Bhagavat Gita

D.M.K Party Spremo Dr. Kalaigar Karunanidi is under siege for belittling Bhagavat GitaThe issue erupted into a full blown controversy when Ram Gopalan, the Tamil Nadu State Organiser of Hindu Progressive Body(HPB) presented a copy of Bhagavat Gita to Dr.Karunanidi expecting him to read and change his agnostic principles taught to him by his mentor Periyar E.V.Ramasamy.In return Dr.Karunanidi presented to Ram Gopalan a critical study written by Veeramani (another disciple of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy) entitled The Other Side of Gita which contains damaging criticism of the reverent epic.In Vellur, Karunanidi's effigy was torched and in a large gathering agitating and condemning Karunanidi, Ram Gopalan spoke and touched on the question of the rise in the population of Muslims in India. He suggested that the trend should be checked and advised the Govt to enact a law forfeiting the voting rights of people who have more than two children. He said the so called POTA should be reinforced rather than revoked.Mr. Kaudaman who is the Director of the Centre for Vedic Research in Chennai has lodged a police compliant on Karunanidi, with Commissioner of Police Mr Natarajan demanding court proceedings against the D. M. K. leader for ridiculing and insulting the incarnation of Lord Krishna and the Hindu holy book Gita.Dr.Karunanidi's( D.K.K) Response:In the opinion of Karunanidi, the Dravidians should give importance and priority to KURAL ( an illustrious 2000 year old magnum opus of highly ethical teachings written by Valluvan a great Tamil sage) not to Gita because according to the octogenarian leader D.K.K., Kural teaches equality and dignity of humanity but Gita enshrines and preserves the so called god created division of humanity into castes.DKK further goes on stating that according to Gita, it is considered praise-worthy for communities to be engaged in occupations assigned to them on the caste ladder. On the other hand Kural loudly declares that by physical and mental characteristics humans may vary in their make-up but it emphasizes that humanity should never ever be compartmentalised based on castes.By a selfish motivation and hypocritical convention, DKK argues,Gita may be a great epic, but it has absolutely no place in the hearts and minds of the ancient Tamil culture whose concepts of unity of humanity is far more refined, advanced and highly admirable.DKK continues, in his own words:"I do not say that Gita should not exist but I am highly in favour of my beloved Dravidian people taking the KURAL as their life's guiding philosophy. Does it bring loss to Ram Gopalan or anybody else if I say I prefer to follow the teachings of Kural and advise my people to do the same? Why does the Hindu Progressive Body leaders vent their anger at me. Let them read and appreciate what they want to but let them not prevent me from cultivating what I want to. Has anybody read Dr. Ambetkar's views on Bhagavat Gita? I have simply amplified only some of the views of the Indian nation builder.My effigy is torched because of my stand on the reading of Gita. This is sheer politicking of a pure non-political issue of literary criticism. I will never give up my time honored and well cherished principles of human dignity taught by my Dravidian concept of life disregarding whether my own colleagues defend me on this issue or defect me. I am ready to walk alone and will never recede, neither surrender to the forces of politically created racial discrimination"Report by P.V.Kodimeeran,Nungambakkam, Chennai. PS: On 17th September Mr. Ila Ganesan the BJP Chief of Tamil Nadu State answered the controversy stating that he gives equal appreciation for both Bhagvat Gita and the Kural the Tamil Scripture (by email - name and address supplied)

The Genocide in Chechnya is worse than the tsunami

To all Kings and Queens, Presidents, Speakers of Parliament, Prime Ministers, Heads of the United Nations, European Union, and NATO, Princes and Princesses, Heads of the media, and HUMANITY:

An open letter

203 million people were killed around the world in the 20th century: 10 million died in WWI, 50 million in WWII. Lenin killed 13 million, Stalin - 30 million, Hitler - 12 million, Mao - 65 million, and B. Yeltsin and V. Putin 250 thousand Chechens.

Many natural cataclysms occurred in the last century: almost 100 thousand people were killed in 1908 by an earthquake in Mesina , Italy , 200 thousand people – in Gansu , China , 1920, 144 thousand people – in Great Kanto, Japan , 1923, 255 thousand people – in Tangshan , China , 1976. In 1992 hurricane Andrew created damages of about 15.5 thousand million US dollars.

On 26 December 2004 , a tsunami created by an earthquake killed about 200 thousand and caused huge material losses. The world sympathized with the victims of the disaster and is supporting them in every possible way. Kings and Queens, Presidents, Speakers of Parliament, Prime Ministers, Princes and Princesses, the Heads of the media, noted scientists, artists, athletes, and entertainers, magnates of industry and business, and ordinary people are materially helping them. About 6 thousand million US dollars have already been collected in support. This is an appraisal of the suffering and losses; this is humane and moral.

On 11 September 2001 , terrorists destroyed two skyscrapers and damaged the Pentagon; 3000 people died.

At the beginning of September 2004, about 1000 people including 800 children died in the events at Beslan and 210 are missing. These events froze people's blood. After these events, they have expressed their sympathy, visited the US and Russian embassies, and been ready to provide material support. The position of the heads of state and their institutions allows one to understand that the pain of others is also our own, that criminals must be found and brought to justice, and that victims need both moral and material support. Ordinary people also think this way.

On 11 December 1994 , Russia , after trampling on the Right of Nations to Self-determination that is recognized by all the countries of the United Nations and Russia herself as well as the norms and other documents of International Law she has signed, began brutal military actions in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In committing genocide against an independent state, Russia has killed about 250 thousand people including about 42 thousand children, destroyed this country's entire economy, created material damages of approximately 300 milliard US dollars, and left about 80% of the people homeless. The youth and children are infected with tuberculosis and many of them are suffering from open forms of it. About 40% of the infants are born deformed. The Russian Federation is not complying with the PEACE Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria signed on 12 May 1997 by President B. Yeltsin and President A. Maschadov of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Understand that a Peace Treaty signed by the presidents of two sovereign states has huge international significance.

Massacres. Diseases. Tragedy. Pain. Starvation. These are obvious signs of a total colonial war and genocide. The world powers have not provided the Chechens with any material support and have not forced Russia to comply with the most elementary rules of humanity. Putin has explained that Russia is fighting terrorism. The world powers have remained silent as if they do not understand that these are children, women, and the elderly, not terrorists, that these are flats, the cultural heritage, scientific and medical institutions, land, animals, and implements, not tools of terrorism. An impression has been created that V. Putin is afraid.

Almost 40 thousand Russian soldiers have died in perpetrating the total genocide of Presidents B. Yeltsin and V. Putin in Chechnya .

The highest institutions of the world: Presidents, Parliaments, Governments, etc could honor the Chechen victims of Russia's genocidal policy with a minute of sympathy, reflection, and silence in their next meetings and should demand that: 1. Russia implement the Peace Treaty; 2. withdraw its army; 3. reimburse the damages; 4. hand over power to the legally elected President A. Maschadov and Parliament. The states of the world and their citizens could give the Chechens material support.

At the beginning of June 2005, I will manufacture a 7 meter metal cross using my family's money and erect it near the Russian Federation embassy in Vilnius to mark the tragedy of Chechnya .

Many of the world's heads of the state are preparing to gather on 9 May in Moscow to mark the victory over Fascism. Why give the initiative to Russia -the USSR , which signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany on 23 August 1939 and attacked Poland together with it in September 1939, thereby beginning the Second World War. Respect yourself: do not pander or grovel to Moscow ; prove to Russia that the world became a victim of communism and fascism 66 years ago. During the entire 60-year post-war period, the world has been defending itself from communism, which the USSR-Russia has propagated. Remember that while the Allies were approaching the citadel of fascism, Russia on 23 February 1944 deported the entire Chechen nation to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia; during and after the end of the war, the Soviet-communist machine for the destruction of nations and people who think differently operated at full force and is still operating since the genocide in Chechnya is still continuing.

Moscow is preparing for a parade. That KGB agent and butcher of the Chechen nation, V. Putin, is preparing to greet them and explain the victory... When you greet him, you can feel the Chekist butcher's penetrating look, the fangs of a beast, the touch of bloody hands, the sounds of a poisonous snake... and around him, the souls of his victims... Do not travel to Moscow .

I am not comparing the consequences of natural cataclysms to the effects of wars and genocides. People are intelligent beings; they know how to defend themselves. And they must be restrained, especially V. Putin, who is fighting a war in a foreign land, the independent state of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. V. Putin has turned Chechnya into a concentration camp. Instruments for killing people are being tested here. Butchers are practicing their craft and politicians are modelling methods for controlling people here. V. Putin must be tried for genocide. His place is in a court room and not in a victory parade.

China has occupied Tibet and killed a third of the Tibetans. No help or support has been offered. The world powers have remained silent since China is bigger than them.

After you read them, pass it on to. Remember the tragedies, genocide, and consequences and do everything to prevent them, i.e. do everything to avoid them and to fight for the good of humanity.

Sincerely ask the media and its institutions to find a place for this letter or a summary of it on the Internet, the big screen, radio, and TV; I ask for no money for its use.

Ask God for His support and blessing.

Respectfully yours,

Leonas Kerosierius,
Member of the Vilnius City Committee to promote
the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

My address: Erfurto 46-64, Vilnius , Lithuania ; Tel. (+370-5) 23 18 111; e-mail: leonaske@takas.lt
Chechenpress2005-02-11 00:45:39

Nothing wrong in riot CD : Lalu

Nothing wrong in riot CDs : Lalu
Patna, Feb 11 (PTI): Even as the BJP today sought action against RJD for display of CDs on Gujarat riots in Purnea, RJD president Lalu Prasad said there was nothing wrong about the CDs which were being shown after the permission of the State Election authorities.
Charging RJD with exploiting religion for electoral purposes by indulging in such "objectionable tactics", BJP vice president Sushil Kumar Modi demanded that the EC take stern against the State’s ruling party.
"Use of such CDs at the time of elections will disturb peace and communal amity," Modi said seeking punitive action against the district magistrates of concerned districts where such CDs and posters on Gujarat riots were on display. Meanwhile, reacting to the BJP charge, RJD leader Lalu Prasad said, "We have already submitted the CDs to the State Election Office which gave us permission to show these. The CDs are only showing the incidents which took place in Gujarat

The Significance of Hijrah

The Significance of Hijrah*
By Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi
February 6, 2005
In the Glorious Qur'an, Allah, Most High, says, [Those who believe, and migrate and strive in Allah’s cause, with their goods and their persons, have the highest rank in the sight of Allah: they are indeed the successful people. Their Lord does give them glad tidings of a Mercy from Himself, of His good pleasure, and of Gardens for them, wherein are delights that endure: They will dwell therein forever. Verily in Allah’s presence is a reward, the greatest (of all)] (Al-Tawbah 9:20-22).
We are approaching the New Year of Hijrah. Our religious calendar is the Hijri calendar. It is important for us to keep in mind the meaning and significance of Hijrah.
Hijrah was one of the most important events in the history of Islam. It is for this reason `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) adopted Hijrah date to calculate years. Muslims chose Hijrah as the focal point to reckon their chronology. In physical terms, Hijrah was a journey between two cities about 300 miles apart, but in its grand significance it marked the beginning of an era, a civilization, a culture and a history for the whole mankind. Islam progressed not only from the physical Hijrah, but because Muslims took Hijrah seriously in all its aspects and dimensions.
When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made the Hijrah from Makkah to Madinah, he did not just transfer his residence or took shelter in another city, but as soon as he arrived in Madinah he began the transformation of that city in every aspect.
It is important for us to study and reflect on the things that he did in Madinah. There are many lessons for us in that history and we can learn many things for our life.
1. Masjid (Mosque): The Prophet (peace and blessingsbe be upon him) first established a mosque for the worship of Allah. He himself worked in carrying the stones and building that small, humble but most powerful structure. This was the beginning, but soon other mosques were established in Madinah.
2. Madrasah: Islamic school and educational institution for the community. The first school under the supervision of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was the school of Suffah. Later many other schools were opened. According to Maulana Shibli Numani, there were nine schools opened in Madinah alone in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
3. Muwakhat: He established brotherly relations between the Muhajirun (Muslims who migrated with the Prophet from Makkah) and the Ansar (residents of Madinah who helped the Prophet and his Companions). Masjid and madrasah were not enough, what was also important was to have good relations between Muslims. They should have their brotherhood on the basis of faith, not on the basis of tribes, as they used to have prior to Islam.
4. Intercommunity and Interfaith Relations: Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also established good relations with other communities living in Madinah. There was a large Jewish community as well as some other Arab tribes who had not accepted Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prepared a mithaq (a covenant or a constitution) for relations between these communities.
5. Cleaning the City: Yathrib (the old name of Madinah) was a dirty city. When the Prophet's Companions came from Makkah to Madinah, many of them got sick and did not like that city. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked them to clean the city and remove its dirt and filth. `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: “We came to Madinah and it was the most polluted land of Allah. The water there was most stinking. (Al-Bukhari)
6. Water System in the City: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked the companions to dig wells in different parts of the city. It is mentioned that more than 50 wells were opened in the city of Madinah and there was enough clean water for every one.
7. Agriculture and Gardening: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraged the companions to cultivate the land and make gardens. He told them that any one who would cultivate any dead land, would own it. Many people started working and cultivating and soon there was enough food for every one.
8. Poverty Eradication: In a short period of time it happened that there were no poor people in Madinah. Every one had enough and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to give gifts to coming delegations.
9. Safety, Security, Law and Order: Madinah became the safest city in the world. There were very few incidents of theft, rape, drunkenness or murder and they were immediately taken care of.
In short, Hijrah teaches us that wherever Muslims go, they should bring goodness to that land. Muslims should work for both moral and material goodness of the society.

Valentine's Day from an Islamic Perspective

Fatwa Question Details
Name
Lamya - Egypt
Title
Valentine's Day from an Islamic Perspective
Question
Respected scholars, As-Salamu `Alaykum! Thank you very much for the wonderful service you provide and more grease to your elbow! Could you please furnish me with the Islamic view on celebrating the Valentine’s Day?
Date
9/Feb/2005
Mufti
Group of Muftis
Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger. Dearest sister Lamya, thank you very much for having confidence in us, and we invoke Allah Almighty to enlighten our hearts all to accept the truth and to grant us success both in this world and on the Day of Judgement, Amen. First of all, we’d like to shed light on the origin of this festival, known as "Valentine Day" or "Festival of Love":
The Festival of Love was one of the festivals of the pagan Romans, when paganism was the prevalent religion of the Romans more than seventeen centuries ago. In the pagan Roman concept, it was an expression of "spiritual love". There were myths associated with this pagan festival of the Romans, which persisted with their Christian heirs. Among the most famous of these myths was the Roman belief that Romulus, the founder of Rome, was suckled one day by a she-wolf, which gave him strength and wisdom. The Romans used to celebrate this event in mid-February each year with a big festival. One of the rituals of this festival was the sacrifice of a dog and a goat. Two strong and muscular youths would daub the blood of the dog and goat onto their bodies, then they would wash the blood away with milk. After that there would be a great parade, with these two youths at its head, which would go about the streets. The two youths would have pieces of leather with which they would hit everyone who crossed their path. The Roman women would welcome these blows, because they believed that they could prevent or cure infertility. The connection between Saint Valentine and this festival: Saint Valentine is a name which is given to two of the ancient "martyrs" of the Christian Church. It was said that there were two of them, or that there was only one, who died in Rome as the result of the persecution of the Gothic leader Claudius, c. 296 CE. In 350 CE, a church was built in Rome on the site of the place where he died, to perpetuate his memory. When the Romans embraced Christianity, they continued to celebrate the Feast of Love mentioned above, but they changed it from the pagan concept of "spiritual love" to another concept known as the "martyrs of love", represented by Saint Valentine who had advocated love and peace, for which cause he was martyred, according to their claims. It was also called the Feast of Lovers, and Saint Valentine was considered to be the patron saint of lovers. One of their false beliefs connected with this festival was that the names of girls who had reached marriageable age would be written on small rolls of paper and placed in a dish on a table. Then the young men who wanted to get married would be called, and each of them would pick a piece of paper. He would put himself at the service of the girl whose name he had drawn for one year, so that they could find out about one another. Then they would get married, or they would repeat the same process again on the day of the festival in the following year. The Christian clergy reacted against this tradition, which they considered to have a corrupting influence on the morals of young men and women. It was abolished in Italy, where it had been well-known, then it was revived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when in some western countries there appeared shops which sold small books called “Valentine’s books”, which contained love poems, from which the one who wanted to send a greeting to his sweetheart could choose. They also contained suggestions for writing love letters.The above quotation is excerpted, with slight modifications, from www.Islam-qa.com As regards the Islamic stance on this festival, Dr. Su`ad Ibrahim Salih, professor of Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) at Al-Azhar University, states the following:
Indeed, Islam is the religion of altruism, true love, and cooperation on that which is good and righteous. We implore Allah Almighty to gather us together under the umbrella of His All-encompassing Mercy, and to unite us together as one man. Allah Almighty says: (The believers are naught else than brothers. Therefore make peace between your brethren and observe your duty to Allah that haply ye may obtain mercy.) (Al-Hujurat 49: 10) Focusing more on the question in point, I can say that there are forms of expressing love that are religiously acceptable, while there are others that are not religiously acceptable. Among the forms of love that are religiously acceptable are those that include the love for Prophets and Messengers. It stands to reason that the love for Allah, and His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) should have the top priority over all other forms of love. Islam does recognize happy occasions that bring people closer to one another, and add spice to their lives. However, Islam goes against blindly imitating the West regarding a special occasion such as Valentine’s Day. Hence, commemorating that special day known as the Valentine’s Day is an innovation or bid`ah that has no religious backing. Every innovation of that kind is rejected, as far as Islam is concerned. Islam requires all Muslims to love one another all over the whole year, and reducing the whole year to a single day is totally rejected. Hence, we Muslims ought not to follow in the footsteps of such innovations and superstitions that are common in what is known as the Valentine’s Day. No doubt that there are many irreligious practices that occur on that day, and those practices are capable of dissuading people from the true meanings of love and altruism to the extent that the celebration is reduced to a moral decline.

Kerala's pardah boom

Some years back, a purdah-clad woman was a rarity in the state. Today, exclusive shops selling veils have sprung up everywhere. "There is no aversion to the purdah these days among the new generation of Muslim women in Kerala," says Fatima Usman, who owns a garment shop in Kochi. "In fact, many of them love the dress."

A nice-girls-wear-purdah attitude has crept into Muslim society, she says. "It looks as if the purdah is turning out to be a symbol of modernity and prosperity, not of conservatism."

The large number of Malayali Muslims who work in West Asia, especially Saudi Arabia, has contributed to this culture, according to Islamic leaders and scholars.

Malayalis comprise the largest chunk of Indians working in West Asia, according to a study by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies. Most of those 1.6 million Malayalis are Muslims. The study found that in a district like Malappuram, 49.2 persons per 100 households work in West Asia.

Usman said many rich Muslim women in Kerala are embracing the purdah.
According to a recent survey by the New Delhi-based National Council for Applied Economic Research, Kerala's Muslim households, with an average earning of Rs 29,991 per annum, are better off than Hindu households (Rs 26,344).

The Muslims of Kerala are India's most educated Muslims with a literacy rate of 89.4 percent and female literacy at 85.4 percent. "Many of our women have been to the Gulf countries and have seen both rich and poor women wear the purdah," says Mohammed Hanifa, a businessman who settled down in Kochi after working for 15 years in Saudi Arabia.

Hanifa feels a purdah-clad woman nowadays makes a style statement. "For many of our young girls, wearing purdah is part of fashion and modernity."
Fatima Nazir, a 20-year-old home science graduate, agrees. "I wear purdah to college some days. I love it."

Students like Fatima point to another reason for the trend: writer/poetess Madhavikutty alias Kamala Das's conversion to Islam.

More than four years ago, the well-known English poetess and Malayalam short story writer embraced Islam and acquired the name Kamala Surayya.
Since then, she has been mostly seen in public in purdah, though she keeps her face unveiled. She has in fact said that life in purdah is 'supreme bliss.'
Her name has become very popular among Kerala's Muslims. Textile shops called Surayya House, Surayya Purdah Palace, Surayya Purdah Paradise have sprung up across the state. Clad in black purdah and her hands adorned with colourful bangles, Kamala Surayya, which in Arabic means a blue star without blemish, converses fluently in Arabic nowadays.

The poetess says she is happy that more women in Kerala are wearing purdah. "Many Muslim women have come to me asking my opinion whether they should wear purdah," she says. "I have always encouraged it." Surayya feels if she has provoked the purdah boom in Kerala, "it is a matter of great joy and satisfaction for me." "The purdah is a great dress. I love it. It gives women protection and an identity. It always gives a woman immunity from ogling by men," says the writer who won the Asian Poetry Prize in 1964 for her anthology, The Sirens. «

Hindu front - AASU , BJP , AGP and their many allies are going mad on the appointment of police constables

HC suspends constable appointment
GUWAHATI, Feb 8: The Gauhati High Court today suspended the appointment orders and appointment certificates issued by the Government for posts of police constables, while, on the other hand, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has demanded a judicial probe by a sitting Judge of the High Court into the process of selection of candidates for the posts. Justice IA Ansari of the High Court, in response to a petition filed by Debojit Bhattacharya and nine others, said that no appointment should be made to the posts of constables in pursuant to the advertisement dated August 21, 2004 without following the due procedure for selection prescribed in the advertisement and without publication of the results. The court order said that if any appointment orders were issued in the meantime, those would be suspended. No appointment certificate in terms of rule 30 of the Assam Police Manual should be issued to anyone without appointments made in terms of the advertisement and if any appointment certificate is issued, those should be suspended forthwith.

The order further said that the Government should not destroy or damage any records of the selection process without leave of the court.

The counsel for the petitioners, BD Konwar told newsmen that the Government issued advertisements for filling up posts of 5486 police constables on August 21 last year and more than seven lakh candidates appeared in the tests conducted in 55 centres all over the state. He pointed out that as per the terms of selection mentioned in the advertisement, the Government should have published the results of the tests in the major newspapers and the same should also have been made available in the offices of the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of

Police and Commandants of the Police battalions. But on January 20 this year, the Commissioner of Home and Political Department of the State Government wrote a letter to the Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police asking them to issue appointment certificates to the selected candidates by January 31. He said that the Government issued appointment certificates to selected candidates without publishing the results of the tests in major newspapers, thus violating the terms of selection mentioned in the advertisement for the posts.

Konwar said that in the petition, it was pointed out that the rules of selection were violated and the intervention of the court was sought for publication of the results of the tests before the appointment letters are issued. The petitioners also sought the intervention of the court for preservation of the records relating to the selection process as in one such case in 2000, the records of the tests were destroyed.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today demanded that the Government should immediately order a judicial probe by a sitting Judge of the High Court into the entire process of selection of candidates for the posts of police constables and warned that Assam would burn if deserving candidates are deprived. The AASU has decided to bring out torch light processions all over the State on February 11 and threatened to launch a vigorous movement in protest against the irregularities in the process of selection of police constables.

Talking to mediapersons here today, AASU president Prabin Boro said that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has failed on all fronts and by depriving deserving candidates for posts of police constables, the Government once again allowed the state to burn. He said that the Chief Minister has no control over the members of his Council of Ministers and bureaucrats. He alleged that the Congress Government in the state was working against the interests of the indigenous people of Assam and even in the process of selection of candidates for posts of police constables, the indigenous youths were deprived.

AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that even members of the ruling party alleged irregularities in the selection process. He said that the Government would be solely responsible for the consequences for the irregularities.

Bhattacharya said that the Government did not try to clear the backlog of vacancies for the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes during the appointment process and the selection was made only keeping in view the vote bank of the ruling party. He said that common people are openly blaming two Ministers-Rockybul Hussain and Himanta Biswa Sarma for the irregularities but the Chief Minister just remained a silent spectator.
All the hindus those who are opposing , are they capable of giving jobs to the muslims youths , or they are i.e, brahmins able to cope with the problem of which will arise out of all this scandle .

Hindus oppose recruitment of constables

BJP to go ahead with 12-hr bandh call today

GUWAHATI, Feb 8—The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has stuck to its 12-hour bandh call in protest against the alleged irregularities in the process to recruit 5,000 constables. The bandh is to commence from 5 am tomorrow. This is despite the Gauhati High Court asking the State Government to suspend all the appointment orders and certificates issued so far to fill up vacancies against the posts of police constables.

The BJP unit has added a new point to its charter of demands—a CBI enquiry into the entire process of recruitment of police constables.

In a statement here this evening, the State unit of the BJP said that the recruitment orders issued by the State Government to recruit mostly the religious minority candidates as police constables have led to an explosive situation in the State.

The vacancies against the posts are filled up on political, communal and monetary considerations and the entire process needs an enquiry into it by the CBI. The lists prepared by the Government for recruitment should also needs to be scrapped, said the BJP unit.

Riba ( interest) as haram

Faith, finance
Two city banks offer devout Muslims a way to buy homes
without violating usury beliefs

By Dennis Rodkin
Special to the Tribune
Published February 6, 2005

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/realestate/chi-0502060481feb06,1,7422831.story

O ye who believe! Devour not usury, doubled and
multiplied; but fear Allah; so that you may be
successful.

—3-130 Surah Al-Imran Verses

Taj Khan had resigned himself to renting a home for
his family of three for a very long time. Devout in
his practice of Islam, the 28-year-old computer
network administrator is particularly concerned about
avoiding any business transactions that entail
charging or paying interest.

"Interest is one of the biggest things we are
specifically told to avoid," Khan says, "so I wasn't
going to be able to buy a house. I wanted to buy, but
my religious belief was stopping me."

He was trying to save toward an all-cash purchase, but
the pressures of supporting a young family kept him
from putting much away. So Khan figured he and his
wife, Seemab, would go on renting part of his father's
Hanover Park house indefinitely.

"If I couldn't find a way to buy in a religiously good
way," he says, "I would just keep on renting."

Then last year Khan heard through friends about an
interest-free Islamic home-buying program that was
launching at Chicago's Devon Bank. Instead of buying a
house and taking a mortgage from a bank to pay for it,
under this program the buyer picks a house, but the
bank buys it and immediately sells it to the buyer at
a sizable markup.

The bank calculates its markup based on prevailing
interest rates. Thus, because the total price with
markup is the same as what the buyer would have paid
on a 30-year loan with interest, the buyer is agreeing
to pay just as much as a homeowner with a standard
mortgage would pay. The difference is that it's a
credit sale for a set total price, not an
interest-bearing transaction.

But that's only true of the transaction between the
home buyer and the bank. When Devon Bank later sells
the loan to Freddie Mac, as many mortgage lenders do,
what it sells is a standard interest-bearing loan,
with the same profit structure for both sides.
Essentially, the bank has wrapped a standard mortgage
in non-standard terminology that satisfies Islamic
teachings.

Although it might sound like a paperwork trick, it
finesses a fine point in Islamic law, or shari'ah,
that makes all the difference to Khan and other U.S.
Muslims who want to own homes but decline to get into
any financial transactions that charge interest.

Khan bought a four-bedroom house in Bartlett last
summer, confident that the purchase was in compliance
with his faith because of the structure of the deal.
He picked a house whose price was $295,000. Devon Bank
bought it, and accepted a $60,000 down payment from
Khan. His agreement with the bank calls for 360
monthly payments of $1,338. In the end, with all
payments and the down payment, he will have spent a
total of $540,000 for the house.

Had he bought with a standard, interest-bearing
mortgage, his 30-year total would have been
approximately the same.

"From a financial standpoint there may not be much
difference, but what matters is the way you conduct
the transaction," says Salman Ibrahim, a member of the
Shari'ah Supervisory Board of America, a West Rogers
Park panel of 10 Islamic scholars that monitors
financial products targeting Muslims and gave its
approval to Devon Bank's program. "The taste of a
chicken does not change whether it is zabiah
[slaughtered according to Islamic practices] or
non-zabiah; what changes is the way you slaughter it."

Two Chicago banks -- Devon Bank and Broadway Bank,
both small North Side institutions in neighborhoods
where large numbers of Muslims live -- both started
shari'ah-sanctioned home-buying programs in 2004.
Neither bank's officials will say how many Islamic
home transactions they have conducted, though both say
the programs have been received well by their
customers.

"For us, it's a service issue," says Demetris
Giannoulias, chief financial officer of Broadway Bank.
"There is a demand for this kind of thing in the
community we serve, and if it requires us to do a
little extra amount of service to make home buying
more palatable to the customer, we'll do that."

In January the larger of the two banks, Devon Bank,
took a big step forward when it announced that
national mortgage investor Freddie Mac will buy its
Islamic home deals, giving the bank the leverage to
offer its Islamic products in other states. By
mid-January, Devon Bank had begun offering the
products in 10 states outside Illinois, with more
states to be lined up soon, according to the bank's
corporate counsel, David Loundy.

A measure of the pent-up desire for this religiously
appropriate method for Muslims to buy houses: "When he
heard about it, a guy from Connecticut started calling
us three or four times a day until we got approval
there and could say yes to him," says Nazir
Gurukambal, Devon Bank's vice president in charge of
the Islamic home-buying program. (The bank is awaiting
final regulatory approval to offer its program in
Connecticut.)

Mohammed Monawer, an engineer with Wisconsin's Public
Service Commission, says he called Devon Bank as soon
its product became available to him last fall, as he
had been renting with his family of four for more than
15 years.

"An Islamic option was never available before, so I
kept renting," Monawer says. When a group of Islamic
scholars in his city determined that "the way Devon
Bank is doing it is in compliance with the Islamic
way, I got on the bandwagon."

Monawer uses credit cards because he's found there's
no other way to secure hotel reservations and conduct
some other business, but he diligently pays the
balance each month, eliminating interest charges.

He had rented a two-bedroom apartment in Madison for
his family of four long past the age when a
professional typically can buy a house, but he had no
other choice that would fit his religious needs.
Monawer and his wife, Safia, had been saving to buy
for years, but they only had about 20 percent of what
a suitable home would cost.

In November, they bought a three-bedroom house on a
half-acre lot in Fitchburg, a suburb south of Madison.
"It's a nice neighborhood, and quiet," he says. "Our
condition is improved, but we are happiest because we
didn't have to compromise our beliefs to get this."

Notwithstanding the exuberance of individual home
buyers, there's no sure measure of how big a demand
there is for Islamic-friendly financing. A study by
HSBC, a New York bank that offers similar Islamic
products, indicated that fewer than one in 10 U.S.
Muslims use Islamic-based financial services, and that
64 percent of the nation's Muslims have bought homes
using standard interest-bearing mortgages. That could
be simply because shari'ah-compliant loans weren't
available in the past, as new homeowner Khan notes.

"Eleven years ago, when we came to this country, my
father needed to buy a house and couldn't afford to
look at it from an Islamic perspective," Khan says.
"There wasn't anything; he didn't have a choice."

In fact, while the Islamic stricture against borrowing
with interest goes back centuries (Judaism and
Christianity had similar prohibitions), the desire
among Muslims to avoid interest is relatively modern,
says Mahmoud al-Gamal, professor of Islamic Economics
at Rice University in Houston.

"In the early 20th Century, most Islamic countries
were basically trying to emulate the West in their
rules and institutions," he says. "But since the
revolutions and the religious resurgence of the 1970s,
you have this premise that Western-style finance is
not acceptable anymore."

But al-Gamal notes that these programs have to have
one foot in each of two canoes: They have to satisfy a
Muslim's religious practices at the same time that
they fulfill U.S. banking regulations and practices.

"The job of the lawyers is to make sure that while the
language in the contracts makes the customers
convinced there is a difference from a mortgage, in
fact the difference is negligible or nonexistent, so
the buyer of the loan, the Freddie Mac, is happy that
this is a Freddie Mac note like any other Freddie Mac
note," al-Gamal says.

While it's pretty easy to calculate how much an
interest-bearing loan will cost in 30 years and
translate that into a markup (it's about the same as
the figure shown at the bottom of a standard
borrower's Truth in Lending form at closing), keeping
the Islamic purchase "clean" creates three dilemmas
for the buyer and the bank. They have been resolved
with differing levels of clarity.

The first and simplest is the extra cost of what Devon
Bank's Loundy calls "the COBM: the cost of being
Muslim." If getting a home in a way that adheres to
one's religious principles means shelling out a
prohibitive additional sum, customers will feel that
the cost is too high and keep renting. Loundy says his
bank has tried to ensure that this fee is minimal,
just enough to cover the cost of processing two deeds
(one for the sale to the bank, the second for the sale
to the buyer) instead of just one. He estimates the
extra cost to be about $100. In Madison, Monawer says
his additional costs came to about $750, not enough to
scare him off.

The second dilemma is vastly more complicated. Few
people buy a house with a 15- or 30-year loan and
stick around for that whole term. With an
interest-bearing loan, that's no problem. Sell the
house, settle the debt still owed to the bank, and
walk away with what's left. But because a buyer using
an Islamic purchase plan isn't paying interest, how
much debt is left if he or she sells before the term
is up?

It's further complicated by the fact that most homes
will be worth more on their next sale than the
purchase price.

Pure Islamic finance instructs that risk should be
shared by both parties, al-Gamal says; that would mean
the bank and the home buyer would share any increase
in home value, and that if the value drops, the buyer
would owe less. These ideas are counter to the way
American home financing is devised.

Loundy and al-Gamal both say this is a very thorny
issue. It would be disrespectful to even offer a
payoff schedule, because that blurs the line between
paying interest and paying the Islamic way. The whole
idea is that these buyers intend to pay the cost of
the house in full over time. That's why most buyers in
the program agree to accept the uncertainty and go in
with no promise of how it will be resolved if they
sell early, Loundy says.

"There's no other way to work it out but to leave it
undecided," he says.

The third problem is similarly left unresolved, but it
tests the home buyer's dedication to religious
principle. Every year at tax time, millions of
American homeowners cash in on their most lucrative
tax break, the deduction for mortgage interest they
have paid. Because it amounts to thousands of dollars
for most people, it's a major factor in what makes a
home affordable.

Here's the problem for buyers in Islamic programs: To
comply with mortgage regulations, the bank has to
report the amount buyers paid that would have been
interest in a standard loan. Should the buyer take
advantage of that deduction, then, or stand on
principle and refuse the deduction because it is
premised on paying interest?

Loundy and al-Gamal say the IRS has not yet determined
what it will require, which means Islamic buyers have
to decide for themselves.

Ibrahim, of the shari'ah board, says the concept got a
lot of debate, and ultimately the board said that "we
would prefer to have some sort of preferred
shari'ah-compliant deduction [that reflected the
markup] and not the interest, but because there is
nothing of that type at this point and because it
would be brutal to these Muslim consumers to have to
go without the deduction, the board would go ahead and
allow taking the deduction."

Without taking that deduction, most Islamic buyers
would find that their "cost of being Muslim" was way
too steep.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune