The West Bengal Government has
banned Dwikhandita, the recent autobiographical book by the controversial
Bangladeshi author in exile, Taslima Nasreen, for saying it contained matter
which could incite "enmity between different groups on grounds of religion''.
An order has been issued for seizing all copies of the book. .....
Have you ever taken an El Al flight
from Mumbai? The security is drastic: You are asked a hundred questions
by young men and women, Indians, but of Jewish origin, whose parents emigrated
from the first century onwards after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem,
to find refuge in India where they prospered and lived in peace till many
of them went back to Israel in 1948 .....
Canadian judges soon will be enforcing
Islamic law, or Sharia, in disputes between Muslims, possibly paving the
way to one day administering criminal sentences, such as stoning women
caught in adultery. .....
An Ashland teenager is free on
bail Wednesday evening after he was arraigned for allegedly defacing a
Hindu temple. NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Anthony Piccioli
was arrested after the state police crime lab linked him to spray-painted
epithets on temple property. .....
Catholics have a duty to be informed
about Islam and the challenges it poses to Christianity. So says Robert
Spencer, an expert on Islam who recently co-authored "Inside Islam: A Guide
for Catholics" (Ascension) with Daniel Ali, a convert from Islam. .....
The leader of Britain's Muslim
Parliament has warned that many women are legally unprotected when their
marriages end because they wrongly believe that Islamic wedding ceremonies
are recognised by British law. .....
It would be premature and unwise
to treat the so-called cease-fire to which India and Pakistan have agreed
and which went into effect on the midnight of November 25, 2003, as the
proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. One wished it were, but one
should not have any illusions that it is. .....
If militant Islam is the problem
and moderate Islam is the solution, as I often argue, how does one differentiate
between these two forms of Islam? .....
An early spring morning in Stoke-on-Trent
sees Keshubhai, an elderly Asian gentleman, on his knees scrubbing the
shutters of his shop. Keshubhai is clearly distressed - both by the unwelcome
early morning exercise of scrubbing clean his shop shutters and also by
the fact he is running late in opening up his shop. .....
The Indian PM's annual visit to
the United States produces ritual bellyaching among Indians both in India
and the US about how little coverage he is getting in the American media
vis-a-vis Pakistan and its leader. .....
Since the attacks of September
11, dozens of books have been rushed to market purporting to "explain"
the religion in whose name the terrorists acted. Most of them strike a
common theme: "true" Islam -- as opposed to the "fundamentalist" variety
of the hijackers -- is a "religion of peace" that promotes charity, tolerance,
freedom, and culture no less than "true" Christianity. .....
Last week was nothing short of
a disaster for Indian journalism - according to my powers of observation,
we pulled off at least 3 different Jayson Blairs, all in the space of 1
short week. Three very visible journalists/columnists published articles
with random half-truths and lies, with nary a rebuttal nor a correction
to follow anywhere. Facts are created and distorted seemingly for political
conclusions. .....
As part of their coverage of India
and Pakistan's independence, BBC Four ran a programme "India and Pakistan
- Partners or Rivals". To give it a semblance of authority, they invited
dignitaries on the panel. .....
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage hit the nail on the head when he declared to the Al Arabiya television
network that the real target of the November 9 suicide attack on the Muhaya
compound in Riyadh was the Saudi royal family and monarchical system of
government. .....
As expected the CBI has taken over
investigations into the multi-crore fake stamp scam, which is spread to
almost entire country except Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Political considerations
played heavily when two major states where the scam originated opposed
the proposal to hand over the investigations to the CBI. .....
by Farook Khan, Ndivhuwo Khangale
and Peter Fabricius
American efforts to build bridges
with the South African Muslim community by inviting representatives to
dinner tonight have been met with outrage. .....
In a new twist to the multi-crore
fake stamp racket that has rocked the country, Jayant M Tinaikar, who brought
the Rs 30,000 crore scam to light has alleged that Congress president Sonia
Gandhi, Chief Minister S M Krishna and AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi
Azad, besides Small Scale Industries Minister Roshan Baig are involved
with racket kingpin Kareem Lala. .....
Chronicling every itsy-bitsy achievement
of NRIs and ABCDs has become a staple of the Indian media these days. Every
day there are stories about someone of Indian-origin in the west becoming
a CXO, winning some award, being appointed to a county board, or making
his fortune in some venture. .....
He rose to fame for his fierce
defence of Shah Bano, the destitute Muslim woman whose 1986 plea for maintenance
irrevocably changed the course of Indian history. That defiance earned
him the wrath of the Muslim clergy and cost him his job as minister. .....
"I was scared of coming to India
because I was afraid I'd never leave,'' says Roger Christian. He's the
British director of the new Indo- British film 'American Daylight', starring
Koel Purie, Nick Moran and Vijay Raaz. .....
Last week two news reports saddened
me beyond words. Though different in nature, the source of both was Jammu
& Kashmir. The first one is a comment attributed to All-Party Hurriyat
Conference (APHC) leader Yaseen Malik. .....
More than Afghanistan and Iraq,
it is Pakistan which reflects the failure of the American foreign policy.
Or is it naïve on my part to say so since the possibility of Pakistan
being sheltered and supported as a nation that spawns terror groups willingly
by Washington could in fact be the reality? Why would Washington, or for
that matter others, ignore two recent events in Pakistan which clearly
point at the regrouping of terror groups under the benevolent protection
of General Pervez Musharraf? .....
India's churches have threatened
to take legal action against the government unless the discrimination against
low-caste Christians and other minorities in the national census "is set
right." .....
The FBI, in an unprecedented move,
has subpoenaed records for dozens of bank accounts belonging to the Saudi
Embassy, as part of an investigation into whether any of the millions of
dollars Riyadh spends in the US each year end up in the hands of Muslim
extremists, US and Saudi officials said. .....
The Sirajdikhan thana police on
November 13 rescued the tortured girl, Shuva Dutta. daughter of Mongal
Dutta from Pauldia village in Sirajdikhan upazila and kept her under safe
custody. .....
Rejecting Pakistan's demand that
UN resolutions be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, India has said it first
went to the world body not because the State was a disputed territory but
because of Pakistani aggression. .....
Controversial missionary activities
by fundamentalist Christian sects in Sri Lanka have inflamed passions among
the predominantly Buddhist population to an extent that could rebound against
older, established Christian groups such as the Catholics. .....
Mention of a staged "Mahabharata"
at once brings to mind Sir Peter Brook's 10-hour version of the Hindu epic
poem, which debuted at the Avignon International Drama Festival in 1985.
This inspired version by Director Satoshi Miyagi staged recently in Tokyo
lasts just two hours. .....
Nisha Sharma, who hit the headlines
six months ago for sending her would-be groom to jail for demanding dowry,
on Wednesday married a software engineer. .....
Halima is a destitute from Latur
in Maharashtra. Fatima of Tadepalligudem was abandoned by her mother. Both
these Muslim girls found a father, mother and friend in Kamesa Maharshi,
a saffron-robed Hindu monk who founded the Kamakshi Peetham and runs the
Sri Kamakshi Prema Mandiram orphanage in Amalapuram. .....
Last week the government of General
Pervez Musharraf announced a ban on three jihadi outfits which were earlier
banned by the United States. As if on cue, the police swooped down upon
them, "sealed" their offices and detained dozens of their activists. Their
bank accounts were ostensibly "frozen". This is supposed to be another
historic blow against extremism and terrorism. Rubbish. .....
In a rare departure from tradition,
President A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday performed archana to Lord Venkateswara
at Tirumala, not for himself but for those who cannot afford the ritual.
.....
The steady rise of the rightwing
on the Indian political stage over the past decade has impacted popular
Hindi cinema in two crucial ways. One, it has fuelled a plethora of feel-
good "model Hindu" family dramas. The other is panning out before our eyes
at this precise moment. The next 12 months or so will witness the release
of a larger number of war films than the Mumbai movie machine has cranked
out in its entire history. .....
Pope John Paul's recent fulminations
against 'discriminations' in Hindu Indian society should not come as a
major surprise to anyone who knows the ways of the man who sits in the
distant Vatican. .....
The Madras High Court has upheld
a circular dated June 8, 2003 of the Haj Committee, which applied certain
restrictions for availing the subsidy.granted by the Centre, and demanded
more money than the subsidised Haj fare from those who fell out of the
circular. .....
President Bush yesterday vowed
the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to repression by Middle
East "elites" to ensure stability, although he avoided mentioning Syria,
Egypt or Saudi Arabia. .....
Today's coordinated bombings against
British targets in Istanbul, occurring just days after the dual bombings
of Istanbul synagogues, make the Islamic terrorist message brutally clear
-- their targets are the Jewish people and Western democratic civilization.
.....
In a gruesome incident, at least
eleven members of a Hindu family, including a four-day-old baby and seven
women, were burnt to death by armed dacoits after they were prevented from
robbing the house in southern Chittagong in Bangladesh. .....
Some thirteen hundred years ago,
ships carrying Zoroastrians fleeing persecution in Persia arrived on the
Gujarat coast seeking refuge. According to Parsee folklore, the local ruler
of Sanjan, Jadi Rana, was initially reluctant to give them shelter, but
he consented after imposing three conditions. .....
John Paul II told a group of Indian
bishops that the Church should target lower caste Hindus for conversion
in an attempt to end caste-based discrimination. At the same time, he has
condemned the caste system when he met with the bishops of the ecclesiastical
provinces of Madras-Mylapore, Madurai and Pondicherry-Cuddalore, at the
conclusion of a series of five-yearly visits by the prelates of India.
.....
"I was scared of coming to India
because I was afraid I'd never leave,'' says Roger Christian. He's the
British director of the new Indo- British film 'American Daylight', starring
Koel Purie, Nick Moran and Vijay Raaz. .....
The Human Rights Commission Pakistan
issued a report in October 2000 that accused the military regime of committing
"widespread abuses in the name of political reform" and called on General
Musharraf to "immediately return the country to constitutional rule," charging
the "government had detained former officials without charge, removed independent
judges, banned public rallies, and rendered political parties all but powerless."
.....
When the US Secretary of State
Colin Powel said that democracy must be established in Islamic countries,
the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hamid Reza Asefi mocked him
and said "US officials' comments on Islam clearly prove they do know nothing
about Islam and Muslims. .....
Few Convicted Murderers and hijackers
accept the label "terrorist." One who does--indeed, who embraces terrorism
as among man's "noblest pursuits"--is a Venezuelan now serving a life sentence
for murder in France. He is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better
known as "Carlos the Jackal." .....
The Hindu of Chennai, India, has
probably set a world record in print journalism. Its editions of 10th,
11th and 12th November 2003 published a total of 163 letters to the editor!
Included in that aggregate was a record of 67 letters in just one single
edition (of 11th November) that were accommodated at the cost of two lengthy
articles which customarily adorn that newspaper's edit page. .....
The two Britons, who broke the
idol of Lord Rama at the Ealing Road Sanatam Mandir in Wembley last month,
were sentenced for "racially aggravated criminal damages". .....
Stay the course - but change the
course. That was the meaning of the sudden, sharp, and understated change
in Washington's Iraq policy last week. .....
For 30 years, the Singapore Teachers'
Union has been toying with the idea of a magazine for students. The dream
came true this year when it partnered Vimarks Consultancy, an educational
media company owned by former Member of Parliament, Mr R Sinnakaruppan.
.....
At Mumbai University, the number
of students registered for courses at the University's Sanskrit department
has gone up from 175 to 260, a rise of nearly 50 per cent in the last four
years. .....
Panun Kashmir was born as a comprehensive
response to the challenges faced by the nation in Kashmir. An in-depth
understanding of the reason which lead to the forced displacement of Kashmiri
Hindus formed the substratum of its political perspective. This understanding
did not trivilise the religious cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus by considering
it as a mere aberration in the local political expression. .....
Pakistan's ISI has forged a nexus
with the Maoist cadres of Nepal to recruit men to spy in India. The recent
arrest of a Nepalese young man in Gujarat shows that the modus operandi
is to invite youth to join educational institutions in Pakistan and, during
the course of studies, they are encouraged to enter India through the open
border between the two countries and seek out specific defence-related
information. .....
The article below about Arabs may
upset a lot of the PC people who will read it. This article is based on
my own experience being born and raised in Lebanon for twenty-two years,
including fifteen years of the Lebanese civil war and the first Gulf war
in 1991. .....
On Oct. 20 the United Nations Development
Program published its second Arab Human Development Report. Subtitled "Building
a Knowledge Society," the report revealed that Arab countries urgently
need to invest in education and foment intellectual activity if they want
to avoid worsening a growing knowledge gap. .....
Candidly admitting that not treating
border migrants at par with displaced Kashmiri Pandits in giving relief
is unfair and inhuman, Joint Secretary of Union Home Ministry H S Brahma
today assured that Centre will take effective steps to provide justice
to those inhabitants who were forced to leave their homes and hearths due
to shelling from across the border. .....
Henna Abdullah, daughter of the
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, is no longer a Kashmiri. Under the
law, she cannot buy an inch of land in the state nor can she get employment
or pursue her education in government institutions here any more. For,
last fortnight, she married a non-Kashmiri (a South African based in London),
losing her status of ``permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir'' automatically.
.....
As the stump cartwheeled out of
the earth and into history, South Asian cricket was born. It was the end
of June, and a sunny day in London. Eleven men from India had travelled
over the seas to walk out before an audience of 24,000. Kitted out in their
whites, they were in Lord's to play their country's maiden Test match,
against colonial rulers. .....
On October 29, on invitation from
Henry J Hyde, Chairman of the US House of Representatives International
Relations Committee, I testified at a joint hearing which two sub-committees
of the Committee were holding on on terrorism in South and South-East Asia
and its implications for US counter-terrorism policy. .....
Countries like India and China
will eat Britain and the rest of Europe for "breakfast, lunch and dinner"
if they fail to stay competitive, Confederation of British Industry chief
Digby Jones warned on Friday. .....
Pakistan's pro-military government
has just finished its first year in office, but critics are skeptical about
whether a transfer of power to the elected government has really taken
place. .....
Yesterday's India-Russia joint
declaration condemning "double standards" in the United States' war against
terrorism may have been provoked by the recent developments in the ongoing
investigation of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814. .....
Iran has told the International
Atomic Energy Agency that it received crucial help from Pakistan with its
controversial nuclear programme, according to those familiar with the negotiations.
.....
The tradition of Vedic chanting
of India has been declared a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity by Unesco for being "the ultimate source of knowledge and one
of the world's oldest surviving cultural traditions." .....
Stating that the central government
has decided to adopt Dholavira, Modera and Somnath under its scheme of
developing centres of excellence, Union minister for tourism Jagmohan said
on Thursday that more than Rs 15 crore has already been spent in the past
one year on developing tourist spots in Gujarat. .....
Over 200 Islamic non-governmental
organizations (NGO) operating in Bangladesh are facing acute financial
crisis due to sharp decline in the flow of funds, reported the Independent
newspaper on Wednesday. .....
Malaysia's main opposition party,
the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), has unveiled its plans for an Islamic
state, ahead of elections expected within a year. .....
In almost every conceivable discipline
there is an unending tussle between the theorists and the practitioners.
The media too has experienced this tug-of-war. For many decades, India's
editors were subjected to sermons from both politicians and pundits about
the debilitating effects of highlighting the trivialities of politics at
the expense of an elusive commodity called "development". .....
Thirteen Malaysian students suspected
of involvement with Islamic militant groups have been detained upon their
arrival home following their deportation from Pakistan. .....
The cruelties which in the name
of the religion of peace and love this tribunal practised in Europe, were
carried to even greater excesses in India, where the Inquisitors, surrounded
by luxuries which could stand in comparison with the regal magnificence
of the great potentates of Asia, saw with pride the Archbishop as well
as the Viceroy submitted to their power. .....
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
has an ambitious plan to construct 7,400 Venkateswara temples in Andhra
Pradesh with financial assistance from the cash-rich Tirumala-Tirupati
Devasthanam trust. .....
Lynching a "class enemy" is an
old Bangla communist way of "class annihilation". These are so frequent
in West Bengal that unless an incident is particularly macabre, it fails
to surprise. At any rate, human rights activists list the state on top
of the justice-by-lynching rate. .....
Growing up on the shores of Sandy
Hook Bay, Mona Elgohail always loved the sea and was delighted to win a
slot at a special high school for the study of marine sciences. .....
In the Italian capital's abandoned
Tiburtina railway station, clothes dangle from makeshift washing lines,
and families camp out without running water or electricity - many waiting
as long as 14 months to see if Italy will accept them as asylum seekers.
.....
The people of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir
(PoK) and Northern Territories (NT) are up in arms against Islamabad. Some
of the major political formations that are actively involved in the anti-Pakistan
crusade include Shabir Choudhry's Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF),
Abdul Hamid Khan's Balawaristan National Front (BNF), Mumtaz Mohammad Khan's
Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) .....
Ask the executives of some of America's
top semiconductor firms where the next wave of chip sector outsourcing
will go and the answer is India , not China. .....
Washington's decision last month
to declare Dawood Ibrahim a specially designated global terrorist with
links to two outlawed militant outfits, al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), is causing considerable consternation amongst security agencies
in Pakistan, the UAE and south-east Asian countries such as the Philippines,
Malaysia and Singapore. .....
"Ram was and is for real. He was
born on January 10, 5114 BC," Saroj Bala, IRS, Commisioner of Income Tax
says, calmly, with the assurance of one who has tangible facts. .....
In an October 10, 2003 speech to
members of the Moroccan parliament, King Muhammad VI introduced eleven
fundamental reforms in a new Family Law proposed in Morocco. The following
are excerpts from his speech: [1] Men and Women are Equal Before the Law
1- "[We should] adopt a modern form of wording instead of that which undermines
the dignity of women as human beings. .....
Could Islam one day become the
established church of Britain? Might English women adopt the headscarves
and enveloping robes of their Asian sisters, as the call to prayer rises
and falls across the slate roofs of rainswept industrial cities? .....
The British government is warning
of "high threats" of terrorism against Westerners and other targets in
the Gulf- Arab nations of Bahrain and Qatar. .....
Yoga, meditation and breathing
exercises may soon become part of the daily routine of hardened criminals
and extremists in Israel's high security jails if the violence-torn Jewish
state implements prison programmes designed by the Indian spiritual Guru
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is here on a mission of love and peace. .....
The predictable deluge of categorical
denials from Islamabad and less categorical versions from Riyadh flooded
the Internet on queue. This reporter wrote from Pakistan last week that
Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah and President Pervez
Musharraf had reached a secret understanding when they met on Oct. 20:
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal would provide the kingdom a nuclear "deterrent"
in case of need. .....
An Intelligence Bureau document,
prepared for delegates to the 38th conference of Directors-General of Police,
states that Bangladesh "has emerged as a security threat to India since
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government of Begum Khaleda Zia came
to power in 2001". The document has been accessed by the Hindustan Times.
.....
The growing disillusionment of
the tribals with the Naxalites, in their once impregnable strongholds of
Malkangiri, Gajpati and Rayagada has put the People's War cadres in Orissa
on the defensive. .....
Five days after a hitherto unknown
A A Rizvi brought the Ayodhya issue back on the discussion table by proposing
a Ram temple at the disputed site in lieu of a Jama Masjid elsewhere in
the town, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board claims it was an attempt
to divide the community along the Shia-Sunni line. .....
The President: Thank you all very
much. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome, and thanks for inviting
me to join you in this 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy.
The staff and directors of this organization have seen a lot of history
over the last two decades, you've been a part of that history. .....
Fearing possible infiltration by
North-east-based Islamic militants, who have received training in neighbouring
Bangladesh, the Cachar district administration in South Assam has clamped
a two-month embargo on people's movement and trade, along the Indo-Bangla
border. The local administration has clamped Section 144 of the CrPC, restricting
the movement of people in the area between 8 pm and 5 am. .....
Designated by the US as a global
terrorist, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim has moved house from Karachi to
Islamabad along with his associates and is in the process of winding up
his operations in the port city. .....
The story of Shri Ram's life was
first narrated by Maharishi Valmiki in The Ramayana, written after he was
crowned as the king of Ayodhya. Valmiki was a great astronomer because
he made sequential astronomical references on important dates related to
the life of Shri Ram indicating the location of planets vis- a-vis zodiac
constellations and the other visible stars (nakshatras). .....
It is encouraging to note that
the Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, despite the imperatives of coalition
politics, is questioning some of the demands of his deputy. .....
At least five Hindus on Thursday
told the Nanavati Commission, which is probing the Gujarat riots, that
they saw Congress leader and ex-member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri open fire
at a mob outside the Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
.....
A U.S. educational group is awarding
its 2003 Ex Corde Ecclesiae Award to a journalist for his articles on Vatican-required
mandatums for theologians at Catholic colleges. .....
Let this be clear: what Pakistan,
a rogue nation, deserves is not some sops to make it behave itself, but
a resounding slap on its face. For years now it has been behaving like
a spoilt child, crying for chocolate. For years it had been pampered by
the likes of the United States and Britain, for their own nefarious reasons.
The time has come to read a firm lecture to it. It must, for instance,
be told once and for all that it cannot pursue its old ways. .....
The Crown's key witness at the
Air India trial gave astounding evidence when she resumed testifying on
Monday. She said Ripudaman Singh Malik confessed to the bombing of Air
India Flight 182. .....
"As close as lips and teeth" is
how China always described its ties with its oldest friends. Apart from
North Korea, the most frequently quoted example was Pakistan. .....
In a situation of war, Generals
rather than the politicians articulate the ground reality better.
At a press conference in Jammu, held recently, General Vij the Army Chief
did some plain speaking. Besides referring to the presence of Al-Qaida
elements in J&K, he expressed alarm over sharp escalation in' incidence
of terrorist violence which shot up from 201 to 281 per month. .....
Goa was one of the three Portuguese
Provinces in the India continent, for 451 years. The other two Provinceswere
Damão and Diu. In 1961 India invaded these 3 territories and assimilated
themto its domain. .....
An Al Qaeda Web site is running
a warning issued to Muslims to leave Washington, D.C., New York City and
Los Angeles because of implied imminent terrorist attacks, according to
the Middle East Media Research Institute. .....
Chief Election Commissioner J M
Lyngdoh on Tuesday criticised the officials of Chhattisgarh saying "they
are working more with a partisan and biased attitude". .....
What motivates a young man to take
up terrorism, enrol himself at a training camp in Pakistan, infiltrate
India, fire at the Army and possibly never return home? .....
Under the orders of the Allahabad
High Court, the excavation at the disputed site of Ayodhya to ascertain
whether ther was any temple structure in the Babri structure area. The
report has since been opened and the contents revealed (The HINDU, August
25, 2003). According to the report, a massive structure of 10th century,
of stone and brick lies buried beneath the site in addition to a carved
sculpture and motifs. .....
In a function attended by prominent
members of the RSS and VHP in Goa, Governor Kidar Nath Sahani said the
reconstruction of temples destroyed by Portuguese colonisers in Goa was
a matter of "national identity and heritage". .....
The much-hyped "Lawa-ka-bas" dam,
which won so much acclaim from the former President K.R. Narayanan and
several environmentalists, has quietly collapsed, exposing the hollowness
not only of the "traditional wisdom" tomtomed by its builders, but also
of the prestige associated with the Magasaysay Award which many describe
as an alternate Nobel Prize. .....
Caste is not a pleasant topic for
Hindus, and in the international arena today, it has elicited a shame upon
the Hindu religion. I have written this article to initiate dialogue within
our community. The negative issues associated with caste will not go away,
but will only tear at the credibility of the religion. .....
Does Islam permit family planning?
Is the recent decision by the Supreme Court of India an interference in
the Muslim Personal Law? How far do Indian Muslims practice family planning?
What are the implications of this on gender issues? How should Muslims
react to the court judgement? These are questions of vital importance for
the future of India. .....
Remember those good old days when
the Pakistan army masterminded and participated in the Taliban's genocidal
war against the Afghan populace -- well, worry not, those good days are
back. .....
When in the August 2003 issue of
Dissent magazine Prof. Nussbaum of the University of Chicago accused the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat, India, and the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) and its affiliates of carrying
out a genocide in Gujarat last year, I realized once again how effective
the Left/Marxist groups in the world are in spreading lies and disinformation.
.....
The National Commission for Minorities'
initiative for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley suffered a
setback today with the community leaders objecting to a "condition" reportedly
put by Hurriyat leader Yaseen Malik that they remain "neutral in the ongoing
(separatist) struggle". .....
Bareilly, Basti, Kushinagar, Agra...
and now Aligarh, Meerut, Deoria and even Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh, it seems,
is caught in the vortex of communal violence with inter- community clashes
being reported from almost all parts of the state. .....
British Home Secretary David Blunkett
wants Islamic preachers in the country to learn English to help combat
the "clash of cultures" suffered by young British Muslims. This was crucial,
he said, in the interest of race relations, because teachers and community
leaders shape youngsters' attitudes to help them identify with the country.
.....
A record number of over 46.50 lakh
pilgrims from various parts of the country have visited the holy cave shrine
of Mata Vaishnodevi in Trikuta hills of Jammu and Kashmir till October,
2003. .....
In an unexpected move, a newly
constituted Muslim body has expressed its willingness to forgo claims to
the site in Ayodhya where the Babri mosque stood till it was razed by zealots
in 1992. .....
Is there a method in the madness?
I hope there is. Dozens of so-called peace initiatives. Ferry service to
Karachi. Restoration of air traffic. More buses to Lahore. A bus service
from Srinagar to PoK. And cricket matches. .....
Extracting concessions aimed at
promoting peace with our neighbour out of the Pakistani establishment is
as tough as yanking out a healthy tooth from the jaws of a difficult patient.
.....
India was incredibly unlucky in
the leadership she received in the immediate aftermath of Independence.
Jawaharlal Nehru was a man with little experience of administration even
at the purely municipal level, a rich man's only son who had never been
confronted with the need to earn a living, leave alone to provide for a
family. .....
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
claims nobody called Dawood Ibrahim lives in Karachi's Clifton area. He
is right, for Dawood has shifted home recently under State protection after
being named by the US Treasury Department as a "Specially Designated Global
Terrorist". His new address is: House 37, Street 13, Phase-V, Defence Housing
Authority, Karachi. .....
Against the background of a contentious
parliamentary campaign in Georgia, the government recently backed away
from signing an agreement with the Vatican that would legally establish
the Roman Catholic Church in the country. Political analysts suggest a
major factor in the decision was the government's desire to avoid alienating
the country's nationalist constituency - a potentially influential voting
bloc in the November 2 parliamentary election. .....
The Statesman, English daily from
New Delhi and Kolkata, has tendered an unconditional apology to the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for its editorial-Not illegal but stupid-published
on 29-05-2000, in which it had alleged that the 'RSS was an organisation
which killed Gandhi'. .....
It was really the repetition of
1990 when in spite of the reins of terror and widespread security made
by the then Mulayam Singh Government; lakhs of Karsevaks had reached Ayodhya
and hoisted the saffron flag on the tombs of the disputed structures.
This time too, notwithstanding the Mulayam Singh Government's reign of
terror and atrocities, more than 55,000 Rambhakts entered Ayodhya and successfully
organised the Sankalp Sabha. .....
Massive turn out of Ram bhakts
from all over the country in response-to VHP's call has once again proved
that the Ayodhya movement has not peaked. On the other hand, it is
spreading both socially as well as geographically. In the early 90s,
the movement was largely confined to north and west India. .....
Mian Iftikharuddin of the Azad
Pakistan Party told a meeting of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in Karachi
on the 22nd, "Muslims are treated better in India than we treat Hindus
here". Mian Iftikharuddin made this statement in the course of his speech
during a general debate on the report of the Basic Principles Committee
of the Constituent Assembly. .....
Bengal's history in radical politics
seems to be repeating itself after 30 years. It's just that the order of
things have got reversed. The police and intelligence community are concerned
by the role of a section of so-called disgruntled CPI-M cadres and leaders
"at the grassroots level" in establishing militant organisations in the
North and South Bengal. .....
Dawn has recently provided alarming
evidence of intolerance and persecution of Hindus in Pakistan's Sindh province.
As believers in equal rights for all and special protection for minorities
Asiapeace feels very concerned about the situation in Sindh. Just as the
carnage of Muslims in Gujarat is unacceptable to us so also any act of
persecution, exploitation and terror against Hindu citizens of Pakistan.
.....
At the very outset we express our
appreciation for your stewardship of a technologically advanced state
in India. Bangalore has received global recognition and rightly so. Even
Mr. Bill Gates, the king of computer software, has tremendous appreciation
of this "Silicon Valley" of India. .....
My parents came to Chicago from
Calcutta in the 1960's. They associated with Bengalis and their closest
friends have remained Bengali-it is with the Bengalis of Chicago that we
have celebrated and to this day celebrate Thanksgiving, New Year's, Durga
Puja, Kali Puja, and Saraswati Puja (excuse my Bengali pronounciation!)
.....
Missionaries are systematically
targeting specific regions of India in hopes of converting the entire nation
to their brand of fanatic Christianity. Below is a detailed look into their
designs and plans. .....
Union Human Resources Minister
Murli Manohar Joshi caused a stir in the Bharatiya Janata Party when he
resigned from his post after a Rae Bareli court decided to frame charges
against him in the Babri Masjid demolition case. .....
The court-ordered removal of the
crucifix from a school because it offended a Muslim is evidence of the
West's misinterpretation of the rights of minorities and of the principle
of laicism, says a cardinal. .....
The Muslims of South Asia do not
have any automatic right to enter Pakistan as the Jews have to enter Israel
under the so- called Law of Return. Is this consistent with the founding
ideology of Pakistan, the two-nation theory? .....
Just after the 1991 Persian Gulf
War against Iraq, huge tents were erected in Saudi Arabia near the barracks
of U.S. military personnel. Inside, day and night, Saudi imams sent by
their government lectured the GIs about Islam and made aggressive pitches
to convert them. .....
The Pakistani city of Quetta lately
has become more than a provincial capital; it might also be described as
the new headquarters of the extremist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan
and sheltered Osama bin Laden until two years ago. According to one recent
report by the respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, "Thousands of
Taliban fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support
of a provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. .....
"World is looking towards Bharat
and its ever-lasting philosophy of Hindutva to take the entire globe
onto the path of peace and progress," maintained the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) at the Prant Pracharak and other senior karyakartas' baithak
at Cuttack. The Sangh further maintained that for this, Hindutva and Bharat
first have to emerge stronger to come up to the expectations of people
throughout the world. .....
L.K. Advani picked Indira Gandhi's
death anniversary to again go hammer and tongs at the Congress, saying
the Nehru family had lionised all the credit for winning India its independence
and deliberately downplayed the role of Sardar Patel. .....
General Pervez Musharaff, are you
listening to sensible people, at least on your side of the `fence', that
divided us 56 years ago, because of the machinations of the imperialists,
who `whipped' us for 300 years? Are you not afraid of Uncle Sam, who is
just blinking at you suspiciously, keeping an eagle's eye on the affairs
of the subcontinent from across the seven seas? .....
Pakistan has been obliged at last
to offer a weak and conditional response to this country's twelve specific
proposals aimed at dissolving some of the tensions that have bedeviled
Indo-Pak relations for quite some time. The publicly made offer of the
Indian Ministry of External Affairs had taken its counterpart in Islamabad
by surprise. .....
The US may have tightened the screws
on Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar alias Sheikh Dawood Hassan earlier this month
by branding him a "global terrorist", but in Gujarat, the don's been operating
for 20 years. He was arrested in 1983 in a case of attempted murder but
managed to jump bail. .....
The US should focus on reforming
radical madrassas, like those in Pakistan, that are a hotbed of Islamic
militants, an Indian counter-terrorism expert said at a Congressional hearing.
.....
A vilification campaign has commenced
against Ajit Jogi within the Congress, with party leaders saying that the
church has put pressure on Sonia Gandhi not to remove him following the
CBI inquiry in the document-forgery case. .....
The Peshawar Cantonment Board (PCB)
has served a notice on the Hindu minority members to vacate houses occupied
by them for 130 years in cantonment areas. .....
Few would have expected Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to focus on radical madrassas, or Islamic schools,
in his private communications with top advisers. This focus would be more
predictable in a secretary of state or national security adviser. .....
A 'truly Islamic state' can only
be authoritarian. Our clerical politicians are not unlike the communist
party. That party claimed to be the vanguard of the proletariat, and the
sole interpreters of the iron laws of 'historical inevitability' which
only they understood .....
The cruel fact behind this conversion
is that 'khatam-e- nabuwwat' gatherings in various parts of Pakistan constantly
threaten the Qadianis with vigilante action while the National Assembly
literally serves as the whistle-blower on low-level government employees
who still happen to be Qadianis .....
Indian proposal : Launching of
a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in PoK. Pak response :
Accepts in principle, but with a rider that check points should be manned
by the UN officials and people should travel with UN documents .....
At least 22 Egyptian Christians
have been arrested over the last week, many of them converts from Islam
to Christianity, in a crackdown on apostates and those who support them,
a British watchdog group has said. .....
American officials scolded Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia last week for declaring to the world's
largest Muslim organization that Jews control the world and that frustrated
Muslims should try to learn from them. .....
Underworld don and now a "global
terrorist", Dawood Ibrahim, has gained a substantial ground in Uttar Pradesh
and Gujarat to destablise the law and order by fomenting communal tension,
according to an intelligence report, reports PTI. .....
The French novelist Michel Houellebecq,
whose fictions have become celebrated for their unsparing accounts of sexual
and political anomie, is now facing trial on one count and widespread vilification
on another. In both cases, his trouble arises from what is loosely called
anti-Muslim or anti-Arab sentiment. .....
