Reflections

"Hope": IJTEMA Photo Competetion

2008-01-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmutullah wa Barakatuhu

First of all, happy new year to all (Hijri or otherwise!)

I just had to come out of hiatus to announce this: IJTEMA announces a photo competition with the title:

New Year, New Hope: Ijtema’s First-Ever Photo Contest!

Do take part, and let the photographers know! Good Luck Y'all!

Diary

2007-11-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

I've not posted for quite some time now, and I am sorry about that. I was traveling, and then I fell ill, and then I was traveling again.

On my way, I noticed a few things, which I thought I might share.

Travel

South India is very sensitive about it's languages and culture. They feel that the North Indian (Hindi) culture is trying to eat up their culture and language. Sometimes these justifiable concerns are used wonderfully by southern chauvinists. Because of them, we've had a riot when a famous Kannada actor (Rajkumar) died (of age). Mob went out and pelted stone at windows, shops and glasses. Because of these same chavinists, all buses in Karnataka have their destination written only in Kannada. A real pain in the neck for who don't read Kannada, some of them are Kannada themselves (they study in English).

It was, therefore, very surprising when I noticed that there was not a single announcement made in Kannada at the Bangalore airport. All announcements were made in Hindi and in English. That's the other extreme. It felt as if the urban rich India was challenging the common Kannada people- `we don't give a damn'. I didn't like the absence of Kannda, just as don't like the absence of English on Karnataka buses.

Untouchability

Shattered Me (Picture by Splat Worldwide)

Then I was at Kolkata.

I feel happy that I am from a state which does not practice cast system much. West Bengal has little record of female foeticide- the sex ratio is fairly normal here. Communalism is less than most parts of India, but on the rise at the moment.

I have also felt disgusted that India, in general, practices all of these, and is not taking it seriously to undo them.

I have always heard about untouchability. Little did I expect that I will see it being practiced in Kolkata, a poor place of high morals, a place I thought has risen far above these.

At the flat where I was putting up, there lives a lady, opposite to my place. She's not a bengali, to be fair to the the Bengalis. She was standing at the gate, buying some fruits from a street vendor. She threw a plastic bag towards the man (She stood a metre away from him). The Nepali darwan held the bag as the poor man poured fruits into the bag for the woman who wouldn't touch her.

I could stand there anymore. I left. Arguing with her would have been futile, for a number of reasons. The best thing I could have done, I realized later, was to find a pretext to shake hands with the man in front of her. I hope I will remember the lesson next time I encounter a similar situation.

In Defence of Ahmadinejad and Bollinger

2007-09-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

It is better to post disclaimer first, so here it is- I am not a fan of Ahmadinejad. As you know, that does not mean I hate him. More about it at the end.

DOWNs

First issue westerners have with him is that- he seeks destruction of Israel. His answer, people have the impression, and they are right, was very ambiguous. It requires a lot of circustantial information to understand what Ahmadinejad said.

There was a hint about what he meant in -"why should the Palestinians pay the price for what the Europeans did?" In it, he signalled the unhappiness the Muslim world share about the creation of Israel, a powerful military machine- second most sophisticated after the US, and fourth largest army int he world. All the Arab countries could not defeat it in 1973. Moreover, it's backed by the most powerful country in the world. However, Ahmadinejad, along with all the Muslim world, knows that they can not 'wipe Israel off the map'. If they try, they'll be wiped out. They saw the price a country has to pay for opposing US in Iraq. Ahmadinejad set out on a charm offensive precisely because he knows what is at stake.

However, even though he does know he can not afford to fight Israel, he can not say that in public. He's a leader of a country, and a proud one. He can not say in public- look I'm weak, so please don't hit me. Nor can he publicly say Israel is a legitimate state, given Israel's justifiable unpopularity. He'll lose the next election, then.

About holocaust, I don't understand why should a Iranian president be worried about holocaust is a reality or a story. He didn't really say that it is a story. He said that more research is needed about it. Yes, we can not close the books on any event, but what business is it of you, O Ahmadinejad, to question the holocaust? Leave it to the Europeans. Unless, of course, you are trying to make a point about European double standard on free speech. In that case, say it loud and clear. Why leave it at "we need to research the holocaust from differnt angles?"

Then, he was on a really low grounds on Homosexual issue. With all likelihood there are homosexuals in Iran. It's difficult to believe that he could be so naive about it.

Bollinger, too could not have extolled Ahmadinejad. He lives in USA, land of CNN and FOX. He could not even have said neutral words. His institution is a private one. Bollinger could have done better, but then...

Some Iranian academics are angry with Bollinger, but they should understand that he too had some constraints.

UPs

He was on high ground about Iran's nuclear program. He emphatically rejected any suggestion that he's aiming for nuclear bomb. He said his program is completely legal, which many in the US do not know.

He was on strong grounds when he said the palestinians should not have paid the price for something they had nothing to do with.

And he was good when he invited his audience to Iran.

*Now, my objection about the man-

Simple, he could do little to solve the economic problems of his country. Moreover I don't see the point in asking for research about holocaust at the cost of being called a holocaust denier- a very risky proposition in today's world.

Export Indian Islam?

2007-09-28T08:16:00.001-07:00

It won't work because Islam is not the problem.

Thousand Years of Science, Project SciMillenia

2007-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

We are approaching a thousand years of Science. Modern science is based on the idea of empiricism. Every idea, to be accepted, must be verifiable by experiement. This soul of the new Science was first seen in the works of ibn al-Haitham or Alhazen in the first half of the eleventh century.

A blog dedicated to discuss thousand years of Science / ibn al-Haitham / Alhazen has been set up.

Les Politiques: Another well intentioned Jewish Convert to Islam

2007-09-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Les Politiques: Another well intentioned Jewish Convert to Islam

2007-09-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2007/09/official-insists-israeli-arrested-in.html

Les Politiques: The power of satire

2007-09-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Les Politiques: The power of satire

What Would I Do If I Was A Terrorist?

2007-09-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

A bit gory, but worth a look.
What Would I Do If I Was A Terrorist?

What is going on?

2007-09-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Former BJP MP's diktat: Behead Karunanidhi, get Gold

It's Allahabad High Court again!

Updated Blogroll

2007-09-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

2007-09-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Riverbend of Baghdad Burning fame is back up blogging! Yay!

Eh!

2007-01-16T06:27:00.001-08:00

Two things got me.

I am a fan of Tariq Ramadan. He is very eloquent and logical. I mention him often. In one such occasion, I got a response that got me thinking. "I am always suspicious of him; (because) he is always given the best airtime and access to various media!"

Along similar lines, iMuslim today has talked about the media. I too once came out with my complains about the media.

Urdu and Unity

2007-01-14T04:51:00.000-08:00

Today I went to some Muslim muhalla to meet some people. A bit of background is necessary. I am a bengali and know only three languages: Bengali, Urdu/Hindi and English. The people in the region I went to are mostly poor and uneducated.

The visit was pleasant. I talked with some people about this world and the next. No, that was wrong. I mostly listned. Anyway, before going there, I was worried that here people may not understand me at all; I don't know the local language: Kannada! It has happened in the past that Hired drivers do not understand me, the shopkeepers do not understand me; it's too much pain.

There was no problem at all because all of them spoke and understood Urdu.
Many of them speak far better than I do.

So here is the situation: you go to a muslim-dominated area, you will hardly face any problem, most of them understand Urdu. Most of the Muslims who come here also know Urdu. When you go to a non-Muslim dominated (poor) area, you have immense difficulty in communicating.

I think this is a good thing that almost all Muslims speak Urdu. Non-Muslims should also learn it(hindi should be enough) so that we have no problem in communicating.

I will end with a quote of one of the persons I met: "Urdu ki paidaish hui Lakhnau mein, usne jawani bitayi Hyderabad mein, aur burhi hui Bangalore mein" (Rough Translation: Urdu was born in Lucknow, spent it's youth in Hyderabad and she is spending her old age at Bangalore).

Science and Religion

2007-01-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

Many able men and women has taken on this issue. I am just being a bit adventurous. I hope I shall not be too naive.

We must think logically says a scientist.

A religious person says come, submit to God Almighty.

Submit. Doesn't that naturally mean to stop questioning?

That brings us to the age old debate- Science is better, or Religion is better?

As if the two are at war. As if first book of science says: deny God even without looking for Him, that is the first condition of being a scientist. As if religion asks you to shut your eyes and ears and nose and etc. etc. As if religion asks you to shut down your brain for a while and just accept what is being said.

Knowledge, Logic and Religion
Once the prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, was walking with a few of his followers. On the way he came across two groups, one was praying, the other one was discussing. He asked his followers- tell me, which of these two groups are better? The followers replied, you will know better than us. Then the prophet said the one that is contemplating is better in the sight of Allah.

Islam asks you not to get drunk. Or do anything that can disturb your normal thinking. "Do not approach prayers until you can understand what you are saying" said Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him. Hey, waitaminute- religion asks you to become dumb doesn't it? Then why so much fuss about being able to understand what you are saying? You can just repeat the prayers and be done with it!

Perhaps in Qur'an we shall find some respite from this tyranny of call to understand?
Oh my God! The Qur'an is replete with "have you ever thought about it?" "are you stupid?" "don't you think?" "don't you reflect?" "ever tried to understand?"!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is filled with invitation to think about the nature, to observe and understand it so that we can understand God. Don't give me that! I thought it will ask my poor little brain to rest awhile!

The Philosophy of Science
Is it not that science asks us to be objective and accept only that about which we are sure? Does it not ask us to draw conclusions using logic? Oh yeah! But we are missing something. In fact two things-
1. We do draw conclusion using logic, but then there has to be facts or assumptions to apply logic to. We can't apply logic to void and come up with understanding of the universe.
2. Conclusions are sometimes known, from observations, even before we understand it. Then it is a matter of understanding why.

(this paragraph was added on 11 Jan) So Science too has some basic assumptions. Often they are so 'obvious'(or familiar) to us, that we do not recognise these assumptions as assumptions. A common example is right upto beginning of last century, everybody seemed to think that time is absolute (it is same for everyone and everywhere). Which had to be abandoned because a very bright mind came with some cunning ideas. They were matching rather too well with experiments. But to accept his ideas (which, again, rests on some other assumptions) we had to abandon the age old assumption (that time is absolute).

What does Islam ask us to do?
It asks us to observe, reflect, contemplate and question. Then draw conclusion. Little is our understanding and knowledge. We have to observe Nature in order to understand Allah. If it be that God created this world, then it must be that religion should be compatible with what we see in here. And truly, it directs us "seek knowledge, even unto China" (Muhammad, peace on him).

(this paragraph was added on 11 Jan) Therefore, Islam does not ask you to accept things without questioning. Rather it encourages human minds to observe, reflect and conclude.

God makes prophets out of men to send down His Message. Science is collection of knowledge, or rather an attempt to know the universe. So is it not another language of God? We can not deny one(Message) or the other(Science). So if they do not match, so be it. We do not understand. We do not understand a lot of things. Can there be a doubt about that?

When (apparently) there is a conflict
Let us take an example. The Qur'an tells us- "The Sun and the Moon goes in their orbit". Suppose we are in some medieval period and we have absolutely no idea about the solar system. What will this mean to us? The sun and the moon are going round the earth, possibly?

When all our observations would point out, sitting in that situation, that it is the earth that is going round, and the sun is stationary, we're in a fix! Because the Qur'an seems to suggest to the contrary.

Even further down the line, we understand that the sun is actually going in an orbit, but not around the earth, but in the galaxy.

The lesson is that we should not try to draw observational conclusions from the Qur'an, because it is too often very allegorical, and we know so little.. We should rather focus on what it asks us to do. This is a field where it is clear as a crystal. 'Do this, don't do that', is the tone, in such matters.

There are some things to be cautious of, though. There are some people who want to take advantage of the emotions that comes with religion. There are some who believe certain things just because they want to believe in them. They tend to attach their ego with their belief. We must be very careful about these people. It is these people who say 'religion asks you to do this, don't dare you ask questions.'

(this paragraph was added on 11 Jan) Therefore neither that 'Science is based on pure logic and no assumptions' is correct, nor it is that religion asks you to stop reasoning.

So we come to the bold conclusion: Science is nothing but a branch of religion; a beautiful aspect of religion. The result of a (sane) human quality: curiosity.

RELATED READ:
Religion and science - an Islamic viewpoint by Asghar Ali Engineer

Miscellania

2007-01-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Set of Bad News

US has poked it's filthy nose into Somalia.

Assam Killings
Old news. As many as 48, mostly Biharis, have been killed by Assamese militants(ASSU is the suspect).

Naxalite Violences
Another set of data will surprize many and hopefully debunk a myth.

In Maoist violences
1. Govt admitted 50 districts were affected, which means that parts of these districts has a parallel government run by the naxals.
2. Maoists claim (as on October 2006) that they control 165 districts.
3. The year saw 930 attacks (upto October 2006).
4. In these attacks, there have been 1070 (officially) casualties
5. 130 police are killed
6. Police claim they have killed 500 naxals
7. 800 Crore (about 170 million US$) spent in fighting the naxals.

--------------------------
UPDATE (10 Jan, 07)
The number of casualties in Assam violences have gone up to 75

the Two Veils

2007-01-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Bigness of Small Things

2007-01-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

Faraz has a wonderful post about the small things we could do in our
daily lives. I liked the writing of Khalid Baig on the same. Go through these if you have the time.

Women's Liberation What

2007-01-04T05:31:00.000-08:00

When the Afghani girl walked the ramp in a bikini, westerners clapped in a frenzy, so happy that finally Afghan women has been set free. They probably missed out when a lot of Afghani women commited suicide (unable to bear their new found 'freedom', perhaps). This is not to justify the stupid Talibans who wanted to lock up women in rooms and even deny them education. (That is definitely against Islam, however.) This is against the westerners who keep beating empty drums on the wrong issues and false claims.

There are some other people (women) for whom, imitating men is liberation. So they will refuse to wear bras. Men don't wear them! Women wearing them is a sign of slavery(sigh).

Is being a man is to be free? I see so many walking male skeletons (with some flesh put on, of course) that it makes me wonder.

No, I'm not denying that women are wronged. Not that men do not take advantage of whatever advantage they already have! They do. What I mean is a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Not only is the physique different, it's a whole different system. Different chromosome, different hormones, different feelings and different ambitions.

The freedom of women does not lie in being men. But in being women. The real index of the status of women is how much freedom they have in decision making in a family and in the society, what is the status of their health, and whether they are taking part in professions.

When a western women talk about her society, she is right when she talks about her freedom to work and walk. And she is right too to some extent about her freedom to lead her life. These are all undeniable qualities of her society. What she misses to point out, very often, is how deep the hypocricy runs in her society. A woman not having a boyfriend/husband is not a very pleasant situation. Women are underpaid in jobs. There are numerous incidents of wives/girlfriends being abused, beaten up or even killed in the United States.

Wearing a bikini does not prove you are free. To the contrary it shows a deep rooted slavery. Slavery of men. Slavery to satisfy men's sexual desire. Lives of models, up close, are not very attractive, believe me. Especially so for women. Apart from looking good, you should have the right qualities. For example you may have to prove yourself to the boss (now that was a very obscene language. perhaps "the boss forces you to have sexual intercourse" is less obscene).

The very fact that to sell everything the companies use female models, hardly dressed, point to the fact that in the western world, men are still the decision makers. The major decision maker.

The veil is also very relevant here. Some people think that women who wear the veil are toys in the hands of men. I know some women who wear veil and are very jealous about it. (There are some, on the other hand, who are forced to wear the full veil by the society. That is ofcourse wrong, as "there can be no coercion in matters of faith" (Qur'an, 2:256).) Many of them are professionals and achievers. In the UK, there is a heated discussion going on about banning the veil, the face covering that many Muslim women wear. The French has gone even further. They have banned everything that shows your religion. That includes the veil(niqab), the skullcap(fez), the turban (Sikhs wear them as a religious obligation) and the crosses too. Is that freedom? I doubt.

I came across some opinions of Egyptian women who wear the veil to work. They opine it gives others the message "I am here to work, and not to flirt. I respect my religion and modesty, and I expect you to do so." And they feel 'it works'.

2007-01-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

Displaced Lebanese boys chasing pigeons in a park in southern Beirut, Lebanon.

An old picture. (During the Lebanon Crisis last year). I find this picture very poetic and that is all the hint I will give you.

Lesson of Eid-uz Zuha

2007-01-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

I heard a sermon today during my Eid (today is Eid-ul Adha or Eid-uz Zuha) prayer (namaz/salat). I more or less liked it. Here is a brief:

The soul of Islam rests on kurbani (sacrifice). It's glory is in kurbani, it's success is due to kurbani and the success of the believer lies in kurbani. The spirit of five pillars of Islam are kurbani.

Believer gives up everything for his/her faith(There is none worthy of worship other than God, Muhammad is a messanger of God). Many were killed, chained, burnt and tortured, but they remained upright. In that is his/her kurbani.

Believer gives up sleep to pray. In that is his/her kurbani.

Believer gives up his/her earnings in charity (zakah). In that is his/her kurbani.

Believer gives up his/her homeland, his friends, his/her family to go for pilgrimage (Hajj). In that is his/her kurbani.

Believer gives up food and drink to observe fast (roza), in that is his/her kurbani.

Arundhati on the Afzal Issue

2007-01-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

I have so far been silent on Afzal issue because I was mostly unaware of details. Even now I am, but these questions raised by Arundhati Roy rattled my head.
She writes

Question 1: For months before the attack on parliament, both the government and the police had been saying that parliament could be attacked. On December 12, 2001, then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee warned of an imminent attack. On December 13, it happened. Given that there was an “improved security drill,” how did a car bomb packed with explosives enter the parliament complex?
Question 2: Within days of the attack, the Special Cell of the Delhi police said it was a meticulously planned joint operation of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba. They said the attack was led by a man called Mohammad who was also involved in the hijacking of flight IC-814 in 1998. (This was later refuted by the Central Bureau of Investigation.) None of this was ever proved in court. What evidence did the Special Cell have for its claim?

Question 3: The entire attack was recorded live on closed-circuit television (CCTV). Two Congress Party members of parliament, Kapil Sibal and Najma Heptullah, demanded in parliament that the CCTV recording be shown to the members. They said that there was confusion about the details of the event. The chief whip of the Congress Party, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, said, “I counted six men getting out of the car. But only five were killed. The closed-circuit TV camera recording clearly showed the six men.” If Dasmunshi was right, why did the police say that there were only five people in the car? Who was the sixth person? Where is he now? Why was the CCTV recording not produced by the prosecution as evidence in the trial? Why was it not released for public viewing?

Question 4: Why was parliament adjourned after some of these questions were raised?

Question 5: A few days after December 13, the government declared that it had “incontrovertible evidence” of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack, and announced a massive mobilization of almost half a million soldiers to the Indo-Pakistan border. The subcontinent was pushed to the brink of nuclear war. Apart from Afzal’s “confession,” extracted under torture (and later set aside by the supreme court), what was the “incontrovertible evidence”?

Question 6: Is it true that the military mobilization to the Pakistan border had begun long before the December 13 attack?

Question 7: How much did this military standoff, which lasted for nearly a year, cost? How many soldiers died in the process? How many soldiers and civilians died because of mishandled landmines, and how many peasants lost their homes and land because trucks and tanks were rolling through their villages and landmines were being planted in their fields?

Question 8: In a criminal investigation, it is vital for the police to show how the evidence gathered at the scene of the attack led them to the accused. The police have not managed to show how they connected Geelani to the attack. And how did the police reach Afzal? The Special Cell says Geelani led them to Afzal. But the message to look out for Afzal was actually flashed to the Srinagar police before Geelani was arrested. So how did the Special Cell connect Afzal to the December 13 attack?

Question 9: The courts acknowledge that Afzal was a surrendered militant who was in regular contact with the security forces, particularly the STF of Jammu and Kashmir police. How do the security forces explain the fact that a person under their surveillance was able to conspire in a major militant operation?

Question 10: Is it plausible that organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad would rely on a person who had been in and out of STF torture chambers, and was under constant police surveillance, as the principal link for a major operation?

Question 11: In his statement before the court, Afzal says that he was introduced to “Mohammed” and instructed to take him to Delhi by a man called Tariq, who was working with the STF. Tariq was named in the police charge sheet. Who is Tariq and where is he now?

Question 12: On December 19, 2001, six days after the parliament attack, police commissioner S.M. Shangari identified one of the attackers who was killed as Mohammad Yasin Fateh Mohammed (alias Abu Hamza) of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, who had been arrested in Mumbai in November 2000 and immediately handed over to the Jammu and Kashmir police. He gave detailed descriptions to support his statement. If police commissioner Shangari was right, how did Yasin, a man in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir police, end up participating in the parliament attack? If he was wrong, where is Yasin now?

Question 13: Why is it that we still do not know who the five “terrorists” killed in the parliament attack are?

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Breaking The News

RELATED READ:
Should Mohammad Afzal Guru Be Hanged?
We Haven’t Even Heard Afzal’s Story
The Death Sentence For Mohammed Afzal Guru And The Future Of Barbarism
How Deep Shall We Dig?

Eid Mubarak

2006-12-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

Eid-ul Adha is round the corner. It seems in India it's going to be on 1st. Though with our crazy history, nobody can tell. Let us be positive then: let us enjoy the unpredictability. (Oh no! I can't; my schedule will go haywire! ).

For those who do not know, it is to commemorate the incident of Abraham attempting to sacrifice his son (as God had so willed). One remembers the controversy about whether it was Ishmael or Israel who was being sacrificed. Some people have even more interesting observations. I will not get into Israel-Ishmael debate, because I feel it does not matter who (unless you want to take side with Arabs or Israelis. I am neither for one or the other. I feel it is better to be for justice, than to be loyal to a group).

All that apart, hearty wishes for everyone. May He bestow His love and forgiveness for all in this occasion.
Amen.

Christmas and New Year

2006-12-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

The earth has finished one more revolution around the Sun since last december.

One more year is gone. It is a time to pause. To reflect the past, to regret the mistakes and to look forward. Shall we look back and see what we have added to The Record?

As for me, it has been a year of a lot of gain, but I have given little. I have learned a lot. I have tried to share what I have learnt, as well as to learn from others. It has been a year of gifts, as a shiny flower has been bestowed on me. May Lord grant me and all my brothers and sisters peace, righteousness and judgement, and may He guide us.

I have learnt from the next generation too. And as with all previous generations, I see despair, and a little hope too, in them. Hard times are coming. And then probably a miracle? Oh yes! Miracles do happen. All the time. Isn't it that I am writing this a miracle? To me, it is.

It has been a year of mistakes and sins too. I regret and pray for forgiveness, and hope of being forgiven by the Merciful.

Praise unto you, O Lord! the Sustainer and Cherisher of the worlds
The Merciful, The Kind
Lord of The Day of Judgment
Only Thee do we worship, Thee only do we turn for help
Guide us through the Straight Path
The Path on which prophets and saints have walked
And not (the path) of those who have gone astray.

Amen.

Merry Christamas to all.
A very happy and prosperous and rewarding new year.
May Peace prevail.

Amen.

Everything under the Sun?

2006-12-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Admit it. We often say it.

Have you ever stopped to think about what does it mean?

If you have not, and if you are interested, then let us do it now. So the blue ball is the Earth, and the yellow one is the Sun.

The person A has Sun above his head. So for him down is from Sun towards the earth. That is great. Because for him, 'everything under the Sun' can mean all the earth.

Now look at the guy C. He is in a completely weired situation. The Sun is actually below his foot. For him 'downward' points from Earth to Sun. So things 'under the Sun' are the things that are on the other side of the Sun. And surely enough, that does not include anything on Earth.

That's a precarious position then. I mean by trying to say 'everything on Earth'(this is not a very wrong thing to say, if you mean to say everything on the surface of Earth) he's ended up saying 'nothing on Earth and a lot outside the Earth'.

For guys B or D, the situation is similar.

Imagining somebody ON the Sun, or the moon, or many other 'places', we can get to a lot of interesting things that are 'under the Sun' but very often they will not include anything on Earth.

Oh yeah, I know what you are saying: 'this guy is digging too deep'. Perhaps I am. But it's fun.

By the way, if you are curious why Sun is so small compared to Earth, it is because this picture was taken last summer holidays when I was on the Moon.

What Robert Reveals about Terrorism

2006-12-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

In a very interesting session (1 hour) of 'Conversations with History' Robert Pape talks about what causes terrorism.

I will strongly urge you to listen to Pape very seriously. I feel his contribution is very important to understand terrorism. It is quite counter-intuitive(one shocking revealation is perhaps the fact that the LTTE is the undoubtable champion of suicide attack), especially if you listen to CNN or Fox News or Zee news too often.

The prime reason, as he puts it, behind suicide terrorism is foreign occupation. Terrorists carry out suicide attack 'in response to foreign occupation forces in lands which the terrorists prize as their land' and not primarily due to religious fundamentalism. He is quite substantial and convincing in his findings. They are supported by numbers and they fit quite well with what I had a vague idea about.

However, he is talking from an American's point of view. For example he is not opposed to 'controlling' the mid-east oil.

He missed to (or maybe he did not) touch upon the source of the myth of 'clash of civilizations' or the source of the myth connecting Islam with violence and hatred. One may also listen to Noam Chomsky , needs no introduction, or to Ira Lapidus, an expert in Muslim societies.

It is important to demonize a society to justify oppressing them. Add to this the human desire to prove superior to others. Naturally the powerful has advantage in this. They tend to define what is right and what is wrong. And that is why Muslims are bad, and Islam is what causes suicide terrorism.

I have talked about his book once before.

RELATED READ:
Pape's paper in American Political Science Review

Reservation Bill Passed

2006-12-15T05:02:00.001-08:00

The lower house passed the reservation bill on 14th. Parliament has passed it today.

AIIMS doctors have started hunger strike in response.

Bit of Politics and a bit of History

2006-12-14T05:08:00.000-08:00

I don't want this page to look like a video showcase. But I want to share the good ones I have seen. Therefore I will link to them, but not embed them.

Politics
Doha Debates with Hamza Yusuf
(About 50 minuts. Incomplete.)
Basically concerned about terrorism.

Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land
(One hour and 20 minutes)
The Israel-Palestine fights.

History
The Empire of Faith, first part.
(All the three parts are roughly 55 minuts. Total about three hours of watch.)
The first part mainly is about the prophet of Islam, peace and blessings upon him.
The second and the third part are here and here. The second part is the subsequent history upto the Mongol invation of Baghdad. Third part talks about the Ottomans.

A Question about Democracy

2006-12-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

Democray is in a sense rule of the majority. It has happened in the past that the minorities were exploited by a powerful minority. We think democracy can solve that. However as things stand, it still does happen, even in democracies.

On the other hand, there is a term 'tyranny of the majority'. Popular opinion goes that test of strength of democracy lies in the status of the minority (in whatever sense: religious, racial, lingual etc. etc.).

This seems to me an inbuilt paradox. The rule of the majority( if that is what is democracy) will 'ensure' that minority are treated as minority, portrayed as 'beneficiaries' of the state. Not as partners in the rights and responsibilities. They will in fact be marginalised and exploited. That is (collective) human charecter as history seems to suggest.

If I look at 'real world' I see something equally paradoxical. For example in the USA 'tyranny of the majority' and 'tyranny of the minority' (so to say) are taking place at the same time and at the same place.

The dominant racial identity is white(in the USA). The blacks are definitely marginalised. This is 'tyranny of the majority'.

Economically, however, it is the minority(the rich) who make or significantly influence policy decisions. They systematically exploit the majority (the not-so-rich, and that includes blacks and whites).

This puzzles me.

Lies were not True

2006-12-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

Caught

2006-12-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

Apparently, an American mom has got his twelve year old arrested for stealing his christmas gift and opening it. She says:

I'd rather call (the police) myself than someone else call for him doing something worse.

Conversation With Amartya Sen

2006-12-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

Inspiring conversation. Amartya Sen needs no introduction.

I'm watching too many videos these days...

Tariq Ramadan and his 'Terrorist Agenda'

2006-12-08T04:34:00.000-08:00

Tariq Ramadan is alleged of a lot of things. Daniel Pipes claims:

“He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Mr. Turabi in turn called Mr. Ramadan the “future of Islam.”
Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.

Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had “routine contacts” with Mr. Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge (Baltasar Garzón) in 1999.

Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the American embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Mr. Ramadan.

Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is “any certain proof” that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.

He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as “interventions,” minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement.

Intelligence agencies suspect that Mr. Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hôtel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al-Qaeda, and Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison.

Mr. Ramadan’s address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist terrorism.”

Does not convince me.

Brutal policies of Hassan Al-Turabi

Great!
See this. It's not that they're the devils. It's that they're not obedient to his highness Bush II. That is why they're colored all so black. And about brutal policies, as far I am aware, he's not responsible of any genocide, let alone for the killing of 2(or 6) million people anywhere in the world.
The ones that preceded them, they murdered, they looted, they extorted, they were involved in drug trafficking.... You have absolutely no problem with that. (My skin's safe anyway.) Stop being afraid whenever Islam is named. You will feel better.

Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.

Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is ?any certain proof? that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.

Al-Qaeda and Suspicion! Again! I'm sick!
As far as I am aware, it is a fact that Al-Qaeda has not been convincingly proved to be involved in 911. Despite all the claims. I am yet to come across hard evidence other than "he made a call to him", "he rented his home for six months", "they were seen together once in paris" that sort of thing. It basically assumes one thing: undeniably the criminals has link with Al-Qaeda, which itself is not proven.

Neither has he said 'I think Al-Qaeda is the greatest gift to mankind'.
Fact is fact, face it. When he said there was no proof, he did not mean Al-Qaeda is an angel.
The court of the United states has looked into it. They found not a single of his writings or lectures can be called provocative." Not even in the sense of attacking or demeaning other civilisations.

Intelligence agencies suspect that Mr. Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hôtel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al-Qaeda, and Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison.

I susptect King Bush II had been meeting bin-Laden in his backyard discussing next election. This election(if you don't remember) he's done a great job by releasing a video message just before the elections. That indeed carried king Bush II's rheotics a distance.
Intelligence agencies suspect! I don't believe what media says about intelligence. Intelligence is not something that you go around beating drums about what you have found out. Whenever I see some 'intelligence' on newspaper (or tv or net) I become suspecious.

A lot of allegations have been brought forward against Ramadan. Including doublespeak. But nobody ever provides evidence or example!
It's for those who want to believe all Islamists are evil. They require no proof.

If there is indeed proof against him, why not press a charge and put him behind the bars?

No it's not that. It is because Ramadan is dangerous. He is well versed in history. He is reasonable. He's eloquent. In short he's more dangerous than all the criminals in Al-Qaeda put together.

I would suggest you watch these two documentaries (here and here). You will be less touchy when you hear 'Islam' next time.

Prayer

2006-12-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

O Lord
Grant me ability to change with sincerity the wrongs I can

O Lord
Grant me ability to accept with serenity the wrongs I can not

and

O Lord
Grant me ability to differentiate between the two

(It's not my original. Don't remember who said it first)

Wish

2006-12-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

From Hadeeth (Instances)

Volume 1, Book 2, Number 12:

Narrated Anas:
The Prophet said, "None of you will have faith till he wishes for his brother what he likes for himself."

They should wear Armbands to Identify them as Potential Threat

2006-12-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly. Support came from a large number of people.

At the end of his one hour show he revealed that it was a hoax.

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said,"

Is what he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland.

This is pure Isamophobia at work.

Full story is here.

Yet Another bit of History

2006-12-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

A BBC documentary about Islam in Europe (about 1 hour 30mins).

Another Piece of History

2006-12-05T08:59:00.000-08:00

I've been watching many videos these days. I guess I'm hooked. Another one I thought worth sharing (approximately 21 mins long)

Honestly I do not know what language it is in. There is english subtitle, but that is not very well visible. The video quality is poor too. I apologise for that.

An Intersting bit of History

2006-12-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

Amazingly well presented history (approximately 1 hour and 42 minutes long)

Basically it talks about the medieval history of Arabia and Spain.

Ayodhya of the South?

2006-12-05T04:46:00.000-08:00

Submitted without comment:

Thousands of VHP and Bajrang Dal activists on Monday abandoned plans for a puja at the Baba Budangiri shrine in Chikamagalur. The decision came after the Karnataka government ordered a crackdown on any overtly religious gathering near the controversial shrine.

The activists had come to Chikamagalur over the last few days for the Shobha Yatra and the puja, which was scheduled for Monday. Members of the BJP Yuva Morcha and Sangh Parivar activists said they were disappointed at having to abandon the puja.

The serene hill-town of Chikaamagalur has suddenly become the base for Hindutva politics in Karnataka, with the BJP making renewed attempts to make the Datta Peeta the Ayodhya of the South.

Datta Peeta, apart from being a Hindu temple, is also home to the dargah (Muslim shrine) of Sufi saint Bababudan Saheb. Ever since communal problems arose in the area in 1975, the district administration has checked the BJP’s attempts to hold Shobha Yatras.

There had been several attempts to saffronise the Bababudan Saheb’s shrine in the past. The BJP had held a procession under tight security on Saturday, but later abandoned plans to hold a puja at the cave temple on Monday.

The original news is here.

Poor Mention?

2006-12-05T04:28:00.000-08:00

This is the last of my series of three posts on 'Islamic' science. (The previous ones are here and here). It is beyond doubt now that Muslims contributed a lot to modern science, as Adam Hart-Davis says at the end of the video(here): The Arabs preserved, expanded, and improved the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. Without them, modern life would look very different indeed.

As I was saying before. A lot people do not know about these contributions. When the science books talk about mechanics, they faithfully tell us about all the charecters involved, Galileo, Newton and so on and so forth. Whereas when it talks about Chemistry, it does not tell us about the exciting history of Al-Chemi (I'm not that sure about the spelling, you see).

Pin hole camera is described in almost all high-school texbooks. Few give the impression that they were made on Arab soil before coming to Europe. Atleast my texbook didn't. I was all surprize when I came to know that.

I can not say for sure whether all of it is deliberate, but I think it is. Other's discovering things can be a threat to white supremacy.

Whatever, it feels great to find out about ancient findings. It always enthrals me to imagine how fascinating and pathbreaking these discoveries were, at that time, which are so trivial now.

Vote for the Best

2006-12-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

There is a vote going on for best bloggers among the Muslims. I suggest you take part in it (Clicking on the icon below should take you to the page).

You will get to know some amazing bloggers too from there.

'Islamic' Science

2006-12-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

Seek knowledge, even unto China. So said the prophet, peace and blessings on him.

Before any further comment, watch this YouTube video (It's a BBC documentary, about 50 minutes long, but well presented).

I was already saying in a previous post that Muslims contributed a lot to science, though we don't see that in our science textbooks. Maybe because they're not 'white science'! The Europeans are, at most, aware that the Muslims preserved and translated the scientific adventures of the Greeks. Most of them, even professional scientists are not aware of the advancements they made. Not surprising, given their general trend of proclaiming white supremacy over all other races. I am not trying to paint all of them in black (err... white), but most of them do subscribe to this view. I have even come across radical ideas such as the whites are genetically superior to non-whites. You form your own opinions about it, but it is yet to be proven, and that is all I can say.

The Single Most Important Contribution of 'Islamic' Science
From 'Natural Philosophy' to 'Experimental Philosophy'

We are taught, in almost all high-school textbooks that Aristotle used to think that the universe is perfect. He also thought that superior human beings can, just by thinking about it, can reveal the secrets how nature works. No offence meant. He indeed was a great thinker, and he came to some amazing conclusions. What he apparently did not realize was that all his conclusions were based on observation at some level. In fact he denied to accept it. So science remained 'elite'; for those who don't do physical labor.

Have a look at Euclidean geometry. Don't get bothered by the Greek scientist's name. It is just the geometry that we are taught at high school. It starts with some 'reasonable' assumptions. And then magic! You get some apparently completely unrelated results. Very elegant indeed. But very difficult to come up with. You tend to go wrong very often if you try to come up with something similar.

One more shortcoming in the Greek philosophy was that they tried to unify everything. Put simply they could not accept the nature 'as it is'. They could not accept nature as apparently unrelated 'rules of nature'. That is because they thought that everything can be deducted from understandable reason, by just sitting and thinking.

It was the Arabs who first accepted the marvels of nature. In the sense that it was they who first started systematic experimentation under controlled environment, in order to understand nature better. It was at par with the religion they followed (Qur'an provokes one to observe nature and draw conclusions, "have you ever reflected upon how rain falls?" it says). So science became inductive than deductive. Systematic observation gives you conclusions which you test in systematic controlled environment (i.e. in an experiment).

Let us divide the vast topic into sub-topics. Such as Astronomy, Medicine, Physics (philosophae naturalis), Chemistry and Technology.

Astronomy
The Arabs recorded and named all visible (with naked eye) stars. A vast majority of them still bear their original Arabic name. A Arab mathematician is known to have even calculated the tilt of the earth's axis with respect to the plane of earth's orbital motion. That is a amazing fact. It means that the Arabs knew that the Earth is round. It meant that they knew that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way. [This may not be true. See the afterthought at the bottom]
It was a big surprise to me. My science textbook tells me about how much Galileo and Copernicus had to go through when they tried to propose that earth goes round the sun (this is called a heliocentric model). [see the afterthought at the bottom]

Apparently the Muslim clerics did not find the heliocentric model against their sacred texts, or maybe they did not bother much about these scholars. Some of the caliphs were in fact great patrons of Science, and they sent out people in search of ancient texts of value, and then translated them into Arabic. A number of vast libraries were set up in Iraq, in Spain and in some other places.

Medicine
Instead of going into boring details, I shall stick to one example. A Arabic doctor, wanted to figure out where in the city he could build his hospital. He hung pieces of meat all over the city. Where it was least rotten after some days was the place he chose for building his hospital.
Some Surgical instruments (eg scalpel) invented in those are still in use.

Physics
Until few days back I used to think that they made no major contribution to physics, or the natural science ('philosophae naturalis'). It turned out that I was wrong. They did made a number of advancements in this field. The foremost of them was in optics. It was they who first figured out that light travels in straight line. They made the first pin-hole camera.

Chemistry
Chemistry was born in Arab soil, so to say. Systematic study of chemical reactions in a controlled environment resulted in a number of discoveries. A number of methods of preparing acids, bases and even the preparation of soap are a result of these. The distillation method gave medicine as well as perfume.

Technology
Windmill, parachute, water pump (hand powered) and a number of other things. The canons, the guns, rocket and torpedo are all invented by Muslim scientists.

Now we see the 'great conference' taking place in Malaysia to discuss how to determine prayer time when in some satellite. The reason? Malaysia is sending some astronauts into space in Russian rockets. I don't know what to say. You can't make your own rockets, that doesn't (apparently) bother you. What does is, when to pray when in orbit. Of course you should pray but there is no reason to make it the most important part of the mission. The Most Merciful, The Most Benevolent knows our constraints.

---

DISCLAIMER:
By 'Islamic Science' I meant to say the science that was practiced by the Muslims. Even though some people say that Islam has nothing to do with these inventions, I would differ from them for the following reasons:

Had Islam not given the political stability and the environment to study the universe, none of these would have been possible
Had Islam been hostile to persuit of knowledge, all the knowledge gathered by Greek, Persian, Indian and other scientists and thinkers would have been lost.

AFTERTHOUGHT:
Thanks to Pieter Kok I realized that the tilt can explain change of weather in both geocentric and heliocentric model. Thanks Pieter. Apparently, if you think that the sun is going round the earth, then the model becomes very very complex. What we do not know is what the Arabs thought about this problem: whether they proposed a heliocentric or a geocentric system.

NOTE OF THANKS: Karim's blog led me to the video that is embedded into this page.

Related Read:
20 Greatest Inventions by Muslim Scientists
(Comment: Not all the 'inventions' listed were original to the Muslims, though all of them came to the present world from/through the Muslims.)
Medieval Science
(Archive of Ancient Science)
Wiki on Islamic Science
Wiki on History of Islamic Science

The Great Debate and The Pope

2006-11-30T05:16:00.000-08:00

The Pope is visiting Turkey. Protests are taking place against the pontiff. This is from a BBC report(here):

The Pope's words which sparked this and so many other demos came in a lecture back in September to his old university at Regensburg in Germany. He quoted the remarks of the 14th Century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

In the noise of protests and etc. the actual debate got buried. We are not discussing whether Muhammad really preached by the sword, or whether he asked others to do it. There was a very nice opportunity to debate faith, history, and the relevant issues of the present time. Take for example, how 'christian' is the European culture and the inclusion of 'Islamic' Turkey into 'Christian' EU.

Not many of us are perhaps aware that the values of peaceful coexistence (or in other words, religious tolerance), freedom of speech and a zeal of knowledge were all introduced to the unruly Europe of the fourteenth to fifteenth century by the Muslims (Arabs and Turks in the East and African Moors in Spain). Even the use of soap, shampoo and beverage come from Muslims.

Apparently, before the Renaissance, non-Christians did not enjoy living in Christian-ruled country much. Shakespeare's famous plays carry stamps of this mentality. Prejudices about the Jews are not very difficult to find in his plays. All European countries that were ruled by the Christians before the Renaissance are overwhelmingly Christian dominated. The reason is not hard to guess (or to look up). Evidences are just staring at us.

Ironically, the same Muslims do not have very good record of tolerance in many/most countries of present time. And even more ironically, the non-Muslims ascribe this to Islam, but not to the Muslims' degraded society.

Pope has time and again tried to prove that European liberal values (which hardly goes well with the Church's blood-ridden history) are alien to Islam, and therefore (as in a more specific case) Turks should be kept out of EU. One just have to remember the Church's role during the Crusades to have a good smile at this.

But, but, but... for one reason the Church must be thanked. It was because of the Crusades that was started by the Church that the Europeans came in close contact with the Islamic/Muslim/Arab civilization and the rich philosophical and scientific traditions continued from the Greeks.

One side-note may be helpful here. It is often thought that Arabs translated and preserved the Greek science and philosophy. It is not the whole truth. The Arabs built upon it too. Algebra, Chemistry, Astronomy, Surgery and Medicine owe a lot to the Islamic civilization, so to say. But that is not the most important contribution of the Arabs to science. The biggest contribution was the introduction of inductive science. One that is based on observation, conclusion and experimentation. As against the Greek science that is deductive. The Euclidean Geometry and the Aristotle's Science are examples of such. Archimedes, however, practiced inductive science. But his kind were minority at his time.

Update

2006-11-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

After a week of silence. I don't have anything to say, either. So lets look at what has been happening this week.

India and China has vowed cooperation in Trade. We keep hearing reports of them making rail lines, dams etc. along India's border, apart from the claim over parts of today's India.

On the other side of the border, Pakistan and China has vowed more trade and technology cooperation. Especially some nuclear power plants are to come up in Pakistan with China's help to balance India's (almost ready) deal with the United States. Here is a BBC analysis.

Apart from that, I came across an interesting report/interview about/with LK Advani.

In Another report, India has been listed among 54 flawed democracies. There is no reason, I believe, to elaborate because the reasons stated are Cliche (but perhaps true).

VHP was irked by a VCD showing Hanuman and Ravana playing cricket, in Punjab.

In response to the alleged rampage of Police on Muslims after Mumbai blast, a special committee has been formed to handle such complaints.

Articles

2006-11-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

As I am a bit busy, I won't write. Instead, I will suggest some articles.

Sachar Committee Report

Survey Of Socio-Economic Conditions Of Muslims In India by Imran Ali & Yoginder Sikand
A review. Somehow the fonts on this particular page are too small. You will have to enlarge the fonts to read it.

Ghettoes Reserved For Muslims? by Farzana Versey
The author tries to point out that it is not only Muslims that prefer to live in groups. Add to that the reluctance of many to rent or sale to Muslims.

The debate over veil
It refuses to die out. Here are two articles:

Beyond the Veil by Fareena Alam.
Excellent article.

Wail not for the veil, but education by Firoz Bakht Ahmed
Raises some valid questions.

Malegaon (again!)

Malegaon blasts : Partisan approach and biased police by Asghar Ali Engineer
Nothing much new except Engineer's personal experience of interacting with the locals.

Madrassa Education

Combining the ‘secular’ and the ‘religious’: Madrasas with a difference by Yogindar Sikand
Some madrassas are following 'mainstream' courses.

Hajj Subsidy

Haj Subsidy, Anyone?
From a blog. I didn't know a lot of things they have to say. I did not verify facts(about air fare) either, but the points are very clearly stated. Overall a good read.

Malegaon Protests

2006-11-16T07:58:00.001-08:00

Adnan has an interesting post in his blog. He writes:

Angry at the indiscriminate arrests and illegal detention of hundreds of Muslims in the aftermath of Malegaon blasts, the local residents staged a unique protest. After the Friday namaaz, they wore the kind of masks which police make the accused persons to wear at press conferences.

Pak rape law being reviewed
Pakistan has finally been looking into the controversial Hudood law amid trouble.

Peace is easy

2006-11-14T04:18:00.000-08:00

The drama has finally been restarted.

(I mean Indo-Pak peace talks have resumed.)

Somebody said

"Quitting smoking is easy, I'd dunnit so many times!"

Likewise we can say

"Peace talks are ..."

Chinese Arunachal?

2006-11-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

China has claimed that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China.

Reservation for the Muslims

2006-11-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

The controversy on granting reservation for the OBCs at the institutes of higher learning has hardly died down. There is a new controversy going on about granting some reservation for the Muslims. It is not yet clear where and how much. I mean is the reservation going to be in schools and colleges, or in govt jobs or somewhere else?

There is no doubt that Muslims are lagging behind average Indian in every sphere of life.

The reservation policy, however, is not going to work. Even more so for the Muslims. There are several reasons why a reservation for the Muslims is not desirable:

Catapulting into some institution is not of much help, as the student, terrible underequipped compared to his classmates, will struggle with the course. Neither is reservation in jobs anything of help. The unskilled man/woman will struggle with his/her own job, let alone going back and helping his/her people. I have noticed that people, who get into places where they do not deserve to be, when asked for help, are generally not helpful to others. I believe this comes from insecurity.
Mostly the rich and powerful among the Muslims (the so called creamy layer) are going to benefit from such policy.
The right wing parties will use it( footnote 2) as another pretext to sow discord among Hindus and Muslims. They will be more venomous in this case compared to the one of SC/ST/OBCs, because at least the SC/ST/OBCs are mostly Hindus. We shall see more confrontations of the Muslim and the Hindu society.
It may be unconstitutional( footnote 3).

The solution does not lie in this. Rather I think the urge and effort has to come from within the Muslims. More organisations like BIFT has to come up. Tagore once said "(a person's) need is a lot stronger than (another's) sympathy."

The government too can do a lot (not by something like offering reservation) by some assertive actions like building up more schools in Muslim dominated areas, granting scholarships to needy students through the Waqf board and by including Urdu in the list of languages offered in good government schools like DPSs, KVs and others( footnote 1). There is a clear trend of many government school administrations denying admission to students from Muslim muhallas. The govt can take action against such administrations. And it should stop trying to rob the few Muslim institutions their special status. They are like oasis for the Muslims.

A very important thing that the government can do is to clear the Waqf of the corrupt people it has got. If they do that, the situation is bound to look up within some time.

Related read:
1. TEHELKA DEBATE
2. Under-representation of the Muslims in India and Their Upliftment: Some Thoughts
3. Muslim quota? The debate is on

FOOTNOTE
1. It is not that they don't offer Urdu, but many schools don't and even in some that does, there is shortage of teachers.

2. A recent news points out that the BJP does not like the idea of granting reservation for the Muslims. That is quite expected. It is not from good will towards Muslims, but because of their policy of hatred.

3. Few days back a supreme court order has declared reservation on the basis of religion as unconstitutional, in response of Andhra Pradesh government's decision to grant reservation for the Muslims.

Online Luck

2006-11-10T04:05:00.000-08:00

Online lottery has become quite common in India these days. People pay few rupees and within minutes they know the result.

I watch a lot of people falling into this trap. A farmer lost 500. A businessman 11 lacs. Both were ruined. By their greed and by online lottery. The first we can't help. The last we can.

Online lottery is more dangerous perhaps because it gives you result within minutes. So the temptation to try once more is more irresistible. It is the poor that are more frequently falling victim to this phenomena compared to the rich. Perhaps because they are more desperate.

Online lottery must immediately be banned. (Who will bell the cat?)

Royal Return?

2006-11-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

BBC reports:

As India approaches nearly 60 years of independence, some of its former royals seem intent on turning the clock back.

One aristocratic politician has even gone so far as to persuade the authorities to rule that she should be addressed as "highness".

Shabana Honored
A bit old news, but Shabana Azmi has received Gandhi prize. She said, while recieving the prize-

"terrorism is being equated with Islam - This is both unjust and untrue. Myths are being perpetuated in the name of religion."

"the fight today cannot be between the Christian and the Muslim; the fight cannot be between the Hindu and the Muslim- the fight needs to be between ideologies -the ideologies of the liberal versus the ideologies of the extremist. The liberal Muslim, Christian, Hindu on the same side against the extremist Muslim, Christian, Hindu on the other"

One remembers the controversy that she started few days back about wearing the veil.

1857 Uprising

2006-11-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting discussion going on about the role of freelance jehadis in the uprising. Probably they were more important than we think.

Here are two reviews:

From BBC
Indian mutiny was 'war of religion'

From The Times of India
The Jehad of 1857?

Instances

2006-11-09T04:19:00.000-08:00

Let me quote some instances that I stumbled upon last few months.

Muhammad is known to have said

"Everybody will be judged according to their intentions."

It was common in those days to artificially fertilize date trees to increase yield.

When Muhammad (S) came to know about it, he ordered that this practice should stop.

They did stop. As a result that year yield of dates was very little. At this, Muhammad issued a fresh order

'About earthly matters, I am just as human as you are. Continue with the practice, as it is definitely helping humanity. And what is good for people is good in Islam.'
(not verbatim)

Once Muhammad(S) commented

"You should help Muslims , be they oppressed or oppressors."

One of his followers, surprised, ( I too was surprised when I first came across this; it was so unlike him), asked him

"O prophet, I can help the oppressed, but how can I help the oppressor?"

At this, Muhammad said

"By stopping him."

Malegaon Investigation Update

2006-11-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Some alleged SIMI activists have been arrested. Even though their involvement can not be ruled out in one breath, they are unlikely to have done it.

What should really bother us are

Even though there was enough indication that the Bajrang Dal was involved in the carnage, they hardly were questioned or detained.
A huge amount of explosives has been uncovered in Maharshtra in past few months.
This arrest is taking place after a long time (about 2 months after the blast).

How come the police is so sure even without trying all the possibilities?

Related articles:
Malegaon's Date with Terror: 9/8
Malegaon Bomb Blast Trail: Whatever Happened To The 'Fake Beard?'
Update On Malegaon
A Prelude To Malegaon Bomb Blast
Malegaon Blasts Investigation -A Litmus Test Of Impartiality

Hijab Battle

2006-11-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

Shabana Azmi has said that the Qur'an does not make wearing a veil mandatory (it is actually correct, see footnote ). The media saw a good opportunity. Immediately they ran to the Shahi Imam, who is known for careless remarks, for masala. The kind Shahi Imam did not disappoint them.

Even without entering the debate, one can clearly see that the language and approach of the Shahi Imam was very objectionable. What he said does not really look like one coming from a scholar. Largely media has given the impression that Shabana has gone unsupported among the Muslims. That is untrue.

By not giving the Muslim intellectuals enough space on newsprints, the media is doing a twofold damage. First, it is causing more misunderstanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, and it helps the stereotype of the Muslims. Second, it misleads the average Muslims by blocking, in effect, communication between the Muslim leaders with the Muslims. Who start believing that what the cleric is saying should be correct and they start defending him against attackers.

By the way, this is the same Shahi Imam who declared Eid one day before Pakistan did. Being to our West, Pakistan should see the Moon before us. They did not see the moon on monday. How come our beloved Shahi Imam saw it before them?

FOOTNOTE:
There is a dress code prescribed in the Qur'an, which is not very specific, but sets the mood of the dress code. The general agreement between scholars is that a veil, which means covering of face, is not mandatory as per the Qur'an, though some people differ.

Qur'an( Surah an-Noor, 31) says:
"And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! Turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss."

And there is a similar verse for men too.
Qur'an( Surah an-Noor, 30)
“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is aware of what they do.”

Double Half Eid

2006-10-27T23:42:00.002-07:00

It was a shame that Muslims in India celebrated Eid in two days. Same thing has been happening in the past few years. This has to be fixed.

Rushdie Sold
His personal diary. For undisclosed amount. He is a clever businessman, without doubt.

Blog will be Inactive

2006-10-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

I am going home. So blog will be inactive starting today up until 5th November. See you then. Happy Eid and Happy Diwali to all.

I'm Sorry

2006-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

A conversation with a beautiful lady in my campus. Seeing her I waved. She said:

Hi

Hi, how're you?

Fine. You?

Same.

Didn't go home for (Durga) puja?

Oh no, I will be going for Eid.

Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't know you are...

Hey wait a minute. Why should you be sorry that I am a Muslim? Hmm. It's the same thing. I've always been saying...

Imrana Verdict Out

2006-10-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Imrana has finally got justice. I want, as I have said before, to see the clerics who gave the strange fatwa that she should marry her father-in-law must also be punished. A stronger demand has to come from within the Muslims.

Corus has accepted TATA bid. This is largest foreign takeover by an Indian company. I always admire TATA. So far they have no scams. And the business started with a vision (which was not 'to be rich and famous').

In madhya pradesh, a bus accident has killed 56 people.

Reservation given Green at SC

2006-10-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court of India has upheld reservation for the lower castes, provided they can prove that the lower caste is under-represented. the decision of the government to implement quota College and University students had vigorously protested against the proposed quota.

One third of the people covered in a survey support torture. Italy seems to have to opted against the trend. India is fully in favor of torture, well almost full.

Yunus has announced that he would like to enter politics. Hope he does a good job.

In another news TATA seems to have moved one step ahead in purchasing Corus, a foreign steel company.

Media's Muslim

2006-10-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

The Indian media, by and large, is not as bad as it could be. Even though I shall mainly talk about their faults in this article, I don't think they are all bad guys. This article is to show where they could and should be better.

Manipur
Let me start with a Muslim-unrelated news. Manipur is reeling. Is the media concerned? Apart from some isolated news here and there, hardly any coverage is offered to this unnecessary topic.

Stereotype
There is a media stereotype of the Muslims. One of bearded, angry, intolerant and foolish men, who are unable to think, but needs protection because they are also human beings. Sometimes the stereotype becomes more dangerous and tends to promote misunderstanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Mumbai vs Malegaon
Compare the Media's coverage in three different cases. Gujarat, Mumbai Blast and Malegaon Blast. Two recent bomb blasts in India took place in Mumbai and Malegaon. The media was traumatised by the atrocity, justly enough, about the serial blasts in Mumbai, that killed 200 unsuspecting innocent civilians. The incidence was covered extensively for the next one month. Compare that with Malegaon blast, where Muslims were targeted. The media did report the Malegaon blast, but the front page space was spared only for two days. The incident quickly evaporated from the mind of the average Indian, as we became busy in our daily lives again.

The media failed to report that the police has been lazy to take action. Apparently they were either afraid of or sympathising with the criminals. Or maybe just pressure from top?

One more issue is perhaps relevant here. Muslims vehemently protested against the Mumbai blast. The Urdu press was awash with reports and analysis condemning the blast. The mainstream media did not bother to report that. So we here from the Hindus : 'you never protested against Mumbai blast'. Muslims have enough reason to be frustrated.

2001 vs 2006
Gujarat got a good coverage. Starting from Godhra. The media covered the sad burning of about 58 people, mostly women and children, in a coach on 10th September . It is said, though open to challenge, that a mob of Muslim men has killed the people. Most of them pilgrims from Ayodhya. After that, as everybody knows, a violent mob was let loose on the Muslims. Not only Muslims were killed and abused and ill-treated wherever they were seen, also a systematic destruction was started on their properties. Many has seen the police assisting the mob. All these were reported by the media. That was in the beginning of Sep 2001. Post 911 propaganda was yet to begin.

After 911, there was a change. Western media is unbelievably powerful in propaganda and setting the mood.

Gujarat now has a lot of incidents that need coverage. They hardly are. Not only Muslims, but dalits too are living a bad dream.

Assam
In Assam there are quite a few branches of problems. Clashes of bengali and assamese cultures and the communal flames. All the Muslims are branded as bangladeshis by the Hindu right wing, who now find a sizable support. And all these hardly find a space in 'mainstream' media. The whole of North-East lives 50 years behind us. Violence is normal. Who cares?

All these seem to suggest there are two Indias: one is of the powerful and one of the powerless. Media merely reflects that.

Related articles:
Indian Muslims and the ‘mainstream’ media
The Indian Muslim in focus
INDIAN MUSLIMS - MYTH AND REALITY

Reconversion and Hindu Right

2006-10-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

The Viswa Hindu Parishad has purified (shuddikriya) 336 tribal converts to Christianity in front of a huge crowd. Days after thousands of dalits converted to Christianity and Buddhism

It comes after reports that a christian youth has been abducted and abused by a mob of VHP. The catholics have expressed convern over the activity of extremists long time back. Nuns have been abducted and sexually abused. They had been creating trouble regarding beef. In Berhampore of Orissa, they wanted to stop selling of beef.

RSS also has been very active in Orissa for past few years, as Human Rights Watch observes. They have even abused and threatened a senior judge, Justice K.K. Usha, of rape. She was conducting a survey on their activities.

Graham Stain's murder case was different. He was not Indian. So international pressure forced the gornment to take action. At the same time it was proved that it can, if it wants to, get hold of these miscreants.

All these clearly suggests that the reconversion is done under threat.

Bribing into Christianity
It is often accused that Christians are converting using force and money. The second one is possible (There are many religious people who are ready to spend a lot of money for the cause). First one is not. The Hindu right wing has a lot of patrons.

The government often does not want to touch them. Even if it does want to, it does not have the courage to take it up. In short, in India, it is not possible for the Christans to force-convert.

These we don't find very often in the media. Not atleast in the Indian media. They carefully avoid anger of the right.

If the Christins are useing money to convert people, they are definitely on the wrong path. Does that justify all the bullying and spreading of hatred?

Pak Peace Talks resume

2006-10-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Deja vu? Guess another episode of 'meri (badmash) padosan' (My bad neighbor) has begun. Peace talks are being talked about. The talks has not begun, mind it. They're saying It will begin from December.

After no talks from July (after the bombings), finally a little light.

Nursery Interview
Delhi High court has banned the city's private nurseries from interviewing parents or children before admission.

Curfew in Rajasthan
BBC reports:

The authorities in the Indian state of Rajasthan have imposed a curfew in two towns of Sriganganagar district after clashes betweeen farmers and police.

The farmers are demanding more water to irrigate their crops.

The BBC's Narayan Bareth in the state capital, Jaipur says that people of the town witnessed similar scenes in 2004 when police opened fire on a crowd, resulting in the deaths of five farmers.

Fine Tuning

2006-10-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

I had been fine tuning my october posts. Some more references and a few more facts have been added. In 'conversion menace' a video I saw on YouTube (by the way YouTube is now baught by Google) is added. 'Mumbai blast case solved' has a lot more references now. And a few changes here and there. As I got hold of a video that has Musharraf's answeres to Adnan's questions, the new video is put up in mighty tongue (the original video that I put up in the same post only had Adnan's questions).

Frustration
I am frustrated that I am getting no comments. If anyone is reading the posts, please save me from the frustration by commenting.

Mosque blast in Kerala

2006-10-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

I found on a rather unknown website of the Indian Express group that one person is hurt as a country bomb goes off on a mosque premises. Malegaon and Mumbai is still fresh in memory. The news reports:

According to the injured person, he had come to the mosque to do the morning namaz at around 4.30 am. The persons who were staying overnight had gone out to have their food and the mosque was empty.

Haji was about to enter the mosque when the explosion took place. The people who reached spot took him to Government Hospital at Vatakara. He was later taken to the Kozhikode MCH.

In Kozhokode itself, VHP has disrupted an iftaar party.

According to police, on hearing the move to conduct the iftar, VHP men went to the ashramam on Sunday morning and said that they find it improper on the part of the ashramam to host the feast.

In the evening, a group of men forcefully entered the ashramam, where 40-odd guests had reached, and destroyed food, furniture and electrical fittings. Police have registered a case.

As usual. police has registered a case. I fear their duty is over. Not only VHP is a very powerful entity, there are many sypathisers to VHP among police. Nothing's going to happen.

Sensex Boom

2006-10-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows. India's sensex has reached 13 000 today. India's economy has been growing consistently for the past two decades. The industry has done very well.

But the bad part is only few are benifitting from this boom. The poor is where they were. UNICEF reports that south Asia has most number of hungry children. Some 18 million children are suffering from malnutrition. Farmers in central India are committing suicide under pressure of rising debt. People suspect that it is due to free trade.

I don't know how happy I should be about the sensex boom.

Pinky Peace

In an Indian town, Aurangabad in Bihar, the town authority has chosen to paint the town pink.

The town's sub-division officer Arvind Kumar Singh reveals

About 80% of the buildings have been painted pink in the town and the rest would be completed by next week

Wondering why?
The city is very poor and crime rate is rising. Singh says:

What better colour than pink which symbolises good mood, soothing sight and good feelings. Pink also fosters communal amity and harmony

Butterflies in my stomach. I want to know whether it works or not.

Looks Changed

2006-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Blogger website has been urging me to upgrade the template. I've finally done it. Hope it looks good to others.

Mumbai Blast case 'solved'

2006-10-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Immediately after the blast Muslims, with the nation, were at first shocked and horrified. The nation got over the shock and horror. Muslims hardly did. I mean the ones living near Mumbai. Police harrassment became rampant. Even doctors, reporters, actors and engineers were not spared. A famous actor is reported to have said "for the first time I am feeling victimised for being a Muslim."

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said that Pakistan behind LeT behind SIMI is behind the Blast. Even before any investigation, the outcome of investigation was 'promised' to the nation.

Setback
All this investigation has now faced a setback. Seven of the eleven accused retracted their statement. Urdu press too has reported this. We heard that the police were abusing and asking people to confess.

A friend has a nice story to tell

When asked to catch a deer in a jungle, the Indian Police goes in, and comes back with an elephant, and telling it 'bol to hiran hai... bol to hiran hai... bol to hiran hai..."(say you are a deer, thrice).

I just hope that it's not so true. And my confidence is going down everyday as I keep hearing experiences of my friends and others.

I remember a comment of Muhammad (peace on him)

What got earlier civilizations (ummat) down was that they punished the weak for their crimes and let the powerful go unpunished (for their crimes).

It should not happen to us.

Conversion Menace?

2006-10-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Oh! The Hindu right wing is alerted again. Thousands of low caste Hindus are converting to Christianity and Buddhism (strange absense of Islam). The right wing is very very alerted.

When I ask them

Why? What is the problem if they convert?

Why are you Muslims always upto finding faults with Hinduism?

Hey I am not finding faults, I am asking you what's the problem if they excercise their freedom?

Abuses

Why don't you work toward improving their situation?

Abuses

They hardly care when they see the dalits being abused, being refused permission to enter temples. Even untouchability is not extinct yet. Marital relationship between castes is yet a dream. Why will not dalits be angry?

Perhaps this video poses these questions better than I can:

Is conversion a mere ritual?
Conversion isn't a thing that occurs suddenly. Why would someone bother to convert if nothing is bugging him/her? In this specific case the social structure preached by the religion is important. When you declare you agree with them (the other religion that preaches a even society), that is a conversion. That is for others to know. It's not for you.

Those dalits feel in their heart for a long time that they are not lessor than any of us. They merely declared that now. They are of the hope that in the new society they will be accepted with honour and love. And after converting atleast they can say to the 'upper caste' "we don't care."

Rebel
It is, we can say, a peaceful rebellion of the injstice and injury we have given them for ages. These conversions are not exactly 'spiritual.'

Muslims
We too arn't very scot-free. There are menaces of sects among Muslims. Shaikhs, Syeds etc. etc. Even though untouchability (as far as I am aware) does not exist among Muslim society, Marital relationship between different groups often are avoided. I came across an incidence where a corpse of a man of low social status was denied burial in village burial ground. These things are very sad and needs to be corrected.

What I didn't know about Yunus

2006-10-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

I was very happy about Yunus getting Nobel Peace prize. Out of the blue, I got the following mail today. I will publish parts of it in undistorted form. If you don't have time to read the whole article, read the highlighted portion only. This may or may not be true. I didn't verify.

"Do you know in most cases it is the husband / father/ elder brother who controls the Grameen loan taken in the name of his wife/daughter/ sister? Do you know the bank charges around 30% interest? Do you know that Grameen borrowers lend the borrowed money at 80% to 100% interest to fellow villagers? Do you know any other business where someone can still make a living by borrowing at 30% interest rate? Do you know in some villages (especially in Sylhet) men take three/four wives to get Grameen loan to run their lucrative money lending business? Do you know that the poorest of thepoor (as touted by Yunus, Clintons and others) are not eligible to Grameen loan as they cannot repay their loans in 52 instalments at 30% interest? Do you know that only middle peasants (having some lands or assets) are eligible to the credit?"

"Why do you think Monsanto, the giant US corporation, engaged in marketing genetically modified seeds (disastrous in the long run as peansants will have to buy the seeds before every sowing season) is a big promoter of microcredit? Why does Grameen Bank pay NO income tax to Bangladesh? Why did Grameen Phone ( a joint Bangladesh-Norway cell phone company) pay anyincome tax till this year? This is the largest cellphone company in Bangladesh, charging for localincoming calls as well. Is there a link between thisaward and Grameen Phone's (Dr Yunus's cell phone company) partnership with the Norweigian telephone company, Nortel? Do you know that the Nortel has been siphoning off millions of dollars to Norway withoutpaying any income tax to Bangladesh? And all of thismoney laundering is done in the name of charity? What a shame, what a disgrace! "

"If micro-credit could alleviate poverty, why on earth hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis are going to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Singapore, borrowing hundreds of thousands of takas (two lakh per head on the average) to work as menials? If borrowing fifty or sixty dollars could alleviate poverty, why are theydoing so? Are they stupids?"

Cheers
Taj Hashmi

Honestly, I didn't expect such an e-mail. But again, I don't know how true this is. Or maybe just generalization?

Malegaon Blast (non)Investigation

2006-10-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

After the blast the media said 'perhaps the first time Muslims are victims(of terrorism)'. Well, stats talk otherwise. Of some 450 people dead in terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir, more than 410 were Muslim. The percentage is more than their ethnic representation.

The Prime Minister said about Mumbai blast 'this is an attack against India'. He did not exactly say that after Malegaon. Instead, 'this is an attempt to disturb the social fabric of the country' . Perhaps true, but it too is an attack against India.

Fake beard was found near the blast site. A few days before the blast, in a bomb blast at a Bajrang Dal activist's home, two people died. These things don't prove anything but does suggest. What should the police have done? They should have questioned some BD activists. They did not. Isn't the apathy obvious? If it is still not obvious, then let me quote a local police officer- "What goes around comes around" (tonge in cheek). The dead in Malegaon were guilty of being Muslim, and then automatically qualify as guilty of terrorism or atleast supporting terrorism.

They're only questioning some SIMI activist. It simply doesn't get into my head, a group that has right wing agenda for Muslims, can kill Muslims in order to 'disturb the social babric of India.'

Praful Bidwai says this is a litmus test of impartiality which the government seems to have failed already.

The 1993 blast case verdict is out. The guilty are punished. Fine. What about those who killed 2000 people before that? Are they not guilty too? Of perhaps a bigger crime? Of killing more people and starting the violence?

What about 1984 anti-Sikh rioters? What about 1992?

Where is my secular, impartial India, to which all its citizen are equal?

Does Anybody Care About Manipur?

2006-10-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Does anybody care about Manipur? It seems the answer is negative. Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike for Six Years. Her demands are very 'unjust' perhaps. Even though she lives in one of the 'Integral parts of India', she dares to ask for the same status as the real India, the one of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan.

Naturally she's not taken seriously. And why should she be?

One of my Manipuri friends had a sad story to tell. You remember a boy was trapped in a well and was rescued by Army? On the same day, there was some shooting in Manipur. Some people got killed. Nobody bothered. 'Our losing life is less important than a small rescue operation' my friend observes sarcastically.

Anyway, it seems the Special Powers Act is here (oops, I mean there) to stay. What power that lil Manipur have to create a stir in corridoors of the Parliament?

BIFT

2006-10-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a program organised by BIFT (Bangalore Islamic Foundation Trust). I was quite impressed. They are doing a good job. They are maintaining a professional library (called BIFT Professional Library or BPL) which lends books to young Muslim students. They are also promoting and assisting young Muslims to persue study.

It all started when some doctors decided to put their old books together for new students. This exactly the kind of effort that Muslims need today. Good going. This has to be replicated elsewhere.

I wish them luck. (Amen)

Hunger and Ramadan

2006-10-14T00:49:00.000-07:00

I was surprized to know about this report of the Unicef. I won't go into too much details, but it says that South Asia is suffering from malnutrition of children. Very relevant in the month of Ramadan.

Banerjee Committee rejected
Another bad news. From IndianExpress

The Gujarat High Court on Friday declared the Centre’s setting up of the U C Banerjee Committee to probe the Godhra train carnage “illegal, unconstitutional” and “null and void.” The court also said that the committee’s report shall not be tabled in Parliament.

Yunus wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Finally a good news. Perhaps everybody knows by now that Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his Grameen Banking.

Mighty Tongue

2006-10-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

This I found quite interesting. A student, Adnan by name, questions Gen. Musharraf:

What I liked is
1. "The country is sinking into trouble. the youth is in the hands of terrorists....
the injustices to talent, inferirior quality of teaching and corruption are the root causes. Solve there problems and see whether our youth is terror loving or peace loving."
2. "Our neighbor, with whom we share the Independence day, have made their democracy so strong that however much the gornment might fail, army can never stage a coup."
3. "You should talk to Balochistan as though you are talking to your son Bilal."

BBC's Taliban

2006-10-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

I love the BBC. They are so eloquent and diplomatic. CNN comes nowhere near them. BBC writes about the Taliban

"From 1989 to 2001, the Western world knew little about the developments that tore through the war-ravaged Afghanistan in the shape of a civil conflict followed by Taleban rule."

Surprized or not? If you are not, then let me have the honor of surprizing you. Instead of 'knowing little', CIA used to pay the Taliban officials. Somewhere along the line Taliban suddenly turned against the Aka(Boss). It was about some deal in some pipeline project. I don't exactly remember what.

Anyway, perhaps Pakistan does support the Taliban. I think it's quite likely because India is taking advantage of a 'India friendly' government in Kabul. Trouble in Balochistan is a signature of that.
Again one has to be cautious. Pakistan has really not taken care to develop natural resourse rich Balochistan, much to the anger of local people. Injustice never pays.

In another BBC report,

"About 2,000 debt-stricken farmers in India's cotton growing Vidarbha region resorted to a protest with flowers to persuade a bank to disperse loans.

They garlanded the bank manager while a woman in the group washed his feet."

It's said inspired by a movie called "Lagey Raho Munna Bhai" (Keep at it Munna Brother). Movies can do magic.

It's an intersting world, isn't it?

Shari'ah

2006-10-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

In a nicely written article, Asghar Ali Engineer notes that

"The Shari’ah-based Islam tends to be inflexible and non-responsive to modern conditions. Thus the practiced Islam is far more rigid and inflexible than the Qur’anic Islam which is based more on values than on customs and traditions."

And I could not agree more. In fact some Shari'ah based verdicts (like in Imarana case, I would like the Imams put in Jail) makes my stomach feel bad.
Note one thing, he is not asking us to throw away all Shari'ah at a go. That could be a disaster (Many countries will be left without a written law (tch tch) ). All he is asking us to remember is that Shari'ah is formed over a long period of time by many people, and not by Muhammad (peace on him). There may be many errors in it. And at places it could even be incompatible with the Qur'an, for example in woman's issues.
Getting on with the article

"No religion comes into existence in a vaccum. It bears the stamp of the society the religion is borne into expect otherwise is to fly in the face of reality. Islam was also borne in a given society which had its own customs and traditions, its own economy and its own geography and history. The Qur’an, undoubtedly a divine revelation, every verse of which carries divine stamp, also cannot be totally a historical, though it transcends bounds of history in moral and spiritual matters."

Hmm... Reading further on

"Today scholars and intellectuals living in 21st century face new challenges, particularly, in respect of gender parity. Old Shari’ah laws cannot meet these new challenges successfully. It is, therefore, necessary to make necessary changes in these laws. It will implement Qur’anic values more effectively than the old laws. The resistance from orthodox ‘Ulama is more out of fear for their power rather than sanctity of the Shari’ah. Sanctity of Qur’an is more important than sanctity of the Shari’ah, at best, is an instrument and Qur’an fundamental. To uphold Qur’an and Qur’anic principles is more important than upholding Shari’ah laws and practices."

Hey, he has somehow come to know that I was going to write about this. And he wrote it first. I have to give him credits.

And Again

2006-10-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

And again he (shall I call him Ankur?) hits a sixer. He never ceases to be interesting. Yesterday we were talking about Bajrang Dal (hencefoth we shall call them BD, with a lot of love), or rather the evils of it. So Ankur came up with a brilliant new perspective. Which I am sure did not occur to you.

"But the BD does not help the ISI in spreading terror in India, does it? So why are you so much against it?"

I really was stumped. I did not have anything to say against such convincing proof that BD is not an evil.

If You Are a True Muslim

2006-10-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

I was arguing with a fellow yesterday. He is quite Mad at Islam. He (somehow) thinks that Qur'an calls the Christians pigs, it asks Muslims to kill the non-Muslims (see footnote) and all that...
But the best of the bet was this dialogue:

"If you are a true Muslim, accept that it is a incomplete Religion. "

I have become his fan after this.

By the way, after hearing my experience, one of my (Muslim) friends told me that he was once blasted with:

"You are not a true Muslim, because to be a true Muslim you have to be a Terrorist and Violent."

I leave it to the reader to decide which one is better.

FOOTNOTE:
For those who don't know, it doesn't.
Muslims are asked to deal with non-Muslims with humility and love. And Qur'an says "You will not fight them unless they fight you." Muhammad (peace on him) said "and argue with them (the unbelievers) in the best possible manner."
About Chrisitans, Qur'an says "and you will find closest to the believers are those who say "we are Christians", for many of them are knowlegeable and are righteous."

Against Against

2006-10-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

It's always easier to unite against then to unite for.

We are up against Afzal. But we don't stand up for the widow(one of the widows) of the security personnel killed in the incident. How many of us even know that she has not got no compensation?

Look at Manipur. The Manipuris are protesting against the atrocities performed by the Indian Army. But we are not standing up for the Manipuris.

Perhaps we love to go against, rather than to go for.

You can always get a lot of people complaining against. Against terrorism, against Islam, against the US. You hardly get them talking for. Sometime they talk for themselves, but very often that is against somebody's hints against him.

So next time you want to do something for something, better make it look like against something else.

Cartoon Raw

2006-10-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled upon a cartoon. It seems quite innocent. It (seems to) talk about the rising crime in Bangalore.

The cartoon shows a man, sitting in an auto being robbed at knife-point. Two miscreants sitting on either side. One of the miscreant looks quite normal. The other one sports a beard and a skull cap. You know what that means.

You can say, "Oh! so what, why are you so sensitive? It's not that frequent is it?"
Well you don't notice it. It's there everywhere. And worse, it affects your subconscious. If you doubt me (of which you have full right ) I would suggest you read the book 'Blink'.

Did you notice that immediately after the 9/11, when the TVs and newsprints were awash with pictures of bearded bin-Laden, you felt your stomach whenever you saw a bearded Muslim man? Well, it happened to me too.

Talking of cartoons. Today's(10/10/2006) 'Times of India' carries a cartoon (I'm so sorry I'm not able to attach them) of two beggers. One of them sport a debit card swipe machine. And moreover he's complaining to his fellow: "I dislike this gadget, it's so unreliable. I like the sound of coins falling." Funny? Not at all. These are heights of insensitivity. Poking fun at somebody's hunger? Somebody's weakness?

May God bless us all.

Nationalism, Terrorism and Islam

2006-10-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

A recent book, "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism", finds that Suicide attacks has nothing to do with Islam as such.
In the writer's own words (not verbatim):

Hezbollah is neither a political party nor a religious extremist party. It is a resistance of foreign (Israeli) occupation of Lebanon's land in June 1982. At first, it was a shamll number of Shias supported by Iran. Later, more and more Lebanese came to resent Israel's occupation. Hezbollah, never tight-knit, expanded into umbrella organisation that tacitly coordinated the whole operation of aloose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims.

He notes, in his book, Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign against US, French, and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether these attacks, which included the infamous bombing or the marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, involved 41 suicide terrorists.

Robert Pape's book covers all 461 suicide bombings around the globe.
Hezbollah conducted total 41 suicide attack. Pope could trace 38 of the bombers. And he finds, only eight were Muslim fundamentalists; 27 were from leftist political groups such as the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union; three were Christians, including a woman secondary school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

What all these suicide attackers shared was not a religious or political ideologybut simply a commitment to resisting a foreign ccupation. There is not the close connection between suicide terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism that many people think. Rather what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland.

Religion is rarely the root cause. Although it is often used as a tool byu terrorist organisation in recruiting and in other effortsin service of the broader strategic objective. Most often it is a response to foreign occupation.

Relevant articles:
Wikipedia
Nationalism, Not Islam, Motivates Most Suicide Terrorists
Terrorism is nobody's monopoly

Muhammad's Sword

2006-10-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

Well, to be honest the title is borrowed(the original article by Uri Avnery is here). Uri Avnery in this article (named "Muhammad's Sword") bravely counters the Pope in his false claim about Islam (that Islam is not compatible with reason, that Muhammad asked his followers to 'preach by the sword' blah blah). He(the Pope) did not lay the claim himself. Instead he quoted some strange self claimed King Manuel of late 14th century:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

He (The Pope, ed) admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. Qur'an 2:256 Says:

"There Shall be no coercion in matters of Faith"

Anyway. Anvery then takes a journey through history to find out why the Pope chose, of all people Manuel. And Also whether the claim is correct or not. Some facts are not very frequently heard

Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "spread the faith by the sword"?

Well, they just did not.

Then he speaks about the way Muslims treated others

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

Vis-a-vis how Christians did

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith - and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

In Another article, Tariq Ramadan first takes on the disproportionate reaction of the Muslims.

A few sentences spoken by Pope Benedict XVI were sufficient to touch off a fire-storm of impassioned reaction. Throughout the Muslim world, religious leaders, presidents, politicians and intellectuals joined their voices to protesting masses angered by a perceived “insult” to their faith. Most did not read the Pope’s speech; others had relied on a sketchy summary according to which the Pope had linked Islam and violence. But all railed against what they saw as an “intolerable offence.”

And then he argues

These are the messages that cry out for an answer, far more than talk of jihad. Pope Benedict XVI is a brilliant theologian who is attempting to set down the principles and the framework of a debate on the past, present and future identity of Europe. This profoundly European Pope is inviting the peoples of the continent to become aware of the central inescapable Christian character of their identity which they risk to loose. The message may be a legitimate one in these times of identity crisis, but it is deeply troubling and potentially dangerous in its double reductionism in the historical approach, and in the definition of European identity.

This is what Muslims must, above all, respond to; they must challenge a reading of the history of European thought from which the role of Muslim rationalism is erased, in which the Arabo-Muslim contribution would be reduced to mere translation of the great works of Greece and Rome. The selective memory that so easily “forgets” the decisive contributions of “rationalist” Muslim thinkers like al-Farabi (10th c.), Avicenna (11th c.), Averroes (12th c.), al-Ghazali (12th c.), Ash-Shatibi (13th c.) and Ibn Khaldun (14th c.) is reconstructing a Europe that is not only a deception, but practices self-deception about its own past. If they are to reappropriate their heritage, Muslims must demonstrate, in a manner that is both reasonable and free of emotional reactions, that they share the core values upon which Europe and the West are founded.

And he concludes

Neither Europe nor the West can survive, if we continue to attempt to define ourselves by excluding, and by distancing ourselves from, the Other-from Islam, from the Muslims-whom we fear. Perhaps what Europe needs most today is not a dialogue with other civilizations, but a true dialogue with itself, with those facets of itself that it has for too long refused to recognize, that even today prevent it from fully benefiting from the richness of its constituent religious and philosophical traditions. Europe must learn to reconcile itself with the diversity of its past in order to master the imperative pluralism of its future. The Pope’s reductionism has done nothing to help this process of reappropriation along : a critical approach should not expect him to apologize but it must simply and reasonably prove to him that historically, scientifically, and ultimately, spiritually, he is mistaken. It would also give today’s Muslims a way of reconciling themselves with the immense creativity of the European Muslim thinkers of the past, who ten centuries ago were confidently accepting their European identity (not obsessed by the on-going sterile debates on “integration” ) and who deeply contributed to, nourished and enriched with their critical reflection both Europe and the West as a whole.

Both are nice reads. I thank both the authors.

Islam and Muslims now

2006-10-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Very first thing is we have to differentiate between Islam and Muslims. Muslims does not necessarily represent Islam as a birthright. Qur'an repeatedly emphasizes that by naming Muslim and Mu'min (believer) separately. It also indicates that believers will be from different religions too who may not call themselves Muslims. ("Whatever they may call themselves, a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, whoever believes in One God, does righteous deeds and is Just and reasonable will be forgiven.")

First a bit of history:

As history suggests, Muslims has been kind compared to Christians or many others as a ruler towards other religions. No denying that non-Muslims under Muslim rule did not enjoy the same rights as Muslims did.

Before renaissance in Europe, life of a non-Christian in a Christian ruled country was not very lucrative. And we find a window to that mindset in even Shakespear's famous plays, as late as in sixteenth century. Little wonder that non-Christians has almost not survived in any Christian ruled country before Renaissance (one may refer to Uri Avnery, Muhammad's Sword ).

It is also fair to say that the Indian Muslim rulers were kind to the non-Muslims from the fact that they survived under an almost unchallenged Muslim rule of almost a thousand years.

There isn't a very well written history in ancient India. However, when Hindus ruled India, it was not very tolerant at all. After spread of Buddhism through almost all of India, when the Buddhist Mourya dynasty fell, and the Hindu Gupta dynasty started, Indian history suddenly finds the Buddhists almost non-existent. One wonders why. The most reasonable assumption will be coercion and force. Caste based violence were also taking place.

On the other hand in Buddhist China, minority Confucians has managed to remain in quite large number till today. Which indicates the tolerating nature of Buddhists.

The very idea of tolerating other religion among the ruled was introduced to the Europeans by the Arabs (Qur'an says "(Say to those who reject faith) your religion is for you and for me mine." and also "There shall be no coercion in matters of Faith"). Undoubtedly the non-Muslims had to pay Zijiya tax. But the muslims had to pay (Zakah) too. And non-Muslims were relieved from service in the Army, which was (almost) mandatory for Muslims at times of war. And the non-Muslims were allowed to practice their religion.

(See Addendum at the bottom of this page for more of history)

Now comes the present.

Unfortunately now the wheel now seems to have turned.

Pakistan can now boast a huge number of anti-non-Muslim incidents. Actually not anti-non-Muslim per se. It's anti-Humanity, anti-Islam. Shia-Sunni violence can not be categorized as anti-non-Muslims by any standard. Arab, too, has nothing to boast of. Shia-Sunni tension, not necessarily violence, but a sustained prejudice and hatred is deep rooted into the (still) almost feudal society of Arab. Iran seems to be a little better ( Iran's proud but discreet Jews ). But only a little ( Iran is acting against liberal teachers ). Values have declined over the years. Tradition and loyalty has taken over from Justice and Reason in the Muslim world.

The cliche that 'all Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists' is a bad one. Two reasons:
1. even if you go by UN listings, the largest number of suicide attack is carried out by LTTE, and not any Muslim group.
2. one's terrorism is (often) another's freedom fight.

I can name many non-Muslim 'terrorist organisations' as per the UN. The LTTE, the Maoists in India, the Freedom movement of Ireland etc. etc.

The question still remains, "why people hear only bin-Laden. And no liberal Muslim voice is audible? The answer is it is not audible true. But it exists. The media machine has turned the volume down for the liberals. How often do we hear of Tariq Ramadan, or Asghar Ali Engineer? Not much, really. This has happened because:
1. The media is mostly controlled by non-Muslims (In India and Abroad)
2. bin-Laden sells well
3. The likes of Ramadan are reasonable. And therefore more dangerous to the Imperial interests of the US and it's allies than is bin-Laden. In fact bin-Laden is actually helping their interest.

Same mentality can be found in India as well, as a study of the Indian Social Institute finds:
"However, ironically when the Hindu right reactionary forces managed to grab political power they also found rabid communal elements among Muslims as their natural allies and willingly portrayed them as the representatives of Muslim community. "

Is all well?

Quite obvious answer. No .

Why then, is the next question.

The problem is Muslims are failing to realize that the Sharia' was formed over a long period of time and by many people. There are many faults in it. Even our beloved Prophet Muhammad(S) used to say I am but a fallible human. The Muslim clerics are either unaware of this simple facts or they want to deny it. But by denying it we shall fall into the same trap as the one earlier people fell into.

We Muslims are asked to 'stricly' follow Qur'an and the examples (ahadith) of Muhammad(S). But the examples has to be interpreted according to the then situation.

The truth is today's Muslims are mostly uneducated, exploited and powerless under puppet or autocratic regimes. Poverty, illeteracy and lack of jobs is generally greater in Muslim countries than other countries.

The suicide attacks that we see are not results of Islam. As Islam expressly forbids killing of innocents (Again from Qur'an "One who kills one Innocent, as if he has killed the whole mankind, and one who saves one, as if he saved the mankind." ). They are results of nationalism ( Nationalism, Not Islam, Motivates Most Suicide Terrorists ), and the dearth of a principle, and an environment of peace and direction.

ADDENDUM: Here is a brief history of the Muslims in a documentary. An excellent BBC documentary on Muslims in Europe can be found here.

Under-representation of the Muslims in India and Their Upliftment: Some Thoughts

2006-09-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

Muslims are so under-represented everywhere.

Education,Civil Service, Business, Politics, everywhere.

Education: One example: in IISc, the premier research institute of India, there are roughly 40-50 Muslims of total 2000 students. Whereas Muslims form roughly 14% of India's population.

Civil Services: Around 2-3% of the total number.

Politics: The Muslim statesmen we have are corrupt and powerless (two very interesting qualities). (disclaimer: this is a generalization. of course there are good people around)

You go to any Muslim 'mahalla' in any city/town/village you will see shabby streets with overflowing drains. Narrow streets and children playing in unhealthy situation

We need to solve this.

The key is education. Education is the solution to this problem. Education of ethics, science, history and philosophy.

God says (in the Qur'an) it is a duty on every Mu'min that he searches knowledge. He says it is a duty on every Mu'min that he excels in what he does. He also says that it is the duty on every Mu'min to help the oppressed.
How to achieve that?

By Schools, Awareness and Assistance. Shall we build new schools? Yes of course. But only where there is none. Many places there are many good schools in and around a Muslim area. But no Muslims to be found there(well, almost)!

Why is this situation? Because most of the people are fighting to make ends meet. And they are terribly UNAWARE how education help them in achieving just that. Many affluent Muslim family underestimates education too. They don't know what they lose.

Awareness and assistance. That's what we need.

Assistance. Lack of assistance makes a huge number of promising students drop out. Their fathers are unable to afford it. And probably they too will not be able, for their
children.
In this situation only way out is external help. The WAQF board can play a big role here. They are all OUR children. We need to help them. A centralised scholarship program on a means cum merit basis will atleast start to change the situation.
But to do that it has to be big enough to make a change. And we have to help every type of students: potential politicians, businessmen, educationalist, historian, lawyers, scientists, doctors and engineers. All over the country. In proportion to the local Muslim population.

Let me Propose a Scholarship Program:

Suppose we do this: (The amounts are only suggestive.)

A very good student(regardless of what his family income is) will get Rs. 500 per month if he's staying at home. and Rs. 1000 if outside.
Meritorious village students will get Rs. 1000 a month (home) or Rs. 2000 a month (village student in a remote village school).

If he/she is is from a urban poor family, he'll/she'll get Rs. 2000 (home) or Rs. 3500(outside).

There can be some further fluctuations depending on situation, for example students pursuing higher degrees will need more money. Those in schools will need less.
For those who has to support their family, money for work (maybe teaching younger kids) for them can be organised. The kids will pay some tuition fee and that will be paid to the students.

Why Should Anyone Sing 'Vande Mataram'?

2006-08-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

The main arguments put forth against mandatory singing of the song are-

This is sheer injustice.

Muslims (and Jews and Christians) think singing this song goes against their faith. One may or may not agree with another think. But (as long as that does not affect the his freedom or hurt him in any way) he should respect the other's sentiments.

Why is it so important to sing this particular song to prove your love for your countrymen? Even when the song is written by a person who supported the British Raj? Who did not want independence?

Does singing this particular song ensure that one loves his countrymen?

Nobody is going to gain from this conflict. We are only wasting our time by trying to force this song on Muslims. If the Muslims are forced to sing this, only their hearts and minds will turn sour. Love begets love. Hate does not create love. Force does not create love. The country will gain nothing by forcing Muslims to sing this song. In fact it will lose a lot. It will lose not only the Muslims, but all the people who respect others' feelings, all those who believe in freedom and justice will be unhappy.

This will only further divide our country. This will prove that the country is totalitarian that does not know to respect it's own citizen.
This will sow seed of further violence and suppression.

But the question to be asked is more general. The question to be asked is 'Why should anyone sing 'vande mataram'?'

There is no doubt that one should love his countrymen. But why should love stop at the border?

What is India? It is but a set of people who happen to fall under the same goverment. India did not exist as today's map even 60 years back. May not look like this in future.

Our countrymen are most imprtant to us because they are the ones who share the same goverment and same land. Because they are within our easiest reach to help and reach for help. Given that, there is no reason for sensitizing it any further.

Let us look at the issues at practical terms. Pretence is not good in any matter of life. Nor is emotion in place of reason. Blind loyalty to anything in this world is not good. Simply because nothing in this world is perfect. It is said that the country provides us food, drink and shelter. Which is, basically, a pretence. The country is nothing but a piece of land. A lifeless object. The boundaries are man-made. It is God who is providing us (Indians or non-Indians) food, drink and shelter. By claiming that the country provides us, we are being blasphemous. We are being ungrateful. Taking One's credit and giving it to something else.

Blind loyalty to countrymen (was,) is (and will be) eqated to blind loyalty to the goverment. The rulers want to be sure that we shall follow whatever they say. Nationalism is a very good tool to ensure that. None but we shall be vulnerable and exploited. We shall die at frontiers fighting for the rich and powerful, without ever realizing it. In ancient Egypt king was held to be god. Simply because he did not want to be questioned. Same thing was seen at Rome, at a later time.

Remember Hitler's Germany. Love for country and pride of Aryan blood was a integral part of Hitler's doctrine. The Jews were viewed as anti national. Propaganda inside the then Germany planted immense pride of being an Aryan into the hearts and minds of common German. This resulted in two things-

The non-Aryans were feeling insecure.

The other one was even more bad and dangerous. Non Germans were being viewed as lesser beings.

This form of nationalism teaches us to regard citizen of other countries as lesser human beings. At the end, it is this pride that will end our nation.

The politicians remember nationalism only when it helps them (nothing surprizing!). They forget it when they have to pay their share of responsiblity. By naming nationalism, bringing in some 'bharat mata' they want to cow us down. Stop us from questioning them.

Interested readers may read an article on nationalism by Bertrand Russell in his 'Facts and Fiction'

Samskar vs Culture

2006-08-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

There would be nothing wrong with it if we were-

'That's how I have lived my son. Now decide how are you going to.'

No. We are -

'That's how I have lived my son. And you HAVE TO live this way.'

We don't say-

'Elders have lived the way they saw right. I shall as what I see'

No. Instead-

'I will live as my elders have. And so will my son.'

What is samskar? Family traditions and rules. Community traditions and rules. Made permanent. By force and by preaching.

Here is the difference between culture and samskar. There is a strong element of force in samskar. Culture is habit. One grows up seeing things done in certain way. Gets habituated to it. One is free to break away or modify if that be his will. The moment force comes- it becomes rigid- samskar. Culture is fluid. Can, does and wants to change.

Why should we tie a string around our shoulder just because I am born to certain father? Why am I superior and free to extort those who were not born to the privilaged? Why? Why should I, for being born to a certain father, be denied education? Even though I may have more ability than they do? Why foster elitocracy? JUST because that is what was going on? Why are our fathers never wrong? The biggest weakness in our culture is that it emphasizes loyalty than justice.

A story from the Ramayana comes to mind. Ram's name is being written on stones and thrown into the sea. The stones float on water and the 'banar sena' is making bridges out of them. Ram himself picks up a stone and throws into water without writing Ram on it. This one does not flow. The message? 'It's all in a name'. The person is unimportant. His name is. Terrible. This is the attitude that has enabled our age old samskar's take on sensible people. We swear by the name and greatness of Tegore. 'He was a great poet, so they say' is our response. The name is important, the person is not. We don't much know what he wrote and what he believed.

Amartya Sen. Even right wing hindutva champions cheered at his getting the Nobel prize. Sen had avidly criticized them. That voice went down in cheers of his getting Nobel prize. 'When is he returning home'? 'Where is his home'? 'I went and have seen his house'. Idol worship. Voice got buried in mountain of pictures and photos. The name is important.

Buddha was silent about God. He said he was just a man. And he suggested how to live. 'Don't lie', 'Don't cheat'... What have WE made out of him? Ohh... the nineth avtar of Vishnu. Rebirth of Vishnu, a god!

The message or the messenger? We chose the messenger. Or his name, rather. It's easier. You don't have to overcome temptations. Do wrong. Just name him. It's far far easier.
Look at the messenger. Listen not. Follow not. Just name him. Make excuses in his name.

ADDENDUM: When I wrote this article, I wrote that Budhha did not believe in rebirth. That may not be correct. So I have edited the article later.

Kashmir

2006-05-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

The Kashmir, India and Pakistan

Look at the Pakistan experience of India. The two countries are so fond of their own, that we are fighting on every possible pretext. More cooperation will mean less political profit for the ruling class, the politicians, but the general public will immensely benefit from the boost in trade, the pervading peace and the reduced pressure on resources for buying armory. We are deliberately kept from perceiving this by those who profit by this conflict. At the centre of this is Kashmir. Lot of people talk with a lot of passion when they refer to Kashmir. There are two lobbies. One group is for annexing Kashmir as a state of India. These people are generally fanatics with little knowledge of history and has a lot of unnecessary passion for the country. I think, on the long term they are the biggest danger to the country they celebrate, the whole region and mankind. There is another ( very minority in 'mainland India' and very common in Kashmir) group who tend to think that Kashmir should be free country, as their(Kashmir's) people generally seem to think that way (The Indian government is quite aware of this, though they do no acknowledge this. But the fact that they are not performing the promised referendum is an indication that they are aware). I think both the views are wrong. Annexing Kashmir or claiming that it is an integral part of India is a result of aggressive colonial mentality. Those who think this way think of Kashmir and some other parts of India as colonies of India (or, to be more sober 'integral parts of India'). They think the inhabitants of these places are inferior to that of the mainland India (deja vu?). The other view is wrong in the way is that it does not look into the long term effect of the action. People of Kashmir may form a free nation, but too soon they will be caught between three unfriendly countries- India, China and Pakistan. Each trying to exert its pressure on the small country which will have too little to defend with. Ultimately they will suffer. The best way to deal with the situation is to give the people of Kashmir a lot more freedom than they now enjoy. This will ensure that they are treated humanely, will restore the status given to them by our constitution, as well ensure the extremists get much less supporters among common men. The moment they will get involved in governing their own land, they will stop being frustrated. And the separatist movement will lose th very ground.

I must mention that in this regard the attitude the Indian government is showing is not very praiseworthy. India is ready to talk with Pakistan about the fate of Kashmir, but is unwilling to talk to the political parties of Kashmir, especially the separatist leaders. They are now willing to talk to the Indian government means that they understand that violence is leading them nowhere, and they are willing to compromise. This is the best time to settle the problem. What is surprizing is that the government is willing to talk to Pakistan, but unwilling to talk to Kashmiris, to decide their fate. In the experience of the past half a century has clearly shown that force is not really the best way to solve the problem. We must give the Kashmiris their share of right to decide their own fate.

Nationalism

2006-05-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

The biggest threat our country (and the whole world) is facing now is nationalism. In fact, not only in our country, but in many places around the world. It could even lead to a crisis. In the present age, as the world is drawing closer and closer, nationalism is dangerous for the humankind.

The general idea being fanned in many countries is this: you must be very loyal to your country, and should not hurt your countrymen's interest. But as a nation you are free to be very aggressive outside your country. That is absolutely allowed.

When men used to live in groups, same kind idea prevailed between groups. As the more and more groups are aggregating into bigger groups idea of being loyal to the country came up as being loyal to a small group was not good enough. At present the situation is that countries are coming closer and closer than ever, thanks to science and technology. To keep up with this, men should be loyal to the whole of humankind, and not just to one country. This will as a total will cause more good than damage. Never before two countries as far as the US and Japan rubbed their shoulders as often as they do now. So if we keep scratching each other's face, chances are we could get hurt more than ever before.

Whenever man can identify two differing groups and associates himself/herself with one of the two, the next thing he/she tends to do is to find fault with the other. Even all cultures seem to have an embedded system of identifying and publicizing faults of the other culture they come in contact with. This comes, partly from insecurity of losing the pervading social order, and a foolish passion for one's own culture.

We may remind here that the sentiment of Aryan superiority over all others was a prime reason for the last two world wars, which should have taught us a lesson, which we seem not to have learned.

Confronting Terrorism

2006-05-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

The Problem

Is a subject of hot debate now. The rise of the extremists in the muslims is a very recent phenomena. It started, as far as I know, only after the second world war. Islam is, or rather muslims are, by and large cornered in the new world. The western nations, doubtlessly, are far more powerful than the muslims of the east. As a sense of oppression has been flowing among the muslims of all nations, terrorism seems to emerge as the solution to many of them. This is out of a desperate feeling. Feeling as a group of being oppressed and ill-treated. Western media is playing a very vital role in this context. They generally tend to reflect their own country's interest. That they do that is sometimes ensured by force. Not exactly by killing or taking prisoners, the west has a method much better than that. It is one of threatening, of charging the man or group in question antinationals. This allegation often steals these people of their credibility among the common men, as they are taught to be very jealous about what they call is their 'national interest'. It is put into everybody's head that political nationalism is a virtue. Out of this, all that is expected, is a mess at best.

Searching the Cause

Many like to put terrorism as a result of poverty and lack of education (they mean formal education). But this does not explain numerous extremists from rather affluent families. On the other hand, some are of the view that Islam has something wrong in it, that it preaches killing, oppression and hatred of other religions etc. etc. To answer these, we may turn back to history. There was never anything like these surprise killings (i.e. terrorist activities) in the muslims even fifty years ago. There were killings, as there are in every society, but they had nothing to do with muslims especially. On the contrary, the in the early days of Islam, when the Arab world was very powerful, the caliphate treated the christians quite kindly. (It might be a bit irrelevant here, but the Qur'an says that one can find many kind people among those who call themselves christians. In fact, in his lifetime, Muhammad came in contact with a few christian saints, and held a very high opinion about some of them. The Qur'an preaches- one who kills a man, as if he kills the whole of mankind; one who saves a life, as if he saves the entire mankind. It does, at places, allow killing; but only when attacked and to stop corruption. So the idea of killing innocent civilians can not be found out there. Here one can mention that there was a red-cross like system was implemented by Muhammad in wars he fought). Some claim terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Stricly speaking, they are true, but, it has a lot to do with muslims, at least in many of the cases and in the present scenario. This is a fact which should not be denied.

The Solution (As seems to me)

The answer lies in the political situations, history, and the general perceptions (or we should call prejudices) among nations. And a very important player in the game is what many of us hold dear. It is nationalism in politics. Even rather peace loving people think there is nothing wrong when a nation as a whole behaves selfishly. It actually does a lot of damage. To subscribe to nationalism jealously one generally needs an enemy, another nation. Sometimes people like to have more! At the end, both of them lose a lot as a whole. Who benefits is the ruling class as they can claim a lot of benefit from patriotism and devotion to nation from their people. A lot of money can be spent in the name of national security, and the biggest advantage of this is that nobody can question where the money is going. Also there is something called the war economy. But all these benefits have one requirement: an enemy nation. If a nation can be subdued by another, then the ruling class get the resources that the ruled were enjoying, but is bound by little liability, compared to what they will be at their own nation. (A classic example may be Iraq. In the US media a lot of people against the war talk about the (roughly) two thousand 'sons of the soil' who are lost in the war. But nobody there is much bothered about the (official figures) sixty thousand people killed in the invation. The nation of iraq is suffering from other problems also. Its system of law and order and ration etc. has broken down drastically as a result of the war. But who cares?).

The pictures of Abu Ghraib and Guatemala bay means a lot. It signifies the american attitude towards the east. Maybe also towards the non-white. The US army entered into the city of Mecca created fear, despair and anger among the muslims. But they could do nothing up front. The muslim majority countries expressed their feelings. That is all they could do. I am not saying they should have waged a war against the US for such a stupid reason (though it is very symbolic). All I am saying is had they been powerful, such a thing would never have happened.

As a religion becomes older, its' rulers somehow tend to become afraid of the changing world. They try to protect the world they know, by becoming more rigid. This has happened to Jews, to the Christians, and now I see it happening to the Muslims.

All these things sum up to the scenario that we are in now. I can not suggest a ready solution to all these problem. I believe nobody can. We can only strive to reach a better situation.