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Much of the ill-will in the area, about 840 miles southeast of the national capital, New Delhi, stems from anti-missionary sentiment. Some hard-line Hindus are pushing for all missionaries to be expelled while Christians have challenged the conversion law in court, saying it violates India's constitution.
Source:knx1070.com

Pushkar temple priest molests an american lady

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:38:00 +0000

An American tourist on Wednesday alleged that she was molested by a priest at a temple in Pushkar in Rajasthan's Ajmer district.

In her FIR lodged with the Pushkar police station, the 28-year old woman said the priest indulged in eve-teasing and molestation while she was performing puja at Pap-mochani temple on the banks of Pushkar lake on Tuesday, the Circle Officer (CO) Sangram Singh said.

A case of alleged eve-teasing and molestation was lodged against the priest whose name she did not know, the CO said.

The tourist hailing from Oregon in the US had come for pilgrimage in the holy city, he said, adding an investigation was initiated to trace the priest.

On reports of another foreigner woman being allegedly beaten up by locals in Pushkar, Singh said police has not been approached in this regard.
Source:timesofindia

Did Hindu Population Decrease to 3% in Pakistan?

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 09:43:00 +0000

Hindu extremists claim that hindu population in pakistan decreased from 30% in post partition days to 3% today. They take it as an genuine reason to access license to spread hatred against muslims and kill them. Lets analyse this issue step by step and find out the truth:

The Hindu population in West Pakistan, that is today Pakistan, was 20% in 1941. That came down to 1.5% in 1951
.http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IEH20020531144657&P=old
According to the 1951 census, the population of west Pakistan was 33,816,000 or better 33.8 million

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Demographics_of_pakistan
Around 6.5 million Muslims came into Pakistan while 5.4 Hindus left it. Therefore there was an addition of approximately 6.5-1.1=1.1 million people in the Pakistan population so we can assume that before the partition it was 33.8-1.1= 32.7 million.

http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~akhwaja/papers/The%20Big%20March%20December%202005.pdf(Look through Page 8 of the above pdf link)
Assuming the percentage of Hindus continued to remain 20% till 1947, their numbers before partition would have been 20/100 * 32.7= 6.54 million Hindus.Since we have established that 5.4 million Hindus left during the partition. 6.54-5.4=1.14 million Hindus were left behind. Using the same PDF link, we can estimate that around half a million Hindus were killed during parition riots therefore the net population of Hindus would have been 1.14-0.50= 0.64 million.So basically the percentage they now formed was 0.64/33.8 * 100= 1.89%

So the truth is, inspite of continous migration of pakistani hindus to dubai and other arab countries, their number has actual raised from 1.89% to 3%.

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:32:00 +0000

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Four Christian missionary women were badly beaten by Hindu extremists in the northern Indian state of Haryana. Two clergymen were also hurt in the February 4 attack by Sangh Parivar activists. All the victims belonged to Gospel for Asia, which reported the incident.

Open attacks like this one against women are quite rare. K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel for Asia, told Assist News Service, that “Hindu religious fundamentalists have been making every possible attempt to stop all Christian work in this state for some time, these fundamentalists routinely target Christians, and now they are even attacking women.”

The four missionary women—Vanmala, Lata, Udaya and Ramita—were working in the area for about a year. Four days ago Hindu fundamentalists met them and told them to vacate immediately the house in which they were staying and call their supervising pastors, who came right away to the home.

The women and the pastors were still inside the building when hundreds of people surrounded the house.

A group of the fundamentalists broke into the house and attacked the women and the two pastors who had come to their assistance.

One of the attackers, a policeman, used his police stick against the women; others slapped and kicked them.

When the attackers left, the women sought refuge at a nearby Gospel for Asia-affiliated church.

Gospel for Asia officials have not filed any formal complaint for the time being, but they did inform the local Superintendent of Police.

The Sangh Parīvār is a network of Hindu organisations that share the same Hindutva or Hindu nationalist ideology whose raison d’être is the protection of India’s Hindu identity.

Source

Gujarat Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:14:00 +0000

Ahmedabad, India, May 11, 2002: Police inspect the body of a man killed in rioting the day before. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in riots in the area over the past 10 weeks (Outlook magazine)

The bodies of dozens of burned Muslims waiting for a mass burial lay in a Muslim graveyard in Ahmadabad, India Monday March 4, 2002. (PakNews.com)

A Trip to Gujarath

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:08:00 +0000

‘Modi Sahib has wrought a revolution in Gujarat’ announced the glum-looking corpulent businessman sitting on the berth next to mine on the train to Ahmedabad recently.He proudly introduced himself as a Nagar Brahmin, even though I did not ask him his caste. ‘We now have regular electricity for our industries, new superhighways and massive shopping malls’, he went on excitedly. ‘Modi ji is the saviour of the Hindus of Gujarat. He taught the bloody Muslims a lesson in 2002 and now they dare not raise their heads’, he belligerently asserted as I squirmed in my seat.

A young Sindhi man sharing our compartment, also a businessman based in Ahmedabad, winced and hurriedly changed the topic. A while later, when the Nagar Brahmin was not within hearing range, he whispered, ‘Not all Gujarati Hindus think like this man, although many do. I, for one, don’t, but we can’t openly counter such views, such is the climate of fear in Gujarat’.

The man was right, I discovered during a recent short trip to the state. Public opposition to Modi and to the Hindutva lobby is muted, not just because of fear but also because the claims of the Hindutva forces have become received truths for many Gujarati Hindus, thanks to years of carefully-planned indoctrination. The BJP and allied Hindutva fronts have made deep inroads among sections of communities such as Dalits and Adivasis, who form a large chunk of Gujarat’s ‘Hindu’ population, who were traditionally opposed to the ‘upper-caste-controlled Hindutva groups and were once earlier strong Congress vote-banks.

‘The Congress is totally ineffective as an opposition force in Gujarat’, says Raju Solanki, a well-known Dalit activist, who works with the Centre for Social Justice in Ahmedabad. ‘In the last six decades, the Congress did precious little for the Dalits and Adivasis besides taking their votes and so the BJP has taken over. There’s no difference, as far as Dalits and Adivasis are concerned, between the two—they both represent broadly the same dominant caste-class groups. Hinduvta fronts are desperately trying to Hinduise the Dalits and Adivasis, to use them as foot-soldiers against the Muslims, setting them against each other so that ‘upper’ caste rule remains unchallenged’, he argues.

Unity between Dalits, Backward Castes, Adivasis and Muslims, who together form the overwhelming majority of Gujarat’s population, is the only way to challenge the BJP and the Congress, Solanki says. Yet, he laments, hardly any efforts are being made in this regard. In the wake of the state-sponsored anti-Muslim genocide in 2002, scores of NGOs entered Gujarat to provide relief, but today, he says, few of them are involved in anti-communal work. ‘Many of them made tall promises of working for empowerment, for Dalit-Muslim unity, for taking on the Hindutva lobby and so on. They got lots of money to fund big projects but nothing much has come of this’. ‘And then there are so many stories of corruption in the NGO circuit’, he wryly adds. ‘And so’, he goes on, ‘the only effective opposition I see today is within the BJP itself, among dissidents opposed to Modi’. ‘But that’, he explains, ‘in no way challenges the ideology and caste-base of Hindutva’. ‘

Solanki speaks of how the focus solely on communalism in Gujarat has led to an obscuring in secular political discourse of the widespread oppression of Dalits and Adivasis in the state. ‘The secularists, self-proclaimed secularists such as the Congress, and the Hindutva lobby all focus only on the issue of Hindu-Muslim relations, thus effectively ignoring the Adivasis and Dalits’, he notes. ‘Of course we need to work for communal harmony, for the rights of the Muslims and Christians, but that must go along with strengthening of the struggles of the Adivasis and Dalits. Hindutva forces seek to whip up anti-Muslim sentiments precisely to sabotage the growing awareness of the Adivasis and Dalits about the oppression that they suffer at the hands of the caste Hindu establishment’. ‘Hence’, he insists, ‘communalism cannot be defeated without taking up the caste issue, without working to unite the oppressed castes and the Muslims at the political and social level against the system of caste-class oppression of which they are the common victims’. ‘We need to make Dalit and Adivasi issues, along with the plight of Muslims, the centre of a new social, cultural and political movement, which alone can challenge the ‘upper’ caste Hindu hegemony which both the BJP and the Congress represent and defend’, he tells me.

Solanki talks of the work of his Centre in taking up numerous cases related to these communities. He speaks of widespread discrimination being practiced against Dalits in Gujarat—for instance, in this state which the Hindutva lobby touts about as about as its most successful experimental ground, a veritable ‘Hindu Rashtra’, Dalits continue to be refused entry into temples in many villages. He cites figures about rape of Dalit and Adivasi women by ‘upper’ caste landlords, many of them firm BJP supporters; of increasing land alienation among these groups; of the squalid slums, deprived of even the most basic amenities, to which the ‘low’ castes have been confined in Gujarat’s towns; and of the rapid impoverishment of Dalits and Adivasis communities in the face of the government’s economic policies.

*

Godhra, a town located in Gujarat’s Panchmahals district, a two hours’ journey from Ahmedabad, has a roughly equal Hindu and Muslim population. This obscure town shot into the limelight when, in 2002, a coach of a train caught fire near the town’s railway station, triggering off a massacre of Muslims throughout Gujarat on an unprecedented scale. Today, Godhra, like many other towns in Gujarat, is geographically completely polarized. A narrow river divides the town into two clearly Hindu and Muslim areas.

A semblance of ‘normality’ prevails in the town, although, its residents are quick to point out that the massacres of 2002, which, curiously, left Godhra itself largely untouched, have severely impacted on inter-communal relations. Almost all the NGOs that appeared in Godhra in the wake of the genocide to extend relief to Muslim victims in scores of villages nearby have now departed. Only a couple or so remain, with much trimmed budgets and staff. ‘As a result’, says Ilyas Bhagat, a local social activist, ‘the victims of the massacre, including families of over 80 men arrested under the deadly POTA law, have been left to fend for themselves’.

Bismillah Behen works with an NGO in Godhra and outlying villages. Her house in Himmatnagar was burnt down by Hindu mobs in 2002. Her husband has taken a second wife, and so she now lives by herself. Her own trauma, as a victim of both the anti-Muslim pogrom and of an insensitive husband, she says, has made her even more committed to working for communal harmony and women’s rights. ‘Women are the worse sufferers in riots’, she explains. She tells me of the efforts she and some of her colleagues, including Adivasis and Dalits, have made to bring women of different marginalized communities in Godhra to fight for their rights. She sees this as important not only in itself but also as one way of countering communalism. ‘We face opposition from patriarchal conservative forces in all our communities. Some Adivasi and Dalit men tell our non-Muslim sisters who are with us that they should not associate with us because we helped Muslim victims of the massacres. Likewise, some maulvis oppose the Muslim sisters in our group because they refuse to cover themselves in burkhas. They are angry with us because they insist that women must not come out of their homes’. ‘But’, she emphatically adds, ‘we women have undergone so much suffering during the riots. We have to come out and speak out’.

Bismillah Behen has not read any arcane feminist texts—what she speaks reflects her own personal and collective struggle, along with that of other women like her, who have experienced what it means to live through a genocide. ‘We have to join hands with sisters from other marginalized communities to fight for women’s rights and also against communalism’, she insists. ‘We have to explain to our sisters in other communities that communalism poses a major threat to women’s rights and to our freedom. The issue of women of all socially marginalized communities must be made a central part of the anti-communal struggle’.

Lakshmi Parmar, 26, is Bismillah’s colleague. She is the only female graduate in her village. Hailing from a poor Dalit family of the Vankar or weaver caste, she faces considerable opposition from her villagers, including some fellow Dalits, for working with Muslim women and for communal harmony. She tells me about how, in many villages around Godhra, Dalits were literally forced by the ‘upper’ castes to join them in attacking and killing Muslims in 2002. ‘They searched Dalit houses to see if any Muslims were hidden there. They threatened to boycott them if they helped the Muslims flee. Many Dalits yielded to this pressure as, being mostly landless labourers, they are dependent on the ‘upper castes for work’, she says.

Lakshmi speaks of how in these villages Dalits continue to suffer humiliation at the hands of the ‘upper’ castes, who consider them as fellow ‘Hindus’ only at the time of anti-Muslim violence, when they are generally used to attack Muslims. ‘In my own village’, she says, “Dalits cannot enter the local temple. A Dalit bridegroom cannot sit on a horse like ‘upper’ castes do. Last year my brother, who was getting married, tried to do that but we were forcibly stopped”.

‘Those days were really harrowing for all of us’, Lakshmi recounts of the brutal events of 2002. ‘I had to stay in a village, where Muslims had been driven out from. We started meetings to bring the different communities together, to facilitate the return of the Muslims to their homes, to rebuild their houses. But, eventually, due to the opposition of a local BJP politician, I had to flee’, she says. ‘However, we carried on working. We tried to bring together Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis through cultural activities, such as observing the anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Women’s Day and so on’.

We need to widen the scope of the movement for the unity of marginalized communities from just aiming at the political level to the wider social level’, she explains. ‘We have to work to unite our people through new forms of culture of resistance and struggle’.

*

‘This is, of course, may be easier said than done’, says Raju Solanki, ‘but we have to make it our main focus. From ancient times to this day, ‘upper’ caste forces, including today the Congress and the Hindutva lobby, have used culture, including religion, to oppress us. We now must use those very tools to challenge our oppression’.

Solanki shows me a book he’s written celebrating a fellow Gujarati Dalit activist who recently died, who opposed the entry of Hindutva activists into his slum and also prevented attacks on Muslims in his locality. ‘I’m preparing a book about such unsung heroes’, he informs me. ‘These voices of resistance, be they of Adivasis, Muslims, Backward Castes or Dalits, have been deliberately invisibilised from our history by the Brahminical establishment’, he notes. ‘We need to retrieve their memory, and build up a culture of resistance based on this’. ‘You cannot counter caste Hindu chauvinism without this’, he insists.

Solanki reads to me from a booklet that he has just published, titled ‘Blood Under Saffron’, to make his point about the dire need for marginalised communities in Gujarat to join hands to counter caste Hindu chauvinism, of which he says they are fellow victims. The booklet speaks of Gujarat’s panchayat rules that specify that disposing off dead animals and unclaimed corpses is a responsibility particular to the Scheduled Castes, a continuation of Manu’s ancient code; of the deaths of numerous sweepers belonging to the ‘lowest’ castes from suffocation while cleaning manholes; of the continuing practice of Valmikis in Gujarat being forced to carry human excreta on their heads; of ‘upper’ castes denying Dalits access to burial grounds; of mounting Dalit impoverishment, and, in the face of this, of continuing neglect by the state, and so on.

‘We need to bring the Dalits and other marginalized communities, besides the Muslims, back into Gujarat’s political discourse’, Solanki reiterates. ‘We need to shift the discourse from the secularism versus communalism debate to bring to the centre issues of caste-class domination and subjugation’, Solanki concludes. ‘Only then can Hindutva be effectively challenged, not just in Gujarat, but in the rest of the country as well’.

-By Yoginder Sikand at indianmuslims.in

Who are Aryans?

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:34:00 +0000

There are many theories trying to explain this question.
1. Aryans are Ancient Iranians-
"I am Dariush, the great king, the king of kings,
The king od many countries, many people,
The king od this expensive land,
The son of Wishtapsa of Archaemenid,
Persian, the son of persian,
Aryan from the Aryan race"
This was said by 'Darius the Great' in "Naqshe-e-Rostam"
Read more about this Here

2.Aryans are Native Indians- This Theory has been disproved by Y chromosome DNA testing which shows that Aryans resemble more to the middle eastern people than the dravidians, who are the oldest residents of India till date. Sanskrit meaning of Aryan means a 'stranger' while Old tamil (Gauda Dravidian in ancient times) dictionaries translate the meaning as 'Uncivilised'. More over there are lot of differences in Dravidians and the sanskrit speaking aryans.

3.Indo-Iranian-The most probable date for Proto-Indo-Iranian unity is roughly around 2500 BC. In this sense of the word Aryan, the Aryans were an ancient culture preceding both the Vedic and Avestan cultures. This further makes intensifies the doubts that Aryans invaded India and forced their religion in India. Read more Here

4. Aryans are warrior-nomads from the steppes of southern Russia and that they were ancestors of the Jews. Read more Here

In ninteenth century, many European racist claimed themselves to be Aryans. Hitler also claimed himself to be an Aryan and that he was superior race than others.

Aurangazeb- Bad Ruler or Bad History?

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 10:47:00 +0000

Of all the Muslim rulers who ruled vast territories of India from 712 to 1857 CE, probably no one has received as much condemnation from Western and Hindu writers as Aurangzeb. He has been castigated as a religious Muslim who was anti-Hindu, who taxed them, who tried to convert them, who discriminated against them in awarding high administrative positions, and who interfered in their religious matters. This view has been heavily promoted in the government approved textbooks in schools and colleges across post-partition India (i.e., after 1947). These are fabrications against one of the best rulers of India who was pious, scholarly, saintly, unbiased, liberal, magnanimous, tolerant, competent, and far-sighted.

Fortunately, in recent years quite a few Hindu historians have come out in the open disputing those allegations. For example, historian Babu Nagendranath Banerjee rejected the accusation of forced conversion of Hindus by Muslim rulers by stating that if that was their intention then in India today there would not be nearly four times as many Hindus compared to Muslims, despite the fact that Muslims had ruled for nearly a thousand years. Banerjee challenged the Hindu hypothesis that Aurangzeb was anti-Hindu by reasoning that if the latter were truly guilty of such bigotry, how could he appoint a Hindu as his military commander-in-chief? Surely, he could have afforded to appoint a competent Muslim general in that position.

Banerjee further stated:

"No one should accuse Aurangzeb of being communal minded. In his administration, the state policy was formulated by Hindus. Two Hindus held the highest position in the State Treasury. Some prejudiced Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to such high offices. The Emperor refuted that by stating that he had been following the dictates of the Shariah (Islamic Law) which demands appointing right persons in right positions."

During Aurangzeb's long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Raja Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy, and Rasik Lal Crory, held very high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzeb's administration, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, Achalaji and Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied against him and removed him from his throne?

Most Hindus like Akbar over Aurangzeb for his multi-ethnic court where Hindus were favored. Historian Shri Sharma states that while Emperor Akbar had fourteen Hindu Mansabdars (high officials) in his court, Aurangzeb actually had 148 Hindu high officials in his court. But this fact is somewhat less known.

Some of the Hindu historians have accused Aurangzeb of demolishing Hindu temples. How factual is this accusation against a man, who has been known to be a saintly man, a strict adherent of Islam? The Qur'an prohibits any Muslim to impose his will on a non-Muslim by stating that

"There is no compulsion in religion."

Surah al-Kafirun clearly states: "To you is your religion and to me is mine." It would be totally unbecoming of a learned scholar of Islam of his caliber, as Aurangzeb was known to be, to do things that are contrary to the dictates of the Qur'an.

Interestingly, the 1946 edition of the history textbook Etihash Parichaya (Introduction to History) used in Bengal for the 5th and 6th graders states:

"If Aurangzeb had the intention of demolishing temples to make way for mosques, there would not have been a single temple standing erect in India. On the contrary, Aurangzeb donated huge estates for use as temple sites and support thereof in Benares, Kashmir and elsewhere. The official documentations for these land grants are still extant."

A stone inscription in the historic Balaji or Vishnu Temple, located north of Chitrakut Balaghat, still shows that it was commissioned by the Emperor himself. The proof of Aurangzeb's land grant for famous Hindu religious sites in Kasi, Varanasi can easily be verified from the deed records extant at those sites. The same textbook reads:

"During the fifty year reign of Aurangzeb, not a single Hindu was forced to embrace Islam. He did not interfere with any Hindu religious activities."

Alexander Hamilton, a British historian, toured India towards the end of Aurangzeb's fifty year reign and observed that every one was free to serve and worship God in his own way.

Now let us deal with Aurangzeb's imposition of the jizya tax which had drawn severe criticism from many Hindu historians. It is true that jizya was lifted during the reign of Akbar and Jahangir and that Aurangzeb later reinstated this. Before I delve into the subject of Aurangzeb's jizya tax, or taxing the non-Muslims, it is worthwhile to point out that jizya is nothing more than a war tax which was collected only from able-bodied young non-Muslim male citizens living in a Muslim country who did not want to volunteer for the defense of the country. That is, no such tax was collected from non-Muslims who volunteered to defend the country. This tax was not collected from women, and neither from immature males nor from disabled or old male citizens. For payment of such taxes, it became incumbent upon the Muslim government to protect the life, property and wealth of its non-Muslim citizens. If for any reason the government failed to protect its citizens, especially during a war, the taxable amount was returned.

It should be pointed out here that the zakaat (2.5% of savings) and ‘ushr (10% of agricultural products) were collected from all Muslims, who owned some wealth (beyond a certain minimum, called nisab). They also paid sadaqah, fitrah and khums. None of these were collected from any non-Muslim. As a matter of fact, the per capita collection from Muslims was several fold that of non-Muslims. Further to Auranzeb's credit is his abolition of a lot of taxes, although this fact is not usually mentioned. In his book Mughal Administration, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, foremost historian on the Mughal dynasty, mentions that during Aurangzeb's reign in power, nearly sixty-five types of taxes were abolished, which resulted in a yearly revenue loss of fifty million rupees from the state treasury. Other historians stated that when Aurangzeb abolished eighty types of taxes, no one thanked him for his generosity. But when he imposed only one, and not heavy at all, people began to show their displeasure.

While some Hindu historians are retracting the lies, the textbooks and historic accounts in Western countries have yet to admit their error and set the record straight. Such intellectual dishonesty by historians is dangerous — more explosive and more damaging than nuclear bombs. We have already seen its hideous effect with the destruction of Muslim historic sites (including the Babri Mosque) and recent riots in India that killed thousands of Muslims.

Great Malla Kings

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:14:00 +0000

Aryans used to call dravidians who faught with them bravely as asuras. The mountain tribes of dravidians especially malla, maala, malayas, kuruvas, koyis faught bravely agsinst these Aryan invaders. The Aryans wrote stories about these battles depicting the Dravidians as Asuras and worshipers of Ashuras and the Aryans as Gods and worshipers of Gods.

The Mallas ruled the maharastra before the aryans invaded it. Mala tribes were found in all over india and were proud kings. Adding the name malla in their name was thought to be a matter of prestage and good luck for the kings (Ahavamalla, yuddhamalla, Jagadekamalla, trailkomalla, tribhuvanamalla).
Malla were also called Mhar which eventually took the word Mahar. The word Maharastra in those days meant the kingdom of Mahar (mallas). It was also called as Mallarastra. But as the aryans invaded and the fortune of Mallas was degraded down as low caste people by the invaders, the word Mallarastra lost significance slowly and Maharastra was left behind and the aryans gave it the meaning 'great kingdom'.
The word Pariah in marathi still corresponds to Mahar. Even today, Mallas are found scattered all over the country- Malla Arayar, Malacar, Malayalis, Malavas, Malair, Mallar, Maravar. Mallas are even found in Nepal and north eastern states. But very few Mallas are found in north west India because of the influence of Aryan invaders.

What does the Word Aryan Mean?
The word Aryan had different meaning at different times in Tamil also. According to the oldest Tamil Dictionary (Thevaagaram or Nigandu written may be between 1- 3 Century BC) the word ‘Aryan’ – was defined as Millacher meaning ‘Uncivilized’. Later to mean a person who did not learn Tamil properly and later on it meant outsider. (Ref: Moovendar yaar (Revised Edition) – Page 36). Some old tamil dictionaries also say that Aryan means 'destroyer'.

The Aryan invaders were stopped from entering the south by the vindhya mountains.

When Alexander the great invaded India, he was wounded seriously in a war which took place near Multan. Sir Alexander Burnes writes in his 'travels into Bokhara' (vol 3. p.114) that "Mooltan is styled 'Malli than' or 'Malli tharum' , the place of Malli".

Dravidians were the true possessors of Vedas. The Aryans who invaded the land eventually corrupted them. They changed it as per their wishes and took care that their position in society is not harmed. They said that the dravidian sudras and should not touch nor listen to the Vedas. According to them, aryan brahmins must read vedas and visyas could listen to them. they suppressed the brave Malla and sudra kings very horribly.

Aryan Invasion is Not a Myth

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:01:00 +0000

It had been argued [in the December 2, 2005 Curriculum Commission hearing] by the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) supporters on the basis of a 1999 paper by Toomas Kivisild et al that the Aryan Invasion Theory has been “conclusively disproved” and should therefore be discarded from 6th grade school textbooks currently in the review process. Based upon these arguments, the Curriculum Commission had decided to accept many changes proposed by VF/HEF relating to the question of Aryan origin.

The study by Kivisild et al primarily focused on the question of the original migration of the human race from Africa some 50,000 years ago, and as such was not meant to determine the question of Aryan origin that is said to have happened around 3,500 years back. Further, the study was restrictive in that it dwelt primarily on the evolution/mutation of maternal genetic material (mitochondrial DNA) and did not take paternal genetic inheritance into account. Additionally, DNA dates work well for the periods of the Exodus out of Africa (c. 60,000 BCE); but by the time of the Indo-Aryan influx into South Asia (c. 1500 BCE) any DNA calculation has huge temporal error bars that render the exercise useless for the question at hand, at least at the present state of research. Lastly, the presently acknowledged Aryan Influx Theory is based on a combination of cultural-linguistic migration of Indo-European people into India. Since genes and languages do not necessarily migrate in tandem, the findings of genetic migration patterns from Archeogenetic studies are not central to the determination of Aryan origin.

Nonetheless, since the 1999 paper by Kivisild was offered by HEF/VF supporters as “proof” of the indigenous origins of Aryan/Vedic people, we are presenting below a brief summary of more recent Archeogenetic studies as relates to the question of Aryan origin and related theories of Aryan invasion, influx or migration. The several papers cited and included here are more recent than the Kivisild paper and have argued in favor of an Indo-European genetic migration into India. These papers have not been acknowledged by the VF/HEF in the partisan promotion of their Aryan Indigenity Theory.

Abstracts of key studies referred to below along with links/references to the full publication are included at the end of this document.

Summary
A 2001 examination of male Y-DNA by Indian and American scientists [which also incidentally includes Toomas Kivisild as one of the authors] indicated that higher castes are genetically closer to West Eurasians than are individuals from lower castes, whose genetic profiles are similar to other Asians. These results indicate that at some point male West Eurasians provided a significant genetic input into the higher castes, a result which supports the notion that the caste system was an attempt by these predominantly male arrivals to keep themselves separate from the native population. (http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrary/Bamshad_2001a.pdf)

The genetic studies by Michael J Bamshad and his team (2001) from University of Utah and Dr. Spencer Wells (2003) give strong backing to the Aryan invasion/migration theory.

In the study by M.J Bamshad and his team [4] they wrote, "Our results demonstrate that for biparentally inherited autosomal markers, genetic distances between upper, middle, and lower castes are significantly correlated with rank; upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to Asians; and upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are lower castes."

(http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrary/Bamshad_2001a.pdf)

The genetic study involves the analysis of genetic material known as the Mitochondrial DNA which is only passed maternally and so it is used to study female inheritance. The male-determining Y chromosome, is passed along paternally and is therefore used to study male inheritance. The evidence implies that few millennia ago group of males with (Eastern) European affinities invaded the Indian subcontinent from the Northwest of the sub-continent.

The researchers went on to state that genetic variations between upper castes and lower castes is the evidence to the origin of the caste system. The people who were either migrating or invading the sub-continent had descendants in the male population largely in the higher castes than in the lower castes. The researchers state that these invading or migrating people might have instituted the caste system.

In the abstract to their paper the researchers stated, "In the most recent of these waves, Indo-European -speaking people from West Eurasia entered India from the Northwest and diffused throughout the subcontinent. They purportedly admixed with or displaced indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations. Subsequently they may have established the Hindu caste system and placed themselves primarily in castes of higher rank."

The study also revealed another classic anthropological observation, that of women being significantly more mobile in terms of caste and hierarchical class than men, who are almost not socially mobile at all in terms of caste and hierarchical class. Genetic evidence reveals that over millennia men have married women from lower castes but women have rarely married men from lower castes. Thus the researchers imply that caste and class to a large extent is perpetuated by women and has also thereby contributed to the minimal mixing of Aryan blood with the natives.

A study conducted by Quintana-Murci [2000] present genetic evidence for the occurrence of two major population movements, supporting a model of demic diffusion of early farmers from southwestern Iranand of pastoral nomads from western and central Asiainto India, associated with Dravidian and Indo-Europeanlanguage dispersals, respectively.

A study conducted by R Spencer Wells et al focuses on the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome and provide an insight into the earliest patterns of settlement of anatomically modern humans on the Eurasian continent. Central Asia is revealed to be an important reservoir of genetic diversity, and the source of at least three major waves of migration leading into Europe, the Americas, and India. The genetic results are interpreted in the context of Eurasian linguistic patterns.

In the 2003 study, Basu et al provide genomic evidence that (1) there is an underlying unity of female lineages in India, indicating that the initial number of female settlers may have been small; (2) the tribal and the caste populations are highly differentiated; (3) the Austro-Asiatic tribals are the earliest settlers in India, providing support to one anthropological hypothesis while refuting some others; (4) a major wave of humans entered India through the northeast; (5) the Tibeto-Burman tribals share considerable genetic commonalities with the Austro-Asiatic tribals, supporting the hypothesis that they may have shared a common habitat in southern China, but the two groups of tribals can be differentiated on the basis of Y-chromosomal haplotypes; (6) the Dravidian tribals were possibly widespread throughout India before the arrival of the Indo-European-speaking nomads, but retreated to southern India to avoid dominance; (7) formation of populations by fission that resulted in founder and drift effects have left their imprints on the genetic structures of contemporary populations; (8) the upper castes show closer genetic affinities with Central Asian populations, although those of southern India are more distant than those of northern India; (9) historical gene flow into India has contributed to a considerable obliteration of genetic histories of contemporary populations so that there is at present no clear congruence of genetic and geographical or sociocultural affinities.

In a recent research paper in Current Biology, Cordaux et. al. confirms the Bamshad (2001) results and concludes that the paternal lineages of Indian caste groups are primarily descendants of Indo-European speakers who migrated from central Asia about 3,500 years ago. [cordaux:2004 (http://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics/pdf/CordauxCurBiol2004.pdf)]

Conclusion

The above summary and attached documents are provided to demonstrate the selective promotion of research material by the supporters of Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation and the suppression of other, more recently available research that undermines their thesis is reflective of their priorities in promoting their ideological agendas over a factual, methodical and unbiased study of history. Further, this desire by VF/HEF supporters to “prove” by any means that Aryans are “indigenous” people directly relate to their contemporary political agenda back in India of distinguishing the “indigenous Aryan Hindus” from “foreign Muslim and Christian invaders” and thereby characterizing India’s Muslim and Christian minorities as “traitors” that need to be marginalized and persecuted. It is disturbing to witness how dangerously close these Hindu nationalist groups have come to whitewashing California’s school textbooks with their unsavory political agendas.

Abstracts of key studies-->>

Story of 'Cruel Muslim Invaders' of India

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:15:00 +0000

The Hindu extremists cunningly picturise muslim rulers of India as 'cruel' with all bad qualities in them and that they destroyed 'age old' hindu traditions as the 'peaceful hindu' just stood like a silent spectator. Let us look at the history if what they claim is right or not.

Treatment of women and the 'Sati':
Hindu extremists claim that Sati (burning the wife along with his husband's corpse) was practiced to protect the husbandless widow from the 'cruel Muslim ruler' who would take her away and rape her. As if the ruler had nothing else to do other than searching for widows and raping them.

Lets look into History:
Sati was the name of Lord Shiva's (hindu God) wife. She burnt herself alive after cursing her own father for insulting her husband. In olden days, Indians used to regard the practice of Sati (burning wife along with his husband's corpse) as a religious ceremony. They believed Sati to be the 'highest virtue' of a woman. Brahman priests used to force Sati on women. If any lady is unwilling, the people would doubt her fidelity and affection towards her departed husband.

What Muslim Emporers did:
Akbar, one of the muslim rulers was the first king to take Sati seriously. He gave an order which stated "If a woman wants to practice sati on her will, she should not be stoped. But no woman must be forced Sati"
Aurangazeb, who was more strict in this aspect issued orders as soon as he came back from Kashmir in Dec. 1663 AD "In all hands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt".

Polygamy:
Polygamy was practiced by both muslims and hindus of that age especially the upper classes. Lower classes used to have only one wife irrespective of their religion. Mukundaram and Puija Madhava refer to a rich merchant marrying second wife khullana even though he had a wife (Lahana) and she was alive and had children. In Ghanaram chakravarty's 'Dhamamangal', Lausen had four wives namely Kalinga, Amala, Bimala, Kanara. Even the hindu scrptures allow marriage of more than one wife.
Hindu extremists who always point out fingure at Polygamy in Muslims have forgotten these facts and also that there are very few muslims who marry more than one wife in present India.

Cow Slaughter:
Akbar was the first Mughal king who prohibited killing of animals on 'sacred days'. He believed that killing cow was not good. He used to have food called 'Sufiyana food' which was purely vegitarian. This was surely somethingwhich was not taught by Islam. this was induced in him by his respect to Indian culture and beliefs.
Humayun considered beef was bad.
Another historian K.M.P Verma in his book 'Relevance of Gandhian Thought' says "Babar, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Ahmad Shah and Hyder Ali banned cow slaughter" in their kingdom.

Hindu Culture, traditions and Education:
Hindu extremists picturise Mughal kings as cruel invaders who destroyed hindu culture and traditions while actually history speaks quite opposite to this claim.
In Akbar's reign, cities like Banaras, Mithila, Navadwipa, Kashmir, Multan, Sirhind, Thatta and Gujarath flourished as centers for Hindu Education and culture.

Some of Hindu scholars and poets in the 'Cruel Invaders'' court were:

Akbar- Gangadhar, Mahesh, Kishun Joshi, Bhagawan, Tansen, Raja Todar Mal, Narahari Mahaprata, Ganga, Brahmadatta, Raja, Askaran, Manohar.

Jahangir- Jadrup Gosain, Rai Manohar lal, Bishun Das. Raja Surja Singh presented a hindu poet to Jahangir who was inpressed and gave an elephant to him as present.

Shah Jahan- Jagannath Pandith (author of Ras Gangadhar), Siromani Mishra, Vedanga Rai, Harinath (he was gited a horse, an elephant and one lakh Dawrs).

Dara Shukoh- Chanda Bham (a brahmin from Lahore)

Aurangazeb- Birdas, Bhushan, Brinda, Iswardas, Bhimsen.
Aurangazeb who is considered as a deadly enemy of Hindus, learned hindi and even appreciated hindu cultures and traditions. He had Raja Jai Singh, a hindu as his strong Nobel who faught with Shivaji (who is considered as the protector of hindu religion by RSS/VHP hindu extremists). Shivaji inturn had a pathan (muslim) unit under him and one of his strong aides was Didi Ibrahim, a muslim.

Caste System:
Tons of books are written on caste system that prevailed in Hindu society. Mughals were opposed this caste system but used to be genlte in this matter because they did not want to interfere in hindu religious sentiments. Brahmins used to ill treat lower castes called Shudras and Panchum Bundum. They were beaten up quite often if they tried to enter into villages. they were supposed to live in the village outskirts. Francis Euchanan in his book 'Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar writes that Brahmins never touched the plough and their farms were cultivated by shudras.Brahmins used to torture Parriars (Panchun Bandhum is divided into Parriar, Baluan, Schliar, Toti classes) if they tried to enter Brahmin temples or try to participate in their prayers of processions. Shudras were given their own temples and Brahman priests would never enter those temples. They considered a shame for themselves to pray to these 'low level' Gods of shudras. Brahmins used to travel in night along with their desciples beause they use to consider that other travellers (muslims and christians) would not give them the respect they deserve if they travel in the night. Parriars were treated so badly that no one would take the charity they gave. But Francis notes that if the parriars gave 1000 or 2000 pagodas, Brahmins used to accept.
He further writes that Hyder Ali, the king of Mysore used to give Shudras farms of their own and was 'so sensible of their feelings that he would not let them suffer by calling them by their proper name (shudras). He ordered that they should be called cultivators'.

Akbar issued orders declaring a marriage illegal if the girl was elder than the boy. If the girl was more elder by more than 12 years, the marriage was considered as illegal. This was to show respect to the Brahmins who strongly practiced ManuSmriti (hindu book of law) which says that the Bridegroom must be elder than the Bride. It should be noted here that Islam allowed marriages where the bride was elder than the bridegroom.

References: Glimpses of Social Life in Mughal India by Professor P.N.Ojha, Relevance of Gandhian thought by K.M.P Verma.

The hindu extremists and terrorists who are spreading lies about Muslim rulers so that they can keep their anti-muslim propaganda (which is the fuel for their movement) forgot that they can hide the history but can not change it.

Pakistan contribution to Indian Muslim

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:08:00 +0000

In India, across the Indian Muslim community it is widely accepted now that the partition of India was the biggest blunder that happened. Instead of safeguarding the interests of the Indian Muslims it reduced the ones who continued to live in India to a position of significantly reduced significance. It impacted the most those who needed the biggest safeguards, the poorest of the poor. A significant portion of the educated cream of the Indian Muslim community migrated to Pakistan; some say they chickened out when the push came to shove. Most of the remaining Muslims in India were poor who would be just fighting to make their two ends meet.

The first silver lining in this was that India was formed as a secular and democratic state. The constitution of India recognized that every citizen will be absolutely equal in his rights and will be free to profess, practice and propagate his religion. The goals were set in the clearest way and the struggle was to achieve the goal and not about the goal itself. It has often been a struggle for the Indian Muslims no doubt but the question has not been the constitution but it has been about upholding the spirit of the constitution. The same Nehru who is often held responsible in Pakistan for the inflexibility fought to uphold the secular fabric of India.

The second is the demographics of the country. India is a unique country, one of its kind. It is like Western Europe put together in a single country. That is true whether you compare it in size, population, languages, cultures, cuisines, dress, habits and many other things. This fact itself makes it a land of huge diversity and contradictions unlike any other place in the world. This structure itself demands that people of different backgrounds have different needs in their daily lives. The result of that is the number of players that have emerged in the Indian political structure.

The identities are not Hindu and Muslim so much as the Muslim League would have thought or the BJP wants.

The result of this diversity has been that even after unleashing its whole might and propaganda machinery through RSS its political offshoot the BJP, at its zenith, could never get more than 25% of the votes. It is only in Gujarat that the worst fears of the Muslims have come true. Other than many of the leaders of BJP no political party questions the Muslims about their existential and cultural position. Many political parties acted as ‘messiah’ of the Muslims and paid just lip service yet perhaps no other party other than the exception of BJP pursued harming the interests of the Muslims.

The worst thing that can happen to the Indian Muslims is adding fuel to the propaganda machinery of the right wing. While Indian Muslims have their own weaknesses and moles that are responsible for this but the focus here is only on Pakistan’s contribution.

Firstly, by opposing India being a member of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). In 1969, when OIC was formed and India lobbied to be included as it had the third largest Muslim population in the world Pakistan successfully lobbied against it. Pakistan looked at its strategic self-interests and not anything about safeguarding the Indian Muslims otherwise it was a significant move on the part of India to have made that move to be included in the organization as an Islamic country! If Gabon with just 10% Muslims (150,000 Muslim citizens) can be a member, it is a mockery that India with 150 million Muslims and till very recently having the second largest Muslim population on the planet is denied that status. If India was denied significant position vis a vis Muslim countries there was little incentive for her to put the strong feet of her Muslim cultural identity forward and sustain it.

Secondly, the most contentious issue of the way we look at history. The propaganda machinery of the Indian right wing does a great job in picking up all the opinions, lies and rumors against Muslim rulers and paint a picture that the presence of Muslims in India has been the biggest damage and tragedy to the Indian civilization. Whereas invaders like Ghauri and Ghaznavi are understandably condemned even the Mughals who lived in India as their own home are termed as foreigners. While Indian Muslims look at the past as a syncretic culture of great tolerance the Pakistani reading of history is music to the ears of the right wing in India. When Pakistan builds its missile programme it names these weapons as Ghauri, Ghaznavi and Babur as instruments to attack India

This just reiterates the point to every Indian listening to them and reinforcing the deep rooted prejudices.

It matters little to both the sides on this reading of history – of Hindus pitted against Muslims in the medieval ages - that Babur defeated a Muslim Ibrahim Lodhi at Delhi’s throne, Ghauri defeated Prithvi Raj’s army which was led by a Muslim and Ghaznavi had one of his top generals who was a Hindu named Tilak. It also matters little in this reading of history that when Akbar and Maharana Pratap fought at Haldighati then Akbar’s army was led by a Hindu Raja Man Singh and Maharana Pratap’s army was led by a Muslim Hakim Khan Suri. It also matters little in this reading that the Sikh Guru Arjan Dev who was executed by Aurangzeb had the foundation stone of Golden Temple laid by Mian Mir a sufi saint and had included so many sufi songs in the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib. Or that Shivaji who fought with Aurangzeb had a Pathan unit and one of his most trusted aides was Didi Ibrahim, a Muslim and that Aurangzeb sent Raja Jaisingh, a Hindu to fight him. Or that when Babur defeated Rana Sanga at Panipat the latter’s army had around 50,000 Muslim soldiers.

Thirdly, it is the treatment in Pakistan to its minorities. The fuel to the Sangh Parivar is that while the Muslim percentage in India has marginally increased since partition that of Hindus in Pakistan has significantly reduced and they are widely discriminated against at all levels. They say that if Hindu discrimination is so deep in Pakistan then why should Muslims of India claim anything better?

I don’t know about what the social context was in which partition happened but I now know for sure that the leaders who pursued it were shortsighted. Pakistan formed as an ‘Islamic’ country refused to acknowledge the rights of Bangla Muslims and the country split within 25 years. In its sixty years of existence it has been under military rule for a significant portion. The independent presence of judiciary is so impacted that its most famous Prime Ministers are either barred from entering their own country or hanged. A couple of weeks back Dina Wadia (daughter of Jinnah) wanted to spend her last days in Jinnah House in Bombay and not at any place in Pakistan. If today 13% Muslims can impact the political scene in India then definitely about 35% could have never been taken for a ride.

But today let us have bygones be bygones. India needs a strong Pakistan; not as an enemy but as a friendly neighbour. A neighbour that works with India in creating a South Asian super zone similar to the Euro Zone, by looking in the syncretic past and not by picking up twisted irritants from the past. The solution is not by putting Pakistan in contrast to India in everything particularly in identity but in drawing inspiration from the mutual past. Having multi billion dollar budgets to safeguard the borders in countries where still hundreds of millions of its citizens earn less than dollar a day is no way justifiable. Working on projects of recreating national boundaries will not solve anything as we have seen. But peace and respect among the largest ethnic population on the face of the earth can create wonders. It will make life easier for India’s Muslims too as the propaganda machinery of the Sangh Parivar will have lesser fuel to add to the fire.

RSS Poisoning Children

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:08:00 +0000

In Orissa, over the last five years the Sangh Parivar's tentacles have spread and thickened. Minorities, refugees, and the poor -- the social crevices in which they live narrow from neglect. The disenfranchised struggle to confront social violence. The annexation of territory and resources from the subaltern, the imposition of virulent ideologies and alienating economies, have produced diverse identity politics defining contested practices of citizenship. At the intersections of globalization and hyper nationalism, Hindutva intervenes, unravelling the fragile fabric of democracy.

The communalization of education is a serious concern across India. Sectarian education campaigns undertaken by Hindu extremist groups demonize minorities through the teaching of fundamentalist curricula. Such corruption of education incites the political and social fires of communalism. The RSS has spearheaded the movement, successfully penetrating into the educational systems of both the grassroots and centralized regulatory commissions. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has fashioned an institutional umbrella that is having a damaging impact on education at the grassroots. The RSS has established Vanvasi Kalyan Parishads, Vivekananda Kendras, Sewa Bharatis and other groups to advance the ideological agenda of Hindu nationalism. The RSS administers 9,300 Ekal Vidyalayas in adivasi areas. For the diversity of cultures allied under the rubric of 'adivasi', the ongoing reality of Hinduization offers evidence of their gradual and brutal incorporation into this caste system.

Created by the RSS in 1978, the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan network focuses on moral, extracurricular and physical education for 'mind, body and spirit'. The Vidya Bharati system supervises over 18,000 schools across India, with 1.8 million students and 80,000 teachers. A shared curriculum is used across the country. The Vidya Bharati operates 60 graduate institutions. About 5,000 Vidya Bharatis are endorsed by Education Boards primarily in states where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power..

Known as Shiksha Vikas Samiti, Vidya Bharati directs 391 Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools with 111,000 students in Orissa. The RSS has constructed a network of educational institutions across the state. Initially the RSS maintained a public distance between the Sangh and Vidya Bharati. In recent years, as Hindutva consolidates its position in Orissa, the RSS has actively declared its affiliation with these schools. Rashtra Deepa, the RSS Oriya weekly, regularly chronicles some of the academic aspirations of the Sangh Parivar. Most RSS run schools are affiliated with the State Board of Education and adhere to the state approved curricula. As the Sangh infiltrates into regulatory bodies and actively leads the rewriting of textbooks and reorganization of the curriculum, the classroom transforms into an agent of Hindutva.

With the increasing impetus on the privatization of education, the RSS has been actively inaugurating schools in areas across Orissa where the government fails to provide public funding. The vigorous assertion of Sanskrit provides for the erasure and Hinduization of minority languages. History, science, geography, literature, religious texts are interpreted into Hindutva. These texts, written in Oriya, are taught in schools and available in bookstores. The texts weave disparaging and malevolent fictions about minority groups, inciting Hindus to revenge history. The curriculum is censored and obscurantist, interpreted to legitimate the sanctity of a 'Hindu worldview' in India and the assembling of a Hindu state. It enables Hindu nationalism in advancing 'righteous' violence for ethnic cleansing. The RSS broadcasts this education as 'holistic', patriotic and accessible.

These schools are financed by individual donations and contributions from various charitable organizations such as the Mumbai based Bhansali Trust. These schools also offer income generation and computer skills. They serve as gathering places for Sangh organizations providing youth contact with Hindutva leaders. Parents say they are drawn to RSS run schools because they are affordable and profess to educate children in culture and religion, history and ritual.

Students receive ideological training through extra-curricular activity as well. They participate in development work and disaster relief, politicizing education and linking it to social service. An RSS worker in Bhubaneswar speaks with pride. "We ask people to devote one hour a day for their country, in the name of the motherland. To gather in a field and play Indian games; with sticks, swords, other exercises, teach youth to march, some musical instruments. And then we workers discuss the ideology of the RSS -- what Hinduism is, how Hindu culture was great and how it is fading, how the youth must become involved to revive and purify it."

Through regular educational camps, he continues, the RSS recruits teachers and campaigners. Their task is to draw people to the Sangh. "To convince people that the country is in danger, the motherland is in danger. To tell people that no matter who they are, if they return to Hinduism there is place for them in the nation." After training, RSS state and district units send campaigners to serve within the different wings of the Sangh Parivar, and to the rural areas to recruit and organize the Sangh cadre.

The RSS holds month long training sessions across Orissa during summer vacations to attract students and young children. From these sessions, the RSS recruits for the Officers Training Camps (OTC). Held twice a year, the OTC provides schooling in self-defense and leadership. Around 500 people attend each year. On completion, approximately100 join the organization as campaigners. Graduates take an oath, "I will devote my body, mind, and money (tana, mana, bhana) to the motherland." For about 10 recruits, this develops into a lifelong, intense and full time commitment. Each December, the RSS organizes the Sita Shibir, a 7-10 day winter camp. The families of attendees finance the camps. The growth of the RSS testifies to the success of these camps. The RSS boasts of 50,000 shakhas in India, 2500 in Orissa with a 100,000 strong cadre.

In Orissa, the RSS charges that aggressive Hinduization is a 'rational' and warranted response to, among other factors, the growth of missionary activity leading to an increase in the Christian population. In fact, Christians constitute less than 3 percent of the population in the state, with a 1 percent increase since 1981. The Christian population in India does not record any appreciable increase from 2.6 percent in 1971, to 2.43 in 1981, 2.34 in 1991, and 2.6 in 2001.

History is animated through extra curricular activities, seminars and workshops. New heroes, timelines, events emerge to construct India's antiquity, to naturalize her geo-political borders, to define her heritage as Hindu. History is rewritten to determine belonging and un-belonging. Difference is represented as 'other', a threat to the integrity of India as a Hindu nation, unless manipulated and straitjacketed. A whole new generation is being grown indoctrinated in Hindutva. It is a devious strategy to teach hate to the young.

Hindu Extremism being Ignored

noreply@blogger.com (IRAT) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:23:00 +0000

The American media often has a lot to say about Islamic militants and Muslims who commit violence in the Middle East, and it is true that they pose a threat to others (as well as to other Muslims). However, that same media typically ignores similar extremism and similar violence committed by Hindu nationalists in India.

Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House’s Centre for Religious Freedom who recently published a book on the rise of Hindu extremism in India, writes that a country once personified by Mahatma Gandhi is fast becoming known for religious hatred and violence. While India remains the world’s largest democracy, the ruling BJP is linked to Hindu extremist groups like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which mount hate campaigns and sometimes-violent attacks against religious minorities and demand that Hinduism dominate society and politics. The RSS was founded by admirers of fascism and Nazism, produced Gandhi’s murderers and is now perhaps the world’s largest paramilitary organisation, with millions of members, he adds.

India's political traditions are founded upon liberalism, democracy, and tolerance - but the growth of extremism in that nation threatens those foundations, and threatens to ignite not only internal violence, but also conflict with other nations like Pakistan. There are justifiable concerns about the possibility of Muslim extremists taking over in Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons, but we should have similar concerns about India as well - a country which is much larger, more powerful, and which possess more nuclear weapons than Pakistan.

This is an article written by Austin Cline from about.com