Muslim leadhership in India can be described as spoiled brats.- Tarek Fatah

"If there is anything to be learned from this is that what is needed today is a robust challenge to not just terrorism, but the ideology of Islamism. The Islamist addiction to self-imposed victimhood must also be exposed. This does not happen in India (or even in Canada) where vote bank politics trumps the truth."

At the eye of the storm — again

The university refused to elaborate on the ‘unavoidable reasons’ that led to the cancellation of my talk with students

By Tarek Fatah ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 06:15 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 02:06 AM EDT
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/04/16/at-the-eye-of-the-storm--again#comment-865800025

While visiting India, columnist Fatah meets with India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid.
SUPPLIED PHOTO

I am in India doing research for my next book, Jinnah’s Orphans, the story of how a single man left a permanent scar on India’s face and seriously damaged the psyche of a people. And as I write this sitting in the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, the very place where Pakistani terrorists committed mass murder in the name of Islam in 2008 — I have managed to embroil myself in a controversy over free speech and the rise of Islamism in India.

India is the birthplace of my Muslim parents, their grandparents and generations before them who, by the the mid 1800s, converted from Hinduism to Islam.

In my desire to get a sense of how Indian Muslim youth see the future and to know where they stand on the rise of radical Islamism across the world, I had requested my hosts arrange a visit to the prestigious Jamia Milli Islamia Univesity (JMI) in New Delhi. JMI is headed by Najib Jung, one of India’s most enlightened Muslims, a leading figure in the community and well respected for his progressive outlook.

JMI agreed to my talk, but merely hours before the event on April 11, the university sent out a cryptic press release stating: “An interactive session with Mr. Tarek Fatah, a Canadian writer and broadcaster and a secular Muslim activist has been CANCELLED due to some unavoidable reasons.”

The university refused to elaborate on the “unavoidable reasons” that led to the cancellation of the event.

It didn’t take long before I discovered it came as a result of a handful of Islamist youth who had threatened to disrupt the event. They created a situation where university administrators were coaxed into shutting down the event instead of risking a flare up on campus.

Soon the news of this cancellation hit India’s most prominent media outlets, and now the issue has taken on a life of its own.

If there is anything to be learned from this is that what is needed today is a robust challenge to not just terrorism, but the ideology of Islamism. The Islamist addiction to self-imposed victimhood must also be exposed. This does not happen in India (or even in Canada) where vote bank politics trumps the truth.

One rare example of straight talk came from the man who just might scrape through to become India’s next prime minister.

In January 2010, a group of students at the Aligarh Muslim University aired the sense of Muslim victimhood when they heckled Rahul Gandhi, demanding to know “Why has India not had a Muslim prime minister?”

While the question by the Muslim students was rhetorical, Rahul Gandhi’s answer was refreshingly bereft of political correctness or vote-bank pandering. The young MP who most likely will lead the Congress into India’s next general elections in 2014, shot back at the students: “Can you name five young Muslim leaders?”

What India’s current flock of Islamic leaders do best is cajole the majority into what is referred to as a ‘Hindu guilt’.

The same happens in the U.S. and Canada where it is ‘White liberal guilt’ that precludes any challenge to Islamist ideology.

What has been observed of the Muslim leadhership in India can be described as spoiled brats. This attitude erupted last week when India’s national TV broadcaster, DDR, aired a recipe that contained pork on a cooking program. All hell broke loose with Muslim leaders claiming offence and demanding an apology. These are the same leaders who slaughter cows regularly in a country where most people consider cows sacred.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that — I probably just got into trouble again.

Bali is a state of Indonesia, a secular country

Bali is a state of Indonesia, a secular country with the biggest Muslim population in the world. But the majority in the state of Bali, over 93 %, are Hindus. Bali is home to 4.22 million Hindus whose ancestors had to flee from other islands of Indonesia, after the great Indonesian Hindu Empire Majapahit was defeated and most of Indonesia was converted to Islam. Here are some interesting facts about Bali that every Indian Hindu must know. 1. Nyepi day, a day of total silence (mauna) once a year, when even the Ngurah Rai International Airport of Denpasar is closed from 6 am to 6 am. No cars, no traffic, no entertainment, no TV. Sit in the house, do contemplation, do prayers. Can we introduce that Nyepi Day in our noisy country? 2. The culture of Bali was begun by the Rishis of India, whose names are no longer taught in the schools of India but which are common in the schools of Bali—Markandeya, Bharadwaja, Agastya - the names we hear in the Puranas but they are part of the way the history of Bali is taught in the schools of Bali. How many Rishis can you name? Do you remember any one of the 402 names of the Rishis and Rishikas (female Rishis) from the Rig Veda (the most ancient and most sacred text of Hinduism), which are our ancestors and the forming fathers of our religion – Vaidika Sanatana Dharma? 3. The national Balinese dress for both, men and women, girls and boys, is Dhoti. No one can enter a temple without wearing a Dhoti. Except in some parts of South India, Dhoti is laughed at in India today. Why are we so ashamed of our heritage? Even most Indian priests change their dress after they are finished with the worship because they feel ashamed in a Dhoti?? 4. The social, economic and political system of Bali is based on the principle of tri-hita-karana…three benevolent, beneficent principles— that every human being has three aspects …the duty, the relationship that we have with God [Parahyangan]; the relationship that we have with human beings [Pawongan]; and the relationship that we have with nature [Palemahan] and these are the three principles on which the entire culture of Bali is built. This was all established by the Rishis whose names are just about forgotten in India which are taught in the schools of Bali. 5. Trikala Sandhya (Sun worship three times a day) is practiced in every Balinese school. The Gayatri Mantra is recited by every Balinese school child three times a day. Many of the local radio stations also relay Trikala Sandhya three times a day. Can we even think of introducing something like this to our schools in India? How many Indian Hindus are aware of their duty of Trikala Sandhya? It is as central to our religion as the 5 times Namaz is to Islam, yet? 6. In the year 1011 AD, at a place which is now known as Purasamantiga… there was the first interreligious conference of three religions: Shaiva Agama, Bauddha Agama and Baliyaga, the traditional pre-Buddhist, pre-Hindu, Balinese religion. The scholars and the leaders sat down and worked out a system by which the three religions should work together and exchange forms with each other and that is the religion of Bali today. 7. In Bali every priest is paid by the government. Despite the fact that Indonesia is a secular country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, the priest of every religion is paid by the government so every religion is supported by the government. That is the Indonesian form of secularism. Can we even think of this in India? 8. The national motto of Indonesia “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. One is many, many is one.” is inspired by an Indonesian Hindu scripture Sutasoma Kakavin. The complete quotation is as follows - “It is said that the well known Buddha and Shiva are two different substances; they are indeed different, yet how is it possible to recognize their difference in a glance, since the truth of Buddha and the truth of Shiva are one? They may be different, but they are of the same kind, as there is no duality in truth.” Why can’t we have “Ekam Sad Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” (The truth is one, but the wise express it in various ways – Rig Veda) as our national motto? 9. Bali is one of the world’s most prominent rice growers. Every farm has a temple dedicated to Shri Devi and Bhu Devi (Lakmi the Goddess of wealth and mother earth - the two divinities that stand on the either of side of Tirupati Bala ji in India). No farmer will perform his agricultural duties without first making offerings to Shri Devi and Bhu Devi. That is called culture, that SubakSystem. The agricultural and water irrigation plan for the entire country was charted in the 9th Century. The priests of a particular water temple still control this irrigation plan. And some World Bank or United Nations scientist did a computer model that would be ideal for Bali. And when they brought the model the Balinese said ‘we have been practicing this since the 9th century. What are you bringing here?’ And I don’t know how many million dollars these WTO, these World Bank people, United Nations people, spent on creating that chart which was already created in the 9th century without any computers…. and that Subak System still continues. Such systems were in place in various parts of the country. Its remnants are still visible here in India. I have visited areas where there is no water for miles due to drought, yet the well at the local temple still provides fresh water. 10. In Bali Hindus still don’t read a printed book when they perform Puja (worship). They read from a Lontar, which have traditionally been scripted by hand on palm leaf. When they recite the Ramayana Kakavin…where the book is kept, worship will be performed. There is a special ritual of lifting the sacred book, carrying it in a procession, bringing [it] to a special place, doing the bhumi puja, worshipping the ground there and consecrating the ground, then placing the book there. Then the priest will sit and recite the Ramayana. When I was called to Bali it was to teach and preach the Vedic teachings. But I came back with a humble realization that I have to learn more from Bali than I can actually teach them. Facts according to Swami Veda Bharati, a great master of meditation from the Himalayan Tradition.

'Persecution has gotten worse for Christians since fall of Mubarak'

WND EXCLUSIVE

Activist: Mosque has torture chamber

'Persecution has gotten worse for Christians since fall of Mubarak'

http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/activist-mosque-has-torture-chamber/#PvvcgSQE6uirILOT.99

An attorney and human rights activist in Egypt says a mosque in Cairo has installed a torture chamber, and it is being used to terrorize Christians and others there.

The report comes from Egyptian Coptic Christian attorney and human rights activist Wagih Yacoub, who said the Bilal ibn Rabah mosque in the Cairo suburb of Moqattam serves as a Muslim Brotherhood-approved torture chamber.

The Muslim Brotherhood virtually has taken over Egypt since its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, was elected president after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Yacoub says his friend, Amir Ayad, was the victim of the torture after he was snatched by Muslims in Cairo.

“They took him off the bus as soon as they saw that his identity card said he was a Coptic Christian,” Yacoub said. “Then they took him inside the mosque. There were six other people who were not Christians, but they were tortured there as well.”

Yacoub said the mosque had a sophisticated torture setup.

“They were very well organized. They had stations and one where they made people take off their clothes. The others, they passed their clothes to another group where they (the clothes) could be searched,” Yacoub said. “The people in the mosque checked the pockets and took the victims’ identification papers.”

Yacoub said his friend Ayad reported that the torturers operated in the dark so they would not be identified.

“They (the torturers) also relied on the cell phone lights so no one could recognize their faces. They (the torturers) put their (the victims’) hands behind their backs and tied up their legs,” Yacoub said. “The torturers lifted their victim’s legs up onto a chair and then they beat them with sticks badly all over their body – on their legs, on their hands, on their back, and on their head.

“For six hours they tortured my friend. When they saw his condition, they finally stopped. They released the other six, but they talked about how to get rid of my friend,” Yacoub said. “My friend says they said they wanted to get rid of him because he’s a Coptic Christian. Others said they didn’t want to be involved in a killing or a murder. It was enough to give him a permanent disability as a warning to other Christians. Other Christians may decide they don’t want this.”

At about that point, Ayad was untied.

“My friend was bleeding badly and he knew that he had little chance to survive. So decided to run away. He thought he was on the first floor, so he jumped out of the window, but discovered he was on the second floor,” Yacoub said.

“He was in bad pain, badly wounded, so he rolled around on his back and stomach. Finally he was able to stand and struggle to walk,” Yacoub said. “Then he walked to a house, got there and began screaming and yelling. He was able to give the people in the house his family’s phone number before passing out.”

Ayad woke up later in the hospital.

International Christian Concern’s Aidan Clay reports that his sources inside Egypt confirm the accuracy of the reports of the mosque used for torturing Coptic Christians.

Open Doors USA Director of Communications Jerry Dykstra also confirmed that the situation for Christians in Egypt is deteriorating.

“The situation is growing more violent each day – especially for Christians in Egypt. Christians are not only caught up in the growing violence but are targeted by Muslim extremists and others who know believers will not be protected by the police or the military,” Dykstra said.

Dykstra said the Coptic pope denounced the government’s inaction following the recent death of four Coptic Christians.

“Coptic Pope Tawadros II spoke out against the violence and seemed to directly criticize President Morsi for his inaction in the recent deaths of four Christians and the lack of protection at the Coptic cathedral Sunday when a crowd attacked mourners after the funeral for the dead believers,” Dykstra said.

But the persecution has just intensified, he said.

“The persecution has gotten worse for Christians over the past two years since the fall of former president Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood does feel emboldened with the rise to power of Morsi,” Dykstra said.

Dystra says if there is a bright spot, it’s a growing dissatisfaction over the Morsi government.

“There seems to be a backlash mainly due to worsening economic conditions, including the rising cost of food, dwindling tourism and lack of jobs. He may have to make some compromises with Christians, youth and democratic reformers, even though he obviously does not want to,” Dykstra said.

Christian Solidarity International-USA President John Eibner says while he can’t specifically confirm the “torture mosque,” mosques used as centers for anti-Christian activity aren’t out of character for Egypt.

“There is a long history of mosques being used as centers for the political and military promotion of jihad against perceived enemies of Islam,” Eibner said.

Eibner said this connection is the result of Islamic philosophy.

“There is nothing akin to separation of church and state in traditional Islamic political and religious thought. The emphasis is on unity of what in Western political culture is perceived as separate political and religious spheres,” Eibner said. “There is no doubt that some mosques in Egypt are used for Christophobic agitation.”

Eibner said that Egypt’s current state of affairs has some of its roots in past U. S. foreign policy.

“The Islamic authorities in Egypt understand that the United States has for decades had alliances with anti-Christian and anti-Jewish Muslim extremists. Take, for example, one of America’s most important regional allies: totalitarian Saudi Arabia,” Eibner said.

“The basic condition of the U.S.-Saudi alliance is that the USA will provide military support and promote open trade on condition that the Saudis do not directly threaten other American allies, especially Israel, and cooperate in the defense of America’s regional economic interests, especially oil interests,” Eibner said.

“As long as the Saudi’s meet these conditions, the United States will not apply pressure over religious freedom and other fundamental human rights. This has been the case for decades,” Eibner said.

Eibner added that this pattern in U. S. foreign policy isn’t lost on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

“Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leadership understands this probably calculates that they will have a free hand to pursue a radical Islamic domestic agenda provided they do not threaten directly fundamental American strategic and economic interests,” Eibner said.

“Judging from the muted reaction in Washington to the upsurge of anti-Christian violence in Egypt, their calculations may well prove to be correct. The human rights interests of non-Muslim minorities appear to have little weight in Washington,” Eibner said.

Neither the White House or the State Department have responded to requests for comment on this story or Eibner’s comments.

दूरदर्शन पर 'सूअर की रेसिपी' दिखाने से बवाल

जागरण 

• फ़ोटो देखें
  दूरदर्शन पर 'सूअर की रेसिपी' दिखाने से मुस्लिम समुदाय नाराज

मुंबई। दूरदर्शन के उर्दू चैनल पर कुकिंग शो 'टेस्ट की बात है' के नाम से प्रसारित एक कार्यक्रम में 'सूअर की रेसिपी' दिखाए जाने से मुस्लिम समुदाय बेहद खफा है। नौ अप्रैल को प्रसारित इस कार्यक्रम में सूअर का सूप बनाने और उसके जायके के नुस्खे बताए गए थे। मुस्लिम दर्शकों ने यह कार्यक्रम प्रसारित किए जाने पर हैरानी जताई है।

उनका कहना है कि यह पूरी तरह से साफ है कि उर्दू चैनल देखने वालों में सबसे ज्यादा मुस्लिम दर्शक हैं, लेकिन चैनल ने इस एपिसोड को प्रसारित कर अपनी असंवेदनशीलता का परिचय दिया है। क्या इन्हें पता नहीं है कि इस्लाम में सूअर हराम है।

जामिया मिलिया इस्लामिया यूनिवर्सिटी में इस्लामिक स्टडिज के प्रोफेसर अख्तरुल वासे ने कहा कि ऐसे प्रोग्राम को प्रसारित करने से पहले सतर्क रहना चाहिए, जिससे धार्मिक भावनाएं आहत होती हैं। इससे बचा जा सकता था।

डीडी उर्दू के प्रोग्रामिंग एग्जेक्युटिव एम. सेनगुप्ता ने कहा कि कुकिंग सीरीज टेस्ट की बात है अलग-अलग पाक शैली, लाइफ स्टाइल पर एपिसोड प्रसारित करता है। इसमें कोई खास समुदाय पर फोकस नहीं किया जाता है, लेकिन हम इस खास एपिसोड की तहकीकात करेंगे कि इसे क्यों प्रसारित किया गया।

इस्लामिक स्कॉलर जीन्नत शौकत अली ने कहा कि हम लोगों के टेस्ट पर प्रतिबंध नहीं लगा सकते हैं। हालांकि, यह बात सच है कि डीडी उर्दू के ज्यादातर दर्शक मुस्लिम हैं। पवित्र कुरान में सूअर का मांस हराम है। ऐसे में कोई मुस्लिम इस प्रोग्राम को सराह नहीं सकता है।

उर्दू कॉलमिस्ट फिरोज बख्त अहमद का कहना है कि डीडी उर्दू एक खास समुदाय में बेहद लोकप्रिय है। मैं तो चकित हूं कि किसी ने सोचा तक नहीं कि इस कार्यक्रम से एक समुदाय की भावनाएं आहत होंगी।

Past is relevant, even for economics

S Gurumurthy

Apr 13, 2013   

“Yes, India was global economic superpower for 1,800 out of 2,000 years. Conceded. But what is the use of recalling past glory. Look at our current state -- poverty, hunger, malnutrition and illiteracy. The present alone is relevant. Future is critical.” 

This is how some react at any reference to India’s great past. Their reaction is justified. Yes. Nations cannot survive or prosper just by recalling their past. Yet, no nation, whether developed or developing, ancient or modern, gives up the sense of its past. Because sense of the past is the core of a nation. 

Samuel Huntington’s last book Who are We? is an exploration of America’s past, which spans less than 300 years. In contrast, India and China have an antiquity that history dare not probe. The relation between past and present is indeed enigmatic. The present is relevant. Undeniably. But is the present alone relevant? And is the past totally irrelevant? 

A deeper reflection would counsel that it would be wrong, even dangerous, to dismiss the past as irrelevant. Particularly if, in the past, a society had committed mistakes or got invaded or colonised. It needs to recall and analyse, not forget, the past so that the past error is not repeated. That is why scholars keep citing George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, who said that those who did not learn from history were doomed to repeat it. 

Revisiting the past is a learning process. Also an unlearning one. But, colonial construction of its history denied India both learning and unlearning experience. The colonists’ version of India’s past harmed its present and threatened its future. Take a glaring instance, the Aryan-Dravidian theory constructed by the colonialists that virtually split India racially and regionally, almost fomenting a huge secessionist movement in the South. 

The 19th century colonial version of the theory testified to “civilised Aryans” from outside invading India and building a high Vedic civilisation. But after Harappan excavations, the colonialists shockingly made a U-turn. They relabelled the Aryans as “nomadic”, “pastoral” and even “barbaric”. And alleged that the uncivilised Aryans invaded and violently ran over “civilised Dravidians”. With ‘violent invasion’ theory soon losing steam for lack of archeological support or oral traditions -- the theory was repackaged as “peaceful Aryan immigration” post-Harappan collapse. Soon, with Harappa throwing up more and more ingredients that correlated to Vedic culture, the pre-Aryan construction of Harappa began to fade away. Further, with the rediscovery of Vedic Saraswati river, studied by satellite imagery and its palaeo-waters (from Himalayan glaciers) tested in Rajasthan deserts by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the so-called ‘non-Aryan’ Harappa is now Indus-Saraswati civilisation with Vedic confluence! 

The Vedic Saraswati was real, not mythical as the colonialists had dismissed. The Saraswati shifting its course and merging into Sutlej and Yamuna and its main flow drying up as the result were  major factors for the collapse of urban phase of Harappa. Relentless interrogation of colonialist construction of India’s past by national and international scholars only could expose the canard of Aryan invasion. Here the recall and review of India’s past were of great relevance to the present and future social relationships within India and national political discourse. So, the past and the correct view of it are important. But the question is not why, but when, should a society recall its past. 

A society should not get obsessed with its past just for pride. Nevertheless it becomes inevitable for colonised societies to review the colonialist version of its history that demeans its faith, philosophy, forefathers, traditions and economy, and pervades the society’s academic, intellectual and public discourse. After an in-depth study, Kaisa Illmonen of University of Turku writes: “Post colonial subjects will be imprisoned in their colonial history unless they can find or figure out their own place in history. History must be retold and rewritten in such a way that a person excluded from the records of the Western history can still have knowledge of his or her own past.” This not just about the history of identity. A society’s economic history is critical in a world that is increasingly driven by global economic agenda. 

The Indian people ought to know whether they have a history of worshipping poverty as the colonialists had made their elites believe or do they have a tradition of building prosperity. Modern Western history has universalised the perception that prosperity building was the preserve of the West. The rest of the world, particularly Asia, including China and India, was ever steeped in poverty -- almost claiming that colonialists had actually improved their lot! 

This disgusting colonial discourse almost took rebirth in 1990s when, to drum up support for globalisation, the likes of Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia began arguing that India did not have the tradition of wealth-building; so it needed to learn that culture from the West. As late as in 2007, Chidambaram said “whoever propounded the myth about India being a rich country is wrong and the books that propounded the glorious past of India are liable to be burnt” (Business Standard, 27.8.2007). This is long after Bairoch-Maddison studies had nailed the lie, and independent researches (See ‘Boss, read the true history before talking’, TNIE April 6) had corroborated Bairoch-Maddison’s view that Hindu India was the topper in global economy. Imagine Bairoch-Maddison had preceded Marx, Weber and Rajkrishna. Weber would not have dared to disqualify India for market economics for following ‘world denying’ Hinduism; Marx would not have called Indians ‘semi-civilised’ for worshipping Hanuman and cow; and Rajkrishna would not have dared to point at Hinduism for India’s slow growth. They all spoke the way they did, because they believed India was economically an underperformer. But, their Indian intellectual heirs who hold -- or choke? -- the national voice, continue to demean India’s past. To answer them, India’s past needs to be recalled, again and again. 

The 2008 global crisis has shaken the world to realise the need to study economic history. Till then, modern economists had dismissed the past as irrelevant for the present or future. But the global meltdown has questioned all modern economic theories grounded in the present. The 2008 Nobel Prize winner in economics Paul Krugman said “much of the past 30 years of macro economics was spectacularly useless at best and positively harmful at worst”. Barry Eichengreen, well-known economic historian, said “the crisis has cast into doubt much of what we believed to be economics”. Result: economists are now scrambling back to study economic history. Bradford Delong, Professor of Economics, University of California, declared “it is not economic crisis, but economics in crisis” and pleaded “we need historians of economic thoughts”. 

A conference organised in early 2013 by Project Syndicate, a think tank of highly

influential thought leaders, including economists, has called for intense teaching and study of economic history. Any more evidence needed about the relevance of the past to the present, including in economics? 

http://newindianexpress.com/opinion/Past-is-relevant-even-for-economics/2013/04/13/article1542665.ece#