24 pages ` 15 ISSN 0972-3366 FORTNIGHTLY Vol. 15 No.18 Issue Serial # 352 facebook.com/milligazette www.milligazette.

com 16-30 September 2014

Communalism/Love Jihad2,6,7,9
Riots 3,5,7
Terrorism 3,4,5,11
J&K 10 Analysis 11 Special Reports 3,13 Issues 2,11,13
Speaking Out 11 Books 21 Newsmakers 12 International 16-20
Community News 14-15 Islamic Perspectives 20
Our Publications 19 Classifieds 22 Letters 23
Inside
MG
MG/Yusuf
AJIT SAHI
On 11 August, 2014, The Indian
Express published a story head-
lined, Cleared by SC, but they still
fear the midnight police knock.
Let me start directly with an
excerpt from that story for which
the reporter visited six former
accused nearly three months after the Supreme
Court had acquitted them overturning their earlier
convictions by a Gujarat trial court in a terror case.
The six men, all Muslims, had been accused of
being conspirators of a terror attack by two gunmen
at Akshardham Temple at Gujarats capital city,
Gandhinagar, on 24 September 2002 who had killed
33 people. This is what Adam Ajmeri, an accused
who the lower court had sentenced to death and who
spent 11 years in prison before the apex court acquit-
ted him, told The Indian Express:
When I walked out of jail and went to New Delhi
for a press conference, police took my son to the
police station and questioned him about me.
They later called me to the police station and
asked me question after question, Ajmeri said,
sitting outside his shanty at Shahpur.
He said he was questioned about links with
terrorists who had been shot down and how the
Akshardham attack had been planned. They
claimed it is part of the procedure to call the
acquitted to the police station. After the first
round, I was called again. My wife was ques-
tioned a few days back about what I am doing.
There has been no respite, he said.
Qayyum [Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri alias
Mufti Baba], who too served 11 years, had been
charged with writing letters the crime branch
claimed to have found in the pockets of terrorists
killed, but the Supreme Court noted that the bod-
ies had a number of bullet wounds while the let-
ters had no bloodstains, mud or bullet holes
While [Altaf Malek, who was released in
2008 after serving his five-year term] was in
Mumbai recently with Mufti, Ajmeri and Sheikh
for a press conference organised by Jamiat-e-
Ulema-e-Hind, his family was questioned about
his absence, his wife and brother said. The SC
gave us a clean chit and the terrorist label has
been removed, but the Gujarat police have
become more aggressive, said Malek, who used
to work for an advertising agency in Riyadh and
runs a small fabrication business now.
DSP R G Desai, who was Shahpur inspec-
tor when Malek was released, confirmed, Yes,
we called the Akshardharm accused to the police
station. It was done as part of procedure to ask
about case details after their release. We have
been told by the authorities to keep a watch on
such accused.
Before I expand on my main argument, let me
briefly draw the readers attention to one word the
police officer quoted in the last para. The DSP uses
the word accused to refer to the six men, nearly
three months after the SC acquitted them. How are
they still the accused? He also shies from using the
word acquittal and prefers release in its place.
And the last sentence - we have been told by the
authorities to keep a watch on such accused - is
stunningly honest. It means that the Supreme Court
verdict be damned, for the rest of their lives these
men will always remain tainted as the accused for
the police.
It is no small irony that their acquittal by the SC
came on 16 May, the very day - indeed, the very hour
- that then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi won
his Bharatiya Janata Party a landslide win in the Lok
Sabha election and set himself up to become Indias
prime minister. Five days later, this is what The
Indian Express reported on the Akshardham acquit-
tals:
Gujarat Police gave him the choice of
being implicated in the Godhra train burning,
Haren Pandya murder and Akshardham terror,
one of the men acquitted by the Supreme Court
in the temple attack case alleged on Tuesday.
Mohammed Saleem was eventually sen-
tenced to life under POTA for involvement in the
Akshardham case.
On May 16, the day Prime Minister desig-
nate Narendra Modi won his historic mandate,
the Supreme Court set Saleem and five others
free, pulling up the Gujarat Police for framing
innocent people, and blaming the then home
minister - Modi - for non-application of mind.
Four of the six men had already spent over 10
years in jail.
I had been working in Saudi Arabia for 13
years, when they picked me up alleging there
was a problem with my passport. They beat me
brutally - I still have scars on my back, and I suf-
fered a fracture in my foot. They asked me which
case I wanted to be charged under -
Akshardham, Haren Pandya or Godhra. I did not
know what to say, Saleem told a press confer-
ence addressed by five of the six men in Delhi.
Saleems daughter was born four months
after his arrest. He picked her up in his arms for
the first time only after his release - the child is 10
years old now.
The world of Abdul
Qaiyum Muftisaab
Mohammed Bhai alias
Mufti Abdul Qaiyum has
changed completely in
the 11 years that he
spent in jail. His father is
dead, and his family no
longer lives in their old
home. His acquittal by
the Supreme Court,
Qaiyum said, was mere
release from prison; jus-
tice had been buried at
every moment in these
11 years.
Qaiyum said the
main charge against him
was that two letters
recovered from the two fidayeen killed in the ter-
ror attack had been written by him. He was
framed, Qaiyum alleged.
For three days and nights, they made me
copy a letter that they had given me. They (the
police) would bring an expert each day to check
whether I had copied it well. They would ask me
to copy the turns and twists of the Urdu letters so
that they looked exactly the same as in the letter.
I was very afraid, and did what they told me to
do, he said. Then they claimed in court that I
had written the letters.
For most readers, and perhaps even for the
reporter, the story is a shocking tale of injustice and
misery the fabricated case has caused the accused
and their families for all the years before being
acquitted. But the real question that needs to be
asked here is: if these accused did not commit that
crime, then who did?
Indeed, in case after terror case in India in which
Muslims have been accused of committing the
gravest crimes they have been overwhelmingly
found to be innocent either by the trial courts or by
higher courts. One of a very important such cases is
that of the murder of former Gujarat home minister
Haren Pandya in 2003, the only RSS-BJP stalwart
politician in the state who was a real challenger to
Modi and was therefore a thorn in the eye of the lat-
ter. It is a matter of record that the dead mans father
openly accused Modi of having a hand in his sons
killing.
Indias Intelligence Agencies Should
Be Investigated For Terror Attacks
...the real question that needs to be asked here is: if these accused did
not commit that crime, then who did? Indeed, in case after terror case
in India in which Muslims have been accused of committing the gravest
crimes they have been overwhelmingly found to be innocent either by
the trial courts or by higher courts. One of a very important such cases
is that of the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya in
2003, the only RSS-BJP stalwart politician in the state who was a real
challenger to Modi and was therefore a thorn in the eye of the latter...
The state police, however, had already arrested a bunch of Muslims and
accused them of killing Pandya. It took eight years for the Gujarat High
Court to overturn the trial courts guilty verdict.
SHUTTER DOWN
COUNT DOWN
Only 1 more MG issue after
this one if our readers and
well-wishers fail us.
Please turn to the last page
Continued on page 21
THE
MILLI
GAZETTE
INDIAN MUSLIMS LEADING ENGLISH NEWSPAPER SINCE 2000
KASHMIR DROWNS, GOVERNMENT SLOW TO RESPOND...10
2 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 ISSUES / OPINION
DISTRIBUTORS: (Alphabetical - statewise and then citywise ) Become an MG distributor Call/SMS: 09818120669 / 09868656614
A.P.: Cuddapah 9866927380 Adilabad 9849173988 Hyderabad 9291523184 Nellore 9885827745; ASSAM: Guwahati 9435541136; Silchar
9435207683; BIHAR: Al-Kitab (Araria) 09934788628; A. Wadood Alam (Bhagalpur) 9939071026; Patna Faiza News Agency 9835421193;
DELHI Batla House - Choudhary Book Store GOA: Margao 0832-2734442; GUJARAT: Farooq A. Gaffar Bawani, Rajkot 9879188179
MAHARASHTRA: Aurangabad: Chaus Book Store: 8149757883; Maktaba Islami 9370229494; Dhule Maktaba Islami 241941, 9221392722;
Latur: Syed Zuber 8087555298, 9421576078 Malegaon: Faran Books Md. Ali Rd, City Book Depot 08087140473; Nagpur: Muniba Book Agency
9373797681 Saleha Book Traders 2721069 Noor Book Depot 9403083751 Nanded: Venkateshwara 9689078710 ; JHARKHAND: Hazaribagh
9955175039 Dhanbad 9507552862; JAMMU & KASHMIR: Srinagar: Janta 2474755, Sikandar 9797797124; KARNATAKA:
Bangalore: Mahboob Book Depot 080-22867138 Bijapur Al-Khair Shop 8123267014, Yousuf 9686218238; Dandeli 9900834792; Dharwad
9342211155, Hubli Islamic Book Centre, Dharwad 09242527896, 2260273 Gulbarga 9731230430; Mangalore: Moulana Book Stall 9901639856
Tumkur F. Ahamed 9342624304 KERALA: Calicut Other Books 2306808; PUNJAB: Mohd. Naseer, Maler Kotla 9988236310;
TAMIL NADU: Chennai Quality Book Centre 28527118; Vaniyambadi: Iqra 9952675123; UTTAR PRADESH: Aligarh: 9412562972;
Educational Book House 2701068; Allahabad: Asad Book Depot 9335153647, A2Z 9838460613; Azamgarh: Al-Bader Book Centre 9839591434;
Kitab Mahal 9936704118; Bhadohi 9307572914 Ballia Jamal Alam Taleemi Markaz 9839714567, 8543917808; Etawa: 09456412482; Gorakhpur:
Maktaba Nasir 9451846364; Jhansi Ittehad Book Depot 9793049545; Kanpur: 9305255273; Lucknow Dr. SR. Khan, 9795515909; Mirzapur.: M
Ali, 9450886580; Moradabad: 9897248111; Rampur 9675798490 Shahjahanpur: 9889989990; Varanasi: Akhalaqi Corner 0542-2500629,
08423749505; WEST BENGAL: Murshidabad AHusain 9733522436, GKibria 9733666366 Kolkata Islamic Bookstore 09331001823
Central News Agency, New Delhi
INDIAN MUSLIMS LEADING ENGLISH NEWSPAPER
THE MILLI GAZETTE
REGISTERED NEWSPAPER
CHIEF EDITOR: ZAFARUL-ISLAM KHAN
EDITORIAL TEAM: HABIBAAZIM,
NAANSARI, NADIM AHMAD, AALIYA KHAN
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar,
New Delhi 110025 India Tel.: 2694 7483, 2695 2825
0-9868656614, 0-9818120669
Email: edit@milligazette.com
Website: milligazette.com; Group: pharosmedia.com
Media database support: Orient Press International
Subscription rates: p. 20
Advertisements rates: p. 22
www.milligazette.com
ROHAN VENKATARAMAKRISHNAN
Taadaad badhaane ke liye chaal chalai, Muslim
banaane ke liye scheme banaayi...Ek-kon ko gali
gaon mein lekar ghumaate hain, parde ko daal
Muslim aurat bethaate hain. (Muslims are making
new schemes to increase their population and to
make people Muslims. They roam with carts in
cities and villages and take away women, who are
put under the veil and made Muslim).
The panic palpable in these lines from a poem
entitled Chand Musalmaanon ki harkaten is
becoming all too familiar for Hindu families in
western Uttar Pradesh these days.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its
affiliates in the region have been intensifying their
campaign against love jihad, a strategy they claim
Muslim men have adopted to convert Hindu
women to Islam after seducing them. Text mes-
sages and Whatsapp forwards that are almost
identical to the lines from the poem have been fly-
ing around as the Sangh Parivar seeks to warn its
flock about this alleged danger.
Theres only one difference: Chand
Musalmaanon was written in 1928.
As a historian, one is struck by the uncanny
resemblance of the issue and its language to sim-
ilar abduction and conversion campaigns
launched by Arya Samaj and other Hindu revival-
ist bodies in the 1920s in north India, to draw
sharper lines between Hindus and Muslims,
writes Charu Gupta, professor of history at Delhi
University. What is significant in the present con-
text is that in this period the Hindu womans body
became a marker to sharpen communal bound-
aries in ways more aggressively than before.
The similarities are so marked, it can be hard
to tell whether you are reading a pamphlet from
the 1920s or a blogpost from 2014. Hindu Striyon
ki loot ke kaaran (Causes behind the plundering of
Hindu women) is the title of one Arya Samaj
explainer from early last century on how to save
Hindu women, but it could easily be one of scores
of Facebook pages that discuss the same phe-
nomenon now.
Hardly a day passes without our noticing a
case or two of kidnapping of Hindu women and
children by not only Muslim badmaashes and
goondas but also by men of standing and means,
who are supposed to be very highly connected,
records an editorial in the Patriot in 1924. The
worst feature of this evil is that the Hindus do not
stir themselves over the daylight robbery of their
national stock.
Nine decades later, sitting in her chamber
behind Meeruts court complex, Chetna Sharma
is saying much the same thing (although she
doesnt quite call women stock). Our Hindu
sisters and daughters are being taken away and
brainwashed, yet nobody is bothered, she said.
Every day you see cases like this, but because
there are Muslims involved,
everything is kept quiet.
Sharma is a lawyer and
vibhag sanyojak (local con-
venor) of the Durga Vahini, the
female wing of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad. She, too, is
aware of the historical back-
ground of love jihad, although
in her telling, the strategy
goes back further than just
the 1920s.
It starts with Jodha
Akbar, Sharma says, refer-
ring to the marriage of a Hindu
Rajput princess to the Muslim
Mughal emperor almost five
centuries ago. Love jihad is
not new. Its not something that
the Hindu community came up
with. The Mughals brought it
here. The Rajput tradition of
jauhar, when hundreds of women would burn
themselves instead of being captured by
Muslims, was begun only to prevent this.
Self-immolation is no longer the preferred
method of preservation, though. Instead, you
have the services of the Hindu Behen Beti Bachao
Sangharsh Samiti (Save Hindu Sisters and
Daughters Committee). The committee brings the
Sangh and various of its affiliates into a joint cam-
paign that aims to spread awareness about the
dangers of love jihad. Its campaigners have been
attempting to explain how each of the last few big
incidents in Western UP - including the
Muzaffarnagar riots and the recent gangrape alle-
gations in Meerut - somehow began with Muslim
men trying to woo women of another community.
In Kharkhauda in Meerut district, committee
member and local Sangh leader Ajay Tyagis
phone number also doubles as a love jihad
helpline, which he claims has received hundreds
of calls from concerned parents over the last few
days. Sangh Parivar leaders also went on a rakhi
drive across Western UP, seeking to get the
threads tied on ten lakh Hindus and assure those
women protection.
We have to teach our women what they are
up to, said Tyagi, a former engineer who gave up
his job to work on community organising.
Otherwise, 20 years from now, their numbers
will be so much more than ours that they wont
even have to ask for votes from anyone else.
This jihad is not only limited to love, he says.
Tyagi insists that the Muslim community is also
carrying out a land jihad: setting up religious struc-
tures on public land overnight and making it difficult
for the government to tear them down later.
While theres little evidence that love jihad is a
real phenomenon, the Sangh Parivar has
undoubtedly seen its potential as a rallying point in
a state that went overwhelmingly to the Bharatiya
Janata Party in the Lok Sabha Elections in May.
Reality doesnt matter here so much as repeti-
tion. With one eye on upcoming by-elections to 12
assembly seats and the hope that the BJP can win
UPs state polls in three years time, its possible
that Hindutva proponents have dipped into their
own history to replicate past success.
Abductions became one of the main deter-
minants of Hindu identity and consciousness, and
can be regarded as one of the key factors polaris-
ing Hindu/Muslim politics in the 1920s, Gupta
writes, in (Im)possible Love and Sexual Pleasure
in Late Colonial North India. Abduction was rep-
resented as a general phenomenon of the period,
and became a recurrent central proposition of
Hindu publicists...In repetition lay strength, and
one of the primary sources of communal power:
its ability perpetually to renew itself through reiter-
ation, and its authority as supposed truth and
common sense. (scroll.in)
The first 100 days
DR MOHAMMAD MANZOOR ALAM
The NDA has crossed the 100-day mark in office and it
is rightly in for evaluation. So, let us see what we (or the
government) has got to show for it. In short, nothing
much. All these 100 days, slogans and big promises
have been dinned into our ears, day in and day out. We
had been told at the beginning of the regime that it
would bring back the huge amounts of black money
stashed away in foreign banks within 100 days.
Not a single dollar or rupee has been brought back from secret bank
accounts in foreign countries. Nor there is any trace of it. The govern-
ment has not announced a second deadline for it.
We had been promised that inflation would vanish with the waving of
a magic wand, but the high price of all essentials remains as back-break-
ing as it was 101 days ago.
There are more ominous rumblings in the form of NDAs attempts at
subversion of noble institutions like the judiciary and educational institu-
tions like UGC, NCERT and universities. The initiative to change the sys-
tem of appointment of judges in higher judiciary can be highly destruc-
tive, if not checkmated in time. The speed of subversion is very fast. In
one fell blow the Planning Commission has been done away with.
The quality of justice has suffered. The institutional subversion
begins right at the top with this parliamentary democratic system now
working virtually as a presidential one. For all practical purposes, it is not
the cabinet or even Parliament that is part of the ruling authority it is
Mr. Modi alone, all the way.
The changes have been so quick that observers are left breathless
with amazement. The only unchanging element in this fast-changing
scenario is communal riots and openly communal, anti-Muslim mobili-
sation in Uttar Pradesh in time for the coming by-elections to 11 assem-
bly seats and one parliamentary seat on 13 September.
We have been constantly told that the NDA is focused on good gov-
ernance as it represents peoples aspirations for a better life. However,
this is not reflected in the blatantly anti-Muslim speeches of the rabble-
rousing mahant, Adityanath of Gorakhpur, who has been made BJPs poll
campaign chief in UP. The person to assist him is Sangeet Som, who
stands accused in Muzaffarnagar riots. This shows where BJP really
stands. All this goes on to show that in the next 1,000 days the Union
government will move closer to the Hindutva agenda than in the first 100
days. Now, just imagine what is in store in the next 1,000 days.
We dont need al-Qaeda
Of late we have been reading reports in a section of the press about al-
Qaedas plans to enter countries of our region where Muslims are perse-
cuted. Three such names have appeared: Myanmar, India and Kashmir.
The last one has been mentioned in a way that shows as if Kashmir is
not part of India. Indian Muslims have traditionally kept themselves aloof
from al-Qaeda and other similar international groups. This fact has been
reiterated by no less a person than former US President George W. Bush.
Even former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asserted it. US intel-
ligence agencies do not count India as a country where al-Qaeda has a
presence. Why is it so? Is it because our police and intelligence agen-
cies are extravigilant? No. It is because, as former Prime Minister IK
Gujral said, Indian Muslims have still their faith left in the countrys dem-
ocratic institutions and the goodwill of a majority of Indians.
This is not to deny that worst pogroms have been perpetrated
against them, a fresh example being Muzaffarnagar. Despite such recur-
ring atrocities, Indian Muslims have persuaded themselves to believe
that if democracy survives the polices communal behaviour and the pol-
itics of hate will someday stop.
A recent article in Londons prestigious Economist weekly lists the
nationality and numbers of foreign fighters of ISIS in Syria, but there are
no Indians in the list. By and large, this is the situation today despite
events like Muzaffarnagars. As far as doctrinal Islam is concerned, there
can be no jehad without the express orders of an Islamic state. Al-Qaeda
and all such organisations are non-state players. They do not have the
authority of any state behind them. Hence they are illegal and illegitimate.
We condemn all such efforts to introduce al-Qaeda into India and
dissociate ourselves from it. Indian Muslims will rise against it as one
man if it steps into our country. Indian Muslims are self-sufficient to fight
their just, legal and constitutional battles with the support of fellow-citi-
zens from other faith communities. Indian Muslims do not need to be
supported from outside. (iosworld.org)
Love jihad, from Jodha Akbar to the Meerut gang-rape
Majority of Muslims are
critical of ISIS, Al-Qaeda
Mushawarat must be lauded for its firm stand on Al-
Qaedas proposed presence on Indian soil involving
Muslims. This is a banned militant outfit that has
besmirched the name and image of Islam by its
extremely un-Islamic activities. The predominantly
Hindu India is under the erroneous impression that all
Indian Muslims are in favour of ISIS, Al-Qaeda-like
dubious Muslim organizations nefarious and san-
guinary designs, aimed at destabilising societies,
nations and world-peace. This majoritarian belief is
mistaken. Not just Mushawarat, but all sane Muslims
anywhere on earth are openly critical of ISIS, Boko
Haram, Al-Qaeda et al. Islam condemns violence and
bloodshed like all other existing faiths.
Rein In Adityanath
Religion and politics is a fatal combination, Winston
Churchill opined decades ago. BJP leader Yogi
Adityanaths volatile statement that Over 10 percent
minority population causes riots is in sync with this
governments (religious) ideology. Hes just voicing
BJPs religious parochialism.
The government has unleashed these loose can-
nons to say whatever they want to. Mind you, a yogi
ought not to have any desire and he must be above all
prejudices and presuppositions. The word Yogi
came from Sanskrit root yogam (unattached and
completely alienated from everything). Is this man,
Yogi Adityanath, unattached and alienated from his
partys core ideology, thats Hinduism? Muslims in
India are at the crossroads of an uncertain future,
thanks to such yogis and a rabidly Hindu government.
SUMIT PAUL
sumitmaclean@hotmail.com
The Sanghs anti-love jihad campaign in Western UP
bears an uncanny resemblance to a crusade the
Arya Samaj launched in the same area in the 1920s.
A Sangh Parivar poster
NATIONAL The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 3 www.milligazette.com
Respond if you care about your community
White Paper on Terrorism
The issue of fake terrorism charges and the unjust arrests and defamation of our community, especially since 2001, is
the biggest challenge facing the community ever since. A grand conspiracy hatched by the powers that be, IB, Police
and media, has sullied and defamed our community. This campaign has affected our lives, peace of mind and has
thwarted our efforts to progress and educate our children to join the national mainstream.
Our efforts so far to present our case, to bring out our innocence and force the national and state governments to
listen to our grievances have mostly failed. All we have received are a few words of solace which have no real meaning
and have not changed the situation on the ground. Our children by their thousands are still languishing in jails on the
basis of fake confessions obtained through torture and blackmail.
As a long-term solution and a serious response to this problem thrust upon us, AIMMM decided last year to bring
out a white paper on the Muslim-related terrorism in the country. The work is going on with all seriousness and many
researchers, scholars and journalists are busy preparing writeups on various aspects of this issue, covering the histo-
ry, genesis, communalism, vested interests in various related fields, analysis of various laws like TADA, POTA and UAPA,
fake encounters, narco tests, torture, acquittals, IB & Police role, media attitude, case studies, statewise surveys, SIMI,
Indian Mujahidin, Hindutva terror, individual tragedies of victims, Azamgarh, Bhatkal, Malegaon, Darbhanga modules,
some basic documents, etc., etc.
The target is to bring out this white paper during the next few months and to release it in a big convention at Delhi
as a combined effort of major Muslim and civil rights organisations, and thereafter present this huge document of over
600 large format pages to politicians, media, human rights organisations, especially outside the country, in order to
enlighten public opinion at home and abroad as well as to build pressure on our blind and deaf government.
The estimated cost of this white paper is Rs 35 lakh divided as follows: Rs 15 lakh cost of preparation and pay-
ments to contributors plus six months salaries to researchers and experts; Rs 15 lakh for designing and printing the
document in a world-class format; while the grand convention at Delhi will cost at least 5 lakh. Effort will be made to
release the White Paper in some state and world capitals also.
You can help this effort in four ways,
1. To buy copies of the White Paper on Terrorism in advance to help defray part of the huge cost of research, printing,
publication and distribution of at least one thousand complimentary copies. The estimated price of the white paper is
Rs 2000 per copy in India. You may place an advance order by paying Rs 1000 only per copy in India including postal
charges). Payments for the copies may be made to The Milli Gazette, D-84 Abul Fazal Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar, New
Delhi 110025. Email: edit@milligazette.com. Individuals and organisations ordering a minimum of 100 copies in
advance will be included as Sponsors of the White Paper.
2. Contribute to the cost of the grand convention to be held in Delhi. This should be payable to the All India Muslim Majlis-
e Mushawarat, D-250, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110025. Tel.: 011-26946780 Fax: 011-26947346.
Email: mushawarat@mushawarat.com.
3. Donate your time: If you are a scholar, researcher, journalist: join our team for a few months working in our Delhi
office or from your own home to complete this project - write to the Editor, MG now at edit@milligazette.com.
4. Contact us if you have vital information/documents about this issue.
Al-Qaeda must keep away from Indian Muslims: Mushawarat
New Delhi: The apex body of Indian Muslim organisations condemned and decried the alleged statement of Al-Qaeda chief
Ayman Al-Zawhiri that his terrorist organisation has decided to establish an Indian branch.
Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, President of the All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, the apex body of Indian Muslim organi-
sations, said here on 3 September that Indian Muslims totally reject the statement of the Al-Qaeda chief and consider it a
disservice to the cause of the Muslims of South Asia who do not require such meddling in their affairs by a foreign terror-
ist outfit. Dr Khan said Indian Muslims are loyal citizens of their country and they will fight Al-Qaeda if it ever tried to cre-
ate a presence here. Indian Muslims, Dr Khan said, are protected by the Constitution and laws of India and do not need the
dubious help of a foreign terrorist outfit which has caused so much destruction and deestablisation in the Middle East.
Dr Khan appealed to the Indian Muslim youth to be careful and chase away any dubious character trying to propagate
Al-Qaeda thoughts which do not belong to the enlightened and moderate mainstream Islam.
Quote, Unquote
Sign of days to come
Although the Uttar Pradesh assembly does not go to the
polls till 2017, the party [BJP] knows Modis develop-
ment mantra may not work a second time around and has
begun a strident campaign accusing Muslims of seducing
and raping Hindu women. This campaign of demonisation
of Muslims has made many non-BJP supporters of the
prime minister nervous, since they know such attempts to
disturb the social fabric and harmony of UP and India will
eventually result in violence. Modis studied refusal to con-
demn MPs and senior leaders of his party who have
indulged in inflammatory rhetoric is a reminder of the past
that the prime minister has tried so hard to make the coun-
try forget. Is it an early sign of the forces that might be
unleashed if Modi comes to the next general election with
only a slender list of economic accomplishments to his
credit?
SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN, aljazeera.com
One-man show
The simmering disquiet at the one-man show is palpable,
but there is little the stalwarts and senior leaders can do
about it. At political dinners, the target of humour is a sen-
ior cabinet minister who has spoken about a fear of travel-
ling in an official chopper. Rajnath Singh, who in the past
has spoken of sadbhavana between the two communities
and is a regular at tea parties with leaders of the Muslim
community in UP, recently commented at an inter- party
meeting that he was finding it increasingly awkward that
despite coming to power in the name of development,
members of the party were giving statements or seen
endorsing communally polarising incidents. The home min-
ister has found himself in an awkward and isolated space,
much like his senior party colleagues, with absolute irrev-
erence shown to his suggestion. Bhagwat and the RSS
could well reap the fruits of the majoritarian experiment, but
the party over which they claimed dominance is slipping
from their hold.
RANA AYYUB outlookindia.com
/ lands which, according to his report or letter, may be used
for building mosques etc in Hindu populated areas. The
ADGP (Intelligence) U. R. Sahoo also asked the Police
Commissioner to take necessary action in this connection.
In his letter to these authorities the ADGP named Dr Iqbal of
Jamat-e Islami, industrialist Habib Garnet, Siraj, Haji Rafat,
Naeem Qureshi, Ghaffar Bhai Tentwala etc who are giving
fat amounts to poor Hindus to induce them to sell their
lands and houses etc. He also said that these people hold
secret meetings to lay down a plan for building mosques
etc and some mosques have already been built while some
are in the process of being built. This letter is said to have
leaked somehow.
When Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) authorities
came to know of this letter, they raised doubts over the authen-
ticity of this claim of the ADGP. According to the website India
Tomorrow, as soon as this letter was made public and PUCL
came to know about it, fearing that this report of ADGP is very
explosive and if right wings extremists come to know about it
they may instigate riots. It therefore set up its own Committee
on emergency basis to find out the facts. Some of the commit-
tee members were Prem Krishn Sharma, PUCLs President;
Joint secretary Sawaee Singh, economist Ashok Khandelwal,
Rashid Husain and others. The Committee found that some
deals were no doubt made but there was nothing unsual in
these deals and they were normal sale-purhase transactions.
When this team first of all questioned Jamat-e Islamis Dr Iqbal,
he expressed surprise. He said that previously he was a mem-
ber of Jamat-e Islami but now he is working for the Association
for the Protection of Human Rights. He said that he doesnt
even know the place where the mosque is being built, as stat-
ed by the ADGP. This teams members also met and talked to
other traders and businessmen whose names were mentioned
by the ADGP in his secret letter / report. All of them not only
expressed their surprise over what the ADGP had stated but
also strongly contradicted it. They also expressed their fear that
secret agencies view them with suspicion. Habib Garnet, the
businessman said that most of his clients are non-Muslims
and one Hindi daily before publishing ADGPs baseless report
did not take the trouble of even asking him about the truth of
the allegations.
It was concluded by members that ADGPS letter was a
bundle of lies and a conspiracy to create misunderstandings,
hatred etc between the two communities and to prepare
grounds for communal riots. It also shows how an atmosphere
of misunderstandings and hatred is being created against
Muslims to instigate communal riots. PUCL and Jamat-e
Islami (whose member Iqbal was named by ADGP) raised
questions as to how the secret report or letter of 15 July sent
by ADGP to Police Commissioner and Collector was leaked
and demanded legal action to be taken against ADGP for this
lapse. They doubted that the report might have been deliber-
ately leaked to enrage people so that communal violence could
erupt. PUCL demanded that this should be investigated to find
out the intention of the ADGP and strong action must be taken
against his evil intentions to defame members of Muslim com-
munity. N. A. ANSARI
On Central govts request, Gujarat
HC allows withdrawal of appeal
Ahmedabad: Gujrat High Court Bench has permitted the central government to
withdraw the appeal earlier filed by the former Congress-led UPA government
against its own (Gujrat HC) single-judge bench of Justice DN Patel that ruled that
Justice UC Bannerji Commission appointed by the UPA government to probe the
Godhra train fire was illegal. It may be clarified that Justice UC Bannerji
Commission was appointed by the then railway minister Lalu Prasad Yavad soon
after UPA government came to power at the centre in 2004, to probe the fire in
Sabarmati Express compartment / coach No. S-6 on 27 February 2002. Justice
UC Bannerji in his investigationis investigaion report had concluded that the fire
was accidental and that it had taken place inside the compartment. This was in
sharp contrast to the stand taken by the Gujrat government whose chief minis-
ter at that time was Narendra Modi who claimed that the fire, in which 59 alleged
karsevaks were burnt to death, was a conspiracy by local Muslims. A statewide
band was observed in protest against the death of karsevaks during which fierce
communal riots had erupted that continued for many days in which thousands
of people, mostly Muslims, were killed and their properties worth billions of
rupees were destroyed. Gujrat government had subsequently appointed
Nanavati-Mehta Commission to probe the train fire and subsequent communal
riots.
A relative of one of the deceased karsevaks, Nilkanth Bhatia had challenged UC
Bannerji Commission in the Gujrat High Court on the ground that Nanavati-Shah
Commission appointed by Gujrat government was already probing Sabarmati
Expresss coach S-6 fire and hence Bannerji Commission to probe the same fire was
illegal. Gujrat High Courts one-judge bench of Justice DN Patel upheld Batias peti-
tion and declared Bannerji Commission illegal. UPA government had challenged the
verdict of this one-judge bench of Justice DN Patel before a larger bench of the same
court i.e. Gujrat High Court quite some time ago where the appeal was pending.
After formation of NDA government at the centre in May (2014) the new gov-
ernment in an official communication dated 25 July to Gujrat High Court request-
ed the withdrawal of the appeal earlier made by the previous UPA government
challenging the verdict of one-judge bench of Justice Patel. This communication
of NDA government (dated 25 July) was taken up by 2-judge bench consisting
of Justices K. S. Jhaveri and A. G. Uraizee and allowed the withdrawal of the
appeal earlier made by UPA government, thereby disposing of this case.
Yadav Committee and Police Commissioner find BJP
responsible for riots in Saharanpur
Lucknow: Like the Shiv Pal Singh Yadav Committee, Meeruts Police
Commissioner Bhupender Singh, who was appointed by UP government to
probe Saharanpurs (Muslim-Sikh) communal riots, has also blamed BJP, in par-
ticular its MP, Raghav Lakhan Pal as well as district administration as being
responsible for the Saharanpur communal riots of July 2014. It may be recalled
that in the Muslim-Sikh communal riots that started on 25 July in Saharanpur
three persons were killed and hundreds of shops, push carts etc were looted,
destroyed or set on fire in addition to more than 40 vehicles etc. In these riots
about 35 persons were injured. At first UP government had constituted a com-
mittee including Shiv Kant Ojha, minister for technical education; Arvind Singh
Gopay, minister for rural development; Aashoo Malik, state minister and Haji
Ikram Qureshi and headed by PWD minister, Shiv Pal Singh Yadav. In its brief
report this committee, which submitted its report to the government on
14 August in which, in addition to holding BJP-MP, Raghav Lakhan Pal and
Mahram Ali Pappu as the main accused persons, also blamed the police and dis-
trict administration, some Congress as well as SP leaders for spreading tension
and abetting communal hatred. The report said that police and civilian officials
at lower levels were lax in controlling the situation and because of their laxity they
failed not only in bringing the situation under control but added to the gravity of
the situation because rioters and unsocial elements were encouraged to provoke
and fanning communal passion.
Police Commissioner Buupender Singh submitted his 92-page report to the
government on 25 August and as stated above, blamed the BJP MP mentioned
above, Lakhan Pal. This report said that in spite of being advised by officials not
to visit riot-hit areas, this MP visited many sensitive localities in different cars and
was also seen inciting the people (Hindus and Sikhs) to violence. This report
also stated that local police and administration totally failed to control the situa-
tion by not taking necessary and strict action because of which conditions dete-
riorated in many areas. The state government had transferred Saharanpurs
Collector (Ms) Sandhya Tiwari. Subsequently the state government also trans-
ferred City Magistrate.
Lakhan Pal, MP however denied all accusations and said that he was being
blamed on political grounds because he did not have a role at all in these riots
and tension. Rather, he said, he prevented many shops from being burnt and dis-
trict administration also appreciated his efforts.
BJP workers however strongly protested against Lakhan Pal and other party
leaders being accused for their role in inciting and spreading riots. They burnt the effi-
gies of Shiv Pal Yadav at many places for holding him (Lakhan Pal) responsible for
the riots. They said that SP government is protecting the main rioters and in order to
protect them it is falsely implicating BJP leaders and workers. Demanding an enquiry
by CBI into these riots they warned that until orders for CBI enquiry into these riots
are issued, their protest and agitation will continue.
In any case both the Shiv Pal Yadav Committee and Police Commissioner
Bhupender Singh suggested in their reports that action should be taken against all
accused persons and innocent persons who are unnecessarily arrested should be
relesed after preliminary questioning.
Police report of Muslims purchasing lands for building
mosques smacks of conspiracy to incite communal riots
New Delhi: With BJP governments at the centre and in some states, the commu-
nal atmosphere appears to be going from bad to worse in the country and now
even government officers appear to be preparing ground for communal riots. An
example of this is the secret letter written by Rajasthans Additional Director
General of Police (Intelligence) to his department (Police Commisioner) and gov-
ernment officials, particularly the Collector which somehow leaked inadvertent-
ly or deliberately, according to which rich Muslims and capitalists are purchas-
ing lands / buildings in poor Hindu areas to build mosques and other religious
institutions. The report or letter says that since the residents are mostly poor
Hindus, high prices are offered by them for inducing Hindus to sell their houses
4 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 NATIONAL www.milligazette.com
Toilets may help curb
Indias rape crisis
Badaun: Until this month, women in the
remote village of Katra Saadatgunj waited
until the cover of nightfall for the simple act
of using the toilet. With no traditional toilets
in this village of some 5,500 people in Uttar
Pradesh state, women were forced to relieve
themselves in the surrounding fields. The
darkness provided a shield from prying
eyes, but it was also a source of alarm for
many women. These fears were realized in
May, when two teenaged girls who had ven-
tured out at night to use the toilet were found
raped and murdered, in a case that made
international headlines. But now, social
activists say the tragedy is also an opportu-
nity to change the lives of millions of women
across India. Now a national non-govern-
mental organization completed the installa-
tion of 108 toilets in the village. For 80-year-
old Siadevi, the new pink and blue toilet
cubicle standing in the middle of her court-
yard is more than a convenience-it repre-
sents a newfound sense of security for the
women of her household.
Before the toilet was installed, Siadevi
says she would wake up in the middle of the
night to accompany each of her four daugh-
ters and a daughter-in-law to relieve them-
selves in what she calls the open skies toi-
let surrounding the village. I am feeling
happy and safer now, Siadevi said in an
interview. The toilets were installed by
Sulabh International, a New Delhi-based
NGO focused on sanitation issues among
Indias poor. The groups founder,
Bindeshwar Pathak, unveiled the toilets on
31 August in a ceremony before local offi-
cials and villagers. In an interview, Pathak
said that the lack of toilets in villages such as
Katra Saadatgunj makes it easier for perpe-
trators to commit rape against women who
wait until nightfall to defecate. This has a
huge impact on womens freedom, he said.
Last Mays brutal killings, he says,
should serve as a wake-up call in a country
where, according to UNICEF, 594 million
people-almost half the population-practises
open defecation.
The investigation into the deaths of the
two girls remains inconclusive. Local police
initially arrested five men suspected of rape
and murder. But they have yet to press
charges against the men, raising the possi-
bility that they may soon be released on bail.
At the girls home at the end of a narrow
dirty lane, the family now has access to a
new toilet provided by Sulabh. But Ramkali,
the girls grandmother, says it can never
make up for their loss. We have got toilets
now, but what use are these to us after my
girls are gone? she says. (ucanews.com)
Over 85k kids in Indian orphanages
The government on 24 July said that accord-
ing to details available to the government,
some 85,069 children are living at present in
1,373 orphanages across the country.
Answering a written question in Rajya
Sabha, Minister of Women and Child
Development Maneka Gandhi informed the
house that details of Children Homes and
Specialised Adoption Agencies run by reli-
gious/casteist/secular organisations are not
maintained by the central government.
Decline in values leads to sexual violence
New Delhi: The decline of moral and spiritu-
al values is largely to blame for the surge in
rape and sexual violence, said the secretary-
general of the Indian bishops conference.
The core values of the society are getting
degenerated. Indiscriminate gratification of
desires, induced by the media, lies at the
root of the increasing number of rapes,
Archbishop Albert DSouza of Agra said,
Young girls and even (religious)
novices have become vulnerable to sexual
predators, he said, as Indian media buzzed
about the latest reports on the rapid increase
in the number of rapes in India.
A study by the New Delhi-based
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative dis-
covered that two rapes have been reported
every hour for the last 13 years, according to
crime data collected by Indias National
Crime Records Bureau. The number of rapes
registered by police had doubled from
16,075 cases in 2001 to 33,707 in 2013,
the bureau reported. Social activists say
many more cases go unreported because of
stigmatization and intimidation by culprits
(thebostonpilot.com).
Hyderabad / Ahmedabad: Hyderabads prominent
religious scholar Maulana Abdul Qawi was
released on bail from Sabarmati Jail on orders of
the Gujrat High Courts Divison Bench, consisting
of Justices Dave and Mahinder Pal on 8 August
on a bond of Rs 50 thousand. High Courts
Division Bench asked him to deposit his Passport
with the High Court and present himself person-
ally once a month in Ahmedabad City Crime
Branch Ofice. It may be stated that a total of 56
persons were arrested in connection with
Gujrats former home minister Harin Pandyas
murder, of whom 10 were freed by POTA Review
Committee and subsequently 22 persons were
honourably released by Special POTA Court,
including the person who had allegedly provided
shelter to Maulana Qawi was charged and arrest-
ed. Petition for Maulana Qawis release on bail
was pending in the High Court which was taken
up for the final hearing by the HCs Bench on 26
August when his lawyers, sponsored by Jamiatul
Ulama, Mahmood Paracha, Supreme Court advo-
cate and his assistant advocates Tahawwur Khan
and Ilyaas Pathan strongly presented his case for
release on bail, saying that he (Maulana Qawi) is
innocent and was wrongly arrested. Advocate
Mahmood Paracha told the court that Maulana
was arrested on the basis of a witness who in his
deposition had falsely named him. The same wit-
ness subsequently said in court that the police
had tortured him to extract his statement regard-
ing criminal charges against Maulana and on the
basis of his false statement police had filed cases
of terrorism, keeping explosive materials and
even for war against the state.
Defence lawyers Mahmood Paracha and oth-
ers presented strong and valid arguments in
favour of Maulanas innocence and the court fully
agreed with their view but in spite of numerous
arguments in favour of Maulanas innocence the
prosecution lawyer Panchal opposed his release
on bail, at which the court expressed its displeas-
ure also. According to defence lawyers police
had arrested Maulana on the basis of arrest war-
rant of 2004, though it (police) had no proof
against him (Maulana). Maulanas bail applica-
tion was refused twice by the Special POTA court
but ultimately the defence lawyers filed his bail
application in High Court which, after hearing the
arguments of defence lawyers, issued his release
order.
Gujrat police had chargesheeted him on the
basis of his alleged complicity in ISIs conspira-
cy case registered in 2003 and described him an
absconder for 11 years because of which
Ahmedabads POTA court had rejected his bail
application and on 2 July 2014 Special POTA
Courts Additional Principal Judge (Ms) Gita Gopi
also had rejected his bail application. After get-
ting no relief from POTA court his lawyers filed
bail application in High Court and described all
accusations of Gujrat police as totally false and
wrong. They produced documentary proofs in
support of his never being an absconder. Gujrat
police referred to a statement of an accused in
this case at which defence lawyers said that the
accused whose statement police was referring
had changed this statement long back. In short,
Gujrat High Courts Division Bench ordered his
release on bail, as detailed above.
After his release on bail, Jamiatul Ulama held
a reception in his honour at Hotel Ritz,
Ahmedabad. Speaking before large audience at
this reception Maulana Abdul Qawi first of all
thanked Allah for his release and said that his life
was like an open book. He said that he travelled
through different parts of the country giving
speeches but the police never contacted or
approached him in any case. He said that he has
always abided by the law, never did or said any
thing illegal and always considered love and loy-
alty to the country as part of his religious duty. He
also thanked the court which released him. He
said that court had issued his release order on
28 August but after completing other formalities
he was finally released from the prison on
31 August. He also said that in jail he was never
subjected to any kind torture etc and was given
full liberty of offering Namaz and writing. He said
that in jail he did not waste his time and wrote
about 350 pages of a book that he would publish.
He also refused to talk any thing about his impli-
cation in this case as, he said, the case is still in
the court. From Ahmedabad he went to his home
in Hyderabad by air where his family members
affectionately received him with tears of joy.
Police opened fire over 4000
occasions during the last 5 years
New Delhi: The Indian Police generally faces
charges of being trigger-happy though police and
government deny this saying that fire is opened in
self-defence. The government data about police
firings tell that during the last five years (2009-
2013), there were 4415 occasions when police
opened fire in which casualties were both civilian
and police. According to Crimes in India - 2013
report prepared by the National Crime Record
Bureau, a constituent of the Union Ministry of
Home Affairs, Police had to resort to firing on 684
occasions during the year 2013 as compared to
548 occasions during 2012, 482 occasions dur-
ing 2011, 1,421 occasions during 2010, and
1,280 occasions during 2009.
It shows a mixed trend during the years from
2009 to 2013 - an increase of 24.8% during 2013
over 2012, 13.7% during 2012 over 2011 and a
decrease of 66.1% during 2011 over 2010, and an
increase of 11.0% during 2010 over 2009.
The report says that during the year 2013,
some 103 civilians and 47 police personnel were
killed in these incidents whereas 213 civilians and
1,158 police personnel were injured.
As the table above shows, over 50% (50.4%) of
police firings during the year 2013 were for riot
control, 27.8% were during extremists and ter-
rorists operations, 18.1% were against others
(not classified) while 3.6% were anti-dacoity
operations. Among states, Jammu & Kashmir
(318) recorded the highest incidence of police fir-
ing followed by Chhattisgarh (109), Uttar Pradesh
(107), Maharashtra (46) and Madhya Pradesh
(17). The report further says that the highest num-
ber of injuries to civilians was repor ted in
Maharashtra (102) followed by Jammu & Kashmir
(49), Delhi (23) and Uttar Pradesh (9). The high-
est number of injuries of police personnel in police
firing (634) was reported from Jammu & Kashmir
followed by Maharashtra (184), West Bengal (75),
and Uttar Pradesh (57). (indiatomorrow.net)
Fake encounters in Manipur: NHRC
orders compensation
New Delhi: The National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) has ordered monetary relief
of Rs. five lakhs each to the relatives of two vic-
tims of fake encounter killings by the 20th Assam
Rifles in Chandel district of Manipur on 1 June
2009.
On 19 June 2009, ACHR had filed a complaint
with the NHRC against extrajudicial executions of
Laishram Kishorjit and Soram Priyokumar by the
20th Assam Rifles led by Major Abishek Bharti at
Maipi Angbrasu track in Chandel district of
Manipur in the night of 1 June, 2009.
Justifying its order for compensation, the
NHRC in its latest proceedings
(http://nhrc.nic.in/display.asp?fno=11/14/2/09-
10-PF) after examining the report of the Sub-
Divisional Police Officer of Moreh stated,
According to it, the troops of 20th Assam Rifles
led by Major Abishek Bharti laid an ambush at
Maipi and Angbrashu track on 1.6.2009 at night
after receiving information about the movement of
some armed valley based UG cadres in that area.
The troops saw two persons moving in a suspi-
cious manner on the said track which leads from
Maipi and Angbrashu. On being challenged by the
troops to stop, the two unidentified suspects
brought down heavy volumes of automatic
weapons fired upon the troops. The troops also
retaliated in self defense. The encounter lasted for
about 35 minutes and both the suspects were
eliminated. After the encounter, a search of the
encounter site and the adjoining area was made
and the following arms and ammunition were
recovered near the slain bodies: 1). 1 (one) G-3
assault rifle with one live round in the chamber. 2).
2 (two) magazines of G-3 assault rifle. 3). 19
(nineteen) rounds of G-3 assault rifle. 4). 1 (one)
lathode with one live bomb in the chamber and,
5). 1 (one) live bomb of lathode. It is further
revealed by the report that the seized arms and
ammunition were sent to FSL Pangei for chemical
examination and the ballistic expert, who exam-
ined the same, opined that the seized arm i.e. 7.62
mm calibre G-3 rifle is not serviceable due to
defective return spring and non-alignment of bolt
extension and housing. It was also opined that the
seized lathode gun is a 40mm calibre grenade
launcher and its firing mechanism was working
properly. It is further mentioned in the report that
frantic efforts were made to establish involvement
of the two deceased in U.G. activities but no spe-
cific information could be gathered in that regard.
The report forwarded by the Ministry of Home
Affairs, Govt. of India completely negates the pos-
sibility of an encounter. It is not the case of any-
one that the lathode i.e. grenade launcher was
used by any of the two deceased persons. As
regards the 7.62 mm calibre G-3 rifle, the ballistic
expert has opined that it was not in serviceable
condition. If the grenade launcher was not used
and the 7.62mm rifle was not serviceable, how the
Assam Rifle personnel can claim that they were
fired at by the deceased persons or that there was
imminent danger to their life. Thus, we (NHRC)
find that the Assam Rifle personnel were not fired
at by any of the two deceased persons. We
(NHRC) also find no evidence to even faintly sug-
gest that the deceased per-
sons were involved in under-
ground activity. It appears
that the two persons were
spotted at a desolate track
and they were shot dead on
the basis of unfounded suspi-
cion. It appears to be a case
of extra judicial killing.
(achrweb.org)
The divisive agenda of RSS is now
Public: Hansal Mehta
Mumbai: Film Director Hansal Mehta in an inter-
view has expressed serious concern over the
overt activities and statements of the RSS and
allied organizations, after the recent central gov-
ernments victory in the general elections of 2014.
He has stated that the Communal and divisive
agenda of the century-old rightist organization
RSS is now open and public.
This interview is the launching video of a
series of audio-visual interviews, available for
viewing on the internet on the joint You Tube video
channel by Communalism Combat and www.hil-
lele.org.
Hansal Mehta, the director of films Dil pe Mat
le Yaar (story of migrants) and Shahid (minority
rights) was forthright in his assessment of the
present scenario while talking about the threat of
hate-driven divisive politics to journalist, educa-
tionist and humanist, Teesta Setalvad, who con-
ducted the first interview of the series.
Mehta has won the National Film Award for
best director for Shahid (2014). A marked shift in
priorities of the government at the centre, was one
reason that Shahid was unceremoniously replaced
from being the inaugural film of the National Film
Festival in May 2014, soon after election results,
due to the crucial issues it raises. A fear of chal-
lenging the ideology of the ruling dispensation
governs this mood of self-censorship, according
to Hansal Mehta while emphasizing that there have
been such threats before, even during moments of
our own authoritarian past.
Even during and after Emergency, it was
impossible or difficult to make serious and honest
films over the period of Emergency or about Indira
Gandhi. While it has been easier [to make critical
films] in neighbouring Pakistan.
Talking about Hindi Cinema-Then and Now,
Mehtas assessment of the 1950s and Bollywood
ran thus, Films in the 50s were more serious and
sensitive towards society, raising several ques-
tions, tackling even the gender question. After the
angry man of the 1970s it was tokenism that
replaced a more thematic understanding of
issues.
Dedicated to creating more films like Shahid,
that turn the mirror of society within, Mehta spoke
honestly about also creating a sex comedy with
the same brutal dedication.
This interview of Hansal Mehta is the first of
the series of interviews by Communalism Combat
and www.hillele.org. The series will further include
interactions with various actors, film makers,
artists, academics, writers-poets, activists, politi-
cians and musicians, which would be launched on
their YouTube Channel Hillele TV
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3G7YYiSQ
65t2AilCtw-anw). (Hillele Bureau)
Gujarat HC gives bail to Maulana Abdul Qawi
Persons Killed Or Injured in Police Firing During 2013
Incidents No. of occasions
of police firing
Civilians Policemen
Killed Injured Killed Injured
Riot control 345 16 185 3 956
Anti-dacoity operations 25 11 2 1 13
Against extremists and
terrorists
190 67 6 38 90
Against Others 124 9 20 5 99
Total 684 103 213 47 1158
NATIONAL The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 5 www.milligazette.com
New Delhi: The man who had sent a threatening e mail in the
name of Indian Mujahideen threatening to highjack an aeroplane
from Karnataka airport has been arrested a few days ago from
Gujrat and has been identified as 19-year old Prabhat Kumar
Thakur but what is surprising is that the news of his arrest and
identity was not reported by any electronic or print media, proba-
bly or rather obviously because he belongs to the majority com-
munity. Had he been a Muslim, the media would certainly have
published or telecast this news prominently, as has been the case
in most such cases. It may be stated that this youth, using the
name of Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e Taiyyaba and their sig-
nature had sent the email to Kampkoda International Airport in
Karnataka and had threatened that he would highjack this passen-
ger plane. After this threatening email the security agencies spent
sleepless and anxious moments.
Immediately after receipt of this email the Airports General
Manager had informed the International Airport police after which
police, after registering the case, had started the investigation
under Information Technology Act and Karnatakas State Cyber
Crime Police had taken over the control of investigation and had
found out, through emails ID user name internal security agency
5s internet protocol. According to Vicky news sources, police
found out that this mail was sent through a mobile device and the
sim used in this mobile was from Gujrat. After this discovery a
team of 3 police officers led by an Assistant Commissioner of
Police reached Gujarat and first of all took a farmer in its custody
in whose name this sim was issued but after questioning, he was
let off but police traced the unique identity code of the mobile
hand set through which the mail was sent and took the 19-year
old Prabhat Kumar Thakur in its custody.
Karnataka police arrested him with the help of Gujrat police on 4
August. It was said about him that after 10th class he became a drop
out. He was a resident of Bheldi village of Banaskantha district. He
told the police that he was fully aware of the sensation and worry cre-
ated by his email and had obtained Kampkoda Internatinoal Airport
General Managers email from Facebook and after obtaining the sim
under a fake name, made email ID and sent the threat.
Even about 15 days after his arrest print and electronic media
paid no attention to his arrest. Had this youth belonged to the
Muslim community a big uproar and bogey would have been cre-
ated in the whole country and police would have taken pride on
achieving a great success. It may be recalled that another email
of similar type was received by Mumbai Police Commisioner
Rakseh Maria in the name of Indian Mujahideen about the mas-
sacre going on in Gaza which was given great publicity but when
some one was quietly arrested in this connection, media had
maintained silence and had not given any worthwhile coverage.
(N. A. Ansari)
Media silent as Prabhat Thakur, who sent
threats in the name of IM, arrested
New Delhi: Recent communal riots in Saharnpur have greatly
affected business there and because of band (hartals), arson and
destruction of properties, citys business suffered losses to the
tune of about 287 crores of rupees. This is the finding by a sur-
vey conducted by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chamber of
Commerce & Industry) it is claimed that because of arson,
destruction of shops and other movable and immovable proper-
ties the city suffered losses worth Rs 287 crores, of which eco-
nomic losses have been worth about Rs 244 crores. According to
ASSOCHAMs secretary general D. S. Rawat, Saharanpur dis-
tricts total domestic products are worth Rs 8900 crores and in 10
days of riots, loss to the districts total domestic products is about
Rs 244 crores which include agriculture, industry and goods and
services. He further said that micro, small and medium industries
suffered losses worth about Rs 25 crores whereas labourers and
workers suffered losses worth about Rs 18 crores in the form of
lost wages. In this way the total losses are worth about rs 287
crores.
According to this survey, about 60 thousand daily-wage workers
who are engaged in the making of furniture, its repair, repair of
machinery used for agriculture and related matters were the worst
sufferers. According to ASSOCHAMs survey report, about 20 per-
cent of the total of about 17000 manufacturing units of the district (of
Saharanpur) were closed during the riots, resulting in losses of about
Rs 25 crores. According to Mr Rawat, after the riots most of the
industrial and trading activities had come to a stop which resulted in
loss not only to business but to the government also. In view of the
fact that riots in UP have become the order of the day and incidents
of riots and crimes getting out of control, confidence of industrialists
and traders is shaken. If news are to be believed, in only the past 3
months more than 600 small and big riots have taken place in the
state. All this demands stern action not only against rioters but also
against police and civilian officials.
Losses in lakhs but compensations in thousands:
A strange attitude of the state government is that industrialists and
businessmen whose losses were in lakhs of rupees were given
compensations in thousands of rupees only. Meeruts
Commissioner Bhupendar Singh, who was appointed by the state
government to investigate into the riots said after completion of
his investigation that he received a total of about 60 complaints of
big losses but paltry compensations were paid. He assured such
people that another survey of their losses would be done. Cases
of big shops and establishments which were looted or damaged
in the riots photos, mobile videos etc of which were seen by offi-
cers and people and were received by police but were not regis-
tered, with the result that these were neither surveyed nor their
names appeared in the list of shops etc damaged during riots.
Muntazir Ahmad, an electronic goods merchant suffered losses
worth about Rs 4 lakh but even after producing all relevant
records and proofs, a compensation of Rs 15000 only was given
to him. Similarly, one Muhammad Akbar suffered losses worth
Rs 6 lakh but received a compensation of Rs 17000 only.
Muhammad Anees of Madrasa Mazahirul Uloom Waqf Market has
transport business. Losses to his tankers and office etc were
worth about 5.5 lakhs but he received a compensation of
Rs 10,000 only. Muhammad Arshad, a motor mechanic suffered
losses worth about Rs 4 lakh but got a compensation of
Rs 10,000 only. Almost all the businessmen, shop keepers,
traders etc have been dealt with in this unfair manner and are
compelled to use either personal savings or to take loans to re-
start their business.
Tension in Pilibhit district over
religious activities at a Peepal
tree in a mazaar
Faridpur: Religious activities by majority community people under
a Peepal tree has led to tension in this village in Pilibheet district
of UP which may result in communal riots any time. Insistence on
their part to continue religious activities like puja etc is creating a
sense of fear and insecurity among Muslims of the village. When
Faridpur Thana police was informed about it, action was taken
against two persons for fear of breach of peace. It is said that farm
(khet) No. 1207 in Sheikhapur village was owned by Shahbaz
Khan and Khalil Khan after the abolition of Zamindari. In this field
there is also an old mazar of Sayeed Shaheed Murad where
Muslims used to offer fateha etc since long. About six years ago
Shahbaz Khan sold his share of the property to a businessman
Raeesuddin Khan who in turn sold it to one Thakur Ram Chandar
Singh shortly thereafter. There is a Peepal tree also in this plot.
About a week ago Ram Chandar Singh put up a saffron flag on the
tree and tried to start worship. At this local Muslims opposed it
and lodged a complaint in the police station but police took no
action against the Thakur. This emboldened him as well as people
of the majority community, leading to communal tension. It is
feared that if the district administration does not take suitable
action in this matter, communal violence can erupt any time in the
village.
In Bareilys Kheda village, a disputed madrasa was demol-
ished on 9 August after which communal riot had erupted. In view
of the growing distrust between the two communities, security
arrangements were tightened and at the same time the demol-
ished mosque was also got repaired. Fourteen persons were
booked for rioting etc and non-bailable warrant was obtained from
the court of Aaonlas Judicial Magistrate for their arrest. On the
other hand, a case has been registered against one Muhammad
Shafi for spreading communal hatred.
Beating of two Muslims leads to tension
Shamli: With the merciless beating of two hawkers belonging to
the minority community communal tension is rife in Mokhmalpur
village of Kandhla (Shamli district) and police is in search of the
culprits. Thirty-year old Moqeem and his friend Gulfam had been
sellilng kachri in this area since long. On that particular day some
boys belonging to the other community ate kachri but when the
hawker asked for money they were beaten by lathis, with the result
that both of them fell uncouscious. When their family members
were informed they got them admitted in Kandhlas health centre
but the news of their being beaten up spread quickly in the town.
Hundreds of people assembled at the health centre and raised
anti-police and anti-government slogans and demanded immedi-
ate arrest of the accused persons. Citys Chairman Haji Wajid
Husain reached the place, made an appeal to the crowd to calm
down and assured them that the accused persons would be
arrested. It may be stated that this is not the first incident of high
handedness of mischievous elements and polices inaction.
Earlier also two members of Tablighi Jamaat were severely beat-
en by such elements and on one occasion a mosque was partly
set on fire. Similarly in another case many youth belonging to
minority community were severely beaten in a running train.
Complaints in all cases were made to police but no action against
the culprits was taken. In this way they are emboldened to indulge
in such activities of high handedness, knowing that police would
not take any action against them.
MG NEWS DESK
Saharanpur riots result in great loss to business
Biased media has hijacked
the system: Adv Pracha
Mumbai: Noted Supreme Court advocate Mahmood Pracha said
here that Maulana Abdul Qawis arrest by the police is an example
of how the Indian Police arrests innocents. He said that despite all
claims, police has failed to date to offer any proof against him.
Adv. Pracha was speaking at a press conference here on
1 September after securing the release on bail of the Islamic
scholar and Jamiat Ulama Hyderabads vice president Maulana
Abdul Qawi.
Adv Pracha said we have full faith in the Indian Constitution
and we believe that if faithfully followed, this powerful constitution
will not fail anyone. This has been proved yet again by the bail
granted to Maulana Abdul Qawi against whom a warrant was
issued in 2004. Although that warrant was long dead, yet he was
arrested soon after the general elections were announced this
year.
Adv Pracha said that the arrest of Maulana Abdul Qawi creates
an impression in the minds of ordinary Muslims, be they students
or scholars or engi-
neers that the police
can arrest them at will.
He said that the arrest
of Maulana Abdul Qawi
proves that police and
investigative agencies
are utterly biased and
this bias is being creat-
ed by the national
media.
Adv. Pracha said
terrorism is an interna-
tional conspiracy by
powers who do not want India to prosper and progress. He said
we must laud our judiciary which even under such a biased
atmosphere dispenses justice. Pracha said police failed to add a
single word in its chargesheet after the Maulanas arrest, yet it
secured his remand for 14 days and investigated the case for 85
days. He said media propaganda has hijacked the whole system
and legal and investigative
organisations are not
immune from this propa-
ganda.
Adv Pracha, saying that
Maulana Abdul Qawi was
implicated in a false and fic-
titious case, announced that
now he will proceed to fight
the Maulanas case to get
him acquitted.
Pracha further said that
he has dealt with the techni-
cal and legal aspects in the
MCOCA cases and he hopes that around 75 accused persons will
benefit from lifting of MCOCA in their cases. Pracha hoped that the
same result will be achieved in the German Bakery case in which
Hemayat Baig has been sentenced to death. Jamiat Ulama
Maharashtra President Maulana Hafiz Nadeem Siddiqui said that
the Jamait is fighting more than 73 terror-related cases.
Prabhat Thakur
RAM PUNIYANI
ram.puniyani@gmail.com
The Modi Sarkar is in power
for over three months now.
While there are lots of hope
from this government by
sections of society, there are
other types of fears which
have started getting actual-
ized and the consequences
of that are being felt with great amount of horror.
After the morphed images of Bal Thackeray and
Shivaji were uploaded on social sites a well-
planned attack on Muslim minorities was
orchestrated in Pune. In this attack the rampag-
ing mobs not only paralyzed the city, they also
attacked mosques and torched at least 200 pub-
lic and private vehicles. The culmination of this
was the public lynching of an IT professional,
Mohsin Shiekh, an IT manager from Sholapur liv-
ing in Pune. He was brutally killed by a mob of
Hindu Rashtra Sena led by Dhanajay Desai. This
is Hate crime of worst order.
While this act shook the minority communi-
ty and civic society groups condemned it, the
Prime Minister of the country chose to keep
mum on the issue for a long time. Maharashtra
Government treated it as a law-and-order prob-
lem, which defies all logic.
The overall observation is that a large sec-
tion of the minority community is feeling terror-
ized ever since the Modi Sarkar has come to
power. In Pune region, minority homes and
prayer halls are being vandalized and a section of
supporters of the ideology of the ruling party is
feeling emboldened to no end. It is in this back-
drop that the murder of the Pune techie, who was
wearing the Muslim identity, came as a warning
signal for those who want to strive for commu-
nal harmony, national integration and the affirma-
tion of the rights of religious minorities to live
with equal honour and dignity. This incident
intensified ripples of fear leading to many from
the minority community shaving off their beards.
In some ways this seems to be repeating
the experiment in communal divide brought in by
communal forces in UP, par ticularly in
Muzzafarnagar where, one recalls, a fracas of
road accident was given the expression of vio-
lation of the honour of our girls, love jihad and
a fake video clip was uploaded by a BJP MLA.
This led to the horrific violence and the conse-
quent polarization of communities along religious
lines and a massive victory of BJP in UP. Amit
Shah has been credited with the victory in UP
and now in the wake of forthcoming Assembly
elections in Maharashtra on one side, the state
BJP unit wants same Amit Shah to come here
and, on the other, forces like Hindu Rashtra Sena
have unleashed anti-minority programmes like
the heinous crime against the Muslim techie in
Pune.
Communal violence and crimes have been
the real polarizing factors in our society. Even in
the last Lok Sabha elections, while apparently it
seems that the agenda of development has given
the victory to Mr. Modi, the fact is that commu-
nal polarization was active in the background.
Thats how Modi brought forward the issue of
article 370, Bangladeshi immigrants and the
pink revolution.
How much role this polarization played in the
general elections is a matter of conjecture. All
said and done, communal polarization has been
a major tool in the hands of communal parties.
In Gujarat we saw the polarization brought
around the Godhra train burning leading to
Gujarat violence in which over 80 percent of
those who got killed were from the minority com-
munity. This violence brought in the polarization
and the Gujarat BJP government which was tot-
tering till then became firmly planted in the seat
of power.
Its true that the issues which lead to com-
munal violence-polarization keep changing over
a period of time, while some of these continue to
haunt in an ongoing fashion.
In colonial India major polarizing issues
related to taking a procession with a music band
in front of a mosque, throwing pork into a
mosque and beef into a temple. In Godhra, it was
an accidental burning of a train coach which was
propagated as a terrorist attack, in Mumbai it
was the victory celebration over Babri demoli-
tion.
While some of these issues are kept in the
forefront, other issues related to alleged temple
destructions in the past, alleged cruelty of
Muslim kings, the jiziya, the myth of spread of
Islam by sword provide the backdrop.
Issues like conservatism of a threatened
community, the Uniform Civil Code, polygamy,
Article 370, false claims about a mushrooming
Muslim population have been firmly planted
through propaganda in the social common
sense.
The attempts of historians and social
activists to prove and propagate that all these are
not correct, that truth lies somewhere else,
remain on the margins of society and are accept-
ed by only few critical people who give a deeper
thought to social issues.
The well-oiled machinery of RSS has
ensured that the myths and distorted version of
history and the lop-sided version of Muslim
community today continue to be part of main-
stream thinking.
What Noam Chomsky said about
Manufacturing Consent was in the context of
state, here lies manufactured by an organization
of religious (Hindu) nationalism are made a core
part of social common sense which in turn
forms the basis of communal violence and polar-
ization of communities along religious lines.
To add up to the existing armory of commu-
nal forces, social media has come in handy as
its reach has gone far and wide. In
Muzzafarnagar, the video clip from Pakistan,
where a mob wearing Muslim identity, is seen
mercilessly beating two thieves, was used.
Communal forces presented it as if the Muslim
mob is beating Hindu boys. Similarly Bajrang Dal
activists in the past were caught while putting
beef in temples in Hyderabad and hoisting
Pakistan flag in Karnataka. With social media
coming in handy now, outfits like Hindu Rashtra
Sena are taking advantage of it and are trying to
create a divisive atmosphere.
One notes painfully that with Modi coming to
power the overall aggression of outfits like Hindu
Rashtra Sena and the attitude of the authorities
has worsened.
In Kerala, a college student and his associ-
ates were booked for putting Modis picture
along with Hitler and Osama bin Laden. In Goa, a
person was interrogated for hours for a
Facebook post which was critical of Modi.
Even before the elections the Book Police
of RSS, in the form of Dinanath Batra, succeed-
ed in forcing Penguin to pulp a scholarly work of
Wendy Doniger on Hinduism. Then Orient
Blackswan on its own decided to withdraw the
book by Megha Kumar, Communalism and
Sexual Violence: Ahmadabad Since 1969, as
well as the history classic, From Plassey to
Par tition: History of India by Sekhar
Bandopadhyay. In all, these violations of the free-
dom of expression and the brutal hate crime by
Hindu Rashtra Sena, the way the Prime Minister
casually referred to this issue speaks volumes
about the shape of things to come.
In the forthcoming Assembly elections, such
acts will definitely be feeding into the electoral
calculations of communal forces. It is mandato-
ry that the Union and state governments have to
rise above their opportunist inactivity to take the
divisive forces head on. This needs to be supple-
mented by the proactive work to promote amity
amongst religious communities. The peace
march taken out in Pune on 15 June by social
groups was a very positive step to bridge the
communal divides. What is also needed is to
weed out misconceptions, myths and biases
about minority communities. What is needed is
to respect the diversity and plural nature of our
country. It is time that the repressive atmosphere
created by the electoral victory of BJP is com-
bated by all social movements and elements
committed to plural, democratic, liberal India.
(pluralindia.com)
Hate Crimes and Communal Polarization
6 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 NATIONAL www.milligazette.com
MAZHER HUSSAIN
Muslims, who constitute about 13.8 percent of
the population of the country and 73 percent of
the minority population (as per the 2001 census)
are recognised as the most backward among all
minorities requiring special attention for their
development.
Other issues that plague the Muslim commu-
nity are communal violence coupled with social
and systemic exclusion. Hence any holistic
approach for a meaningful advancement of
Muslims must necessarily include provisions for
development; mechanisms to ensure security;
and appropriate policy formulations to secure
genuine inclusion.
In the Indian context, the issues of security
and inclusion of Muslims are critical and deter-
mine the development trajectory for the commu-
nity.
Prima facie, the trends emerging from the first
100 days of the Modi Government do not appear
positive for the Muslim community on any of the
essential parameters of security, inclusion or
prospects for development.
Portent for Violence and Polarisation
The first major concern of Muslims since the
swearing in of the BJP government is the possibil-
ity of increased violence against the community.
Though the BJP Election Manifesto for 2014 men-
tions ensuring a peaceful and secure environ-
ment, it is clear that a wide range of fringe groups
espousing violence and professing allegiance to
the Hindutva ideology seem to be striving towards
occupation of the centre-stage.
Incidents of violence started right from the
day of counting of votes on 16th May 2014 when
two mosques were attacked near Mangalore in
Karnataka and continue through attacks on
Muslims in Pune, conflicts in Hyderabad, riots in
Saharanpur and other incidences of tensions and
conflicts in different parts of the country. More
than overt violence, it is the series of virulent
statements being issued by leaders of different
Hindutva groups, including some BJP leaders,
and the launch of a systematic campaign around
Love Jihad and statements like those of BJP MP
Yogi Adityanath -- If they take one Hindu girl, we
will take 100 Muslims girls -- are all vitiating the
atmosphere like never before to instigate polarisa-
tion and this could result in outbreak of violence at
a large scale.
Modi government came to power on the
promise of development and jobs for all. Any vio-
lence will adversely impact the processes of
development. Hence it will be in the interest of the
government to ensure that there is no violence in
the country so that the promise of development
and jobs for all is realised and the government can
seek a successful re-election in 2019. This would
be an ideal scenario and Plan A for the govern-
ment. If the government is indeed confident and
keen about the success of Plan A alone, then it
cannot allow any violence by anyone and would
take immediate and exemplary action.
However, the first 100 days have shown that
the government has not taken any strong action or
sent a clear message to rein in fringe Hindutva
groups which are consistently vitiating the com-
munal atmosphere in the country. This indicates
that preparations for putting in motion Plan B -- of
coming back to power in 2019 through communal
polarisation -- seem to have started in all earnest-
ness and may continue to be operative on the
fringes and would acquire centre-stage if and
when Plan A appears to have failed. Whether Plan
A or Plan B would be a dominant strategy for elec-
tions 2019 could become clear by mid-2018.
In so far as Muslims are concerned, the issue
of security has already come under a cloud during
the very first 100 days and the community could
face constant threats in the coming years.
Political and Systemic Exclusion of Muslims
Given the extent and history of backwardness of
Muslims, any meaningful and accelerated devel-
opment of the community requires the govern-
ment to first put in place appropriate policies like
reservations, special Sub Plans and separate
budget statement for expenditure reporting (like it
is in the case of Dalits, Tribals and Women) that
could eliminate the impediments that cause social
and systemic exclusion of the community and
only thereafter any programmes and schemes for
development could be initiated and implemented
effectively.
This requires appropriate and effective inter-
ventions in the political sphere where most policy
decisions are taken. The previous UPA govern-
ment had started some initiatives for policy trans-
formations in the field of reservations and Sub-
Plan but could not operationalise them. BJP, with
a traditional antagonism for the Muslim communi-
ty and no dependence on the Muslim vote to
come to power (as shown in the 2014 General
Elections), will not be interested in any such
transformational policy initiatives for the Muslim
community. It has amply demonstrated this in the
Union Budget for 2014 even though the repeated
slogan both before and after elections by none
less than the Prime Minister is Sab Ka Saath, Sab
Ka Vikaas (Inclusion of everyone, development
for everyone).
Another problem impeding positive policy for-
mulations for the Muslim community by the BJP-
led government would be very low participation of
Muslims in the ruling BJP at all levels. During
2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party gave tickets
to only seven Muslims out of the 482 candidates
it fielded (just 1.45 per cent) and none of its
Muslim candidates could win, making it the first
time that the ruling party has no Muslim member
in the Lok Sabha and only one Muslim from the
Rajya Sabha is a minister in the entire Union
Government. The fact that BJP did not induct any
more Muslims in the government despite having
one more senior Muslim member in the Rajya
Sabha, even when it gave place to defeated can-
didates or to those who were not members of
either house of Parliament shows that there can
be very little representation for Muslims in the
present government and in the echelons of policy
making.
The approach of the government to the policy
requirements of the Muslim community can be
further gauged from the very first statement of the
lone Muslim minister in the Union Cabinet
(charged with the Ministry of Minority Affairs)
who declared that Muslims are not a minority!
Unpromising Budget
The BJP manifesto for 2014 General Elections
had promised to give adequate focus to the
development of minorities, par ticularly Muslims
but only 0.7 percent of Total Plan Fund of Union
Budget 2014-15 has been earmarked for all
minorities who constitute 19.5% of the popula-
tion. Only one new scheme under Upgradation
of Traditional Skills in Ar ts, Resources and
Goods for development of minorities through
skill upgradation has been introduced but there
is no fund allocation for 2014-15. Another addi-
tion is the allocation of Rs. 100 crore for
Madrasa Modernisation Programme, under the
Depar tment of School Education.
The total allocation for minorities made in the
Interim Budget has been retained and in the
Budget Estimate for 2014-15 the allocation for
Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) has increased
to Rs. 3, 711 crore from Rs. 3, 111 in 2013-14
(Revised Estimate). But records show that there
are huge gaps in allocation of resources, utilisa-
tion of funds and programme implementation for
the development of minorities. The Ministry of
Minority Affairs was able to utilize only 78 percent
of the total outlay earmarked in the 11th Plan peri-
od and the actual utilization of the Budget Estimate
by the Ministry was as less as 60.41 percent for
the year 2012-13 and was at its lowest at only
39.33% in 2007-08.
It is clear the inclusion of Minority-related
programmes in the budgetary processes through
a separate budget statement in the Union Budget
as is already being done in the case of women,
children, SCs and STs (for expenditure reporting)
will greatly help in a more robust utilization of the
budget allotted and facilitate optimal development
of the community. But the Budget 2014-15 is
totally silent on this and it is uncertain if the pres-
ent government would undertake the radical poli-
cy transformations that the development of
minorities would require.
The author is Executive Director, COVA, Hyderabad
One notes painfully
that with Modi
coming to power the
overall aggression
of outfits like Hindu
Rashtra Sena and
the attitude of the
authorities has
worsened.
Muslims and NDA Govt: Emerging Trends
NATIONAL The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 7 www.milligazette.com
UP sitting atop
dynamite
DR MOHAMMAD MANZOOR ALAM
The recent weeks have been trying for Uttar Pradesh, which wit-
nessed a staggering 600 communal incidents since the last Lok
Sabha polls. Communal incidents is an official euphemism for
low-intensity communal violence against Muslims. This is the
result of an assiduously built and sustained tension between com-
munities for electoral purposes.
The electoral victory of BJP in UP, with a tally of 71 parliamen-
tary seats out of 80, came in the wake of similar tension spread
on purpose all over the state, and a bloodbath in Muzaffarnagar to
top it all.
The Samajwadi MP, Naresh Agarwal, echoed the opinion of a
large number of Indians when he said in Parliament recently that
There are clear attempts to create communal tension in Uttar
Pradesh and there is a need to see the role of BJP in it.
BJP is the ultimate gainer from division between communi-
ties. Hence, it has always tried to stoke trouble. One example from
the near past is enough to demonstrate how this party uses a
divide and rule policy like the British by, among other stratagems,
making calculated remarks and innuendos before one group
against the other. In Western UP, Amit Shah told a group of Jats
some weeks ago that one could tolerate anything but dishonour.
Revenge is the only recompense against dishonour, he said,
making the insinuation that Muslims had offended the Jats and the
imagined wrong must be avenged. This was reported by The
Indian Express.
Later, Shah moved to another village with his entourage
and asked a Dalit family to prepare a meal for them. Then, in
his address to the Dalit group, Shah made another speech in
which Dalit anger against Muslims was provoked deliberately
and cunningly. He said, BJP will not tolerate the rights of
Mahesh being given to Mehmood. The insinuation was that by
planning to give reservation to Muslims, secular par ties
were planning to take away Dalit rights. The fact is that
Muslims would not be given reservation from others quota, if
at all they get it.
No wonder, today in UP Muslims and Dalits have been pitted
against each other. The worst sufferer of this is the very idea of a
united India where each group is allowed to live amicably with
others. Last month in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi clearly said that
these conflicts were engineered for electoral gains at the cost of
the countrys unity and wellbeing. This short-sighted policy could
have a devastating effect on the country in days to come, he
warned.
The deliberately-created division between Jats and Muslims
has deeply hurt Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal while the growing
animosity between Dalits and Muslims is ominous for the future
of Mayawatis BSP. If the Union government confers Bharat Ratna
posthumously on Kanshi Ram, then it will be Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his protg BJP President Amit Shah who will
be projected as champions of Dalits, not Mayawati. We can clear-
ly see who will benefit, BJP or BSP.
It is interesting to note that two-thirds of the communal inci-
dents in UP have occurred in the 12 constituencies of UP
Assembly slated for a mid-term poll. This shows that communal
animosity is an electoral tool for one party.
Amid all this one must also look at the role of the SP gov-
ernment in UP, which does not seem either interested in, or
capable of, controlling such violence. This is cer tainly not
going to help. In this game everyone is a loser-the country, the
state, the people and all par ties with the exception of the BJP.
The only winner is BJP, which must consider whether it is
desirable to have such flawed and morally unsustainable vic-
tory.
Typical of BJP way of denial, the Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Venkaiah Naidu said in Parliament that the whole country
was living in peace under Prime Minister Modis rule and there
was no tension or conflict anywhere. He went on to assert that he
condemned anyone who suggested otherwise. Certainly, this is
not the way how this problem should be viewed or wished away.
(iosworld.org)
New Delhi: RSS is now busy in re-writing
history on the basis of Puranas, one of the
ancient Hindu scriptures and for this purpose
a group of 100 historians have been hand
picked and given the task of rewriting Indian
history which they have to complete in 10
years or by 2025, the centenary of its RSS
formation. RSS has named this project as
Puran Antragat Itihaas i.e. history based on
Puranas. RSS is keen that the task of rewrit-
ing (Indian) history should be completed by
or before 2025. According to a news item appearing in an English
daily, the RSS plan is the collection of historical documents based
on Puranas in all the 670 districts of the country in which 600
scheduled tribes of the country have also been included.
According to concerned sources, RSS senior leaders have already
discussed this plan or project in its Chintan Camp held in Jain
Teerth Mohan Kheda near Indore last month (July).
Akhil Bhartiya Itihaas Sanskalan Yojna (ABISY), an organisa-
tion associated with RSS plans to hold a 3-day workshop for
these 100 historians from 22 to 24 August at Banaskantha in
Palanpur district of Gujrat (which might already have been held).
Most of these historians are those who are serving in different uni-
versities of the country. In addition to this workshop ABISY has
also set up Bhartiya Puran Addhyan Sanstha (Indian Institute of
Puran Studies) which is working in RSSs Delhi Headquarters at
Keshav Ganj. RSS had started ABISY in 1994 which is working in
different states under different names. According to Bal Mukand
Pandey, secretary of ABISY and Sangh Promotional Organisation,
RSS wants to rewrite Indian history in a correct manner so that it
could be seen and studied correctly. He says that Puran as are the
main source of Indian history and ABISY is working on this job
since long.
Under ABISYs plan, the history of the countrys 670 districts
based on Puranas will be collected with the help of local histori-
ans who have earlier also written and collected such documents.
They will be provided all possible assistance and facilities.
According to ABISY, not only 18 Puranas but all the 106 Puranas
are being studied for this purpose which have been collected from
different libraries, universities etc of the country (including some
personal or privae libraries) and even those
from foreign countries. According to ABISY,
most of these are in Sanskrit but some have
been translated in local languages also. For
example, complete Iskandh Puran is avail-
able in Bengali language, some parts of
which are narrated as satyanarain kathas.
Balmukand further said that for re-writing
Indian history on the basis of Puranas we are
collecting 8.5 lakh shlokas and we are also
working on the publication of a Puran-based
encyclopaedia containing 100 chapters.
Dina Nath Batra, a member of RSSs Education Wing says
that he had talked to union HRD minister Ms Smriti Irani and
impressed upon her the need to change the entire educational
course or syllabus of the country to which she agreed and
assured him that she would do the needed. It may be stated that
many books written by Batra have been translated into Gujrati and
are in the process of being included in the syllabus and distributed
in about 42000 schools of Gujarat. In these books people are
asked to use desi products and on birth days, (cow) milk should
be offered to guests and others. In another book Akhand Bhart.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have been shown in the map of India.
Organisations like NCERT, NCDE, Open School and Central Board
etc have started reviewing the schools syllabus.
Under ABISYs plan, the history of the countrys 670 districts based on
Puranas will be collected with the help of local historians who have earlier
also written and collected such documents. They will be provided all possible
assistance and facilities. According to ABISY, not only 18 Puranas but all the
106 Puranas are being studied for this purpose which have been collected
from different libraries, universities etc of the country (including some
personal or privae libraries) and even those from foreign countries.
RSS groups secret plan: mythological stories to be
projected as historical facts
Lucknow/Kanpur: An investigation team visited the site of vio-
lence in Bhiter Gaon near Kanpur to enquire into the entire matter.
The team consisted of leaders of the Indian National League, Aam
Jan Morcha, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat and Rihai
Manch.
The team included INL National President Muhammad
Sulaiman, INL National Vice President, PC Kuril, National
President of the Aam Jan Morcha Dr BK Singh Yadav, Akhlaq
Chishti of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, INL Kanpur
chapter President Adv. Ashfaq Ghani Khan, Shahnawaz Alam and
Rajeev Yadav of Rihai Manch.
The delegation said after the visit that failure to register FIRs
of the victims even a week after the incident proves that the gov-
ernment is trying to suppress the whole matter.
The delegation said in its statement that the way in which a
small stealing incident has been given communal colour and the
way some 30-32 Muslim families of the village were attacked and
their homes torched on 24 August by a crowd of thousands
shouting anti-Muslim slogans proves that it was not an acciden-
tal matter but the result of a deeply-hatched conspiracy.
The investigating team found that the incident started when
two youth of the same village, viz., Guddu Tiwari and Guddu Pasi,
committed robbery in the house of a Muslim family. Police later
recovered the stolen material from the possession of the accused
but the police, without taking any action, set them free.
Early next morning a rumour was spread in the area that
Muslims have killed both the accused. Thus a crowd of thousands
gathered at around 8-9 am and started attacking Muslim homes
using bricks and stones and setting them on fire. As a result, 20-
year-old Muhammad Ijaz, son of Muhammad Majeed, was burnt
to death during the attack. Many other Muslims managed to flee
the place to save their lives while 14 persons took refuge in a
small room in Mehdi Hasans house. The attackers sprinkled
petrol on that house and tried to burn the people alive but they
somehow managed to save themselves by breaking a back wall
and escaping to safety. One of those who suffered burns during
this attack was Zakira, wife of Sajid, who later succumbed to her
injuries. A number of other children and women who suffered
burns are still being treated in Haylet Hospital.
The investigative team found that during this whole incident
police played spectators. The question is: when rioters were plan-
ning and executing their plans for violence whole night and then
started the attacks at dawn, what the intelligence people were
doing.
The team found that in the market area, shared by both com-
munities, only Muslim shops and establishments were torched.
This proves that their places had been pointed out in advance.
The investigation team found that the police has still not found
the source of the fake news about the murder of the two Hindu
youth. This proves that the rumour was spread by an anti-Muslim
outfit professionally and in total secrecy. This planning is further
exposed by the fact that Hindus are continuously demanding that
FIRs should be lodged against Muslims also despite the fact that
all the victims are from the Muslim community and no Hindu was
ever attacked. To exert pressure on the police, the market is being
kept closed. This shows the political nature of this conspiracy as
the fact is that no FIR has been allowed to be registered by the
Muslim community so far. By demanding registration of FIRs
against Muslims, the conspirators want to stop cases against
them.
The investigation team believes that the state government
wants to bury this incident as no minister has bothered to visit this
place which is so close to the state capital. This is further proved
by the fact that no survey has been done so far to ascertain the
losses in life and properties in this riot. According to the teams
estimate, the losses to properties are around 60-70 lakh rupees.
The team found that due to the failure of the state government
to build and promote harmony, there is a gulf between the two
communities despite the fact that this village has a long history of
amicable relations between communities and never in the past it
witnessed communal violence.
The gravity of the current situation may be gauged from the
fact that two Hindus, Kamlesh Vajpayee and Rakesh Kumar
Awasthi, who helped the victims, are now shunned by the vil-
lagers. Women of these two families helped extinguish the fires
caused to the Muslim houses. They say that in their own village,
they are now dubbed as Muslims and shunned. Even their chil-
dren are facing such situation in their school.
The investigation team said that such behaviour is alarming
as it shows that communal violence may recur in this village any
time.
The investigation team demanded that the administration itself
should register the FIRs of the victims who belong to the weaker
sections, suffer from fear and are illiterate. The team also asked
the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the next
of kin of those killed and one government job to a member of each
bereaved family. The team demanded that persons responsible for
the riot including those who spread the rumours should be pun-
ished, the police officers who failed to prevent the riot should be
penalised and the two Hindu families which helped the victims
should be suitably rewarded.
Report on Bhiter Gaon, Kanpur, communal violence
A scene after the riot
Investigation team in Bhjiter Gaon
8 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 NATIONAL www.milligazette.com
I Never Held Money With My Teeth:
Constructions of Exemplarity in Abul Fazl Farooqis Nasheb-o-Faraz - ii
LAURENT GAYER
(Continued from previous issue)
Abul Fazl Farooqis autobiography often
echoes that of Benjamin Franklin [one of
the Founding Fathers of the United
States], although nothing in the formers
text suggests that he ever came across
the latters Autobiography.
An uneasy role model: the inner tensions of
Nasheb-o-Faraz
Abul Fazl Farooqis narrative is not merely that of
a success story. It is also, and more originally,
an attempt at moralising this economic success
and projecting it as an act of piety. This conform-
ity to a supposedly traditional Islamic moral
economy of capitalism does not only help
Farooqi sanctify his worldly activities. From his
point of view, it is also a major reason for his
worldly success, which he projects as an exam-
ple for other Indian Muslims but cannot help to
be uneasy withor at least to claim so.
Abul Fazl Farooqi and the issue of predestina-
tion
In his indictment of Hindu culture, ethics and
faith, Farooqi does not spare the karmic theory
of predestination and in one of the rare anec-
dotes of the text he clarifies his stand on the
issue of fate, hereby presenting to the reader a
preliminary Islamic assessment of his worldly
success. This anecdote consists in a narrative of
an encounter with a Panditji during a visit to
Bhogal. While Farooqi and his wife are walking
around the city, where they have come to get
photographed in a local studio, this unsolicited
Panditji rushes towards them and informs them
that they will soon give birth to a male heir and
make a profit of 100,000 rupees. When both
predictions turn out to be true, Farooqi is deeply
disturbed, but he concludes that his meeting
with the Panditji was a test (aazmaish) and
that Maybe the devil himself came to us in the
garb of Panditji. In conformity to the Sunni
orthodox view on fate summarized above,
Farooqi adds that he and his wife believed that
the incident occurred as Allah wanted it to.
Farooqi and his wife had the choice to believe in
the divine inspiration of the Panditji, and thus in
predestination. If they did not, it is only due to
their strict adherence to Islamic orthodoxy.
Thus, when Farooqi later claims that Allah
blessed me with great abundance in my busi-
ness, he does not refer to a form of divine
grace in the Calvinist sense but rather to a
blessing (barakat) sanctioning a righteous
course of action.
Abul Fazl Farooqis moral utilitarianism
Although Abul Fazl Farooqi remains evasive on
his sectarian affiliation, the chapter which he
devotes to his academic and religious inclina-
tions attests of his Deobandi leanings, and more
specifically of his sympathy for the Tablighi
Jamaat and the Jamaat-i-Islami. Thus,
Farooqis claims that these days the original
face of Islam has been disfigured and that it
has become a [mere] collection of rituals are
consonant with the worldviews of Deobandi
reformists and more specifically with those of
Tablighi proselytes and Jamaati Islamists, who
are equally committed to re-Islamizing the
Ummah.
This claim to Sunni orthodoxy, through the
practice of a pure and self-conscious Islam,
devoid of ritualism and Hindu influences, is reit-
erated by Abul Fazl Farooqi all along the text.
According to him, this quality results from his
primary socialization, under the moral guidance
of his pious mother: As a result of the efforts
and blessings [dua, literally prayers] of my
mother, all aspects of my upbringing were
deeply ingrained in my heart and mind. In a
more agentic mode, Farooqi also looks at his
economic success as a triumph of his own free
will, claiming that Thank God, I am not a dream-
ing person [khwab ka insan]; I am a man of
action [amli insan]. From the very beginning, I
have been believing in building life with action
[amal se zindagi banti hai]. In another part of
the text, he points at the combined effects of his
primary socialization and free will all along his
life course: It is not that opportunities for
becoming a king overnight were not available in
the market, but it was my conscious resolve to
stick to honesty, for the high principles of Islam
taught by my mother
were ever fresh in my
mind. This inherited
morality coexisting
with a powerful sub-
jectivity is continuous-
ly reinvigorated
through an unmediated
relation with God. Here
lies the third, and prob-
ably the most impor-
tant of Farooqis own
explanations to his
economic success,
which takes the form
of a moral utilitarian-
ism: worldly success
is a god-sent reward to the moral entrepreneur,
the outcome of a process of action/reaction
under the prescient gaze of the Almighty, which
makes moral enterprise a rational choice in this
world as well as in the next.
Abul Fazl Farooqis crisis of subjectivation
Abul Fazl Farooqis narrative is an attempt by a
God-fearing capitalist to constitute himself as a
moral subject in a dual and not mutually exclu-
sive movement of subjection (to the power of
God) and subjectivism (through a claim of per-
sonal authorship over his life trajectory). In other
words, this autobiography is a story of subjecti-
vation, questioning the conditions of recognition
of oneself as a moral subject, in the two sens-
es of the term. This hermeneutic of the Self,
consonant with and possibly informed by Iqbals
theory of khudi, is characterized by a state of
tension. Farooqis moral utilitarianism is an idio-
syncratic answer to this dilemma, although not
an isolated one in the contemporary Muslim
world. His Islamic calculus, which retains the
utilitarian idea of the calculation of pain and
pleasure as the basis for moral action, but
extends it beyond this world to the next, is not
exempt of contradictions though. More signifi-
cantly, if Farooqi projects his material success
as an example for other Indian Muslims, he is
also adamant to denounce the ravages of mate-
rialism. At some point, his ascetic business ethic
even leads him to question his success: Today
I think that I have lost sixty years of my life. I
have everything according to the present stan-
dard of living but still I feel I do not possess any-
thing. My wealth cannot do away with my twen-
ty-year old diabetes. I think that had I indulged in
thinking about the Hereafter and had no wealth I
would have been more for tunate [khush
naseeb].
At the twilight of his life, Abul Fazl Farooqi
seems hesitant about his true realisations and
about the kind of example he ambitions to set.
On the one side, his material success seems to
validate his probity: if God has showered him
with so many blessings, it can only be that he
was his true servant. Although Farooqi is at odds
with the idea of predestination, but on the other
side, Farooqi poses as a contemplative Sufi,
lamenting the vanity of worldly possessions. In
his eyes (or at least in those of his projected
self), worldly accomplishments do not only
seem illusory at the footsteps of death: they
threaten to become liabilities in the preparation
to the Hereafter, the ultimate horizon of Farooqis
narrative. At its breaking point, this narrative
turns against itself, becoming the battlefield of
two opposing conceptions of asceticism: one
which embraces the world and one which refus-
es it. When the authors Islamic calculus is
extended to the Hereafter, his worldly success
appears as deceitful as a trick of the Devil, while
the hubris displayed in its literary evocation
takes all the appearances of a capital sin. If we
consider that this uneasiness with economic
success is not merely rhetoricalor that rheto-
ric is realityAbul Fazl Farooqi clearly stands
out from the adepts of capitalist Islam, who are
less apologetic about accumulating wealth in
this world and less sceptical about the dividends
of their economic success in the next.
The haji and the parvenu: preliminary remarks
on the reception of Nasheb-o-Faraz
A word should be said, before concluding, on
this texts reception. Although it was published
by regular editors, Abul Fazl Farooqis autobiog-
raphy does not seem to have been commercial-
ized. Most copies were distributed by the author
himself to his close circle of friends and rela-
tives. By chance, I was able to access one of the
copies of the Urdu ver-
sion of the text, I was
struck by the fact that its
readers seemed to have
focused on a single sec-
tion: that where Farooqi
mentions his repeated
pilgrimages to Mecca. A
small piece of paper had
even been clipped to the
page in question, listing
the dates of Farooqis
successive travels to
Saudi Arabia for Haj and
Umrah. Indeed, the num-
ber of these visits is truly
impressive: Farooqi
completed Haj in 1970, 1982 and 2000, where-
as he performed Umra in 1997, 1999 and 2003.
This was, apparently, a source of great pride for
his extended family, possibly more than any of
his business achievements.
Conclusion
The subject of Nasheb-o-Faraz is not so much a
passive servant of God (abd) as a self-con-
scious individual (fard) who is acted upon by
external forces, both human and divine, but who
also claims authorship of his own life. This dual
movement of subjectivation echoes that of many
contemporary Muslim intellectuals, for whom
reconnection with the self, imagined as a repos-
itory of identifiably Muslim virtues, and through
the self to a specific understanding of Gods
command, becomes the principal undertaking.
In the Indo-Muslim world, this reflexive move-
ment has historical precedents which Abul Fazl
Farooqi seems to have been familiar with. Thus,
one of the major contributions of Farooqis
favourite author, the poet-philosopher Allama
Mohammad Iqbal, consisted in a reassessment
of the notion of khudi (self), redefined as indi-
vidual self-affirmation [], leading to purpose-
ful collective action. More generally, Nasheb-o-
Faraz singularizes itself from the majority of
Indian autobiographies, which tend to display a
complete indifference towards the private, inte-
rior lives of their protagonists (Kumar 2008:
419). On the contrary, Abul Fazl Farooqi aims to
deliver a highly personal account, as suggested
by these concluding remarks: Whatever I have
narrated in my autobiography is my hearts
voice and I believe myself to be the first listener.
Throughout this story of subjectivation,
Farooqi constitutes himself as a moral achiever,
claiming exemplarity by a conjunction of moral rec-
titude and worldly achievements. But these two
poles of Abul Fazl Farooqis self-professed exem-
plarity are not easy to reconcile. Farooqi aims to
retrieve the moral from the economic, in order to
restore what he perceives as the Islamic moral
economy of capitalism. This leads him to articulate
a virulent critique of materialism and hedonism, a
critique which presents itself as a traditionalist
response to the perverse effects of modernity.
The morality Abul Fazl Farooqi makes a
claim to is of a whole other nature and is closer
to the public virtue associated with the civic cit,
i.e. an ability to overcome personal interests for
the greater good. The autobiographical pact
which he establishes in the opening lines of the
text is unequivocal on this point: Farooqi aims to
benefit the future generation through his nar-
rative of moral achievement.
Indeed, withdrawing from the world, so as to
let inspiration flourish, implies the deployment of
more or less radical ascetic procedures. But
when the ascetic accomplishes extraordinary
tasks, he draws crowds and must run away to
escape his own fame. In the case of Abul Fazl
Farooqi, though, this tension was not the out-
come of ascetic virtuosity. As he himself makes
it clear in the justifications which establish his
autobiographical pact, this tension lies in the
very nature of his literary project.
Finally, it should be emphasised that Abul
Fazl Farooqis dual register of subjectivation is
not an isolated and anachronistic attempt to rec-
oncile submission to God and worldly accom-
plishments. As far as Indian Muslims are con-
cerned, my ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in
Abul Fazl Enclave confirms the appeal of pious
capitalism over middle-class Muslim residents
of the neighbourhood. This seems particularly
true for the highly educated youths who could
constitute the vanguard of Indias new Muslim
middle class and who are adamant to succeed
economically while clinging to their religious val-
ues. The desire manifested by these youths to
live in a religious environment while participat-
ing to the fullest to Indias new economy informs
a lifestyle similar to that of the modernists gath-
ered around Syed Ahmed Khan in the 19th cen-
tury, with their ambition to remain strict Muslims
while making the best of the economic opportu-
nities offered by the Raj.
Bibliography
Ahmad, Irfan (2009) Islamism and Democracy in
India: The Transformation of Jamaat-i-Islami,
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Arnold, David; Blackburn, Stuart (2004) Introduction:
Life Histories in India, in David Arnold & Stuart
Blackburn (eds.), Telling Lives in India: Biography,
Autobiography, and Life History, Delhi: Permanent
Black, pp. 1-28.
Dale, Stephen (1996) The Poetry and Autobiography
of the Bbur-nma, The Journal of Asian Studies,
55 (3), pp. 635-664.
Feillard, Gwenal (2004) Insuffler lesprit du capital-
isme lUmma: la formation dune thique
islamique du travail en Indonsie, Critique inter-
nationale, 25, pp. 93-116.
Folkenflik, Robert (1993) Introduction: the Institution
of Autobiography, in Robert Folkenflik (ed.), The
Culture of Autobiography: Constructions of Self-
Representation, Stanford: Stanford University
Press, pp. 1-20.
Foucault, Michel (1984a) Histoire de la sexualit, t.2
Lusage des plaisirs, Paris: Gallimard.
Gayer, Laurent (2011, forthcoming) Safe and Sound:
The Search for a Good Environment in Abul Fazl
Enclave, Delhi, in Laurent Gayer & Christophe
Jaffrelot (eds.), Muslims of the Indian City,
London & New York: Hurst, Columbia University
Press.
Grell, Ole Peter (1996) Merchants and Ministers: the
Foundations of International Calvinism, in Andrew
Pettegree, Alastair Duke & Gillian Lewis (eds.),
Calvinism in Europe 1540-1620, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 254-273.
Higman, Francis (1994) Calvins Works in
Translation, in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke &
Gillian Lewis (eds.), Calvinism in Europe 1540-
1620, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003) Indias Silent Revolution:
The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India, New
York: Columbia University Press.
Johnson, Samuel (1963) The Idler and the Adventurer,
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kumar, Udaya (2008) Autobiography as a Way of
Writing History: Personal Narratives from Kerala
and the Inhabitation of Modernity, in Partha
Chatterjee & Raziuddin Aqil (eds.), History in the
Vernacular, Delhi: Permanent Black, pp. 418-448.
Kuran, Timur (2004) Islam and Mammon: The
Economic Predicament of Islamism, Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Laidlaw, James (1995) Riches and Renunciation:
Religion, Economy and Society among the Jains,
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Metcalf, Barbara (1993) What Happened in Mecca:
Mumtaz Muftis Labbaik, in Robert Folkenflik
(ed.), The Culture of Autobiography:
Constructions of Self-Representation, Stanford,
Stanford University Press, pp. 149-167.
Metcalf, Barbara (2004) The Past in the Present:
Instruction, Pleasure, and Blessing in Maulana
Muhammad Zakariyyas Aap Biittii, in David
Arnold & Stuart Blackburn (eds.), Telling Lives in
India: Biography, Autobiography, and Life History,
Delhi: Permanent Black, pp. 116-143.
Mir, Mustansir (2006) Iqbal, Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
Pandian, Anand; Ali, Daud (2010) Introduction, in
Anand Pandian & Daud Ali (eds.), Ethical Life in
South Asia, Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, pp. 1-18.
Roy, Tir thankar (2010) Company of Kinsmen:
Enterprise and Community in South Asian
History, 1700-1940, Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
Thuesen, Peter J. (2009) Predestination: The
American Career of a Contentious Doctrine,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tripp, Charles (2006) Islam and the Moral Economy:
The Challenge of Capitalism, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Weber, Max (2005) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism, London & New York: Routledge.
(Excerpted from 2010 : Modern Achievers:
Role Models in South Asia, South Asia
Multidisciplinary Academic Journal,
samaj.revues.org/3075)
ADVERTORIAL
(Concluded)
MODERN ACHIEVERS: ROLE MODELS IN SOUTH ASIA
Mohammad Abul Fazl Farooqi
NATIONAL The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 9 www.milligazette.com
FR. CEDRIC PRAKASH SJ
Continuing hate propaganda seems to be on the rise in Gujarat. As
always, this propaganda targets the minorities of the state, particu-
larly Muslims and Christians. The latest is an inflammatory leaflet
which is distributed widely in several areas of the state. The leaflet
while targeting Muslim youth also casts aspersions on the
Christians.
Apparently published by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) from
Rajkot (the complete names, addresses of the offices and also of the
publishers and printers are on the leaflet). The aim of the leaflet is a
call to the Hindu parents to be careful of Muslim youth who seem
to be desperate to dupe, kidnap, rape and marry Hindu girls. Several
examples (which cannot be authenticated) are also provided in
order to try to drive home the point. Finally, there is an imaginary
quote attributed to Swami Vivekanand which obviously cannot be
found anywhere in his writings or teachings.
The unfortunate part is that those who indulge in such divisive
and incendiary propaganda do so with a tremendous amount of
immunity. They know fully well that their powerful political patrons
will protect them at whatever the cost. Above all, the law and order
machinery of the state seems to turn a blind eye to the hate propa-
ganda that such right-wing groups dish out.
Hate Propaganda on the Rise in Gujarat
DR SYED ZAFAR MAHMOOD
Never in the annals of history were all monetari-
ly eligible and physically robust Muslims of the
world able to perform Haj. In future too only a
select few would be fortunate enough to per-
form Haj. That is as per the divine design.
Yet, each one of us enjoys the privilege to
constructively aspire to be part of such select
few. Keeping pace with the world price index,
Haj expenses are rising year after year. In India,
it takes an average Muslim around seven to eight
years to save up for Haj. During this period,
many persons often save money in unsystemat-
ic and traditional manners. They believe that
money kept under the bed, pillow, in the pot or
even in a bank locker or current account is not
only safe but also such methods of saving are
free of Riba.
In todays widely prevalent understanding, the
concept nearest to Riba, though not squarely befit-
ting it, is usury or multiplied interest. Most of the
Indian Muslims living in villages and urban lower
middle class conglomerates do not like to keep
these Haj savings in the conventional banking sys-
tem to ensure that their pious savings are not uti-
lized for interest-based commercial activity prohib-
ited in Shariah. Yet, in modern times, at any place
other than a bank the safety of savings is not fully
secure. Thats a strange paradox.
De-Stagnating Haj Savings: Every year more
than 100,000 Indians who apply to the Central
Haj Committee for performing Haj are not able to
do so because their names are not selected in
the draw of lots. Additionally, at least double of
that number of Muslims are always in the
process of saving sufficient funds to apply for
Haj. If we add up all such savings for Haj, we
find that a huge amount of money of the
order of 4-5 billion of Rupees remains stag-
nant and does not generate any economic activ-
ity. This goes starkly against the basic Islamic
spirit that proactively encourages circulation of
wealth and its fruitful utilization for the individual
as well as community uplift.
Also in India there is practice of selling off
land and property to raise funds for Haj. This too
does not contribute to economic growth of the
individuals nor of the community.
Good news! Haj Fund of India has come up
with an appropriate solution to this problem in a
manner that enhances the reward while we save
for Haj. It operates as a service agency to facili-
tate safe keeping of our savings for a pious pur-
pose. The service has passed legal vetting.
Any Indian Muslim (including NRIs) can
open his or her Haj account with HFI. Deposits
can be made any time in this Haj account in mul-
tiples of thousands like, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000,
4,000, 5,000, etc ... or more; there is no upper
limit. We can deposit as many installments as
we wish and we can do so whenever it is con-
venient to us.
Making Deposits With Haj Fund of India: In
favour of Haj Fund Of India Account No.
603020110000239, Bank Of India we have to
either obtain a bank draft of our money or write
an Account Payee cheque and deposit it in any
branch of Bank of India anywhere in the country
or abroad. We must write our full name, address
and phone number behind the draft/cheque and
have to make two photo copies of the
draft/cheque. After doing so, we fill the Account
Opening Form (HFI-A) and send it alongwith a
photocopy of our draft or cheque through Speed
or Registered Post to the following address:
CEO, Haj Fund of India, CISRS House, 14
Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014.
As regards withdrawals from our account,
before we are going to perform Haj, it is very
simple.
We have to send to HFI by email, post or
give by hand an application in Form HFI-B. HFI
will issue a cheque or pay order in our name or
in the name of Haj Committee or our travel
agent; its our choice. It would be sent to us by
Speed or Registered Post or we can collect it in
person.
Utilizing Part of Haj Fund For Community
Benefit
HFI has a Shariah Advisory Council (see
complete list on website) that advises and
supervises it on financial matters. It targets
multi-faceted investment projects in conformity
with Shariah guidelines. Accordingly, some part
of the Haj Fund of India is utilized to disburse
short term microfinance loan to poor Muslims.
For example, a rickshaw puller buys a rickshaw
(instead of paying daily substantial amount as
rickshaw rent to its owner). Out of his savings he
pays back the loan (without interest) to Haj Fund
of India, over a period of six months. Thus, with-
in six months the loan amount comes back after
economically empowering the rickshaw puller.
Also, on the deposits, HFI makes the Zakat
payment on behalf of the depositors to its parent
organization, Zakat Foundation of India. The
account holders get the added satisfaction that
HFI provides significant community services
through Zakat collected from the depositors
accounts. This amount is utilized for helping the
needy as per the specified Quranic categories,
through Zakat Foundation of India.That way, the
sanctity of our Haj savings goes up and we will,
Insha Allah, get greater reward of performing
Haj.
In any case, the much larger purpose of Haj
the community is more important than the
individual - is adequately served reserving for
us a higher pedestal in the Life Hereafter.
Throughout history, the Haj Economy has
been a source of prosperity for the community.
In todays global economy, the skills associated
with Haj - if strategically leveraged - could
become a source of community uplift.
HFI is one of the many examples how
Islamic teachings can be implemented in todays
modern world and, once implemented, how use-
ful and beneficial these can be to the individuals
as well as for the Ummah.
Individual Haj Saving Remains Intact:
However, disadvantage - if any - resulting from
any investment out of the Haj Fund has to be
necessarily absorbed and internalized by the ZFI
and no impact of any such possible disadvan-
tage shall be passed on to any Haj account hold-
er, unless he/she opts for the contrary. HFI also
encourages the Indian Muslims to start saving at
a younger age to be able to go on the pilgrimage
when they turn adult. Indian Muslims surely feel
good when they hold an account with HFI as an
intending pilgrim (Azm-e-Haj).
Every account holder is entitled to access,
at any point of any time, his or her Haj account
online or through an application made to ZFI for
this purpose and after following the due process
of security and privacy. Broad contours of the
HFI are displayed on website.
Suggestions have been invited for the
improvement of this service making it more
user-friendly and Shariat-compliant.
The author is Chairman, Haj Fund of India
thats a unit of Zakat Foundation of India. For
details visit ZakatIndia.org/HajFund.html
Leveraging Haj savings for community uplift
Every year more than 100,000 Indians who apply to the Central Haj
Committee for performing Haj are not able to do so because their names are
not selected in the draw of lots. Additionally, at least double of that number
of Muslims are always in the process of saving sufficient funds to apply for
Haj. If we add up all such savings for Haj, we find that a huge amount of
money - of the order of 4-5 billion of Rupees - remains stagnant and does
not generate any economic activity.
Muslim businesses
face heat in Gujarat
Ahmedabad: PM Narendra Modis brainchild Vibarant Gujarat will
be held this time under the leadership of the new Gujarat chief
minister Anandiben Patel.
Tthis time, while western diplomats and investors are mak-
ing a beeline to seek favours from Gujarat, Muslims are not
allowed to do meat and egg business in Palitana which is situat-
ed at about 100 kms from Bhavnagar.
Moreover, 10 Gujarati Muslim traders have alleged to
having been forced to close down their businesses over the
past one month. The latest complaint was filed on
4 September
by hotelier Mustafa Patel who claims to have shut down his
Jyoti Hotel on Viramgam highway, a 90 minute drive from
Ahmedabad, after receiving threats. His petition says that despite
court orders, Police has refused to provide him protection.
The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has sought a
report from the Gujarat government after receiving complaints
related to preventing people from operating their businesses.
Earlier the Commission had received complaints from nine
traders of Chhota Udepur, alleging that their businesses have
been ruined. The complaint said that the sarpanch of village
Baroj, Jayanti Rathwa engineered a riot in the area to take away
the luxury transport business from his competitor Irfan Abdul
Ghani. The region witnessed communal clashes following a
minor altercation between Adivasis and Muslims.
"Many Minority industries were attacked and set on fire.
Police DIG and SP went there, FIRs were lodged but till today no
one has been arrested," said the complaint.
Muslims and Advisasi have lived together in the area for cen-
turies. Muslims smell a conspiracy to create bad blood between
the two communities with a view to force Muslims out of busi-
ness in the region.
Those who have been already forced to close down their
businesses are Kasim Ahmad (scrap dealer), Ahmad Arif (miner-
als), Farooq Bhai (power production unit), Yakub Mohammad
(mineral production), Saifudin Ali (power production), Ahmad
Khoka (power), Shabir Bhai (mineral production), Majid Khan
(power) and Harun Abdul Malajher (mines).
Reacting strongly to the complaints to the NCM, Gujarat gov-
ernment spokesperson and state Finance minister Nitin Patel
refuted all the claims. "There are thousands of minority traders
and merchants prospering in Gujarat. Hundreds are doing busi-
ness in the walled city areas of Ahmedabad," he said.
Let us come back to Palitana, a sacred place for the Jain
community. There is a famous temple here. Jains come from all
over the country and even from aboard to visit it. In the temple
vicinity, meat and eggs were not allowed but now even in the rest
of the town Muslims are not allowed to do the business of meat.
Reently in Ahmedabad city, all slaughter houses and meat
shops were forced to close on account of a Jain festival for about
a week. (Abdul Hafiz Lakhani)
Pulwama killings; 23 years later,
victim families still await justice
Srinagar: It was 1st September of 1991 when forces attacked
militants who were travelling in a tonga (horse cart). Two mili-
tants were killed as a result. According to local residents of Safa
Nagri, Nelura and Aglar Leter Pulwama, Security forces (BSF)
after the attack entered the above-mentioned three villages and
fired indiscriminately on the local civilian population. In this
unwarranted and horrible incident, 19 civilians, all local resi-
dents, lost their lives.
As per locals, the distance between the spot were militancy-
related incident took place and the villages is over five kilometers
but forces travelled and targeted civilians without any logic and
reason. They said that the massacre of the villagers was carried
out by a BSF commanding officer whom they identify as Azad
Singh.
They said that on arriving in the villages after killing two mil-
itants, the forces formed a queue and fired upon residential hous-
es and targeted civilians which resulted in death of 19 civilians
on the spot. They were mostly elderly people.
The state government ordered an enquiry commission into
the massacre besides paying a relief of one lakh rupees to each
family. By paying the monetary relief to the victim families, gov-
ernment accepted the victims were innocent.
Now, even after 23 years, the enquiry commission ordered
by the government has failed to deliver justice to the families of
the innocent who were killed by the BSF soldiers who have not
been punished or prosecuted for their crime.
State human rights defender, Voice of Victims, appealed to
international community to help Kashmiris and set up a crime tri-
bunal according to international laws for prosecuting the Indian
security forces involved in grave human rights violations includ-
ing killing of innocent civilians.
The forums executive director, Abdul Qadeer, said.
Providing monetary benefit is not justice. Kashmir valley is
full of such massacres and we believe that only a crime tribu-
nal according international laws can provide justice to
Kashmiris.
First page of the 2-page leaflet
KALEEM KAWAJA
In the campaign for the recent elections in India, Mr Modi and his
BJP followers barnstormed the nation for many months finding
fault with almost every government in the last 67 years, and pro-
claimed that if elected they will hit the ground running to unite the
very diverse nation, bring in much economic recovery, strong law
and order, remove influence-peddling from governance and rein-
force a fairness-based polity. Indeed Mr Modis pet slogan was
that the dawn of the good days is just on the horizon.
After the elections got over and BJP won and Narendra Modi
became Prime Minister, we expected Mr Modi to take steps to
remove the intense acrimony that developed during the election
process. Unfortunately, 100 days after his becoming PM, what we
see is that Mr Modi is fostering an authoritarian and divisive gov-
ernance, while in speeches he talks about unity.
Ruling parties in states where BJP did poorly, like West
Bengal, Karanataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, J&K and Haryana are
being subjected to public harassment and BJP is working hard to
uproot the ruling parties and leaders there. In a well-organized
manner directed by the new BJP President Amit Shah, a close
confidant of Mr Modi, BJP workers are disrupting, hooting and
heckling public meetings of chief ministers of some of these
states, e.g., Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. In Parliament,
BJP has refused to allow any party to be identified as the
Opposition party, thereby denying that there is adequate opposi-
tion in the legislative wing of the government, even though BJP
won only 31 percent of votes in the election. Several upright gov-
ernors in states have been harassed and summarily dismissed
although there were no charges of malfunction against them.
Amit Shah is busy putting into action the BJP strategy to win the
upcoming elections in several states by dividing the Indian com-
munity along the fault lines of religion and caste.
On the economic recovery effort, other than giving speeches
and making promises, in the last 100 days we do not see any spe-
cific steps or plans other than high rhetoric, that Mr Modi has ini-
tiated that may help the much needed quick recovery. Prices of
almost all commodities including those under direct government
control like train travel fares and price of petrol and diesel have
risen sharply in the last 100 days. The police brutality against
people in the poorer segments of society, and sexual molestation
crimes against women, especially those belonging to lower
castes, are continuing unabated throughout the country despite
new laws enacted a year ago. In several instances Modi admin-
istration has directly flouted the judgements of the Supreme Court,
for instance allowing the raising of the height of the Narmada river
dam that will cause about half a million tribal people in the states
of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to lose their homes
and farms.
Minorities are feeling unsafe due to the cam-
paign of intimidation launched by BJP with the
concurrence of Mr Modi. Examples are:
Propogation of the Love Jihad campaign by BJP
leaders that falsely maligns Muslims in several states like UP,
Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnatak etc with the specific purpose of
dividing minority Muslims from majority Hindus. Under Mr Modis
guidance, several senior political leaders and police officials who
were sentenced by Supreme Court for the 2002 massacre of
Muslims and for extrajudicial killings in Gujarat, have been
released on bail.
Not a single Muslim person, excluding Najma Heptullah, has
been appointed to any high level position by the Modi administra-
tion even though they have appointed many others. On the occa-
sion of the Muslim festival of Eidul Fitr at the end of July, PM Modi
failed to send a message of greetings to the Muslim community
even though there is a well-established protocol in India that PMs
do that. Yet two weeks after Eid, he conveyed personal greetings
to the Hindu community on the eve of Janamashtmi.
The list of negative actions against minorities, the poorer seg-
ments of society and political parties that are not allied with BJP,
that have occurred on behalf of the Modi Sarkar in the last 100
days is quite long. Hence the apprehension and concern of the
Muslim community, secular Hindus and the poorer segments of
the population in India.
At the same time everyone is still hopeful that Mr Modi can
reverse the trend and bring relief and justice to the ordinary peo-
ple (Aam aadmi) of India in the near future.
7 out of 10 subscriptions are through WORD OF MOUTH
You know we dont have the resources to advertise & promote ourselves, so
please ask your friends to get their copy now
THE MILLI GAZETTE
First English Newspaper of Indian Muslims. Telling the Muslim side of the story fortnight after fortnight since January 2000
10 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 NATIONAL www.milligazette.com
People like Modi and his childish HRD minister
Smriti Irani had better focus on things that are
unrelated to education. The audacious Irani
wants to replace Teachers Day (September 5)
with Guru Utsav and Modi wants children of all
hues to listen to his prattles on education on the
same day (Teachers Day). Irani is a 12 passed
accidental Education Minister and Modis aca-
demic credentials are dubious just like those of
Lalu Prasad. Both (Lalu and Modi) call them-
selves Post Graduates in Political Science. While
their shrewd and rustic political acumen can
eclipse that of even Sir Harold Laski (the leg-
endary British political analyst, who taught at
Oxford and Cambridge), academically both have
been distinctly below par.
Its time, Irani and Modi realised that educa-
tion wasnt their metier and left this field for
someone better-equipped.
Two communities in India
have no say: Muslims and
Dalits.
I cant recall who said this but whoever said,
didnt go wide of the mark. The way two Dalit
minor girls were brutally raped and hanged by
four upper caste youths (Yadavs) with the help
of upper caste cops (again Yadavs), shows the
yawning caste divide in Hindu society. Mulayam
and Akhilesh Yadavs UP has become a rape-
land of country and theres absolutely no law in
the entire state, imperiously and impudently
ruled by Mulayams goons. However hard we
may condemn rape as a crime of crimes, we
still dont seem to have woken up to its serious-
ly debilitating effects not only on the victims, but
also on the whole society in general. Rape is still
not an issue strong enough to jolt the collective
conscience of all people. Till an upper caste
patriarchal mindset persists, rape will continue
to happen without a concerted endeavour to
prevent it.
Free Sanskrit from
Brahminical hegemony
When I read Sanskrit texts and books and at the
same time, check them online, I hardly find
comprehensive treatises and even the list of
ancient books with other details. Agreed, School
of Oriental and African Studies, London, has its
portal and the western scholars of Sanskrit can
profit from it, yet I find that its not comprehen-
sive. So is Harvards portal. Its worthwhile to
state that Harvard University has a full-fledged
Sanskrit department that is over 300 years old.
No Indian portal or library can be called com-
plete in this regard. The main reason being the
Brahminical hold over this language which is
called Devbhasha as theres a belief that Shiv
gave its first alphabet 5,000 years ago in Rigved,
the oldest of four Vedas. Since then, Brahmins
made it their exclusive language.
Dr Vidyanivas Mishra and Dr Hajari Prasad
Dwivedi, both Brahmins and great scholars of
Sanskrit, rued its limited spread, for which, they
held Brahmins responsible. Right from the days
of Ramayana (nearly 5,000-year-old), Sanskrit
enjoyed a sacrosanct position, so much so that
people of no other castes could violate it by
learning and reading. Ram killed Shambook, the
untouchable, because he inadvertently over-
heard the hymns uttered by Brahmins. Even eru-
dite scholars from Kaystha community didnt
have much access to Sanskrit.
It was a sheer strategy and a planned conspir-
acy by Brahmin community because it made all the
rules and the use of Sanskrit, made those recondite
and condescending rules all the more ambigious.
Brahmins had a lurking fear that if others learnt
Sanskrit, theyd soon have access to holy books
and theyd get the idea of huge manipulations and
interpolations by Brahmin scholars.
This is linguistic hegemony. Even Jews,
Brahmins of the west, didnt discriminate when
it came to learning Hebrew because they too
believe that Hebrew is gods tongue. Muslims
never discriminated against people learning
Arabic, believed to be language of Paradise.
If today, Sanskrit is almost non-functional
and moribund, its because Brahmins never
allowed it to be learnt and profaned by the
lowly non-Brahmins. This linguistic despot-
ism nearly killed Sanskrit. Its time we painstak-
ingly made a list of all Sanskrit books written in
the last 5,000 years and digitalised them for
those who want to benefit from them. At the
same time, Paninis Ashtadhyayi (the ultimate
rule book of Sanskrit grammar) must be made
easier for those aspiring to learn Sanskrits
definitive grammar and enunciations. But before
that, free it from the incarceration of Brahmins.
SUMIT PAUL
sumitmaclean@hotmail.com
One hundred days of Modi Sarkar
Modi had better leave education sphere
Unprecedented
calamity in
Kashmir Valley
Srinagar/New Delhi: Jammu & Kashmir, particu-
larly the Valley, is reeling under unprecedented
floods since 3 September. Lakhs of people are
untraced. Until 10 September, more than 50,000
people were rescued while hundreds of thou-
sands were still trapped.
Zakat Foundation of India team arrived in
Srinagar on 8 September with some relief and to
assess the situation. It found that the misery is
being heavily under-reported. The team found
that thousands of dead bodies were floating in
Srinagar itself though J&K state officials con-
ceded only 215 deaths due to the floods until 9
September. Jammu and Kashmir has received
558 mm of rain in the June-September period as
against the normal 477.4 mm.
Army needs to blast the mountain and take
out water like what was done in Uttarakhand.
Thousands of boats are required while only hun-
dreds are available. The team came to know
that in south Kashmir thousands were dead due
to the sudden floods. Several villages have
been fully washed
away like Kakapura,
L e d p u r a ,
A w a n t i p u r a ,
Goripura and
Sangam. The team
came to know that
only 60 boats were
pressed into service
while at least 500
more were required.
The team also came
to know that only 21
choppers were
deployed and 50
more were required.
The team reports that the floods are man-made
and the reason is the 14 ft high railway line
which is acting like a barrier preventing flow of
water to other areas, thus water has accumulat-
ed with no exit. Moreover, the authorities at the
centre and state levels were aware of the heavy
rains but they did nothing to alert people and
prevent the calamity by evacuating people in
time.
Authorities are at a loss to understand as to
what to do to face the situation. They are not
able even to assess the number of deaths
unless and until the water recedes. People are
trapped even in Srinagar city alone whose large
parts are still submerged in flood waters. Power
supply remains mostly cut in the Valley. As a
result, there are no water, Internet and mobile
services also. Only Aircell network was reported
to be working in some areas. Buildings in
Srinagar are submerged two-storeys deep.
Eighty teams of Army doctors have also
fanned out across the affected areas. National
Disaster Relief Force teams remained a key part
of the operations using their distinctive inflatable
boats to rescue stranded civilians. The Border
Roads Organisation had opened the roads from
Batot and Kishtwar, and the Jammu-Srinagar
highway was opened to light vehicles, and was
assisting in the restoration of the cellphone net-
work.
Rescued people narrated stories of the
worst nightmare of their lives. They said the
cries for help of many others in their areas had
stopped, indicating they had either died or had
resigned to their fate and knew the chances of
their survival were bleak. Reports said that the
state government and its organs were missing
in action while the Army was seen busy rescu-
ing people.
The J&K floods have been declared a
national calamity and the prime minister has
announced a Rs 1000 crore aid to the state to
meet the rescue and rehabilitation challenge but
the local as well as central authorities as well as
civil society and charity organisations response
has been lethargic. Corporates which have
huge funds for Social Responsibility schemes
have shown no interest. Foreign countries are
yet to wake up to the continuing tragedy. Arab
countries which rush emergency aid if a calami-
ty strikes a western country are no where to be
seen.
AFSANA RASHID could not file her report due
to breakdown of electricity and Internet. Please
pray for the safety of her father and sisters who
remain untraced till MG press time.
Would it be fair to accord some credibility
and legitimacy to the recent announcement
made by a non-Indian militant leader
about opening a branch of his militant group
in India? The hype raised over his
announcement in media as well as certain
political and diplomatic circles certainly
gives the impression that India needs to be
alert over this militant leaders intentions.
This is equivalent to assuming that India has not been on alert
over prospects of various terrorist groups entry into this
country. In fact, had India not been continuously on the alert,
the country may not have been as safe and peaceful as it is at
present.
True, on and off, domestic skirmishes, at times of commu-
nal nature, still keep occurring in this country. But these are
linked with internal, socio-political issues of the country.
Internal problems, including communal clashes, cannot be
linked with foreign militant groups agenda, whether it is
labelled as jihadi or hindutvadi.
Interestingly, the militant leaders announcement has
failed to stir Indian Muslims even marginally or nominally.
Majority of Indian Muslims are not even aware of such
militant leaders and their groups existence in other coun-
tries. A large percentage of Indian Muslims who are con-
scious of their presence are least interested in being associ-
ated with them.
Without doubt, the militant leaders decision to open a
wing of his group in India has earned him plenty of publicity
across the world. Indirectly, this also proves this militant
leaders concern about his group lacking supporters in India.
If the group really had active members in India, he would
probably have refrained from issuing such an announcement.
He would have probably preferred carrying on his task quiet-
ly. Giving it publicity is equivalent to setting Indian defence
and security forces on alert against the activities of this and
similar militant groups. A militant leader seriously concerned
about attracting Indian Muslims to his group is not expected
to lay a trap for his own agents being caught in their attempt
to open a wing in India. After all, what else does the telecast
of his video indicate? As headlines read, India is on alert.
The militant leader is probably least concerned about his
video having put India on alert. If he were, there would not
have been any video of his so-called aim to open a branch of
his militant group in a strong and alert country. Without such
a daring video the militant leader would not have earned so
much publicity across the world. This probably was his key
mission -- earn publicity, receive media coverage, political as
well as diplomatic attention and remain in the limelight for
some time. Had the video focussed on opening more branch-
es of his militant group in Afghanistan or Pakistan, it probably
would not have received any attention.
Chances of any international militant group, with or with-
out a religious label, succeeding in India are extremely limit-
ed. Geographically, area-wise, India is the seventh largest
country in the world and second most populated. Socially,
India is home to major religions of the world. It has the sec-
ond largest population of Muslims in the world, who form
about 15 per cent of Indias population. Indian Muslims rep-
resent 24 percent of the global population of Muslims. The
population of Indian Muslims is too large, diverse and wide-
spread in the country to be easily influenced by a terrorist or
extremist external group.
If Indian Muslims were geographically concentrated in a
few pockets and if their community could be labelled as unit-
ed, without any major differences, the situation may have
been different. Differences and certain divisions within Indian
Muslims are to a degree also responsible for their being
devoid of any common political party and of any person or
group regarded as representative of the entire Indian Muslim
community. Cultural differences, including commonly spoken
languages, dress as well as political leanings among Indian
Muslims vary remarkably from region to region. In addition,
differences within Indian Muslims of groups, caste and class
cannot also be overlooked. These include their being viewed
as Sunni or Shia, as well as groups such as Syed, Sheikh,
Pathan and also their professional and economic status. The
importance of these differences is marked by their being
given great importance to this day by Indian Muslim families
while deliberating on matrimonial relations.
Besides, religious freedom allowed in India as a part of its
secular system together with its democratic, constitutional,
cultural and historical roots leaves little scope for terrorism
with religious labels to progress here. In Indias capital city,
within a range of few kilometres, it is not surprising to come
across several places of worship representing different com-
munities, including Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
There is nothing surprising about Indian Muslims having
unintentionally or deliberately ignored the militant leaders
call for their support. Their approach has probably compelled
international experts and critics on counter-terrorism to
regard his idea of opening a branch in India as crazy a
clear failure indeed!
Speaki ng Out
Indian Muslims & Al-
Qaedas Non-existent
Indian Wing!
NI LOFAR SUHRAWARDY
ANALYSIS The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 11 www.milligazette.com
M GHAZALI KHAN
My immediate reaction after reading
Kaleem Kawaja Sahebs article Why
Indian Muslim Communitys English
Newspapers fail? [MG 1-15 Sep
2014] was simply to lament,
HazaaroN khuwahisheN aisi keh har
khuwahish pe dam nikle.
His comments on these net-
works on the issues and challenges
being faced by Indian Muslims and
his contribution and active participa-
tion in educational work and his
effor ts in trying to keep Indian
Muslim news portals and publica-
tions alive is a testimony to his sin-
cerity and his genuine desire for the
Indian Muslims to have their own
media that can compete with the
mainstream national media.
What he has written is not
impossible to achieve. However, in the light of ground realities and
past experiences this is an extremely uphill task. Sadly, what many
members have said about Indian Muslim news outlets is also true
about Muslim media in Britain and the experience of the publishers
of Muslim magazines is not different from their brethren in India.
Echoing almost similar sentiments as expressed by Kawaja
Saheb, Razi Raziuddin Saheb [he moderates a yahoogroup], whose
pragmatic and practical approach and positive activism is known to
all of us, has suggested the launch of a Modern Secular
Professional Muslim Media.
The discussion on the failure/future of Muslim publications was
triggered by an announcement by Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, editor and
publisher of The Milli Gazette, that the esteemed fortnightly may
have to be stopped.
Needless to say that to bring out a publication with meagre
resources and continue it regularly without interruption, without the
backing of any organisation must have been a big challenge and
therefore The Milli Gazettes editor MUST be congratulated for this
selfless and valuable service to the community. Except some very
childish and immature comments posted on Facebook, majority of
the writers on Indian Muslim internet forums have acknowledged
and praised the efforts of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan Saheb.
In criticising or evaluating the success or failure of Indian
Muslim English newspapers most of the contributors have ignored
an important aspect, the debilitating impact of internet on print
media. The mushrooming and availability of free online news serv-
ices and news portals has made the survival difficult for print edi-
tions of big and well-known publications like the Newsweek let
alone a financially starving and under resourced publication like The
Milli Gazette.
However, the positive impact of internet should also be
acknowledged. It is simply due to the internet today that, Masha
Allah, we have several Indian Muslim news portals. And it was due
to the internet that at one time the rating of The Milli Gazettes web-
site, in 2002, was higher than many Indian news regimes and that
was the right time when The Milli Gazettes publishers should have
paid more attention to its website even if it meant closure of the
print edition.
As for Razi Sahebs suggestion to launch a Modern Secular
Professional Muslim Media, I am not sure how can a balance
between religious ethos and the demands of secularism be main-
tained? Believing in a secular system of government is one thing
but practicing secularism in every aspect of life is another. One
wonders how a Modern Secular Professional Muslim Media will
reconcile with the pressure of recognising the so-called gay
rights and the issue of interfaith marriages etc. If secular outlook
means a rather milder approach on Muslim issues then in Syed
Hamid Sahebs Nation and the World, we have a good example of
such an attempt that, sadly, also did not succeed.
Lets hope and pray that the efforts to save this valuable organ
succeed and The Milli Gazette continues to serve the community.
However, without substantial subscriptions and advertisements no
newspaper or magazine can survive for long and when it comes to
subscriptions our community does not have a good history of sup-
porting its publications. There is an unexpressed and undeclared
demand that anything published in the name of Islam and Muslims
should be available for free.
I also think it necessary to deal with some of the uncharitable
comments and criticism on Indian Muslim newspapers expressed
by some of the contributors.
If the complaint is about the style and quality of journalism and
getup of these publications, I would like to mention that in early
1980s Arabia The Islamic World Review was published by the
Islamic Press Agency, owned by the Saudi businessman
Salahuddin, Afkar Inquiry financed by Iran and the independent
magazine Impact International. All were well produced and pub-
lished from London but failed to attract subscribers and advertise-
ments. The Muslim News, presently the only Muslim publication
that is somehow surviving, has a very poor support from the com-
munity. In order to save printing cost last year it reduced its pages
from 20 to 12. If one wants to see how a community publication is
supported he/she will need to see the print edition of Jewish News
that has more than 25 percent of its print space covered with adver-
tisements.
Following sensational style of Urdu Press
Only the publishers would know how hurtful such sweeping
remarks are but as a neutral reader and observer of Urdu press and
English language publications of Indian Muslims, to say the least, I
find such expressions farfetched allegations without any substance
whatsoever. One fails to understand what is meant by sensation-
alism. I have never seen anything in Radiance, MG or any other
publication that could fall in the category of sensationalism. I would
be grateful if these allegations are substantiated with any proof.
Poor contents and bad quality of journalism
In expecting these poorly-financed and poorly-staffed publications
to compete with mainstream publica-
tions, we should not forget the fact
that a community magazine/newspa-
per is different from a commercial
publication. A commercial publication
is market- and profit-focussed while
the mission of a community publica-
tion is to present issues and views
and more so the values of a commu-
nity.
A commercial magazine accord-
ing to its nature tends to have a team
of well-paid and well-trained in-house
and freelance writers who specialise
in politics, international affairs, social
issues, science and technology, envi-
ronment, finance, sports,
literature/culture/films etc.
To some extent this problem can
be easily tackled though, provided
Muslim professionals in various
fields-science, health, education,
agriculture, environment, history, banking, technology etc.-volun-
teer to come forward and take the responsibility of contributing on
these issues.
There are a number of professional Muslim journalists who are
active on these networks and are based almost in every part of the
world but hardly anyone of them has bothered to help a Muslim
publication. Dispatching a story on a weekly/fortnightly basis is not
such a difficult thing. From their contributions posted on these net-
works some members appear to be avid readers. They can help a
Muslim publication by reviewing new books.
The maximum number of staff in a community publication is
hardly more than 4-5 who edit, write, rewrite on each and every
issue, look after even the administrative aspects (subscription and
running of the office etc.) and also cover events if invited.
An editor having to design the pages (newspaper/magazine
designing requires special training) of a newspaper is the most
painful wastage of his time. How can an editor, under such condi-
tions, be expected to produce well-laid-out pages with illustrations,
attractive headings and sub-headings, illustrations and properly
edited photographs?
Why always lament and not publish positive reports?
The community has to ask itself if it wants Muslim newspapers to
close their eyes and ignore ground realities. Along with economic
miseries and growing threat to physical existence the impact of
Gujarat riots lingers on, Muzaffarnagar riot victims are still in relief
camps and continue to face intimidation while small-scale riots
continue to go unabated. And now Love Jihad has added a new
dimension to the communitys juxtaposed problems. Obviously,
articles on these issues do not make a pleasant reading. So what
should Muslim publications do? Ignore these realities and fill pages
with feel good items?
As for positive news and success stories, let every member of
these networks honestly answer this question: how many of us
have ever bothered to feed these publications with what we call
positive news and success stories? As for Muslim celebrities, I am
not sure how many of them would oblige a Muslim newspaper with
an interview.
Along with a drive for subscriptions if Muslim journalists and
other professionals who are active on these networks, and majori-
ty of whom write well, commit to use their skills for milli cause and
contribute to The Milli Gazette together we can make it a very suc-
cessful milli organ.
Muslim Media: our role and expectations
12 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 NEWSMAKERS www.milligazette.com
SYED SHABAAN OSAMA
BUKHARI, 18-year old son
of Jama Masjid Delhis
Imam, Maulana Sayed
Ahmad Bukhari is to be
installed as Naaeb Imam
(Viceregent) or successor
to the present Imam of
Jama Masjid (Maulana
Sayed Ahmad Bukhari) at a function to be held on
22 November 2014 when the traditional Imamah or
turban will be tied on his head by Imam Bukhari
himself. This announcement was made by Maulana
Syed Ahmad Bukhari himself recently on a Friday. It
may be stated that this tradition of nominating
Naeeb Imam of the historical Jama Masjid has
been going on from Moghul (Shah Jahans) period
when Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah Bukhari from
Samarqands city Bukhara was installed as the first
Imam of Jama Masjid in 1656. The office of Jama
Masjid Delhis Imam is hereditary and the present
Imam Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari is the 13th
Imam of Jama Masjid. Syed Shabaan Osama
Bokhari is presently a student in Amity University
doing BSW but religious education is being impart-
ed to him at home by a Mufti and a Qari so as to
make him well versed in religious education which
obviously is a must for the Shahi Imam, nay for
Imams of all masjids.
MAULANA JAVED AABDI, senior Samajwadi Party
leader, Partys national secretary who enjoys the
status of minister of state in UP has been appoint-
ed Chairman of UP Pollution Control Board by the
UP government.
SHAHRUKH KHAN, Bollywood super star has been
included by Interpol (shor tened version of
International Police) as its brand ambassador for
promoting greater awareness in preventing crimes.
Interpol is the largest police organisation of the
world of which 190 countries are members, with
Headquarters at Lyon (France).
MAULANA OBAIDULLAH AZMI, former MP and a
fearless and fiery orator has been appointed gener-
al secretary of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In
and outside Parliament he always took up the
cause of Muslims strongly.
ABDUR RASHID ANSARI has been re-appointed
national president of BJPs minority cell. President
of All India Shia-Sunni Front and social worker, Dr
Sardar Khan and many others have welcomed his
appointment to this post by BJP. His re-appoint-
ment was made by BJPs national President Amit
Shah.
FATEMA, a girl of Nepali parents and resident of
Araria district (Bihar)s Forbesganj who lived in red
light area of this city recently won Rs 25 lakhs in
Amitabh Bachchans TV programme Kaun Banega
Crorepati. Married to a pimp more than four times
of her age, when she was only 9, efforts were
made to put her also in flesh trade but she revolted
and came out of that area along with her husband
and insisted on him to earn livelihood honestly and
respectably. He became a tempo driver. She joined
an NGO and has started a movement to remove as
many girls as possible from flesh trade. Presently
30, she is mother of six children who are receiving
good education away from such atmosphere. She
also got many children of that area admitted to
schools so that after completing education they
may lead honourable life.
Prof (Dr) SYED SUHAIL AMEEN, Associate
Professor of Dermatology in AMUs JN Medical
College has been re-appointed President of the
Department of Dermatology for three years. He
strted Cosmo Laser Therapy, Photo Therapy and
Cosmo Laser clinic and Leposy clinic in this
Department. Another appointment in AMU is that of
Dr Parvez Mahmood Khan who has been appoint-
ed Director of Universitys Computer Department.
Mrs FARHAT ZEBA, a lecturer in Ranchis
Womens College has been conferred PhD
Degree by Ranchi University for her writings on
Allama Iqbals patriotic poetry which she com-
pleted under the supervision of Dr Hasan Raza,
litterateur and critic and former Reader (Urdu) in
Ranchi University.
MEN & WOMEN IN NEWS
OBITUARIES
GHOOLAM EESAJI VAHANWATI, first Muslim Attorney General of India
died of heart attack in Mumbais Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital
on 2 September at the age of 65 years. He was appointed to this post
by UPA government in June 2009 as the 13th Attorney General of India
and held this most important legal post for the longest period till May
2014 when he resigned after the formation of BJP-led Modi government
at the Centre. Before holding this post he was Solicitor General of India.
He leaves behind his wife, one son and one daughter.
SHEIKH ABUL FAZL MUHAMMAD bin Abdur Rahman, noted religious scholar of Kerala and
former member of Sunni Jamiatul Ulamas Majlis-e Shoora died in Calicut on 22 August at the
age of 84 years after a prolonged illness. He was also a great scholar of Arabic and wrote many
books in Arabic.
MUHAMMAD FAZAL, an economist and former secretary to the government of India who was
appointed governor of Maharasthra after his retirement died at his residence in Allahabad on 4
September at the age of 92 years. He leaves behind three sons and one daughter. According
to his son, he died in sleep.
WALI AHMAD WALI, poet and author of Muzaffarpur (Bihar) died recently in this city. M. A.,
LLB., B.Ed and PhD (Urdu) Degree holder, he was equally well versed in English and Persian
and served as Urdu translator in Bihar governmentz. He used to write on criticism in India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh literary magazines.
Dr RASHID KHAN, an important and popular personality of Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin, noted
poet, doctor and acupuncturist died of heart attack on 23 August at the age of 63 years. A great
lover and promoter of Urdu, an anthology of his poems has also been published. He leaves
behind two sons and two daughters.
Veteran journalist and a prominent human rights activist, BALRAJ PURI, 86, passed away
on 30 August after a prolonged illness. He is survived by widow, daughter Ellora Puri and
son Luv Puri. Born on August 5, 1928, he began his career in journalism as an editor of
Kashmir Sansar, an Urdu weekly in 1942 and later edited Urdu daily Sach in 1950. He was
also in-charge editor of monthly New Socialist (1957-69); edited bimonthly Kashmir
Affairs (1959-61) and published bimonthly Human Rights (1993). Puri was a graduate of
the erstwhile Prince of Wales College (now Government Gandhi Memorial Science
College). He founded students movement in Jammu during 1946 and raised Peace
Volunteer Corps in 1947 against political riots. He had the distinction of forming the first
opposition par ty, PSP, in Kashmir and Jammu divisions and intervened in Kashmir prob-
lem during crucial occasions including theft of holy relic from Hazratbal and 1986 riots.
He also played par t as mediator between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah which led to
1975 Accord between them. By vir tue of this accord, Sheikh Abdullah became the Chief
Minister of J&K. He was a prolific writer and regular contributor to various newspapers
including MG. A political activist, social worker, Human Rights advocate Puri was con-
ferred Padma Bhushan in 2005 and also the Indira Gandhi award for national integration
on October 31, 2009. He was a suppor ter of Quit Kashmir Movement launched by Sheikh
Mohammad Abdullah against the Dogra rule in 1946. He attended J&K State Peoples
Conference in Srinagar in 1968 as the sole representative from Jammu on its steering
committee. Puri was a prolific writer and authored more than 35 books on different top-
ics.
MAULANA HASEEB SIDDIQI, Chairman of All
India Economic Council and General Manager of
Muslim Fund Trust, Deoband has been honoured
by Indo-Nepal Samrasta International Mission at
International Cultural Harmony Summit held in
Kathmandu (Nepal) in recognition of his social,
educational and economic services. The Award,
consisting of a Gold Medal, Shawl etc was pre-
sented to him by the Vice President of Nepal,
Permanand Jha on 24 August.
Sahitya Academys Childrens Literature Awards
for two categories i.e. one for books published
for the first time during the period from 1
January 2007 to 31 December 2011 and for
second category for books published for the first
time during the period from 1 January 2008 to
31 December 2012 were announced from
Chennai and Guwahati respectively. For the sec-
ond category of Baal Puraskar Awards and Yuva
(Youth) Puraskar Awards for books written in 24
Indian languages, poet Mahboob Rahis book in
Urdu Ranga Rang Puhlwaari (poetry) and for
Yuva Puraskar Award, young poet Iltifaat
Amjadis book Chiknay Paat (Rubayees) were
selected for awards. Mahboob Rahi has been
writing books for children (in poetry as well as in
prose) for the past about 50 years. Iltifaat
Amjadi, a young poets three anthologies of
rubayees have been published at a time when he
is quite young. Youth writers / poets of 35 or
less years as on 1 January 2014 were consid-
ered for Yuva Award. The Awards for both i.e.
Baal as well as Yuva authors / poets are Rs
50,000 and Academys Logo along with certifi-
cates will be given at a later date.
MIRAQ MIRZA, noted film
and fiction writer and poet-
ess has been honoured by
UP Urdu Academy for her
book Sooraj ke Aas Paas
for its 2014 Award.
Basically a film and screen
writer, she is also a creative
writer and is associated with creative literature.
Her Award wining book is an anthology of 129
ghazals whose characteristic is that in all cou-
plets of this book, the word Sooraj has been
used beautifully and meaningfully.
Ms NIDA, a promising student of 9th class of
Nawab Mahmood Ansari Girls Inter College has
been honoured with Inspired Award along with
a cheque of Rs 5000.
Poets NAYAB of Ballia (UP) and Meesam
Gopalpuri were honoured with Shahzad
Masoomi Memorial Award 2014 at a function
recently held at Patna. The Award consists of a
memento, shawl, certificate and cheque of Rs
5000 each.
In the sad demise of Balraj Puri at Jammu
on 30 August India has lost a great cham-
pion of human rights and a political analyst
of high repute. He was 86. He was partic-
ipant in momentous political events such
like Quit India Movement of 1942 and
Quit Kashmir Movement of 1946 in
association with Sheikh Abdullah and Pt.
Prem Nath Bazaz against the Dogra ruler
Maharaja Hari Singh. He did his utmost to
prevent the outbreak of communal vio-
lence and check its spread in Jammu in
1947 and on many occasions thereafter,
even at the risk to his life. Pt. Jawahar Lal
Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India,
sought his opinion on Kashmir affairs on
crucial occasions. Puri always tried to
bridge the gap between Nehru and Sheikh
Abdullah. He rendered great help in the
conclusion of Indira Gandhi-Sheikh
Abdullah Accord in 1974.
Puris activities encompassed various
fields -from active social and political to
academic and journalistic work of high
standard. His friends and associates are writing about his many-
faceted work elsewhere. However, I would confine myself to
some aspects of his human rights work in which I had the privi-
lege to associate with him on few occasions.
Jayprakash Narayan had inaugurated the Citizens For
Democracy in April 1974 at Delhi and he became its founding
member. I came in touch with him at that time. He was also a
founding member of the PUCL in 1976. He was a member of
the National Council of both
the organizations for several
years and was very active.
Militancy had started in
Kashmir at the end of 1989
and by the start of January
1990, Jammu & Kashmir was
under Governors rule under
Jagmohan. Militancy was at
its peak leading to killings of
large number of people -both
Muslims and non-Muslims
whom the militants suspected
as government agents and it
led to exodus of Kashmiri
Pandits on a large scale. On
the other hand, the entire
Kashmir valley was placed
under army rule and the
Kashmir police was sent to the
barracks by Jagmohan as he
suspected almost all
Kashmiris. Clashes between
militants and security forces
were daily occurrences and indiscriminate firings by the security
forces in retaliation was resulting into large number of casualties
of innocent people. Curfew used to be imposed between 21 to
22 hours daily which was causing great deal of misery and hard-
ship to the people and this situation continued for several
months. "Patriotic" Indian journalists were crying for blood and
asking Governor to block the electricity, water supply and the
other essential necessities from reaching the people with a view
to discipline them. There were frantic messages to the PUCL
and CFD from the people in the valley requesting them to send
a team to investigate the human rights violations by the security
forces.
It was with the initiative and assistance of Balraj Puri that a
team of PUCL & CFD was formed for the purpose which visited
the valley in the last week of March 1990. The team members
were Justice V.M. Tarkunde (Retd.), Justice Rajinder Sachar
(Retd.), Balraj Puri, Inder Mohan, Ranjan Dewedi, T.S. Ahuja
and myself. On the first day when we were at Hazaratbal in
Srinagar in connection with an incident, suddenly 4-5 militants
with AK-47 rifles appeared and began to enquire about us and
our purpose. Our local guide conversed with them in Kashmiri.
He told the militants that we were Christians and not Hindus as
he feared that militants might do some harm if they come to know
that team members were Hindus. We did not know Kashmiri but
Balraj Puri knew and as soon as he heard the team members
being described as Christians he became angry and reprimand-
ed our guide. He told the militants that we were not Christians
but Hindus and that we were not representing the government or
any party but were representing Indian human rights organiza-
tions and had come to the valley for the cause of "Insani Haquq".
Militants appeared to be confused and after some deliberations
among themselves disappeared from the scene.
The report which was brought out by the team exposed the
darker side of the rule of Jagmohan at that time and was wide-
ly discussed and debated nationally and internationally.
Subsequently several human rights teams visited Kashmir val-
ley and in most of them Balraj Puri used to be either a part of the
team or as adviser. He not only took up the issues of human
rights violations in Kashmir but also of Punjab, Northeast and
other parts of India.
He had deep commitment to human rights issues and his
whole life was a supreme dedication to the cause of secularism.
He has always been a great inspiration to me and many others
in the human right s movement.
N.D.PANCHOLI
B A L R A J P U R I
AWARDS
AMU students fabricate Formula Car
SPECIAL REPORT The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 13 www.milligazette.com
Aligarh: On the occasion of release of the Annual
Newsletter of the Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE-ZHCET) Student Chapter on 6
September, AMU VC Zameeruddin Shah launched
a website www.saezhcet.com which was created
by the students who are in the process of design-
ing a Hybrid Formula Car for participating in for-
mula Hybrid-2016 to be held in New Hamsphire,
USA with the help of the Federation of AMU
Alumni. A prototype of this car was exhibited o
the occasion. The Faculty of Engineering stu-
dents has been fabricating different vehicles like
a Formula One car, all-terrain vehicles, an electric
Hybrid vehicle for National events like SUPRA,
BAJA, EFFICYCLE and bringing laurels to the uni-
versity.
In a related development, AMU has estab-
lished an Innovation Council to tap innovative
skills and to promote research activities. It will be
headed by the Pro Vice-Chancellor. The
University has also instituted two awards incen-
tivizing research in the University. The
Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award of
Rupees One lakh shall be given away each year
for the best research performed during one
Academic Session to a University teacher among
the Faculties of Science, Life Sciences including
Interdisciplinary Biotech Unit, Engineering &
Technology, Medicine, Unani Medicine and
Agriculture. Similarly, another Outstanding
Researcher of the Year Award of Rs. One lakh
shall be given away each year for the best
research performed during one Academic
Session to a University teacher among the
Faculties of Ar ts, Social Sciences, Law,
Commerce, Management Studies & Research
and Theology.
The Innovation Council has also decided to
hold every year Sir Syed
Innovation Festival and instituted
two Best Innovation of the Year
prizes, one for University student
and the other for the University
school student.
The Best Innovation of the Year
prize of Rs. 50,000 shall be
awarded to a University student
and another Best Innovation of
the Year prize of Rs. 25,000 will
be awarded to a University
school student for the best inno-
vation displayed or showcased in
the Sir Syed Innovation Festival.
Y
u
s
u
f
/
M
G
Aligarh: Twenty-seven students of the Aligarh
Muslim University's Bridge Course for
Madrasa passouts in Aligarh Muslim
University created history by qualifying
admission tests for various courses in and
outside AMU in the open category, while the
remaining three students are in the waiting
list, making the result 100 percent.
The novel course was launched by the
AMU last year on the initiative of the Vice
Chancellor, Zameer Uddin Shah who has
expressed satisfaction and happiness on the
exemplary success of the madrasa students.
He said, "This success justifies his faith that
these students have immense potential if
given an opportunity".
Out of the successful students, Jalauddin
has secured admission in BA Islamic Studies
in Jamia Millia Islamia, while Mohammad
Belal has got admission to Tib in Jamia
Hamdard. Mohammad Fahim Akhtar has been
offered admission to BALLB while Abdur
Rahim and Nayeem Akhtar have got admis-
sion to English, Atiqur Rahman, Atif Javed,
Ukasha, Zubair Ahmad, Irshad Ahmad and
Ahmad Samani to Economics, Rizwanullah to
Political Science, Haseer Khan and Junaid
Alam to Islamic Studies, Sarwar Alam,
Ahmadullah, Abdul Mubeen and Mohammad
Asif in Arabic and Sharafat Husain, Abrar
Alam, Ajmal Husain, Moammad Noman,
Musabbiha, Mushahid Raza, Razaq Ahmad,
Mohammad Faizan Raza and Ahmadul Haq in
Urdu in AMU.
The record success of madrasa gradu-
ates in the modern education stream will
encourage other madrasa passouts in the
country to pursue higher education in science
and humanities like their counterparts in any
institution of modern education.
Record success of Bridge
Course passouts
SHUBHRADEEP CHAKRAVORTY
Noted documentary filmmaker, human rights activist, journalist and writer
Shubhradeep Chakravorty died on 24 August morning after a brief illness.
He suffered a massive brain haemorrhage after which he was admitted in
Delhi's AIIMS but he never recovered.
He died young at the age of 42. He is survived by mother, two brothers
and wife Mira Choudheri who helped him in making his documentaries. His
body was cremated at Manglapuri crematorium near Palam.
Shubhradeep was born in Kolkata in 1972 but had made Delhi his
home. A journalist by training and documentary filmmaker by passion, he
had made four famous documentaries during the last 10 years.
His first documentary was "Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail". It was about
the tragic incident of 27 Feb. 2002 in which coach S6 of Sabarmati
Express got burnt down at Godhra railway station in Gujarat. He tried to
find out what actually happened at the railway station on that day and how
far the allegation of a conspiracy is true. The incident was used to start massive anti-Muslim riots in
Gujarat.
His next film was "Encountered on Saffron Agenda?" It was about the infamous fake encounters of
Gujarat which perpetrated to portray Modi as a great hero who was targeted by terrorists.
In 2012, Chakravorty brought out his third documentary, "Out of Court Settlement". It was about
beating up, intimidation and killing of several defence lawyers across the country who were appearing in
terror cases.
The same year, he made his fourth work "After the Storm" - a film about seven former terror-
accused youth who were acquitted by various courts. It highlighted their ordeal and miseries and how
they were fighting to survive even after their innocence was pronounced by courts.
His last film was "In Dino Muzaffarnagar" which was not passed by the CBFC which made Shubhradeep
very depressed. It is hard-hitting indictment of Hindutva politics that led to the violence in UP. His appeal
to the Appellate Tribunal was also rejected.
A note from Shubhradeep's Facebook wall
Two hours and twenty seven minutes long En Dino Muzaffarnagar by Shubhradeep Chakravorty & Meera
Chaudhary is going to be recorded in the history as the first documentary film banned under prime min-
ister Modi. Gagging order came on 30th June. Today we applied in Film Certification Appellate Tribunal
(FCAT) for redressal of our grievances. We will not go down without a fight. Lets hope for the best.
Note 1- We need this post to be shared to spread the word around.
Note 2- Short Synopsis of 'En Dino Muzaffarnagar' Muzaffarnagar is barely 128 kms away from India's
national capital Delhi and had faced riots first time in its history. Interestingly, the phenomenon of riots in
villages is completely new for the whole region. Documentary film 'En Dino Muzaffarnagar' is an investiga-
tive documentation of the riots of Muzaffarnagar and its socio - political outfall. It is a tale of what led to
the riots at first and what happened in the aftermath of it. This riot was anti-Muslim and more than 60 peo-
ple died and 42000 people displaced in the process. This documentary is a story of grief, hate and fear
that shows how local power politics turns the pages of the history to rewrite it. Why riots happened in the
villages for the first time, how riots affected the symbiosis of brotherhood in the villages between two com-
munities and how the loss of the grief stricken farmers can't be justified with few vested interest playing
the power games. Regards, Shubhradeep Chakravorty, New Stream Media, 674, Kamal Vihar Apartments,
Plot number 5, Sector 7, Dwarika, New Delhi 110075, Tel.91-9868226579, 011-25086613,
shubhradeep@gmail.com
Cops torture Bangalore Muslim to death
Bangalore: Mubarak Basha died on 30
August, 12 days after detention. This was
the second case of its kind of late. Earlier a
scrap dealer succumbed to police torture
meted out during an illegal detention. This
time, it's Koramangala police which arrest-
ed 37-year-old Mubarak Basha, a resident
of L R Nagar, and declared him dead 12
days after his detention on August 19 as a
suspect in a series of chain-snatching inci-
dents. He was kept in police custody till
August 26. A case was booked later on the
same day and he was sent to judicial cus-
tody, his wife Reshma, a mother of three (a
daughter and two sons), told Bangalore
Mirror. But on August 31, Parappana Agrahara prison officials rushed him to Jayadeva Institute of
Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, where he was declared brought dead. Reshma, 35, a
pourakarmika with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), alleged torture meted out dur-
ing illegal detention was the cause of his death.
This was the second instance of death due to alleged police torture reported during the past
fortnight. A cabbie, 24-year-old Pradeep Eranaiah Kumar, a resident of Lakshmipura, committed
suicide on August 23 after alleged torture by KG Nagar police.
The deceased Basha's wife Reshma alleged that her husband was meted out third degree pun-
ishment, including the infamous 'Bombay Cut' (wherein the person is tied, made to squat, and
caned). "Around 12 pm on August 19, my husband was picked up while coming out of sessions
court after attending hearing in a dacoity case He was in custody till August 26. Though I repeat-
edly visited the station, I was sent back by the police stating he wasn't there. A colleague of mine,
however, confirmed to have seen my husband inside the lock-up. But a case was booked only on
August 26 - after a full week of illegal detention. Later, he was produced before a magistrate and
sent to judicial custodyMy husband told that he was asked to either own up to snatching a few
chains or to point out some 2-3 suspects, failing which he would be booked. He was made to under-
go Bombay Cut punishment. His feet and lower knee had turned black. This could only be due to
the third degree meted out by the police," Reshma told Bangalore Mirror. (Excerpted from
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Cops-tortured-husband-claims-wife/arti-
cleshow/41368989.cms)
A scene from En Dino Muzaffarnagar
Mubarak Basha and his wife Reshma
Special issue of Digital Learning on
Muslim educational institutions
New Delhi: An impression has been created deliberately or inad-
vertently that Muslims are educationally very backward or that
they do not contribute in the educational field. This impression,
however is contrary to facts because they are not only acquiring
education fast but are also not behind others in promoting edu-
cation among themselves as well as for others. During the past
two decades they have set up many large and good quality insti-
tutions for primary as well as higher education, including techni-
cal and professional education, in different parts of the country
which benefit not only Muslims but non-Muslims as well on a
large scale. Head of National Commission for Minorities
Educational Institution's womens education wing Committee on
Girls Education, Dr Shabistaan Ghaffar has been trying to bring
this fact to the knowledge of people. At her behest, the only
English magazine of its kind Digital Learning is bringing out a
special issue in order to highlight the valuable contributions of
Muslims in the educational field. An introduction will be made of
Muslim institutions in the fields of higher academic, technical
and professional education in different parts of the country like
Pune, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Hydearbad, Lucknow, Shillong,
Chennai, Gulbarga, Vellore etc, in this magazine. This will prob-
ably be the first attempts of its kind in which detailed accounts
of Muslims educational institutions will be made.
In addition to this, Minorities Educational Institution, Its
Committee on Girls / Womens Education and All India
Confederation for Womens Empowerment Through Education
have held an educational conference in cooperation with Digital
Learning Magazine on 7 and 8 August in New Delhi. This will be
the fourth annual conference of World Education Summit in
which a special session on the education of minorities and serv-
ices of Muslims in the educational field has been arranged.
Discussions on the educational problems of Muslims and their
solution was also held in this conference. Dr ShabistaaN Ghaffar
says that during the past twenty years Muslims have made envi-
able progress in the field of education and they have set up many
large educational institutions, colleges and universities but a
large section of the country is unaware of this. Hence a special
issue of Digital Learning magazine is being brought out to high-
light these facts. Dr ShabistaaN said that Dr Mahboobul Haq has
set up a science and technology university in the far off and
backward region of Meghalay. In Pune (Poona), with the efforts
of P. A. Inamdar, Azam Campus is in no way less than a univer-
sity. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Assam, Rajasthan and Maharashtra medical, engineering col-
leges and other colleges and institutions of higher learning and
education are playing an important role in the countrys higher
and technical education. Among these Al Ameen Group, ShadaN
Educational Group, Darul Islam Educational Trust, Anjuman
Khairul Islam Trust, Maulana Azad Educational Trust, Ajmal
Foundation, Muslim Educational, Social & Cultural Organisation,
JTD Islam Group of Institutions, Rifahul Muslimeen Educational
Trust and Marwar Muslim Educational Trust etc are worth men-
tioning which are running many institutions of higher arts, scien-
tific and technical education. In the same way Muslims have set
up hundreds of English medium public schools in which boys
and girls irrespective of caste or creed are acquiring education.
Dr ShabistaaN Ghaffar said that in the World Education Summits
4th annual conference distinguished Muslim personalities who
are actively working in the educational field are also invited
among whom are Vice Chancellor Dr Mahbobul Haq,
P A Inamdar, Sirajuddin Ajmal, Dr Fakhruddin Muhammad and
other educationists. This conference will be held under the guid-
ance of chairman of National Commission for Minorities
Educational Institutions, Justice (Retd) Suhail Ahmad Siddiqi.
Nizamuddin Aulia represented the best of Indian Culture
New Delhi: Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia was the most influential Sufi
saint who represented the secular character of the Indian culture,
said Prof. Akhtarul Wasey. Delivering the 2nd Hazrat Nizamuddin
Aulia Memorial Lecture on Tasawwuf: Tareef, Taaruf aur
Ahmiat
here on 27 August at Jamia, Prof. Wasey observed that Hazrat
Nizamuddin Aulia promoted universal understanding in the serv-
ice of humanity. Prof. Wasey went on to elaborate how
Nizamuddin Aulia empowered masses to transcend categories of
caste, creed, colour, region and race and became spiritual men-
tor for people. He represented the Sufi way of life. Prof. Wasey
cautioned people against fissiparous tendencies and rumours
that have potential to rupture the secular fabric of India. He coun-
seled the audience to promote secular tradition of India that had
no room for divisive forces. He felt that all such forces did dis-
service to Indian nation and humanity at large.
Gulbarga Muslim edu institutions should strive for meeting
the needs of modern times
Gulbarga: This citys Hayat Education Trust held a Personality
Development Programme in KBN Auditorium on 10 August.
Speaking on this occasion the Trusts Chairman & CEO Abdul
Saleem Khalifa (an NRI) said that the citys Muslim educational
institutions, in addition to their present and traditional system of
education and training, need to pay attention on raising the edu-
cational standard, imparting training to capable and promising
boy and girl students, promoting a sense of competition in them
in modern times and their personality development also. This
programme was organised for boy and girl students, their par-
ents and guardians and teachers. He said that heads of Muslim
educational institutions, teachers and lecturers should also be
mindful about milli interests and excellence and should lay down
action plans and programmes for their presence and representa-
tion at regional, national and international levels in different fields
of life. He said that these educational institutions (of Gulbarga)
are devoting most of their efforts and attention to producing doc-
tors and engineers only whereas the need is to provide art and
professional courses so as to prepare and train them for IAS, IPS
and different administrative and political posts so as to make
possible their access to the respectable and exalted posts of
ministers, chief ministers, prime minister, governor and
President of the country.
With reference to Sachar Committees recommendations, he
said that there are two main reasons for the backwardness of
Muslims, one of which is that there are no good mutual contacts
among them and the other is that they do not want to understand
each other and respect each other. He stressed the point that we
need to create the feeling of doing something for self as well as
for the prominence and success of the millat. He regretted that
we have kept ourselves confined only to ourselves and our fam-
ily whereas we have great responsibilities towards the millat as
well as non-Muslims.
Fauzia Ghafoor, Assistant Professor in M. J. Engineering
College, Hyderabad while speaking on this occasion urged the
students to work hard and continue the process of learning and
acquisition of knowledge. She said that in classes most of the
boy and girl students avoid answering, fearing that their answers
may be wrong. This is mainly because of lack of self confidence,
from which they should try to come out otherwise they can
never have self confidence. (Ms) Iqra Qureshi, an expert and
counsellor in personality development said that one should pay
attention to developing ones personality making it attractive and
acceptable to society. She said that Muslims pay very little atten-
tion to their personality development. She said that today our
identity is completely different from what our forefathers had
developed, adding that from local level to international level our
identity is known for our eating and drinking. She said that we
should no doubt follow our Islamic dress code but we should
also look attractive and impressive. She laid emphasis on organ-
ising special programmes for promoting modern education and
training and personality development of Muslim boy and girl stu-
dents in the modern times of competition and globalisation.
Portal of Waqf Boards documents approved
New Delhi: Delhi Waqf Board, in its meeting held on 12 August
and presided over by its Chairman Chaudhary Mateen Ahmad
accorded its approval for preparation of a portal of all its docu-
ments which will be put on a website. A company has also been
given the contract to complete and finish this work. In addition to
this, approval has been accorded to install mobile towers at
important and strategic sites for the purpose of increasing its
income. Waqf Boards Chairman Chaudhary Mateen Ahmad said
that under the project of modernization of the Board, all docu-
ments of Waqf Board from its inception till date will be put on the
website so that every body could be able to see it. He further
said that categorywise portal of these documents will be pre-
pared and the contract for this job has been given to the IT com-
pany 360 Degree IT Solution. He said that one of the advan-
tages of this portal will be that if a file or document is lost, it will
be found on the website.
He said that for the purpose of augmenting its income, the
Waqf Board has permitted installation of mobile towers in Waqf
Boards graveyards and on its properties in different areas or
places in Delhi. He said that for the time being permission has
been given to M/S Healing Touch (company) a private company,
to set up or install mobile towers at 19 sites for which tenders
had been invited. The highest rate quoted by this company was
Rs 5.70 lakh per month. Hence the contract (of installing mobile
towers) had been given to this company which has also been
asked to deposit 3 months payment to the Board in advance.
Inauguration of girls hostel, hostels for minority girls
planned in all districts of Maharashtra
Panvel: A government sponsored hostel for girls belonging to
minority communities was inaugurated by Maharasthras minis-
ter for minorities welfare, Muhammad Arif Naseem Khan at
Panvel, near Mumbai on 9 August. The speakers, including top
government officials, on this occasion called upon girls belong-
ing to minority communities to acquire higher education and take
full advantage of this facility (girls hostel) provided by the gov-
ernment. The minister, Arif Naseem Khan, while speaking on this
occasion said that girls belonging to minority communities have
to travel long distances from their residences for education but
with this hostel their difficulties to some extent will be removed.
He also said that the ministry / department of minorities welfare
will soon build hostels for minority community girls in all dis-
tricts of the state for their convenience. He said that this work
has already begun and in 17 districts construction of such hos-
tels is going on in full swing and in four districts construction of
hostels for minority community girls is in the final stage of com-
pletion. He said that with this work education ratio of Muslims,
particularly girls, will increase and their representation in govern-
ment and private sector jobs will also increase.
He said that more than 50 Muslim sub-communities or
fraternities have been included by state the government in
special backward classes for the purpose of giving reserva-
tions to them. He said that recently a high level meeting was
held in Mantralaya (Maharashtra government secretariat) to
facilitate the process of providing backward class cer tificates
to such people on the basis of which they could get reserva-
tion facilities.
The hostel which he inaugurated on 9 August is 4-storeyed
and built on a 6560 sq ft plot in Panvels Governmentz Teachers
College Campus at a cost of Rs 5 crores in which 100 girls can
be accommodated.
New Delhi: A national discussion on the need to change gov-
ernance of India was held in Delhi on 2 September on the
occasion of the release of weekly newspaper Mission.
Speaking on this occasion Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, editor of the
for tnightly newspaper Milli Gazette said that the most impor-
tant problem of the country is nationalism and secularism. He
said that right form the 2002 communal riots of Gujrat, con-
spiracies of dividing the country through spreading communal
hatred had begun. Today the country is being run on the
whims and likings of one man and the administrative machin-
ery of the country is working on his orders and wishes.
Strongly pleading the need for reforms in political and elec-
toral system of the country he said that today elections are not
fought on the basis of personality but on par ty basis and that
is why in spite of small percentage of vote share the entire
country has become a toy in the hands of one par ty. On this
occasion the weekly newspaper Mission was also released.
Majeed Memon, noted lawyer while speaking on this
occasion said that under the changed political situation also
we should have faith and trust in the countys judiciary and
move forward together with non-Muslim secular people
because 70 percent people of the country are secular minded
and only a small minority of about 30 percent is communal
minded. He said that Indias secular and democratic
Constitution is safe and sound today but we shall have to be
prepared to meet the impending dangers and challenges to the
Constitution and the county. Earlier, chief of Muslim Political
Council of India, Dr Tasleem Rahmani, shedding light on the
entire history of India in his inaugural address described in
detail the double standard adopted in politics after
Independence. Speaking about the problems and controver-
sies created by saffron forces in different par ts of the country
h said that a mastermind is working behind these irritants
which is extremely dangerous not only for Muslims but for the
entire country and its people. He said that in the riots that had
erupted in the country before 2002 no body was uprooted and
rendered homeless but in riots after 2002 the trend is to occu-
py the movable and immovable proper ties of riot-hit people on
a large scale, compelling them to leave their native places and
migrate to other places. This clearly shows the mentality and
future plan of communal forces. He said that for the first time
the forces believing in a par ticular ideology got an absolute
majority in the recent elections and formed the government,
they never saw and treated all sections of Indian society
equally and justly but by shouting the slogan of one culture,
one nation and one language they negated the famous con-
cept of unity in diversity. Hence in the changing and changed
circumstances we shall have to work unitedly for one mission
to bring about political transition into secular-minded people.
Janta Dal (U)s general secretary and MP, K. C. Tyagi said
that after Independence this was for the first time that the
country had been taken to the tinder box (meaning the com-
munal riots in the country and par ticularly in western UP,
Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur etc). He said that the way prime
minister Modi makes speeches and statements he indicates
that he is not interested in preventing (communal) riots which
are taking place very frequently in the country. Rather, he is
playing an impor tant role in promoting and polluting commu-
nal atmosphere and violence. Speaking about Muzafarnagar
riots he said that the way humanity was trampled, is a matter
of great worry and shame for the country. Laying emphasis on
the need for uniting against communal forces he said that
Bihar has given a new direction to politics. Hence different
par ties and groups should join hands under one platform and
fight against communalism.
Janta Dal (S) leader Kunwar Danish said that Modi-Amit
Shah team worked under a planned strategy but former UPA
government and state governments too are responsible for
strengthening and benefiting BJP and RSS. Joginder Sharma,
CPM polibureau member said that in the recent (2014) Lok
Sabha elections. Congress and SP governments helped BJP
because all these three par ties promoted polarisiation for their
selfish ends with the result that RSS succeeded in its objec-
tive of polarising the electorate. (N. A. Ansari)
Change in electoral system need of the hour
14 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 COMMUNITY NEWS www.milligazette.com
Crime Data Contradicts Communal Spin to UP Rape Cases
Meerut: The BJPs new rhetoric focusing on a communal twist to
crimes against women in Uttar Pradesh is not borne out by cold
facts. Data accessed by NDTV shows that in western Uttar
Pradesh, where vociferous campaigns have highlighted the
alleged abuse of Hindu women by Muslim men, women have
been assaulted by men from their own community in most rape
cases this year.
On Sunday [24 August], we had reported that in Meerut dis-
trict, where the alleged gang-rape of a woman took on a commu-
nal colour, Muslims were accused in seven of the 37 rape cases
reported this year. The accused were Hindus in the remaining 30
cases. Detailed data for rape cases covering a wider footprint of
all nine districts of Western Uttar Pradesh prove that the reality
does not match the concerns raised by the BJP, which in a politi-
cal resolution passed by its UP unit, mentioned the increasing
involvement of a certain community in crimes against women of
a certain community.
This year, there have been 334 rape cases in the districts of
Meerut, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Baghpat,
Hapur, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
In 25 cases, the accused are Muslim and the women are
Hindu. This is almost the same as the number of cases -23- in
which the women are Muslim and their attackers are Hindu.
In 96 cases, the accused and victims are Muslim. And in 190
cases - the highest number - both the accused and victims are
Hindu. It is important to reiterate that crime data is not normally
defined along religious lines. We specifically asked for it, to check
political claims. This is a time-consuming and sensitive exercise
that should be avoided.
If the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have any data to counter
these numbers, they have not shared it so far.
When we asked BJPs UP president, Laxmikant Bajpai, why,
despite such data, they continue to express selective outrage at
rape cases, he said they are looking at crime against women as a
whole and not on the basis on caste or religion. (Niha Masih,
Sreenivasan Jain - ndtv.com, August 26, 2014)
Urdu is the language of All Indians: TRS MP
Hyderabad: Mr. Konda Vishweshwar Reddy,
TRS MP of Chevella while addressing a
gathering at Maulana Azad National Urdu
University on the occasion of Teachers Day
celebrations here on 5 September said that
Urdu is not the language of a group or any
particular religion but it is a language of all
the Indians and hence it is the responsibili-
ty of all of us to develop it. He informed that
his grandfather, Justice Konda Madhava Reddy, practiced Law
through Urdu and Persian and became the Chief Justice of AP
High Court. His father also knew Urdu very well. He confessed
that in the changing scenario, the status of language of people is
also changing. He further said that the CM of Telangana State, Mr.
K. Chandrasekhara Rao, is serious about the protection of
Hyderabadi civilization and culture and he is engaged in various
plans. In order to preserve the culture of Hyderabad, it is neces-
sary to give appropriate status to Urdu language. He hoped that in
Telangana State, steps would be taken for the promotion of Urdu.
He also stressed the need for making the standard of education
better.
Muslim populated areas deprived of Jan Dhan scheme
New Delhi: Under Prime Ministers Jan Dhan Scheme whereas
bank accounts of common people are being opened on a large
scale in all banks of Delhi even in case of people who have zero
balance, people living in Muslim populated areas are being
deprived of this facility because on account of Banks anti-Muslim
bias they are not opening / have not opened their branches
because these (Muslim populated) areas have been black-listed
by almost all banks in consequence of which lakhs of residents of
these areas, majority of whom are Muslims, are facing great dif-
ficulties in opening their bank accounts. When the manager of a
bank was asked about this he said on condition of anonymity that
Banks Advisory Committee takes decisions about opening the
banks branches in different localities on the basis of resolutions
passed, surveys of localities etc but when a locality is blacklisted,
how can branches be opened there? He did not specify the rea-
son of blacklisting a locality or region.
It may be stated that after prime ministers 15th
August speech and Jan Dhan scheme, bank accounts of
even people who have neither any bank account nor any
bank balance are being opened in all banks of the coun-
try on a large scale. Some commercial banks had already
started opening bank accounts of people. If some ones
bank account is already opened but he has no debit card,
there is no need for him to open a fresh account. They
can get a debit card on the basis of the account already
opened. All such account holders will get an accident
insurance of Rs one lakh and a life insurance of Rs
30,000. If, after six months of opening the account, it
(account) goes on satisfactorily, facilities of Rs 5000
additional overdraft will be made available to him. Under
Jan Dhan scheme, accounts even on zero balance will be
opened in all banks till 25 January 2015. For opening
accounts two photos and photocopy of Adhar card is
needed and after filling up the bank accounting opening
form, account can be opened on counters specially opened by
banks for this purpose.
Whereas great rush of account openers is being seen in
banks in all areas, in Muslim populated areas like Mustafabad,
Nehru Vihar, Khajoori Khas, Ghonda, Brahampuri, Old and New
Seelampur, Jaffarabad, Welcome Colony, Kabir Nagar, Nangloee,
Prem Nagar, Mubarakpur, Nizamuddin, Seemapuri, Sunder Nagri,
Jamia Nagar, Batla House, Jogabaee, Shaheen Bagh, Abul Fazal
Enclave, Okhla Vihar etc Muslims of these areas are facing great
difficulties in opening accounts in the absence of branches of any
bank. Banks on the whole are so biased against Muslims that
almost all these Muslim populated areas are blacklisted. There are
very little ATM facilties also in these areas. People in these areas
are not given any loans nor housing loans from whatever bank
branches are opened here. It is obvious that banks do not trust the
people living in these areas.
Aseemanand gets bail in Samjhauta blast case
Chandigarh : The Punjab and Haryana High Court on 28 August
granted bail to Hindutva leader Swami Aseemanand, an accused
in the Samjhauta train blast case. Aseemanand and three others
were facing trial in a special National Investigating Agency (NIA)
court in Haryanas Panchkula town near here. Aseemanand was
charged for his role in the Samjhauta Express link train blast Feb
18, 2007 at Diwana village near the industrial town of Panipat,
160 km from here, in Haryana. The suitcase bombing took place
in two bogies of the train. Sixty eight people, majority of them
Pakistani nationals, died in the blast. Aseemanand, a member of
the right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat, was arrested in the
Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in which 14 people were killed
in 2007.
No Muslim in reconstituted Freedom Fighters Committee
New Delhi: The reconstituted Committee of Eminent Freedom
Fighters under the Chairmanship of Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State
for Home Affairs has Smt. Rampilla Narasayamma, Shri
Radheshwar Prasad Singh, Shri Daya Ram Kalwani, Shri Om
Prakash, Shri N. R. Mathad, Shri Rai Singh Patanga, Shri Vidya
Sagar Shukla, Sh. Gauranga Sundar Mitra as nine members and
Joint Secretary (Freedom Fighters and Rehabilitation) Division of
the Ministry of Home Affairs, as Member Secretary.
The Committee will give suggestions for the expeditious
redressal of grievances of freedom fighters. The Muslim commu-
nity has always complained that contribution of Muslims in the
freedom struggle of the country is hardly acknowledged and little
mentioned in text books.
Data available on the website of the Home Ministry shows
that out of 70 central Freedom Fighter pensioners drawing
Pension through the State Treasury of Bihar, there is only one
Muslim. Among the 70, there are 46 spouses and 22 others. Only
two of the 70 freedom fighters in that list are alive: Chandra
Bhushan Burman (Biharsharif) and Shiv Nandan Prasad (Rajgir),
both in Nalanda district. (indiatomorrow.net)
Mission Urdu weekly released
Mission Urdu weekly was released here on 2 Sept during a
national seminar by Welfare Party of India President Mr Mujtaba
Farooq in the presence of of KC Tyagi, General Secretary of JDU,
Joginder Sharma of CPIM, K Danish Ali of JDS, Majeed Memon of
NCP and Maulana Abdul Wahab Khliji of WPI. This weekly news-
paper is aimed at creating political awareness among Urdu read-
ers. It will endeavour to create apolitical viewpoints towards ideo-
logical-based politics of the country, said Editor Dr Taslim
Rehmani who may be contacted at missionurdu@gmail.com.
E Ahamed meets Rajnath
New Delhi: E. Ahamed, National President of the Indian Union
Muslim League and Member of Parliament called on Union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh on 29 August to discuss various issues
concerning the minorities. During the 15 minutes long discussion
Mr. Ahamed brought to the notice of the Home Minister commu-
nal violence that is taking place in the country after the NDA
Government assumed the office. About 600 communal violence
cases were reported during the last three months. Another impor-
tant issue Ahamed raised with the Home Minister is exclusion of
Arabic and other foreign languages form the list of Optionals for
Civil Services Mains Examinations which has adversely affected
the candidates with Madrasa background of education. Mr.
Ahamed also pointed out that percentage of Muslims out of can-
didates selected in UPSC Civil Services Examinations is abysmal-
ly poor and is always around 2% only. Adequate steps may be
taken to augment this poor representation. The Home Minister
assured Mr. Ahamed that the government will take all necessary
steps in this issue.
Indian scientist invents drug for breast-cancer
Dr. Inamul Haq, an Indian physician from Darbhanga district who
is now based in the US, has discovered a drug called CCN5 pro-
tein which is effective in treating breast cancer. Dr Haq, who is
an assistant professor in Americas Kensas Medical Center
University, has published a paper in the 18 August 2014 issue of
Oncogene journal, in which he has shown that absence of CCN5
protein in the cancer cells leads to mislocalisation of P 27 protein.
If CCN5 is provided to these cells as a drug, they will again accu-
mulate P 27 positively attacking and containing breast cancer. Dr
Haq said a drug is being developed to supply the said protein
directly to the cells.
Certificate courses in development journalism
Lucknow: Osama Talha Society (OTS) is starting certificate
courses in development journalism from October 2014
according to OTS general secretary Kulsum Mustafa. OTS
was set up by the friends and family of Osama after his
untimely death on 9th March 1995. Known for his investiga-
tive and political journalism, Osama Talha worked fearless-
ly for fair and balanced journalism all his life and died with
his boots on. His last job was with the Asian Age. He fell ill
while covering the rally of Mulayam Singh Yadav and
passed away the same night in PGI. In the past two
decades, the OTS has been working to promote journalism
of courage and create a more harmonious society. OTS also
been organizing writing competitions, seminars and skill-
enhancement workshops to promote journalism, sports
activities, especially among the young. These one month certifi-
cate courses will be conducted by specialists in the field and sen-
ior journalists. For further details contact Kulsum Mustafa at
neelofarmustafa@yahoo.co.in
Last year during the Muzaffarnagar riots which erupted in the 7-
8 September night, around 45 terror-stricken families from the
Vally village of Budhana area had moved to safer places leaving
behind their houses and farms.
Now, one year later, as these families are trying to return to
their houses they are facing intimidation and various types of
threats. When some of them tried to sell their houses and farm-
lands, prices offered were extremely low and this has added fur-
ther to their miseries.
To date these 45 families have not been able to return to their
homes. The village mosque and madrasa remain locked and
deserted and so are dozens of houses.
These families are staying with their relatives in Kairana,
Jalalabad, Shamli, Ghaziabad, Nagla and Bagiana in
Muzaffarnagar and Budhana.
According to sources, the estimated price of their houses
and agricultural lands would be in several crores. But the atmos-
phere has been so much polarised that only a pittance is offered
for these properties. These displaced families are trying to sell
their properties but the prices offered for their life-long and hard-
earned assets are very low.
They allege that this is part of a conspiracy. One of them,
Muhammad Sadiq, has been able to sell his large house for only Rs.
2 lakh while Sabir and Liaqat had to sell their farm lands for peanuts.
Inquilabs correspondent after a tour of the area has found
out that water pumps from the farms belonging to the minority
community were dug out and taken away. Many houses have
been plundered or burnt down.
These 45 families are among those whom no social organi-
sation has so far bothered to contact and no compensation has
been paid to them by the Government and no community organ-
isation built houses for them.
These hapless people have been left with no option but to
dispose off their houses and agricultural land at any price.
It has been one year since the riots had broken out in
Muzaffarnagar but the wounds of the victims are still fresh. Riot-
hit people are facing harassment and every possible effort is
being made to stop their return to their homes. (Dr Muhammad
Asif, Inquilab Urdu daily, 4 September 2014, translated by urdu-
mediamonitor.com)
Distress sale of properties in
riot-affected areas
COMMUNITY NEWS The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 15 www.milligazette.com
16 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 INTERNATIONAL www.milligazette.com
ALAN HART
...I am, of course, aware that anti-Semitism is
more than prejudice against and loathing even
hatred of Jews just because they are Jews.
Arabs are Semites, too. So anti-Semitism is
prejudice against Arabs as well as Jews. In
other words, Islamophobia, a monster on the
prowl across America and Europe and licking its
lips, is also a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
That said my use of the term anti-Semitism in this article relates
only to prejudice against and loathing even hatred of Jews just
because they are Jews.
A clear, early warning that anti-Israelism could be trans-
formed into anti-Semitism was given by Yehoshafat Harkabi, a
former Director of Israeli Military Intelligence, in his book Israels
fateful hour, first published in Hebrew in 1986 and in English two
years later. (He started out as a rabid right-winger and a support-
er of Menachem Begin, arguably the most successful terrorist
leader of modern times. But he, Harkabi, subsequently broke with
Begin and launched a blistering attack on the ideological mindset
of the proponents of Greater Israel and the expansionist policies
of the Begin and Shamir governments. Instead of the policy of not
yielding an inch and waiting for the Palestinians to surrender, he
advocated negotiations with the PLO to establish an independent
Palestinian state. Israel must withdraw from the occupied territo-
ries with their growing Arab population is the first sentence on
the back cover of his book).
The following is the text of Harkabis warning: Israel is the
criterion according to which all Jews will tend to be judged. Israel
as a Jewish state is an example of the Jewish character, which
finds free and concentrated expression within it. Anti-Semitism
has deep and historical roots. Nevertheless, any flaw in Israeli
conduct, which initially is cited as anti-Israelism, is likely to be
transformed into empirical proof of the validity of anti-Semitism.
It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended
to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, was to become a factor in
the rise of anti-Semitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of
their misconduct is paid not only by them but also Jews through-
out the world.
In my opinion the flaw in Harkabis argument is that Israel is
a Zionist not a Jewish state (how could it be a Jewish state when
about a quarter of its citizens are Palestinian Arabs and mainly
Muslims?); and that raises the question of how much, actually,
Israel is an example of the Jewish character. But that doesnt
detract from his main warning point that Israels behaviour could
be a factor in the rise of anti-Semitism.
More than a quarter of a century on from Harkabis warning,
the impression conveyed by mainstream Western media report-
ing and comment while the IDF was (and still is) delivering death
and destruction to the Gaza Strip was not that a transformation of
anti-Israelism/anti-Zionism into historical anti-Semitism might be
underway, but that the anti-Israel protests and demonstrations
across the world, in Europe especially, were manifestations of
naked anti-Semitism. In other words, what used to be called the
sleeping giant of anti-Semitism is awake again.
The most dramatic headline that came to my notice was over
an article in The Guardian by Jon Henley on 7 August. It read:
Antisemitism on rise across Europe in worst times since the
Nazis. And underneath that there was a secondary headline,
Experts say attacks go beyond Israel-Palestine conflict as hate
crimes strike fear into Jewish communities.
One of the experts Henley quoted was Dieter Graumann,
president of Germanys Central Council of Jews. He said: These
are the worst times since the Nazi era. On the streets you here
things like Jews should be gassed, Jews should be burned. We
havent had that in Germany for decades. Anyone saying those
slogans isnt criticising Israeli policies, its just pure hatred
against Jews; nothing else. And its not just a German phenome-
non. Its an outbreak of hatred against Jews so intense that its
very clear.... I agree with Christopher Dickey who made this
comment. Can you criticise Israels military actions and a lot of
its policies without being anti-Semitic? Yes. Can you do it without
having some people accuse you of anti-Semitism? No, you
cant.
In passing I want to add that in my opinion the global reaction
against Israel was driven not only by visual evidence of the death
and destruction the IDF delivered to the Gaza Strip but also the
absurd statements of justification made by all who speak for Israel
right or wrong from Netanyahu down. (Hamas is engaging in
child sacrifice etcetera, etcetera). Their statements were in my
view an insult to the intelligence of all sane people who could see
for themselves what was happening as Israel unleashed its fire
power. Avi Shlaim put it this way. The terms in which Netanyahu
and his right-wing colleagues frame the conflict with Hamas is a
mixture of half-truths, outright lies, deliberate deception and
mind-boggling double- standards.
The key to understanding is, I submit, in the following para-
graph: Yes, its true that the giant of real anti-Semitism has been
present throughout history, sometimes sleeping, sometimes
awake and on the rampage. But after the Nazi holocaust, and
because of it, the giant not only went back to sleep, IT ALMOST
CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE DIED IN ITS SLEEP IF THERE HAD
BEEN NO ZIONISM.
That last statement is, of course, speculation on my part but
I believe it is fully supported by the completeness of the assimi-
lation of the Jewish citizens of the Western nations as the second
half of the 20th century unfolded. Also to be noted is that in the
last decade or so about one million Israeli Jews said goodbye to
the Zionist state to start new lives in the Western nations; and in
the months before the European protests and demonstrations
against Israels latest war on the Gaza Strip, more of those who
took their leave of Israel resettled themselves in Germany rather
than America.
To the extent that the transformation of anti-Israelism/anti-
Zionism into anti-Semitism is underway today, the factor, not a
factor as in Harkabis warning, is Israels misconduct, which I
define criminal behaviour justified by sickening self-righteous-
ness.
According to Harkabi self-righteousness is Israels biggest
enemy: There should be discussion of the dangers that religious
extremism pose to the state, to the status of the Jewish people in
the world and to Judaism. The dangers of Messianism must be
presented candidly, with full exposure of the catastrophes pro-
duced by false messiahs in the past. All these lessons can be
summed up as the pressing need for self-criticism. Certainly
Israel is not guilty of everything that has gone wrong in the occu-
pied lands. But self-criticism is imperative in order to counter bal-
ance the tendencies to self-righteousness and self-pity that stem
from basic Jewish attitudes, from the historical experience of per-
secution and from the ethos fostered by Menachem Begin. No
factor endangers Israels future more than self- righteousness,
which blinds us to reality, prevents a complex understanding of
the situation and legitimizes extreme behaviour....
If the notion that there is a real danger of another great turn-
ing against the Jews provoked by Zionism in action was only my
gentile view, I probably would not have written this article. But I
have a number of very dear Jewish friends who fear that it could
happen. One of them is Nazi holocaust survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer,
the author of An Ethical Tradition Betrayed: The End of Judaism.
And then there is Tony Learman. I dont know him but I
respect him enormously. (He is a British Jewish writer who spe-
cialises in the study of anti-Semitism, the Israel-Palestine conflict,
multiculturalism and the place of religion in society. From 2006 to
early 2009 he was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy
Research, a think tank on issues affecting Jewish communities in
Europe). He recently wrote this: If Israel continues its attitude of
defiance of international legal norms and of the wishes of the
international community as regards settlements, then this is
almost inviting a real resurgence of a form of historical anti-
Semitism.
In conversation with Tony I would say something like the fol-
lowing. Israels leaders are not almost inviting a real resurgence
of anti-Semitism. They are actually inviting it. They need it to jus-
tify their crimes in general and, in particular, their determination to
keep for ever most if not all of the occupied West Bank, even if
that requires a final ethnic cleansing of it.
Another British Jewish writer who captured my attention was
Blake Ezra. The following was the opening paragraph of an article
on his web site which was carried by The Times of Israel on 9
August: Dear world, Im writing to you from a place of despair
and confusion. When I say world, I dont simply mean the plan-
et upon which we all live but I address personally whoever is read-
ing this. As a Jewish person, I have a question for you. Its a gen-
uine question to which I cant find a suitable answer through my
own thoughts What do you want from us?
He went on to say that as a Jew he, like many of his co-reli-
gionists, didnt feel safe in his own city (London). And he insist-
ed that the hatred being indiscriminately hurled in our direction
today was not a response to Israels military action...
What the world wants from Israels Jews and Jews every-
where is an acknowledgement that a terrible wrong was done to
the Palestinians by Zionism in the name of all Jews and that the
wrong must be righted. Without such an acknowledgement I can
see no hope for peace based on an acceptable amount of justice
for the Palestinians and security for all and, if Israel remains on its
present course, not much hope for preventing the transformation
of anti-Israelism/anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism on a scale that
could lead, in a foreseeable future, to another great turning against
the Jews.
In my analysis the key to preventing Holocaust II at some
point in a foreseeable future is in the hands of the Jews of the
world themselves, European and American Jews in particular.
What I mean is that its in their own best interests to distance
themselves from the Zionist state in order in order to rob accusa-
tions of their complicity in its crimes of any credible substance. In
addition to acknowledging the wrong done to the Palestinians and
the need for that wrong to be righted, they could say, publicly, that
they cannot and will not support an Israel that demonstrates con-
tempt for international law and Jewish moral values.
It is true that a growing but still smallish number of European
and American Jews are speaking out, not only in support of some
justice for the Palestinians but also to condemn Israels policies
and actions. Those who speaking out have taken Harkabis
advice. Here is what he wrote on the need for open and honest
debate. What we need in Israel is not a united front behind a
wrong policy, but searching self- criticism and a careful examina-
tion of our goals and means, so that we can differentiate between
realistic vision and adventurist fantasy. Jews in the West, partic-
ularly in the United States, should participate in this debate. They
should not be squeamish and discouraged by the fear that the
arguments they air may help their enemies and those of Israel.
The choice facing them, as well as Israel, is not between good
and bad but between bad and worse. Criticising Israeli policies
may be harmfully divisive, but refraining from criticism and allow-
ing Israel to maintain its wrong policy is incomparably worse. If
the state of Israel comes to grief (God forbid), it will not be
because of a lack of weaponry or money, but because of skewed
political thinking and because the Jews who understood the situ-
ation did not exert themselves to convince the Israelis to change
that thinking. What is at stake is the survival of Israel and the sta-
tus of Judaism. Israel will soon face its moment of truth. The cri-
sis that faces the nation will be all-consuming. It will be bitter
because many will have to acknowledge that they have lived in a
world of fantasy; they will have to shed conceptions and beliefs
they have held dear.
One implication of that part of Harkabis analysis is that if the
Jews of the Western world who understand the situation exerted
themselves, they could convince Israelis to change their thinking.
In theory that might be so but in reality it cant happen as things
are for the simple reason that the majority of the Jews of the
Western world do not understand the situation; and that in turn is
because they have been conditioned to believe a version of histo-
ry, Zionisms version, which is simply not true.
The majority dont know, for example, that Israels existence
has never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab
force. And they dont know, another example, that its not Israel
that has lacked a Palestinian partner for peace but the Palestinians
who for the past 34 years have lacked an Israeli partner. (As I
have previously written, theres a case for saying they might have
had one in Prime Minister Rabin, but he was assassinated by a
Zionist fanatic who knew exactly what he was doing - killing the
peace process Arafat made possible, in 1979, by persuading the
highest decision making bodies on the Palestinian side that they
had to be ready for unthinkable compromise and peace with an
Israel confined to its borders as they were on 4 June 1967).
And theres an awesome complicating factor. Its not only that
most Jews of the Western world dont know the truth of history
as it relates to the conflict in and over Palestine that became
Israel, MANY DONT WANT TO KNOW IT. In my book, Zionism:
The Real Enemy of the Jews I illustrate this point by telling of a
conversation I had with a Jewish gentleman who after my dear
wife is my second best friend in the world and has been for more
than 40 years...
Shortly before the publication of the first volume of the UK
edition of my book way back in 2005 I said the following to him.
Like many if not most Jews you believe that when Israel went to
war in 1967 it was either because the Arabs attacked or were
about to attack. If I can prove to you, using only Israeli sources,
that what you believe is Zionist propaganda nonsense and that the
Arabs had no intention of striking first, and that it was actually a
war of Israeli aggression, what?
My friend was silent for about a minute. Then, in a voice not
much above a whisper, he said, If what I believe about that war
is not true, everything crumbles.
Since then we have remained best friends but we do not ever
discuss Israel.
I thought long and hard about the meaning of everything
crumbles and I came to the conclusion, endorsed in private by
other Jewish friends, that what it means can be summarised as
follows. Many and perhaps even most Jews need to believe they
always were, are and always will be VICTIMS.
And that, I believe, assists real and true understanding of why
most Jews of the world are silent on the matter of Israels crimes.
Deep down, if only in their sub-consciousness, they fear that
Holocaust II is probably inevitable at some point in the future and
that they will need Israel as their refuge of last resort. So, they tell
themselves, say nothing and do nothing that could assist Israels
enemies. (Its also the case that criticism of Israel can and does
tear Jewish families apart).
What I believe to be the most tragic irony in all of human his-
tory to date is that most Jews of the world cant see that if the ris-
ing, global tide of anti-Israelism/anti-Zionism is transformed into
anti-Semitism on a scale that could lead to Holocaust II, it will be
because of Zionism in action.
In that light my gentile appeal to the Jews of the world,
American and European Jews in particular, is this. The key to pre-
venting Holocaust II is in your hands. Use it to unlock your minds
that have been closed by Zionist propaganda. (I mean its lies and
deceptions).
Because I have faith in the potential goodness of human
nature, a potential that has to be liberated by the truth of history,
I want to end this article by pointing to an alternative scenario to
the one indicated by my headline.
As I wrote in my book and say on public platforms, I truly
believe that, generally speaking, the Jews are the intellectual elite
of the Western world and the Palestinians are by far the intellec-
tual elite of the Arab world. Together in peace and partnership in
One State for all (yes, that does mean the end of Zionism), they
could change the region for the better and by doing so give new
hope and inspiration to the whole world.
To put it another way, in peace and a partnership of equals,
the Jews minus Zionism could become, with the Palestinians, a
light unto nations. Surely thats a better option than allowing
Zionism to put the light out?...
Alan Hart has been engaged with events in the Middle East and
their global consequences and terrifying implications - the possibility of
a Clash of Civilisations, Judeo-Christian v Islamic, and, along the way,
another great turning against the Jews - for nearly 40 years
On Course for Holocaust-II?
Weve got mail.....
for you!
The flow of news never ceases, so between our
fortnightly print issues we send out email newslet-
ter - MG e-Alerts. Get our eNewsletter FREE!
write to us at sales@milligazette.com
Become a fan of MG on Facebook
visit: facebook.com/milligazette
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/milligazette
CHARITY ALLIANCE, with the active support of MG and like-minded people, is helping the victims of starvation in Murshidabad since
April 2005. More tasks are being undertaken in some of the most deserving areas and most backward sections of our community. This
charitable trust is channelising this long-felt effort. Almost every paisa is reaching the deserving people as MG is providing office and
administrative facilities free of cost as well as free advertising space, and the trustees are barred by the trust deed from receiving any
remuneration for their work and time.
Charity Alliance is headed by Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, Editor of The Milli Gazette,
current President of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat and Chairman, Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd.
CHARITY ALLIANCE
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110 025 India Tel.: (+91-11) 2694 7483, 2695 2825, 0-9868656614
How to make payments: We prefer cheques to bank drafts. Cheques/Drafts should be crossed / marked account payee and payable
to Charity Alliance. Individuals are welcome to pay cash in our office or send M.O. In some cities we may be able to arrange to col-
lect cash from your doorstep. If you want to contribute through credit card or internet-banking visit www.charityalliance.in for secure
online payment.
List of donors may be seen on Charilty Alliance website (www.charityalliance.in).
Zakat, Sadaqat and bank interest accepted
See www.charityalliance.in for detailed reports on our work.
CHARITY ALLIANCE
Registered trust
Donations to Charity Alliance are eligible for tax liability deduction in India under Section 80G
INTERNATIONAL The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 17 www.milligazette.com
AIJAZ ZAKA SYED
Those who cannot remember the past, are
condemned to repeat it. So Barack Obama, who
stood against Bushs wars and his apocalyptic
visions of a world divided between Us and
Them, is not just back bombing Iraq - fourth US
president to do so - he seems to read from the
self-same script.
No just God would stand for what they
[ISIS] did yesterday, and for what they do every
single day, the US president declared,
responding to the slaying of US journalist James
Foley in Syria.
When was the last time you heard this
invocation of the divine and the whole business
of civilizational conflict, the good versus evil and
our god versus their god routine? Thats right.
We have been here before-and not long ago
either.
Obama may not exactly envision himself on
a divine mission to save the world as his
predecessor did but he has ended up doing just
about the same. Only the pretext seems to differ.
Then it was supposedly to rid the world of
Saddam Hussains mythical weapons of mass
destruction or to confront him on his support to
Al-Qaeda in planning 9/11, as Bush claimed.
Now it is to save the Christians and Yazidis from
the clutches of the ISIS bigots. Truly touching
the lengths America goes to every time to save
the wretched world.
Taking Obamas lead, defense secretary
Chuck Hagel, Gen Martin Dempsey, Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even cousins
across the pond have gone all hyper screaming:
Apocalypse NowEnd-of-DaysWe must
prepare for everythingan imminent threat to
every interest we haveThis is beyond
anything we have seen
In the words of Robert Fisk, Hagel and
Dempsey were pure Hollywood. It only needed
Tom Cruise at their press conference to utter the
words Mission impossible.
David Cameron, in the great tradition of Tony
Blair who swore that Britain was just 45 minute
away from an Iraq WMD strike, sees ISIS
unleashing its terror on the UK streets.
For years one saw such exaggerated
nightmarish scenarios regularly spawned by the
West vis--vis Al-Qaeda and of course Iraq and
Iran.
Alas, Al-Qaeda has nearly been wiped out;
Saddam and Bin Laden have been eliminated
and Iran has been suitably neutralized.
So the world needed, or rather the mighty
military industrial complex that drives the US
economy needed, a new enemy to keep its
good, old wars going. And the fearsome ISIS
chief Abubakr Al Baghdadi with his black,
murderous mobs and their blood-curdling acts
of casual brutality is perfect for the job profile.
Even Al-Qaeda, or what remains of it, seems
to be fearful of and is shocked by their
viciousness and sheer savagery. The tales of
mass murder, rapes and abductions of
Christians, Yazidis and even Muslims by the
hordes of the ISIS or Islamic State, as it absurdly
likes to call itself now, already seem to be the
stuff of legends. Not surprisingly, they have
shaken and outraged people around the world-
the Muslims more so.
After facing long years of Islam-bashing and
being blamed for the crimes of Al-Qaeda and
others, this is just what we needed. A grand PR
nightmare and disaster for an already much
demonized global community.
An Indian friend who has been enjoying the
fruits of good life in Norway and never stops
singing paeans of the generosity and tolerance
of the Scandinavian countries, talks of a sudden
change in the way people view Muslims now. If
this is the case in the Norwegian paradise, you
can imagine the love and goodwill the faithful are
showered with in mainland Europe or America.
The Islamic State and the so-called
Caliphate it promises is like our worst nightmare
come true. It materialized out of thin air, like
clouds of locusts, taking over the vast swathes
of Iraqi and Syrian territory.
As Yvonne Ridley reasons, ISIS has
achieved in a matter of weeks what the US and
its allies failed to do in 10 years of occupation.
This hasnt happened by accident; military
victories on this scale take strategic planning
and inside help. So who, exactly, is behind ISIS?
More importantly, who stands to benefit
from this carefully calibrated mayhem in the
heart of the Middle East? The same folks who
created Al Qaeda and used it ingenuously and
effectively for years until Osama and his baby
had exhausted their uses and were past their
sell-by date.
Look at the uncanny similarity in the
methods used by Al-Qaeda and IS - from the
chilling murder of Daniel Pearl to the barbaric
beheading of James Foley this month, both US
journalists incidentally. There is a method in the
madness.
I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist
here but behind the scepter of ISIS-and all such
groups-it is hard to miss the same machinations
against the world of Islam that one saw in the
rise of Al-Qaeda. The fingerprints of the CIA,
Mossad and their willing collaborators can be
seen all over this baby.
Its so predictable. As author Mahdi Darius
Nazemroaya argues, the targeting of Christians
and other minorities in Iraq and Syria and
attempts to remap the Middle East are aimed at
paving the way for the clash of civilizations that
the likes of Samuel Huntington and Bernard
Lewis have obsessed over for years.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal
chairs a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in
Jeddah. SPA
The Muslim world has never in its long
history faced a greater challenge. However,
terrifying as the menace of IS extremism is, it is
far less damaging than the internecine
squabbling and siege within that define the
Muslim world, particularly the Arab world today
So it is good that Arab and Muslim states
seem to be waking up to the monster that is
staring them in the face. The recent Arab
ministers brainstorming in Jeddah and the
Saudi-Iran confabulations seeking a common
front against ISIS are welcome. So are the
strong denunciations by top Islamic scholars
and ordinary Muslims.
The Muslim world has never in its long
history faced a greater challenge. However,
terrifying as the menace of IS extremism is, it is
far less damaging than the internecine
squabbling and siege within that define the
Muslim world, particularly the Arab world today.
No wonder Israel gets away with murder.
Seldom have Arabs been plagued with such
strife and crippling divisions within their ranks.
And too many innocents have paid with their
lives for it-in Syria, Iraqand elsewhere.
Doubtless, ISIS is a clear and present
danger. And it wouldnt, most probably, have
come into existence if it had not been for the
spectacular lies and crusades of Bush and Blair.
The Israeli crimes against humanity and
relentless persecution of its helpless victims
have also helped radicalize generations of Arabs
and Muslims - even those born in Western
climes, as is apparently the case with the
alleged British killer of James Foley.
But above all, as veteran Arab analyst Rami
Khouri diagnoses in his fine analysis, the single
most important, widespread, continuous and
still active reason for the birth and spread of the
Islamic State mindset is the curse of Arab
security states that treat citizens like children
that need to be taught obedience and passivity
above all else.
Khouri goes on to point out that the average
Arab citizen has lived in political, economic and
social systems that have offered zero
accountability, political rights and participation.
He says: The IS phenomenon is the latest
and perhaps not the final stop on a journey of
mass Arab humiliation and dehumanization.
Foreign attacks have exacerbated this trend, as
has Israeli aggression against Palestinians and
other Arabs. But the single biggest driver of the
kind of criminal Islamist extremism we see in
this phenomenon is the predicament of several
hundred million individual men and women who
are unable to achieve their full humanity or
potential, or exercise their full powers of thought
and creativity; or, in many cases, obtain basic
life needs for their families.
The Beirut-based Arab analyst has a word
of advice for the region. There is only one
antidote in the long run to eliminating the Islamic
State and all it represents. That is to stop
pursuing the abusive and criminal policies that
have demeaned millions of decent men and
women and shaped the region for the past half a
century. (caravandaily.com)
ISIS Nicely Fills Wests Need for a New Bogey
Construction of homes for Muzaffarnagar Riot Victims by
Charity Alliance.
Work in Progress, foundations for new homes being done as
shown in this picture dated 8th September 2014
We appeal to to you come forward to make this project possi-
ble. We plan to build some 60 self-contained small houses but
our funds after buying the land scarcely suffice for 20 houses.
Australian newspaper retracts cartoon that
showed what Israel did in Gaza for 51 days
The Sydney Morning Herald retracted and said it was "wrong" to publish a July 26 cartoon about
Gaza. The cartoon by Glen Le Lievre depicted an elderly man, with a large nose, sitting alone, with a
remote control device in his hand, overseeing explosions in Gaza. The Sydney Morning Herald orig-
inally denied that Le Lievre intended "racial vilification," but later it succumbed to zionist pressure
from across the world.
From the Al-Qaeda terror to the Islamic State juggernaut, it is the same
familiar players enacting the same dangerous games in the worlds most
volatile region. After long years of Islam-bashing and being tarred for the
crimes of Al-Qaeda, this is just what we needed. A grand PR nightmare and
disaster for an already much demonized global community.
KARAMATULLAH K. GHORI
k_k_ghori@yahoo.com
Nothing rattles a hot-blooded Pakistani more
than any mention, or suggestion, of the F word
in the context of his state. No, it isnt the F
word that one comes across so frequently in
Western parlance. The Pakistani F relates to a
failing or failed state-a subject that has
engrossed the attention span and focus of polit-
ical pundits and political scientists in many
parts of the world over quite a long period of
time. Some of the Pakistani umbrage at vague or explicit insinua-
tions that their state is failing or has failed, already, is not without
good reason.
As a people, Pakistanis have time and again manifested their
preference for a democratic dispensation their states order of the
day to day life. This is in spite of-or perhaps because of-having
suffered the opprobrium of living under military rule for nearly half
of their 67 years as a sovereign state. Whenever given an oppor-
tunity to express themselves in favour of this or that system of
governance, the Pakistani people have given a clear and categor-
ical thumbs-up to democracy as their favourite mode of gover-
nance.
To their chagrin and consternation, however, the people of
Pakistan, more often than not, have been let down by their demo-
cratic leaders and those in whom they pinned hopes-great hopes,
at times-for strong leadership devoted to addressing those very
same socio-economic problems and challenges that are common
to other developing countries. Yet, it goes to their credit that
despite being routinely disappointed by their elected leaders the
Pakistanis havent allowed themselves to be dragged down to
where theyd be happy to let non-democratic forces champion
their cause and pretend to be their saviours.
Anyone doubting the statement that the Pakistani people have
been let down and failed by their anointed democratic leaders
need only look at what has been going on in Pakistans capita city,
Islamabad, for the past three weeks.
The idyllic capital of Pakistan, nestling in the lap of the sur-
rounding Margala Hills, has been a city under siege since August
15 when tens of thousands of protesters marched into its
precincts and hunkered down at a massive Dharna right in front of
the buildings symbolising the state of Pakistan.
The protesters had started marching towards Islamabad from
various directions a day earlier-August 14, which is also the
Independence Day of Pakistan. They did it at the call of leaders of
two political parties: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafor PTI (the
Movement for Justice in Pakistan) led by the former cricket legend
and hero, Imran Khan; and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, or PAT,
led by a fire-brand preacher-turned-politician, Allama Dr. Tahir-ul-
Qadri, who had been living in Canada for nearly ten years before
relocating himself in Lahore to lead his protest movement against
the present political dispensation in Pakistan.
Imran Khan has been in politics since 1995 when, on the
heels of his having attained stardom as the captain of the Pakistani
cricket team that had won the World Cup in 1992, he decided to
cash his massive popularity for the larger good of the Pakistani
people. His slogan, ever since his entry into politics, has been of
a crusading kind: hed like to rid Pakistans political culture of
every vestige of corruption and mal-practices endemic to the sys-
tem.
Tahir-ul-Qadri, in contrast, never had Imrans charisma or
nation-wide fame. But he rose to prominence and fame on the
strength of his blind following among the middle and lower-middle
classes, especially in the populous state of Punjab. He owes his
blind followers to a religious mission-Minhaj-ul-Quran-which he
founded in the 1980s but which has sprouted roots in dozens of
countries abroad, especially wherever a sizeable Pakistani diaspo-
ra exists.
Imrans PTI came into its elements and blossomed as a party
of the Pakistani intelligentsia and especially its youths when he led
the movement for the restoration of judiciary in the twilight years
of Pakistans last military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf.
Imrans crusading zeal to see the Pakistani judiciary restored to a
position of independence from an oppressive executive branch of
the state endeared him especially to the youths who, over the
years, have come to despise their feudal classs monopoly over
politics and governance of Pakistan. Imran, untainted, by prove-
nance or association with the feudal barons of Pakistan excited
the imagination of the youth that saw in him a different kind of
leader whose promise of change was worth experimenting with.
Surprisingly, Imran boycotted the general elections of 2008,
which turned out to be a huge mistake. He himself may have
regretted his amateurish instinct but justified it on grounds that he
wanted to organise the party at grass-roots. He proved the point
when his neo-fangled party swept the polls, in the 2013 elections,
in the northern province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, or KP, which
had borne the greatest burden of fallout from the American-led
war and occupation of next-door Afghanistan. The impressive tri-
umph in KP was proof of Imrans rising popularity with the people
of Pakistan in its most troubled area. Imran had led his campaign
in KP on the slogan of opposition to the nightmare spawned there
by US drone strikes resulting in thousands of casualties among
the civilian population.
But Imran didnt do so well in Punjab, which was supposed to
be his own province and where he commanded a greater follow-
ing than in any other part of Pakistan. Imran blamed his losses on
Nawaz Sharif and his party, PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz) which came on top in the 2013 elections and formed the
government at the centre, Islamabad.
Imran cried foul on the day after elections and didnt relent.
Frustrated of the governments tactic of ignoring or dilly-dallying
his demand for re-count and re-evaluation of a number of key
constituencies-where PML-N had been victorious-Imran finally
called for a Long March by his followers to Islamabad. He called
for a million people to respond to his call. The numbers that
responded were never more than a few thousand. But they
marched on to Islamabad and hunkered down right in front of the
National Assembly.
Qadri, on the other hand, didnt have the kind of alibi that
Imran had used to bring out his followers on to the streets of
Islamabad and put the state under siege. But Qadri has the gift of
the gab and fully used his fiery rhetoric to galvanise his own fol-
lowers to march on to Islamabad. While Imran raised the slogan
of Azadi(liberation) as the objective of his protest movement,
Qadri unfurled the banner of Inqilab(revolution) as his destiny and
that of tens of thousands (he gathered far more than Imran could)
of his devotees responding to his fiery speeches against the pres-
ent corrupt and moth-eaten system of governance in Pakistan.
Imran and Qadri couldnt be more different from each other.
Imran, an Oxford don, has dressed himself up as a liberal
democrat with a mission to rid Pakistan of its corrupt politics. But
his blue-print for a Naya (New) Pakistan is entirely democracy-
centric. He has been promoting his party as an agent of change
that would bestow an egalitarian and pro-poor faade to democ-
racy while wresting power from the grubby hands of feudal rob-
ber-barons who have traditionally hogged it and used it entirely to
feather their own nests.
Qadri is a rabble-rouser demagogue to boot who has cannily
built his following on the crutches of religious sentiments of a
largely unlettered lower middle class of the Pakistani Punjab. Hes
seen by most independent observers of the Pakistani scene-
including this one-as an agent provocateur with an anarchic agen-
da. His mission, articulated in his rabid rhetoric, is to demolish the
present system of governance-root and branch-and bulldoze it
over with something that he has never bothered to explain in any
detail. The call for Inqilab (revolution) may galvanize and energise
his purblind followers but impresses no serious student of
Pakistan.
Yet, these two birds that dont belong to each other and dont
resemble have been flocking together largely for one reason: their
congenital hatred of Nawaz Sharif and their hate-driven politics to
see the back of Nawaz at any cost.
The Azadi and Inqilab long marches to Islamabad initially
stayed apart from each other and followed different routes to their
destination. Their Dharnas (sit-ins) also kept distance from each
other. Imrans partisans argued that he didnt wish to be identified
with a radical cleric with anarchic agenda. That made sense to
those who still wished Imrans movement good luck.
The sit-ins were remarkably peaceful and well organised the
first 15 days; not a lamp post of Islamabad was attacked and not
a flower pot uprooted-which was truly remarkable given the
Pakistani tradition of rowdy demonstrations . But the bubble burst
on August 31 when Qadris aficionados suddenly became unruly
and on cue from their fire-belching leader tried to storm the
National Assembly building and the headquarters of Pakistan
Television Corporation (PTV). The rabble succeeded at latter but
could only partly damage the outer fence
of the NA.
Disappointingly, Imrans otherwise
disciplined cadres also joined the melee,
contrary to his protestations that his peo-
ple wouldnt break the law. But he was
himself to blame for inducing them to violate the law of the land
when he called for a Gandhi-mode civil disobedience movement,
preaching the people of Pakistan to pay no taxes to the govern-
ment and no bills for utilities like water, power and gas. It was, in
a nutshell, a call for lawlessness and anarchy.
Perplexing to pundits was Imrans obvious compulsion to
meld with Qadri and opt for violence that hed so much opposed.
Why the two were so persistently defiant to seek a negotiated end
to the crisis with the government was the question agitating most
minds.
There were clues in Imrans dally sermons to his crowd from
the make-shift pulpit on top of his container parked in front of the
NA building. He waxed eloquent and overly confident that if Nawaz
didnt relent to his demands the third umpire would raise his fin-
ger against the PM and force him to leave the ground. The third
umpire that the Kaptan, as Imran is fondly referred to by his
acolytes and minions couldnt be other than Pakistans notorious
establishment infamous for its king-making role in the gover-
nance of the country.
Soon enough the suspense was punctured by Imrans own
top lieutenant in the party, MakhdoomJaved Hashmi, who is also
president of PTI and second only to Imran.
Hashmi is a man of sterling reputation, rare among the
Pakistani politicos. He spent seven years in General Musharrafs
jails for the alleged crime of inciting rebellion within the army. All
that he was guilty of was an open letter hed written to the officers
of the army-with Musharraf holding Pakistan in his thrall-remind-
ing them of their constitutional oath to safeguard it and not inter-
fere in politics-a favourite pastime for its power-inebriated gener-
als.
Hashmi disclosed that Hed advised Imran to not take to
Qadris route of violence but was over-ruled. Imran, according to
Hashmi, told him that hed no choice because thats how the
script given to him and Qadri mandated. Hashmi made no bones
about it that the authors of the script belonged to that power-hun-
gry cabal of the military intelligence that has long been playing the
king-maker role in the context of governance of Pakistan.
Whats obviously disheartening to pundits-and more so to the
youthful core supporters of PTI whod pinned so much hope on
Imran being a cut above the rest of Pakistani politicians-is the
alarming revelation that Imran, too, was susceptible to being
blackmailed and cornered by Pakistans notorious Bonapartes and
do their bidding.
The Dharna is still on as these lines are written. However, its
longevity is exacting a heavy toll of Pakistans economic fortunes-
not bright even before the hiatus-and its political image in the
world. The Pakistani Rupee, a major indicator of economys health
or otherwise, has taken a battering because of the continued
impasse. The stand-still is driving investors from Pakistan. Friends
of Pakistan are at a loss to understand why Pakistani politicians
cant sort out their differences like sensible people elsewhere.
The latest blow to Pakistans economic prospects and politi-
cal standing has come from Chinas decision to postpone the
state visit of President Xi Jin Ping to Pakistan during which he was
expected to give a hefty boost to Chinas investments-as much as
$ 32 billion-in Pakistans infrastructure projects, especially the cri-
sis-ridden power generation sector. There couldnt be a worse fall-
out of the politics of protest for the people of Pakistan groaning
under a malfunctioning and under-performing economy.
Nawaz Sharif has received a morale boosting vote of confi-
dence from all the opposition parties in the parliament. Yet, hes
prepared to concede all of Imran Khans demands for electoral
reforms and judicial investigation of last years impugned elec-
tions. But Nawaz wouldnt agree to resign and Imran wouldnt set-
tle for anything less than that.
Imrans zero-sum game is not cricket, as far as politics-an art
of the possible-is concerned. Imran stands isolated and his pop-
ularity with the people is rapidly eroding. He could end up like the
Biblical Samson who, in his frustration and rage, brought down
the temple upon himself. That would be a tragic end to a promis-
ing political leader.
The people of Pakistan-undoubtedly the most aggrieved party
in the high stakes battle of wits-are looking increasingly like
Sisyphus, the mythological Greek king who was eternally con-
demned to keep lumbering a huge boulder up the hill only to see
it slide right back to the bottom. They seem to be asking, is it their
punishment for opting for a democratic dispensation? How long
must they suffer at the hands of myopic leaders and politicians
who cant see beyond their noses?
Pakistan is failing its Own People
18 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 INTERNATIONAL www.milligazette.com
Special Relationship
Benefits Israel,
NOT the US
While Israel partisans in the US and some oth-
ers (often former Israel partisans) sometimes
claim that the US-Israel special relationship is
driven by the US, Israeli writers are more honest.
Most recently, retired Israeli diplomat Alon
Pinkas writes on Ynet: Apart from Israels abili-
ty to defend itself, there never was - and proba-
bly will never be - a more important strategic
asset to the country than its relationship with the
United States. Since its founding - and especial-
ly since the end of the 60s and the start of the
70s - these ties have provided Israel a super-
power to lean on, a supporting pillar of military
deterrence, and a force-multiplier in the interna-
tional arena.
The United States has not only vetoed more
than 50 anti-Israel resolutions at the United
Nations Security Council, it has also provided
military aid totaling more than $140 billion, as
well as access to American weapon systems
and advanced ammunition. But the US has also
garnered a reputation as an almost-automatic
defender of Israel - its layer of protection from
international isolation.
The relationship between the two countries
has often been defined as special, extraordi-
nary, and an unshakeable alliance. Since the
80s, Israel has often pushed to define itself as a
strategic asset for the United States and,
though Americans have never used the phrase
themselves, they have not denied it.**
But on this matter there is some confusion
in Israel borne of an exaggerated sense of self-
importance. The strategic asset in this equation
is the US for Israel, not the other way around.
* Actually many American experts have denied
that Israel is a strategic asset - see, for exam-
ple, The National Summit to Reassess the US-
Israel Special Relationship]. (alisonweir.org)
Israel has detained 3,000
Palestinian children since 2010
Israeli forces arrested nearly 3,000 Palestinian
children from the beginning of 2010 to mid-
2014, the majority of them between the ages of
12 and 15 years old, according to a new report
published by the Addustour newspaper. The
Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights report
documented dozens of video recorded testi-
monies of children arrested during the first
months of 2014, pointing out that 75 per cent of
the detained children are subjected to physical
torture and 25 per cent faced military trials.
The report revealed details of the childrens
suffering, starting with the arbitrary arrests
which are in violation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child which Israel ratified in 1991.
The report listed a series of violations practiced
by Israeli forces against children during the
arrest process itself, where the Israeli forces raid
the childrens homes after midnight as they
sleep, using actions that terrorise the child and
his family, without clear justification or an actu-
al security need.
The Geneva-based watchdog said: The
majority of the detained children were subjected
to threats and physical torture including beat-
ings during the investigation. The Israeli author-
ities responsible for the investigation often use
isolation against one in every five detained chil-
dren, as a means of pressure during the investi-
gations which may extend to 10 days on aver-
age and up to 30 days in some cases.
ENGLISH
K. P. Prakasam, Nuclear India: Illusion and Reality 155 pp., Rs 250/d15
Rizwan Ullah, My Reflections [Poetry in Urdu along with English
Translation] 184 pp., Rs 200/d15
M.A. Roshash, Islamic Company Law (Rule of companies in Islamic fiqh - a
comparative fiqhi study 302 pp., Rs 600/d20
Nur Ali Qabobe, Somalia: From Nation-State To Tribal Mutiny
152 pages (HB), Rs 300/d20
Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) daily reports on the Iraq war (Compiled
by Zafarul-Islam Khan) 112pp, Rs 75/d 10
Shamsul Islam, Golwalkars We or our nationhood defined: A critique
with the full text of the book, 200pp, Rs 150/d 15
Tahir Mahmood, Minorities Commission: minor role in major affairs
viii+286pages, Rs 300/d 15
Islamic economics, banking and finance (Special issue of MAP),
200pp., Rs 175/d 15
Irfan, Punchline (cartoons), 112 pp., Rs 50/d4
Zafarul-Islam Khan (ed.), Palestine Documents 1897-1998
894 pp. (HB), (Out of print)
Ram Puniyani, Terrorism: Facts Vs Myths 96 pp (Out of print)
Zafarul-Islam Khan, At the threshold of a new millennium 32 pp., Rs 20/d3
Zafarul-Islam Khan, Hijrah in Islam 398 pp (Out of print)
ARABIC
Zafarul-Islam Khan, Waliullah al-Dihlawi 50 pp., Rs 20/d3
Iqbal Ahmad Khan Suhail, Ma Huwa al-Riba? 196 pp. (HB), Rs 180/d 9.5
Mustafa A.R.A. Roshash, Ahkam al-sharikat fil-fiqh al-Islami - dirasah
fiqhiyah muqaranah 312 pp., Rs 600/d20
URDU
Naseema Hurzuk, Sitaaron se Aagey [autobiography],
272 pp., Rs 150/d15
Malik Ben Nabi, Jadid Islami fikr par mustashriqin kay asarat,
50 pp., Rs 30
Zafarul-Islam Khan, Milli masael - chand aham sawalon ke jawabat
42 pp., Rs 20
Iqbal A Khan Suhail, Riba kya hai? 230 pages (HB), Rs 120/d10
Ahmad Muhammad Kani, Maghribi Afriqa ki tahrik-e jihad
(Sokoto Caliphate), 106 pp., Rs 40/d4
HINDI
S.M. Mushrif, Karkare ke Hatyare Kaun? - Bharat
mein aatankvaad ka asli chehra 368pp, Rs 250/d 20
Yugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, Ram Janmabhoomi banaam Babri Masjid
- Mithak ewam tathye 64pp, Rs 40/d 5
GUJARATI
S.M. Mushrif, Karkare na Qatilo Kaun?
Bharitya aatankvaad no asli chehro 352pp, Rs 200/d 20
BOOKS DISTRIBUTED
Abdul Rashid Agwan, Islam in 21st Century: The Dynamics of Change and
Future-making (494pp/PB), Rs 599/d20
Syed Shahabuddin: Outstanding Voice of Muslim India
(112pp+8 color photo pages, Large format/HB), Rs 400/d20
Sachar Committee Report, Ministry of Minority Affairs, English Rs 1000/d50
Urdu Rs 1000/d50; Hindi Rs 1000/d50
T.M. Mani, End of Casteism (Ordeal of a Dalit leader
who finally accepted Islam) 134 pp.(PB), Rs 50/d8
Tahir Mahmood, Uniform Civil Code 208 pp.(PB), Rs 175/d20
Full text of the Misra Commission Report, National Commission for Religious &
Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, 428 pp.(PB), Rs 500/d25
Colour Coded Quran (English Tajweed Rules) Rs 400
Colour Coded Juzu Amma (Part 30) (Eng Tajweed Rules) Rs 75
Colour Coded Ahsanul Qawaid (Arabic/English) Qaida with Namaz Rs 85
Noorani Qaidah (Arabic-English) Rs 30
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, The Prophetic Medicine Rs 200
Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi, Stories of The Prophets Rs 250
Stories of The Prophets - Ibne Kathir Rs 250
Dr. Aid Al-Qarni, You can be the Happiest Woman in the World Rs 150
Prof. S. A. Rahman, A Dictionary of Muslim Names Rs 100
A.Q. Zalloom, How the khilafah was destroyed Rs 450
Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, The Economic System In Islam Rs 490
PHAROS MEDIAPUBLISHING PVT LTD
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave - I, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110 025
Tel.: 011-26947483, 26942883, 26952825 , 0-9868656614
E-mail: books@pharosmedia.com
MO/Cheque/ payable to Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd
***Add Rs 20 postage on orders less than Rs 200
VPP/Cash on Delivery orders accepted.
To pay by credit/debit card, internet banking visit our website.
Visit us at www.pharosmedia.com
Meani ng l i ghthouse, Pharos of Al exandri a was one of the
Seven Wonders of the Worl d
S.M. Mushrif
26/11 Probe Why
Judiciary Also Failed? (with
DVD)
218 pages
Rs 275/d10
Karamatullah Ghori
Baar-e-Shanaasaee: Kuch log,
kuch yaaden, kuch tazkeray
un shakhsiyaat kay jinhon nay
Pakistan kee taareekh banaee
aur bigaadee
200 pages
Rs 200/d10
Azam Shahab
Bhagva dahshatgardi aur
Musalmaan
373 pages
Rs 300/d 15
Farooque Ahmed
Manipuri Muslims:
Historical Perspectives
615-2000 CE
192 pages
Rs 200/d 15
Dr E Kazim
Scientific Commentary Of
Suratul Faatehah
562 pages (Large format),
Rs 250/d 20
S.M. Mushrif
Who Killed Karkare? -
The real face of terrorism in
India
336 pages
Rs 300/d 20
Iqbal Ahmad Khan Suhail
What is riba?
208 pages
Rs 200/d 13
7th Revised and enlarged Edition
Published March 2014
Shamsul-Islam
RSS Primer:
Based on Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh Documents
46 pages
Rs 30/d 4
Subhash Gatade
Godses Children:
Hindutva Terror in India
440 pages
Rs 360/d 15
Subhash Gatade
Godse ki aulaad:
Bharat mein Bhagva dahshatgardi
388 pages
Rs 300/d 15
Afsana Rashid
Widows and Half Widows:
Saga of extra-judicial arrests &
killings in Kashmir
192 pages
Rs 200/d 15
Zafarul-Islam Khan
Usul-e tahqiq
[on methodology of modern research],
192 pages
Rs 120/d10
Feza Aazmi
Azab-e-Humsaigi
(The Agony Trail)
(with English Translation)
224 pages
Rs 120/d10
IK Shukla
Hindutva: Treason &
Terrorism
184 pages
Rs 130/d10
Mustafa Kamal Sherwani
Secular Horror:
15 years ordeal with Indian secu-
larism
96 pages
Rs 80/d10
S.M. Mushrif
Karkare ke qatil kaun -
Hindustan mein dahshatgardi ka asl
chehra
312 pages
Rs 200/d 20
Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Islam & Ahmadism
48 pages
Rs 30/d5
Kamaluddin Ahmed
Assams Doubtful Citizens :
Fact or Fiction?
62 pages
Rs 60/d 5
Books from Pharos Media, publishers of MG The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 19 www.milligazette.com
1
#
S
a
v
e
M
G
DELIVERED AT YOUR DOORSTEP THE MILLI GAZETTE TELLING THE MUSLIM SIDE OF THE STORY SINCE JANUARY 2000
AEFX-352
MG 100000 Readers Campai gn. Respond NOW.
I dont want The Milli Gazette to close down:
SUBSCRIBE / Renew @ Rs 1000 by paying 3 years subscription [within India]
GIFT .......... 3 year subscription(s) to friend(s) by paying Rs 1000 each
(first fill your address in the first part below and then fill gift subscription address below it, as indicated, or attach list if needed)
Please complete the subscription order form and send it to:
THE MILLI GAZETTE, D-84 Abul Fazal EnclavePart-I, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110025 Tel. 011-26947483, 0-9818120669
Mr/Dr/Mrs/Ms.................................................... .............................................................................Profession:...............................
Address: .................................................................. ......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
......................... ..............................................................................State............................................Pin Code.............................
Tel.(................).....................................Mobile ...............................................E-mail:.....................................................................
Gift subscription(s) recipients Name & address: ................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................. .....................
. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................
...................................... .........................State...............................Pin Code......................Tel.(................)....................................
ENCLOSED Cheque payable to Milli Gazette for Rs ....................Cheque No ..................................dated.................................
T
H
E
M
I
L
L
I
G
A
Z
E
T
T
E
I
n
d
i
a
n

M
u
s
l
i
m
s

L
e
a
d
i
n
g

E
n
g
l
i
s
h

N
e
w
s
p
a
p
e
r
PLEASE PHOTOCOPY OR CUT THIS FORM
OR SEND THE REQUIRED DETAILS
ON A PLAIN PAPER
ALONG WITH YOUR PAYMENT
20 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES www.milligazette.com
THERESA CORBIN
We often fail to remember that blessings always come out of
hardships. If it wasnt for the fire, the forest would rot and die.
When I look back at my life, I often think about how it could have
all gone so terribly wrong if I had only gotten what I wanted. If I
had been independently wealthy, I wouldnt have worked so hard
to get an education. If I hadnt gone to college, I wouldnt have
learned about Islam. If I hadnt learned about Islam, I dont even
want to think about where I would be.
It is the path that we dont want to take that turns out to be the
best for us in the long run. It is the flat tire that made us avoid get-
ting involved in a deadly accident or the waitress bringing us the
wrong order that allowed us to avoid getting food poisoning
that are the blessings.
Understanding Trials & Hardships
- Do You Remain Optimistic in Hardship?
- There is Surely Ease with Every Difficulty
- Islam Brings Hardship or Happiness?
- There is Good in Every Event
- How Are Trials Defined?
The hard part is recognizing that things not going the way we
wanted them to is a blessing in disguise. Nothing taught me more
about blessings in disguise than being a paediatric medical assis-
tant. In this position I was tasked with giving the shots for the well
patient check-ups. Giving shots to little babies was only traumat-
ic for me and the parents. The baby would smile and coo at me,
having no idea what was about to happen. Then once the sharp
needle pierced the skin the baby would cry for a moment, and
then go back to smiling and cooing.
As the child got older and started to understand and remem-
ber, giving shots was an entirely different story. Around the age of
two years, and often earlier, children would scream, kick and
struggle to get out of getting shots. All they could think of was the
pain from the previous shot.
Most children thought I was trying to harm them and couldnt
understand why their parents were complicit in this. They felt
betrayed and trapped because prevention of disease was a con-
cept that the child could not grasp. How could the child grasp the
concept that it was only done for his sake. It was a blessing for
the child to be able to receive the shots, but the child saw it as a
tragedy. The child has a narrow view of the world. He cannot
understand that the shots pain is only small and temporary, but
will prevent disease that can cause pain and suffering that is
markedly worse. The child cannot see past the pain, and in focus-
ing on the pain, the child panics and makes the shot even worse
in his own mind. Even though we can understand the concept of
disease prevention, the adult is not much better at seeing past his
or her small scope. And often we have a hard time thinking bigger
than a small pain right now that prevents bigger pain and suffer-
ing later. We even make our suffering worse by only focusing on
the pain it causes like the child getting the shot.
We often fail to remember that blessings always come out of
hardship. If it wasnt for the fire, the forest would rot and die. If it
wasnt for the rain, we would never see the fruit of the earth. If it
wasnt for the hardship in our own lives, we wouldnt become
stronger people.
What Allah and the Prophet have said about Blessings: even if
we cannot perceive the blessing, we should still trust that Allah
knows best...
Even a small thing like fever is really a blessing. The Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: Allah removes the sins of
a Muslim for his illness as fire removes the dross of gold and sil-
ver (Abu Dawud, 3092).
And like the fever being a way to purify us, everything we suf-
fer is a form of good. The Prophet said: I am amazed by the
believer. Verily, Allah does not decree anything for the believer
except what is good for him (Muslim, 2999).
The greater the hardship, the greater the blessing, if we can
only see it for what it really is. The Prophet said: A mighty reward
is associated with a large affliction. Indeed, when Allah loves a
people, He afflicts them in trial. Thus, he who is pleased, for him
is (His) pleasure, and as for him who is angry, for him is displeas-
ure (At-Tirmidhi, 2396).
Allah tells us in the Quran that the difficulty He places on us
is so that it can make us better people: Allah does not want to
place you in difficulty, but He wants to purify you and to complete
His favour on you that you may be thankful (5:6).
In my time in the medical field as the bearer of shots, every
now and then there would be a child that was so calm and accept-
ing of the situation that it would surprise me. Even though the child
didnt understand why the shot was necessary, s/he trusted that
the doctors knowledge was greater than his/hers and that the
doctor who prescribed the shots only wanted good for him/her.
And without the struggle to resist his/her fate, the shot was next
to painless.
We should all strive to be more like the child who is calm and
accepting of the shot, but on a much grander scale.
We need to understand that even if we cannot perceive the
blessing, we should still trust that Allah knows what He is doing
and He only wants good for us. (onislam.net)
Hardships in Islam: Blessings in Disguise?
Islam does have
epochal theologians
SUMIT PAUL
sumitmaclean@hotmail.com
I was appalled at the ignorance of an American
scholar, who wrote that, Islam never had very
great and epochal theologians like Augustine
and Thomas Aquinas and the other great
Christian thinkers. This shows a completely
biased Christian perspective of western schol-
ars.
Interest in theological questions developed
very early in Islamic history. Though its true that
the interest arose out of concerns more practi-
cal than theoretical, the questions early Muslim
theologians addressed nevertheless have gen-
uinely theological implications. The oft-repeated
criticism that classical and medieval Muslim reli-
gious writers were limited to a defensive
rehashing of the same old questions, unable to
break free of the trammels of traditionalism, is
on the whole no more true of the great Muslim
thinkers than of their Christian counterparts.
One needs always to consider the tenor of
the age in question. As Christian tradition owes
a great deal to its great teachers, such as
Augustine and Acquinas, Islamic tradition also
rests on the massive achievements of its out-
standing intellectual figures. A closer look at fig-
ures like Al-Ghazali, Ibn Arabi and Ibn Taymiya,
for example, three figures every bit as important
for Muslim thought as Augustine, Acquinas and
Luther for Christian, reveals a great deal of cre-
ative thinking.
Without suggesting that one can see explic-
it parallels between any of these Muslim and
Christian figures, let me all too briefly describe
why these three Muslims are important. Abu
Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE) was born in
northeastern Iran and showing early signs of
intellectual ability, he received the best educa-
tion available. His reputation for learning spread
quickly and the prime minister of the Saljuqid
Sultan in Baghdad invited Al-Ghazali to head
his new college (madrasa). After some years of
considerable success teaching religious stud-
ies, Al-Ghazali had a sort of midlife crisis that
left him experiencing considerable doubt and
confusion. In a short autobiography, often com-
pared to Augustines Confessions, he describes
how he embarked on a spiritual journey that led
him to refocus his life. One important result was
his manual of pastoral theology called the
Revitalization of the Sciences of Religion, an
itinerary of spiritual wisdom in forty sections that
stretch from repentance to intimate knowledge
of God.
Ibn Arabi (d. 1240 CE) was born in the
southern Iberian city of Murcia and was educat-
ed in Seville. In his twenties and thirties, he trav-
elled in North Africa to study with spiritual teach-
ers, and at thirty-five, headed for Mecca. There
he began his Meccan Revelations, an encyclo-
pedic and original systematic treatise of spiritu-
al theology. Virtually every serious religious
author since his time has either embraced or
condemned Ibn Arabi, but almost no one has
been able to ignore him.
Finally, Taqi ad-Din Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328
CE) was a noted jurist and theologian and a
reformer of sorts. Like Ibn Arabi, he generated
his share of controversy, but for very different
reasons; he was among those who condemned
Ibn Arabi. During a career spent largely in
Damascus and Cairo, he sought to integrate
tradition, reason, and free-will in a theological
synthesis, much of which he composed while in
prison for views political authorities found unac-
ceptable. Because of his posthumous associa-
tion with the Wahabi movement that supplied
modern Saudi Arabia with its very strict religious
ideology, Ibn Taymiya has been unfairly written
off as a reactionary. He was in fact, a gifted man
who took his theology seriously enough to suf-
fer for it and whose influence and originality
have yet to be fully appreciated.
MG comment: This problem is specific to
Sunni Islam in which Fiqh [theology or reli-
gious jurisprudence] was compiled by venera-
ble imams towards the end of the first and
early second centuries of Islam by venerable
scholars. Their followers at the time were not
rigid and even the pupils of these imams and
pupils of pupils were respected and at times
given preference over the opinion(s) of the
original imam. But with mounting Persian
influence and the Mongol/Tatar/Crusaders
onslaught, scholars felt that the doors of ijti-
had (independent thinking in fiqh issues)
should be closed. Hence the rigidness in the
Sunni position. On the other hand, Shia schol-
ars did not close the doors of ijtihad and even
today every new Ayatullah Uzma [Grand
Ayatullah] is not accepted until and unless he
writes his own book of theology which means
that every new generation of Shiis has sever-
al new fiqh books to follow since every Shii
follows a certain Grand Ayatullah who are lim-
ited in number at any given time (about 5-6 at
a time). This arrangement ensures that newer
challenges are met in time. Some Sunni schol-
ars, on the other hand, try these days to do
some ijtihad individually and through fiqh
academies but these are not received with
general acceptance as both Sunni scholars
and laymen continue to consult tomes written
centuries ago. This can be overcome by polit-
ical power like Emperor Aurangzeb getting Al-
Fatawa al-Hindiya compiled or the Ottoman
State issuing Majalla al-Ahkam al-Adliya but
such endeavors are limited to a particular
sphere and time of a certain ruler or state and
do not get universal acceptance. (Zafarul-
Islam Khan)
Please note: Only if we meet the target of 100000 subscriptions, insha Allah, we encash your cheque, otherwise it will be destroyed. We will wait till 1st October 2014 to
decide. Please try not to send Demand Drafts or Money Orders or Bank Transfers as it will be an added burden to return in case our target is not achieved. You can subscribe for your-
self and gift to anyone -- Friend, relative, activist, leader, library, university, college, hospital, clinic, reading room, NGO. For example, if
you are gifting 10 people, make a cheque for Rs 10000. Please forward this to your friends you think may be interested in MG or send us
their contact details, emails, mobile numbers. Email us at sales@milligazette.com if you want to pay online or at a bank.
BOOKS The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 21 www.milligazette.com
Book: In the Shade of the Swastika
Publishers: I Libri di Emil, Bologna, Italy
Email: info@ilibridiemil.it
ISBN: 978-88-96026-96-0
Pages: 220
Year: 2011
Marzia Casolaris book
In the Shade of the
Swastika - The
A m b i g u o u s
Relationship between
Indian Nationalism and
Fascism examines the
connections between
the fascist regime and
Hindu radical national-
ism. These contacts
developed within the
frame of the Italian for-
eign policy, which was
essentially anti-British
and became more anti-
British approaching the
Abyssinian war and the
Second World War.
The most remark-
able contacts were
established with the
Bengali political milieu.
Consuls and intellectu-
als played an important
role in developing such
contacts. Tagores vis-
its to Italy in the 1920s
and the much more rel-
evant liaison with Subhash Chandra Bose and the
INA were the results of these contacts.
While representatives and emissaries of the fas-
cist regime worked actively to create a consensus
among Bengali political circles, fascist Italy
obtained a remarkable popularity among Marathi
radical nationalism (from which evolved modern
Hindutva forces) without doing the same efforts
made in Bengal.
Marathi nationalists
examined the fascist
political literature and
analyzed fascism as
both an ideology and a
political system.
The scope of this
book is not to prove that
Hindutva forces are fas-
cist, but that they bor-
rowed many elements
and features from fas-
cism as an ideology
and a political practice.
Author of the book
is Marzia Casolari, lec-
turer of Asian History at
the University of
Perugia. She carries out
research on India,
South and South East
Asia. She wrote several
papers of the relation-
ships between Indian
nationalism and fas-
cism, Hindu political
radicalism, Islam in
India. Since 2010
Marzia Casolari is chair-
person of Asia Maior, an association of Italian
scholars working and writing on Asia.
Hindutvas fascist connection
The state police, however, had already arrest-
ed a bunch of Muslims and accused them of killing
Pandya. It took eight years for the Gujarat High
Court to overturn the trial courts guilty verdict.
The question again is: who killed Haren Pandya?
To paraphrase a popular Hindi movie in recent
years, No One Killed Haren Pandya.
Then there are the many cases of bombings
across India, notably in various cities of U.P. and
Maharashtra, apart from high-profile bombings in
Hyderabad, Bangalore and New Delhi over the last
decade. Most such cases have dragged on for
years, keeping the accused in prison without even
a hope for bail (ironic that Swami Aseemanand
has been given bail on the plea that the case is
stretching for far too long).
Let me pick out one such case: the bombing
in February 1998 that year in Coimbatore town of
Tamil Nadu in which 65 people were killed. The
bombing had occurred on the eve of a visit to the
town by the BJP leader L K Advani a couple of
days before the nation voted to elect a new gov-
ernment. (The BJP had stormed to power at the
head of a coalition.) Of the dozens of people who
were accused in that case, the most prominent
name was that of the Kerala leader, Abdul Nasir
Maudani. He spent nine years in prison, during
which a bomb attack left him wheelchair-bound.
Finally, he was acquitted as were all others. The
real culprits behind the Coimbatore bombing were
never found. Or should we say that No One
Bombed Coimbatore? Meanwhile, Maudani has
been accused (framed?) in another case of bomb-
ing -- this time in Bangalore, in 2010.
Having read the chargesheet in the case as
also having studied the defense in detail, I can say
with reasonable certainty that this case, too, would
go against the prosecution and eventually lead to
Maudanis release.
The point, therefore, is: if no one is ever found
guilty of all the bombings across India, then who
has been behind it? It is about time that we as news
journalists, human rights activists and concerned
citizens began asking this question. And we need to
directly ask: is it possible that various arms of the
State - the police; the opaque, secretive and totally
unaccountable intelligence agencies; the counterin-
surgency ops - themselves organize such bomb-
ings as false flag operations in order to carry out
yet newer suspects in a bid to keep millions of
Indian citizens in a constant state of fear so that
they dont question the States push to enact more
and more draconian laws and arm itself to the
teeth? No, this is not some conspiracy theory by a
nut case. The security business around the world is
worth tens of billions of dollars.
Last months standoff between the public and
the police force in the Ferguson suburb of Missouri
state in the US has brought to public focus the
incredible levels of arming of the police. A similar
push is on in India, too, with American, European
and Israeli companies aggressively to up the ante
on the sales of arms and ammunitions for the pur-
pose of internal security. Even B and C category
towns in India are now buying up metal detectors,
x-ray machines and CCTVs to install at public
places. This in itself is translating into billions of
dollars of contracts.
Even so, a bigger and more compelling reason
to seek a thorough inquiry into the possible com-
plicity of Indias police, intelligence and security
agencies in the dirty business of bombings is made
from the arrests of police officers in Gujarat for the
killings of Muslims in what have come to be known
as fake encounters. The charge-sheet in at least
one case has named the BJPs current president
and Modis Man Friday, Amit Shah, as an accused.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is
prosecuting the case, has also named a number of
officials from the Intelligence Bureau. Certainly, the
charges are yet to be proved. But the circumstan-
tial evidences in the case (and in other fake
encounter cases, too) are compelling.
During a period of about four years beginning
in late 2002, a clutch of police officers in
Ahmedabad, Gujarats largest city, periodically
intercepted alleged terrorists, claimed to have been
sent by the Pakistan-based anti-Indian terror group,
Lashkar-e-Toiba, to eliminate Modi, who was then
Gujarats chief minister.
According to Shamshad Pathan, a lawyer
whos fighting many of these cases, a total of 17
people were killed, including one Hindu named
Tulsi Prajapati, who was the last to be killed before
it was spectacularly revealed that all these killings
had been fake encounters, or extrajudicial killings
done in cold blood.
The most famous of these cases has been
that of Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old woman who
was shot dead on 15 June 2004 in Ahmedabad
with three other men she was traveling with in a
car. In that case, an Ahmedabad magistrates
inquiry in 2009 found that the encounter was
indeed fake. Following an appeal by the Gujarat
government against that report, the Gujarat High
court set a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of
police officers who, too, exposed in 2011 that the
encounter had indeed been fake. Whereupon, the
high court asked the CBI to take over its prosecu-
tion.
Now logic tells us that if those the police were
killing had indeed been sent by LeT from Pakistan,
then the arrest of these police officers should have
emboldened the terror group to send more terror-
ists! After all, its designs had been frustrated by
these very police officers every time. What could
be better for LeT than the removal of these police
officers from the scene? But the truth is that the
terror group in Pakistan stopped sending terrorists
right after the police officers arrests!
Common sense and basic logical thinking
also begets several other questions. Why do these
so-called Indian Islamic or jihadist terrorists bomb
so rarely? Most perplexingly, they rarely ever
choose to attack the arms of the State, most
notably the police, that has been giving them grief.
Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association (JTSA), led
by Jamia Milia Islamia professor Manisha Sethi,
has ably documented how the Special Cell of Delhi
Police has been severely castigated by courts in
fabricating evidence and framing innocents in ter-
ror cases. And yet, the bombings have never tar-
geted the Special Cell. (No, this is not a call to
bomb the Special Cell, but a call for simple deduc-
tive reasoning.)
If you travel through the Maoist insurgency
areas of Chhattisgarh you will find the police sta-
tions so fortified as if they are in a war zone. But
Delhi Police, or police in any of the states where
the terrorists have been active, have felt no need to
secure themselves at all. Just why wouldnt the
terrorists be interested in attacking the symbols of
State?
Then, the periodicity of bombings is also most
dubious. Most cities see only one bombing in a
year or sometimes in two years. What political
motive can there be behind such sporadic bomb-
ings? After all, if indeed terror groups are active in
India, then they would try and maximize their
impact by repeatedly indulging in such acts. A
walk back into Punjab of the 1980s would make
that point relatable. The Sikh separatists whod
turned into armed militants attacked much more
regularly and targeted symbols of State power
rather than lob one bomb a year.
And the most perplexing of all is the motive for
such bombings. Ever since the police have taken
to fingering Indian Mujahideen for terror attacks,
we have been told that the groups motive is to
seek revenge for the 1992 demolition of the Babri
Masjid by Hindu zealots in Ayodhya and the killing
of Muslims by Hindutva mobs in February-March
2002 in Gujarat. If that indeed is true, it would
make the Indian Mujahideen the worlds only terror
group that has no political objective but only one of
revenge. It is also the worlds and historys only
terrorist group with no identifiable geographical
location. Experts around the world will tell you that
terrorist groups are known to have (1) a marked
political objective, (2) a geographical location of
their existence and influence, (3) a clear idea of
who theyre targeting through their action, and (4)
regular attacks. Be it the former LTTE in Sri Lanka,
or FARC in Colombia or even the Islamic State in
Syria and Iraq, they all have met or meet these
attributes. But the so-called Indian Mujahideen
has yet not met any of these attributes and is
unlikely to do so. All that the police do is arrest
some Muslim youth across the country and
accuse them of terror acts in the past and the
future. The same police that are regularly attacked
and killed by the Maoists and are in constant panic
over threats from the rebels in the forests become
super smart and competent to arrest Muslim ter-
rorists with nary a gunfight, leave alone casualties.
(The Batla House encounter of September 2009 is
not a valid case cited by those who disagree as no
independent inquiry has every been made into that
incident as we have long been demanding.)
The fact of the matter is that the police as well
as the intelligence agencies have long operated
with impunity and zero accountability. The intelli-
gence agencies especially have no oversight,
unlike in the US where they have to at least report
to Congressional committees. One ordinary mans
demand for a probe into the killing of his brother in
a fake encounter unravelled the obnoxious and
repulsive regime of corrupt police officers. A sim-
ilar effort needs to get underway to investigate the
police and intelligence agencies across India into
their possible role in the bombings for which hun-
dreds of innocent Muslims have been arrested and
sent to prisons to rot away.
A Unique book full with startling revelations
Baar-e-Shanaasaee
Kuch log, kuch yaaden, kuch tazkeray
un shakhsiyaat kay jinhon nay Pakistan kee
taarikh banaee aur bigaadee
By Karamatullah Ghori
Pages: 200 / Rs 200
To order please see page 19 of this issue
Holocaust
exposed
Book: Inside the Gas Chambers
The Extermination of Mainstream Holocaust
Historiography
Inside the Gas Chambers
Author: Carlo Mattogno
Pages: 281 p/b
Publisher: The Barnes Review, Washington
Year: 2014, Price: 25.00
Since the early 1990s, critical historians have
published a steadily growing number of care-
fully investigated studies on the so-called
Holocaust. Hence the orthodox historians,
usually paid by the government, were com-
pelled to do something against the rising tide
of revisionist arguments. Therefore, after a
conference was held in Germany to discuss
the matter, an anthology appeared in early
2011 under the aegis of the German histori-
ans Gnter Morsch and Bertrand Perz. It
claims to refute the arguments of critical his-
torians.
Indicative for this study is, however, that
revisionist arguments are basically not
addressed at all. Hardly any of the many revi-
sionist works which have appeared over the
past 20 years is even mentioned.
In the present book, Italian scholar
Mattogno mercilessly exposes the embar-
rassing superficiality and dogmatic ignorance
of these historians. Over and over again it
become clear that their claims are in part
utterly unfounded or are frequently based on
the distorted and disfigured use of sources.
Based on his unparalleled knowledge of the
source material, Mattogno aptly reduces the
theses of the court historians to absurdity.
This book summarizes the arguments for and
against every single gas chamber claim
made for any of the German war time camps:
Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Dachau,
Majdanek, Mauthausen, Natzweiler,
Neuengamme, Ravensbrck,
Sachsenhausen, Sobibor, Stutthof and
Treblinka. Even the mystical Gas Vans are
covered plus the euthanasia centres at
Bernburg, Brandenburg, Grafeneck,
Hadamar, Hartheim and Sonnenstein. This is
the most comprehensive and up-to-date
summary of revisionist knowledge.
By means of this book, mainstream
Holocaust historiography has suffered a
defeat which comes close to its intellectual
extermination.
Read this book online here: holocausthand-
books.com/dl/25-itgc.pdf
Contd. from page 1
REACH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE THROUGH
THE MILLI GAZETTE
REACH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE THROUGH
THE MILLI GAZETTE
IDEAL VEHICLE
TO REACH OUT
TO MUSLIMS
IN INDIA
Since January 2000, The Milli Gazette has been a resource for readers
across the country and around the world. Readers trust The Milli Gazette to
provide them with authoritative coverage news about Indian Muslims. We
have an epaper edition, Web-only features, e-mail newsletter, a successful
facebook page and more. The combination of truthful content and an afflu-
ent audience of educated readers creates a powerful vehicle for advertisers.
When you advertise with The Milli Gazette you can expect results.
READERSHIP: International India, Gulf, North America and Western
Europe, especially among Indian Muslims & NRIs.
Your ad will also appear on the newspapers website
www.milligazette.com.
Banners with links to your websites may also be placed on MG website with
prior arrangement.
Ad Artwork: Besides laser printout, file positives and digital files are also
accepted. PS / PDF is preferred with all fonts embedded and high resolution
pictures.
Deadlines are the 6th for 16-30 issue of the same month and 21st of the
month for 1-15 issue of the next month.
FOR ONLINE AD CAMPAIGNS: There are customised packages for advertis-
ing on our website, e-newsletter and facebook page. Email us for details.
For Muslim Indias 2003 & 2004
volumes contact
PHAROS MEDIA & PUBLISHING P LTD
D-84 Abul Fazal Enc-I, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110025
Email: books@pharosmedia.com
Complete Set of Vol. 21 (2003) Rs 550 / Euro 70
Complete Set of Vol. 22 (2004) Rs 550 / Euro 70
(Including postage)
ADVERTISEMENT RATES
Cover page Colour (24.6 x 10 cm) Rs 40,000
Back Cover Colour Full page (24.6 x 35.2 cm) Rs 50,000
Inside B/W Full page (24.6 x 37.5 cm) Rs 31,000
Inside Colour Full page (24.6 x 37.5 cm) Rs 40,000
B/W Half page (12 x 37.5 cm) Rs 18,000
B/W Half page (24.6 x 18.6 cm) Rs 16,000
B/W Qtr page (12 x 18.6 cm) Rs 8,500
Custom size (per sq. cm space) Black & White Rs 40; Colour Rs 80 / sq. cm
Any Right page: 20% extra;
Rebate on multiple insertions: 3-5 : 10%; 6-11 : 15% ; 12+ : 20%
for details email to sales@milligazette.com or Call 0-9818120669
Advertisers alone are responsible for the claims and contents in their ads. The Milli Gazette doesnt vouch for any claims made by advertisers. You are recommended to
make appropriate enquiries and seek appropriate advice. MG shall not be held liable for any consequences, in the event such claims are not honoured by Advertisers.
Your advertisement here?
Call 0-9868656614
22 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 ADVERTISEMENTS www.milligazette.com
B A C K
I S S U E S
A V A I L A B L E
Y e a r 2 0 0 0 t o 2 0 1 3 ( 1 4 B o u n d a n n u a l v o l u m e s
@ R s 7 5 0 e a c h v o l u m e ) ( i n c l u d e s s h i p p i n g
w i t h i n I n d i a )
T H E M I L L I G A Z E T T E
D - 8 4 , A b u l F a z l E n c l a v e - I , J a m i a N a g a r ,
N e w D e l h i - 1 1 0 0 2 5 I n d i a
T e l . : ( 0 1 1 ) 2 6 9 4 7 4 8 3 , 0 - 9 8 6 8 6 5 6 6 1 4
MATRIMONIALS
GROOM WANTED
Alliance invited for Kanpur-based Urdu-speaking, religious,
Qureshi (Shaikh) girl from traditional family. 27 years, 5 ft,
fair, BA English with Computer applications from Kanpur
Uni. Seekers of dowry need not contact. Simple, Islamic
marriage preferred. Mobile: 08799288764
MG closure?
Is it true that milli gazette is going to be stopped...
Ahtasham Alam
ahtasham88@gmail.com
MG: This is true. This decision has been taken after years of
contemplation due to continuous losses incurred by this publication.
We hope our readers and well-wishers will come forward to avert this.
If not, the next 1-15 October issue will be the last one.
AA: I am extremely sad to hear this news. How can one help if he resides
outside India, or he belongs to rural India. Will the charity alliance also be
stop working.
MG: You can help by taking out subscriptions for yourself and others if
you wish. Also you can advertise or motivate others to advertise. Well-
wishers are also welcome to donate to help MG continue. Charity
Alliance is not part of MG and it will continue Insha Allah.
II
The partition of India has put the Indian Muslims in a rather awkward
position. Muslims are expected to show or prove their loyalty to India at
every step. Although Muslims have excelled in many spheres like sports,
literature, politics and film industry by bringing a good name to India and
still there is no appreciation. Very recent examples are that of Sania Mirza.
Previous to that was Azharuddin. Film stars like Sharrukh too had
problems proving his loyalty. Hence, Muslims of India suffer from a
strange psychological problem called paranopia which means a human
being always behaves in a different way when he knows he is being
watched all the time. Coming to the main point of the argument of your
article as to why Muslim newspapers do not run very well in India it is
simply due to the fact that the Muslims are wary or shy and do not want
to be seen as clinging on to their Muslim tradition, beliefs and views. They
want to show to their Hindu co-citizens that they are as much as Indian as
them. Hence they choose to read mainstream Indian newspapers written
in English. The younger generation has started reading in Hindi and even
share Hindu views like hate towards Pakistan. Be yourself. Be proud of
who you are. Be proud of your history, culture andachievement apart from
your unswerving loyalty to India. Be proud of your identity and not be
forever apologetic. You have nothing to apologise for. In fact the Hindus
have to apologise to you for not appreciating your choice to remain in India
even after partition. They should also apologise for the discrimination, hate
propaganda, suspicion and violent attacks against the Muslim community
at every small excuse aided and abetted by the power hungry greedy
dishonest Hindus politicians and some cowardly appeasing Muslim
leaders too. Make the Muslim newspapers of India very powerful and
internationally acclaimed. This can be done only the help of rich educated
Muslims of India who should spare no effort in advertisement and heavy
financing so that these newspapers are popularised and give a meaning to
the existence of Muslims in India. Only in such newspapers can the true
facts of Muslim life in India can be understood. The true mind of the
Muslim can be understood by th e Hindu of India. India is not a Hindu
country. It is a multicultural country made up of different societies.
Razdanraz
razdanraz@aol.com
III
We read with interest the question and answers between MG editor and
one reader Mr Aslam Mahamud. I Appreciate the MG editor for the reply in
a positive manner. All the readers may not be perfect in writing correct
English. However the subject and the topic is important than the
Language., and most of the letters are not in bad taste. Rejoinders /
opinion / letters is the gist of the entire magazine. which most of the
readers like to read and if possible send rejoinders.
Mohammad Azam, Karimnager
deomohdazam70@gmail.com
Love Jihad - Fact or fiction?
Who forced or lured Malyalam writer Kamla Das at an old age to embrace
Islam? After release from Talibani imprisonment, Yvonne Ridley embraced
Islam. Was the British journalist under pressure in Britain? Film actress
Monica accepted Islam. Malika, 23-year-old Jewish girl converted to Islam
before marrying Md. Mansoor in Tel Aviv. Jewish extremist group Lehwa
was protesting at their nikah and reception place on 18 August in Tel Aviv.
Non-Muslim girls and women find something to convert to Islam as Jodha
Bai life was very happy in Akbars company.
S. Haque, Patna
II
BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Umar Abdullah and
others are promoting "Love Jihad". And if you find the fathers-in-law of
these people you will be shocked and surprised to know that they are top
BJP leaders.
Shaikh Faheem skfaheem2011@gmail.com
III
BJP's new communal card is just shameful. Just because of by-election in
UP, they are creating a rift in society. Where are the ''achhe din of Modi''.
Doesn't he have trust in his development plank. Why his party needs to
play communal card? This shows the failure of his government.
A Alam ahtasham88@gmail.com
IV
Several Muslim females (going by their names anyway) call me "Bhaiya",
"Chacha", "Nana" and so on. I bask in their affection. At least two of my
nominally Muslim bhatijis have married Hindu men (going by their names
anyway). Does all this make me party to some sort of bloody
dharmayuddha? I mean, how can anyone swallow that disgusting
absurdity, Love Jihad?
Mukul Dube, Mayur Vihar 1 Delhi 110091
uthappam@gmail.com
V
[letter When a Muslim boy marries a Hindu girl { which he ought not to do
as per the Shariah} Hindu fundamentalists term it 'love jihad". But when a
Hindu girl marries a Muslim boy { just as Subramaniam Swamy's
daughter} they don't call it " prem dharmayudh". Why this discrimination?
S. M. Pasha, Chennai valimuhammad777@gmail.com
Khliafat
Degredation of a noble institution The glorious institution Khilafat, which
means succession, in its infancy, was Khilfatu Rasoolillah, meaning
successor of the Holy Prophet- peace be on him. Later on, a rebel
companion of the Holy Prophet(s. a. w. s) converted the noble institution
into a dynastic monarchy. But thats a different story and ancient history.
Today, an insignificant mothers son has come forward to proclaim that he
is a khalifah and fools, who rush in where angels fear to tread, have
commenced recognizing him as their ameer or chieftain. there must be
a method in madness too. there is nothing wrong in the resurrection of the
khilafath but it must done in a decent manner. a khalifah was chosen as
their ameer: by momineen who took an oath of loyalty or bayyath as it
called. but this guy abu bakr al-baghdadi is a self-proclaimed khalifah.
Hence, he has no loco standi to claim that lofty and revered title. The
outfit which the present day bogus Khilafah runs viz. the Islamic State of
Iraq & Syria [ISIS] is an cent per cent terrorist outfit. That it is so does not
require a detailed examination as it clearer than broad daylight. This ISIS
must be banned - the earlier, the better for all concerned. This humble
writer pleads with the Central Government to ban the ISIS forthwith and
save Indian Muslims from falling into the trap laid by that terrorist outfit and
become terrorist and bring disgrace to the Ummah and a nuisance to the
country. Rajnath singhji are you listening !
S. M. Pasha Chennai 600003
valimuhammad777@gmail.com
An open letter to Mohd. Azam Khan
I watched you on TV where you were saying that Indian Muslims are facing
horrible problems because the Badshah (which means PM Modi) of India
wants Indian Muslims to be in such pathetic condition, hence nothing can
be done. This saddened and angered me beyond words for the simple
reason that anyone who knows anything about Islam cannot believe that
the followers of Prophet Muhammad can reach to such demoralized state
of life. More than anyone else, you know that if there is one leader who can
command the confidence of ~ 200 million Muslims of India and at the
same time perceived by ~ 1,000 million Hindus to be serious about socio-
economic progress of India and is secular which means who practises his
/ her religion with faith and commitment and is so magnanimous that he /
she similarly respects others religion too - then it will take no time to
address all those problem of Indian Muslims which you mentioned. No
need to mention that given your background you can easily be such leader
from Muslim community provided you choose to act rather than to merely
complain and sulk about problems of Muslims and instead take up some
all India level political programmes by championing three martial subjects
namely military, secularism and capital...It is hoped that if you believe you
ever benefited from Islam then you will try seriously to ameliorate the
condition of Muslims, first in India.
Hem Raj Jain, Bengaluru
jainhemraj59@gmail.com
Hinduised education
Mr. Justice Anil R Dave of the Supreme Court, addressing a Convention at
the Gujrath Universitys Convention Hall on the 2nd of August 2014,
forcefully advocated the introduction of Bhagawath Gita and the
Mahabharatha in primary schools to learn how to live. In simpler terms
he wants to Hinduize the minds of kids of tender age. He went even to the
extent of declaring Had I been the dictator of India, I would have
introduced Gita and Mahabharatha in Class I. This, he added was to get
good things from everywhere. Are Gita and Mahabharatha alone good
things? Why not introduce Allamas Iqbals Lab pay aatee hai dua bankay
tamanna meree? With deep regret, I am constrained to observe that if the
Honble Judges declaration is approved, secularism will collapse in our
Motherland.
S. M. Pasha, Periamet, Chennai 60000
valimuhammad777@gmail.com
How RSS became mainstream
First it was Dr Lohia who become so personal to Pt. Nehru that he
propagated the strategy of Non-Congressism, later it become ideology to
his disciples. Dr Lohia once said to defeat Congress I can go for an
alliance with even Satan (Congress ko haraney aur hataney ke liye main
shaitan se bhee haath milaney ke liye tayyar hoon).The result of this
politics was formation of SVD non congress governments in 7 to 9 states
in 1967. In UP and Bihar both the factions of socialists(SSP & PSP) and
communists(CPI & CPM) sharing beds with Jansanghis and right wing
Swatantra and Republicans in rulling coalitions. During so called JPs youth
movement of 1974, JP went extra mile and gave legitimacy to RSS by
giving this certificate that if RSS is communal then I am also
communal.Later on when JP realized his mistakes during Janata party
govt. and wrote to PM Morarji Desai to curb the interference of RSS in the
government and Janata party. But by the time the cat was out OF bag and
it was too late to control it.
Qurban Ali
qurban100@gmail.com
Hindi-Hindu conflict
I respect the feelings of Mr Mohan Bhagwat that all Indians should have
been Hindus. Ninety percent of Indian Muslims have converted from
Hinduism. If Mohanji wants that all Muslims should come back into the
folds of Hinduism, he has to modify Hinduism and make it more attractive
than Islam and practice equality, eliminating caste system. In Islam, there
is equality and complete divine guidance in every walk of life. If Mohanji
would study Holy Quran, he is bound to embrace Islam and love it.
Dr AH Maqdoomi, Hyderabad
Controversy on appointing ex-CJI as state Governor
It refers to controversy on appointing former Chief Justice of India P
Sathasivam as Kerala Governor. There are two aspects to the issue. Firstly
as rightly said by even Congress leader Manish Tiwari, there is no
impropriety in any such appointment because retired judges of higher
courts have joined political parties after retirement and have even become
Parliamentarians. Rather real controversial issue is appointing politicians
as state Governors, which actually require politically neutral persons like
retired judges and bureaucrats to be appointed on such highly dignified
posts. There have been many cases earlier when politicians appointed as
state Governors have misused Raaj-Bhawans (Governor Houses) like
party-headquarters dancing to tunes of political masters at the centre and
ignoring even physical claim of deserving aspirants for posts of Chief
Ministers claiming majority support of members of Legislative Assemblies
(MLAs). But second aspect of the issue is necessity of a two-year ban on
post-retirement postings of retired judges of higher courts with exception
of their appointment at judicial commissions/panels to check chances of
pro-government decisions especially in last days of their retirement, an
aspect favoured by even BJP in earlier regime when it was in opposition.
While Arun Jaitley in his capacity as the then Leader of Opposition in Rajya
Sabha stressed for a consolidated package of judicial reforms including
two-year ban on post-retirement postings of retired judges, now the BJP
government had got passed bill only relating to judicial appointments that
too ignoring views of leading jurists of the country who suspect legislative
interference in judicial interference through the passed bill on judicial
appointments.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Chandni Chowk ; Delhi 110006
subhashchandraagrawal@gmail.com
CBI Directors visitors
Supreme Court has rightly taken cognizance of controversial persons
related to matters being probed by countrys premier investigating agency
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visiting residence of CBI Chief as per
visitors diary maintained at his residence with CBI Chief himself admitting
some of such entries genuine. But his argument that anyone can visit him
or his family-members is totally unacceptable. Persons posted on such
highly sensitive posts must be careful about persons directly or indirectly
associated with cases probed under their agency visiting their residences.
Rather such visits should be recorded in relevant case-files. But still bigger
is the question of probability of not recording such controversial visits in
future in visitors diary after the episode having hit media-headlines, and
even been taken cognizance by the Apex Court. Aspect of copy of visitors
diary reaching in hands of media- persons is also a matter of great
significance for which vigilant eye of media deserves all compliments.
Madhu Agrawal, Dariba DELHI 110006
madhuguinness@gmail.com
Marriage injustice
Modesty is the most valuable ornament of a girl. Only husband is entitled
to taste it. It is the gift of nature to her husband who takes wife in his safe
custody till his death. Kartik Gaoda on the promise of marriage has tasted
an enjoyed it. Now if he wants to deceive the girl, the police, the court and
the society should support the girl. Sadanand Gaoda should resign till his
son agrees to marry the model. Long police enquiry and court hearings
will deny justice. It is said frailty thy name is women The police can easily
find the truth if it is not pressurised.
Dr AH Maqfoomi Hyderabad
NIA exposes the reality of RSS
Sunil Joshi, a pracharak of RSS, was murdered by his associates Rajendra
Pahalwan and Lokesh Sharma to stop him from revealing the real
masterminds and network of Hindu terrorism. Earlier NIA was investigating
on these lines. But now NIA has brought out another theory that the RSS
parcharak had vulgar designs and was misbehaving with Pragya Singh
Thakur is languishing in jail for bomb blasts in many places. News of such
exploitation of girls comes out frequently in Naxal groups and dacoit
gangs. NIA after three long years of investigation will now, after BJPs
coming to power at the Centre, will fail to complete probe of the Hindu
terror cases.
S. Haque, Patna
Indian Muslims & Al-Qaeda's Non-existent "Indian Wing!"
The non-Brahmin Hindus of India must understand this point that the
enslavement of Indians in general by the Brahmins was to a great extent
challenged by the advent of Muslim rule in India. Oppressed Hindus did not
know how to revolt against this Brahminic hegemony and inhuman
oppression. Dalits took for granted that they were 'born to be untouchables
or born to do menial work no matter how low it was. They accepted as
natural that they should be ruled as it so says in their religious beliefs. The
Muslim rulers broke this myth and saved this part of the population from
living as animals. Instead of being grateful they forget their history and all
join to act against Muslims. It is the Brahmins who are scared to death
regarding equality. Indian Hindus ot today need so mu ch educa tion and
guided to true path. Their leaders are taking them for a ride for their own
benefit and materialistic profit.
Razdanraz
razdanraz@aol.com
Advice to Indian Muslims: you are safer in India
Muslims of India are well-advised to remember the treatment of those who
emigrated to Pakistan after Partition and have ever since been looked
down upon as Mohajirs. Of course, if you are Shia or Ahmadiya or Sufi or
a Tamil Muslim or a Kannada Muslim or a Bengali Muslim, in Pakistan, God
help you because they will treat you as not one of them, if at all they
consider you to be a Muslim. For those of you who have had the benefit
of working in Arab countries thinking you would get special treatment, you
are given that treatment only when you are spending money on the Hajj,
not if you are in any Arab country as an employee. The Arabs do not
differentiate in treatment between Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi
Muslims of any background and in their heart of hearts do not give
Muslims of the Sub-continent the same respect as they give to their own
fellow Arab Muslims from other Arab countries. For those who dream of
assisting either ISIS or Al Qaeda, please be clear in your minds that as
citizens of India you have a fundamental right to freedom of movement and
cannot be denied an Indian passport for travel outside India for any
purpose whatsoever. However, as far as I am aware, for those of you who
may want to fight for ISIS or Al Qaeda outside India if they offer you good
money or if such activities offer other opportunities, no Arab country is
willing to confer citizenship to any foreigner in their country and also do
not approve marriage with their daughters, although Arab men freely go
around marrying women from other countries including from India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh. If any person, even a Muslim, is caught fooling
around with their (Arab) women, the punishment is as per Shariat Law in
countries where Shariat law is practiced. You are, therefore, safer in any
country where Shariat Law is not practiced by the Government. I can
confirm also that despite the fact that there is a BJP Government in India
and also despite the fear of possible adverse actions that many people
(including many non-Muslims) may have that the present BJP Government
will begin taking various adverse actions against Muslims in India, a fear
which is being spread by various anti-Indian interests to cause friction
within India, Mr. Modi's Government is going to concentrate on
development, and will not waste its time in anti-Muslim activities. After all,
despite Mr. Ayman Al Zawahiri's claims to help his Muslim brothers and
sisters in Kashmir, who is helping them during the present flood situation?
Soldiers of the predominantly Hindu Indian Army, with funds from the
predominantly Hindu Government of India from the predominantly Hindu
taxpayer in India, who are paying normal taxes, neither Zakat nor Jiziya.
Please note, just from observing activities in our neighboring countries,
that Indian Muslims are very much safer in India under India's present
Laws than they would be in some of our neighboring countries. India is still
a stable nation based on Rule of Law, provided these Laws are passed by
the democratically-elected Indian Parliament. More Muslims of India,
especially those who are well educated, should follow the example of Mr.
Owaisi of Hyderabad who I have total respect for because he has not run
away and is not bitter towards India but stands and fights for the rights of
his people like a true Indian. He continues in his work despite being
misunderstood by many around him. I am a Hindu myself and refuse to
brand Mr. Owaisi and people like him as anti-Indian.
Vijay Tonse
vijay.tonse@gmail.com
Muslim rule & English education for every evil
ICHR head Y. Sudarshan Rao blamed Muslim rule and English education
for all the evils in Hinduism. The evils of caste system and untouchability
are prevailing among Hindus due to the Muslim ruler and English
education according to him (TOI, 17 July, 14). When Lalu Yadav was ruling
Bihar, Sangh Parivar target him for every misdeed, vandalism and bad
incident in Bihar. One of Lalus MLAs had said then that if the news of a
saffron leaders wifes delivery came they would blame Lalu Yadav.
S. Haque, Patna
REJOINDERS/OPINION/LETTERS The Milli Gazette, 16-30 September 2014 23 www.milligazette.com
The Milli Gazette, P.O. Box 9701, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110025 Email: letters@milligazette.com Read more letters on MG website
RNI No. DELENG/2000/930 REGISTERED DL(S)-01/3215/2012-14
LICENCED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT U (SE)-57/2012-14
PUBLISHED ON 11 SEP 2014 POSTED ON 11,12 SEP 2014
ADV. FORTNIGHTLY AT NDPSO-110002
The Milli Gazette
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar,
New Delhi 110025 India Tel.: 011-26947483, 0-9818120669 Email: edit@milligazette.com
24 The Milli Gazette,16-30 September 2014
Printed, published and owned by Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan and printed at Vibha Publication Pvt Ltd., D-160B, Sector-7, Noida, U.P. and published at D-84 Abul Fazal Enclave-I, New Delhi 110025.
Editor: Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan
With best compliments from Kaleem Kawaja , Washington DC
Are you 1 of the 100000 Readers we are
desperately looking for our print edition?
The Milli Gazette endeavoured these past 14 and half years
to represent Muslims in all regions of India, all sects and
shades of thought. We focused on our community's
triumphs which mostly go unreported and we also
constructively addressed our failures, shortcomings and
challenges, which are usually blown up by the insensitive
"national" media.
It was with the support of readers like you that,
alhamdulillah, we entered our 15th year of publication in
January. We started way back on January 1, 2000, with
great dreams and plans to put our community on the news
media map. Our plan was to slowly evolve into a weekly
publication and start offering new services like a daily
newspaper on the Internet. But it seems we will not be able
to complete this journey. This reality has been stared us for
a long time, as we struggled to attract enough subscribers
and advertisers to sustain this effort. Taking this decision
to close at this juncture has been doubly painful as we see
the challenges mount while an insensitive if not outright
inimical administration has taken over at the centre.
We do not follow the conventional, sometimes unethical,
tactics of large media houses and our financial losses have
been mounting year after year after year and now we have
reached a stage where it has become unsustainable. As we
stand today, we will not be able to publish more than few
more issues.
The lack of resources and continued deficit will force
your newspaper to close down soon. As a last-ditch effort,
we have set a target of of 100,000 subscribers that, if
achieved, will put us on strong footing to continue. If we
are unable to achieve the goal, we will cease publishing
soon.
If 1 lakh readers agree to pay Rs 1000 for a 3 year
subscription, this ever-limping newspaper may be able to
move to a stronger financial footing. If you are in a position
to offer additional support, please do so. Please send any
payment by an account-payee cheque favouring "Milli
Gazette" sent to our address below. Only if we meet this
target, insha Allah, we will encash them, otherwise these
cheques will be destroyed. We will wait until October 1,
2014, to decide.
Please try not to send Demand Drafts, Money Orders,
Bank Transfers or Credit/Debit card payments as it will be
an added burden to return in case our target is not
achieved. If we do receive any non-cheque payment, we
will refund after deducting overhead costs or we will offer
other products we have like books and T-shirts.
You can subscribe for yourself and gift to anyone
Friend, relative, activist, leader, library, university, college,
hospital, clinic, reading room, NGO. For example, if you are
gifting 10 people, make a cheque for Rs 10,000. Please
forward this to anyone you think may be interested in MG
or send us their contact details, emails, mobile numbers.
Help make sure Indian Muslims have a voice.
Please see next page for the subscription form.
But YOU can STOPit from closing.
Your newspaper will STOP publishing soon.
#SaveMG
The Milli Gazette
Indian Muslims Leading English Newspaper
Twice a month since January 2000
NOW.
We are a reader- supported newspaper. Please respond
call 0-9868656614 or 0-9818120669 sales@milligazette.com
#SaveMG www.milligazette.com/SaveMG/Now.htm
Please see page 20 inside.
Our target was to get 100,000 subscription which would translate into a capital
of Rs 10 crore, which would have helped us become stable for the next 3 years
and more and hence improve and stabilise. In response to the #SaveMG
Campaign we have received so far, less than 500 subscriptions which includes
pledges for subscriptions and pledges to pay a certain amount, one time or at
regular intervals...
O
u
r

H
o
p
e
s

a
r
e

s
h
r
i
n
k
i
n
g
.