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Category Archives: News & Analysis
Plot To Divide Kerala On Communal Lines?
Secularist Keralites denounced the brutal attack on TJ Joseph. Politicians, religious leaders, social activists, cultural luminaries, and people from all walks made their remonstration. Major political parties like CPM, INC, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), CPI and BJP condemned the attack in very strong words. Muslim religious organisations questioned the Islamic legitimacy of the attack. Samastha, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Sunni-Kanthapuram group and Nadvathul Mujahideen declared their stand on this issue unambiguously denouncing it and urged their followers to work hard for a secular society. Continue reading
AMU vs Nalanda University: Nitish Shows Different Approach
Nitish Kumar is showing keen interest for setting up the Nalanda University and has given 448 acres of land free of cost, and urged Krishna that the Nalanda University Bill 2010 should be approved for consideration in the Parliament and not sent to the standing committee. While Kerala and West Bengal governments provided the 400 and 355 acres of land without any fuss, the Bihar government made it a controversial topic with its decisions. Nitish Kumar announced that his government will provide the required land in Kishanganj instead of Katihar as earlier decided by the AMU administration in February 2009. Further in September 2009, Nitish announced that he will provide 100 acres land free of cost to AMU. On disapproval of AMU administration finally Nitish Kumar agreed upon giving 250 acres land but he put the 30-years-lease bound before AMU administration in February 2010. Continue reading
Commonwealth Games: Are We Playing A Cruel Joke?
We know that Delhi has been virtually made beggar-free on the eve of the Commonwealth Games as their presence would show the country in a poor light. But we do not know how much India has begged to host the 2010 sporting extravaganza in its capital? We know that an advanced country like Canada had to wait for 30 long years to pay back the loans it took for organizing 1976 Montreal Olympics. But we do not know how long will India take to return the money it borrows for such events. And finally the entire world knows that today poor Greece is a bankrupt nation and the economists are almost unanimous in blaming the 2004 Athens Olympics for this disaster. Continue reading
American Muslim Politics Is Going Nowhere
It is almost nine years since the fateful Septemeber 11, 2001, a date with destiny when the terrible al qaeda terrorists attacked in New York and Washington DC. Tht infamous date turned the prospets of the American Muslim community upside down. However since that fateful day all American Muslim organizations have withdrawn into their shells. Some Muslim groups enthusiastically adopted interfaith relations as their main policy plank after September 11, 2001. Ofcourse major Muslim groups are afraid to open their mouth on any US foreign policy initiative. With Obama in White House for 18 months, and his having appointed a couple of Muslim outreach officials in the US Govt, we see no movement in this outreach program. Continue reading
Abolishing Our Existing Thought Patterns
The separation between deen and duniya is so deep that those who seemingly don’t believe in it and apparently understand the all-permeating spirit of Islam they, too, keep dividing the two. We are motivated to guide the humanity without speaking its language. And we don’t see the anomaly. We want to groom leaders for the world. And we disregard the laws of nature. We are waiting for our important tasks to be performed somehow miraculously. We want to heal the patient without the slightest pain. We defy the laws of nature and despise the West that utilizes the laws of nature for its benefit. It is not enough to see a madrasah graduate as a university teacher or as a professional worker in an industry etc. We need to get more than that. We need to get the wealth of ideas. We need to get the topmost people from among Muslims in all walks of life. At some point of time we will have to do away with the duality of knowledge. Continue reading
Muslims In India: How Long Will They Remain Marginalized?
A report in BBC website under the title “India state-run banks ‘turn away Muslims’” regarding denial of access to government banks to Muslims in India. The report quotes the National Commission of Minorities as saying that there has been a 100% increase in the number of complaints it has received over the past year from Muslims who say they are being prevented from opening accounts in state-run banks. A number of reports have suggested that India’s Muslims fare poorly when it comes to getting access to quality education or employment opportunities. Indian Muslims carry a double burden of being labelled as ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time’. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said, “If India was to be a secular, stable and strong state, then our first consideration must be to give absolute fair play to our minority.” Continue reading
Gunning For Mulayam: How Wise A Step It Is?
True Mulayam’s move to woo Kalyan might have been wrong, but it needs to be mentioned that in politics such steps are taken to weaken the rival––in this case the BJP. In democracy the community or any individual is free to vote anyone. But one may dare to ask the same set of Muslim leaders why they maintained silent and are still tight-lipped when other secularists unapologetically joined forces with the BJP. Be it George Fernandes or Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee or Chandrababu Naidu, Naveen Patnaik or Farooq Abdullah, Jayalalithaa or Mayawati all allied with the BJP and provided it secular legitimacy. The bottom line is that Prophet has taught us to forgive the staunchest enemy if s/he comes over to your side. Continue reading
Kashmir: Unending Conflict, What Is The Way Out?
It is not that people of Kashmir are really anti-India and want to opt for Pakistan. The recent U.K. think tank survey also established that not more than 4 per cent Kashmiri want to align with Pakistan. They have their own aspirations and problems which must be addressed which are not being addressed and, to the contrary, bullets are fired at them. Thus to solve Kashmir problem internally what is needed is a measure of negotiated autonomy, economic development, greater recruitment of Kashmiri youth in and outside Kashmir including Central Government jobs which will give them greater sense of belonging to India. Continue reading
Gujarat: Making Of A Fascist State
Activists who have been arrested on the charge of being Naxalites are Avinash Kulkarni, Bharat Pawar, Makabhai Chowdhary, Jayaram Goswami and others. Shakeel is 13th amongst the activists who have been arrested on similar charges. The work of some of these activists has been to promote communal harmony, which has been a hindrance to spread of divisiveness being promoted by the likes of Swami Aseemanand of VHP, an RSS affiliate, who is currently absconding for his linkages with the perpetrators of Ajmer terror attack. The happenings in Gujarat show us the deeper designs of the political class of the country, who are executing industrialization without a human face, industrialization on the bodies of the marginalized sections. Hitler did precisely the same. Continue reading
Politics Of Brinkmanship In Bihar: Why Is Muslim Leadership Silent?
The million dollars question is as to why is the community leadership not understanding that the month-long drama, which started from cancellation of the dinner party of L K Advani, Narendra Modi and company to the return of flood relief money to Gujarat and than the so-called drama involving Monazir Hassan have the potential to jeopardized the life of innumerable people of the state––both Hindus and Muslims. The stage-managed drama like this has created an air of suspicion now. There is growing feeling among the common Muslims that the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP leaders are playing a very dirty game to polarize the atmosphere. Continue reading