By Syed Zahid Ahmad,
Since the internal working group of RBI led by Anand Sinha was supposed to examine the feasibility of Islamic banking business in India, they concluded that Islamic Banking in India is not possible unless we amend the Banking Regulation Act. But had there been any objective of finding possibility to erode the hurdles for financial inclusion of any community who hate involvement in interest based transactions, one could have well concluded that ‘though Islamic banking need amendments, under prevailing acts in India, interest free banking is quite possible’. We don’t need any amendment in any act to allow interest free banking because there are already following legal provisions in the prevailing acts.
1. Section 17 (1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 states that the bank shall be authorized to accept money on deposit without interest from and the collection of money for the central and state governments, local authorities, banks and other persons.
2. Section 45W (1) of RBI Act 1934 states that RBI has the power to regulate transactions in derivatives, money market instruments, etc. in public interest, or to regulate the financial system of the country to its advantage, determine the policy relating to interest rates or interest rate products and give directions in that behalf to all agencies or any of them, dealing in securities, money market instruments, foreign exchange, derivatives, or other instruments of like nature as the Bank may specify from time to time.
3. Sections 21 and 21A of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 states that RBI has the power to control advances by banking companies. Every banking company shall be bound to comply with any directions given to it under this section. RBI’s policy or bank’s practice of charging interest cannot be pulled to judicial discretion. Reserve Bank may give directions to banking companies, either generally or to any banking company or group of banking companies in particular, as to
(a) the purposes for which advances may or may not be made,
(b) the margins to be maintained in respect of secured advances,
(c) the maximum amount of advances or other financial accommodation which, having regard to the paid-up capital, reserves and deposits of a banking company and other relevant considerations, may be made by that banking company to any one company, firm, association of persons or individual,
(d) the maximum amount up to which, having regard to the considerations referred to in clause (c), guarantees may be given by a banking company on behalf of any one company, firm, association of persons or individual, and
(e) the rate of interest and other terms and conditions on which advances or other financial accommodation may be made or guarantees may be given.
Considering the above legal provisions for deposits without interest and RBI’s power to regulate policies related to advances and interest rates, RBI seems to be in a position to allow interest free deposits and advances with zero interest rate. RBI as sole monetary regulators of India is very much in a position to allow the banks accept deposits without interest and lend advances and loans with zero interest. RBI can allow transaction of interest free deposits and lending through specific windows in existing Scheduled commercial banks at least on pilot basis. It will help achieve target of financial inclusion of those who are just excluded because they don’t like to indulge into any interest based transactions. RBI can just allow acceptance of deposits without interest and with object to financial inclusion it may also frame a special credit policy for poor by allowing credits at zero interest rate to those who don’t seek interest on their deposits. Notably the Islamic NBFC can provide investment opportunities to financially better off section of Muslims but the need of interest free credit facility by poor farmers and enterprises would still be there.
Compared to other religious communities in India, Muslims are most backward because they have worst credit deposit ratio due to unavailability of interest free credits as compatible to their religious faith. With 97% workers engaged in unorganized sector enterprises, Muslims need more credits at zero interest rate to improve their labour output ratio and value additions for foster inclusive growth of India. If Muslims be allowed to access interest free credits, the community will not be a liability any more and may turn into asset for the nation.
(The writer is Asst. Secretary General, All India Council of Muslim Economic Upliftment Ltd. Trust, Mumbai. Can be contacted on Tel. - (+91 22) 2347 6497 / 8329
Mobile - (+91) 9869 814 113, Fax:- (+91 22) 2347 8884, E Mail - aicmeu@yahoo.com
Website- www.aicmeu.org, Blog:- www.aicmeu.wordpress.com)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Who forced Minority Commission to dissolve its enquiry panel on Batla?
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
One and half months after the Batla House encounter, the Delhi Minority Commission set up an enquiry committee to probe the shootout of September 19, 2008. The committee was to submit report within a month. The report is still elusive, and will remain so forever because the committee was dissolved soon after it was formed, and silently. Who forced the commission to do it? No one knows.
The Commission issued the order regarding constitution of a four-member Fact Finding Committee on November 5, 2008 to enquire into the police action in Batla House.
According to the official order, the terms and references of the fact finding team were the following:
a) To assess and analyses facts of the police action inside Flate No. L-18, 4TH Floor, Batla House.
b) To assess and analyse the action of the police subsequent to the police action.
c) To assess and analyse the communal atmosphere prevailing in the area.
d) To assess and analyse the current situation of communal harmony, peace and brotherhood.
The order also said: “This committee shall record the statements of the witnesses and immediate residents of the area individually, analyse them and hold further enquiries for corroboration/derogative of the statements. The committee shall also obtain the version of the Delhi Ploice.”
The Commission gave one-month time to the committee to submit its report: “The Fact Finding Committee shall submit its report within a month.”
The members of the committee were:
Mr. Maqsood Ahmed, Allama Rafiq Trust
Dr. D.K.Panday, DCVS,
Dr. Mahender Singh, Director, Bhai Veer Singh Sahitya Sadan
Rev. Manoj Malaki, The Aradhana Christian Welfare Society
Months passed and even a year and more, there was no report. The community and society also forgot about the minority panel’s fact finding team. Once again came up the 22-year-old ‘veteran’ RTI activist Afroz Alam Sahil. He had not forgotten the announcement of the constitution of the fact finding team. As he has been shown the door at every government agency whenever he approached them regarding facts about the bloody shootout of Batla House, he approached the Delhi Minority Commission hoping to get a copy of the report of its fact finding team.
Afroz filed an RTI petition with the Delhi Minority Commission on April 6, 2010. The reply he got on May 11, 2010 was a setback for this RTI ‘jihadist’ of Batla House post-mortem report fame.
“Minority Commission has not made any report in the Batla House case,” Afroz was told in reply to his question: If Delhi Minority Commission has prepared any report in Batla House encounter case. In reply to next seven questions related to the first one, the same first answer was referred.
A member of the Fact Finding Committee, who wanted to remain unnamed, has been quoted as saying: “The Delhi Minority Commission never seemed serious about the committee and we were never provided any resources. Further the Committee was soon dissolved.”
The question that needs reply is: Who asked the Delhi Minority Commission to set up such Fact Finding Committee in first place, and when it was constituted with high goal, who forced the Commission to dissolve it before it could prepare the report?
http://twocircles.net/2010may22/who_forced_minority_commission_dissolve_its_enquiry_panel_batla.html
One and half months after the Batla House encounter, the Delhi Minority Commission set up an enquiry committee to probe the shootout of September 19, 2008. The committee was to submit report within a month. The report is still elusive, and will remain so forever because the committee was dissolved soon after it was formed, and silently. Who forced the commission to do it? No one knows.
The Commission issued the order regarding constitution of a four-member Fact Finding Committee on November 5, 2008 to enquire into the police action in Batla House.
According to the official order, the terms and references of the fact finding team were the following:
a) To assess and analyses facts of the police action inside Flate No. L-18, 4TH Floor, Batla House.
b) To assess and analyse the action of the police subsequent to the police action.
c) To assess and analyse the communal atmosphere prevailing in the area.
d) To assess and analyse the current situation of communal harmony, peace and brotherhood.
The order also said: “This committee shall record the statements of the witnesses and immediate residents of the area individually, analyse them and hold further enquiries for corroboration/derogative of the statements. The committee shall also obtain the version of the Delhi Ploice.”
The Commission gave one-month time to the committee to submit its report: “The Fact Finding Committee shall submit its report within a month.”
The members of the committee were:
Mr. Maqsood Ahmed, Allama Rafiq Trust
Dr. D.K.Panday, DCVS,
Dr. Mahender Singh, Director, Bhai Veer Singh Sahitya Sadan
Rev. Manoj Malaki, The Aradhana Christian Welfare Society
Months passed and even a year and more, there was no report. The community and society also forgot about the minority panel’s fact finding team. Once again came up the 22-year-old ‘veteran’ RTI activist Afroz Alam Sahil. He had not forgotten the announcement of the constitution of the fact finding team. As he has been shown the door at every government agency whenever he approached them regarding facts about the bloody shootout of Batla House, he approached the Delhi Minority Commission hoping to get a copy of the report of its fact finding team.
Afroz filed an RTI petition with the Delhi Minority Commission on April 6, 2010. The reply he got on May 11, 2010 was a setback for this RTI ‘jihadist’ of Batla House post-mortem report fame.
“Minority Commission has not made any report in the Batla House case,” Afroz was told in reply to his question: If Delhi Minority Commission has prepared any report in Batla House encounter case. In reply to next seven questions related to the first one, the same first answer was referred.
A member of the Fact Finding Committee, who wanted to remain unnamed, has been quoted as saying: “The Delhi Minority Commission never seemed serious about the committee and we were never provided any resources. Further the Committee was soon dissolved.”
The question that needs reply is: Who asked the Delhi Minority Commission to set up such Fact Finding Committee in first place, and when it was constituted with high goal, who forced the Commission to dissolve it before it could prepare the report?
http://twocircles.net/2010may22/who_forced_minority_commission_dissolve_its_enquiry_panel_batla.html
Christian leader faces questions about Muslim past
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Southern Baptist minister who leads Liberty University's seminary made a career as a go-to authority on Islam for the evangelical world, selling thousands of books and touring the country as a former Muslim who discovered Jesus Christ.
Now Ergun Caner is being investigated by the Lynchburg, Va., university — founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell — over allegations that he fabricated or embellished his past.
An unlikely coalition of Muslim and Christian bloggers, pastors and apologists has led the charge with video and audio clips they claim show Caner making contradictory statements.
Caner has since changed the biographical information on his website and asked friendly organizations to remove damning clips from their websites, but the questions are not going away.
"There are those of us who aren't going to be quiet until we find out why integrity is being compromised," said Debbie Kaufman, a member of a Southern Baptist church in Enid, Okla., who persistently blogged about Caner. "Integrity should never be a question in the church."
Caner, a barrel-chested man with a goatee and a shaved head, has been a celebrity in the world of evangelical Christianity since 2001, when he and his brother began appearing on news shows and other venues to discuss Islam in the aftermath of 9/11.
The prolific author and charismatic speaker became president of the seminary at Liberty in 2005. Since then, enrollment has roughly tripled to around 4,000 students.
Much of his celebrity comes from his exotic background.
He told The Associated Press in 2002 that he was born in Sweden to a Turkish father and Swedish mother, who brought the family to Ohio in 1969, when he was about 3 years old. He said he accepted Christ as a teenager at a Baptist church in Columbus, and then pursued ministry, getting a degree from Criswell College, a Baptist school in Dallas.
It's difficult to verify the depth of Caner's faith as a Muslim when he was a child. His father is dead and information about his mother couldn't be immediately found. His brother Emir, also a Christian convert and scholar, responded in a brief e-mail that he has not decided whether to speak publicly.
While few doubt that Caner was raised as a Muslim, they question changing biographical details in his speeches and whether he was a believer to the extent he told audiences.
In a 2001 sermon at a church in Plano, Texas, he said, "I was born in Sweden, raised in Turkey, came to America in 1978. When I came to America I came through Brooklyn, New York, of all places, which is where I learned English."
Later, he told the audience, "I'm not just a Muslim, I'm not just a Sunni, and I wasn't just involved in the Islamic jihad. I was the son of a muezzin," referring to the person who calls Muslims to prayer.
It's not immediately known if his father was a muezzin at any point or what the basis is for his claims that he trained for jihad. His father, Acar Caner, belonged to the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, according to a death notice, but calls to that group and a mosque linked to it were not returned. A call to his widow, Acar's second wife, was not immediately returned.
In an undated interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network's website, Caner said: "The only thing I ever learned about Christianity I learned from my imam and the scholars in the mosque. Then when I began to be trained in Madras we heard even more about Christians, that they are our enemies."
It's not clear if the transcript should read "madrasas," a type of religious school for Muslims, or "Madras," a city in India. Neither makes sense in the context of a 1970s boyhood in central Ohio.
Initially, Caner dismissed the criticism as typical attacks by Muslims on converts. The first to prominently question Caner was London-based college student Mohammad Khan, who began posting videos of Caner's sermons and criticizing him on points of Islamic theology and Arabic pronunciation.
"We Muslims can spot his lies with ease," Khan wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He is hindering the spread of the Christian faith, not helping it."
Before long, James White, director of Alpha & Omega Ministries in Phoenix, had joined in. White debates Muslim scholars along with atheists and members of other faiths, and was irked at Caner's claims to have debated a number of prominent experts on Islam. White couldn't find any audio or video record of the debates, and felt rebuffed when he sought clarification from Caner. Then he began to dig.
"Ergun Caner goes around pretending to do what I do," said White. "If someone's going around claiming to be an expert on Islam and he really isn't, I have to point that out."
Liberty's inquiry is overdue, said the Rev. Wade Burleson, pastor at Kaufman's church. Burleson said he was pressured to have Kaufman take down her posts, including by a phone call from Caner to Burleson's father.
"Liberty University, until the announcement about the investigation, was acting as if they weren't a Christian university," Burleson said. "They were covering up sin."
Liberty University officials say they won't speak publicly until the probe is complete, expected June 30.
While they wait, some of the bloggers say good could still come out of it. Burleson said Caner can become a stronger advocate for the gospel if he comes clean about his past.
Kaufman and Khan, meanwhile, have forged an improbable friendship across thousands of miles and religious differences, exchanging e-mails daily and asking each other about their respective faiths.
"I'm hoping that Muslims and those that aren't Christians will see there are those of us who believe what the Bible teaches," she said.
Caner, who remains the president of Liberty's seminary, remains publicly silent. On the day the university announced its inquiry, he posted on Twitter: "Unshakable faith at midnight makes the dawn that much sweeter," he wrote. "God is still God in the darkness!"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...SnDaQD9FOENTO0
Now Ergun Caner is being investigated by the Lynchburg, Va., university — founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell — over allegations that he fabricated or embellished his past.
An unlikely coalition of Muslim and Christian bloggers, pastors and apologists has led the charge with video and audio clips they claim show Caner making contradictory statements.
Caner has since changed the biographical information on his website and asked friendly organizations to remove damning clips from their websites, but the questions are not going away.
"There are those of us who aren't going to be quiet until we find out why integrity is being compromised," said Debbie Kaufman, a member of a Southern Baptist church in Enid, Okla., who persistently blogged about Caner. "Integrity should never be a question in the church."
Caner, a barrel-chested man with a goatee and a shaved head, has been a celebrity in the world of evangelical Christianity since 2001, when he and his brother began appearing on news shows and other venues to discuss Islam in the aftermath of 9/11.
The prolific author and charismatic speaker became president of the seminary at Liberty in 2005. Since then, enrollment has roughly tripled to around 4,000 students.
Much of his celebrity comes from his exotic background.
He told The Associated Press in 2002 that he was born in Sweden to a Turkish father and Swedish mother, who brought the family to Ohio in 1969, when he was about 3 years old. He said he accepted Christ as a teenager at a Baptist church in Columbus, and then pursued ministry, getting a degree from Criswell College, a Baptist school in Dallas.
It's difficult to verify the depth of Caner's faith as a Muslim when he was a child. His father is dead and information about his mother couldn't be immediately found. His brother Emir, also a Christian convert and scholar, responded in a brief e-mail that he has not decided whether to speak publicly.
While few doubt that Caner was raised as a Muslim, they question changing biographical details in his speeches and whether he was a believer to the extent he told audiences.
In a 2001 sermon at a church in Plano, Texas, he said, "I was born in Sweden, raised in Turkey, came to America in 1978. When I came to America I came through Brooklyn, New York, of all places, which is where I learned English."
Later, he told the audience, "I'm not just a Muslim, I'm not just a Sunni, and I wasn't just involved in the Islamic jihad. I was the son of a muezzin," referring to the person who calls Muslims to prayer.
It's not immediately known if his father was a muezzin at any point or what the basis is for his claims that he trained for jihad. His father, Acar Caner, belonged to the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, according to a death notice, but calls to that group and a mosque linked to it were not returned. A call to his widow, Acar's second wife, was not immediately returned.
In an undated interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network's website, Caner said: "The only thing I ever learned about Christianity I learned from my imam and the scholars in the mosque. Then when I began to be trained in Madras we heard even more about Christians, that they are our enemies."
It's not clear if the transcript should read "madrasas," a type of religious school for Muslims, or "Madras," a city in India. Neither makes sense in the context of a 1970s boyhood in central Ohio.
Initially, Caner dismissed the criticism as typical attacks by Muslims on converts. The first to prominently question Caner was London-based college student Mohammad Khan, who began posting videos of Caner's sermons and criticizing him on points of Islamic theology and Arabic pronunciation.
"We Muslims can spot his lies with ease," Khan wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He is hindering the spread of the Christian faith, not helping it."
Before long, James White, director of Alpha & Omega Ministries in Phoenix, had joined in. White debates Muslim scholars along with atheists and members of other faiths, and was irked at Caner's claims to have debated a number of prominent experts on Islam. White couldn't find any audio or video record of the debates, and felt rebuffed when he sought clarification from Caner. Then he began to dig.
"Ergun Caner goes around pretending to do what I do," said White. "If someone's going around claiming to be an expert on Islam and he really isn't, I have to point that out."
Liberty's inquiry is overdue, said the Rev. Wade Burleson, pastor at Kaufman's church. Burleson said he was pressured to have Kaufman take down her posts, including by a phone call from Caner to Burleson's father.
"Liberty University, until the announcement about the investigation, was acting as if they weren't a Christian university," Burleson said. "They were covering up sin."
Liberty University officials say they won't speak publicly until the probe is complete, expected June 30.
While they wait, some of the bloggers say good could still come out of it. Burleson said Caner can become a stronger advocate for the gospel if he comes clean about his past.
Kaufman and Khan, meanwhile, have forged an improbable friendship across thousands of miles and religious differences, exchanging e-mails daily and asking each other about their respective faiths.
"I'm hoping that Muslims and those that aren't Christians will see there are those of us who believe what the Bible teaches," she said.
Caner, who remains the president of Liberty's seminary, remains publicly silent. On the day the university announced its inquiry, he posted on Twitter: "Unshakable faith at midnight makes the dawn that much sweeter," he wrote. "God is still God in the darkness!"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...SnDaQD9FOENTO0
Friday, May 21, 2010
'Rent-a-riot' Muthalik pays for his fanaticism
By IANS,
Bangalore : Pramod Muthalik, the self-appointed Hindutva protector, has been thriving on controversies - from making inflammatory statements to being involved in attacks. But now he is battling an expose showing him willing to organise violent protests for a few lakhs of rupees.
While he garners huge space in the media by making provocative statements, the 47-year-old Hindu fanatic has little support, either in his home state Karnataka or other parts of the country.
Over the years, Muthalik has traversed from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to his own outfit Sri Rama Sene, via stints in the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena.
But following the expose by Tehelka magazine and Headlines Today TV channel last week, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav and several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have again asserted that Muthalik has no connection with their organisations.
A day after the channel telecast the sting operation 'Rent-a-riot', Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa claimed: "I don't know anything about Muthalik. I read about him in the newspaper."
He said: "Police will take the appropriate decision at the appropriate time. We don't interfere in such matters. Police are there, and they will proceed according to law and will take action."
Muthalik has filed a police complaint against the magazine and the channel reporters and sought a probe into the incident. He has denied organising riots for money, though the sting operation claims he agreed to vandalise an art show for Rs.60 lakh.
Bangalore Police say they will take action after studying the video footage. In the footage telecast, Muthalik is heard as saying: "I can't get directly involved. I have an image in society - that of being a man of principles and a Hindutva supporter. I don't want one incident to spoil that."
He is in for a long haul and legal battle to retain the image he claims to have while trying to portray himself as a victim of the forces opposed to his brand of Hindutva.
The notoriety of 1963-born Muthalik reached its peak when his men attacked young girls at a pub in Karnataka's coastal town of Mangalore, about 350 km from here, in January 2009. Muthalik sought to justify the shocking incident of young women being pulled by hair, thrashed and pushed around by saying women going to pubs was against Hindu culture.
Apparently egged by the publicity the pub attack got him, he threatened to marry off men and women publicly displaying their love on Valentine's Day in February 2009.
He meekly withdrew the threat following nationwide condemnation, a cheeky 'Send Pink Chaddi' (innerwear) campaign on the net and unprecedented support from various organisations, including farmers, in Karnataka for those wanting to celebrate the day.
Born into a Marathi family in Hukkeri in Belgaum, bordering Maharashtra, Muthalik joined the RSS in 1975 at the age of 13.
Nine years later, he became the south India convener of the Bajrang Dal in 2004 and also worked for the BJP in the assembly polls that year. The Bajrang Dal found his hardline views tough to swallow and threw him out just a year later.
With fanfare, Muthalik joined the Shiv Sena in August 2005 only to leave a year later as the party again raised the demand for merger of Marathi-speaking areas of Belgaum with Maharashtra.
Finding himself not wanted in the many pro-Hindu outfits, Muthalik floated the Rashtriya Hindu Sena as a political platform. Sri Rama Sene is an offshoot of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena.
What followed has been there for all to see.
http://twocircles.net/2010may21/rent_riot_muthalik_pays_his_fanaticism.html
Bangalore : Pramod Muthalik, the self-appointed Hindutva protector, has been thriving on controversies - from making inflammatory statements to being involved in attacks. But now he is battling an expose showing him willing to organise violent protests for a few lakhs of rupees.
While he garners huge space in the media by making provocative statements, the 47-year-old Hindu fanatic has little support, either in his home state Karnataka or other parts of the country.
Over the years, Muthalik has traversed from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to his own outfit Sri Rama Sene, via stints in the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena.
But following the expose by Tehelka magazine and Headlines Today TV channel last week, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav and several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have again asserted that Muthalik has no connection with their organisations.
A day after the channel telecast the sting operation 'Rent-a-riot', Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa claimed: "I don't know anything about Muthalik. I read about him in the newspaper."
He said: "Police will take the appropriate decision at the appropriate time. We don't interfere in such matters. Police are there, and they will proceed according to law and will take action."
Muthalik has filed a police complaint against the magazine and the channel reporters and sought a probe into the incident. He has denied organising riots for money, though the sting operation claims he agreed to vandalise an art show for Rs.60 lakh.
Bangalore Police say they will take action after studying the video footage. In the footage telecast, Muthalik is heard as saying: "I can't get directly involved. I have an image in society - that of being a man of principles and a Hindutva supporter. I don't want one incident to spoil that."
He is in for a long haul and legal battle to retain the image he claims to have while trying to portray himself as a victim of the forces opposed to his brand of Hindutva.
The notoriety of 1963-born Muthalik reached its peak when his men attacked young girls at a pub in Karnataka's coastal town of Mangalore, about 350 km from here, in January 2009. Muthalik sought to justify the shocking incident of young women being pulled by hair, thrashed and pushed around by saying women going to pubs was against Hindu culture.
Apparently egged by the publicity the pub attack got him, he threatened to marry off men and women publicly displaying their love on Valentine's Day in February 2009.
He meekly withdrew the threat following nationwide condemnation, a cheeky 'Send Pink Chaddi' (innerwear) campaign on the net and unprecedented support from various organisations, including farmers, in Karnataka for those wanting to celebrate the day.
Born into a Marathi family in Hukkeri in Belgaum, bordering Maharashtra, Muthalik joined the RSS in 1975 at the age of 13.
Nine years later, he became the south India convener of the Bajrang Dal in 2004 and also worked for the BJP in the assembly polls that year. The Bajrang Dal found his hardline views tough to swallow and threw him out just a year later.
With fanfare, Muthalik joined the Shiv Sena in August 2005 only to leave a year later as the party again raised the demand for merger of Marathi-speaking areas of Belgaum with Maharashtra.
Finding himself not wanted in the many pro-Hindu outfits, Muthalik floated the Rashtriya Hindu Sena as a political platform. Sri Rama Sene is an offshoot of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena.
What followed has been there for all to see.
http://twocircles.net/2010may21/rent_riot_muthalik_pays_his_fanaticism.html
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Separate law needed for Islamic banking in India: RBI
Birth Control in Chars?
Recent reports suggest that the Muslim population living in the chars (riverine areas) of Assam have taken enthusiastically to the idea of family planning. This is not easy to accept for several reasons. In the first place, the men of the char areas, who are largely Bangladeshis, have long been polygamous, and many are known to have as many as 25 to 30 children, as though they were raising large families with a vengeance in order to increase their numbers very fast. In this respect they are quite different from the indigenous Assamese Muslims who are monogamous and have few children. Secondly, they have long been led to believe that family planning is a result of western influences and is “anti-Islamic”. Thirdly, contrary to common belief, the large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam is not solely for economic reasons or a move by asylum-seekers, but is a carefully planned ‘‘migration industry’’ at work. The ultimate objective is an annexation bid on Assam and a few other States of India. This migration industry capitalizes on the greed of unscrupulous Indian political leaders for sustained electoral success without any performance merely on the strength of the illegal votes of foreign nationals, and involves a well-organized network of dalals or middlemen in Bangladesh and India, manpower agencies, recruiters, touts, travel agents and so on. These three factors naturally combine to motivate a preference for large families regardless of the poverty that such an option also inevitably implies. For the migrant from Bangladesh, any level of poverty that is not as stark as what prevails in Bangladesh represents a slightly better life abroad than at home. However, there is no denying that in the 21st century, with a very rapid shrinking of the earth’s resources and the infrastructure that it is possible to create, large families spell extended poverty.
This is a fact of life that has been acknowledged willingly or unwillingly by both Muslims and Roman Catholics — both faiths with a long tradition opposing any kind of family planning measures. The defiance of the Roman Catholic population all over the world of the anti-contraception directives of the church has been in evidence for quite some time now. They have obviously not managed to keep their families small through abstinence or celibacy but rather through the use of contraceptive methods. In advanced Muslim countries like Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the oil-rich Gulf countries, family planning practices have been used for quite some time. Muslim countries with smaller families are clearly more prosperous than those that do not follow family planning methods. So Iran is the latest of the Islamic countries that has gone all out to convince conservative families that they should adopt family planning. In fact, Iran has even enlisted the help of the clergy to tell people that for years they have gone along with myths on birth control arising from wrong interpretations of the Qur’ân and the Hadiths.
According to official data, Muslims living in the char areas have taken enthusiastically to birth control and birth sterilization methods such as no-scalpel vasectomy and tubectomy. The Assam Government has set a target of one lakh women and 26,000 men for sterilization procedures in 2010-11. However, the same government also provides incentives to mothers who have their babies delivered in government hospitals or health centres. They are rewarded with a sum of Rs 1,400. So, whether the talk about men in the char areas adopting birth control methods is just so much pre-election hype or whether this is really happening remains to be seen. However, the men have a strong motivation for adopting birth control methods. The responsibility of feeding and educating huge families falls on the male shoulders, and the burden of the poverty that they are inflicting on themselves by having huge families is probably getting too heavy to bear.
Recent reports suggest that the Muslim population living in the chars (riverine areas) of Assam have taken enthusiastically to the idea of family planning. This is not easy to accept for several reasons. In the first place, the men of the char areas, who are largely Bangladeshis, have long been polygamous, and many are known to have as many as 25 to 30 children, as though they were raising large families with a vengeance in order to increase their numbers very fast. In this respect they are quite different from the indigenous Assamese Muslims who are monogamous and have few children. Secondly, they have long been led to believe that family planning is a result of western influences and is “anti-Islamic”. Thirdly, contrary to common belief, the large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam is not solely for economic reasons or a move by asylum-seekers, but is a carefully planned ‘‘migration industry’’ at work. The ultimate objective is an annexation bid on Assam and a few other States of India. This migration industry capitalizes on the greed of unscrupulous Indian political leaders for sustained electoral success without any performance merely on the strength of the illegal votes of foreign nationals, and involves a well-organized network of dalals or middlemen in Bangladesh and India, manpower agencies, recruiters, touts, travel agents and so on. These three factors naturally combine to motivate a preference for large families regardless of the poverty that such an option also inevitably implies. For the migrant from Bangladesh, any level of poverty that is not as stark as what prevails in Bangladesh represents a slightly better life abroad than at home. However, there is no denying that in the 21st century, with a very rapid shrinking of the earth’s resources and the infrastructure that it is possible to create, large families spell extended poverty.
This is a fact of life that has been acknowledged willingly or unwillingly by both Muslims and Roman Catholics — both faiths with a long tradition opposing any kind of family planning measures. The defiance of the Roman Catholic population all over the world of the anti-contraception directives of the church has been in evidence for quite some time now. They have obviously not managed to keep their families small through abstinence or celibacy but rather through the use of contraceptive methods. In advanced Muslim countries like Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the oil-rich Gulf countries, family planning practices have been used for quite some time. Muslim countries with smaller families are clearly more prosperous than those that do not follow family planning methods. So Iran is the latest of the Islamic countries that has gone all out to convince conservative families that they should adopt family planning. In fact, Iran has even enlisted the help of the clergy to tell people that for years they have gone along with myths on birth control arising from wrong interpretations of the Qur’ân and the Hadiths.
According to official data, Muslims living in the char areas have taken enthusiastically to birth control and birth sterilization methods such as no-scalpel vasectomy and tubectomy. The Assam Government has set a target of one lakh women and 26,000 men for sterilization procedures in 2010-11. However, the same government also provides incentives to mothers who have their babies delivered in government hospitals or health centres. They are rewarded with a sum of Rs 1,400. So, whether the talk about men in the char areas adopting birth control methods is just so much pre-election hype or whether this is really happening remains to be seen. However, the men have a strong motivation for adopting birth control methods. The responsibility of feeding and educating huge families falls on the male shoulders, and the burden of the poverty that they are inflicting on themselves by having huge families is probably getting too heavy to bear.
Muslims most backward in education: NSSO survey
By TCN News,
New Delhi: After Sachar Committee, now National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a central government body, has confirmed that India’s largest religious minority is the most backward community on the educational front. Muslims’ ratio in higher education is lower than even Scheduled Tribes (STs), considered most backward.
Attached to the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, NSSO, in its report titled “Education in India, 2007-08: Participation and Expenditure”, says that of 100 Muslims in the education system, just 10 are enrolled in high school and above. Similar ratio for STs is 11, Scheduled Castes (SCs) 12 and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) 14.
“This is not revealing. It is an open secret that Muslims are the most backward community educationally in the country,” says Arshad Ajmal of Lok Parishad NGO active in education and political issues.
The report also says that high education among urban Muslims is lower than their counterparts in rural areas. This despite the fact that urban areas have better educational facilities. According to the NSSO report published on May 19, just seven out of 100 urban Muslims in the education system were enrolled in high school or above as compared to 12 in rural areas.
“This is because poor Muslims in urban areas do not have easy access to education as they have in rural areas. The landless poor – laborers, rickshaw pullers etc – are hardly able to make their both ends, leave alone education of their children,” Ajmal adds.
He also offers solution. “Reservation for Muslims in education is must. Ranganath Mishra Commission report should be implemented.”
Christians lead all communities – religious and social – in pursing education, followed by Sikhs and OBCs.
It is most likely this fresh report highlighting the plight of the Muslim community will give fresh blood to the demand of reservation for the community in education and job.
The report is based on the household survey on participation and expenditure in education conducted in its 64th round. The field work of the nationwide survey was carried out during July 2007 to June 2008. The survey covered a random sample of 445960 persons, from 63318 rural households and 37263 urban households spread over 7953 villages and 4682 urban blocks, covering the entire geographical area of the country.
Link:
Education in India, 2007-08: Participation and Expenditure: full report.
http://twocircles.net/2010may20/muslims_most_backward_education_nsso_survey.html
New Delhi: After Sachar Committee, now National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a central government body, has confirmed that India’s largest religious minority is the most backward community on the educational front. Muslims’ ratio in higher education is lower than even Scheduled Tribes (STs), considered most backward.
Attached to the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, NSSO, in its report titled “Education in India, 2007-08: Participation and Expenditure”, says that of 100 Muslims in the education system, just 10 are enrolled in high school and above. Similar ratio for STs is 11, Scheduled Castes (SCs) 12 and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) 14.
“This is not revealing. It is an open secret that Muslims are the most backward community educationally in the country,” says Arshad Ajmal of Lok Parishad NGO active in education and political issues.
The report also says that high education among urban Muslims is lower than their counterparts in rural areas. This despite the fact that urban areas have better educational facilities. According to the NSSO report published on May 19, just seven out of 100 urban Muslims in the education system were enrolled in high school or above as compared to 12 in rural areas.
“This is because poor Muslims in urban areas do not have easy access to education as they have in rural areas. The landless poor – laborers, rickshaw pullers etc – are hardly able to make their both ends, leave alone education of their children,” Ajmal adds.
He also offers solution. “Reservation for Muslims in education is must. Ranganath Mishra Commission report should be implemented.”
Christians lead all communities – religious and social – in pursing education, followed by Sikhs and OBCs.
It is most likely this fresh report highlighting the plight of the Muslim community will give fresh blood to the demand of reservation for the community in education and job.
The report is based on the household survey on participation and expenditure in education conducted in its 64th round. The field work of the nationwide survey was carried out during July 2007 to June 2008. The survey covered a random sample of 445960 persons, from 63318 rural households and 37263 urban households spread over 7953 villages and 4682 urban blocks, covering the entire geographical area of the country.
Link:
Education in India, 2007-08: Participation and Expenditure: full report.
http://twocircles.net/2010may20/muslims_most_backward_education_nsso_survey.html
After Facebook, Pakistan blocks YouTube
By IANS,
Islamabad : After banning social networking site Facebook, Pakistan Thursday blocked the YouTube site in what was described as "a bid to contain blasphemous material".
"The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has also blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain blasphemous material," Online news agency reported.
The blockade came hours after PTA directed Internet service providers to indefinitely stop access to Facebook because of an online competition to draw caricatures of Prophet Mohammad.
PTA sources said it was facing severe difficulties in blocking the sites as modern technology is required to do so but that in the next two days, all websites and their links carrying blasphemous caricatures would be blocked.
According to PTA, the blocking of the two sites would cut up to 25 percent of the total Internet traffic in Pakistan.
The authority has set up a crisis cell to monitor website content and said a toll free number, 0800-55055, and an e-mail address, complaint@pta.gov.pk can be accessed to notify it of URLs where objectionable material was being carried.
Islamabad : After banning social networking site Facebook, Pakistan Thursday blocked the YouTube site in what was described as "a bid to contain blasphemous material".
"The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has also blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain blasphemous material," Online news agency reported.
The blockade came hours after PTA directed Internet service providers to indefinitely stop access to Facebook because of an online competition to draw caricatures of Prophet Mohammad.
PTA sources said it was facing severe difficulties in blocking the sites as modern technology is required to do so but that in the next two days, all websites and their links carrying blasphemous caricatures would be blocked.
According to PTA, the blocking of the two sites would cut up to 25 percent of the total Internet traffic in Pakistan.
The authority has set up a crisis cell to monitor website content and said a toll free number, 0800-55055, and an e-mail address, complaint@pta.gov.pk can be accessed to notify it of URLs where objectionable material was being carried.
UAE's first woman ambassador to Vatican
By DPA,
Vatican City : A mother of six who has been appointed as the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first ambassador to the Vatican Thursday presented her credentials to Pope Benedict XVI.
The pontiff welcomed Hissa Abdulla Ahmed Al-Otaiba and recalled how diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the mostly Muslim Gulf state had "only recently been established" in 2007.
Benedict praised the "openness" of the UAE towards foreign workers, some 1 million of whom are Christians, including many Catholics from the Philippines.
"I would like to note here with satisfaction that there are several Catholic churches (in the UAE) built on lands donated by the public authorities," Benedict said.
"Freedom of worship contributes significantly to the common good and brings social harmony to all those societies where it is practiced," the pontiff added.
Al-Otaiba, 51, is also currently the UAE's ambassador to Spain. Besides her native Arabic, she speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, the Vatican said.
Vatican City : A mother of six who has been appointed as the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first ambassador to the Vatican Thursday presented her credentials to Pope Benedict XVI.
The pontiff welcomed Hissa Abdulla Ahmed Al-Otaiba and recalled how diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the mostly Muslim Gulf state had "only recently been established" in 2007.
Benedict praised the "openness" of the UAE towards foreign workers, some 1 million of whom are Christians, including many Catholics from the Philippines.
"I would like to note here with satisfaction that there are several Catholic churches (in the UAE) built on lands donated by the public authorities," Benedict said.
"Freedom of worship contributes significantly to the common good and brings social harmony to all those societies where it is practiced," the pontiff added.
Al-Otaiba, 51, is also currently the UAE's ambassador to Spain. Besides her native Arabic, she speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, the Vatican said.
Life in Meghalaya hit by militant outfit's shutdown
By IANS,
Shillong : Normal life came to a standstill in Meghalaya Thursday following a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to protest the killing of four people in police firing at the disputed Langpih village on the state's border with Assam.
The HNLC militant group, which organises hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi homeland in Meghalaya.
The Khasi-Jaintia dominated areas in the eastern part of Meghalaya were paralysed following the shutdown. Shops, businesses and educational institutions remained closed while there was little movement of public and private transport.
The state secretariat wore a deserted look while attendance in other government offices and courts was thin.
National Highways No.40 and 44, the lifelines for Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Manipur and southern Assam, were also affected by the shutdown.
"There have been no reports of any untoward incident and the situation is normal," Director General of Police (DGP) S.B. Kakati told IANS.
Six leading civil society groups had organised a 12-hour shutdown Tuesday to protest the Langpih incident.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma rushed to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss the "indiscriminate" firing by Assam police May 14 at Langpih, 140 km from Shillong, killing four tribal Khasis and injuring several people.
Sangma said he would urge the prime minister and home minister for a time-bound independent inquiry by an independent agency, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), into the incident.
Langpih has been a bone of contention between the neighbouring states, Assam and Meghalaya.
Assam lays claim to Langpih based on the recommendations of the Y.V. Chandrachud committee report, while Meghalaya has rejected the report.
A committee headed by the chief secretaries of both states has been formed to amicably resolve the issue.
Shillong : Normal life came to a standstill in Meghalaya Thursday following a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to protest the killing of four people in police firing at the disputed Langpih village on the state's border with Assam.
The HNLC militant group, which organises hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi homeland in Meghalaya.
The Khasi-Jaintia dominated areas in the eastern part of Meghalaya were paralysed following the shutdown. Shops, businesses and educational institutions remained closed while there was little movement of public and private transport.
The state secretariat wore a deserted look while attendance in other government offices and courts was thin.
National Highways No.40 and 44, the lifelines for Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Manipur and southern Assam, were also affected by the shutdown.
"There have been no reports of any untoward incident and the situation is normal," Director General of Police (DGP) S.B. Kakati told IANS.
Six leading civil society groups had organised a 12-hour shutdown Tuesday to protest the Langpih incident.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma rushed to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss the "indiscriminate" firing by Assam police May 14 at Langpih, 140 km from Shillong, killing four tribal Khasis and injuring several people.
Sangma said he would urge the prime minister and home minister for a time-bound independent inquiry by an independent agency, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), into the incident.
Langpih has been a bone of contention between the neighbouring states, Assam and Meghalaya.
Assam lays claim to Langpih based on the recommendations of the Y.V. Chandrachud committee report, while Meghalaya has rejected the report.
A committee headed by the chief secretaries of both states has been formed to amicably resolve the issue.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Block Facebook over blasphemous cartoons: Pakistani court
By DPA,
Islamabad : A Pakistani court Wednesday ordered the government to temporarily block the social-networking website Facebook after a controversy over a competition for caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, media reports said.
The high court in the eastern city of Lahore issued the decree on a petition filed by the Islamic Lawyers Movement, seeking a ban of the website.
The petition said the "blasphemous competition", scheduled to be held May 14-20 by one of the website's user groups, would hurt the religious sentiments of 45 million Pakistani Facebook users.
"The honourable court has directed the government to block the Facebook website in Pakistan until May 31," said the petitioners' advocate Chaudhry Zulfiqar.
"Our plea was that if appropriate action was not taken against Facebook, countrywide protests could start in Pakistan," Zulfiqar said.
The court asked the Pakistani government to raise the issue of the competition internationally.
The website facebakers.com claims that there are 2.4 million Facebook users in Pakistan, citing the networking site's own user statistics.
Violent demonstrations erupted in 2006 in Pakistan over the publication of cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers Jyllands-Posten and Politiken.
Last week, Pakistan refused to renew the visa of a Jyllands-Posten correspondent, forcing him to leave the country.
Islamabad : A Pakistani court Wednesday ordered the government to temporarily block the social-networking website Facebook after a controversy over a competition for caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, media reports said.
The high court in the eastern city of Lahore issued the decree on a petition filed by the Islamic Lawyers Movement, seeking a ban of the website.
The petition said the "blasphemous competition", scheduled to be held May 14-20 by one of the website's user groups, would hurt the religious sentiments of 45 million Pakistani Facebook users.
"The honourable court has directed the government to block the Facebook website in Pakistan until May 31," said the petitioners' advocate Chaudhry Zulfiqar.
"Our plea was that if appropriate action was not taken against Facebook, countrywide protests could start in Pakistan," Zulfiqar said.
The court asked the Pakistani government to raise the issue of the competition internationally.
The website facebakers.com claims that there are 2.4 million Facebook users in Pakistan, citing the networking site's own user statistics.
Violent demonstrations erupted in 2006 in Pakistan over the publication of cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers Jyllands-Posten and Politiken.
Last week, Pakistan refused to renew the visa of a Jyllands-Posten correspondent, forcing him to leave the country.
CIMA, Preston College sign MoU for Islamic Finance course
By TCN News,
Chennai: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Preston International College to setup a study support centre that will offer the CIMA Certificate Courses in Islamic Finance and Business Accounting.
The CIMA Certificate in Islamic Finance is the first qualification offered by a professional accounting body to focus on the fast growing sector of Islamic finance. Preston will be the first college in India offering this four module course certified by CIMA.
The CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting is a modular certification course that can be taken up by any student who has passed class XII. It develops a strong foundation in business, management and accounting and is a pre-qualification for the CIMA professional qualification in Management Accounting.
“We are delighted to launch CIMA’s first study center for Islamic Finance in India at Preston College. This certificate is designed to give finance professionals two significant market advantages, the professional recognition of a CIMA’s international qualification and demonstrate expertise in the complex, fast growing world of Islamic finance. We are certain that the highly qualified faculty at Preston will help students understand all the aspects of this sector, thus elevating them to an international qualification like CIMA” said Arati Porwal, Chief Representative, CIMA India.
Speaking on this partnership, Prof. M.H. Jawahirullah, Director Preston International College, said that, “This is the first of its kind partnership to provide world class education in Islamic finance to the Indian student. The launch of the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting also fulfills our vision of bringing international professional education closer to our student community. We are pleased that CIMA has chosen Preston as its study centre in India to provide Islamic Finance and Business Accounting qualifications which will benefit many aspiring students and professionals looking to build career in this space.”
About CIMA
CIMA is the employers’ choice when recruiting financially qualified business leaders. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, founded in 1919, is the world’s leading and largest professional body of Management Accountants, with 171,000 members and students operating at the heart of business in 165 countries. CIMA works closely with employers around the world. It sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure it remains the most relevant international accountancy qualification for business.
About Preston International College
Preston International College has been established by a trust Professional Education and Research Foundation (PERF). PERF is a Registered Trust [Regn.No:1061/2008] established in Chennai with many laudable objectives. The vision of the trust is to promote professional education among all sections of the Student Community and to enter into strategic alliances with World Class Universities / Institutions & Organizations in fulfillment of the above & related objectives.
http://twocircles.net/2010may19/cima_preston_college_sign_mou_islamic_finance_course.html
Chennai: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Preston International College to setup a study support centre that will offer the CIMA Certificate Courses in Islamic Finance and Business Accounting.
The CIMA Certificate in Islamic Finance is the first qualification offered by a professional accounting body to focus on the fast growing sector of Islamic finance. Preston will be the first college in India offering this four module course certified by CIMA.
The CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting is a modular certification course that can be taken up by any student who has passed class XII. It develops a strong foundation in business, management and accounting and is a pre-qualification for the CIMA professional qualification in Management Accounting.
“We are delighted to launch CIMA’s first study center for Islamic Finance in India at Preston College. This certificate is designed to give finance professionals two significant market advantages, the professional recognition of a CIMA’s international qualification and demonstrate expertise in the complex, fast growing world of Islamic finance. We are certain that the highly qualified faculty at Preston will help students understand all the aspects of this sector, thus elevating them to an international qualification like CIMA” said Arati Porwal, Chief Representative, CIMA India.
Speaking on this partnership, Prof. M.H. Jawahirullah, Director Preston International College, said that, “This is the first of its kind partnership to provide world class education in Islamic finance to the Indian student. The launch of the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting also fulfills our vision of bringing international professional education closer to our student community. We are pleased that CIMA has chosen Preston as its study centre in India to provide Islamic Finance and Business Accounting qualifications which will benefit many aspiring students and professionals looking to build career in this space.”
About CIMA
CIMA is the employers’ choice when recruiting financially qualified business leaders. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, founded in 1919, is the world’s leading and largest professional body of Management Accountants, with 171,000 members and students operating at the heart of business in 165 countries. CIMA works closely with employers around the world. It sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure it remains the most relevant international accountancy qualification for business.
About Preston International College
Preston International College has been established by a trust Professional Education and Research Foundation (PERF). PERF is a Registered Trust [Regn.No:1061/2008] established in Chennai with many laudable objectives. The vision of the trust is to promote professional education among all sections of the Student Community and to enter into strategic alliances with World Class Universities / Institutions & Organizations in fulfillment of the above & related objectives.
http://twocircles.net/2010may19/cima_preston_college_sign_mou_islamic_finance_course.html
Khap Panchayats institutionalizing honour killings
By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,
Very much against the expectation Indian metros and their vicinity have much larger presence of myopic, narrow-minded and backward-looking men and women than the rural hinterland. We have large number of honour-killers living around cities like Delhi and Chandigarh.
They seem to be living in Stone Age ordering the lynching and burning alive of anyone who marries against the wish of their Khap Panchayats (Caste Councils). Not only that, they even order physical punishment to the father and gang-rape or naked-parade to the mother of the boy who dare to marry by breaking the caste-barriers.
In the same way there are hell lot of Sainiks living in and around our commercial capital Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur who think it is their birth right to attack, kill and maim any citizen of the country who does not sound ‘Maha-rashtrian’. They can go to terrorize those who have come from all over to make these cities.
Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat have their own quota of Rashtriyawadis who relish in massacring Muslims and parading their women-folk naked on the streets. As if that is not enough they get them videographed as it happened in Surat in the riots which rocked the city after the demolition of Babri Masjid. They are barbarians of great order who can even put to shame the ancient tribes of north Europe.
We have Senas of a different regiment wreaking havoc in the name of Ram in Bangalore and indulging in all sorts of nonsensical acts.
Mind it, if any metro lacks the presence of such human species be sure that it is not developing or is on the verge of declining.
There are deep sociological reasons behind the presence of such forces. Since the places where they are living have progressed because of their geographical advantage––close to capital or coastal belt etc––they have prospered by default. As the prices and rents of land, houses and other properties, are constantly going up many of the original inhabitants have little to bother about their livelihood. In contrast people, who have migrated and settled from other places have to slog, labour hard and assert for their existence. New to the place they do not have so much time and wherewithal to evoke ancient tradition and organize caste councils. It is not that they are totally devoid of old and outdated customs and rituals but there is certainly lack of such organized institutions like Khap Panchayats, which by its very name sounds rather nauseating.
The farming communities of West UP, Haryana and Punjab are the beneficiaries of such development. Geography has been generous to them. The entire belt of Haryana, West UP and Punjab have the advantage of very good fertile land––thanks to a chain of rivers and canals and good irrigation network.
Besides, being close to the national capital, Haryana and West UP in particular got the opportunity to get industrialized, which increased the value of land and property. The farmers of these states get cheap labourers from densely populated states like Bihar, West Bengal and East UP.
Since a sizeable section of such population remains stagnant as everything is available to them, it was natural for them to acquire a kind of complex. While the local people of Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, or even Bangalore, Surat, Ahmeadabad and Baroda etc were benefited by only industrialization those around Delhi and Chandigarh saw both Industrial and Green Revolutions. Much more than the local people, who possess land and property, it is the labourers from outside, who make all this possible. They just get some wage as well as humiliation for their work.
The situation is always ripe for the nefarious and negative tendencies to grow among these neo-rich local population. The advent of electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, TVs, internet brought a sort of modernity. In such a situation the number of cases of inter-caste, intra-village, intra-gotra marriages was bound to rise. But a large chunk of feudal-minded people are not prepared to tolerate such changes. So there is a vast difference in approach towards such marriages in Haryana, West UP belt in comparison to rest of India. While in rest of India such marriages are generally disapproved and even cases of individual violence are reported, in Haryana and West UP they have taken an organized form.
Here the whole society is mobilized to oppose it. Thousands gather in such panchayats to order ‘execution’ of young couples and banishment of their parents. From Om Prakash Chautala to Baba Ramdev all started demanding change in Hindu Marriage Act. These panchayats are not only opposed to intra-clan marriages but also inter-caste and intra-village ones.
But they are mostly targeting the lesser mortals. They do not have courage to pass diktats on––or punish––politicians, bureaucrats, academics, journalists etc who have broken even much difficult barrier––that is of religion––while marrying.
The tragedy is that when the backward journey to the Stone Age was going on in full pace the academic, the media and the corporate world were patting the people and the states for bringing about such fantastic growth rate. They have all praise for Chandigarh for having one of the highest per capita income in the country, but no word to say when reminded that it is the same place where 65 per cent respondents in a recent survey said that they are opposed to intra-gotra marriages.
While bride burning do not make news any more, even though on an average 25,000 such cases take place annually, the honour killings continue to go under-reported till it was too late. It is only in the recent months when such incidents crossed all the limits that the media started giving more space to these 21st century barbarism. In all these years our champion feminists were busy expressing concern over the women in burqa in Afghanistan or Belgium or debating any so-called fatwa.
They have every right to do so, but why are their voices so meek when panchayat, an institution for arbitration and amicable settlement have turned into kangaroo courts pronouncing extra-constitutional rulings?
Very much against the expectation Indian metros and their vicinity have much larger presence of myopic, narrow-minded and backward-looking men and women than the rural hinterland. We have large number of honour-killers living around cities like Delhi and Chandigarh.
They seem to be living in Stone Age ordering the lynching and burning alive of anyone who marries against the wish of their Khap Panchayats (Caste Councils). Not only that, they even order physical punishment to the father and gang-rape or naked-parade to the mother of the boy who dare to marry by breaking the caste-barriers.
In the same way there are hell lot of Sainiks living in and around our commercial capital Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur who think it is their birth right to attack, kill and maim any citizen of the country who does not sound ‘Maha-rashtrian’. They can go to terrorize those who have come from all over to make these cities.
Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat have their own quota of Rashtriyawadis who relish in massacring Muslims and parading their women-folk naked on the streets. As if that is not enough they get them videographed as it happened in Surat in the riots which rocked the city after the demolition of Babri Masjid. They are barbarians of great order who can even put to shame the ancient tribes of north Europe.
We have Senas of a different regiment wreaking havoc in the name of Ram in Bangalore and indulging in all sorts of nonsensical acts.
Mind it, if any metro lacks the presence of such human species be sure that it is not developing or is on the verge of declining.
There are deep sociological reasons behind the presence of such forces. Since the places where they are living have progressed because of their geographical advantage––close to capital or coastal belt etc––they have prospered by default. As the prices and rents of land, houses and other properties, are constantly going up many of the original inhabitants have little to bother about their livelihood. In contrast people, who have migrated and settled from other places have to slog, labour hard and assert for their existence. New to the place they do not have so much time and wherewithal to evoke ancient tradition and organize caste councils. It is not that they are totally devoid of old and outdated customs and rituals but there is certainly lack of such organized institutions like Khap Panchayats, which by its very name sounds rather nauseating.
The farming communities of West UP, Haryana and Punjab are the beneficiaries of such development. Geography has been generous to them. The entire belt of Haryana, West UP and Punjab have the advantage of very good fertile land––thanks to a chain of rivers and canals and good irrigation network.
Besides, being close to the national capital, Haryana and West UP in particular got the opportunity to get industrialized, which increased the value of land and property. The farmers of these states get cheap labourers from densely populated states like Bihar, West Bengal and East UP.
Since a sizeable section of such population remains stagnant as everything is available to them, it was natural for them to acquire a kind of complex. While the local people of Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, or even Bangalore, Surat, Ahmeadabad and Baroda etc were benefited by only industrialization those around Delhi and Chandigarh saw both Industrial and Green Revolutions. Much more than the local people, who possess land and property, it is the labourers from outside, who make all this possible. They just get some wage as well as humiliation for their work.
The situation is always ripe for the nefarious and negative tendencies to grow among these neo-rich local population. The advent of electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, TVs, internet brought a sort of modernity. In such a situation the number of cases of inter-caste, intra-village, intra-gotra marriages was bound to rise. But a large chunk of feudal-minded people are not prepared to tolerate such changes. So there is a vast difference in approach towards such marriages in Haryana, West UP belt in comparison to rest of India. While in rest of India such marriages are generally disapproved and even cases of individual violence are reported, in Haryana and West UP they have taken an organized form.
Here the whole society is mobilized to oppose it. Thousands gather in such panchayats to order ‘execution’ of young couples and banishment of their parents. From Om Prakash Chautala to Baba Ramdev all started demanding change in Hindu Marriage Act. These panchayats are not only opposed to intra-clan marriages but also inter-caste and intra-village ones.
But they are mostly targeting the lesser mortals. They do not have courage to pass diktats on––or punish––politicians, bureaucrats, academics, journalists etc who have broken even much difficult barrier––that is of religion––while marrying.
The tragedy is that when the backward journey to the Stone Age was going on in full pace the academic, the media and the corporate world were patting the people and the states for bringing about such fantastic growth rate. They have all praise for Chandigarh for having one of the highest per capita income in the country, but no word to say when reminded that it is the same place where 65 per cent respondents in a recent survey said that they are opposed to intra-gotra marriages.
While bride burning do not make news any more, even though on an average 25,000 such cases take place annually, the honour killings continue to go under-reported till it was too late. It is only in the recent months when such incidents crossed all the limits that the media started giving more space to these 21st century barbarism. In all these years our champion feminists were busy expressing concern over the women in burqa in Afghanistan or Belgium or debating any so-called fatwa.
They have every right to do so, but why are their voices so meek when panchayat, an institution for arbitration and amicable settlement have turned into kangaroo courts pronouncing extra-constitutional rulings?
Communal riots breaking out in Bihar, elections approaching
By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
New Delhi: The infamous nexus between communal riots and elections in India is not news. In the recent past that the nexus did a naked dance was in Gujarat in 2002 and later. Bihar, also now ruled by BJP though partly, will face assembly elections in coming October, but much earlier have come communal riots. Several districts in Bihar witnessed communal violence this week.
Yesterday, communal riot erupted in Darbhanga (Minority Concentration District) and Begusarai. Day earlier, Sitamadhi, another MCD, had its own quota of communal violence.
Reports reaching Patna yesterday said about one dozen people were injured in stone pelting by members of two communities. The incident took place when a group of majority community was trying to take out a religious procession through minority areas. When they objected, processionists started throwing stones at people, homes and shops of the minority community. The incident took place in a village under Kamtaul Police Station. As the news spread, members of both communities clashed with each other in other areas also.
Yesterday also, communal situation became tense in Begusarai when the news spread that member of a majority community has brought a minority community girl from Delhi to get married. As soon as the news reached village leaders (all from minority community) they went to the house of the boy to enquire. They took both the boy and girl to another place for further questioning but rumor spread that the boy had been killed by the visiting village leaders, and this infuriated the people. However, local MP Manazir Hassan of JD-U and police immediately came into action, and the worsening situation was brought under control.
A day earlier in a Sitamadhi village, several huts of members of a minority community was put on fire by some anti-social elements.
Reasons are different in all these cases. They may be sporadic. But they also may be linked to a game plan – divide and rule.
Supporters of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JDU-BJP government cite check on communal riots in the state during Kumar’s regime as a big achievement. But it seems, it will be a big test for Kumar to continue the check until coming elections. His partner BJP may be thinking otherwise.
New Delhi: The infamous nexus between communal riots and elections in India is not news. In the recent past that the nexus did a naked dance was in Gujarat in 2002 and later. Bihar, also now ruled by BJP though partly, will face assembly elections in coming October, but much earlier have come communal riots. Several districts in Bihar witnessed communal violence this week.
Yesterday, communal riot erupted in Darbhanga (Minority Concentration District) and Begusarai. Day earlier, Sitamadhi, another MCD, had its own quota of communal violence.
Reports reaching Patna yesterday said about one dozen people were injured in stone pelting by members of two communities. The incident took place when a group of majority community was trying to take out a religious procession through minority areas. When they objected, processionists started throwing stones at people, homes and shops of the minority community. The incident took place in a village under Kamtaul Police Station. As the news spread, members of both communities clashed with each other in other areas also.
Yesterday also, communal situation became tense in Begusarai when the news spread that member of a majority community has brought a minority community girl from Delhi to get married. As soon as the news reached village leaders (all from minority community) they went to the house of the boy to enquire. They took both the boy and girl to another place for further questioning but rumor spread that the boy had been killed by the visiting village leaders, and this infuriated the people. However, local MP Manazir Hassan of JD-U and police immediately came into action, and the worsening situation was brought under control.
A day earlier in a Sitamadhi village, several huts of members of a minority community was put on fire by some anti-social elements.
Reasons are different in all these cases. They may be sporadic. But they also may be linked to a game plan – divide and rule.
Supporters of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JDU-BJP government cite check on communal riots in the state during Kumar’s regime as a big achievement. But it seems, it will be a big test for Kumar to continue the check until coming elections. His partner BJP may be thinking otherwise.
West Bengal Madrasa results out, 76% success rate
By Zaidul Haque for TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education published the results of the exam 2010 of High Madrasa, Alim, Fazil and Kamil (Old Syllabus). The results were declared in Kolkata on May 18. WB Madrasa Board President and renowned writer Dr Sohrab Hossain declared the results. More than 500 Madrasas in West Bengal are controlled by WB Madrasa Board.
This year a total of 42200 students had taken part in the Examination. The average success rate this year is 75.90%. Pass percentage in High Madrasa is 76.62%, Alim (69.3%) and Fazil (81.8%).
According to West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education President Dr Sohrab Hossain, Mehbub Alam of Shamsherganj High Madrasa of Murshidabad District has got No. 1 position with 787 marks out of 800. Md Nasiruddin has got 782. He is at 2nd position.
Among the High Madrasa students Md. Abdul Asfak has got 768 out of 800 marks and he could be at No. 3. He got 85.33%.Abdul Asfak is a student of Khalatpur High Madrasa situated at Khalatpur, District Howrah. His subjects were Bengali, English, Maths, Physical Sc Life Sc, History, Geography & IP.
Abdul Asfak is studying in Khalatpur Madrasa under guidance of Al-Ameen Mission, Muslim run renowned educational institution in West Bengal. He was residential students of Al-Ameen Mission. Secretary of Al-Ameen Mission Mr. Nurul Islam is working as a Headmaster of Khalatpur High Madrasa.
This year total students appeared in Madrasa Exam are 42200. Of them 35260 in High Madrasa, 5637 in Alim, 1301 in Fazil and 2 in Kamil.
Kolkata: West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education published the results of the exam 2010 of High Madrasa, Alim, Fazil and Kamil (Old Syllabus). The results were declared in Kolkata on May 18. WB Madrasa Board President and renowned writer Dr Sohrab Hossain declared the results. More than 500 Madrasas in West Bengal are controlled by WB Madrasa Board.
This year a total of 42200 students had taken part in the Examination. The average success rate this year is 75.90%. Pass percentage in High Madrasa is 76.62%, Alim (69.3%) and Fazil (81.8%).
According to West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education President Dr Sohrab Hossain, Mehbub Alam of Shamsherganj High Madrasa of Murshidabad District has got No. 1 position with 787 marks out of 800. Md Nasiruddin has got 782. He is at 2nd position.
Among the High Madrasa students Md. Abdul Asfak has got 768 out of 800 marks and he could be at No. 3. He got 85.33%.Abdul Asfak is a student of Khalatpur High Madrasa situated at Khalatpur, District Howrah. His subjects were Bengali, English, Maths, Physical Sc Life Sc, History, Geography & IP.
Abdul Asfak is studying in Khalatpur Madrasa under guidance of Al-Ameen Mission, Muslim run renowned educational institution in West Bengal. He was residential students of Al-Ameen Mission. Secretary of Al-Ameen Mission Mr. Nurul Islam is working as a Headmaster of Khalatpur High Madrasa.
This year total students appeared in Madrasa Exam are 42200. Of them 35260 in High Madrasa, 5637 in Alim, 1301 in Fazil and 2 in Kamil.
Badshah Khan's hundred-year-old message of peace
By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net
"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed 1,400 years ago by the Prophet all the time when he was in Mecca.” - Badshah Khan
A hundred years ago, a young Pathan of just 20 years of age, established a modern school to bring education to his people. Concerned about poverty, ignorance, and violence around him Abdul Ghaffar Khan started his first school in Utmanzai in Frontier Province in 1910 educating boys and girls. It was a successful venture that led to the establishment of several other schools. Pathans loved it and the British Raj did everything they could to stop it. Quite a contrast to what is happening today in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, home to millions of Pathans. Today in the same region Talibans burn the schools and American Greg Mortenson is busy building schools.
Pathans are proud people, they have been farmers, traders, and artists for generations but due to their geographic location their history is also one of violence. They love their guns now as they have loved their swords hundreds of years ago. Always ready to kill or die for honor, dignity, and promise they have always been fiercely independent. Therefore, it is quite remarkable that in a short time Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was able to raise a disciplined non-violent army consisting of thousands of Pathans who were ready to die for the cause of freedom.
Starting with his school in 1910, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan toured all districts of the Frontier Province to raise awareness about education. His tireless effort won him a place in the hearts of the Pathan and he came to be called Badshah Khan (King of Khans). His education mission soon turned into a social reform movement that included men and women, and under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi his organization Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants for God's creations) turned into a formidable army of non-violent soldiers.
Badshah Khan spent a large part of his life either in prison or in exile and until his last continue to struggle for justice and peace, never giving up the creed of non-violence. A deeply spiritual man, he found his strength for non-violence from Islam. To the non-violent soldiers of his army he gave the “weapon of the Prophet”- patience and righteousness. “No power on earth can stand against it,” he declared.
On April 23, 1930 his soldiers were tested of their patience and courage. More than 200 of them were brutally killed in Peshawar by British forces but one after another the brave soldiers of non-violence took the place of their fallen comrades to face the British bullets courageously. Eighty years after this incident, we need to learn more about Badshah Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars to find out how these men and women were able to rise to the highest level of bravery and die for a higher cause rather than killing anyone.
Badshah Khan starting with a small school in his village was able to transform revenge-seeking tribals to an army whose biggest weapon was love and drew its strength from Islam. Just few lines of Khudai Khidmatgar's anthem is enough to show what they stood for:
“We are the army of God,
By death or wealth unmoved,
We march, our leader and we,
Ready to die.
We serve and we love
Our people and our cause.
Freedom is our goal,
Our lives the price we pay.”
A message needed more today in the age of suicide bombings and terrorism. But unfortunately, Badshah Khan and his message is largely forgotten by Pathans, Muslims, and India. India did recognize his contribution towards her freedom by awarding highest civilian award in India Bharat Ratna in 1987.
With the partition of India at the time of Independence, Badshah Khan had no option but to accept Pakistan. Just a year after independence he was arrested and remained under house arrest since 1954. Prison and exile continued to be his fate in Independent Pakistan till his death on January 20, 1988. As per his wishes, he was buried in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The two warring parties in the thick of Soviet Afghanistan declared temporary ceasefire to allow his burial.
Badshan Khan's message of peace, love, and non-violence is even more relevant and needed today than ever before, and not only to the Pathans but to the whole Muslim Ummah.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Abdul_Ghaffar_Khan
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65494638781
http://twocircles.net/2010may18/badshah_khans_hundred_year_old_message_peace.html
"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed 1,400 years ago by the Prophet all the time when he was in Mecca.” - Badshah Khan
A hundred years ago, a young Pathan of just 20 years of age, established a modern school to bring education to his people. Concerned about poverty, ignorance, and violence around him Abdul Ghaffar Khan started his first school in Utmanzai in Frontier Province in 1910 educating boys and girls. It was a successful venture that led to the establishment of several other schools. Pathans loved it and the British Raj did everything they could to stop it. Quite a contrast to what is happening today in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, home to millions of Pathans. Today in the same region Talibans burn the schools and American Greg Mortenson is busy building schools.
Pathans are proud people, they have been farmers, traders, and artists for generations but due to their geographic location their history is also one of violence. They love their guns now as they have loved their swords hundreds of years ago. Always ready to kill or die for honor, dignity, and promise they have always been fiercely independent. Therefore, it is quite remarkable that in a short time Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was able to raise a disciplined non-violent army consisting of thousands of Pathans who were ready to die for the cause of freedom.
Starting with his school in 1910, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan toured all districts of the Frontier Province to raise awareness about education. His tireless effort won him a place in the hearts of the Pathan and he came to be called Badshah Khan (King of Khans). His education mission soon turned into a social reform movement that included men and women, and under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi his organization Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants for God's creations) turned into a formidable army of non-violent soldiers.
Badshah Khan spent a large part of his life either in prison or in exile and until his last continue to struggle for justice and peace, never giving up the creed of non-violence. A deeply spiritual man, he found his strength for non-violence from Islam. To the non-violent soldiers of his army he gave the “weapon of the Prophet”- patience and righteousness. “No power on earth can stand against it,” he declared.
On April 23, 1930 his soldiers were tested of their patience and courage. More than 200 of them were brutally killed in Peshawar by British forces but one after another the brave soldiers of non-violence took the place of their fallen comrades to face the British bullets courageously. Eighty years after this incident, we need to learn more about Badshah Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars to find out how these men and women were able to rise to the highest level of bravery and die for a higher cause rather than killing anyone.
Badshah Khan starting with a small school in his village was able to transform revenge-seeking tribals to an army whose biggest weapon was love and drew its strength from Islam. Just few lines of Khudai Khidmatgar's anthem is enough to show what they stood for:
“We are the army of God,
By death or wealth unmoved,
We march, our leader and we,
Ready to die.
We serve and we love
Our people and our cause.
Freedom is our goal,
Our lives the price we pay.”
A message needed more today in the age of suicide bombings and terrorism. But unfortunately, Badshah Khan and his message is largely forgotten by Pathans, Muslims, and India. India did recognize his contribution towards her freedom by awarding highest civilian award in India Bharat Ratna in 1987.
With the partition of India at the time of Independence, Badshah Khan had no option but to accept Pakistan. Just a year after independence he was arrested and remained under house arrest since 1954. Prison and exile continued to be his fate in Independent Pakistan till his death on January 20, 1988. As per his wishes, he was buried in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The two warring parties in the thick of Soviet Afghanistan declared temporary ceasefire to allow his burial.
Badshan Khan's message of peace, love, and non-violence is even more relevant and needed today than ever before, and not only to the Pathans but to the whole Muslim Ummah.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Abdul_Ghaffar_Khan
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65494638781
http://twocircles.net/2010may18/badshah_khans_hundred_year_old_message_peace.html
US more in alignment with Islamic values than many Muslim states: Sheikh Aaidh Al-Qarni
By Siraj Wahab
A popular Saudi author and religious scholar has raised some questions about governmental and societal practices across the Arab world and asserts that the United States is more in alignment with many Islamic values than many countries represented as Muslim states.
Sheikh Aaidh ibn Abdullah Al-Qarni, whose self-help book “Don’t Be Sad” sells briskly both in English and Arabic, made the remarks in two recent columns published in the pan-Arab mass-circulation Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
In the columns, Al-Qarni compared a Saudi woman’s experience after being beaten by an abusive husband in the United States with what often happens — or doesn’t happen — in her native land. In the second column, Al-Qarni explored the reasons so many Muslims move to the US and find both greater opportunity and more tolerance than they could expect in their homelands. The thought-provoking articles have prompted many discussions at coffee shops and dinner tables.
“The US deals with its subjects through systems that look like they were based on Islamic teachings while Muslims fail to implement such systems,” Al-Qarni wrote in his column about domestic violence, which focused on a family that moved to the US while the husband was working on a university degree.
Physically and verbally abused, the wife appealed to his family and her family to intervene but to no avail.
“In fact she was rejected, insulted and threatened by them,” Al-Qarni wrote of the family members back home. “Having reached a dead end, the wife decided to put a stop to the physical and psychological pain she and her children were suffering; she contacted the police and told them about her husband.”
He then described the response of several police squads visiting the residence and getting the story from both spouses and the children before deducing the man indeed was beating his wife. The husband was arrested and the wife and children moved to a hotel at the state’s expense and under police protection. Later, the wife was given financial assistance and an American attorney represented her for no charge.
Authorities found her an appropriate job, escorted her children to school and made the husband agree not to come near any of them before the court hearing on the matter, at which time he was convicted of domestic violence. The wife was awarded custody of the children.
“Now, after listening to the story, let us ask how many women are beaten, insulted and hurt without anybody coming to their aid? I am aware of many terrifying stories of the worst kind of abuse and oppression that women experience day and night in our world,” Al-Qarni wrote.
“I fear that after people read this story, many women in the Arab world would want to go to the US. I believe that there should be a secret police force in our countries whose task is to rescue women who are being assaulted and suffering abuse. Any husband carrying out such abuse should share the same fate as the Saudi student in the US mentioned in the story above.”
Al-Qarni wrote it reminded him of a classic figure in Islam.
“Over 14 centuries ago, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, the second caliph, defended an abused woman when he went to her husband’s house with his sword and rescued the woman and taught her husband a lesson, but in accordance with the principles of Shariah,” he wrote. He continued: “I remember that some colleagues and I toured 21 American states, and whenever we saw the accuracy and excellence of the traffic system, and witnessed people’s commitment to environment-protection laws, and the way daily affairs are managed, we thought of the words we read in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Even some of the Muslim professors there once said to us: ‘We swear it is as if the Americans took it from our religion word for word, while we ignore these great texts.’”
In the column about Arabs fleeing their homelands and traveling to the West, Al-Qarni notes that greater opportunities exist there than in many Muslim nations.
“Some of them have fled from repression, whipping, torture, gagging, confiscation of freedom, with the traces of torture still on their backs and chests. Others have gone to look for a source of living after being stricken by poverty, stung by hunger and destroyed by unemployment and idleness. Others have gone to seek knowledge, leaving behind their countries where universities are ranked last in the list of the universities of the world,” he wrote.
Al-Qarni related the story of a Libyan man who fled his own country and found happiness and a good life in the US. “We were amazed. Amazingly enough, here is a man who fled his homeland after being terribly harassed, tortured, and maltreated there and came to a state that we are insulting day and night, and that some of us call the ‘Great Satan,’ a country that our preachers are cursing and wishing it bad,” Al-Qarni wrote. “Then, this poor Muslim man who was driven out of his country, tortured in his homeland, becomes rich, having a home, a farm and a job and enjoying a good life full happiness in an American state.”
Al-Qarni questions why the West is demonized when it provides so many opportunities to Muslims and is far more tolerant of Muslim sensitivities than many Muslim countries are to people of differing faiths.
“Why don’t we Muslims think about our tragedies and disasters, and admit that many of our states have discarded justice, confiscated liberties, taken over rights and erased the freedom of expression? This is at a time when, in the West, they discuss their affairs calmly, solve their crises with dialogue and govern their subjects with justice,” he wrote.
He suggests the Muslim world needs to take a long look at itself.
“In our Shariah, we read about order, justice, good character, calls for peace and human rights, respect for others, avoiding hurting other peoples’ feelings, showing interest in the environment, seeking knowledge, encouraging work and production, and fighting poverty, ignorance, disease, and injustice. We notice that they are observing all this in the West whereas we find that many Muslims are only paying lip service to it in their bitter reality.”
Al-Qarni said there was much to be learned from the countries of the West. “Please, let us stop cursing and insulting them and wishing them bad, and let us preoccupy ourselves with reforming ourselves, improving our level, promoting our universities, cleaning our environment, building our land, and rectifying our mistakes.”
Courtesy: Arab News
A popular Saudi author and religious scholar has raised some questions about governmental and societal practices across the Arab world and asserts that the United States is more in alignment with many Islamic values than many countries represented as Muslim states.
Sheikh Aaidh ibn Abdullah Al-Qarni, whose self-help book “Don’t Be Sad” sells briskly both in English and Arabic, made the remarks in two recent columns published in the pan-Arab mass-circulation Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
In the columns, Al-Qarni compared a Saudi woman’s experience after being beaten by an abusive husband in the United States with what often happens — or doesn’t happen — in her native land. In the second column, Al-Qarni explored the reasons so many Muslims move to the US and find both greater opportunity and more tolerance than they could expect in their homelands. The thought-provoking articles have prompted many discussions at coffee shops and dinner tables.
“The US deals with its subjects through systems that look like they were based on Islamic teachings while Muslims fail to implement such systems,” Al-Qarni wrote in his column about domestic violence, which focused on a family that moved to the US while the husband was working on a university degree.
Physically and verbally abused, the wife appealed to his family and her family to intervene but to no avail.
“In fact she was rejected, insulted and threatened by them,” Al-Qarni wrote of the family members back home. “Having reached a dead end, the wife decided to put a stop to the physical and psychological pain she and her children were suffering; she contacted the police and told them about her husband.”
He then described the response of several police squads visiting the residence and getting the story from both spouses and the children before deducing the man indeed was beating his wife. The husband was arrested and the wife and children moved to a hotel at the state’s expense and under police protection. Later, the wife was given financial assistance and an American attorney represented her for no charge.
Authorities found her an appropriate job, escorted her children to school and made the husband agree not to come near any of them before the court hearing on the matter, at which time he was convicted of domestic violence. The wife was awarded custody of the children.
“Now, after listening to the story, let us ask how many women are beaten, insulted and hurt without anybody coming to their aid? I am aware of many terrifying stories of the worst kind of abuse and oppression that women experience day and night in our world,” Al-Qarni wrote.
“I fear that after people read this story, many women in the Arab world would want to go to the US. I believe that there should be a secret police force in our countries whose task is to rescue women who are being assaulted and suffering abuse. Any husband carrying out such abuse should share the same fate as the Saudi student in the US mentioned in the story above.”
Al-Qarni wrote it reminded him of a classic figure in Islam.
“Over 14 centuries ago, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, the second caliph, defended an abused woman when he went to her husband’s house with his sword and rescued the woman and taught her husband a lesson, but in accordance with the principles of Shariah,” he wrote. He continued: “I remember that some colleagues and I toured 21 American states, and whenever we saw the accuracy and excellence of the traffic system, and witnessed people’s commitment to environment-protection laws, and the way daily affairs are managed, we thought of the words we read in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Even some of the Muslim professors there once said to us: ‘We swear it is as if the Americans took it from our religion word for word, while we ignore these great texts.’”
In the column about Arabs fleeing their homelands and traveling to the West, Al-Qarni notes that greater opportunities exist there than in many Muslim nations.
“Some of them have fled from repression, whipping, torture, gagging, confiscation of freedom, with the traces of torture still on their backs and chests. Others have gone to look for a source of living after being stricken by poverty, stung by hunger and destroyed by unemployment and idleness. Others have gone to seek knowledge, leaving behind their countries where universities are ranked last in the list of the universities of the world,” he wrote.
Al-Qarni related the story of a Libyan man who fled his own country and found happiness and a good life in the US. “We were amazed. Amazingly enough, here is a man who fled his homeland after being terribly harassed, tortured, and maltreated there and came to a state that we are insulting day and night, and that some of us call the ‘Great Satan,’ a country that our preachers are cursing and wishing it bad,” Al-Qarni wrote. “Then, this poor Muslim man who was driven out of his country, tortured in his homeland, becomes rich, having a home, a farm and a job and enjoying a good life full happiness in an American state.”
Al-Qarni questions why the West is demonized when it provides so many opportunities to Muslims and is far more tolerant of Muslim sensitivities than many Muslim countries are to people of differing faiths.
“Why don’t we Muslims think about our tragedies and disasters, and admit that many of our states have discarded justice, confiscated liberties, taken over rights and erased the freedom of expression? This is at a time when, in the West, they discuss their affairs calmly, solve their crises with dialogue and govern their subjects with justice,” he wrote.
He suggests the Muslim world needs to take a long look at itself.
“In our Shariah, we read about order, justice, good character, calls for peace and human rights, respect for others, avoiding hurting other peoples’ feelings, showing interest in the environment, seeking knowledge, encouraging work and production, and fighting poverty, ignorance, disease, and injustice. We notice that they are observing all this in the West whereas we find that many Muslims are only paying lip service to it in their bitter reality.”
Al-Qarni said there was much to be learned from the countries of the West. “Please, let us stop cursing and insulting them and wishing them bad, and let us preoccupy ourselves with reforming ourselves, improving our level, promoting our universities, cleaning our environment, building our land, and rectifying our mistakes.”
Courtesy: Arab News
Ensure fearless CBI probe of Guj fake encounter killings: IMC-USA
By TCN News,
New Delhi: Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA) has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of India S. H. Kapadia to monitor and ensure an intimidation free Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the fake encounter killings of Soharabuddin, his wife Kausarbi and his associate Prajapati at the hands of the Gujarat Police.
Lawsuits against the Gujarat police related to the fake encounter killings have already landed 15 senior police officials behind bars and the Supreme Court ordered CBI inquiry has the potential to indict several prominent politicians and ministers in the Narendra Modi administration. The Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Amit Shah, has reportedly gone into hiding fearing arrest by the CBI.
In order to subvert and discredit this CBI inquiry, a massive advertising campaign has been launched in the Gujarati media by unknown entities to defame the CBI and dub it with various defamatory labels.
In separate letters sent to India's Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, IMC-USA President Rasheed Ahmed said, "The advertising campaign aims to create a political atmosphere where it would not be possible for the CBI to conduct a fair investigation. As such, this constitutes active interference in the judicial investigative process and may result in the subversion of justice."
He added that "A sincere investigation by the CBI into these fake encounter cases has, for the first time, the potential to implicate many powerful politicians within Narendra Modi's administration who have been involved in terrorizing minorities in the state of Gujarat."
Mr. Rasheed Ahmed also called for strong action to be taken against the people behind the anonymous entities running the advertising campaign and dubbed it as a "tactic of subverting justice at the altar of manufactured public opinion". He further added that "Without basic security and rule of law, no level of economic progress either lasts or earns the nation a global leadership status it may otherwise deserve."
Indian Muslim Council-USA is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation. It is also a founding member of the Coalition Against Genocide, which successfully highlighted the complicity of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his administration in the 2002 genocide of Muslims. The campaign eventually led to the revocation of Modi's visas by the US State Department.
Email: info@imc-usa.org
New Delhi: Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA) has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of India S. H. Kapadia to monitor and ensure an intimidation free Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the fake encounter killings of Soharabuddin, his wife Kausarbi and his associate Prajapati at the hands of the Gujarat Police.
Lawsuits against the Gujarat police related to the fake encounter killings have already landed 15 senior police officials behind bars and the Supreme Court ordered CBI inquiry has the potential to indict several prominent politicians and ministers in the Narendra Modi administration. The Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Amit Shah, has reportedly gone into hiding fearing arrest by the CBI.
In order to subvert and discredit this CBI inquiry, a massive advertising campaign has been launched in the Gujarati media by unknown entities to defame the CBI and dub it with various defamatory labels.
In separate letters sent to India's Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, IMC-USA President Rasheed Ahmed said, "The advertising campaign aims to create a political atmosphere where it would not be possible for the CBI to conduct a fair investigation. As such, this constitutes active interference in the judicial investigative process and may result in the subversion of justice."
He added that "A sincere investigation by the CBI into these fake encounter cases has, for the first time, the potential to implicate many powerful politicians within Narendra Modi's administration who have been involved in terrorizing minorities in the state of Gujarat."
Mr. Rasheed Ahmed also called for strong action to be taken against the people behind the anonymous entities running the advertising campaign and dubbed it as a "tactic of subverting justice at the altar of manufactured public opinion". He further added that "Without basic security and rule of law, no level of economic progress either lasts or earns the nation a global leadership status it may otherwise deserve."
Indian Muslim Council-USA is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation. It is also a founding member of the Coalition Against Genocide, which successfully highlighted the complicity of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his administration in the 2002 genocide of Muslims. The campaign eventually led to the revocation of Modi's visas by the US State Department.
Email: info@imc-usa.org
Mecca Masjid blast third anniversary passes off
By IANS,
Hyderabad : The third anniversary of the bomb blast at historic Mecca Masjid here passed off peacefully amid tight security.
No untoward incident was reported from any part of the city, police said. The afternoon and evening prayers at the 17th century mosque passed off peacefully as police made elaborate security arrangements.
A tight vigil was maintained across the old city after unidentified gunmen killed a policeman last Friday. The motorcycle borne suspected terrorists shot dead the police constable at Shahali Banda, about a km from Mecca Masjid.
One policeman was gunned down in a similar fashion by unidentified persons on this day last year. Police suspect involvement of suspected terrorists, who have allegedly vowed revenge for the police firing after the blast three years ago.
Nine people were killed in the blast during Friday prayers at the mosque May 18, 2007. Five more persons were killed in the subsequent police firing on protestors outside the mosque.
Police are yet to achieve a breakthrough in the blast case. Initially the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (Huji) was blamed for the attack and some suspects were also picked up.
Though the investigations were handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the case has not been cracked even after three year. The government said the case has turned 'cold' as the two primary suspects were killed in an alleged shootout in Pakistan.
The case, however, took a new turn early this month with the CBI questioning the members of some Hindu extremist outfits allegedly involved in Ajmer Dargah blast for their role in Mecca Masjid case. Various organisations have demanded fresh probe into the case in view of the revelations.
The Bhaskar Rao Commission formed by the Andhra Pradesh government to probe police firing has also not submitted its report even after three years.
Hyderabad : The third anniversary of the bomb blast at historic Mecca Masjid here passed off peacefully amid tight security.
No untoward incident was reported from any part of the city, police said. The afternoon and evening prayers at the 17th century mosque passed off peacefully as police made elaborate security arrangements.
A tight vigil was maintained across the old city after unidentified gunmen killed a policeman last Friday. The motorcycle borne suspected terrorists shot dead the police constable at Shahali Banda, about a km from Mecca Masjid.
One policeman was gunned down in a similar fashion by unidentified persons on this day last year. Police suspect involvement of suspected terrorists, who have allegedly vowed revenge for the police firing after the blast three years ago.
Nine people were killed in the blast during Friday prayers at the mosque May 18, 2007. Five more persons were killed in the subsequent police firing on protestors outside the mosque.
Police are yet to achieve a breakthrough in the blast case. Initially the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (Huji) was blamed for the attack and some suspects were also picked up.
Though the investigations were handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the case has not been cracked even after three year. The government said the case has turned 'cold' as the two primary suspects were killed in an alleged shootout in Pakistan.
The case, however, took a new turn early this month with the CBI questioning the members of some Hindu extremist outfits allegedly involved in Ajmer Dargah blast for their role in Mecca Masjid case. Various organisations have demanded fresh probe into the case in view of the revelations.
The Bhaskar Rao Commission formed by the Andhra Pradesh government to probe police firing has also not submitted its report even after three years.
Mamata inciting communal tension, CPI-M tells poll panel
By IANS,
Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday filed a complaint with the West Bengal State Election Commission alleging that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was trying to incite communal tension through her speeches in election meetings in the city.
Refering to a meeting at Hazra in South Kolkata, ruling CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said in his complaint that Banerjee had in two recent meetings said that she had seen a secret report that the CPI-M had hatched a conspiracy to spark off communal riots in some localities of the city.
"It is a motivated effort to create an atmosphere of terror. Through these speeches she has broken the model code of conduct for the election. She is fomenting tension, hatred, between various communities. And this is against the Representation of People Act of 1951," he said.
Bose requested the poll panel to take proper action against Banerjee, who is also railway minister, for violating the model code of conduct.
Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday filed a complaint with the West Bengal State Election Commission alleging that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was trying to incite communal tension through her speeches in election meetings in the city.
Refering to a meeting at Hazra in South Kolkata, ruling CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said in his complaint that Banerjee had in two recent meetings said that she had seen a secret report that the CPI-M had hatched a conspiracy to spark off communal riots in some localities of the city.
"It is a motivated effort to create an atmosphere of terror. Through these speeches she has broken the model code of conduct for the election. She is fomenting tension, hatred, between various communities. And this is against the Representation of People Act of 1951," he said.
Bose requested the poll panel to take proper action against Banerjee, who is also railway minister, for violating the model code of conduct.
Bangladesh's Dalits seek better life
By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladesh's 1.5 million Dalits are seeking recognition for the menial work they do and also a better deal for their children.
The Dalits were brought to present-day Bangladesh by the British rulers in 1835 from India's Kanpur and Nagpur cities.
Community leaders say that although they educate their children, they are not given jobs because of their identity as Dalits.
Krishnalal, chairperson of the Bangladesh Harijan Oikya Parishad, said at a conference here Tuesday: "We keep the city clean and for that occupation we are considered untouchables."
"Our children receive formal education, but they do not get jobs because of their identity as Harijans," The Daily Star quoted him as saying.
He received support from social organisations, human rights bodies and NGO speakers who called for creating alternative job opportunities for them.
They called on the Dalits to send their children to schools and prepare them for the future.
The Dalit leaders urged the government to reserve 80 percent of cleaning jobs for the community in city corporations and government offices as well as providing them basic rights enshrined in the constitution.
Dhaka : Bangladesh's 1.5 million Dalits are seeking recognition for the menial work they do and also a better deal for their children.
The Dalits were brought to present-day Bangladesh by the British rulers in 1835 from India's Kanpur and Nagpur cities.
Community leaders say that although they educate their children, they are not given jobs because of their identity as Dalits.
Krishnalal, chairperson of the Bangladesh Harijan Oikya Parishad, said at a conference here Tuesday: "We keep the city clean and for that occupation we are considered untouchables."
"Our children receive formal education, but they do not get jobs because of their identity as Harijans," The Daily Star quoted him as saying.
He received support from social organisations, human rights bodies and NGO speakers who called for creating alternative job opportunities for them.
They called on the Dalits to send their children to schools and prepare them for the future.
The Dalit leaders urged the government to reserve 80 percent of cleaning jobs for the community in city corporations and government offices as well as providing them basic rights enshrined in the constitution.
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